Feel Great on the Go: Essential Wellness Tips for Your Next Road Trip (86)

Traveling can make it challenging to keep up with a wellness routine. But, it doesn't have to be that way. In this episode you will learn how we drove cross country to Canada and back with our dog without eating fast food, getting 6,000+ steps/day, AND not losing our minds.

 Learn how to take care of your body and mind while on the road. From mindful eating tips to the benefits of brown noise for better sleep, we're covering it all. We're also sharing the importance of making conscious choices, not only in food but also in self-care. Tune in to learn how to craft the perfect wellness toolkit for your next road trip.

Click here to get the road trip wellness guide!
Click here to see Will's amazing YouTube channel
Get 10% off Enso Greens/ Live it Up Greens

Transcript

Holly: 0:00

So you know how, when you travel, it can really throw off your wellness routine. Well, when Will wanted to drive across the country to Canada, that was one of the first things that came to my mind. So I put a lot of time and energy on how we could take care of our body and mind while we were on the road. So in today's episode I'm going to share how we spent 24 days on the road driving across country to Canada with our amazing dog, luna, without eating fast food, getting an average of 6,000 steps or more a day, while driving eight to 10 hours a day and not losing our minds Pretty big accomplishment. So this episode is a must listen for tips and tricks on how you can take care of your body and mind while traveling and on the road. And if you go to the link in the show notes, there's a special PDF that gives you a wellness on the road packing list for food and all the things you need to take care of your body and mind while you're on a road trip. Welcome back to how the wise one grows.

Holly: 1:12

This podcast is a space where we come together to reconnect to our inner wisdom, to one another and to the natural world. But before we get started with today's episode, let's take a moment to land here, together with 3D breaths. So just take a moment to notice where your body makes contact with the earth and, if it feels safe, you can gently rest your eyes and take a big breath in, fill your chest and your belly with air, exhale, open your mouth, let it out Again, inhale, chest and belly. Expand, exhale, let it all go One more. Inhale and exhale, then return to the sensation of where your body makes contact with the earth as you open your eyes and start to return to this space.

Holly: 2:20

Today we have a very high honor guest with us and we have a very high honor guest and you've probably heard me mention today's guest in a number of episodes, but what you might not know is that this person is behind the scenes of really all elements of this podcast and my life. Can you guess who it is? Are you thinking about it? Are you thinking about it? Today we have my husband, will Wright, and I felt like I really needed to call Will in today because we're going to talk about our road trip. So over the summer, we drove cross country from Virginia to Whistler, canada, to go on Will's mountain biking Mecca of a road trip and it was awesome and being me, I was like super adamant about making sure that we were eating well and had time to move and like I had this whole wellness road trip thing set up and I feel like, will you thought I was like pretty crazy going into that? Can I talk?

Will: 3:34

now? Yeah, you can. Oh, I wasn't sure if this was part of the introduction.

Holly: 3:38

Yeah, you can talk, you're loud.

Will: 3:40

Okay.

Holly: 3:42

I wish you always asked me that.

Will: 3:45

I can start. I want to ask you permission to sing. That's going to happen in the background, so what was the question? I'm a little flustered here. I'm not used to being on camera in this capacity, so for audio, I'm definitely not going to listen back to him this episode. Okay.

Holly: 4:09

So, going into the road trip, you know how I was like food was the thing that I thought was like the most important, because I was like there is no way to get to the road that I am driving. We were on the road for 24 days. I was like I'm not doing that, living off fast food, and like I like to put good things on my body so that I feel good. I feel like when we were getting ready for that, I might have like had a little bit of unrealistic expectations, but what was your perception of that?

Will: 4:38

I thought you were a little crazy with your planning but it turned out better than I would have expected. But I think, like some initial things you would plan for, the road trip was like freezing soup in containers. I still think it was a good idea putting them on the dashboard during the day, while we're driving to the melt and then, or like I don't know that I was not psyched for that, but I mean, I'm definitely weaker-willed in that, like I would have been talk about every day if I was left to my own devices.

