Latest / Fit for Hiking / Ep. 31 Adventure Fitness - Balancing Training, Hobbies, & Self Care w/ Wanderful Em
Transcript
- Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a long time fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. In combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discuss here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for hiking podcast. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the fit for hiking podcast. Today we are joined by a really special guest. We have Emily here from. You might know her from Instagram. Her account is wonderful. M and she's an outdoorsy gal content creator based in Colorado and she does all the things hikes, climbs, skis, does van travel, and she's just super well-rounded in her outdoor activities. I'm super excited to have her on the show. Thanks for being here, Emily. Hi. Thanks so much. I'm so excited to finally meet you and finally be on my first podcast. It's going to be fun. Yes. So today we are talking about getting into several different outdoor hobbies, adventure based fitness, and how it all kind of fits together in your life. As I've followed along with you, I've always been so impressed with how many different hobbies you take on in the outdoors while also balancing travel, fitness, social life, work, self-care, all the things. So I kind of just wanted to talk about what that looks like for you. So tell us a little bit about when did you first get into the outdoors and what? That look like for you. So I feel like a lot of people don't know about me is that I did not really grow up outdoorsy. Um, and I really wasn't outdoorsy for a long time. Um, so when I was a kid, I did go to Girl Scouts, um, and summer camp, but after that, I pretty much took a long hiatus from going outside until after college. Um, and so probably my first hike was in 2017 or 2018, and I didn't even, like, own a pair of hiking boots. Yeah, I did not own a rain jacket. Like for real, I just walked into the woods with, um, some rain boots on because all that I had at that time, so getting back into it, um, as an adult was interesting because it was a slow roll. It was a big learning process. And yeah, I started out small and slow, um, in the hills of, like, Pennsylvania. That's where I lived at the time. Oh, okay. So you didn't live in Colorado? Yeah. When did you move to Colorado? We moved to Colorado in 2021. Okay. So you had already kind of started to dabble in hiking a little bit, but I imagine when you moved to Colorado at like opened up a whole different realm of activities. Yeah, absolutely. Once we got here is when things really started to expand with the other activities. Um, because I was mainly just hiking before we moved out here. Yeah, that's super cool. I have a very similar story to where, like, I didn't grow up doing it literally at all. Um, I grew up in the Midwest, which is like so flat. My family always took beach vacations. We never did anything outdoorsy, never camp, never hiked, never did any of it. And then when I moved to Colorado, I was like, oh my gosh, this is kind of overwhelming. But it was also a really cool opportunity to try some of these new activities. And it just kind of like hooks you once you get started. Really though, it's like the lifestyle of all the people here. And once you start, it's activity after activity, hobby after hobby, like just what I think we've found all our hobbies. We're trying something new. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So what made you start branching out into other activities, and how did you work up the confidence to like, try these different arenas of adventure? So I think like I mentioned, we and when I say we, I'm talking about my husband and I, um, we travel a lot together, but we were hiking a lot for many years. Um, so I think we were starting to want to see parks in a different way or travel in a different way, rather than just committing to hiking the whole time. So with that being said, we started to look for other ways to see parks, and I think the very first like different thing that we did was we bought inflatable paddle boards and put them in our van and drove them into Grand Tetons, and we paddled around the lakes there. And that was, in my opinion, my tipping point into like, this is amazing. We've got to figure out different ways to see the park, because lake days while traveling or like my new favorite days on the road. Um, but I think also kind of like we mentioned already, moving to Colorado was a huge thing because being immersed by this lifestyle, everybody we know is into everything mountain biking, rock climbing, everything. So we kind of just made friends and started launching into more hobbies. Have you guys done any float trips? Um, in Colorado, like on the Colorado River? Yes. So one thing I love about Grand Junction is we are right on the Colorado River and there's tons of, uh, amazing stretches for floating. So we do day trips all the time. All summer. Um, I did my first overnight pack rafting trip, uh, this last summer. And another hobby that we