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