Transcript: How I'm Prepping My Body (and My Bag) for Four Days of Walking at Gen Con
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Ashley introduces the episode while on a walk, explaining that Gen Con is less than two months away and she's heard someone walk 11,000 steps in a single day just inside the convention center, which has her thinking hard about getting prepared.
Less than two months to Gen Con and all is well. What's up you guys? Famous Ashley Gantt here. Welcome to More Movement Please, the podcast where I hope to inspire you to move your body more. So I am less than two months from Gen Con and I know just how much I'll be walking while I'm there. Someone said something insane about like walking 11 ,000 steps just in one day, trying to walk around to all the places inside of the...
inside of the convention center. And so all I can think about is, man, I really need to get my butt in gear and be prepared for all that cardio and all that walking. It's not that I'm afraid that I won't be able to handle it. It's just that I want to be able to handle it really well. Because, yeah, I can finally lift weights pretty well and I can get through cardio classes and whatever. But it's like a whole new ballgame whenever you're talking about four straight days of constant walking. And so. That's one thing that I am really thinking about a lot right now.
Ashley runs through the physical items she's bringing: her ASICS Nova Blast 5 shoes, a resistance band for supplemental exercises, lots of water, fruit juices as a soda alternative, electrolyte packets (though she's frustrated by how expensive they are), granola bars for when she gets hangry, chapstick, and hand lotion.
That's why I'm recording this on a walk is because I'm like, damn, it's getting closer and I need to make sure that I am prepared to do all that walking. So I kind of wanted to talk about how I'm preparing for this four day event and the things that I'll be bringing with me to make sure that I'm basically fueled and ready while I'm while I'm at it. So I definitely will be bringing the ASIC shoes that I purchased for.
the gym. I have been loving them. They're the Nova Blast 5s and I've absolutely been loving them. They've been really great shoes so far and I can definitely notice a difference in terms of how I stand, how I walk, and all that good stuff. So those are definitely going with me in my bag. I'm also bringing my resistance band. I'm bringing that with me because I do fully intend on doing some exercises outside of the lots and lots of walking that I already know I'll be doing. I have the exercises from my road trip that I took to Florida still written down.
And I will be using my body weight for much of the like weight exercises. I'll be using my body weight for those. And I definitely need the resistance bands for some of the exercises that are on my list. So I'm bringing that definitely bringing a bunch of water. I mean, whenever we went to Florida. We went through so much water on our trip. And so I definitely see that in my future. Lots and lots of water. And I'm also going to be bringing some fruit juices because we're trying to stop reaching for sodas so much. But that's one of the things on my list. And we're considering those electrolyte packets because some people have been telling me that that would help me in terms of performance. And so I'm looking into different ones that are... are considered really good for performance. But the problem that I have found with so many of them is how expensive they are. Is that just me? Like, am I crazy?
Like, are you guys seeing the same things? I really want to know. Like, let me know if there's a really good and inexpensive electrolyte packet that I should consider for my water. And so that's definitely something that I'm going to be bringing. Also, we'll be bringing granola bars because like I've told y 'all in the past, when I get hangry, it's not pretty and it's not good for anybody. So I'm going to make sure that I have grill bars with me so that while we're walking around the convention floor, if I get hangry, I've got something that can help me quickly.
That's a plan. I will also be bringing chapstick with me because I don't know about y 'all, but whenever I'm walking like convention centers, I always seem to get really dry lips. I don't know if it's because I walk so much that I'm not getting enough hydration, but y 'all, it's like I really need the chapstick. My personal favorite is Burt's Bees, so I will be bringing lots and lots of that. My second favorite is Blistex, and I'll probably be bringing that too, because your girl always gets chapped lips. Also, we'll be bringing lots and lots of hand lotion.
I really like the various ones from Bath & Body Works, but I've been getting turned on to goat's milk lotion lately. I don't know why, but it seems like it's like... This might sound weird, but... Seems creamier. So I'll definitely be bringing hand lotion. I doubt I'll be bringing notebooks this time. I normally only do that for conferences where I'm actually going to be taking classes and things like that. So I doubt I'll be bringing notebooks, but I definitely will be bringing games. And I got a really great tip from someone that I should put my address and phone number into the lid of every single game that I'm bringing. That way, you know, it's...
Ashley mentions bringing board games and shares two tips she received: writing her address inside every game box and potentially using AirTags to keep track of them. She also explains why she's bringing refillable 32-ounce water bottles instead of buying plastic ones at the convention.
someone knows it's mine and they can, like if I forget it or whatever, I can just keep track of the fact that it's mine. And someone else said that I should put an air tag in all of them. I don't know if I'll go that far, but I definitely will be putting my address into the box so that everybody knows it's mine. We're also going to be bringing refillable water bottles because I don't really want to just buy a bunch of plastic and have a bunch of plastic. I'd rather, you know, I guess be environmentally friendly. And they hold more. Like my water bottles hold about 32 ounces and that's better than a 16 ounce bottle and I'd have to carry less. So I'll probably be doing that. I know there's a lot of water fountains around the convention center so I could easily refill. But yeah, so that's the main things that I'm going to be bringing with me. In terms of food while we're there, I know we're definitely
Ashley talks through the food plan — tuna and crackers for lunches, quick heat-and-eat meals to avoid the expense of eating out — drawing on lessons from overspending on their Florida road trip. She also mentions a possible Chicago detour where her husband wants a Chicago dog and she wants to try deep dish pizza.
going to be doing the tuna and crackers again for lunches. And we're looking into, you know, other quick heat meat kind of meals. that we can have for both lunches and dinners because it's no secret that it's kind of expensive to travel and so since we're already spending money on the hotel and the tickets and the gas because lord have mercy gas has gotten ridiculous um we're trying to be mindful of where else we're spending our money we did go out to eat far too many times while we were on our florida road trip and we're trying to avoid that for this trip so and now we're even talking about adding an additional stop on the way home to go to chicago for a couple of things. And so if we do that, then I know we're going to be going out to eat there because my husband wants a Chicago dog and I kind of want to give Chicago deep dish pizza another try. So we're probably going to be going out to eat there. But other than that,
the goal is to try to bring food with us so that we can be a little more economical on this trip than we were on our Florida trip. So yeah, that's the Reader's Digest version of the main things that we're bringing on our trip to Gen Con. Am I forgetting anything? I'd love to hear from y 'all. Hit me up at famous -sugar .com backslash fitness. Onwards and upwards, my friends. Have you worked out today?