A habit is a routine of behaviour that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. It is difficult to give up and therefore becomes an ingrained part of our lives. When talking about habits, we often hear people talking about bad habits. That’s no surprise, we love to talk about the negative and skim over the positive and when most people think about habits, they think about breaking bad ones. But building and maintaining good habits is just as important as breaking those bad ones and building good habits is especially important if we want to stay fit and healthy. If we work toward creating good habits that focus on fitness, healthy eating and our mental health, then maintaining these routines will become like second nature to us and in return; it will be much easier to stay healthy.
Travel is a great disrupter of routine and can cause normally healthy people to practice some pretty bad habits. Being away from home and our regular routine can make it all too easy to say yes to bad food, lack of exercise and excise of things we manage better when at home. At Sanctifly, one of our core missions is to help frequent travelers build healthy habit so that being on the road does not affect their health and wellness. Building those healthy habits always starts at home. While it may take more effort and more planning to continue with those healthy habits while on the road, starting off with that base of familiarity makes it so much easier. We know not many are traveling right now but we will travel again and when we do, health and wellness will be even more of a priority. Now is a great opportunity to start building those healthy habits at home so that you can easily take them on the road when travel resumes.
How do habits work?
By understanding the structure of habits and the way habits are created and broken, we can better understand how to create and stick to healthy ones. According to Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habits, habits can be broken down into the following categories:
The Cue – This is a trigger that predicts some kind of reward. These can be internal or external that signals to your brain that it is time to exercise the habit.
The Craving – The desire to act in order to receive the reward
The Response – This is where you complete an action that can be described as the habit.
The Reward – This is where your brain receives some kind of reward for completing the action. The reward satisfies the craving and becomes associated with the cue, therefore developing the habit.
What makes habits to difficult to build and break is that these processes are subconscious. We do not actively say ‘I am craving this reward’ or ‘I need to do this in order to get the reward’. Our minds process this information so fast it can seem impossible to pinpoint each category and make positive changes. However, by understanding this structure, we can take an outside view of our own habits and intellectually breakdown how they are formed. We can identify common triggers and work to avoid them and identify rewards and work to build better habits that provide them.
That’s all well and good for breaking bad habits (which is definitely a must for most frequent travelers!) but what about building new ones? This post is all about building healthy habits now, while we are at home, that you can take with you on the road when travel resumes. So, before we get into some examples of good, healthy habits that work for home and travel, here are some expert tips on how to create and make them stick..
Tips for making habits stick
Make a habit stack
Habit stacks are great ways to create new habits by building on one’s you already have. Choose a habit that you already have and incorporate the new habit before or after it. This will make it easier to stick to the new habit because it is associated with something you already do without thinking. For example, if you wanted to get into the habit of drinking more water, you could create a habit stack with your morning coffee. I.e. When I pour my morning coffee I will also pour a glass of water.
Know your why
Get ahead of your excuses by knowing the WHY behind your effort to create a new habit. This may sound trivial, but in those moments of doubt or when the excuses tend to pop up, your WHY will direct you back to the reason and mindset for choosing this healthier lifestyle and path. Really work to understand why you want this new habit to be part of your life and, when things get hard, remind yourself of that reason.
Make your goals small and achievable
One of the main reasons we fail when we try to incorporate improvements into our lives is because we set our goals too high and become disheartened with the lack of progress. Having a clear end goal to work toward is important, but you should also set smaller, more achievable goals so you can feel like you have achieved something along the way.
Record your progress
It’s takes an average of 66 days for a new behaviour to become automatic. This is why it is so important to build your healthy habits at home and not while you travel. At home, you can be consistent and take action every day and truly create a lasting habit. Then, when you are traveling, the habit will be sore ingrained you won’t even have to think about doing it. Recording your progress so you can track how many days you have performed to habit and how many days you take off will give you a sense of how close you are to creating the habit.
Examples of healthy habits that will help you when you return to travel
Get outside and go for a walk every day
Lack of exercise is a huge issue for frequent travelers. Busy schedules, disrupted routine and unfamiliar surroundings do not create the best environment for working out. If you work to build the habit of going for a walk every day, you won’t be able to live without it when on the road and you will automatically get some exercise while you are away from home.
Create a sleep routine
Getting good sleep is another common problem that troubles frequent travelers. Again, busy schedules, disrupted routine and unfamiliar surroundings are to blame. If you get in the habit of a sleep routine at home, this can help to settle you into sleep while on the road. Choose a couple of actions (that don’t involve looking at your phone!) and do them every night before bed. These could be stretching, reading or mediating, for example. When you perform this routine while on the road it will subconsciously tell you body and mind that it is time to sleep and help you to wind down.
Stimulate your mind
Travel is incredibly stimulating for the mind. When we travel to new places we are forced to deal with new surroundings, new cultures and new languages. Navigating these unfamiliar situations helps to keep our minds sharp and in focus. For frequent travelers that are suddenly grounded, this can be a shock. If we get into too comfortable a routine while at home, returning to travel will be mentally draining. Work to create a daily habit of stimulating your mind so you are more prepared for getting back on the road. This could be reading or writing every day or perhaps using this downtime to learn a new skill.
Meal prep
A great benefit of being home more is that we get to cook our meals fresh each day and therefore get more variety in our nutrition. For many this has meant there is no need for meal prepping. This could cause problems when we return to travel. If we are not in the habit of meal prepping, we will not dedicate the time to prep lunches and snacks for when we travel. We will then be forced to eat food provided at the airport and on the plane (a lot of which is not very good for us). Try to meal prep a couple of times a week so you get back into the habit of making lunches.
Sanctifly is here to help frequent travelers make the most of their airport downtime and build healthy travel habits. We help travelers maintain their healthy routines while on the road by providing access to healthy activities, such as gyms, pools and spas all over the world. With so many frequent travelers still grounded, we have been working hard to help you build those healthy habits at home. We have added lots of new wellness content to the Sanctifly app. There are lots of healthy tips, fitness routines, nutritional advice and more, all available on the Sanctifly app today.
Download the app today to explore our content and start building your healthy habits at home with Sanctifly.
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