Episode 63Apr 29, 2026· 12:36
Your Fitness Doesn't Have to Take a Vacation When You Do
About this episode
Packing your bags doesn't mean packing in your progress. In this episode, Ashley breaks down her actual plan for staying active on a road trip to Florida, from bodyweight workouts and resistance bands to a deck-of-cards exercise trick she picked up at a boot camp years ago. You'll also hear how she and her husband handle road trip eating without giving up every good habit they've built, including a meal-splitting…
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MaryMay 22, 2026
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I found this podcast completely by accident, and now it’s my constant companion on trips.
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Full transcript
00:00
Maybe the truth is you just need a plan. What's
00:07
up you guys? Famous Ashley Grant here. Welcome
00:09
to More Movement Please, the podcast where I
00:11
hope to inspire you to move your body more. Today
00:13
I want to talk about traveling. So... I am going
00:16
to be doing a road trip down to Florida and by
00:19
the time you're hearing this I could probably
00:21
already be on my trip. I think I've told you
00:23
guys in the past that I batch these and I sometimes
00:26
will record days in advance to make sure that
00:28
I always have content that can drip out even
00:30
whenever I'm not available which is like now
00:32
when I'm on my trip. So I am taking a road trip
00:35
to Florida and I just kind of wanted to share
00:36
with you guys what my plan is to stay on track
00:40
with my fitness goals while I am out of town.
00:44
So the first thing that I'm going to be doing
00:45
is I have set up a playlist of all of the exercises
00:49
that I can do anywhere with Wi -Fi. And as long
00:52
as I can connect either to Wi -Fi or at least
00:55
have some sort of a cell signal, I can access
00:57
my YouTube videos that I have saved in my playlist
01:01
so that I can keep working out even while I'm
01:03
gone. And I will be doing a lot of body weight
01:05
workouts because I won't have access to dumbbells.
01:08
I will have a fitness band with me, a resistance
01:11
band, but I won't have dumbbells. like I normally
01:14
would at the gym. So I have a lot of body weight
01:16
exercises planned and I have a lot of cardio
01:18
planned as well. I also will be doing my daily
01:20
stretches. I have gotten really addicted to doing
01:23
stretch classes. Those are some of my favorite
01:25
things to do. And my husband and I have kind
01:28
of gotten pretty addicted to doing them every
01:30
single day. We can tell when we skip one because
01:33
our bodies are just more tight on the days that
01:35
we don't do them. So if you're not stretching,
01:37
that's at least one thing that I highly recommend
01:39
that you start doing because stretching is such...
01:42
a big thing like it is it's so good for mobility
01:45
and it just it gets the blood pumping it makes
01:48
the body move better it just feels so good to
01:51
be stretching so if you're going to do anything
01:53
that involves movement at least at the very least
01:56
try doing some stretching and walking um i think
02:00
it's like 150 minutes of cardio you're supposed
02:02
to be doing each each week to be as quote unquote
02:05
healthy so if you could do you know stretching
02:08
and then 150 minutes of walking every week i
02:11
I recommend you start like just just start. There's
02:14
there's some really awesome stretch videos. Some
02:16
of them are only 10 minutes long on YouTube and
02:18
like it gets a full body stretch. There's some
02:21
that you can do that are standing stretches.
02:24
There are some that are sitting stretch classes
02:27
and then there's even ones where you're on the
02:29
floor. But I personally prefer to do the standing
02:31
stretches. I don't know about you, but I sometimes
02:33
whenever I have to. get down on the floor, I
02:36
have a little bit of a hard time getting back
02:37
up. I have issues with my knee, my left knee.
02:40
I've had trouble with my left knee for as long
02:42
as I can remember. And sometimes it really just
02:44
gets irritated. And so every video that I do
02:46
for stretching is always standing stretches.
02:49
They just, it's better for me. But if you prefer
02:51
doing seated stretches or sitting stretches,
02:55
there are all kinds of different stretch classes
02:58
that you can find on YouTube. What I recommend
03:01
you do is go through YouTube and like search
03:04
different things and see what feels best to you.
03:06
Like, for example, if you want to do the 150
03:09
minutes of walking each day, but you don't have
03:10
a really good place that you can go walking,
03:12
there are some amazing walk in place videos that
03:14
you can find online. Even if you have just five
03:16
square feet in your living room, like I highly
03:19
recommend that you do something to to get a good
03:22
workout in. Like it's it's pretty amazing how
03:25
many. exercise videos there are online, different
03:28
YouTubers that have created some really incredible
03:30
fitness content that you can use even if you
03:33
can't get to a gym. I remember whenever Snowmageddon
03:36
was hitting us here in Kentucky, I couldn't get
03:38
to the gym for, I think it was 11 days, and I
03:41
still found some really incredible workouts that
03:43
I was able to do so that I could keep doing all
03:45
the things that I love to do. Like I said, I
03:47
didn't really have access to the dumbbells that
03:49
I usually use at... at the gym, but I still got
03:53
a good enough workout in. I got my heart pumping.
