Healthy Holiday Travel Tip: The “Pick One” Principle
Want to stay healthy and happy while traveling this holiday season?
If so, consider implementing my “Pick One” Principle on your next holiday getaway.
When it’s all too common to feel lethargic, heavy, and tired while traveling, I felt light, energetic, and happy on my recent trip to visit family.
Implementing my “Pick One” Principle worked for me and I hope it works for you too.
Here’s my “Pick One” Principle.
A few days before I left to visit family in California, a friend texted me: “Have a great trip! What are you looking forward to?”
My immediate response: “Eating!”
First, yes, health and wellness coaches like myself love food too.
In fact, I really love food – so much so that my first word was “eat” in Mandarin! (Mandarin, because my mom is Taiwanese.)
My mom is an amazing cook and I grew up eating all sorts of different types of tasty cuisines.
Come to think of it, I probably learned how to use chopsticks before I learned how to use a fork!
Now, my dad is Mexican, so I grew up eating a lot of delicious Mexican food as well.
To give you a proper understanding that me and my parents don’t “eat to live,” rather we “live to eat,” planning my trip with them revolved around what activities we could do afterwards near the restaurants they wanted to take me to!
And that we did – we ended up visiting some amazing restaurants and ate to our heart’s (and stomach’s) content.
Sure, I was off my usually healthy eating regimen, but it was well worth it.
I ate completely opposite of how I usually eat at home, and although I did feel “stuffed” many times, overall I felt really good and here’s where my “Pick One” Principle comes in.
You may have heard me talk about the importance of good Sleep, Food, Mood, and Exercise habits.
When it comes to these four areas, this is what’s optimal – what we always want to aim for:
- Sleep – 7.5 to 8.5 hours a night
- Food – Eat healthy, whole foods in an appropriate quantity
- Mood – Carry around little stress
- Exercise – Move your body on a regular basis
What you want to do is pick one area that you can excel in or do the best in on your trip.
Because I knew I wasn’t going to eat healthy and I was going to overeat, I knew I had to focus on doing really well in at least one other area.
For example, I could choose to make sure I got great quality and quantity of sleep every night.
Or I could keep my stress down by choosing to “go with the flow,” relax, and really “be on vacation.”
The last option was that I could commit to intentional physical activity on my trip, perhaps something like making sure I got a certain amount of steps everyday.
I decided to pick the Mood area to focus on.
I was going to relax and avoid worrying or getting too wound up about anything – I was going to focus on really being on vacation.
I’m glad I chose that area because the first night, we didn’t get in until 10:30pm.
My usual “bedtime routine” was out the window as I found myself tiptoeing around the house trying to be quiet as my parents were sleeping.
I took a shower and went straight to bed, but still all wound up from the traveling.
Unsurprising to me, it took me hours to fall asleep that first night.
But, instead of getting frustrated, I remembered the area I was focusing on this trip and brought to mind a mantra I developed on the way there – “I’m here to relax and enjoy time with my family. I’m on vacation.”
So instead of getting frustrated and angry that it was taking so long for me to go to sleep that first night, I reminded myself of my mantra, calmed down, and soon after I was out like a light.
When thinking about your next trip, especially during the holidays when travel and family time can be stressful, consider implementing my “Pick One” Principle.
Because I focused my entire trip on being in a light mood, my sleep was enhanced; plus, I was energetic and felt like being active.
Remember that our Sleep, Food, Mood, and Exercise are all connected and it might be un-realistic (or even just un-fun) to try to do well in ALL of them while you travel.
So, consider my “Pick One” Principle – ideally, the one you feel will be easiest for you to do.
For instance, I knew food was not going to be strong point, but I knew I could relax and unwind, so I chose Mood as my area of focus.
Think about your next trip – what will be the hardest area?
Don’t focus on doing well at that.
Now think about the area you’re most likely to do well in – that’s the one to pick.
Keep in mind that different trips are different, so you might pick a different area to focus on each trip.
Do this and my hope is that you too will enjoy the time you take away, whatever that looks like for you!
It’s your turn to take care of you,
It’s Your Turn to Take Care of You!
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