I travel quite a bit internationally, usually in Business or First, and my simple rule is to avoid all alcohol while I fly. It tends to dehydrate you and messes with my ability to adjust to the new time zone. The FA's usually get the idea pretty quick and just leave me a large bottle of water and top off my ice every so often.

Keeping in touch with the family:

- an unlocked phone that can accept local sim cards. Save a ton of money that way.
- Skype, for chatting and video calls with the family. Also can use it for work related conference calls without spending $3 a minute at the hotel.
- Skype-In, a local number at home that friends and family can call, as a local call, and you can then direct to that local sim card you have in your unlocked phone. (See above)

Staying healthy

- No easy way to say it, you just have to stay committed. I track my food, sleep and exercise on the Fitbit.com website. I wear my Fitbit at all time, even when I am sleeping. It is part of the routine that keeps me on track. As a person with sleep apnea it also helps me track how often I wake up at night.

Gadgets

Here is my kit.

Officially unlocked iPhone 4 bought in Canada
Blackberry 9800 (for work, I hate it, but have to keep it)
Fitbit
Sennheiser MM200 stereo Bluetooth headset. Great for calls and working out. All without the Borg implant look.
Spend some money and by some short charging cords. My iphone and Blackberry charging cords are six inches long. More than enough for what I want and every ounce of weight saved is a blessing when you travel too much.

Maintaining relationships
Other than Skype calls and emails, the best way to maintain a relationship when having to travel frequently for work is actually what you do when you are back home. Often after traveling, I'm completely exhausted and would love to be a homebody and veg on my couch. However, there wouldn't be much of a difference to my SO whether I'm home or not. I make a point of being active when I am home: going out for dinner, movies and seeing other couple-friends - things my SO would probably not do alone. Of course there is private time as well, but the most important thing is to not become a burden or irrelevant in your SO's life. Also, if you are gone for months at a time, things may be a bit strange when you get home. It'll be a fine line between being king of your own castle and a guest in your own home, as your SO will have rearranged some things and rescheduled others. Just go with the flow :)

Things to bring:
Travel pillow, noise-canceling headphones, ipod, digital movies, e-reader for books and periodicals. Books and periodicals in English, are often very expensive outside of US, Canada and UK. Also bring extra swimwear, so you'll have something in your size that you're ok to be seen in :p

Staying healthy:
I try to drink water whenever possible. I regulate caffeine and alcohol intake and these really don't help with the jetlag issue. I also try to avoid sugary, salty and greasy foods that my body craves from lack of sleep. If I'm on a trip that may last 6-months or more I bring my dual voltage travel pot so I can heat water for decaf tea and coffee or even blanche/steam simple veggies in my room as a respite from restaurant meals.

Staying Healthy:

Wash. Your. Hands. Constantly. And then wash them some more. We are not anywhere near being germ-phobes, but we carry wipes everywhere we go, and we use them. You'd be surprised how often there's no soap or papertowels in washrooms. We're particularly diligent about washing when using public transport and before we eat. And we up the ante a bit in less-developed places where personal habits may not match what you're accustomed to in the West (e.g., uncovered coughs, nose-picking, spitting, etc.). You can buy wipes in little individual packets which we find much more practical than the travel-size packs with multiple wipes (easier to carry around).

Staying In Touch:

Skype or Facetime is absolutely essential, along with some kind of instant messaging and email. Also, we find VPN to be a critical connectivity tool, as Skype is unusable in more than a few countries.

Staying Fit:

Just do what you normally do... eat right, get as much rest as possible, get some exercise. We've never really understood why people find fitness challenging when traveling. To us it's easier (other than periodic scheduling conflicts on marathon itins). Hotels usually have pools and/or gyms, cities generally make it easy to walk more, not less.

Staying Sane:

Sanity is very personal (and subjective :D). Being on the road for business should be tolerable at worst, but ideally, you should find it mostly enjoyable. If it makes you insane, you should probably find a new line of work. Seriously.

Have a great time!

My late father's personal rule was: Never Drink Alone. His own father was an alcoholic, who died long before I was born. My dad did not want to abstain from alcohol, but he drew tight boundaries around his own personal consumption.

He would not drink when he was in a restaurant by himself. (I know this for a fact.) I can't imagine he would drink while flying on a plane alone. I can't ask him to clarify, not now.

Would I turn down an offer for free wine? You bet I would. I never drink alcohol. I really dislike it and it makes me sick. (I have no particular religious, moral or ethical reasons to eschew alcohol. I never knew my grandfathers.)

Exactly.

Other than my mother following similar boundaries, and for good reason, my dad did not "evangelize" his personal alcohol boundaries to others.

He did strive to set a good example for his children, as do all good fathers.

My advice to the OP is to consider, carefully, his/her alcohol consumption while doing a lot of travel. It's a scientific fact that alcohol depresses the body's ability to respond to new time zones. It's also a scientific fact that alcohol is dehydrating.

What other people do is their business, but my personal opinion is that avoiding alcohol is especially good when I fly long distance.

YMMV



ON THE OTHER HAND:

Caffeine has been shown to accelerate your adjustment to a new time zone. If you always drink coffee at 6:00 am, and you take coffee on an airplane when it is 6:00 am destination time, that reduces your jet lag upon arrival. Caffeine helps "click in" your circadian clock. That's bad news for me, because I dislike coffee or anything with caffeine. I have to make do with a glass of OJ when they bring the early morning cart around.

And, yes, I know I'm weird. No alcohol, no caffeine, no tobacco. My mother used to call me her "Little Puritan".

Don't sweat it. My wife is the same way. No complaints from me. I always have a designated driver allowing me to drink for the both of us, and the next day when I really need it, nobody ever steals the last cup of coffee from the coffee maker. :D

MrQ says the same thing.

I do not want to know what your mother would call me then. :D

Wow GREAT advice.. thank you guys.
I'm looking forward to the adventure. my SO is as well.. She think she will just have more free time to shop. :(

Does that mean your SO will be accompanying you in at least some of your travels? If that's the case, consider yourselves lucky... that's certainly more than half the battle!

I think he means she will be at home and spending the free time to go shopping. :D

Like the others have said. Don't forget the SO. I buy something for her to let her know she is not forgotten. Jewelry is nice, and depending were you are it can be cheap. Skype is your friend. You may want to look at a world subscription as most of the places you named would be included at least landlines. Remember it is not where you are it is what country you are calling. I have a USA subscription I can call from Kyrgyzstan or Afghanistan the call is covered by my subscription. It is even on my cell phone. I use Kall8 a call forward service for people and clients to call me anywhere in the world I am.
I hope this helps, and good luck with your travels.:D

:(:(:(

Definite +1 on services like Skype. They make it economical to stay in touch with folks back home-- whether that's colleagues, family, or friends-- and that, in turn, helps a lot with staying sane.

When you're traveling far from home, figure out how to make the time zone differences work for you. For example, when I'm in China and most of my coworkers, family, and friends are in the USA (-13 to -16 hours) I get up before 6am and use my early morning hours to catch up with them during their afternoon or early evening. Developing a pattern that supports regular communication, both for work and for pleasure, helps keep me sane.

While Skype is great, the time difference to Asia makes it difficult to sync up. I find text messaging and Facebook work well for me.

Also a huge fan of iPad for games, reading, email, etc.

As for exercise, it's simple - get out and walk around, actually see the exciting places you're going! Buy a camera and learn how to use it!