were like, should we buy a raft? Oh come on. Oh my God. So yeah. And it was so fun. So we're hoping to get another one for next summer. Yeah, I've done the, um, like overnight a couple overnights on the Colorado, and it's like a whole new realm of camping. Like, for those who might be listening and have no idea what we're talking about. Basically, you're in a big raft. Usually you go through like a rental service or like a guide service, and you float along. You reserve campsites along the river, and then you have all your stuff with you, and then you, like, kind of dock, make camp for the night. And it's such a unique camping experience. And like floating through the canyons. It's so cool. I mean, you can do them all over the place, not just in Colorado, but it's definitely a fun like bucket list item for if you like to camp. Totally. It's kind of like a cross between backpacking and river sports. You know, you're you're still packing all your stuff up to camp. Um, it it was so interesting. And there's so much good stuff on the Colorado River. Um, right close to us. Yeah, you're in a really good spot, but it seems like you also travel quite a bit. So how does that factor into, like, your routines and your fitness self care work? Like, what does that look like for you? So we do travel quite a bit. Um, usually our schedule is a week of travel and then a week at home. Um, that's how my husband's work schedule works. I luckily am fully remote, so I do I mean, I do content creation pretty much full time, but we also own our own property management business. And so yeah, so I feel like a lot of people don't know that. Um, so I manage properties part time. Um, but it's very part time and it's remote. So when we are on the road, when it comes to work, I pretty much work when I need to or when I have to. Um, usually with my job, nothing is immediate or needs immediate attention, which again, is really lucky to have a job like that. But I can kind of do damage control if I need to on the road. Um, but when it comes to exercise and self-care, most of our travels are heavily adventure based, so I feel like I am like running all day long and I collapse into bed every night. I've never slept better than when we're traveling. Um, you know, I think I've. I've heard you say something similar, but, like, it's not vacation for us unless we're walking ten miles a day, you know? Yeah, exactly. It's pretty hardcore for us, which sometimes seems like a problem, but when we're on the road, it's just the adventure is happening all day long. And. And the exercise. Yeah, it's kind of interwoven into everything you're doing, which makes it nice. Like so many people ask me, like, what are you doing for exercise while you travel? And I'm like, well, usually I'm just hiking. Like, usually I'm just doing the things that were already doing, like carrying a 20 plus pound kid is like pretty good exercise. Yeah. Um, and that's one of the perks of, like, that lifestyle and those types of trips is you're just naturally staying active. Like I used to go on so many beach trips and like, don't get me wrong, I still love a beach trip now and then, but like, usually like three, four days is kind of my max. And then I'm like, okay, I'm bored. I want to like, go do something now. I want to go move my body. I can't just lay here in the sun anymore. Yeah, I, I'm the exact same way. And that's why most of our, our travels are so adventure based. Like we've got mountains we want to climb or things we want to see, and there's just a lot of movement involved. Um, but. I'm the same way. I do love a beach trip every now and then. Yeah, it's necessary when most of your travel is, like, very physically tiring to like, try to schedule something that's somewhat relaxing now and then, right? Exactly like a rest day. We we really do have to schedule in rest days sometimes if we're on the road for like a month at a time. Um, it's it's important for us to schedule in those rest days so that we don't, like, need a vacation from our vacation. Yeah. Otherwise, it really is easy to, like, run yourself into the ground. And I'm assuming, like you're talking about van travel, right? When you say, like I am on trips. Yeah, yeah. And with van travel, I think one thing I didn't realize until we started doing it was that you. It is so easy to, like, go from sunup to sundown because you're, like, trying to work during the day. You have to do the things just to, like, keep the van functioning and like, all of those little chores. But then you also want to sightsee wherever you are and like, go do all the things. So usually for us like, oh man, on our Canada trip this past summer, the sun didn't even go down to like 1045 at night. It was crazy. So we would be up and at it like until 11 at night just because the sun was up. So we were like, cool, we can like go on some long hikes after work. Um, but then you get exhausted, like you reach a point where you're like, this is maybe a little bit too much. And I need like a day to, like, sit and watch Netflix or something, right? And with Van travel, it's