International Travel and Immunizations impact on W30?

[JLB18]

Hi all,

I am on Day 16 of my Whole 30 and feel like I'm doing quite well. However, in preparation for a business trip that I have to take to Turkey and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, I had to get 5 immunizations at once last week and take a 7-day course of oral typhoid immunization. Then, while I'm travelling (starting April 28th) and for one week afterwards, I will have to take malaria medication (Malarone).

My question is, what kind of impact, if any, do you think all these immunizations will have on the health benefits of my Whole 30? Will I get to feel those "Tiger Blood" effects if my body is processing all these immunizations at once? I had a localized initial reaction to the shots (my arm swelled up like a baseball bat!) for a few days, but that is subsiding a bit now. Should I expect other effects, like impacts on my efforts to heal my hormones or digestion? I'm particularly concerned about the malaria medication, as it's known for making people nauseous or for inducing strange nightmares.

And on top of all this, I'd love some advice from people who have had to travel internationally while trying to stick to the Whole 30 framework. My day 30 will be the day before I leave for Turkey, but I'd like to remain relatively Whole30 compliant throughout the trip. I'll be spending about 5 days in Turkey, which I expect should be fine since I can eat fresh vegetables and fruits and meats there. But then I'll be spending 6 days in Kinshasa, DRC, where I am pretty positive that I cannot eat fresh vegetables or fruit (due to the water content). I suppose I can eat cooked vegetables and eggs. We will mostly be at the hotel and various business and government meetings, so I assume that there will be edible food - it's just unclear whether it will be at all Whole 30 compliant.

While these travels wil not technically fall during my Whole30, I do not want to reverse all my W30 progress due to this 10 day trip. Has anyone else had to deal with these issues before? Do I just try to sneak as many Larabars as possible into the Congo so that I can sustain myself?

[jleighpark]

Hey JLB,

Sorry I don't have much advice to lend you, but I can sympathize; I started my Whole30 3 days ago, 1 month into a 6-month trip through Central America. I'm also on a malaria preventative (Chloroquine), and to add insult to injury, I just finished a 5 day course of antibiotics for a mean infection of a wound that I sustained while traveling. I can't say how much the meds are/are not affecting me, since this is my first W30 and I've been on both prescriptions for the whole time. I haven't had Malarone before, but my malaria preventative does tend to give me a pretty wickedly sour stomach for a little while after I take it (once per week). I try to take it at night, and usually the side effects have subsided by late afternoon the next dave.

Regarding the fruits and veggies, remember that it's not the water content that you need to be concerned with, just the way the food has been prepared. I started out super concious of washing all fruits and veggies with purifed water. Now I only rinse things that I know I will be eating raw; for everything else, I'll rinse in tap water and allow cooking heat to take care of any contamination. And anything that can be peeled is fair game! It's much less of a problem than I thought it might be. And of course, anything that the hotel serves should be fine from that perspective.

I'll be interested to hear how things go for you! I haven't been able to find many resources regarding doing a Whole30 while traveling internationally-- especially in third world/developing countries. Safe travels.