HEalthy Road Trip Tips

originally written on Nov 28 2017

 I have been feeling a little stir crazy lately. Studying for boards, working at my internship, teaching 7 weekly classes, sleeping and eating. It is a monotonous schedule of work, eat, study, sleep that is slowly wearing me down. But more to come on that another time. When I am feeling this way, I usually take some time to look back on fun adventures past and plan for new adventures ahead.  So as I was reviewing my pictures and my adventure journal, I realized I learned a lot about a healthy lifestyle on the road.

Our Betty, she is a big gal, so we are lucky that we can stretch out a little more than on an average road trip.   While I don’t walk around the back the entire time Chris is driving, I can get up and stretch if I really need to.  We try not to do that  too much (safety and it’s annoying to the driver. Mostly, I sit in the passenger seat and control our Harry Potter Audiobooks. (We are almost all done with the series! I don’t know what we will listen to next).

We are locked in Boston for a little while due to Chris’s busy season and my study schedule/ clinical schedule. After traveling/driving for 3-4 days straight for the fourth time, I finally feel like I am getting it down. 

I’ve learned how to stay active on the road, how to properly fuel (easily and efficiently), how to stay hydrated and how to stay sane (3 days in a small space is long no matter how much you love your significant other).

Along the way, I have found products that are my favorites to aid us on the road so I wanted to share them with you guys and tips on why and how I use them.

With that, here is a list of the 10 ten things we used on our Road trip!

Top 10 Things for your Next Road Trip:

1.     Audible/ Audiobooks:

Harry Potter Audiobooks literally saved our lives. I think there was one day on our Winter trip where we did not speak to each other for 6 hours because we were so engrossed with Harry Potter.  While I don’t recommend completely ignoring your travel buddy, it is nice to get lost in a good book and let the hours melt away.  Our days and hours in the car seem much faster when we have something to focus on besides 400+ miles of I-90. And who doesn’t love Harry Potter. (I’m nervous for when we finish the series—Taking recommendations now!!)

2.     Polarized Sunglasses: ViraSun

Your eyes and our head will thank you if you invest in a good pair of polarized sunglasses. With the glare of the windows and the road and long days in the car, good sunglasses are really worth it. Also super helpful for when you get out and hit the trails!

3.      RX Bars

These are tasty, tasty treats for the road and some of my favorite protein bars.. Very healthy and only a couple of ingredients (egg whites, almonds, cashes and dates to name a few). They have delicious flavors and I feel full when I eat them (and not gross!) They don’t melt and you can eat them frozen if you would like.

4.     Noka Organics

My new favorite obsession. Seriously so delicious. Noka Organics is a mix of superfoods, fruits, vegetables and protein.  IT is the best on the go snack to fuel working out and hiking. The pouch is resealable and there is really no mess and minimal waste. .They have a couple of different flavors and I like them all!  The Sweet potato one even tastes like fall!

5.     Essential Oils

Like I don’t talk enough about essential oils here. While out on the road, we rely on essential oils for everything from first aid (cuts, burns, scrapes) to immune boosters to relaxation to skin care.  I have a mini diffuser for the car from amazon and we bring coconut to use on our skin or a pre make roller bottles for easy, no mess use. I have a wide range of roller ball recipes that I will be sharing soon so stay tuned. I also did a facebook video on the Essential Oils we used most on the road—Blog post to come soon!

6.     Hydration Packets/ Tablets

Between driving and hiking, we don’t hydrate as much as we normally do throughout the day. One reason, is I don’t want to make Chris stop the van every 30 minutes to go to the bathroom and the other reason is we just forget sometimes.  There were a couple of times on our past trip where I ended up with a really bad headache or felt really fatigued at the end of the day and I quickly realized I was very dehydrated.

Edit: As of 2022, I am SUPER obsessed with LMNT but also have loved NUUN in the past.

7.     A good map/Road Atlas

One thing we did not have for our trip but wish we did was a road atlas of the United States. We spent a lot of time off grid with no cell phone service which was glorious and a little nerve wrecking.  I personally loved being off grid but we didn’t always know exactly where we were going (that is half the fun, right?)  so a road atlas would definitely be useful.  We did have a map of each section of Yellowstone National Park that we were in as well as the Grand Tetons and other parks in the area which were super helpful for not only hiking but for driving around the parks and finding what sites we wanted to see.  I think we were some of the few “young people” with a map in the park (besides some friends we made—Hi Julie and Reet!)

8.     Adventure Journal

When we first got in Betty, I converted one of my many unused notebooks (I have a collection from Marshalls. It’s excessive) in to our Adventure Journal. It was a place to write down all the places we went, what we loved, what we didn’t and how our day went overall. I picked out a journal that says “And so the Adventure Begins…” I thought it was too perfect for our Betty trips and we decided that it is a Betty only journal. A place for us to record our thoughts and adventures.. who knows, maybe it will be a book one day. A book filled with love and adventure.

9.     Fitness Challenge

I decided to do a Yoga Instagram challenge for the month of August, even though we were on the road for the month. I went with the #MermaidYogis Challenge because I am a mermaid at heart (seriously, I haven’t met a body of water I don’t like) It was a great way for me to stay dedicated to my yoga practice while not necessarily having a routine.  It also led to some amazing yoga pictures with beautiful backdrops.

10.     A Good Road Trip Partner

The open road can freeing and wild. It inspires adventure and creativity but it can definitely get lonely driving mile after mile when all you have in your rearview mirror is cornfields and cattle. While I am a huge advocate for everyone taking some sort of solo trip in their life, (especially woman), I am so incredibly grateful to travel with my boyfriend, Chris.  I cannot imagine experiencing any of these adventures with anyone else. The downside is being stuck in a car with someone for hours upon hours isn’t an easy feat. You have to handle daily stressors as well as unknown stressors the road can bring.  You definitely learn a lot (see this post) about each other and learn what you can and cannot do. It is an experience unlike any other. I’ll be honest, We might be slight outliers…. I mean we decided to jump in a van for two weeks for our first vacation as a couple…. After only 8 month of dating…. And now after two trips on the road, we want to spend a whole year together in a van:)

So there you are, some of my favorite things to support us while we are on the road.  We are prepping for another trip and February and as we learn more and explore more, I am sure I will have more tips and tricks to share with you.  I am forever grateful for this crazy decision and amazing adventure.  I hope that I even inspire one person to get out and explore (and maybe learn from some of our mistakes).

Stay tuned for road trip tips, fitness adventures, outdoor adventures and oil adventures to come. I hope to continue to make this a space to share all my adventures to come and help as many people as possible.

Check out our instagram page for Betty, @twoifbyvan or my fitness instagram, @km_holistichealth.

Namaste!