Will: 5:24

but I'm super glad I didn't because, you know, the stuff that we ate and the stuff that we didn't ate contributed to like feeling pretty good Like throughout the whole trip and we had really long hard days and I think if we would have added, you know, maybe some not so nice things to our bodies, that would have just like compounded the hardness, like physically and emotionally really.

Holly: 5:57

Yeah, do you want to talk a little bit about like what our days and our map was kind of like, and then I can break down into the food and how you convinced me not to take frozen soup and curry on the road. Yeah, I want the listeners to imagine that they're in the car me, you and Luna and our Yeti. Cooler and like what were our days, like kind of like booked it from here to. Portland. So that was what like five full days of driving.

Will: 6:22

Yeah, five days across the country, full days of driving anywhere from like eight to 12 hours in the car.

Holly: 6:30

Yeah, I feel like that's what it ended up being that first stretch and somehow during that I was, like you know, I'm a garment on, so I was like checking our my steps every day, and we had on the way out, for sure, over seven K steps a day, which I don't really know how.

Will: 6:47

I guess some of like some of the we want. We had Luna, our dog, yeah, so we made sure to walk her and stuff, yeah.

Holly: 6:55

So we would take her probably on like a walk. At least I feel like we tried to get her on a walk, like most mornings we could on our way out we stayed at Airbnb's, mostly, right, Mm, hmm, Um, we had ambitions of camping, but that was just with the way we were on the road it was going to be too much. And then on the way back it was more hotels but at least the Airbnb stops. We pretty much were able to like go on a walk every morning before we left in some capacity.

Will: 7:20

Yeah, yeah, and like in the evening, if we were there early enough, and then some of them were just like you know what, on day night three, I think we're Wyoming, we were just which can we tell them about that spot in Lander Wyoming? Yeah, what do you want to say about it? Gosh, I can give you.

Holly: 7:39

Give him the picture, paint the picture Well wow, okay.

Will: 7:43

So flashing red and blue lights in the rear view mirror. Holly's driving. We were not having a fight, yeah, I was not telling Holly to slow down and I was telling Holly to slow down and like the hand of God, basically, I see, as I'm telling her to slow down, you know we see blue and red lights in the rearview mirror. Wyoming State Trooper pulls Holly over long and short. He doesn't give her a ticket because because it's totally if I was driving, I probably would have been handcuffed and what did I get?

Holly: 8:24

I did get a good dinner, she got a dinner recommendation from the cop, which dubious about.

Will: 8:28

But so that that was like two hours before our final destination in Wyoming that evening. And Lander, wyoming is kind of I think it's kind of like on the, the foothills, the Wind River Range. The landscape changes from like Almost like dry, high desert, tea kind of rolling hills to like more like bigger mountains, but also it almost felt like Grand Canyon.

Will: 9:00

I know, but there was like a lot of greenery too, yeah, but then there was like red rocks and like gactus, a lot of red rocks, rattlesnakes, rattlesnakes. I was like a psycho when we arrived, because we're basically in the foothills of the Wind River Range Wind River Mountains, foothills of the Tetons, essentially and there's like red rock cliffs and we like drive through Lander and then into the foothills and it's just like absolutely gorgeous. Is that sunset? Like the mountains? There's like no trees, but the mountains are like all like really like green, like it's almost like green grass over the mountains, and then at lower down it was drier and more like red rock and arid and the sunset was was happening and we were on this like 30 acre property with like a cabin that just like looked out across like the hills and it was like super pretty and there were mountain bike trails next to the property.

Holly: 10:03

Yeah, which was like a total coincidence. We didn't plan it that way Well once they're being me. And then we were like wait, are these up again?

Will: 10:10

Yeah, well, I think I saw that on the air being.

Holly: 10:13

I found there being me, though, and I wanted to book it without seeing that, yeah.

Will: 10:17

I mean it was a sick spot, regardless of the trails.

Holly: 10:22

But I think that really helped us with getting movement in, because a big part of the trip was biking right.

Will: 10:26

So like Us being active, not I mean, yeah, biking was a part of it.

