A-Z Guide to Full-Time RV Living: Nurturing your health & wellness

Welcome to post 14 of 26 in the A-Z guide to full-time RV Living.

Depending on how you go about the lifestyle, living on the road can either foster healthy habits or make them difficult to maintain.  For Mark & I, our physical and mental health is a priority as we believe that feeling good is at the root of a good life. 

Here’s what we’ve learned are the pillars to remaining healthy and happy while traveling full-time…

Prioritize sleep

Hustle is overrated in this country and rest is underrated.  Feeling good, both physically and mentally, is practically impossible without a good night’s sleep.  When choosing your home-on-wheels, pay close attention to your sleeping quarters.  Is the bed comfortable?  If not, look into other mattress options online.  Is the bed big enough?  Smaller RVs like vans and truck campers often aren’t made to comfortably accommodate taller folks.  Lay down in the bed and make sure it’s long enough.  Once you’re out on the road, when choosing a place to camp, consider what kind of noise and lights you’ll be dealing with.  Ask yourself if you feel safe.  All these factors will affect how well you’re able to sleep.  Lastly, always take the time to park level.  Sleeping off-kilter is a surefire way to wake-up feeling ill.

Prioritize movement 

You don’t need a gym to get in or stay in shape, you simply need to make movement a part of your everyday life.  It could be movement in the form of walking, running, hiking, biking, swimming, paddleboarding, kayaking, yoga, stair climbing, etc.  

Tips for prioritizing movement when your location is always changing:

1. Invest in good outdoor clothing for all different types of weather so that you always feel comfortable and prepared to be outside.  For us, those pieces of gear include:
   1. A good sun shirt with built-in sun protection
   2. A wide-brimmed hat
   3. Light-weight as well as heavy-weight wool socks.  We love the Darn Tough brand.
   4. Wool long underwear
   5. A windbreaker
   6. A down coat
   7. A rain coat
   8. Ear protection
2. Take stock of every new location and learn what it has to offer for movement opportunities.  Is there a recreation path nearby, hiking trails, a lake or river?  Think about what you might want to do at that location, get your gear ready and make it easily accessible.
3. Never underestimate the positive effects of a simple walk.  Mark & I tend to cover miles and miles of every area we’re in by simply walking every day.  We discover things we’d never otherwise see in a car, it gives us time to decompress from a work day,  brainstorm upcoming plans, and so much more.  And the beauty of walking is that it’s always accessible no matter where you are.

Allow room in your travels for routine

It can be really difficult to have any kind of routine if you’re driving all the time.  You might have the best of intentions to maintain certain healthy habits but we’ve seen how fast those can go up in smoke when you’re always on the move wanting to see all the things.  Slowing down and staying in one location for several days allows the time for things like cooking and exercise rather than solely on driving, planning routes, and finding campsites.  

Cook more and eat out less

It can be tempting to go out a lot when you’re traveling full-time.  The allure of new towns, treats, and restaurants is ever-present.  Eating out is a double-edged sword in that it will significantly impact your cost of living while also cause you to put on unwanted pounds.  Learn the strengths and weaknesses of your RV kitchen and create a list of meals that are easy to cook in your small space.  Once you’ve adapted to your space, you’ll enjoy cooking more.  And the more you enjoy cooking, the more likely you are to eat in rather than out.  

Tip:  If possible, make room in your RV for bulk food items like oats, rice, beans, quality cooking oil, etc.  Traveling full-time means rarely frequenting the same grocery store twice.  Shopping can be time consuming when you never know where anything is.  Bulk items save money as well as the time it takes to find them.

Seek out environments that you love

The more you enjoy the environment you’re in the more likely you’ll be to get outside and be active in it.  We love high alpine forests in the summer and the Arizona desert in the winter.  By following good weather and the environments we enjoy being in, we’re always excited to be outside hiking, biking, or paddleboarding.  

Try new things

Traveling to new places offers great opportunities to try new things. Are there bike trails nearby but you don’t have a bike? Are you camping near a lake and have never tried paddleboarding or kayaking? Rent gear from a local shop and try out a new activity. Are you a casual runner but have never participated in a race? Sign up for a local 5k or 10k and experience the joy of camaraderie among fellow runners. Are you camped near a cold water source and have wondered what all the rage is around cold plunges? Get brave for a few minutes and find out for yourself. These new experiences will enrich your travels and possibly lead to a new healthy, fulfilling hobby.

Pay close attention to signs of burnout

If we’re moving often we’ll begin to have decision-fatigue or start to feel overwhelm from the constant intake of new experiences.  When we begin to feel these things is when we know it’s time to slow down and stay in one place for at least a week or two.  I used to fear that these feelings meant I had hit a wall and didn’t want to travel any more.  I’ve since learned that’s not the case and that slowing down is all I need in order to feel rejuvenated.

Stay connected

Whether you travel solo or with your partner, life on the road can feel isolating if you don’t make the effort to stay connected with friends & family. When you’re constantly moving and/or your favorite people become scattered all throughout the country, it’s important to make time to connect and catch up. Staying in touch with your nomad friends is especially important as you’ll never otherwise know when you might be in the same region and will have the opportunity to get some quality time together. Maintaining long-distance relationships takes effort but is an important component to our overall well-being.

A few other things we do to nurture our physical health:

• A 20 minute yoga session a few times a week keeps us feeling limber.  We love Yoga with Adrienne on You Tube.
• We’re not vegetarian but we do try to prioritize plant foods in our diet.  The more we limit processed food, as well as dairy and sugar, the better we feel.
• We filter all of the water we put in our RV with an RV filter.  We then go on to filter all of our drinking and cooking water through a Berky gravity-fed water filter. 

A few other things we do to nurture our mental health:

• We communicate regularly with each other about our wants, needs and travel preferences.  Full-time RVing together as a couple means being together 24/7 in a small space.  Tension is that much more palpable in tiny living quarters and so we make the extra effort to be cognizant of each other’s needs.
• Virtual therapy.  Life’s hardships don’t magically dissipate when you live on the road.  I’m so grateful for the ability to do therapy sessions virtually.

At the end of the day, one of the primary reasons we travel full-time in an RV is because it allows us the opportunity to spend more time outside and in nature. That connection to the natural world has made us more present and less stressed than we were when living in a house or city. We’ve learned to slow down and enjoy what we have rather than overworking ourselves in the pursuit of more money, more possessions, and a higher status. That shift has led to a greater quality of life and as long as we don’t lose sight of the healthy habits mentioned above, we remain healthier and happier than we’ve ever been.