82. Why We Struggle To Get Back on Track After Traveling

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Okay , back to the topic of traveling and how to get back on track after traveling and , like I said , more importantly , why it's so hard , I think , to get back on track after traveling .

So , unlike a lot of other podcast episodes and maybe even ones that I would do I'm not saying I would never do something like this I'm not just going to give you tips and this is how to you know X , y and Z get back on track after traveling , because what I have learned myself through the years of this health and fitness journey and you know , through the

years of this health and fitness journey and then also traveling , it becomes different throughout the years of how quickly I get back on track .

What I expect from myself about getting back on track , whatever on track means that has changed as well , and also helping my clients , as I help someone through their own journey of getting back on track after a vacation , after a trip , whatever .

It opens my eyes to a new way and a new reason why we struggle so hard with this concept , and so I just really want to give you my thoughts on this , and especially right now . It's important for me to do that because I'm recording this . On a Friday Last weekend , I traveled out of town to go be with my best friend and celebrate her wedding day .

It was amazing . I had a great time . It was just a little trip away from home . It's like a five hour drive . I didn't drink enough to ever be hung over . I didn't eat a lot out of like , out of the norm for myself , so it was just , you know . I didn't really lack a lot of sleep .

It wasn't one of those it wasn't like a quote unquote girls trip where I'm drunk and I'm just , you know , eating the whole time and just chilling . It was basically my normal routine , minus workouts , but I didn't , like I said , I didn't eat a lot . That was not already normal to me . I slept , I didn't . I did drink , but I wasn't drinking like crazy .

So it was pretty basic right and I've been home since Sunday . So I had Monday , tuesday , wednesday and Thursday . I've already been home Today's , like I said , friday , so I've had four full days at home after this little mini trip and I'm still struggling to get quote unquote back on track .

So this whole week I've been kind of thinking about this process and what I'm doing to get back on track , and I wanted to talk to you about that , because I get a lot of questions about you . Know , christy , I'm going on vacation . What should I plan on ? What should I do while I'm on vacation Help .

And then I've just gotten back from vacation and I've been back for a month and I'm still off track Help . So this is really something that I've personally struggled with , and I know you could be struggling with , because I know my clients are struggling with that , and so let's just chit chat about it .

I think the main point that I want to make in this episode is that we expect too much from ourselves , and I think that's really just what I gathered this week . Now I am kind of at a place in my life where I'm pretty chill . I do overthink , I am anxious . I did . You know .

I do struggle with anxiety , depression , but I'm , you know , kind of in this place now where I'm like I can do what I can do physically and that's it , like I can't stress about what I can't get done . I'm trying not to overwork myself all of the things . So I'm kind of just in this place mentally , where I'm like whenever I get back on track is fine .

But a lot of that has to do with the fact that I've grown and healed and I've gone to therapy and I've really worked on myself the last two years .

Also , it has to do a lot with , as far as health and fitness , the fact that my routine right now is so transferable to a trip , to a vacation , like what I do on a daily basis right now , or even a weekly basis . You know , daily I try to go for a walk , I hit my protein , I try to hit all my macros , but I definitely want to hit protein .

I work out four to five days a week . I drink my water , I try to get enough sleep , like that's it .

I can really do that whether I'm home or whether I'm out of town , sleeping in a hotel , you know whatever , and so I want to Make that like really known that you can , too , get in a place where you're not restricting and it's okay for you to leave town and the foods that you eat can travel with you and you're not eating off of a food list and you're

not meal planning and meal prepping every single thing and you're not working out Seven days a week and having to hit .

You know a certain amount of steps , at a certain amount of incline or a speed , and there is a middle ground between you know restrictive lifestyle that I've definitely been in and you may be in now when it's that crazy obsessive , all or nothing . You know on and off lifestyle . There is the next best step .

There is the next step where you are just living this . You know these habits , this routine that's so fluid , and that's where I'm at right now , and I've not always been this way . Let me tell you that I have traveled in the past and been Super stressed about every meal , every drink , every hour .

What am I eating , hitting my macros , when am I gonna work out ? Oh , my god , I can't work out .

Just , you know all of those things and so I Know that it's very helpful right now for me to have been in a routine , but really what I want to say is just the best way for you to get back on track after traveling is to have your on track be so simple that it's pretty seamless now . That being said , it's like I said it's Friday .

I've been home for full days since being gone and I'm still so freaking tired . My house is still kind of a mess and I have missed one workout already this week , and that's fine , but I'm still , you know , kind of getting back into the groove .

So what I want to say I guess what I really want to talk about is the reason why it's so hard for us to get back on track after traveling is because we are way too hard on ourselves and our on track , our normal , is so Restrictive , it's so Hard , it's so different from the life that , like , is natural for us to live .

When you're in that restrictive all or nothing Diet , obsessed workout , obsessed mindset , that's so far from how you should be living , like intuitively . That's why it takes so long after traveling to get back to normal .

