Wellness Apps
Traveling constantly can be hard on the body. Our ability to cross time zones so quickly is a relatively modern invention and certainly not something our 200,000-year-old species is well adapted for.
I rely on these four apps to ensure that my healthy habits and routines survive being jetlagged and disrupted by new environments.
Routines with Fabulous
Fabulous is a habit tracker and routine builder mainly targeted toward improving the baseline of your life. On top of the coaching and wellness stuff it provides, it allows you to build rituals that walk you through your routine.
Having an automated system to help keep you moving forward in your routine is fantastic If you experience any ADD/ADHD. Still, it also allows you to get distracted by anything, which includes the simple struggles of how to do basic things in this new place with a new language.
This acts as my foundation, ensuring that each new location is an opportunity to reinforce my healthy habits instead of risking them. And much like generalizing a command when you training a dog, the more you reinforce your habits in new environments, the stronger they get.
$39.99 per year. Available for both Android and iPhone.
Exercise with Freeletics
Having a solid workout routine while on the go can be challenging, especially if you're used to going to a gym. While often you can find a gym, finding a new one every month or so can disrupt your schedule. Instead of making my workout contingent on my environment, I use body weight HIIT to keep moving.
For supporting this, Freeletics is excellent. The Freeletics app family includes gym exercises if you do find a gym nearby, but generally can be considered an automated couch that learns based on your feedback and set times and be customized based on any of the equipment or environment restrictions you have. Limited space, need to be quiet? There's a setting for that.
If you're trying out the app for the 1st time, and it kicks your out-of-shape ass like me, keep going. It will learn to chill out on you after it gets more data, and you will get stronger and used to the workouts. So give it a few weeks to learn while using the "Adapt session" feature to tone it down.
$59.99 per Year. Available for both Android and iPhone.
Circadian Sleep with Timeshifter
Managing your circadian rhythm as you jet across the world is the simplest and quickest way to hit the ground running by being online for meetings and exploring your new city without being like a member of the stumbling undead.
Timeshifter allows you to plug in your flight numbers and will provide guidelines for when to sleep, drink caffeine, nap, and get proper sun exposure to shift you to the best experience.
The process can start a few days before your flight, depending on how many zones you are shifting, so I recommend putting all your flights in a week before moving. I copy the sleep blocks to my Google calendar to keep blocking out my calendar automatically.
Sometimes it can be hard to fall asleep an hour early; if that's the case, don't fret about it. Take a little melatonin, and meditate or practice some yoga nidra; the goal is not to sleep but to use this time for rest.
Jet lag
The first jet lag plan is free. Then, $9.99/plan or $24.99/year (unlimited plans). Available for both Android and iPhone.
Circadian Eating with Zero
Gut health is super important in ways that we don't fully understand. Changes in the gut bacterium can affect everything from depression to cholesterol levels. Not only does your sleep get jet lagged, but the Circadian rhythm of your gut bacteria does too. It sucks being hungry at the wrong time of day.
One of the simple ways to ensure your gut maintains a balance of work and rest is to ensure that you spend enough time not eating each day. While periodically fasting can have additional healthy effects, as a baseline for your circadian rhythm, it's currently understood that 13 hours of not eating is ideal. This generally means 3 hours before bed and waiting about 2 hours after you wake up, keeping this schedule as consistent as possible. It takes at least two weeks for your gut to adapt to new foods, diets, or times fully.
If you're only going to be doing the 13-hour break, you don't need an app. Still, suppose you would like to do longer fasts, or you would like to understand better how to process what your body uses for energy depending on the time. In that case, Zero is excellent at giving you those little insights while supporting syncing with your fitness tracking.
Zero Longevity Science, Inc.
$69.99 per year. Available for both Android and iPhone.
Thanks for reading! I hope that you find these apps helpful. If you have any questions or use something different, I'd love to hear about it.
Member discussion