Finding Consistency Through Travel

What is the best way to achieve longterm results?

The answer is simple, consistency. What is the number one reason why clients struggle to find success? The inconsistency they find themselves facing from seasons of change. Heading into the summer months often means more travel, adventure, and on-the-go lifestyles, which for many can make it difficult to maintain wellness practices. Let’s consider how we can use this season to learn and foster progress by finding simple habits that work for us during these times.

It can be challenging during busy seasons to get into a solid routine; however, it’s important to find consistency in the inconsistencies to achieve longterm results and feel our best. What I mean by this is finding the things we can keep in our daily routine no matter where we are and what we can keep consistent from the weekdays to the weekends.

One consideration that could carry across days of the week and through travel is our morning routine. Adding protein to your coffee or drinking a glass of water with greens are great morning routine habits that could easily be implemented no matter where we are. It's great when we are ready to come back to tracking nutrition when returning home; however, after a great foundation of habits is created at home, now we need to think about extending that through travel/weekends, etc.

Travel can certainly impact the body and how we are feeling including water retention, digestion, etc. Focusing on what we can control such as walking before and after flights or long car rides, drinking plenty of water and traveling with electrolyte packets can be helpful.

Ordering meals ahead of time that we can pick up on travel is a great way to stay on track with nutrition goals. Continuing to track protein and estimate meals out is also beneficial for building consistency across the weeks rather than waiting for the structure of a work routine or home routine to meet our goals. This process is all about finding what we can sustain across time and seasons, and that comes with socializing and traveling!  Using these experiences to grow and become confident in our choices while remaining aligned with longterm wellness goals will create a sustainable lifestyle over short-term diet phases.

Movement is another area where we can create consistency. Even if it looks different, you can keep the consistency of a daily sweat through a quick bodyweight workout, morning yoga, or reaching a daily step goal while traveling. The goal should be to feel good about the movement we are doing rather than focusing on the lack of gym, weights, coaching, etc.

Getting back to the basics and setting some small goals and habits that feel realistic during this season will keep us moving forward and feeling better with longterm progress in mind. When we are too short-sighted with our goals we get into this all or nothing mindset that may help us with precision in the short term when we have control over our environment and routine, but does not foster adherence in the longterm.

Traveling certainly makes it more difficult to reach goals, but it can also be a great experience and important time for us to learn how to meet those goals while we travel to make this a true lifestyle and sustainable approach moving forward. If we use an all in or all out mindset where macros only apply when we are at home, then that is typically where we run into trouble adapting this as a lifestyle and being able to maintain results longterm. Consider what makes you feel your best at home and you can can adapt those practices on the go.

Tips for Travel:

-Modify your macro goals to a realistic range.

-Consider tracking protein only.

-Focus on hydration and movement.

-Pack protein supplements and snacks.

-Make a trip to the grocery store when you arrive, use Instacart, or pre-order meals for pickup.

-Use it as an opportunity to estimate portions and gain experience tracking meals out.

Continue to find the things that you love and enjoy in your everyday routine. The more we look for the good in the seemingly mundane, the more we will find and the easier it will become to implement those practices no matter where you are in life.