So I kind of want to just walk through this honestly in my own Journey the last like two weeks right of why it's so freaking hard , because I get a lot of questions and a lot of statements from Clients that are like gosh , I planned so hard , you know , to get I was on vacation and I even did some workouts on vacation . I worked on my protein .

I focused on , you know , getting protein at every meal . I feel really good . I got home and I'm still struggling to get back to my workouts . I'm tired , I'm dragon . Work is crazy .

I'm getting caught up , kid stuff right , and it seems like it should be so easy to just jump back on track because , like , you're home , so why would that be any different than before you left ? But if we break that down and really think about that , right , there are steps that it's like Just get back to your habits , right .

I could make it super simple and just say what everybody else says , like just get back On track one day at a time , give yourself some grace and yes , that's true , you do need to do that .

But when I really walked through the process of traveling now this is myself as a mom , as A wife , as a business owner you know I can only speak from my own experience , but I'm gonna walk you through it a little bit .

As far as the stress that kind of goes into that , that I think we don't even think about when we get back from a trip where it's like you think you should be just right back on track . And as I thought about the past few weeks and why there's no fucking way you could just get right back on track after a trip , I was like , well , no kidding .

So like when I really thought about all of the things that I have been like thinking about . So just this is just me and my own trip , and I'm just gonna kind of walk through my aha moment of like duh , we are just so hard on ourselves . So for myself , it's my best friend's wedding . I'm planning it , you know , weeks in advance . My life is crazy .

I have work , I'm a wife , I'm a mom , we have sports , we have school , I have my job , I have my clients . I have all of these things . I have my husband , I have my friends , you have all the things that come with kids and school , and I can't even list all of the flipping things . It's a lot right In your daily life that you're doing .

Along with that , I'm getting ready to travel for my best friend's wedding . So I need to find an outfit . I need to plan some little snacks to take along the way . I need to get some gifts , I need to have makeup . I need to know what I'm doing with my hair . I need to . All of the things that are coming with just me . Right , I'm driving .

What car am I taking ? My husband was traveling for work . That was kind of a mess . My kids were not coming on the trip with me , so the day that I left , we had a . My daughter had a volleyball game . The weekend I was gone , my son and my daughter had sports on that Saturday . They had school the day after I left . So that's you know for me .

I took on the responsibility of feeling like , oh God , I'm missing all of these events . What about their uniforms ? What about their snacks ? What about their water ? What about getting them to school the next day ? How are they getting there ? What time are they getting home ? What are they doing ? Who's watching them ? Are they okay ? What are they eating ?

Do they have money ? Is the dog okay ? Okay , so there's all all of these things . Remind them to wash their uniforms after Thursday's game , so that it's good for Saturday . Okay , so there's all these things going on in the back of my mind . Then I'm away . All that stress , okay , fast forward . I'm coming home .

It's a five hour drive home , my husband's driving , so I'm doing some work . I'm exhausted . I'm catching up with clients after being off for a few days . What else we get home ? My kids , like I said , didn't go with us , so I missed them . I wanted to talk to them about the games that I missed . What was going on ? How was their weekend ?

They've been home , so the house is not a complete mess , but it's not clean , right ? So I now have my own laundry to catch up on . Of course , my husband went , so you know his laundry and I'm not saying that I have to do all of this . This is just in my brain . So I have my kids laundry I have in .

The next day is school , so now it's like do we have lunch food ? Is laundry done ? My house is a mess . I want to hang out with my kids . I missed them . I'm still reeling in from , like , client stuff . Now I'm behind on work .

So what does my week look like for work and being caught up and getting caught up on messages , dms , emails , current clients , one-on-one clients , shred clients Again in the back of my mind . My house is a disaster . We're transitioning from summer clothes to fall clothes . So there's piles of clothes everywhere . This is just my reality , right ?

The flowers need water . My a light came on in my car this week . That's like check something with your tires , I don't know .

So , as I'm walking through this week of like , I'm trying to get back on track with dishes and laundry and unpacking and putting clothes away , and I'm trying to also hit my workouts drink my water , hit my macros , go for a walk , attend my kids' sports this week , of course , get back on track with life and get back on track with workouts and macros .

It's a lot , right , the things that just came out of my mouth , that I said to you about what I focused on before I was gone , while I was gone , and this week , while I've gotten home . It's a freaking lot . It's no wonder that I'm tired . It's no wonder that my brain is frazzled . Right , we had appointments this week . I , I , there's just so .

I could go on and on .

Like , the things that I'm saying are just things off of the top of my head , but what I'm trying to really bring to light by saying all of this is that it's no wonder moms , dads maybe you're just a , you know , early 20s male , female coming back from a trip and maybe you don't even have kids , but you have a full-time job , of course , in a home and

friends and a life and a pet and responsibilities .

It's hard , like there's no way I could get on here and just say to you it would be ridiculous , it would be naive , right For me to get on here and say you're back home , just give yourself some time to get back to normal , give yourself a break , sleep , sleep in , drink some water , get a workout in when you can Like .

