One of the biggest reasons to become a digital nomad is freedom, right? You want to go out, enjoy the food, drink the local hooch, and live life to the fullest. But you still want to look good on the beach! You want both! And if you listen to these tips from Marlon, you’ll get that beach bod and still get to enjoy yourself. Here are his top 5 tips for freedom AND fitness that give long-lasting results, wherever you are in the world!
Implement a “Sunday Habit”
Being always on the move makes it hard to stick with rigid routines. My number one tip for this is to take 10-15 minutes every Sunday to mark in your calendar which days you want to exercise or perform whatever kind of physical activity, making sure that you note what time and where.
For example:
- Monday, 9am: Running (beach)
- Wednesday, 5pm: Quick Bodyweight Workout (at home)
- Friday, 3pm: Surfing (ocean)
Your weekly workout schedule might look very different. However, if you take a few minutes on Sunday to plan you will create clear but flexible weekly routines that will keep you active in the long run. To make sure you don’t forget about your new Sunday habit a little harder, why not put a weekly reminder in your calendar right now? Set a date with yourself and commit to shaping your best self!
Purchase equipment that fits your travel bag
Even if social media makes you want to believe it – a gym is not necessary to reach your fitness goals. Your own body weight plus some super basic equipment is more than enough.
Here are my top 3 gadgets for home or outdoor workouts that fit every travel bag:
1. A TRX or some comparable sling trainer (way cheaper)
2. A set of proper resistance bands (don´t go for the cheapest pair)
3. A set of push-up handles (nice to have, but not as important as the above)
Start the day with a quick morning routine
To prepare yourself not only physically but also mentally to live a more active and healthy life it helps a lot to start every day with some physical exercise. That doesn’t have to be a full workout, not even half a workout. It can be a 5-minute yoga routine or a combination of some holistic full-body exercises such as Squats, Push-Ups, and Supermans. The idea is to make it quick and easy, so you can do it every day and make it become a healthy morning habit.
Implement flexible intermittent fasting
Obviously, you want to enjoy a night out with your friends. Obviously, you might not want to say no to a yummy dinner, a glass of wine or two, or whatever. And obviously, you don´t have to. To guarantee you this freedom on the one hand and make sure to reach your fitness goals on the other, we only have to find a way to compensate for this calorie surplus afterward. For that, you could implement a new habit which I call flexible intermittent fasting.
This practically looks like this:
Allow you and your body 14–16 hours of fasting after the last meal or drink of the day, non-sugared tea, coffee, and water excluded. This habit is not only useful to lose weight but also helps your body to reduce inflammation and fatigue. So including these daily fasting phases not only help you compensate for last night’s calorie intake but also makes you feel fitter and healthier in the long run.
Follow the “Golden Rule”: Never skip a workout twice
“Ok, I skipped all the workouts I had planned for last week - now it doesn´t make sense to
get back to it anyway”
Have you had that thought before?
Most people manage to follow a routine for a while, as long as their motivation is high enough. As soon as life happens (especially on the road), they miss a workout, then another one, until finally their efforts get less and less and they fall back to zero. To prevent that from happening to you it makes sense to follow a thing I call the Golden Rule. The underlying idea here is that missing workouts is inevitable. It happens, even to the best and most determined athletes. So, if it happens to you, don´t judge yourself. Rather focus on the next workout and make very sure that you don’t miss it. Get back on that horse! Following this simple rule helps keep up the momentum and stay continuous – even or especially in difficult phases.
If you have really made it all the way down to this paragraph of my blog post, I really hope one or two of these ideas seemed interesting to you. From my own and my client´s experiences, I can tell that all of them may have remarkable effects on your long-term fitness if implemented adequately.
Marlon Shadeck (who co-wrote this blog) is a personal online fitness coach supporting digital nomads and remote workers to develop individual fitness and nutrition concepts that promise sustainable results. If that sounds interesting to you, feel very invited to check out his homepage: