In this post:
- 2 Road trip fit essentials
- Packing light tips
- Other road trip essentials
- Our road trip (an overview)
- Travel fit workouts
On July 2rd, My kids and I flew out to Seattle, WA to meet my Husband who left 3 days earlier in our van packed full with our camping gear, clothes and food. We didn’t want to drive both legs of the road trip with two small children coming from Minnesota. So, in the interest of time and to save our sanity we split up.
Seattle was the initial destination of choice because it was cheaper to fly into Seattle, WA than it was to Portalnd, OR. The goal of this road trip was to check out and pend most of our trip in Oregon as this was one state haven’t explored. Here was our route:
We alternated tent camping with VRBO.com houses over the course of 2 weeks which was the shiz! It was so nice to be able to do laundry intermittently and take a shower without flip flops on.
Regarding my diet, I stuck to my ketogenic diet well as we didn’t do much eating out. I find it easier to maintain my weight on a keto diet without counting macro’s. And, eating out is much easier. For snacks or quick bites I would eat lunch meats (nitrate and nitrite free), nuts, avocado, beef jerky and veggies. And of course, over years of weighing your food, you get pretty good at eye balling portions anyway.
My workouts consisted of hiking, kayaking, plyometrics, body weight workouts, suspension bands and running with a few gym stops in Portland. I did relax a lot from the normal routine with lighter workouts a whole lot more “off days” than usual. This trip was a great opportunity for rest and recovery.
Things to pack to stay fit on a road trip:
As much of our trip was in BFE (aka- middle of no where beautiful mountainous areas we were only near a gym with lifting equipment a few times. So, I packed:*
- Portable equipment like: (pick 1 or 2) Mostfit suspension straps*, resistance bands*, jump rope, yoga mat
- Fitness apparel (shoes, shorts, sports bra)
That’s it. 2 easy road trip fit essentials to remember to bring to stay fit. Being creative with the surroundings and your activities is key. When my kids were playing at a play structure, my husband and I would do box jumps, pull ups, push ups, lunges and so on in between chasing our kiddos around. Now, I didn’t get any footage of creative exercises with the exception of pull-ups. I was too busy having fun. 🙂
When the hubby was grilling dinner while camping, I would throw the MostFit suspension straps over a tree limb and do some exercises or do some box jumps on a picnic table. I would do 10 or 15 minutes here and there as I didn’t want to take up large amount of time away from our awesome plans and spending time with my kids.
Also, long hikes up mountain sides was a pretty good workout as carrying a 4 and 6 years old half the time was my weight bearing activity or racing my husband across the lake in a kayaks while our kids cheered and enjoyed the ride.
And really, just being active with your family is exercise as well. You are on vacation, we like to travel fit and feel good exercising but you don’t have to be all nazi about it……. until you get back home, right?
Taking a week off from your daily workout routine won’t cause you to lose muscle. Consider it a healthy deload, but it always makes me feel better to workout so I will at least get in a workout every other day, usually a lighter version, on vacation to maintain muscle and fitness and get the endorphin’s flowin.
Packing light tips
I just had this conversation with my Mother an hour ago, pack light! You don’t need an entire bag solely for shoes! Next week we are driving to MI to meet my brother, my niece and nephews who live in NY to camp for the weekend, then we will stay for another 3 days to visit friends. My Mom will be driving with us in our van. With added person taking up space, that leave less room for luggage and my Mom is the worst. For a 4 day trip, she will pack enough for 3 months, and that is no joke! Over the last 12 years of adventurous traveling, hiking, packing in and now with children I have learned to pack light (er)… okay, so I am not perfect and sometimes I do pack a bag just for shoes!
1) All you need is two pair of shoes-
Pack comfortable tennis shoes and some all purpose closed toed nice looking sandals
Bring some multi-purpose shoes you can workout in, hike in or just walk around in are nice to have. I prefer a zero drop with or without cushion.
As well as an essential summer sandal that you an do anything in.
Over the course of our trip, the shoes I wore 90% of the time were my keens. I kayaked in them as they can get wet, I hiked in them because they are comfy and just slipped them on where ever we were going. They look nice and I where them all the time with a casual sun dress or out for a casual dinner as our trip was a pretty casual affair.
