7 Daily Habits For Hikers

​In this episode, I explore seven simple habits a hiker can sneak into their day, which can have a positive effect on their energy, mood and outlook for their training. 

Episode Transcipt:

[0:00] Right hello hello ladies and gentlemen so in today's episode we're going to be exploring six simple habits that a hiker can use during their day to help aid their training and ultimately help aid their hiking now this is coming from a recent conversation i had with a client who is currently going through a training process and they've been doing strength training they've been doing cardio they've been doing hiking they've been pretty consistent with everything and everything has been going smoothly and they were asking me they were saying hey,

[0:30] I'm really, really dedicated to getting the best possible spot for this trip. And I'm thinking of what other things I can kind of fit into my day, which may be beneficial. And this particular person had quite a bit on their plate already. They had quite a bit of stuff taking their time, taking their attention, taking their energy. So the thought process here was finding some really, really simple things, which won't take much time, won't take much energy, but if applied consistently, could probably see some nice results. So I figured I would sort of share a few ideas around this, some simple habits that you can fit into your day, which aren't going to take a huge amount of time, aren't going to take much energy, but if you apply them, can be pretty useful for your training and your hiking.

[1:14] So with that being said, let's get into them. Habit number one, this is a simple one, you've probably heard it before, but I promise you it does make a bit of a difference, is have a glass of water when you first wake up.

[1:28] Now, the reason for this is hydration plays a pretty big role in regards to our energy. Hydration plays a pretty big role in regards to just generally how we feel. And for a lot of us, we tend to just not drink enough water through the day. One really, really simple thing you can do just to set the day up for success is basically just have a glass of water when you first wake up. Start the day on a positive note. So you've already done something, which is a win. You've already done something beneficial for you. You've already done something that's going to help with your energy. And this in itself, it can be such a simple thing, but it can have such a carryover effect for the rest of the day. Now, on top of that, if you maybe didn't drink enough water the day before and you are waking up dehydrated, this can be great for that. And there are a bunch of other benefits. So have it number one, have a glass of water before you wake up. Now, some people may have sort of heard before people like influencers online love talking about, you know, lemon water or salt in the water or whatever it may be. I don't really care about that. Just a glass of water. Get that in. First thing in the day makes a massive difference. Number two.

[2:36] Brush your teeth when standing on one leg. Now, what I mean by this, a lot of hikers out there struggle with balance. A lot of hikers out there want to improve their balance and stability for the trail. The tricky thing when it comes down to improving your balance and balance training.

[2:55] Is it can be a little bit boring. It can be a little bit slow. It can be frustratingly annoying to improve. And the way that we improve our balance when we're doing specific balance training is we just want lots and lots and lots of exposure to balance and slowly but surely it can improve, now one really really really nice way of just fitting in a little bit of balance stuff into your day is doing it when you brush your teeth because essentially every single day we're brushing our teeth or hopefully every single day we're brushing our teeth typically we don't really do a huge amount during that time so this is classified as almost dead time so what we can do to make this beneficial for your hiking is literally do it standing on one leg. That in itself can be a decent challenge for your balance. That in itself can just be a nice little exposure to this balance and can help improve it because standing one leg initially is hard enough. When we're brushing our teeth, obviously we're just doing lots of little movements that can make things a little bit more difficult and this can be really, really good. Now, if you didn't want to make this a little bit harder, then you can sort of say, all right, maybe I'll try this with my eyes closed. And you can try that. Standing one leg, brushing your teeth with your eyes closed. You'll notice that's really, really difficult.

[4:08] Or you could do this where you are standing one leg and maybe you're just doing little shifts from side to side and just trying to balance a little bit there or whatever. There's a bunch of different things you can do. But this is a really nice habit where if you do struggle with balance, if you do struggle with stability, just fitting something like this in each day when we're brushing our teeth can go a long, long way. Not going to add any extra time into your day, not going to get you hot or sweaty or anything like that can be very, very useful.