Will: 10:34

But we wanted to be active, like you wanted to be really active. You weren't doing as much biking, but you wanted to make sure we're in places where you could get on the trails, run and stuff. And I guess the reason we're talking about Wyoming because that's a good example of a place we chose because it was like in the foothills of the mountain there were trails nearby. You know, we woke up after spending the night out there. We woke up super early the next morning. I biked on the trails, holly ran on the trails, we kind of like met each other out there. It was awesome, really, really cool it was almost like Moabie like slick rock.

Will: 11:11

That's what it was, moab, yeah, yeah, she'll put a link to my YouTube video. Oh yeah, you can see Will's YouTube videos in the description, the video of it. Yeah, but that I think like that was probably the first day on the road where we got to really move our bodies.

Holly: 11:27

Like you got to go on a bike ride, I got to go on a trail run. That was honestly kind of like the first breaking point for me where, like I was like oh my gosh, and then being able to like move my body that morning truly made all the difference.

Will: 11:40

But even then I was like oh my gosh.

Holly: 11:42

That was a big difference. But even like at rest stops along the way, I remember like one rest stop, like you were doing like push-ups up against the bathroom wall and like squats and I was like this is a good idea.

Will: 11:54

Like, well, yeah, when you're just like cooped up in a car all day and then like at least for both of us, for running and for riding, if you want to be able to like perform in that capacity, like your pregame for riding is eight hours in a car, it doesn't feel good, I'm not going to feel the best. So, like any opportunity to like move around, jumping jack squats when we stopped.

Holly: 12:18

And like every time we would stop gas, I would try to like give Luna a bathroom break, but she would never go to the bathroom, but like just would be walking around during that time and like those are little ways you can like keep your butt flowing, get your body moving and get more activity in than you might expect.

Will: 12:36

But I mean we like intentionally, like we could have easily chosen a hotel or like an apartment downtown or something, but like I feel like we're pretty intentional about like choosing places that we're going to set us up for staying active and feeling good.

Holly: 12:53

Yeah, and that was the most pit dressed. Like. Not everywhere was like that, but like planning ahead, thinking about those things in advance. Moving your body when you're spending that much time on the road is such a key component. Do you want to talk about the food with me?

Will: 13:09

The food that we ate. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Holly: 13:13

That was like so, if you're listening, I have a PDF of, like, my food packing list, breaking it down into, like breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, what I would recommend packing on the road, based on our experience. So if you want to get the road trip wellness guide, there is a link in the show notes, so just click that link, fill it out and I will email you the PDF and it has all the tips and tricks on what to pack and how to not lose your mind while you're on the road. I got super nerdy about it. I really love it and I will not get on the road without it. So, again, click the link in the show notes to get the road trip wellness guide. But first of all, I think the most important component was having a good cooler and we were like super grateful because we got to borrow my sister and brother-in-law, jada and David's Yeti cooler.

Will: 14:04

Yeah, that was clutch.

Holly: 14:05

It was awesome and it was like I think it was like a 20 can, like pretty small one Hard, hard shell cooler, but it kept everything cold and we didn't stop for ice once.

Will: 14:17

I just had like ice packs that I put at the base of the cooler and then filled it up with like and each night we put the ice packs in a freezer, or if we didn't have a freezer, which happened in the fridge?

Holly: 14:30

Yeah, and most nights it really was like in the fridge, yeah yeah. So having a cooler where you can put things in I found super helpful. And then, like breaking this was where I was like really good at planning I thought was having things in like organized bags. I wanted to do boxes at first, so we realized that wasn't like space savvy, but we had like a lunch bag where I had like a couple cooler packs and then stuff for like PBNJs, because like that's just pretty much the easiest lunch on the road. I always wanted PBNJ. And then for breakfast I had pre-made these protein balls which like we eat them every morning, you know, like even when we're not on the road. I love them and I'll have that recipe for you in that PDF as well.

Will: 15:19

Hard boiled eggs.