2) Pack multi-purpose clothing
Pack things you can get a lot of use out of like the pants where the bottom half zips off or pants made of a lighter material that roll up easily into capri’s.
3) Skip the hair dryer and pack a hat
Pack light, let your hair air dry and put it up in a cut messy pony tail or bun or just wear a cute hat which is essential for summer outdoor activities to protect your face from the sun!
4) Just plain limit yourself to a certain size or number of bags, like 1!
Lay out what you want to take, then cut that in half and then you may have to half that. If you have access to a washer and dryer, you definitely can get away with packing less as well! Pack only what you need. Keep it simple.
Other great lists and articles for packing light:
Other road trip essentials
We had a rule with electronics, they could be used in the car between destinations but, at our destinations, they were not used and were not needed. But, on those 3, 4 and 8 hour driving stints, we used electronics and had the devices to keep them charged.
1) Car mobile power inverter
If your car does not have the electrical plugin outlet for electronics, this is a must have! Especially with kids. On longer drives we could charge leap pads, computers and portable DVD players.
2) Portable charger
Okay, see a theme here? We kept our kids occupied for 3+ hour driving stints with movies and kindle apps while I worked on blog posts on my computer with the occasional eye spy and other fun road trip games. Having a portable charger when tent camping is nice to have as we aren’t going to run the van for hours to charge my phone in case of emergency. We have two portable chargers, one I keep in my purse for every day use which is the RAVPower Portable Charger and the other we use for traveling on long airplane and car rides is the Jackery Giant charger. .
3) Dry Shampoo
I love this invention! I can spray it on at the roots and it will keep my hair from looking greasy extending the life of my non shampooed hair! woot!
4) Snacks
Good on the go snacks are a must like veggies, beef jerky, fruit, nut mixes or protein bars. I like the Lara bar, epic bars, power crunch bars and the cliff builder bar
5) Sunscreen
You need your vitamin D but the most beneficial rays are around high noon and only for 20-30 minutes so cover up the rest of the day!
3) All the modern day normal road trip stuff:
books, magazines, snacks, movies, games, pillows, music and so on, although ear plugs may have been nice when my kids were getting crabby and sick of the car!
Our road trip (an overview)
The first day of our trip, we stayed one night in Seattle and moved onto Nahalem State Park, OR. We made an afternoon pit stop at Cannon beach and played in the water before moving onto to our campsite in Nahalem state park where we enjoyed the usual camp fires, hiking and exploring and getting to know fellow campers.
After camping for 2 days we hit Portland for 4 days and stayed in a well stocked and updated VRBO. It sure was nice to do laundry after several days of camp fires, swimming and hiking around.
Exploring Portland’s Saturday Market and its pot heads, the ariel tram, train station, numerous parks and hiking trails we found a nice little gym to hit up a few times while our kids watched a movie on the kindle.
After Portland we made a long drive to the Columbia River Gorge and hiked up Wahclella falls to a beautiful waterfall. Once we hiked down we headed to our camp site.
Then onto Wallowa State park where we camped, kayaked and hiked in bear country.
Then we enjoyed time in beautiful Coeur D’Alene, ID where we stayed in a VRBO right near downtown and then onto Glacier National Park which was our last major stop.
We Stayed in a KOA just outside the west glacier gate in a camper cabin. This was one of the nicest KOA’s I have stayed at and I love camper cabins as you have beds, solid walls and even AC and heat if needed without having to tote a camper. Glacier was phenomenal, the wildlife abundant and the views breathtaking.
We had a big haul to make it home from MT to MN as we didn’t really plan any awesome things to do in between as our time was running out. We had a few 8 hour drives and made pit stops often to get out and get some exercise. We would run around a rest stop with our kids or do the usual plyometric or body weight type workout for about 5-10 minutes. Then get back in the car and keep on truckin.
Travel Fit Workouts
10 Tips on Traveling Fit (workouts and diet)
Build Your Owen Total Body Circuit Workout
The 18 Minute HIIT Workout
Follow Get Fit. Go Figure!’s board Body Weight Workouts on Pinterest.
Also see:
Do Your First Pull-up, A Pull-Up Progression
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