Category: Daily Life

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Daily Life Fitness & Recipes Tips & Tricks

It Feels Good to Break a Sweat: My Newest Workout Routine

Mobile Gym

Trying to exercise with our unpredictable schedule has been one of the biggest challenges for me of our full time travel. I posted back in January about my failure of an attempt at working out, and although things aren’t much better, I feel like I have a few more tricks up my sleeve.

We have some smaller equipment that we keep on hand – most of them purchased through Amazon at some point:

Jump Rope
5 lb weights
12 lb weights
Exercise Mat
Arm band for my phone
Exercise head phones
Foam Roller

I will still occasionally get on a road ride (like this short one back in Oregon near John Day), but in reality I have 30 minutes or less to get my workout in. So, I get creative. Most weeks I manage to get in 2-3 workouts, but when we are slammed busy driving, or hanging around friends/family, or just plain BUSY (lame excuse) that number dwindles significantly.

I find that when I do make time to regularly exercise I’m much happier and even eat healthier. Balancing travel planning, home schooling, grocery shopping, hiking, and everything else does present its challenges, but before we are done traveling I’m going to make it work! Here’s what I’m currently doing:

Workout DVD’s

I have a friend who is a Beach Body consultant (check out her Instagram feed for awesome tips & recipes!), and she introduced me to Shaun T’s Focus T25 series. I have both the Alpha & Beta and I really like them. I feel like I get a great workout in, and it just doesn’t take very long. Yes, I’m typically outside in the campground where everyone can see me, but I’ve just developed a thick skin. I’ll try and find some privacy, but its usually me, half of our outdoor mat, and my computer. Good times.

Since then, I’ve also purchased the PiYo series which I like, but not quite as much. I’ve just never been into Yoga, but its a good mix of Pilates and Yoga and I don’t get quite as sweaty while still working on muscle development.

Smart Phone Apps

When we hike, bike, or walk (and even sometimes when weight lifting) I’ll track with Endomondo (Android, iPhone). I know there are others out there, we just invested in a Pro account years ago and I love it so I haven’t found a reason to change.

Nike Training Club (iPhone, Android) – this one has its pros and some serious cons. Its a little confusing at first and I hate that once I start a 4 week program I’m stuck to it. It gets depressing when I want to do a workout on Tuesday instead of Sunday and it won’t count towards my total minutes.

To compensate I just pick workouts and fit them in when I can. Maybe it’s not “ideal” but at least its something. I also hate that if your phone crashes you can’t start back in the middle of a workout. Or maybe that’s a plus… “Look! I’m done 15 minutes early!” 🙂 I do like the workouts I’ve have completed and definitely feel sore the next day!

Better Diet

I loved it when my friend posted a Clean Eating Challenge on Instagram a few months ago. It was awesome! We’ve been really trying to eat simpler, healthy meals. Lots of fruits, veggies, and ditch the processed stuff. I no longer buy crackers, or processed snacks (except Z bars & ropes from Costco, but those are for hiking or driving days) and we stick to carrots, cucumber, broccoli and hummus. Yes, we still eat ice cream, candy, and other not good for you items, but we eat them LESS. It’s a start.

Shakeology is seriously my favorite meal replacement drink. We’ve done a lot of Costco Protein powder, but this stuff just works. I’m the only one that drinks it (because its so darn expensive) and I can tell when I’m not consistent. I find it even more important at helping me maintain my weight because my workouts are so inconsistent. If I just got on the ball, maybe my numbers would actually start to go down…. wouldn’t that be nice?

The Ideal Schedule

In an ideal world, I’d have an actual workout schedule instead of trying to fit it in whenever. I was thinking this last week it would go something like this:

Monday: Nike Training Club 30 minutes
Tuesday: T25
Wednesday: Run (even though I still HATE it)
Thursday: Nike Training Club
Friday: PiYo

Sounds good, right? We’ll see…. What’s your favorite way to work out?

Categories
Holidays & Bdays

Shopping on Amazon This Year?