[4:35] Habit number three is throughout your day, repeat something positive in your head. Now, what I mean by that is one really, really powerful thing you can do, which can help with your training and also your hiking, is have a positive mantra in the sense of something simple, something positive, which is repeat to ourself over and over and over. Now, when it comes down to this type of positive statements in our head, these types of mantras, the thing about them is the more you use them, the more powerful they become. The more you practice it, the better they become. And the more we just ingrain these things into our general day-to-day life, where we can just say positive things about ourselves and positive statements about ourselves, the more natural it becomes and the more we just apply it without thinking.

[5:26] So a really really really great habit that you can get into it's just once a day you can tie this to something what you're doing when you sit down for lunch or when you sit down at your work at your work table or something you do every single day just have a statement something positive that you just say to yourself at that time every single day it could be something like hey i'm feeling really energetic even if you're not you just say that it could be something saying hey i'm strong hey i feel fit hey i'm a really good hiker literally anything but take something in your day and every single day repeat something positive this may sound a little bit hippy dippy this may sound a little bit woo woo but i promise you this little thing can be really really positive in the moment but just practicing this and making this natural can have a really good carryover effect when you're trying to use this in your training as well as your hiking as well so there's a little bit on the left field, but can be really useful. Repeat something positive to yourself every single day.

[6:28] Next up, is in a similar vein for this type of thing, is at some stage in your day, and typically I recommend this on some type of transition in your day. So when you're transitioning from home to work, when you're transitioning from a meeting to lunch, when you're transitioning to the end of a work day to getting at home, at some type of transition in your day, take a moment and take three deep breaths.

[6:57] What I mean by that is literally what it sounds like. Breathe in really deeply, breathe out really deeply, in really deeply, out really deeply, in and out. Just do that three times. At some transition in your day and whatever you think is going to be best for you, set yourself the habit to do this every single time. The beauty of this is just taking this simple moment of three deep breaths. Number one, it can help us body calm down. It can help us relax. And help us just sort of chill out a little bit. And it can be really nice just mentally. Number two, if we do this in a transition, it can be a really nice way of just kind of bookmarking what you're coming out of. If you've just come out of a stressful meeting, just taking these three deep breaths and getting in with the rest of your day, it can help with your focus, it can help with your mood, help with your energy. If you are doing this when you're leaving the office and just coming home, this can help you just turn up as your best self to your partner or your family,

[7:53] or just leave your work stress at home or whatever it may be. Very very very simple but if you can do this again every day at a certain time it can be very very useful.

[8:04] Next up, and this comes down to dinner, and not everyone will fall into this, but this is pretty, pretty, pretty beneficial. If you are cooking at home, and if you're cooking dinner and you have leftovers, a great habit to get into is when you're serving up your dinner, distribute your leftovers into any Tupperware or any storage you're going to be using. So what I mean by that is get into the habit is instead of serving up your dinner, sitting down having a dinner then coming back and putting things away do it all at once now the idea behind this and again this won't apply to everyone but i think it will it's really useful for a lot of people is one thing that a lot of people do is we'll have our dinner and we'll sit down then we're like oh i'm still a little bit hungry so we go back and have a second dinner or have a snack maybe go away sometimes we go back and have a third or whatever it may be and this is a really easy thing where we end up just, number one, maybe overeating a little bit at night, which is really common or whatever it may be. But this can also have the carryover effect that if you are eating more that night and you're cutting into your leftovers for the next day, then we're like, well, what am I going to have for lunch? And you're like, oh, well, maybe I'll go buy something. And oh, maybe I can't get something healthy. So I'll get something like a burger or whatever it may be. And it can have a bit of a carryover effect.

[9:26] So really, really, really useful habit, just for general day-to-day energy, just for general managing how much you're eating, is when you are serving up your dinner, just pop it in a Tupperware straight away. You may need to cool down or whatever it may be, but if you can get into that habit as opposed to breaking it up, it could be really, really useful. Again, this may not apply to everyone. Maybe you don't typically cook enough leftovers. Maybe you are getting takeout, maybe whatever it may be, but if you can, really, really good habit.

