Episode 112Aug 24, 2026· 15:58

36,477 Steps: What Gen Con Taught Me About How Far My Body Has Come

▸ Show notes from the creator

Just two years ago, walking a convention floor for five days straight would have wrecked me. This year I logged over 36,000 steps at Gen Con, the world's biggest tabletop gaming convention, and actually enjoyed every minute of it. In this episode I break down what four days of nonstop walking and standing felt like in my body now versus then, why I noticed swollen ankles on other convention goers and felt for them, and what this trip taught me about building real stamina instead of chasing a number on a scale. If you've ever skipped a trip or an event because you weren't sure your body could handle it, this one is for you. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only and is not medical advice. Please consult a healthcare professional before starting any diet or exercise program. Get more content: https://famousashleygrant.com/fitness/ Join the FREE accountability group: https://famousashleygrant.com/group/ --------------------------------------- This podcast is supported by affiliate partnerships. Please check out a few of our partners below: – Check out my Amazon Storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/theashleygrant?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsfshop_4EEZX1HN7ZCWEBZ33TK3 – Start a podcast today here: https://rss.com/?via=moremovementplease – Create content from your own voice with Castmagic's Suite of AI Tools: https://get.castmagic.io/dcjy15cirnts – Want to help support our show? Buy a girl a drink perhaps? https://ko-fi.com/famousashleygrant – Need content for your podcast or blog? Check out Tools for Motivation: https://toolsformotivation.com/idevaffiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=962&url=1914 The links above are affiliate links. This means my podcast will receive a small commission if you order through any of them at no additional cost to you. Affiliate commissions are one of the ways my podcast makes money so that I can create episodes free of charge. If you do purchase anything from my links, I sincerely would like to thank you for your support!

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About this episode

Just two years ago, walking a convention floor for five days straight would have wrecked me. This year I logged over 36,000 steps at Gen Con, the world's biggest tabletop gaming convention, and actually enjoyed every minute of it. In this episode I break down what four days of nonstop walking and standing felt like in my body now versus then, why I noticed swollen ankles on other convention goers and felt for them,…

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Full transcript

00:00

Yes, you can even move your body while you are on vacation. What's up, my movers and shakers? Famous Ashton Grant here. Welcome to More Movement, Please, the podcast where I hope to inspire you to move your body more. I am so excited to be back on the mic today because it means I am back. I am fully here. And so if you hear any experts going forward, you are gonna hear my reactions to them rather than them just taking over the episode because I'm back and I'm ready to go, ready to share more and talk about all the things.

00:33

I just got back from Gen Con and y 'all, I had... the most amazing time. Lots of movement, lots of things and let's do a quick debrief of what went down. Quick disclaimer, I just want to let you guys know this will be a little bit of a longer episode because I'm covering the full experience of what it was like to be at Gen Con and all the movement that I got in. So this is a little bit of a longer episode, but I hope you won't mind it and I hope you enjoy. So let's get into it. I'm back from Gen Con and I just thought I would do a a recap of how things went and how much movement I got in and all that good stuff because I did a debrief whenever I came back from Florida and y 'all seemed to like it and so I thought you know what let's do one for Gen Con as well. So I was in Indianapolis for Gen Con which I found out while I was there that it actually came from Geneva Convention because the first one was held in Geneva and they shortened

01:36

it to Gen for Gen Con and basically it is the nation's largest tabletop gaming convention and so my husband and I went there for our 20th wedding anniversary to geek out on board games and tabletop games because Your girl loves a good board game or tabletop game. I love I love games like Alien Frontiers and Cards Against Humanity and Star Realms and my absolute favorite board game so far of all time is Firefly the board game if you know, you know and Yeah, we just we went and walked a lot. I mean that was like literally the biggest thing we did was we walked a lot I tried to record my steps, but I'm clearly not very good at it because I don't have a wearable.

02:20

I have it on my phone. And, you know, getting the recordings on my phone, there were inevitably times where I was like trying to take pictures and I was messing up the app. And so while I was there for four days, I recorded 36 ,477 steps. But I know it was significantly more than that because even the first day, I didn't even remember to turn on the damn tracker. and i have no idea how many steps i actually got if i had to guess it was at least in the neighborhood of 10 000 steps per day and it was it was awesome but it was definitely taxing because not only were we walking most of the time we were just standing and while you're standing for several hours on end it's you know it's taxing but it was good because I was able to actually do it and the reason I'm so excited about that is because like I mentioned before we went to Florida if we had tried to do this trip you know a couple years

03:12

ago there's no way in hell I would have been able to enjoy it to the extent that I did because I physically would not have been able to handle it and I felt really bad because as I was walking around the convention center I saw some people that I could tell we're having trouble with walking. And I really felt for them, right? Because like I felt, it took me back to past Ashley whenever I was struggling to move my body. And, you know, I saw. Like my own ankles got swollen, but I saw some folks that they're I mean, I was talking to them and I heard that their ankles just were so swollen from how much walking they were doing.

