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It's a miracle. That’s what I think every time the wheels pull away from the tarmac—and I feel the upward lift take hundreds of humans, their luggage, jet fuel, reheated meals and a sky bus weighing as much as 88 tons off the ground.

This bird was born to fly. As a young child I frequently tripped from Michigan to California with my mom to visit my dad, who was working on the left coast. I enjoyed the getting-somewhere part immensely even as a three-year-old. I've toured a cumulative five years of my adult life on music tours or in theatrical productions and there wasn't a day I didn't get a kick out of the getting-somewhere part then, too. A dear friend of mine who reads astrology charts quite poetically and accurately, upon gazing upon my illustrated star map for the first time, burst out in a chuckle, "You're never gonna slow down!"

Or sit down, or settle down. I'm never gonna stay put long and I'm glad I've surrendered to that fact. Because after accepting that I was going to be a lifetime traveler—a professional globetrotter of sorts—I really started to take it seriously. I started to pay attention to how traveling—specifically flying on an airplane—makes me feel. Because, after all, I'm always getting somewhere. And I'd prefer to arrive feeling great right away.

So how does air travel make me feel, now that I pay attention? Dehydrated. Ungrounded. Stiff. Restless. Confined. Queasy. And jet lag is the amplification of all these maladies, plus radiation exhaustion and pituitary-gland confusion. I'm assaulted with radiation from the sun and the on-board wifi. I'm stressed out by turbulence and/or the tired, bratty toddler. I'm violated by recycled air and preheated meals. Help! How am I supposed to land ready to explore?

The effects of jet lag are discernible whether your flight is five or 22 hours, like the one I am on today. (As I type these words I’m flying from Los Angeles to Bangkok to volunteer my help to the endangered Asian elephant and live with an indigenous jungle tribe via eco-tourism programs set up by Elephant Nature Park. But I’m not worried because over my years of globetrotting, I’ve devised techniques to combat jet lag naturally. I’ll use them again this flight so that, two days from now, I can wake up in Chiang Mai, ready to experience all it has to offer. And I’d like to share them with you.

Eat Light
Long flights in airplane seats keep one sitting in a quite confined, unnatural position for hours longer than usual. The meals served in-flight are often refined, starchy, over-processed and overcooked. Couple that with the feeling of ungroundedness that flying naturally brings and our drive to relieve that by overeating heavy foods, and it's no wonder digestion requires a major part of our attention when combating jet lag.

Twenty-four hours before a flight, I begin taking the stress off my digestive system by juicing for 12 hours, then water-fasting for the following 12. For the entire duration of the flight—in this case, 22 hours!—I eat lightly and make sure I have fresh carrots or some other root vegetable, to encourage any energies seeking grounding to find 'root.'

Keep Wet
As mentioned, I start hydrating with juices and water 24 hours prior to departure, in preparation for very dry cabin air and repeated hand washings. I know that airport security will now confiscate liquids, so I bring a reusable two-liter bottle, drink all of it right before security, then refill it at the drinking fountain before boarding. Two liters of water will get me through about four hours in the air. And refilling at the water fountain saves me $7 at the terminal sundry store. I also bring a spill-proof coffee mug for after my two liters are gone. The flight attendant is always happy to refill my mug with filtered, hot water as often as I request it for the duration of my flight. The radical side effect of both these hydration techniques is that they eliminate the "disposable" plastic water bottles I take great pains to avoid in everyday life.

Stay Loose
All that hydration naturally requires frequent trips to the restroom, which keeps me in motion—another anti-jet-lag postulate. After 24 hours of sitting in the exact same position, muscles can get stiff, nerves can get pinched, blood can get slow and lymph can get thick. Ever notice how your shoes get tighter up in the air? That's blood and lymph pooling. Ever notice how, when you land, your water bottle sides are vacuum concaved in? That's because water expands and then contracts with changes in air pressure and thus altitude. Even though we peck away on our laptops and snore away behind our eye masks, acting as casual as conceivable while rocketing through the atmosphere, all this sitting is actually quite stressful on the physical body.

To combat stiffness from my very own seat 60E, I do a little chair yoga. Just like the senior-citizen exercise programs on daytime TV—where women twist and rotate in a seated position while men roll their shoulders from a walker—I am the host of my own chair yoga class and… it helps! Roll your head; lift and drop your shoulders; arch and contract your upper back; wiggle your fingers, wrists, ankles and hip sockets. Then meet me in back, near the lavatory/kitchen, where there's a little more space for quadriceps and hamstring stretches, hip flexor and rib-cage circles, and a few minutes of bouncing lightly on our toes to stop the lymph from pooling and keep the chi moving upward. I do my seat stretches every time I think about it and make a rule to get up and out of my seat every two hours for at least 10 minutes of walking/stretching in the back. It is essential to stretch before you feel stiff!

Also, consider combating stiffness with homeopathy. Twenty-four hours before a flight, I begin dissolving four Arnica Montana 6c pellets in my mouth every five hours. Once on board, I bump that up to three pellets every two hours. Between stretches, rotations and Arnica, I have successfully stepped off a 24-hour flight without a pain in my body. Following this regime is really worth it.

See more tips in Part 2

[Sign up to be notified each time Tonya publishes a new Clean and Green Everyday blog entry on EcoHearth. See a complete list of writing by Tonya Kay on EcoHearth.com or visit her Clean and Green Everyday blog. – Ed.]

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