constant decision making, you know? Yes. If you don't already have a predetermined camp spot, like, what are you parking? How are you going to make dinner? You know, is the waterfall there? It just comes with a whole list of chores. As as fun as it is to travel in the van, it's like its own job when you're in it. Yes, it's so true. I feel like we could do a whole nother episode just on my own life, because there's so much to it that you don't think about. Just from seeing stuff on Instagram or YouTube. Like you see the cool parts, but you don't see the tedious like day in and day out, or all of the ways that things can go wrong. Like our solar somehow gets disconnected, like literally every other day, and we're just, like, constantly almost dead. And then we're like, oh crap, the solar is disconnected. What's maybe now, why is this malfunctioning? There's just a lot that goes into it. And to be honest, I don't know if I could, like, I tip my hat to like female solo van life gals because I don't know the first thing about mechanical stuff. And if I didn't have my husband with me, who is a mechanical engineer, I don't think we could do van life. Yeah, I 100% agree, but I agree we could. I could do a whole episode on it. So pivoting a little bit, I want to talk about the triathlons that you've been doing recently because I've seen some stuff about that. How did that come about and what does your training look like for that? I was pretty much just as surprised to do my first triathlon this year, because it kind of came out of nowhere. I had actually done, um, a couple of triathlons as a little kid at my summer camps. Um, so I wasn't foreign to the idea of them. But this year, basically, I heard about a triathlon that was really close to where I live, and I was like, you know what? It would be so cool if I just went for it. And so I signed up to commit. And I had probably at that time, about five months before the actual race day, and this was my first triathlon, so I really didn't know where to start. But I just went to the internet and said, what should I do? And basically followed a routine of, um, doing all three of those things. So in a triathlon, you swim, you bike, and then you run. And so I had already been doing a lot of trail running. So for me, that was already incorporated into my day to day. But I did have to start adding in more bike rides and more long bike rides. Um, since usually I don't normally bike 12 or 13 miles, which is what you bike in the sprint triathlon. So I needed to focus on biking and, um, swimming. And so with the swimming, I did need to buy a gym membership. Um, and I went swimming about once a week, um, to, to train for this, uh, if I ever do another triathlon, which is my goal to do more, uh, I will definitely train a little bit more and more routinely. Yeah. So what did a weekly breakdown? I'm sure it varied a bit, like depending on travel and stuff, but what had like a weekly breakdown of your training look like for that? So I would try to do all three in a week, uh, at least. Um, usually with the running and biking, I could do more than once. But swimming, I'll be honest, it's like a whole nother ball game. Because, you know, as a girly with long hair, you've got to get your hair wet, like you've got to get a hair wash around it. Do you have to plan a hair wash around it? So for me that was the biggest headache was the swimming aspect. Um, luckily I, I used to swim, um, all throughout high school, so I felt like I had a little bit more of the base for swimming, and, um, so I only went once a week, so it would usually look like, you know, at least three times a week every other day, and then doing something small training in between, like yoga or bar or, um, or rock climbing, something that wasn't one of those activities to to cross train. Yeah. That's awesome. I think it's cool that so much of your training is done in a way where you can be outside, you can be doing the activities that you love, because it really does make it feel less like training and less like exercise, and more just like something that you genuinely like doing where you're moving your body. Yeah, and I think that's kind of what drew me to the triathlon. I was like, oh, this is going to be a perfect way for me to continue being outdoors and give me kind of a goal oriented exercise, which I'm learning about myself. This year is something that I really love. Um, is goal oriented exercise. Yeah, it really helps knowing, like, I have signed up for something. Yeah, I have to get my butt in shape because otherwise this is going to be miserable, right? I've got to commit to help myself get through this race at the end of the day. Yes. So how did the first one go? What did that look like? It actually went really, really well. I showed up, um, super early in the morning. And so the order up for triathlons is swimming, biking and running. I knew going into this that biking would be my biggest slowdown in the race, and it was, um, but I had so much fun. I with the triathlon, I did a sprint triathlon, so the distances are a