Recently I wrote a post about how easy it is to slip on your good habits. This is particularly true if you’re traveling. There’s early morning flights, restaurant food, sleeping in a bed that you’re not accustomed to, etc. I have some vacation time coming up so my ears perked up a bit when Rachel and Dave Hollis talked maintaining good habits while on vacation during a recent episode of their Rise Together podcast (July 4).
They made a particular comment that I’m trying to stay focused on – “You shouldn’t come back from a vacation feeling like you need one.” If you toss aside your good habits with a “hey, I’m on vacation” attitude, you are more likely to come home thinking, “Dear God, I need a vacation”. I’ll be planning and packing appropriate items to help me stick to my good habits as much as possible.
I always travel with my water bottle, filling it after I’m through security at airports. I also try to stay well hydrated, but when flying you should take in even more fluid because of the dry air on planes. I used to drink orange juice on flight to beef up my vitamin C, but a few years ago I stopped drinking most fruit juice because of how much sugar there was without a lot of the benefits that come from eating fruit itself.
I’ll have a book, a journal, and yes, my planner because filling in my gratitudes, who needs my A game that day, etc. is one of my good habits that’s just as important on vacation.
I’m packing my protein powder and the shaker thing I used to mix it with water every morning. I’ll have workout clothes and shoes to go for walks and runs. I know that going several days without getting my heart rate up for at least 30 minutes is bad for both my physical and mental health.
I’ll have my phone with me to have my phone with me, but I’m going to delete my work email account from it, along with (and this will shock the hell out of some people) deleting my Facebook and Twitter apps from it. Nobody from work will call me, but family and our dog sitter might, plus I definitely want to have music for running, my fitness apps, and Calm for my daily meditation.
Food is always my biggest challenge because, well, I love to eat. I’m trying to remind myself to really pay attention to what my body says to me about when I’m hungry or have had enough, and whether I’m eating what I should be eating (e.g. if my fingers swell and it’s not ridiculously hot then I’m eating too much salt).
I’m still staying away from alcohol and made a commitment to myself that I won’t have any at least until we return from our vacation. I’ve never been to an all inclusive resort, and we’re not going to one this time either, but I can only imagine that places that let you eat as much as you want and drink as much alcohol as you want really don’t care if you feel like crap when you get home.
Anyway, here’s two simple goals for vacations:
- Have fun, but do it without ruining the trip for others
- Practice whatever self care you need so that you come home feeling rested and rejuvenated, not tired and sick.
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