03:48

And it was quite painful for them. And I like I said, I just I really felt for them because I've been there and I've done conventions and conferences before where I was still out of shape. And it was a very different experience than what happened this time. And thank goodness I was more in shape this time because it was the largest convention I've ever been to. I've never been to some. something quite this big with quite this many rooms that were dedicated to an entire event and oh my goodness I mean it was just non -stop walking non -stop you know standing on your feet And I really enjoyed it. And I'll be honest with you guys, I didn't really track very much what I was eating. We kind of just were grabbing meals where we could because it was very busy. Like it was also the busiest convention I've ever been to. I've never experienced quite so much happening around me at the same time.

04:39

And it was just nonstop action. I mean, I think I read that there were more than 20 ,000 individual events that were happening at this convention. Everything from, you know, set up board games to tournaments. to, you know, demos and all kinds of things. I mean, it was just, it was absolutely insane how much was going on at the same time. And there were 74 ,000 people there. I mean, they said that it brought in something like 80 plus million dollars to the area in tourism dollars.

05:06

And that was just, you know, for things like people going out to eat and, you know, getting hotels. And that doesn't even begin to touch how much people spent on the board games themselves or... I mean, it was it was quite intense and quite wild to experience what I experienced, like such a huge shopping and entertainment event. I mean, it's really just what it was. And I'm just so glad that I was able to physically handle it. I wore my ASIC shoes every day. I did wear my my new Dr. Scholl's sports insoles inserts for a couple of days. I didn't wear them every day because I was trying to test and see like.

05:47

you know, which was better with or without them. And I'll be honest with you guys, I think it's because of the way the Asics shoes are. I couldn't really tell a difference. And so I just kind of left them out and figured I'd just stick with keeping the Dr. Scholl's insoles in my Zumba shoes. But yeah, it was... it was a lot of walking it was just a lot of walking in terms of food i mean i won't say that we ate really healthy because we really didn't we ate a lot of junk and um i'm paying for it that's for darn sure there was lots of pasta and burgers and uh fries but uh you know it is what it is it was just it was one of those things where we tried to be you know not too ridiculous with our choices like we didn't have dessert every night and that kind of stuff we we just stuck to just eating meals to to keep our stamina up because we were burning a lot of calories and so it kind of felt like all right we just need to make sure we're

06:41

getting we're getting carbs in and so we did and um yeah it just it was a wonderful five -day getaway We went there on Wednesday the 29th. We drove up there. That was our actual wedding anniversary. We went early so that we could make sure that we could get settled in, get our tickets. And thank goodness we did because, oh my goodness, the line was so long. I mean, it wrapped around the building. It was nuts. And I mean, luckily it was all inside. When I say wrap around the building, I mean wrap around the interior, like every, like throughout the hallways. It was just, it was very full, but it was very well organized.

07:17

Did you have to say that? It was impressive to see just how quickly. They got through that line. I think we were in the line, I want to say an hour, but... But it may have been faster than that. It was quite intense seeing that many people trying to get their tickets at Will Call. The reason we chose to do Will Call instead of having them mailed to us is because we've been having some issues with our mail at our address. And we just didn't want to risk it not arriving because there was a rumor that if you didn't receive your tickets that you would have to pay full price to get them again anyway. And so it was like, well, it's just not worth the risk. And so we didn't have them shipped. We decided to do Will Call. So on the 29th, after we... got our tickets we walked around the convention center just trying to get the lay of the land figuring out what was coming what we were going to experience

08:01

we went over to the JW Marriott which was also hosting some gaming events we went to the block party to have dinner had a pretty awful meal I'm not gonna lie it was very disappointing and very overpriced We tried these noodles that just, they looked really good. They smelled really good. But boy, did we learn that looks and smells can be deceiving because it was just, it was not that great. And I hate to say that because, you know, I know these vendors are trying to feed a lot of people and all that jazz, but.

08:30

I was very disappointed, and I spoke to quite a few people that were also saying they were disappointed by it. But, you know, I guess you get to a point where you feel like it is what it is. You have to take what's around you. And the big thing I learned is that next year, whenever we go back, because we are definitely going to go back, we are bringing our own food. We're going to bring a big cooler filled with snacks and drinks. Meals because everything was so overpriced.