[9:54] And then the final one, and this directly relates to your training, is if you are training the next day, so tomorrow you're going to be training, plan and prepare a day ahead. So what that means is when you're at home, when you're finishing up at home or like end of the day or whatever it may be, take a little bit of time to make sure your clothes for the next day is organized. Make sure you know what workout you're going to be doing. So if you've got a particular plan, you know what's in the plan. If you're doing a particular workout, you know what exercise are you going to be doing and take some time to just be aware of what you're doing. And if you do need to prepare any food, so say, hey, I'm going to be training in the afternoon. Maybe I need to have a snack a little bit beforehand. Make sure your food's ready for it as well. do a little planning and preparation a day ahead. If you can get in the habit of doing this, and as opposed to doing this first thing in the morning or doing this the next day or anything like that, and you do it the night before, it can be really, really, really powerful at reducing the likelihood of things getting in the way of your training. It can reduce the chance of you waking up late and like, oh my gosh, I'm running around and forget something. It can reduce the chance of you forgetting to pack your food. It can reduce the chance of you getting to your workout and be like, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do today. So maybe I'll just do it tomorrow or whatever it may be. And it can really reduce the likelihood of just things coming up and getting in the way.

[11:23] So if you are training the next day, plan and prepare everything or as much as you can the day before. And then finally, the last habit, which I think can be really, really, really powerful is at the end of the day, when you're just wrapping up your day, you're just getting into bed or you're sitting in bed or whatever it may be, take a moment just to think of one, two, or three things that you are grateful for. Now, a lot of people have heard about these before, these gratitude diaries where you sit down and you write down what you've been grateful for in the day. This in itself, it's such a simple thing that can be such a positive thing to help your mood at the end of the day, help you feel accomplished at the end of the day, help you just relax before going into sleep and just help manage anything negative in your life. Obviously, this can be tough when we're going through pretty tough periods, but if you can get a habit of doing this each night before you go to bed, you just have a lot of carryover effects. Sit down, you can either write this down or just think it to yourself. One to three things you were grateful for. Maybe a case of just saying, hey, I'm grateful that I've got some great friends. I'm grateful that I get to hike on the weekend. I'm grateful that my knee feels much better or whatever it is.

[12:38] But it can be a really powerful habit. Now, I've just listed off seven different

[12:44] habits that you could squeeze, potentially squeeze into a day. None of them are really going to take you a huge amount of extra time. A glass of water when you wake up will take you a whole 20 seconds.

[12:56] Repeating something positive won't take any extra time. Brushing teeth on one leg may take you an extra 10 seconds or something like that. Taking three deep breaths will take you an extra 30 seconds. Distributing leftovers will just change that. You're already spending that time when you're packing up anyway. Planning, preparing for the day before, for the training the next day won't take you any extra time. And gratitude for bed will take you a whole 30 seconds. None of that's going to take a huge amount of time. None of that's going to take a huge amount of attention. But each of those in their own way can play a pretty significant role in regards to your energy, in regards to your mood, in regards to your focus. And ultimately, all of those things can have a really significant carryover effect into your training, into just your general day-to-day life, and then ultimately carry over into your hiking.

[13:45] So if you've been in the situation where you're like, yeah, I feel like I'm pretty on top of my training. I feel like I'm doing some good things. I feel like I'm moving forward, but I'm curious if there's any extra things I can be doing in my day. Maybe have something to think about this. Use these habits or come up with similar ones, but just get little bits and pieces you can add into your day and these things can really really add up so with that being said hopefully that's a little bit of food for thought for a few people hopefully it gives a few things to explore and hopefully it gives you some few positive things that can really really help with your day with your week with your training and ultimately with your hiking so with that being said i think i'm going to wrap things up there hope this was interesting hope this is useful have a lovely day and we'll talk to you very very soon bye.

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