bit shorter than a regular triathlon. And I came out of the gate swimming, um, really well, and I knew biking was going to be my slowest, so I kind of pushed it in the other two categories. Um, and it went really well. I actually got fourth place for my, my age group, which was a shock because I was not in it to win it, that's for sure. Um, but it just gave me a new level of confidence. I was like, okay, I could do this. Like I could go to another race and train harder. And if I wanted to try and place, maybe I could. Yeah, that's really cool. Um, okay. So any tips for maximizing your time? Like for someone who maybe doesn't get to travel a ton, maybe they're just kind of like working a standard 9 to 5. Do you have any tips for trying to kind of fit in more of the activities that you love? The fitness, all the things, um, while still balancing like kind of the mundane everyday life things that you just kind of have to do. Right. I think maybe my biggest tip would be to blend the things that you love into your everyday life as much as possible. Um, so for me, if like if that spending time outside, maybe you don't have time that day to go on a big hike, but you could go on a walk around the block or walk around your neighborhood, or maybe even a short bike ride after dinner to the park. I think it's just getting that routine blended into your everyday life as best as possible, so it feels less like you have to make time for it, and more like you're getting the opportunity to go outside. So I think it's maybe a shift in mindset. Um, yeah. And maybe and just doing the little things less of making time for it and more enjoying, like asking your girlfriend to go for a lunch walk or something like that, just to do the little things and get it more involved into your everyday. Yeah, I think that's crucial because we live in, we live in such a like we're waiting for Friday type of culture and waiting so we can take a vacation, whatever it is that we're waiting for. And then during the week, it's so easy to just like, get on TV at 5 p.m. and like just get caught in the routine and like, I get it. It's really hard, especially in the winter. Like, you throw a kid into the mix or two kids or whatever, and it gets harder and harder. But you do have to kind of be intentional to weave those things into your everyday life and get in the practice of doing that. Otherwise, it's so much easier to just be. Well, I guess I have to wait till Saturday to, like, do anything that's kind of life giving, where I'm getting outside and moving and things like that. Right, right. I completely agree, and I've even caught myself getting in that same slump, especially with the winter. And when it gets dark out so early. You've just got to. I had to figure out ways in which I can get something in that I know will help boost my mood and boost my my morale and health. Yeah. And I really think, like no matter where you live, it still takes a bit of effort. Like it's still you have to be intentional. Like we live in the foothills, like we live surrounded by a lot of trails, which is very fortunate. It's amazing. And even still, we have to be like, you know, and hiked around us like locally in weeks, like we need to get out. What are we doing? Like you, it's so easy to get caught up in, like the routine, the everyday, like chores, grocery shop work, take care of your kid, whatever it is, and kind of miss the fact that there are opportunities around us. Even if you don't live anywhere mountainous, even if you live like you know, in the burbs, whatever it is like, you can still probably find some cool like trail systems near you or like. Put in that extra effort to find a place that you haven't gone before, to go for a walk or a jog or a bike ride like it can be done. You just have to be more intentional. Yeah, I agree, I think we put a lot of emphasis sometimes on having to go somewhere to do something, but I am just as happy to walk right out my front door. Easy access. The outside is literally right there. Like, yeah, that's all I can get to today. I will walk out my door and, you know, walk down the street and then turn around. And for me, that's better than than nothing. Yeah, seriously, it might not be the most exciting thing we've ever done, but it is like such a mental health boost, I think especially like as we're entering winter months, like when all we do is just sit inside. I feel like it's just so soul killing after a while. Like I just get. So I get like more tired. I like, am lazier, I and then if I do like one thing that breaks that habit, like I get outside instantly, like, okay, I'm so much more energized. Why don't I do this more often in the winter? 