How to Get Back on Track After Vacation or Travel

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What's going on, you guys? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode 183, where we're actually going to pull a throwback and bring it back into the mix. One, it super resonates with me right now as I'm just getting back from travel. And two, I know it will resonate with you guys because we're at the end of summer, kids are starting to go back to school, and you're getting in your last-minute trips or your last-minute travels, or maybe you're just coming back from a vacation that you had planned. And you're wondering how you can get back on track, or maybe you need that little boost of motivation that will help get you back on track.

So today we're pulling, I believe this was episode 84. We're bringing this back, and it's going to help you guys. I'm going to give you specifically five strategies that will help you reclaim your routine after you've been traveling. So with that being said, let's get into it.

Welcome to episode number 84, where I'm going to talk about a real-life experience I'm currently going through and pretty much give a pep talk to both you and me. Okay? So I want to talk to you guys about what you can do when you're struggling to get back into a routine post-traveling. This is travel season. July and August are some of the busiest months of the year for travel. And right now, I am personally going from one trip to another trip. I just got back from Miami. I was at a conference this past weekend, and it's day three of being home. And the first two days were super rough. Super rough.

So let me backtrack to before Miami and that trip. I was on my grind, you guys. I was up at 5:15 in the morning. I was in the gym an hour later. And I had crushed the hardest thing for me personally, which is doing my workout. I had crushed that first thing in the morning. Done, dusted, complete. And that felt so good for me. Shout out to you AM workout crew. I totally get why you vibe with working out in the morning. I was the person who was like, no, I have to go in the afternoon. I have way more energy. I have more food in my system. That's just how it has to be. Well, paradigm shift. Okay.

And I'm all about trying new things, implementing new things into my routine, being a human experiment for myself, all of the things. Right. So doing the morning workout, I felt incredible throughout the rest of the day. I had insane energy, high energy, felt incredible, felt amazing. I was so productive, right? There is a difference between being productive and being busy. Your girl was the most productive she's been in the last two months, and I attribute it to the morning workout, which I'd been doing for the month prior to going to Miami. I got so much done. Again, my energy was through the roof. And my ability to communicate and articulate my words came so much easier and was so much more concise. It was just this or that, right? Matter of fact, laying it out as it should be said, and not going all over the place, which sometimes I'm very good at doing. That's why I do this podcast, because I just love talking.

So that was me before Miami, right? Morning workout-goer. All the things. Felt incredible. And I was like, damn, this feels amazing. I've been an avid afternoon workout-goer for the last four years.

So I come home from Miami, right? And my whole hope, the thing I hope you take away from this podcast today, is that you probably feel the way I feel, or you have an upcoming trip and you're going to know how to navigate this a little bit better. And second, I'm going to give you some tactics on what I've implemented in literally the last 24 hours that have been the absolute game changer for me.

So coming home from Miami, right? I came home on a Sunday. It's now Wednesday. And Monday, I just dabbled. At first I was beating myself up that I wasn't getting back into my routine immediately, because I've shared with you guys before that the first thing I do is focus on the nutrition I'm eating right away when I get home. I meal prep, all of these things. I can usually get back into my routine so easily. This time I'm struggling, and I'm being real, raw and honest with you about that.

So Monday, I dabbled. Monday, I didn't do much. Monday, I actually went golfing for the whole day, and then I took a two-hour nap in the afternoon. This is what I'm going to share with you in tactic number two when I get to breaking down the tactics. I have five tactics to share with you. Excuse me.

So that was my vibe on Monday. I didn't do much. I went to bed super early on Monday. Monday night, I set my alarm for 5:15. I'm like, yo, Nikkiey, you've got to do all the things. You've got to get back into this routine, because I'm traveling again on Thursday. So I only had about three days, really, to be back in my groove. And I wasn't happy with how I showed up on Monday.

So I set my alarm Monday night for 5:15 in the morning. And I told myself, you're getting up. You're going to do all the things. Well, you guys. And I specifically set my alarm two ways. I set it on my Alexa and I set it on my iPhone. My iPhone stays in my living room area charging throughout the night, so I have to physically get up in the morning and go to my iPhone to turn off the alarm. And obviously I'm lying in bed, so I just turn Alexa off.

So 5:15 a.m. rolls around the next morning. I go grab my phone and I shut off the alarm. And without any type of thought, I lie back in bed. And I end up sleeping until 8 a.m. And let me tell you the type of energy I had yesterday. I was so mad at myself. Because prior to Miami, I've woken up at 5:15 and been like, nah, screw it, I'm going to go back to bed. But then there's a voice inside my head that's like, no, Nikkiey, get up, do the things. I usually rise above the voice in my head, or I'm like, yo, that's a little bitch voice, don't listen to her, go do the things. But I totally caved, and I didn't do the things on Tuesday morning.

