Fulltiming and Fitness - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Grant · RV-Dreams Family Member

Fulltiming and Fitness

Grant · RV-Dreams Family Member

70 views but no replies so, maybe I should re-frame the question.

Would any fulltimers share with us how they manage to control their weight and maintain their fitness since they are constantly on the road?

Thanks
Grant

Karon · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi Grant,
As fulltimers we ride our bikes and we walk. We tend to grill quite a bit and we make sure to have veggies and fresh fruit. We work at making good food choices. We have the junk around but it's the exception, not the rule.

One of the beauties of this lifestyle is always having a place to walk. I, too, am interested in what others have to say on this subject.

traveljunkie · RV-Dreams Family Member

We are not fulltimers yet, but are in the planning stages and this has been a big topic of discussion for us. We've recently become runners (I'm being liberal with the word biggrin ), and have discovered that we are more consistant with exercise if we have a goal. We've discussed doing a 10k in each state we visit for an extended period of time. We also plan on bringing the free weights, exercise ball, yoga and pilates DVDs, etc. Walking is also one of the best exercises there is, so committing to a daily walk - rain or shine - would be great too. Some of my best walks have been in the rain and snow. I guess we just want to make fitness a priority; if we commit to this great fulltiming lifestyle, we want to insure that we do all we can to keep the best health so we can to enjoy it to the fullest.

Doncat · RV-Dreams Family Member

I am not fulltiming yet and my exercise routine is pretty consistent. I w-o-r-k 8 hrs cry

, then come home, sit in my recliner and watch a lot of action tv shows. biggrin

Usually I end up like this... yawn

.

Just kidding, my wife and I love to walk. We can't wait until we get out there and visit all the great places to hike. I guess we need to pick up our exercise routine a bit so we will be in shape to do all that hiking.. smile

Luvglass · RV-Dreams Family Member

Grant,

We had all kinds of plans as to the walking, biking, and exercising we were going to do in our new lifestyle, but after more than a year in, I have to say that in reality, we just moved to another house. We still trip over the dumbells and the bikes spend most of the time on the rack. ashamed

Just because the house moves and we are in different physical locations, hasn't lead to anymore physical lifestyle changes than we were able to achieve previously.

But, even though we may not be better off physically, we are definitely happier and more content. What a beautiful, simple lifestyle this is.

Jump in, the waters fine! aww

Fred

Darrell and Judy · RV-Dreams Family Member

I started the fulltime lifestyle overweight and we have been working on changing our habits by eating foods from the Superfoods Rx book. Judy has never been overweight but had attended Weight Watchers and is a lifetime member, so we are using the "point" system from that to regulate the amounts.

As for exercise, we bike anywhere from 3 to 20 miles, walk, hike trails, and have stretch bands for muscle toning. Also, we bought some Tai Chi DVDs for stretching but haven't gotten into that yet. When we stay in one place for a period of time we will bike more often, but when we are traveling don't get in as much biking. We do occasional canoeing with our Sea Eagle 330.

Howard · Host

Well, since this the "Ask Howard" category, maybe I should finally respond. smile

I have actually been thinking about my response since you started this thread. I had to process it a little to give my most honest answer.

In my opinion, there is NOTHING about this lifestyle that prevents being fit. There are only excuses and a lack of discipline. smile

We've got both of those covered. smile

We indeed started out in pretty good shape with the intention to eat better and exercise more. Originally, needing individual health insurance, we decided to get healthy using Weight Watchers and exercise so we would have good "labwork" for our insurance evaluations and, hopefully, better rates. Of course, they just approved us without a medical exam. smile

But the mindset was still "We need to be as healthy as possible to stay on the road as long as possible and keep our insurance rates as low as possible. We'll eat good and the walking and hiking will keep us in shape."

Well, that didn't last too long. Once we hit cold weather and shorter days in the winter that first year, and stayed for a month at a time in RV parks, we fell back into old habits. We don't exercise in cold or rainy weather and we tend to hibernate. Add that to all the social eating in the RV parks and that wasn't a good combination.

Our discipline with food completely went out the window and our hiking, biking, and canoeing couldn't keep up.

Once spring and summer hits, we do better. We grill out more, we hike more, we bike more, we canoe more, the days are longer, and the weather is better.

This past winter, while workamping, there were no places to canoe on our own. Of course we did lead canoe trips once a week, so we weren't totally dormant. There also was no good place to bike. When we took the job, we thought we would have the ability to canoe a lot more and that the Refuge and our campsite would be conducive to a lot of biking. We were wrong on both. Then, we had horrible weather at the start. And being "on" all day giving tours made us opt for easy, less healthful meal choices on our workdays. More excuses. smile

Now, that we are moving again, the days are longer, and the weather is better, we are exercising more again. It certainly wasn't our intention to be in this up and down mode, but that's where we are.

It's crazy. We feel so much better when we eat well and exercise a lot. But we get lazy and have all the excuses just like before we started this lifestyle. It's all about desire and discipline and we have that just like before - in short bursts. biggrin

So, if you have the mindset to be healthy, this lifestyle can be great. There is something to be said for taking a brisk walk or a run in the rain. It may not be conducive to routines such as doing a treadmill or an exercise class at the same time every day, so it may require more self-discipline (i.e. you're not motivated by others or by the fact you are paying for a club membership or class).

So there you go, for whatever it's worth. Maybe answering this will get us on track again. biggrin