03:55
I got, you know, the strength training in that
03:57
I possibly could. And so, yeah, while I'm on
04:00
my trip, I will definitely be leveraging YouTube
04:02
in a big way. Pretty much everywhere we're going
04:05
is either going to have a cell signal or access
04:07
to Wi -Fi, so I should be able to use those videos.
04:10
And then I also found some pretty awesome lists
04:12
of different exercises that I can do that require
04:14
just your body weight. Some of them are plank
04:17
exercises. Some are push -ups. There's wall sit
04:21
things that I found. I mean, I found all kinds
04:23
of awesome lists of exercises that I can do.
04:26
So basically, I'm going to, it might sound silly
04:29
to you, but one of the things that I have planned
04:30
on doing is something that I actually used to
04:33
do whenever I went to this boot camp in Florida.
04:36
I was doing this boot camp for several weeks
04:38
down in Florida. And what we did is we had a
04:41
deck of cards and on each card there was a different
04:43
exercise. And so at the beginning of each class,
04:46
the trainer would pick out like 11 or 12 cards
04:49
that had these different exercises. And then
04:52
she'd pick a few more that would say how many
04:54
reps we had to do of each of these exercises.
04:56
So like if she pulled out jumping jacks and then
05:00
pulled out, you know, a three, then we had to
05:02
do three jumping jacks. Or if she pulled out
05:05
plank and she pulled out. a 10, we had to do,
05:10
you know, 10 sets of planks for 10 seconds each,
05:14
that kind of thing. So that's just kind of a
05:16
way to add some fun to it and also make sure
05:18
that I'm not bored with how I'm working out while
05:20
I'm gone. So that's my plan is to just bring
05:24
a deck of cards that says all the body weight
05:26
exercises that I can do. And if my instructor
05:29
from the YMCA does in fact send me a list of
05:32
exercises that I can do, I'll probably leverage
05:35
those as well. But Basically, I'm just making
05:38
plans to have like backup plans so that no matter
05:42
what, while I'm gone, I can keep moving. Because
05:45
the biggest thing for me is that while I'm gone,
05:47
I don't want to lose momentum. Like that is my
05:49
my biggest thing is that I want to make sure
05:52
that no matter what happens on this trip, I am
05:54
still moving every single day. I may not be doing,
05:58
you know, two hours the way that I normally would,
06:01
but we do have a lot of walking plans. So I think
06:03
I'm still going to get about two hours a day
06:05
of working out anyway, which is what I'm hoping
06:07
for. I just I've become so addicted to movement
06:10
that I don't want to go back to sedentary lifestyle.
06:13
So I'm hopeful that, you know, if we play our
06:16
cards right, that I'll get at least two hours
06:19
of movement in every single day. That is my goal.
06:21
Like while we're driving down. We've already
06:23
talked about, my husband and I have already talked
06:25
about all the stops that we'll make so that we
06:26
can make sure that we get in, you know, 10 to
06:28
20 minutes of... of exercise during the whole
06:32
trip so that we don't get tight. We're already
06:34
planning like stretches throughout the day, just
06:36
making sure that we get as much movement in as
06:39
possible, because even though we do have about
06:42
14 hours of driving ahead of us, we want to make
06:44
sure that during that driving, we're moving our
06:46
bodies as much as possible. And so I'm really
06:49
excited about that. And then the other thing
06:50
that I have been asked about a lot is like nutrition
06:54
wise, what are we going to do about the fact
06:55
that we're going to be out of town? Are you going
06:57
to be eating out a lot? And the truth is, yeah,
06:59
we probably will. We, you know, we did go to
07:02
the store yesterday and we got a lot of food
07:05
that we can make on the road. That was one of
07:06
the big things that we did on our 2016 road trip.
07:09
We took a road trip from Florida to California
07:11
and back. And during that trip, we didn't eat
07:14
out. I think. Hardly at all. I mean, I remember
07:17
maybe four or five times that we ate out while
07:20
we were on that trip and we were gone for three
07:22
and a half weeks. But the rest of it, we were
07:25
actually cooking in our hotel rooms. So what
07:27
we did is we we got a bunch of different things
07:31
that we could make in the microwave. And it's
07:34
pretty impressive whenever you start really thinking
07:36
about like. things from a new perspective of
07:39
how you can cook even while you're on the road.
07:41
And while we were limited, we still tried to
07:44
make sure that we weren't going over budget.
07:46
We weren't spending too much money and we weren't,
07:48
you know, eating a bunch of crap. And so that's
07:51
the plan for this trip as well, is we intend
07:53
to fix a lot of our meals in our hotel rooms.