Holly: 15:20

Hard boiled eggs, yeah, yeah, those. I think I couldn't have done it without the hard boiled eggs. That was so easy. Yogurt right. Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, cottage cheese. You want to talk about your green drink, will?

Will: 15:33

Well, yeah, I mean we've started. This is a habit we picked up from the trip, but I'm sure, since you know, many people are listening right now, probably listen to other podcasts and, like AG1, is a huge sponsor of other podcasts.

Holly: 15:46

Which is Athletic Greens.

Will: 15:46

Yeah, athletic Greens, which is a super greens like powder, basically that you can just mix with water and you as you're daily serving up greens and a bunch of other stuff. So we started our cousin thanks Andrew gave us a bag of it when we were out in Portland and we started drinking that every morning, like that would be the first thing we drank in the morning and we've kept that habit. Now we use Inzo Greens, which I think tastes a little bit better because it has some spearmint.

Holly: 16:15

Honestly, I think it tastes much better. Yeah, and so greens would love for you to sponsor.

Will: 16:19

Yeah, yeah, the Athletic Greens kind of like a Bubble gum, Bubble gum, weird aftertaste it wasn't as like the Inzo ones are like fresh, like they feel good to drink in the morning.

Holly: 16:28

Yeah, it's like minty and.

Will: 16:31

But I do. I feel better when I keep my body, that those greens like first thing. When I wake up it's like greens coffee for me, tea for Holly and then a couple protein balls or an egg or something, and then we're good to go.

Holly: 16:48

Sidebar. Here I have a 10% off discount code for you to try Inzo Greens. Inzo Greens actually goes by Live it Up Greens now so don't get confused with that, but Will and I have been drinking this green drink every morning since the road trip and it truly has helped so much. We tried a lot of different green drinks from Athletic Greens and a few others, and I really think that Inzo Greens and Live it Up Greens is the best tasting one and it has the best quality ingredients. From the research I did, so I highly recommend giving it a try Again. Use the link in the show notes to get 10% off your first order and that's like super easy stuff you can have on the road.

Holly: 17:34

And again, this is where I think packing was super key because, like, if you're traveling from your car and everything's in it, you don't want to like take a million things into where you're staying each night. So I had like a designated bag in the morning that was like our morning things, which was like the coffee, the tea, vitamins, the green drink, and then in the cooler bag I had like the yogurt, the eggs, the protein balls, whatever. So that made like having the more I knew where everything was in the morning. It was easy to get it. I mean, if we're talking about mornings, I feel like we have shock. Back on to the bathroom. We do because it's a real thing, like okay like Luna or like us going to the bathroom.

Will: 18:15

Oh well, okay.

Holly: 18:18

I will say like bathroom in general on the road starting out.

Will: 18:23

Yeah.

Holly: 18:23

If you're driving long road trip loves gas station has like the cleanest, I feel like most reliable bathrooms, and for your dog they also some of them have like little fenced in dog areas yeah, dog runs where your dog can run around. But I was taking magnesium the night, like two magnesium pills the night before, like every evening, so that when I woke up my body was just like ready to go be regular before we get on the road. And like you're waking up early, you're trying to get on the road early so you don't have a ton of time. So for me, taking magnesium at night was really important, but I don't remember if you did that. I didn't eat it.

Holly: 19:00

I feel like you had more bathroom trouble than I did personally.

Will: 19:03

No, I have bathroom trouble, like at the very start of trips, like the first, like day or two, yeah, and then I'll get back to regular programming. But yeah but eating healthy like contributes to that, so like if we were eating like just junk it would have been totally different, it would have been different. Yeah, I know it would have been different.

Holly: 19:26

Yeah.

Will: 19:27

I've been on enough bachelor parties and food benches like that on trips to know like it don't work.

Holly: 19:34

It don't work, it do not work. Yeah.

Will: 19:37

Yeah, I also felt like on the Chicago 2018.