Amazon Affiliate Link

If you are anything like me, you’d rather spend your time browsing Amazon.com for the perfect rather than wandering through a shopping center. Its no secret I don’t love shopping, and anything delivered right to my door is WAY better than having to go out and buy it myself.

Last year we had Christmas in Houston and my aunt & uncle were kind enough to let us ship stuff ahead and we had a whole stack waiting for us when we arrived a few days before the 25th. It was awesome.

This year my parents are doing the same, although we’ll have a few extra days to figure out any special gifts and even buy them locally.

My point is, if you like to shop on Amazon.com would you consider clicking through our Affiliate link when you do so?

We’d much appreciate it. Affiliate links are great because you get the same price and we get a few pennies to add to our book fund for sending you there. Most of our accessory posts have affiliate links, not to be malicious, but because we only link to products we really love and earning a few pennies while we are at it is not such a bad deal.

Happy Shopping!

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Holidays & Bdays

Christmas Activity Advent Calendar

Christmas is in full swing in the Curren Airstream! Thanksgiving felt like it went a little long, since we didn’t actually leave family until December 4th, but we managed to get some decorations up  and start listening to Christmas music in the meantime. Last year we posted about 6 easy Christmas traditions you can do with kids while traveling, and we’ll manage to do most of them this year as well! I can’t wait.

First up is our Advent Calendar. Last year we cut out the circles and put them over the door, this year Rachel had the idea to cut out and paint a tree instead. I cut the tree out of a paper bag, and she did the rest. Awesome, huh? She’s so creative. Since we have very little wall space, we chose to split the tree in half so we could center it over the closet doors. That way we can still open it and get our clothes out!

We originally got the idea from the amazing Laura Winslow, and I’ll admit I’m a little jealous of her beautifully crafted tree. Sigh. Not that I’d trade our traveling adventures for a Christmas tree mind you, but a girl can appreciate sparkly, pretty things.

Every morning we pull off the number and see what the activity for the day is. The kids look forward to this after breakfast and get super excited!

On our list this year:

Last night was beautiful as we walked around the Oakland LDS temple grounds, viewed He is the Gift at the visitor center, and chatted with the missionaries. It was the perfect event to kick off our Advent Calendar activities!! What about you guys? What are your favorite holiday traditions?

 

Categories
Oregon Road Stories

Road Story – Garbage in Bend, OR

After we left Crater Lake, we headed to Bend. We wanted to visit a few things in the area and it was a good place to spend the weekend and attend church. We had heard from some fellow travelers about a boondocking spot on China Hat Road, just south of Bend. It sounded like a great location, so we headed there to check it out.

We found several roads that led off into the trees just inside the forest boundary. We pulled off to the side near one, and unloaded our bikes. We’ve learned that scoping out boondocking spots BEFORE driving into them is a good idea. Not only a time-saver, it can often avoid getting seriously stuck on a bad road, stuck in a tight spot, or executing a long, painful back-out. Jess and I took off in different directions on bikes, and ended up finding a great little spot under some trees, with only one slightly worrisome section of road to navigate.

We backed into the spot, and immediately fell in love with the spot. Not only was there some trees right next to us for the hammock, we had NO neighbors. I had expected lots of folks out for the holiday weekend, but we were the only campers there. We had a great time in and around bed. Church was only 5 minutes away, which is particularly amazing for a boondocking spot.
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One thing that we did notice is that there was way more garbage about then we usually find in a national forest. During one afternoon there, I grabbed some garbage bags and picked up garbage with the kids. We picked up cans, bottles, cigarrette buts, metal scraps, and even a cat scratching post. In all, we picked up about 6 or 7 small garbage bags of trash.

We later learned that our boondocking spot was a popular place for homeless folks to live. Other travelers had left after one night due to the ambiance of the neighborhood and lots of trash had been a constant problem. For the period just prior to our arrival, the National Forest had been closed for an Invasive Species Eradication. The closure must have cleared out that section, and nobody had returned at the time of our visit. As it was, we rather enjoyed our stay.