So my energy throughout the day yesterday was a little flat. And mainly I attribute it to this saying, right? A body in motion stays in motion. A body at rest stays at rest. Throughout my whole trip, I didn't work out. Was I getting steps in? Yes. But I didn't physically work out. Typically, I release a lot of energy by working out. And guys, I can't explain the level of tiredness I felt on Monday and then on Tuesday. I was overly exhausted. My brain was so foggy. I was doing things where I caught myself like, whoa, Nikkiey, what are you doing?

I was pouring yolk for Maverick into his food. You have to juggle the yolk back and forth inside the eggshell, and I usually do it over a glass to save the egg yolk in the glass. But I was doing it over his kibble. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. He only gets the yolk. I get the egg whites. I was doing little small things like that. I was like, Nikkiey, what are you doing? You're not thinking clearly, you're not thinking straight, your thinking is fogged. And that happened multiple times throughout the day yesterday, and on Monday as well. I was just doing small things and thinking, why is this so hard right now? Life felt so hard. Not to mention I had a pounding headache all day yesterday. And I just felt so freaking tired. I really attribute it to the fact that my body had been at rest longer than I'm typically used to. It had been almost a week that I hadn't worked out.

I'm kind of going on here right now. Stay with me. I promise you, I'm going to get somewhere with this.

So when I woke up in the morning and hit the snooze button and slept till 8 a.m., I was really mad at myself for a good part of the day. But come four o'clock in the afternoon, when I had gotten all the things done, I could have just let sleeping in and the day compiling on itself, with all the things I had to do before my next trip, take control of the day so I didn't work out. But I was like, no. I am someone who will never stoop down to that type of BS, right? I have the time in my day. And I'll say this out loud as an affirmation: I have the ability to go get it done. It's in my control. It's my choice, right?

So I had the choice. I could tell myself, oh, the day is going to get away from me, the day is going to pile up, I have all these things I have to do, I'm not going to be able to work out. I didn't choose to go down that path. I didn't choose to accept that BS from myself. While all of that is true, I still have the choice and I still have the time to go work out.

So what I did is I marched myself downstairs. There's a little gym in my apartment building. I marched myself down there and got in a killer leg day. Yeah, I treated myself to a leg day for my first workout back in a couple of days. And I'm actually going to share this in a tactic as well, and I'm not going to give it away because I want you to listen to these tactics. But it wasn't a full-blown workout. It was still a challenging workout, and just what I needed to move the energy throughout my body.

And I felt so damn good afterwards. The headache was gone. The mental fog was gone. The tiredness was gone. I can't express to you guys how drastic a difference I felt from Monday and half of Tuesday to Tuesday evening after my workout, and today. It's an absolute game-changer feeling. I feel so damn good, and I totally attribute it to moving my body.

So if you're someone struggling to get back into the routine and you feel so tired from your travels, I understand that, but go move your body, because you're going to feel so much better. I'm going to share these tactics with you in a second. I promise you.

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Then, number two, or not even number two, but then I kept my promise to myself. Even though I didn't get my workout in the morning, and I was really hard on myself during the day, I still got my workout in that day. Then I went to bed Tuesday night, last night, set my alarm for 5:15 in the morning and set the Alexa as well. And this morning, I woke up at 5:15, did my routine and got my workout done. It's these little small things that make you feel so damn proud of yourself.

At this conference I was at, Venus Williams said that discipline is freedom. With discipline, you get what you want. With no discipline, you get what you don't want. I'm probably saying that a little differently, but it is so damn true. If I have the discipline to wake up at 5:15 in the morning, and you guys who do your morning workouts, you get what you want. You get the feel-good feelings. You're proud of yourself. You've accomplished something. Personally, I think one of the hardest things you're going to have to deal with in the day is getting your workout done and finding the time to make it happen. And then it's done, and you get what you want. So today I feel so good. My energy is so high.

So that is my experience with struggling to get back into my routine, but making sure I held true to not giving in to my excuses, to keeping my promises, and then, most importantly, following through. Those are the three big takeaways I would say from my experience to put into your world as well whenever you're traveling or coming home post-travel, if you're struggling to get into it.

Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, WarriorBabe is here for you. At WarriorBabe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle, and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results, and results that last. Don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com/apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com/apply. All right, let's get back to the show.

I forget those three things I just said. If you're struggling to get into it, do those three things that I just said.

Okay, now let me dive into the five tactics I want you to think about, and understand how they can help you when you're traveling, coming home and dealing with post-travel, and trying to get back into your routine. And if you have any trips coming up, put these tactics to work. Because I guarantee you're going to feel so good when you implement these five things. If you're someone who comes home from travel and allows the tiredness to take over, it's going to take you a week and a half to get back into your routine. You don't want that, because then you're a week and a half further away from the goals you want to accomplish.

