6 Healthy Daily Habits I Learned While Backpacking

myEvery time I get home from a walk, I have the same thought: I need to find a way to make this my entire life..

Unfortunately, given the demands of real life, walking 12 to 15 hours a day turns out to be a bit unsustainable. Still, I’ve found a handful of daily habits on the trail that I try to incorporate into my life.

1) No cell service at bedtime

While backpacking, I always marvel at how well I sleep. I’m usually in the woods, on a small, 3-inch-thick inflatable mat, in freezing temperatures, and I still manage to easily get nine hours of sleep a night. In the end, I’ve been forced to come to the conclusion that every adult over 50 has been saying for years: I need to get off the phone.

It turns out that when I don’t have the ability to scroll through random videos for two hours, I can usually fall asleep two hours earlier. At home, I started putting my phone on airplane mode when I go to bed.

Can I always do this? No. I’m not the most disciplined. However, when I do, I fall asleep. a lot before I can stay there and move around.

2) Get up early

Putting my phone on airplane mode also helps me achieve this. I’ve never been good at getting up early. Even on the go, I need to set an alarm if I want to wake up anytime before 8am

However, every time I get up and move in the morning, I am amazed at how productive and good I feel during the day. While hiking, my typical alarm is set between 6 and 6:30 am; Back home, I started thinking about waking up at 8am. Believe me, that’s early for me.

With my phone on airplane mode and not with me in bed, I’m less tempted to stay there until I absolutely have to move to get to work. While it doesn’t capture the feeling of walking in the fresh morning air, minimizing sleepless time in bed does wonders for my mental health and productivity.

I admit, mornings on the trail are much easier because you get the reward of a beautiful sunrise.

3) Prioritize hydration

Maybe I’m just bringing up all my terrible habits, but I’m generally not the best at staying hydrated. I often forget to drink water unless I’m really thirsty and can let a day go by without having a glass.

While backpacking, I actively try to drink four liters of water a day. I still feel like I force myself to drink when I’m not thirsty, but my body feels noticeably worse when I don’t hit that four-liter mark. At home, when I don’t exercise all day, I set my new line at two liters.

To reduce the times I have to get up and remember to refill my glass, I keep a 2-liter water bottle on my desk and force myself to finish it at the end of the workday. Have I noticed positive effects from being hydrated? Honestly, no, but I know this is good for me and it’s nice to have some discipline after a hike.

On the trail, when I’m dehydrated, I can blame it on how much I hate filtering water. In my normal life, I don’t really have a valid excuse.

4) Eat for fuel

I’ll start by saying that I usually don’t have that much difficulty eating and eating. However, I’m a twenty-something woman in the 21st century, so I feel like I’m constantly bombarded with media and messages about eating less, eating differently, eating well, and anything to keep food and my body at the forefront of my mind.

When I’m hiking, my only thoughts about food focus on how to get more of it and how I can best fuel my body to hike 30 miles every day. There is no complication in how dietary choices reflect my appearance or my value within a social structure that places a lot of emphasis on women looking a certain way.

That’s not to say that I try to eat as many Spam Singles as possible each day while I’m not hiking, but my time on the trails has helped me intentionally reject that little voice in my head that feels the need to talk while I’m meal planning. While hiking, I eat when I’m hungry and feel better for doing it. At home I try to do the same.

I still eat a lot of spam in my normal life, but I never prefer Spam Singles.

5) Daily movement

It may not be possible to walk as many miles as I do on a daily basis, but my body and brain certainly benefit from something resembling daily activity. As someone who works at a corporate desk, movement doesn’t come naturally during the day and I have to be intentional about fitting it into my days.

Sometimes it feels like a long run after work. Sometimes that looks like a 10-minute yoga session between meetings.

While I would of course always prefer long runs, consistency of movement is very important for my mental health, especially after a walk. Stability seems to be helpful to me, much more so than effort, and it also helps me develop a little more discipline.

Plus, when I can get out for a longer walk, the foundation built by continuous movement makes the walk much easier and more enjoyable.

There is nothing better for hiking training than walking with a backpack on.

6) Greater presence

I always find it a little amusing when someone approaches me while I’m hiking to see if I knew there was a weather event happening in my area, whether it’s a heat wave or a massive storm. I promise you, hikers always know this. We are currently touring it.

The trail encourages constant, low-level vigilance to perpetually monitor the sky, the sound of the wind, and the exact state of how my body feels. However, at home, there is much less incentive to take advantage of this directly.

It sounds really small, but I like to be a little more aware of what’s going on outside by checking the weather every day. Besides that, I try to stay aware of the little aches and pains I feel in my body. It’s easy to fall into the mindset that if I don’t have any major physical events ahead of me, I can deprioritize mobility and healing to focus on other, more fun things.

Not only does being in tune with what’s going on around me make me feel like a more active participant in my life, but addressing my weaknesses and injuries with intention during the offseason makes my next hike much more likely to be a success.

After a journey, it’s time to address all the little wounds I accumulated during it.

How to make your life a walk

These six habits may not make my life like a walk, but they help my brain and body feel that level of security and accomplishment that I crave on these long walks. They may not be the same for you; Take some time, think about what you like in your daily hiking routine, and see how you can recreate all of that once you return home.

Obviously, nothing can replace seeing some of the most beautiful sights in the country with some of your best friends, but prioritizing your physical happiness still feels great.

Featured Image: Photo by Katie Jackson; graphic design by Chris Helm.