That's kind of initially when I thought about this episode . Yes , those are things that I did this week . Those are the tangible things that I did . I did work on . Like the first day I was like I don't know if I can do anything . So the day we got home , I did get a workout in .

It was not much of a workout , so I was so tired , but I was , my body was tired after sitting for five , six hours . So I did want to move my body , so I did workout .

The next day I did not , but I did focus on protein , I did focus on getting some water in and I did focus on getting caught up on laundry and some house stuff right To get that stuff off my brain .

So every single day this week I have focused on something , whether it be the appointment that I had to take my kid to , whether it be the workout that I really wanted to focus on getting in that day , whether it be the pile of summer clothes in my room that I wanted to put in toads and put away , whether it be the dishes that are piling up , whether it

be the clients messages on my you know phone that I need to respond to . Like , whatever day it was , I had a specific agenda for that day to get back on track . But I want you to do those things too .

I want you to coming off of a trip , coming off of a vacation , whatever it is , whatever reason you went on the trip girls trip , work trip , husband and wife trip , whatever maybe you took your kid out of town , whatever it was . When you get back , there's a lot of shit in your head besides just your workouts and your macros .

That's why , when you really think about why is it so hard for me to get back on track after traveling ? I'm home . I should be able to pop out of bed at 530am , get my workout and get right back Like I don't understand , christy , why this is so hard for me . I've been back for a month and I'm still not on track .

It's because you're expecting yourself to literally come back with all of the things that I mentioned on your brain and you think , for whatever reason , you can literally just jump back in like all of that never happened , like you're not behind on your entire life , like when I thought about it yesterday . Even I'm like I'm behind on my entire life .

Right now that's what it feels like . Maybe I'm not , but for me that's what it feels like . And when you have that hanging over your head , it's like that . That mental load Don't discredit the mental load that comes with traveling .

I don't care if you're traveling by yourself and you just have the mental load of yourself traveling , getting a rental car , getting on the plane , getting to where you're supposed to be , unpacking , getting to your appointments , your meetings , whatever . Like the mental load of just that is a lot .

So when you do finally get home and you do finally have the chance to catch up from that , you need to do that and that's really what I want you to take away from this episode , like I said , is the fact that we are expecting way too much of ourselves coming back from a trip like that or something whatever , where you're just thinking you can jump back on

track and there is just no way . It's a little bit easier , like I said , when your routine is so basic that it can be transferable , but that's what mine is and , honestly , it's taken me this entire week to catch back up . It all comes back to this being a lifestyle , and this week was stressful .

Yes , getting back quote-unquote on track , but I didn't have the like disappointment in myself . I didn't feel like I was really in a rush . I didn't feel like , oh my god , I'm falling behind , I'm losing all my muscle mass , I'm gaining weight .

I didn't have all of that because this is a lifestyle and so kind of you know , half-assing it for basically two weeks while I was getting ready to leave , then I was gone and then getting back on track . It's fine , it's not a big deal . I'll pick back up when I have more energy next week .

I'll get right back to work next week , but I had to give myself this week to really get that mindset back , I guess , to where I feel like that mental load will be less next week , or at least , yeah , it'll be less , it won't be gone . It'll be like my quote-unquote normal mental load and that's what I'm used to . So I hope this was helpful .

I know it was just a lot of me explaining my trip and it was a great trip . I had the best time .

I'm so thankful for the time away and I'm thankful that I am in this space to be able to record this podcast and just be completely open with you about what my week looked like , what my planning looked like , and just ramble that all out there , because it's messy and life is messy and this journey is messy and it is what it is .

And I think when we embrace that mess and we're like , okay , well , I'm going on a trip , it's gonna be hell the week before I go . It's gonna be hell the week I get back , but after that it should be a little bit more smooth sailing and this is just your permission slip from me to you to slow down a little bit .

When you're going on a trip , just know that it's gonna be a little bit chaotic . Get your routine in check so that you're like , okay , skip my workout today , but I did , you know , pick up some piles of clothes off the floor . I did catch up on laundry , I did go get groceries . I did X , y and Z . I did go for a walk . I did stretch .

You know there are things you can do even if you don't have the energy to go out and max out on squats . That was me this week . So that's just my real , raw thoughts on traveling again .

Little things that you can do , like give yourself some time to get back to normal , give yourself a break , work on lessening that mental load as well as getting back on track with your you know fitness . Of course we're un-fucking your fitness , so I need to bring it back to that .

Do focus on your macros , do focus on your water , but realize it's not gonna be perfect and honestly , take it day by day . But honestly , in addition to those things , realize that all of the other stuff that I talked about is real and that's why , when you get back home from a trip , that's why you can't jump back on track .

You know , within one or two days , like that's the reality of it and I think it's really important to just know that . So hopefully you think about this next time you get back from traveling and you're struggling . You can just remember , I struggled to give yourself some time .

It's fine , slow down a little bit , listen to your body and you will eventually especially if you give yourself some time to rest you will eventually get back on track . No worries , I cannot wait to talk to you next week .