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Being a boondocking spot, there was no trash cans or dumpsters nearby, so we hauled the garbage into Bend on our way out. We looked for some place to throw it away as we ran our errands. Every dumpster we found had a warning sign that unauthorized use would be prosecuted. Not wanting to complicate our day, we kept looking. Our final errand was to fill the gas tank before our drive. I was pondering our situation when I spotted a cop parked in the parking lot nearby.

I pulled up alongside the cop and rolled down the window. After explaining our predicament, we got a smile in return. “You are clearly doing more good than harm here, ” he said. He glanced at his laptop. “There are 7 officers in the city right now, and none of us would cite you for dumping that trash in someone else’s dumpster.”

Well, Thank You Officer. We drove by the nearest garbage can on the way out of town. We ignored the sign, opened the gate, and unloaded our pile of garbage from the back of the truck. It was quite refreshing to find someone understanding and willing to help us remove garbage from the forest, even if it was technically ‘against the rules.’

It felt good to do a little cleaning during a visit to a National Forest. Unfortunately, on a stop at the same spot a few months later, we discovered plenty more garbage that had accumulated. We didn’t get a chance to clean much that visit, as we were evicted by Forest Rangers. But that is a different story!

Categories
Daily Life Road Stories

Road Story: Emergency Rations, Rain, and… Raccoons!?!

We recently experienced a massive wandering failure. I pray that sharing it will somehow prevent something this awful from ever happening again.

It had been raining for the last week or two, and we had a clear, sunny day. I decided it was a perfect time to dry out (and clean out) the back of the truck. Our truck functions as a garage for us. I have a locking, roll top cover that keeps the rain off, and we have normal garage stuff in there: Chairs, bbq, generator, etc.

Our site at Cape Disappointment State Park had some room to empty the entire bed of the truck. I laid the damp stuff out to dry and collected things that we no longer needed. After a leisurely stop at the beach, I loaded stuff back into the truck. We decided to rearrange a few things. In particular, I moved our box full of emergency freeze dried food to the back, to make it easier to access pending the purchase of an appropriately sized tub. As it was going to rain the next day (again…) I headed out before bed and pulled in the awnings and put everything away.

I was feeling pretty proud of myself when I stepped outside the following morning, having prepared for rain so well the night before. It had been drizzling, and everything was pretty wet. I looked around, planning what I needed to do to hitch up and drive, as we were moving today. As I approached the truck, I realized with a bit of horror that I had not completely closed the roll-top cover, leaving a section of the bed exposed. Smugness dashed, I looked in the back of the truck to evaluate how wet things were. I was both emotionally and physically unprepared for the results.

Stuff was wet all right, but the condition of the truck was way worse. Remember the freeze dried emergency food I moved? The box had been thoroughly soaked by the rain.

AND TORN APART BY RACCOONS.

I suddenly realized with horror that the powdery stuff I had seen all over the truck was not litter-fall from the trees, but the powdered contents of our emergency freeze dried food. Every single vacuum-packed bag had been extracted from the now obliterated box and ripped open. The contents were strewn all over the back of the truck.

Imagine for a moment what eating un-rehydrated freeze dried food would do to your digestive system. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t kind to the racoons, who appeared to have vomited and pooped repeatedly during their freeze-dried buffet. Obviously pre-occupied with their feast, they had given little care what they soiled. They left horrific messes in my toolbag, on our outdoor mat, and all over the small tubs we have in the back of the truck.

I was too horrified to fully process the experience. Jess came out to help me clean up.

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We pulled everything out that had been, well, messed upon. Feeling grateful to have a water hookup, I attached our hose sprayer and we began washing everything off into the grass. The carnage hadn’t spread very far back into the truck, so much of the contents didn’t even need to be removed.

It took us an hour to complete the cleanup. Though all of our stuff was now wet from being washed (and being rained on…) it was now clean. We reloaded the truck and cleaned up our cleaning mess.

The rest of our day turned out great, but in comparison to our morning, just about anything would have been awesome. Lesson learned.