When holidays stop being habit disruptors
I’m writing from a slightly grey London, dreaming about this time last week, when I was lying by a pool in Tenerife 😎 Now we’re back and the tan lines are already fading, I’ve been reflecting on how holidays, while joyous, can sometimes get in the way of the good health habits we put in place - but that this can change when we take a more intuitive approach.
I love holidays. But so many times in the past, they’ve felt like huge blowouts - I used it as a “free pass” to eat what I liked, and to take a few days off whatever workout plan I had been sticking to. Let me start by saying that this is TOTALLY fine - I don’t want anyone to feel guilty for doing what they want on holiday! However, I'd often find that once I was back, I didn't just pick up where I left off - I felt like I'd fallen off the wagon.
But now that I eat and move more intuitively, this holiday felt more… balanced. I didn’t feel the need to overeat, or to avoid moving my body - quite the opposite. So what was happening before, and what’s changed?
Holidays can be habit disruptors
Habits are things that we do in response to a specific cue - for example, putting on your gym kit when you first wake up in the morning, or flossing when you brush your teeth. They slot nicely into the routines of our lives. This means that when that routine changes, habits are much more likely to slip. There’s a lot of research to support this: whether it’s moving house, or simply going on holiday, it’s easy for these habits to become “disrupted”. Therefore, when we go on holiday, we’re much less likely to stick to habits around eating and exercise that we might have stuck to at home.
In addition to this, we might be eating or moving in a certain way that we don’t enjoy, because we feel that it’s good for our health - or perhaps even might help us to lose weight or look better before we go on holiday. When we’re doing something we don’t actively enjoy, it’s not surprising that we take the first opportunity to ditch it and let loose. This is triggered by something called psychological reactance - a bid for us to regain freedoms that are feeling threatened. This is because autonomy, the ability to control our own lives and choices, is a really important basic human need. This seems to happen even when we’ve placed these controls on ourselves - we seek to rebel against them, because it feels good. And so, we’re “good” before our holiday, and then use being away to go wild and do “what we want”.
When you’re eating and moving to make you feel good, you don’t want to stop
From personal experience, I think this changes when you approach movement and eating in a more intuitive way. I no longer move and eat to control my body, but to nourish and take care of it - because these things feel good.
I noticed a few things this holiday that felt different.
Firstly, I really wanted to try and continue eating a lot of fruit and veg - this is something that I know makes me feel good, but often can be hard to do on holiday. I made conscious choices to order more veggies, and it didn’t feel like a chore, because they were delicious! I also got to have my favourite lunch choice: salad and chips 😋
Secondly, I also wanted to keep moving in ways that felt good for me. The regular strength, flexibility, and balance workouts I do with Chimera Health genuinely help my body to feel good, and I didn’t want to stop this (especially after spending 4 hours on a flight, and sleeping in a different bed - my body needed to feel better!). I did some movements in our hotel room, in the pool and even on the sun lounger - not at specific times, but as and when I wanted to, to help me to feel better in my body.
I also felt much more able to enjoy a lot of things on this holiday that I previously wouldn’t have felt capable of: I enjoyed (mildly strenuous) hikes, which 2 years ago I would’ve hated as they made me feel unfit and in pain. It was amazing to be able to do more, and not feel like I was holding my husband back from doing something fun, and seeing amazing views. This is all because my body is stronger - but also, as a result, my self-efficacy has improved. I feel much more confident that I can do things, rather than fearing that I’m not able.
Don’t get me wrong, habit disruption can still get in the way. I didn’t do as much floor work as I wanted, as our hotel room had a hard floor and no carpet. We wanted to try the gym, but it was boiling in there so we gave up. Some days, there was limited choice of what or where to eat, and I made a choice which didn’t feel amazing in my body. However, taking an intuitive approach is all about going with the flow of this, and not feeling guilty about it.
The important thing is, once I got back home, it felt like a seamless transition, rather than having to “get started again”. I was excited to do a full workout, and to make some delicious lunches for the week (highly recommend the Rainbow Tabbouleh from one of my fave cookbooks, The Green Roasting Tin!*). I’m sad that my holiday is over, but not because I now have to go back to behaviours I don't enjoy - I was excited to continue the behaviours I love.
How do you approach holidays, when it comes to eating and moving? And what might this tell you about your behaviour the rest of the time? I’d love to hear your thoughts - comment below!
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