The first one I mentioned earlier: typically, when I come home, right away I'm meal prepping and I'm back to my routine with food. People always say that working out is the easiest thing to do. I find that nutrition is one of the easiest things to do. So I come home, I make sure I'm chugging a bunch of water, and I make sure I'm setting myself up for success in the nutrition world. I'll take out the chicken and let it defrost. I'll take out the ground beef. This week, I only took out the chicken because I'm traveling again tomorrow, and I didn't want to take out too much meat and have it all go bad because I wasn't going to be able to eat it. But I focus on that control, right? I take it out, I meal prep it, and I'm set to go for the days and weeks ahead with my nutrition.

That's number one. Stay hydrated. Drink a shit ton of water. When you're traveling, and I noticed this for myself too, you don't drink nearly enough water. And when you're flying, you're naturally getting dehydrated in that process. So make sure you're staying hydrated, and make sure one of your big focal points, not second to exercise but first, before exercise, is focusing on eating better.

Here's what I would say. You heard me say I went golfing on Monday. I would have taken the whole day Monday to eat right and get my body back to what I had been doing prior to leaving, right? Because the food I eat that day is going to help fuel my workout the next day. If I try to work out the day after travel, I'm typically always extra sore, because I haven't given my body the right energy and nutrients to help it recover. So just a little hack for you there: take the day after you travel, or even two if you're traveling overseas and your clock is all out of whack, to just focus on eating right. That's hack number one.

Number two. I said earlier that I took a nap on Monday, right? Number two is give yourself time to adjust. Understand that it's so normal to feel out of sorts after a trip, especially if you're traveling overseas, like I just mentioned, with a time zone change. Allow yourself to adjust back into your space. That's exactly what I did Monday. I knew I wasn't going to be in full prime, working full prime and doing workouts and all the things. So I just took a day to readjust myself back into my space here. And that's why I took a nap in the afternoon, which goes into number three.

Prioritize rest. Monday I was really tired, and this is where I said earlier that I didn't beat myself up too much, because I was exhausted. I had just spent the whole weekend talking to a bunch of different people, expending my energy on a bunch of different people and being in different areas throughout the whole trip. I'm an extrovert at heart, but sometimes I need to go introvert into my own space. I was physically and mentally exhausted from this trip, in such a good way, but I needed to rest. That's why I took a two-hour nap after golfing on Monday, and I slept for 10 hours that night.

Thinking and speaking this out loud now, when I hit the snooze button and went back to bed and got three extra hours of sleep, I'm not mad at myself. My body needed that rest. So I would say prioritize your rest. Typically you're going to find that it takes the first one or two days. If you're traveling overseas, it may take a couple more days, but make sure you're prioritizing it. And you're going to know when you feel better, because you're going to feel like a new human when you've caught up on your rest.

Now, the fourth one I want to talk about, which I touched on a little earlier when I said I finally got my workout done yesterday. I walked downstairs to the gym and got it done. But here's the thing. I didn't do all of the sets I normally would have. I focused on just gentle exercise. And I would encourage you to do the same, because when you go almost a week without lifting, you may not feel as strong as you did prior to traveling. Plus, when you're traveling, you're not eating as well, you're not hydrated as well and you're not sleeping as well. So trying to go back into your routine and pushing yourself to the max, Hulk mode, I wouldn't recommend.

So I went downstairs and did some gentle exercise. I only kept it to three sets for my whole entire workout, and I didn't go nearly as heavy as I normally would. And I feel great today. I'm not overly sore. I can sit down on the toilet without having to use the handicap rails or my sink to lower myself down. Right. So I just kept it super gentle.

And the last one I would highly encourage you to do when you come home, which encompasses all the things I just said, is to create a structured schedule. Be clear for yourself. For me personally, I only have three days. I kind of jacked it up in the beginning, although I needed that rest. But now I did a workout last night and a workout this morning, and I travel tomorrow. So it's 50-50. But when you come home, you can create a structured schedule for your whole week. When are you working out? What days do you plan to work out? You'll probably have to push it back a couple of days, so when can you get your four days of workouts in? Take two or three rest days at the beginning, whatever is needed for you, and then start prepping your nutrition, prioritize sleep, all the things.

I challenge you: when you come home, creating a structured schedule is going to be an absolute game changer for your success for the week and, more importantly, for your follow-through. Because when you write it down and you can see it and you plan it all out, all you need to do is execute on it. And when you execute on it, you're going to feel amazing. You're going to feel incredible. You're going to be so proud of yourself. You kept these small promises to yourself, you showed up for yourself and you're getting it done.

So those are the five tactics I would encourage you to focus on if you're struggling to get back into a routine post-travel. The first one was stay hydrated and eat well. The second one was give yourself time to adjust. Number three was prioritize rest. Number four was gentle exercise. Number five was create a structured schedule. But most importantly, keep the promises to yourself, show up for yourself and follow through, or whatever those three key takeaways were that I said earlier. It had to do with those three. But all in all, it's your choice to make it happen when you come home. So stay committed and get it done.

All right, you guys, I'll see you in the next podcast. Peace out.

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