1,000% 1,000% agree. It's something like the fresh air kind of really does re-energize, especially when you find yourself like. Cozied up on the couch and, like, feeling like you're not going to be able to get out and do anything. It's just open the door and feel that fresh air. And I feel like you, you'll you'll get energized. Yeah. So true. So how do you recharge as someone who's, like, very active, you're on the go a lot. Lots of travel. How do you recharge when you've been on the go? Maybe too much and you start to feel sort of burnt out? Absolutely. I feel like my number one thing is to listen to my body. So as soon as I start to feel that deep tiredness or or frustration with social media or, you know, if my legs are sore from doing something the day before, listening to my body has been my number one sign that I need to take a step back and rest. And so I'm a big believer in a rest day. Um, and so sometimes those rest days look different and it could be something like, okay, today we're saying no to social plans. We're just going to stay in tonight and cook dinner. Um, you know, some days those rest days look like a day on the couch. You know, for me, I luckily can still do, like, a day on the couch if I need to or, you know, work from the couch. Um, so really just stepping away from, um, plans or things that I might have to do. And just saying today is not the day for that. Um, I'm just expect what I need. And what I need right now is to lay on the couch. Um, but sometimes a rest day will look like something different. Like getting caught up, maybe on life, things, taking a shower or, like, putting on self-tanner can, I don't know what it is. Can help recharge, um, me by doing little self-care things like that, or baking. I've recently started kind of doing some baking projects on days that I feel like I want to rest. Um, you know, I love to put on a good podcast and just bake and, and for me, that that's a good rest and recharge day. Yeah. I think one thing I've noticed about, um, when I start to feel burnt out, it's usually when I'm like only doing things that are productive, like even if it's stuff that I love, if it has like an undertone of I'm, I have to do this in order to like get a certain work project done or, you know, be productive or like check off my to do's for the day. Then I start to feel super overwhelmed and I don't even enjoy those things anymore. So I think I started doing this here is reading for pleasure. Like just reading without any goal of like being productive. Like nothing to do with like business development or personal development or anything like that. Like truly just reading things that are fun fiction. And that's been so nice, like such a good shift for me this year, because otherwise I'm just caught in that constant, like hamster wheel. Like I have to be productive all the freaking time. And it's exhausting, right? And I also love reading. Um, so I've that's been one thing that I had tried to do more this year as well is sit down and read or read before bed, or read a little bit in the morning. Um, but I think reading is another great way to rest and recharge. Yeah, kind of pull yourself away from like the constant ticking to do lists in your brain all the time, right? Are you reading anything good right now? Um, yes, I am reading the fourth Wing series. I don't know what the actual series name is called, but I think it is worth doing. The second one is Iron Flame. I just ordered Iron Flame on Amazon Prime. I was like, this needs to get here ASAP because I finished fourth week in like three days and it's a freaking massive book and I flew through it. I could not stop, I was addicted, I like did not sleep over the weekend. Good book. I'm actually halfway through Ion Flame right now. So are you okay? Yeah, yeah I was I kept seeing it all over social media and everyone's like, okay, I guess I need to read this. And yeah, I, I got through the first one and I was like, okay, this is really, really good. And, um, I'm about halfway through Iron Flame, but it's a long book. So yeah, like 800 pages. Oh, dang. Well, that'll be for a while. That's good. Um, I'm not usually like a fantasy reader. I like just like standard fiction or like, suspense thrillers. But, um. Do you know Sarah from the account Adventuring Eyes? Yes. Yeah. So she and I always are giving each other book recs, and she was like, you need to read. So I was like, okay, I'll give it a chance. And then now I'm hooked and I probably am going to like, take a deep dive into this genre now. I never knew I was never a sci fi girlie. Um, but I've definitely been loving. Loving it. Yeah. Well, for anyone listening today who wants to have, like, maybe just a more adventurous year in 2024, what would your advice be for making that happen in the midst of a busy schedule? So I would say commit to the adventure is pretty much my number one tip. Like start planning now, why not look at your calendar, pick a week or a weekend and just put it on the calendar? That's one thing that I do with my current life that actually makes the things happen. We pick a time from a time frame and put it on the calendar and we're like, okay, that's it now. Now what do we need to do to make it happen? Do we need to get the van ready? Do we need to if we're flying somewhere, do we need to fly by flights? Or if it's, um, you know, I think the first hurdle to. Doing the adventure is committing to it. And instead of the mindset of, well, one day I'll I'll