Holly: 19:44

For me. I think one of my favorite things was what we did for lunch on the road. So, like I talked about earlier, we had like a lunch bag that had like it was also really fun, like you can buy like a nice jam wherever you are, or like a fancy peanut butter, like a local bread, so like you're integrating parts of where you are on your journey to make that food feel, I know it's more special. So we pretty much had PB and J's every day, but we would try to find and I think this helped with our movement too we would try to find like a park or somewhere to stop at for lunch.

Will: 20:17

Nature preserve park, state park, city park, just like somewhere green.

Holly: 20:24

Yeah, somewhere green. It gave, like Luna a chance to move around a little, gave us a chance to move around and like, enjoy scenery, be outside, so you don't feel like quite as claustrophobic and stuck when you're in the road, on the road all day.

Will: 20:37

And it was just cool seeing different parts of the country. Yeah, you know, and not just like staring at 18 wheelers going down the highway.

Holly: 20:46

Yeah. Yeah, I was just, I just really enjoyed just kind of exploring and it got me better at figuring out maps we're to pull off right. Yeah, but um, and then you forgot what were your favorite snacks that I packed. I think I did a great job with snacks. I think you're really going to want my list, because I found some bomb snacks.

Will: 21:08

Yeah, we had. You had some good light, some vegan, some Dried, like dried figs, dried fruit and stuff. I think we like dates. But actually my favorite snacks Came into play on the second day because we stayed at it air and be, air, yeah, tucky and and Louisville the host. It was like a Hosted one, so we stayed in like a little guest suite and the hosts were like super nice. They're probably our parents age I think the kids are age so they like really took care of us. They liked us and took care of us. We had a meal with them but they gave us a bunch of stuff from their garden, so one of the things were the green beans.

Holly: 21:54

Yeah, they gave us like a bag yeah, a big old bag and green, fresh green beans. So they give us something else too, um.

Will: 22:02

No, um no, I think the main thing was a green beans the green beans.

Holly: 22:05

Yeah, so like having fresh veggies. I didn't think about that before the road trip yeah but like green beans and stuff like that, you don't have to keep in the cooler. Yeah like you can snack on them easily. You're getting fiber, you're getting protein.

Will: 22:20

You're not feeling like you can eat as much as you want. Yeah like doesn't matter.

Holly: 22:25

We would even have those like for breakfast in the morning We'd have like some almonds, some green beans, like maybe dip it in your yogurt or cottage cheese.

Will: 22:33

Yeah, it was delicious. Yeah, these were especially delicious because they were grown. Yeah they're fresh, but like I would eat them from the store.

Holly: 22:40

Yeah, and then if you can't get like the fresh ones, like at different farmers stands, you might come across like when we were in Seattle I got these, like you know, dried veggie snacks, which were awesome, and then again it's like another local element that like makes your food feel fun.

Will: 22:56

Yeah, you got to be careful about those dried veggie snacks. Yeah, you do that. Be careful, they can make you gassy. Yeah, I was saying, and when you're in a car.

Holly: 23:06

You got a thing about it with my wife Gonna have a bad time.

Will: 23:12

I'm not sorry.

Holly: 23:15

Um, I think that my favorite thing was Trader Joe's really pulled through. They have these like mini packs of olives and artichokes, like you remember those.

Will: 23:26

Oh yeah, like in in liquid, yeah, they were like in liquid.

Holly: 23:30

So like when we got to our Airbnb in Lander we had been kind of like snacking all that day. So I made like kind of a giant cheese board with like the artichoke, the olives, some cheese, some apples Like yeah, just a smorgasbord, um. And then things like jerky mushroom jerky I think chomps is a really good one. Yeah, vegan jerky is good. Regular jerky is great. Popcorn, bananas, apples, clementines, avocados I wouldn't sleep on avocados. Those are another thing. You can buy them like super, not ripe, they'll last throughout the trip and it's like a really good way to get some diversity in your diet. Um, and then we had a lot of fun getting like a special drink, I feel, like for lunch. Like we would try to stop and get like a kombucha if we made a stop at the store.

Holly: 24:17

Yeah, kombucha or sparkly water, yeah we really tried to stray away from soda so we had, like, coconut water. I had like an emergency thing of cold brew so we didn't have to like make a coffee stop there's someone driving like really needed a hit. And then obviously power bars. I don't like a station coffee.

