A daily routine holds the secret to living life on the road successfully and in an anything but boring way.
When we first hit the road as full-time travellers, it was, as some had told me it would be, a challenge. I always had a set routine at home, and I loved it, but once that changed, once I no longer had to be at work (teaching fitness classes) at a certain time each day and instead had the freedom to do what I wanted, whenever I wanted to, it could have been easy to slip into that, it feels like I’m on a permanent holiday mode. And that’s fine… if you don’t eat, relax, sleep and party like you’re on holiday 😂
Here’s the thing though, your life won’t change until you change something you do daily. Repeat that. And again, until it sinks in. You can’t continue to live like you are permanently on holiday and expect your life to change—you have to change something. Routine and being consistent go together; but being consistent and being perfect are not the same thing, so ditch any idea you have that having a routine and being consistent means living a boring and perfect life. Below are some examples of how you can sabotage yourself if you think it’s not worth doing something unless you do it perfectly:
- Trying to lose a few kilos? It’s easy to brainwash yourself that if you don’t follow your diet perfectly, then you’ve failed.
- Aiming to meditate each day? Stressing because you missed a day is worse than actually missing the day!
- Trying to improve your fitness levels? You can quickly convince yourself that you must push yourself to exhaustion every day, which is just not true.
In other words, it’s easy to confuse being consistent with being perfect. Cutting yourself some slack is important and there is a lot of evidence that shows that missing a day has no measurable impact on your long-term success—no matter what habit you are working on.
It can be hard to stick to a set routine when living in a caravan and traveling full time, and mine depends on where we are and what we are doing that day. I always try my best because when I stick to it, the day—and my sleep—are so much better. So, when you are travelling, the routine becomes more about what you do than when you do it.
It is always so easy to make excuses. I’ve been a Personal Trainer for a while now, and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard them ALL! My mum says the same thing. She is an author and a psychotherapist and says she could write a book called ‘Yes, But…!’ I laughed when I heard that as I had thought of writing a coffee-table book of excuses given to me by clients!
Healthy habits make living well possible, and usually full-time travellers choose that lifestyle because we want to live well and make the most of our life. But building healthy habits so we get the most out of this amazing lifestyle starts with changing even one thing a day.
We are all different and will choose to start and end our day differently, but however we choose to do it, we can incorporate things that will enhance health and make life on the road that much more enjoyable. Most days my mornings and evening usually look a little like this:
MY MORNING ROUTINE:
- Wake up preferably with the sun
- Read my bible for 15 minutes (also practising gratitude, meditating etc)
- Check message on socials for 15 minutes (limited time)
- Have a vitamin/supplement shake (not protein shake)
- Get my exercise gear on and work out—inside or outside, depending on where we are.
Then I do what the day needs me to do, but make sure I wind down in the evening.
MY EVENING ROUTINE:
- Two hours before sleep, turn all the bright lights out and don’t turn them back on (to relax my brain/mind) — leave the blue lights on
- No more screen time!
- Do a 10–20-minute gentle yoga/stretch session
- Spend 20-30 minutes on my Shakti acupressure mat listening to a meditation or relaxing music
- Read for 30-60 minutes.
Of course, sometimes things happen, and I can’t do everything—but I aim to achieve these things every day and when I do, I feel so much better!
I also try to do these things every day:
- Move for two minutes every hour as my Apple Watch tells me to
- Enjoy the fresh air (reading, riding, hiking, swimming—anything, as long as it’s outside)
- Practise intermittent fasting
- Follow a low-carb diet
- Drink enough water (I’m terrible at this!)
- Improve my gut health—drink kombucha and kefir every day (I make my own)
- Tell everyone I care about that I love them.
So, there you have it! A few things that are part of my daily routine. What’s in yours? Leave me a comment below 🥰
Hi Miriam , we will be attempting our lap next year , we did start in Feb 2020 but we all know what occurred and we had to cone home .
I like to keep active but sometimes become obsessed with getting my steps up ect .
I always like to do yoga to keep flexible.
I take my kefir with me on the road to keep my gut health in good Nick.
I like a routine and find we do travel it of course becomes a bit higgly piggly and that interferes with doing a regular workout. Partly also because a bit shy to do in the annex with people watching.
You have shown that you don’t have to go outside to do some form of fitness, and I will practice this when we do resume our travels.
Wasn’t last year just devastating 😢 We picked our brand new van up the day before borders closed and watched it sit in the drive for months. I bet you are so excited to be heading off again soon!
Routine is crazy hard when traveling, and the days where we pack up and leave early and drive all day are the worst. Especially if it’s many days in a row. I do ab workouts sitting in the car (contacting my muscles) and do my kegels lol! And the food – oh man! That’s why we have a huge pantry, so we can stock heaps of the healthy items like coconut oil, almond meal, chia seeds etc that are super hard to find in remote areas.
But. Like anything, if it’s important, you just make it work. And it sounds like your health is important to you which is awesome 🤍🤍
Hi Aussie destination’s, we just wanted to let you know we love watching your travel vlogs. We are now addicted to watching you guys, we check YouTube everyday for a new vlog. We have a second hand expanda and dream of one day travelling to show our girls Australia. You guys are so relatable so thanks for doing what you do.
Thank you so much – I wish we could upload one every day! Haha 🙂 I (Miriam ) am just finishing up editing this weeks episode and will then make a start on next weeks. They take so long to edit! (about 20 hours each episode) We still have a few outback adventures to share with you yet! I’m sure your girls will love the adventures you are going to take them on – our kids loved it too. Not so much now they’re older, but it’s a great way to raise the kids! We are actually in the process of starting a Patreon Page where we will be sharing heaps of fun stuff … just have to get it all up and running! Thanks again so much for your support xxx