do this, or one day maybe we can hang out, but I'm not sure. Just put it on the calendar and commit to it. And then start with the little details of what you need to do to make it happen. If that's start saving or any little thing that you can do to just commit to that adventure. Um, that would be my biggest tip. Um, just get in that mindset of making the adventure happen, because we know it's hard to plan sometimes when you feel busy and overwhelmed, but I think the first step is to commit. And that might just be by picking that time and putting it on the calendar. Yeah, that's such a good tip because I feel like in the age of social media, there's like so much opportunity that we're bombarded with, like so many ideas, like, here's an itinerary for this, here's this cool place that you should check out. And it's so easy to just, like, save them and then. Forget or like move on and get busy. But what if instead we were just like, I want to go on like one small adventure every single month, even if it's one hour away? Like just committing to, like, little things that seem feasible. But we'll give you a cool experience. That will be the things that you look back on that year and actually remember as like a really cool part of your year, like a highlight. Um, and I think committing to executing it is so important, instead of just saying, that'd be cool and then not really doing anything about it. Yeah, I, I feel like my friends always make fun of me when I say I'm planned out, like through the next year. But for us, that's how we can make sure that we get to do all those things that we really want to do. Yeah. Um, and it just literally it just starts by finding a time that works and putting it on our, our Google calendar. Yeah, absolutely. So what does your 2024 look like? Do you have any really cool plans? I do. I'm really, really excited. We are going on a bucket, uh, bucket list backpacking trip to Patagonia at the end of January. Um, so we'll be hiking the W trek over the course of seven days. Um, so it's going to be a quick and intense trip, but it's been something that we've wanted to do for a really long time. So that's coming up at the end of January. And then I've got another really exciting trip to Alaska. Um, in July, we're going on a women's hiking retreat, so it'll be me and 12 other women, um, going to Alaska for a week. So yeah, I'm really excited. So those are probably my two biggest things I'm looking forward to, um, for 2024. But in between, we've got lots of little van trips planned and hopefully more backpacking trips planned this this summer too. Yeah. That's awesome. I'm excited to follow along with those. Those are going to be amazing. Yeah. Thank you. What about you? Do you have anything coming up? We are doing well. We're going to go to Guatemala for, um, February through April. So my parents live there. So that's why we go every year. It's like a really nice place to snowbird and kind of like, yeah, hide from a few of the treacherous winter months where we live. That's perfect time. And we get some free childcare, like we get to go on dates. It's really nice. Um, and I just, I love it, like, the culture is so cool. Um, there's so many amazing volcano treks that you can do, so I'm hoping that we'll get to do another. We did a really cool backpacking trip at the beginning of the year there, and hopefully we'll get to do some of the other volcanoes while we're there. Um, since we do have the childcare, it's kind of nice that we don't have to factor in like bringing our baby to sleep at 13,000ft, because that's a little intense. I don't know if I would subject her to that. Um, so that's what we're doing kind of towards the beginning of the year. And then over the summer, we're actually taking a Europe trip, which I've never been to Europe. Okay. Heck yeah, we're going to go to, um, Italy. Yeah. So we're going to do the Dolomites is our plan. Um, and hopefully we need to, like, book our huts. Still, there's like a specific timeline where you can book them, but I really want to do one of, like, the famous treks there. And yeah, that's been on my bucket list for so long. And finally, we actually booked it around a concert in Rome. We were like, oh, this band that we love is going to be playing in Rome. Maybe we should just like, maybe this is a sign like, let's just plan a whole Italy trip around this one concert. So that's all 1s that is so fun. So many fun things to come this year. Yes. Well, thank you so much for coming on today. It was really fun chatting with you. Where can listeners find you? So I am on TikTok and Instagram at wonderful underscore M. So that's w a n d e r fuel underscore m um on Instagram and TikTok. Perfect. And we'll link that in the show notes too so people can easily find you. Thanks again for coming on today. It's so fun chatting with you. We'll see you guys next week. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this, be sure to follow along with my daily post at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at ponytail on a trail comm. Happy and healthy trails.