Will: 24:36

I know you, I would splurge on that.

Holly: 24:39

Yeah, and then dinners. What did we really end up doing for dinners? Well, there were like two kinds of dinners because some really long drive days. It was like, yeah, it's like you're driving through dinner and like I'm trying to feed Will as he's driving, or vice versa, and like for those meals, this is where Trader Joe's pulled through again, like they have these canned grape leaves.

Holly: 25:03

So we would have like grape leaves, hard boiled egg. Couldn't be better in this moment, especially if you have like a mustard packet. You get from a gas station and then like just veggies, right. That's when, like, those green beans really come in handy and you get. Then you get like a pretty diverse diet in that dinner and you're like driving on the road and it's not too messy.

Will: 25:24

It's like, yeah, it's easy. Yeah and it's cheap. Cheap, yeah, cheap, because we could easily, easily, could have spent so much more money. 40 bucks a night for dinner, yeah, easily.

Holly: 25:35

Yeah. And over 24 days yeah, it's 40 times 20.

Will: 25:39

I don't really do public bath, but in this case I'm making exception. This $800, yeah, just on dinner.

Holly: 25:44

Yeah.

Holly: 25:45

You know, yeah, and then like when we could, we would also stop at a grocery store and get like a rotisserie chicken that would pull apart. And then I had, like you know, greens in our cooler so we could have like a salad with avocado chicken. You know I had some like olive oil and stuff that put on it. Then we also had like for places. We had, like you know, I went to the like the natural grocery stores and found their pre-made stuff and made sure all the ingredients were like actual whole foods. So I find like ramen packets with that. I found like some Indian food things which I don't really think we dove into the Indian food, maybe like one night.

Holly: 26:22

Yeah, we brought a lot of like ramen and like kind of a ready to go Like like mac and cheese, like Bonsa mac and cheese.

Will: 26:31

But we didn't really use it that much because we didn't really use it in a useful way, because we were driving a lot like so.

Holly: 26:36

Yeah.

Will: 26:36

We didn't really heat that stuff up.

Holly: 26:38

And then, even when we did stop, it was like you weren't really craving anything that hearty by that point of the day. Because, you kind of are snacking on the road.

Will: 26:46

Well, also, I feel like some of those pre-made packets can be like really salty and like I'm not convinced they're really the best for you either.

Holly: 26:54

Well, they're not, and the ones you bought were nice. As long as I bought yeah, that's true, but I stand by, you're right like they're not as good for you at all and typically at the end of the day like a salad with some chicken or a hard-boiled egg on it, felt better.

Will: 27:09

Yeah, like that's the thing when you are eating that kind of like the good stuff on the reg, you don't really like crave the bad stuff, you don't want to eat the super salty bad stuff, so it kind of like just like snowballs.

Holly: 27:25

Yeah, what was the hardest part for you with food on the road, when I, like, had this concept going in.

Will: 27:38

The hardest. What was the hardest part for me, who didn't prep any of the food, was hand-fed meals while driving.

Holly: 27:45

Let me thank you.

Will: 27:47

What was the hardest part? Gosh, I don't really have a good answer, because it made it easy, like how we prepared for this trip. Made the food part easy, yeah.

Holly: 28:07

I did such a good job. Let's just like toot my horn for a second, but I think I think the hardest part for you was not having Taco Bell. We did have, I had.

Will: 28:15

Taco Bell once.

Holly: 28:16

I didn't do it.

Will: 28:17

It was a late night, it was, it was dark, it was like 10.

Holly: 28:21

And you really just needed a Baja Blast.

Will: 28:22

Dog in. I needed that Baja Blast so bad.

Holly: 28:26

I know you did it's okay, I really did. And that's okay too. Like I think it's important to remember, like it is a hard thing on the road and if you have a moment where you do like, dude, it's 11 pm, I'm still driving, I need something. Yeah, that's fine, but like, support yourself the best you can. It really is attainable to eat well on the road. It's pretty much what we learned.

