How to Travel While Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle
- Sep 28, 2021
- 5 min read
Summer is upon us and I bet you're super excited to get right into all your planned (and unplanned) shenanigans. Do you find yourself getting a little concerned about keeping up your healthy habits? Or maybe you're actually considering just kinda letting them slide to the wayside for a bit...you can pick them back up in the fall, right?
Let me be your voice of reason! Trying to maintain an overall healthy lifestyle while going on a vacation or traveling can be tough, but it's definitely not impossible. And it doesn't have to be super complicated either!
I just got back from a week long vacation which included a lot of time on the road and in the woods. I knew I was going to have to do things a bit differently to maintain the progress I have made. Over this past month I have been doing really well with building certain habits and I didn't want to lose that momentum!
You may think it's all or nothing when it comes to this type of thing, but my thought process was a bit different...
I had the following 3 options to choose from:
Stay super on top of my daily wellness habits like my nutrition targets, workouts, meditation, journaling, etc. and be super planned out about everything. (This would be the ALL option)
HECK IT! This is vacation and all those habits I've built up will be there when I get back! (This is the NOTHING option)
Still incorporate my wellness habits but modify them so they're easier to do while traveling. ( This is the option people seem to forget actually does exist.)
I didn't want to be hardcore about everything, but I've been working diligently to build up habits that have noticeably improved my wellness so I didn't want to just completely table them either.
Option 3 seemed to be the best bet for me. And I bet it could be a good option for you too.
Wellness strategies aren't just about exercise and what you eat. They also include how you're managing your stress, your sleep quality, personal development, water intake, and more. So with that in mind...
Here's how to travel while maintaining a healthy lifestyle:
Pick 1 or 2 habits and set ranges instead of specific targets
Choose 2-3 habits that are the most important to you at this time and set a range for them rather than a specific target then continue to implement them. Some examples would be:
-journaling for 5-10 minutes each morning instead of 15 minutes
-tracking calories and protein instead of full macros
-setting a range of 8,000-10,000 for your step goal instead of your normal goal of at least 10,000 steps a day
Keep up with your habits but make them bite-sized versions as needed
What I mean by this is that you keep going with all of your habits (which makes this different than the first suggestion) and only modify the ones that you need to. For example, if you will be eating out a lot it could be helpful to aim for a protein focused and colorful plate at most meals rather than tracking macros. Another could be that you normally workout in the gym 3 days a week, but while you're gone you have a 15 minute body weight workout that you can do a few times. If you're travels will include a lot of walking there's no reason to change up your step goal.
Consider what actions help you to continue implementing your habits whether they stay pretty much the same or they're just bite sized versions of them.
Simply choose just ONE habit to stick with on point
Pick one thing that you will stick with just like you would at home. This could be 10,000 steps every day-even if you're walking laps in your hotel room. Maybe it's ensuring you drink 100 ounces of water every day. Maybe it's doing a 30 minute yoga session every morning. Whatever that ONE thing is-MAKE IT HAPPEN.
Personally, I chose to keep most of my habits in place and implemented the bite-size strategy when needed. Let me offer some clarity here by giving you a quick run down of what my current wellness habits are like and what modifications I made:
-Daily Greatness journal morning and evening
-Brain dump journaling most days
-Daily meditation
-Daily movement either by getting in 10K steps, yoga, pilates, or a gym workout
-Tracking my nutrition and staying within a range of calories and protein
- Nighttime routine and a general ish bed time (this always seems to be a work in progress. Ha!)
These are the modifications I made:
-Daily Greatness journal once per day
-One brain dump journal entry the whole trip
-Daily meditation (this practice has been so helpful for me lately)
-Daily movement which was mostly through hiking but I did do a couple light banded workouts at the hotels we stayed at (I didn't do much yoga and I actually really missed it)
-Tracked my nutrition just for awareness, but I didn't aim for any targets
-Nighttime routine and bed time were pretty variable-the one habit I pretty much totally dropped.
I didn't have this planned out exactly ahead of time. I went with the flow of things, but was still thoughtful and purposeful about it. Honestly, it felt good to keep my habits mostly in place and when I got home it wasn't a big deal to go back to normal.
My own clients have done different variations of this when they've traveled. Sometimes they'll meet with me through zoom for personal training sessions. Other times I've made workouts for them to do on their own while they're gone. Some still hit their nutrition targets on point and others choose to eat more intuitively. They do what works for them.
Consider your current habits and how they're supporting you- which of the above options would work the best for you? The all and nothing approaches are still choices you can make, but my hope is that the wellness strategies you have in place are the type that you don't want to just drop but have the ability to modify when needed without freaking out about it.
Another thing to reflect on: If every time you travel or go on vacation you feel like you can't possibly stick with the habits you have in place at home or you feel relieved that you get some time away from them- maybe you should reconsider the actions you're taking.
Your wellness habits shouldn't be something you feel like you need to take a break from. They're meant to support you regardless of where you are, who you're with, and what's going on in life.
They don't have to be strict OR non-existent. There is a happy middle ground!
If you've been trying to build healthy habits, but you have a hard time doing it in a balanced way then you need to know two things:
You are NOT alone in that. Tons of women struggle with feeling like they have to be perfect or it's not worth their time at all.
Allowing yourself to be flexible will take you SO much further than teeter tottering between trying to be perfect and putting next to know effort in at all.
This is what I help my clients with in my online coaching program. If you would be interested in whether my coaching is just what you need feel free to send me an email at janna@jl-wellness.com and let's have a chat!
Further reading to help you build and maintain healthy habits:
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