08:57

I mean we're talking $12 for a single slice of pizza, and it wasn't even that big Like that and I remember one of the sticker shocks we had is we paid $40 for two burgers and french fries and That sounds like it's not that big of a deal if you go to like a restaurant You're probably gonna end up paying that but when I tell y 'all that this was like one of the worst burgers I've ever had It really was. Like, it was so plain and just awful. And I don't mean to complain, but I just basically reminded myself on this trip that this is why we bring our own food a lot of times. And it was a good reminder that going forward when we go on trips, we're going to do our best to... to pack better um we the trip kind of snuck up on us i guess that's normal to have that happen but i really regretted that we didn't bring our own food this time because not only did it cost us a lot more money it was a lot more calories than we probably would have

09:53

consumed and i've told you guys before i'm not a diet girly i don't believe in diets anymore um but it did bother me that we were eating such crap food, you know, especially since it wasn't the greatest. But I'm still grateful for the experience. I'm grateful we were able to afford the overpriced meals and enjoy the conference as best we could. I may cut all this out. I'm not actually sure. But, but we didn't eat the best. And so yeah, so where am I? So Wednesday, we we got the lay of the land and Thursday, we hit the ground running just trying to get through, you know, learning what was what all the games were. We walked through the hall where they were doing demos of a lot of games. We got to see a lot of games that we've never seen laid out before. You know, because one of the things that happens whenever you're playing, you know, whenever you're purchasing board games, you don't often

10:44

know what you're going to buy or what the board's going to look like. And so it was kind of cool to be able to see all these board games set out and what they looked like. And that was a lot of fun, like seeing all of that. We just kind of kept walking around and seeing what there was to see. We started our walk through the exhibit hall and we saw a lot of games. Like, I mean, I did not realize just how many games were in existence. We learned that more than 3 ,000 games were being represented at the event. But to learn that that barely scratches the surface, like we're talking not even a percentage, like it was ridiculous to learn that Board Game Geek actually cataloged. over 150 ,000 games. And so I didn't know there were that many board games and card games in existence until this event.

11:29

So that was wild to learn about. And I was kind of impressed to see that there was even fitness games. So that was kind of fun. There was a guy that he does workouts. in like a Dungeons and Dragons style theme. So of course that inspired me. I'm going to be making a fitness game with Rhonda and I'm very excited about that. So that'll be coming soon and I'll keep you guys posted on how that's going to go. We already had started one before Gen Con. It involves a deck of cards and now it's going to be a deck of cards and a set of dice. And I'll explain everything. It'll be in the group for our movers and shakers. If you would like to check that out, I would love it for you guys to do that. and even if you don't want to be a mover and shaker i hope you'll join the group anyway because even the free group has lots of fun stuff going on but anyway back to the uh how things went. On Friday the 31st,

12:21

we kind of continued through the exhibit hall. We basically just were trying to get through all of the vendors. There were quite a few to go through. And so we walked around and just checked out all the games that were available. We checked out a lot of the art for the games because that's something that I guess I never really thought about until this event was paying attention to just how amazing the artwork is in these games. And so that was really fun to see. like seeing blowups of what the art looks like on some of the cards and on the boards themselves, like really paying attention to the artwork.

12:56

I got so enamored with how cool the art was. And then Saturday, did more of the same, finally got through the rest of the exhibit hall. And Sunday, we called it quits really early. We decided that we wanted to go ahead and go home. And so we checked out of our hotel and went ahead and went home so that I could you know, go ahead and start recovering. And Monday, I ended up going to Zumba and low impact cardio and toning.

13:22

And so yeah, that's the Reader's Digest version of how everything went. I'm going to do a full blog post recap of everything that went down. So if you want to check that out, you can go to famousashleygrant .com backslash board games, and you will see everything that All the recap, like the whole experience of what went down. And if you would like more content, I would love it if you would join us over at famoushashleygrant.com backslash group because I am constantly going to be sharing all kinds of stuff. I want to, yeah, I really want this to be a movement of movement. I've said that so many times. I want this to be a community of us, you know, talking about how we're working out, how we're moving our bodies. And I want to share more with you guys because I love. I love talking to y'all and finding out how you're moving your bodies.

14:10

And it's just it's been a lot of fun. And I hope you enjoyed this recap of all the movement I did in Indianapolis. And I definitely plan on going back to Gen Con next year. Next year will be the 60th anniversary of the event. And so I'm going to do it differently. I'm going to do it better. And I learned a lot about how we should have planned and what we should have done. Believe it or not, we didn't buy a single board game at the event. And we only played two games.

14:36

the entire time. We played a Dungeons and Dragons game and we played a round of Star Realms, but definitely see a lot more gaming in my future because it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. It was, you know, the fun thing is when it comes to board games and tabletop games. When it comes to tabletop games, you pay once and you get a whole bunch of entertainment out of it. And so looking at it from a new perspective like that really just made me more excited about gaming again. And so yeah, I'll be sharing more fun and fitness in the coming days. And I hope you guys will enjoy the content. And if not, send me feedback. Let me know. I want to know what y 'all think. But again, head over to FamousAstrogant.com backslash group and join our fitness community.

15:18

I would absolutely love to chat with all of y'all. And yeah, thanks for tuning in. Onwards and upwards, my friends. Have you worked out today?