As a woman, living abroad might take a toll on your health. You might be traveling abroad for business or work, or you might have chosen to study abroad. Whatever your reasons may be, it is necessary to care for health while living abroad. Living abroad is a very new and exciting experience where you make new friends, have new adventures, are exposed to new cultures.
It can be very challenging and overwhelming considering all the moving, the routine change and the stress of living alone, the cultural shock and homesickness can cause various health issues both physical and mental. It is very important to take good care of yourself when you’re in a new place all alone.
Here are some ways in which you can take care of your health while you are abroad:
1. Health Insurance: First thing you must do before moving to another country is make sure you take all the immunization and vaccines that are necessary, pack a basic first aid kit with you and have a health and travel insurance.
2. Choose your habits wisely: It can be difficult to adjust to a new place quickly, it's basically changing your lifestyle, so choose the good habits and fitness and inculcate them to your new routine.
3. Pay attention to your diet: For a healthy lifestyle, a healthy diet is a must which is very difficult to maintain while living alone. You will have to actively make a choice between eating junk food or healthy food on a daily basis, choose to eat out at healthy restaurants, order healthy food like salads and juices instead of burgers and Pepsi at restaurants.
4. Try cooking your meals yourselves: Some days choose to cook on your own, make something quick, easy and healthy for yourself. overeating when you’re under so much stress is a very common way to cope but try to portion control as overeating is the cause of half of the world’s health issues.
5. Exercise: Make time for yourself in between classes and extracurricular activities, learn better time management and meditate or exercise or do yoga during that time as they’re good for both your mental as well as physical health.
6. Self-care: Do a daily self-care routine, do what you love to do. Go to parks, swim or hike or go running. Pay attention to your body and keep it healthy.
Find motivation, set goals, achieve those goals and keep updating them. Do things to refresh your mind, body, and soul, find a balance between all the work and yourself. And never hesitate to ask for anyone’s help if you need it, remember you are not all alone, you have friends, teachers, counselors and doctors in college and of course your family who you can ring up at any time of the day. Enjoy your time abroad, study hard but remember your mental and physical health is your priority.