Will: 28:46

You have to be like I don't know, like a monk about it.

Holly: 28:49

Yeah we only bought food. We got that one time at Taco Bell, yeah, and then on our way out we were in Jackson, wyoming and got. We were like let's treat ourselves to nice sandwiches and like, but that was like good food, that wasn't like bad food. Yeah, it was healthy food, but it was like the fact that we made it that long without stopping for food was amazing, pretty badass. Yeah.

Will: 29:12

Yeah, I mean it was a good practice for me because it became easier as the days went on, like I'd find myself standing in the gas station I'm sure you're in the bathroom and like like, hmm, what kind of snack do I want or what kind of drink do I want? Or maybe I should get an energy drink and nine times out of 10, maybe even 10 times out of 10. I don't think I ever really got bad snacks. I would just end up choosing like a soda water, like a sparkling.

Holly: 29:38

Yeah, sparkling water kind of became the go to.

Will: 29:41

No candy.

Holly: 29:42

Yeah.

Will: 29:43

No chips.

Holly: 29:44

And I feel like you're even starting to integrate that, Like you just came home from a bike trip and you were like I was on my way back and I almost stopped and got like a Mountain Dew or something. Yeah, oh, yeah.

Will: 29:54

I almost got like a Red Bull or something on a drive home from mountain biking, from mountains, and I decided to get a sparkly Now. I did get some corn nuts with it, but we're but mere mortals.

Holly: 30:05

Yeah, and baby steps, yeah.

Will: 30:08

But like it wasn't a hard decision because like part of me like wanted like that instant gratification of like the caffeinated sweet energy drink, but like I felt better about myself and I know I physically felt better like by drinking or buying like the Perrier.

Holly: 30:28

Yeah and drink yeah, because then your body's not crashing later, you're not messing with everything with all that sugar and caffeine.

Holly: 30:36

Yeah, I just want to take a moment. I feel like we've covered food pretty well and if you have any like truly have this beautiful, beautiful list of all the food things, so get the PDF, I'll send it to you. The other thing I want to take a moment of like. We were in the car for 24 updates so I was like I need a little bit of like. I literally made like a car wellness kit where I put like under eye patches, like you know to like, or like face masks. I even had this like witch hazel, like lavender face mist, so like if you're driving a long time and you need like a burst, a little pick me up, you could just like spray your face. I had like body wipes so you could just like feel like you're being cleansed. Those things I found like really helpful and just kind of made it made me feel better on long days. I don't think you got to indulge in my face masks, but I wasn't really driving with face masks.

Holly: 31:37

But in the past, I'm not opposed to a face mask.

Will: 31:38

Yeah, no, they're great they don't really stay with the beard, the beard yeah.

Holly: 31:45

Other things that I would recommend for, like sleep, being in different places, like if you're in hotels and stuff. Brown noise, I think, is like a lifesaver yeah, it's way better than white noise, and especially if you have a dog with you and you're in a hotel, it'll like drown out the noise of what's going on. So if your dog is a little more reactive to sounds, that's a really big help. I think an eye mask is really helpful. I'm sensitive to light, so like you just never know what your situation is going to be. And then even earplugs aren't a bad idea either, and I even had like a little lavender spray because, again, like I wanted things to make me feel grounded and have a sense of home, as we're like staying in all these different places, and I had my we have books too.

Will: 32:27

Yeah, books. I had my Kindle which, like, is a really good sleep aid for me, because I'll reply 10 minutes and then it'll knock me out. Yeah, and I love the Kindle because you know there are many. I don't know if all the models, but a lot of the models have like back lights on them, mm-hmm. You can connect them with your local library and check out books for free. Yeah, it was just like a super nice way to unwind and kind of escape at the end of the day.

Holly: 32:57

Yeah, and then, to be honest, this feels like bad to say on a podcast, but like we didn't listen to that many podcasts on the road and we listened to mostly audio books, which I think is way better on a road trip because you could go through like an eight hour driving day and be like, wow, I listened to seven podcasts today.