07:57
We have planned simple meals like, you know,
08:00
making sure we're trying to get veggies in, getting
08:02
protein in and things like that. And again, I
08:04
want to reiterate, you know, I've told you guys
08:06
before, we don't subscribe to dieting. We don't
08:08
subscribe to diet culture at all. But we are
08:10
still trying to be mindful of the choices that
08:12
we're making. We're not just going to go and
08:14
just eat a bunch of fatty foods. And, you know,
08:17
because unfortunately, that's one big thing about
08:18
road trips is it's very easy to just reach for
08:20
crap and eat a bunch of junk. You know, we know
08:24
that whenever we do that, we feel like crap.
08:26
And I mean, it just makes sense, right? You eat
08:28
crap, you feel like crap. And so we have already
08:31
planned, you know, we're bringing fruit cups
08:33
and not the ones with syrup or, you know, we're
08:36
trying to get the sugar free options and things
08:38
like that. So we're bringing fruit cups. We're
08:40
bringing, you know, granola bars and. We brought
08:44
the little tuna packs that you can have tuna
08:46
salad on the road, like that kind of thing. And
08:48
so we're making very mindful decisions about
08:51
the things that we're going to be consuming.
08:53
And, you know, though we will be eating out probably
08:56
more on this trip than we normally would, we're
08:59
being mindful of our decisions. Like one of the
09:01
things that my husband and I have always done
09:03
that I really love is when we go out to eat,
09:05
we try to split a meal. Because if you're really
09:07
honest, most of the time when you go out to eat,
09:10
the portions are way too big. And we're a lot
09:13
more conscious of when we consume a meal, when
09:16
we get to that point where we feel full. And
09:18
so we are very good about splitting meals. And
09:21
that really helps us. It helps us in making sure
09:24
we're not overeating. And so that's a big thing
09:26
that's important to us. And so we will definitely
09:29
be doing splitting meals everywhere we go with
09:32
the exception of a couple of days that we know
09:34
that it'll be individual meals. But I'll tell
09:37
you guys all about that as we get going. If you
09:39
want, I'll give you guys a... I guess a debrief
09:42
of what we experienced on the trip, because I
09:45
want to I want to keep it real. Right. I want
09:46
to tell you guys exactly what's going on. And
09:48
I think, you know, if you have any travel coming
09:50
up this summer, maybe it'll help you to to figure
09:52
out how you can come up with mindful decisions
09:55
that can keep you on track even while you're
09:57
out of town. So so those are the two big things
10:00
that we're going to be doing to keep on track
10:02
with my fitness goals is making sure that we're
10:04
still working out every day. And, you know. doing
10:07
all the exercises that we possibly can. I think
10:10
bodyweight exercises is going to be the most
10:12
helpful so that I can keep my strength training
10:14
up. I've really loved the fact that I'm lifting
10:17
heavier weights. And who knows, maybe I'll do
10:20
so many bodyweight exercises that by the time
10:22
I get back to the gym, the 20s will be nothing
10:24
to me. That's a good goal, right? I don't know
10:26
when we're going to be back. I'll be honest with
10:28
you guys. We don't have a return date in mind.
10:33
It's simply because I work from home, like my
10:35
husband and I can work from the road. And so,
10:38
you know, we're we're just going to fly by the
10:41
seat of our pants and see where the days take
10:42
us. And in all likelihood, we're only going to
10:45
be gone a week. But there is a very there's a
10:47
possibility that we could be gone longer. And
10:49
I do have other trips coming up in the summer.
10:52
I will be going to. Nashville and Knoxville and
10:56
Pigeon Forge. And I also have a trip planned
10:59
to Indianapolis and all the things. And so I
11:03
have a lot of walking that is planned for the
11:05
summer. And so I'm doing a lot more walking right
11:08
now to prepare my body for all the walking that
11:10
I will be doing on all my trips. So that's been
11:13
really good. And of course, my dogs are loving
11:15
it because they're getting more walks than they've
11:17
ever gotten. And so it's it. It's really been
11:20
good just, you know, preparing my body to go
11:23
on these trips. And I'm more excited because
11:26
of the fact that I am actively trying to make
11:28
sure that I'm ready to handle what's ahead of
11:31
me. And so I hope this inspires you. I hope this
11:34
helps someone. If you, too, are going on a trip
11:36
or have any travel planned or even if you're
11:38
just trying to figure out stuff that you can
11:40
do, you know, on the go or during the day, I
11:43
hope this inspires you to start, like, planning
11:45
things a little bit, you know, just. Just because
11:49
you have a packed schedule doesn't mean you can't
11:52
do something to get movement in. And so that's
11:54
been the message from the very beginning is to
11:57
have more movement, please. And I hope this helps
12:00
someone. So that's all I've got for you guys
12:01
today. Onwards and upwards, my friends. Have
12:03
you worked out today?
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