Holly: 33:19

And that feels kind of like like you get kind of stuck after a while, always trying to find a new one, or like getting bored of what you're listening to. But audio books could just like continually hold your attention and I felt like it was a really good bonding experience for us, like because you're taking in this information.

Will: 33:36

I mean, we were listening to like podcasts that influenced like habits and eating and wellness while we were driving, so I think that also like influenced the way we wanted to treat our bodies and minds while we were driving to like Most noticeable ones for the rich role book Finding Ultra, I think, yeah, that was just like super inspiring and motivational to learn about this guy's journey from out of shape and overweight at 40 to you know one of the best ultra endurance athletes in the world.

Holly: 34:08

And then also atomic habits, which was like James, clear atomic habits, yeah, which is really good.

Will: 34:14

I mean it was pretty in depth and like there was a lot. But, like the spark notes, if you just got, like you know, a couple of bullet points from it, it's helpful. Yeah, it was super helpful and that was cool to listen to together. Yeah.

Will: 34:27

And then you know, when you know we didn't listen to these all day because, yeah, it's hard to have something on all day, but then you know, we pause it and reflect back on what we're listening to and it made for good conversation and, yeah, it was nice, it was really nice. You want to go on a road trip again? I'll go on a road trip again. All right, let's go back to Whistler, let's oh. No, I go to Whistler in the heartbeat, especially next summer. Yeah right, yeah, yeah.

Holly: 34:52

Will was ready to keep going.

Will: 34:54

Yeah, we came back to Virginia and I was like, let's go to New England. Yeah, let's keep on driving.

Holly: 34:59

So I don't think that this will be our last, but I think this was our first and I think the key takeaway I want people listening to Hear is like you can. You can really take care of yourself wherever you are and no matter your situation, which I want to acknowledge privilege in that. But like you can. You can really take care of yourself when you're traveling, when you're on the road. It takes planning, it takes forethought, but it is something that can be attainable and I think it ultimately enriches your experience.

Holly: 35:29

So much more, because I easily could have had many more bad moments If my body and mind felt like trash. I would have been a less enjoyable person to be in a car for like eight to 12 hours a day, with not that every moment was perfect by any means, but like if you're feeling better, it's going to make your interactions better, you're going to enjoy the places you are going to be more present.

Will: 35:50

Yeah, it's just going to be overall better and it was cheaper.

Holly: 35:53

Yeah, it was cheaper, yeah, yeah. So I think we kicked ass.

Will: 35:57

Agreed yeah.

Holly: 36:01

Is there anything that you want to leave listeners with any? Any final tidbits of advice?

Will: 36:11

I think yeah, I think it's just like the little, like 1% changes, a little micro choices you make like just snowball and add up over the long run and just make you feel like a better, more whole person. And I think that I'm learning in my early 30s. Okay, I knew this all along, but it's something that I'm practicing in my early 30s as we get older and I think it's really improved my quality of life physically and mentally. You don't have to go out and be like, okay, I'm going to go online and find a teacher and get this whole framework and I'm going to stick to it. That can be super overwhelming, but you can. Next time you're at the gas station you can buy some sparkly water instead of a Dr Pepper. You make that choice 20 times in a year. It's a lot less sugar and bad stuff that you've put in your body.

Holly: 37:18

I think that's perfect advice. I think that's a really good thing to leave listeners with is we gave you a lot. We're not saying do it all. Have the most holistic road trip travel experience. Find what pieces work for you and are going to help you feel most grounded, and just start with one thing and find one thing that works for you and go from there one step at a time, one breath at a time.

Will: 37:42

I just want to remind the listeners that I'm not saying this from a position of authority, because I'm historically miserable at making those types of decisions.

Holly: 37:50

You're doing so well lately though.

Will: 37:51

You really are. I don't know. It's small, easy decisions. You can make. That add up.

Holly: 38:00

Yeah, awesome, cool. I love you. Thanks for doing this.

Will: 38:03

Love you too, man. This was not as scary as I thought it was going to be, really, yeah.

Holly: 38:11

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