Beachbody and RV Life

          I've been a Beachbody Coach for 9 months and I wanted to share a bit of the struggles and amazing results with doing it inside the RV. First off, I wanted to say that I was a skeptic myself. I had seen it on my news feed for so long and never thought about taking it seriously. I had tried P90X in the past, but I remembered it was a DVD and how expensive it was and never thought twice about it. That was until I received a sweet message from Rich's cousin. She has two kids and has a rocking bod! So that got me thinking about having kids eventually, how I want to be in the best shape for my 30th Bday, and how even though I've always worked out, I wanted to be part of a community. And that's how it all started for me.
         Being a stay at home RV wife has it's amazing perks. Working from home and being with my pups is by far the greatest, but it can also be very lonely. With being a personal trainer I don't have a weight loss story, but I have helped so many people reach their goals, I was excited to get involved with being able to do that again from any location. The Beachbody community itself is truly unbelievable. With social media making everyone so accessible, it's so easy to engage with others AND make friends even though you may never meet in person. AND there is nothing wrong with making some money while you are at it!
         By all means this is not quick cash. It takes time and dedication just like any other job, but for me it's something that I am passionate about. I love living a healthy and fit life, and I want that for everyone. Now living in the RV and working out inside has its challenges. Space, that is the number one. I've learned to modify the moves so it works for the tiny space, but honestly, most of the workouts are extremely doable in the space I do have. When it isn't in the middle of winter, then the outdoors is also a great space to do the workouts.
        As I mentioned above, the programs used to be DVDs, but a new feature that got me sold into being a coach is the Beachbody On Demand. That's right, you heard me correctly! That means as long as you have service or WiFi, you can do the programs from any location. Rich and I both have gym memberships, so one of my favorite things to do it use their group workout room to do my programs. I just stream it right on my phone,  It's the BEST! But if you don't have that accessible, then believe me when I say you can do this at home. Another amazing feature is the challenge groups. This is something that I love doing to keep everyone in my group accountable for their workouts and nutrition. It even helps me stay on track by knowing that I have all of these clients counting on me do be their example.
         I think it's easy for people to put on weight in the RV life, and I am so glad that on my Instagram account there are so many other RVers who are also Beachbody coaches. The results for sure are there! There are programs for every need: yoga, Pilates, weight lifting, high intensity, weight lifting and high intensity, and the list goes on and on! So if you are interested in learning more about living a healthy and fit life in the comfort of your own tiny space, send me a message and I would love to give you more info!

The Hardest Part About Traveling Without The RV.

         It has been a while! Do you know when you get off of your routine, and then all of a sudden months have gone by and you realize you haven't done certain things you love to do in a LONG time?? Well, that just happened to me😕😕
         After our very long honeymoon trip, which was fabulous, we had to get back and jump right into getting caught up again with life. There is so much I should have blogged about during that trip. How much I loved the western side of Canada, and how great Victoria was. How we swam in so many cold places, seeing the Olympic National Park, Calistoga, San Diego, Tijuana, Moab, The Grand Canyon. I seriously could write for days about each place. After our trip, we had a couple weddings to attend as well, so we were very busy. I had a couple trips planned as the MOH to my bestie's wedding. All of this made our 2017 packed with trips, and since we own our own business, it's hard to take time off of work. So ALL of these trips involved leaving the RV and going by plane.
       This is where it gets hard for the both of us. We are the biggest dog lovers around, and leaving them behind is extremely hard. The first time we left them for a few days, we used a company called Rover. We had used them in the past when we both were working the shutdowns all over the country, but this was the first time we had someone stay in our RV to take care of the boys. It all went wrong. she never updated us on how they were doing, and when we returned our neighbors said she left the door open all night and didn't stay with them at all. This truly upsets me...how can someone who works for a dog company be this cruel to animals?? I don't get it. The biggest problem was that we had to leave for my best friend's wedding two weeks after this happened. I really didn't want to leave them again, but thank goodness one of our friends helped us out big time and watched the dogs. This was a HUGE relief!
        We just went on a trip to Mexico for Rich's 30th birthday, and after meeting this nice lady from Rover, we decided to give them another try. She was great with them, but the RV is extremely tricky to work on in winter temps. Needless to say all the problems the furnace could have had, happened while we were away. So here is the problem...how do you explain all of the little things you learn about living full time in an RV  to someone that has never been in one? It's impossible! To this day, we still find new things we are learning about the RV and it's a never ending care.
       We've been full timers for almost 3 years, and this has been one of the hardest winters to deal with. We are starting to have to replace a few parts of the RV, and our RV park has been having many issues of their own. One of the crazy moments we had recently was when we went away for New Years, and we came back to our furnace not working, a mouse fried inside of it, all our water pipes completely frozen AND a busted toilet. By 7pm that evening we had replaced our toilet, had the repair guy fix our furnace, and our water was running again. In those hectic moments you wonder why you live in a tiny space with so many moving parts, but after it's all fixed and back to normal, there is no place I'd rather be. The RV life is for sure not for everyone, and as we have lived in it for this long and have seen SOOO much of this country and Canada, I feel very blessed to have had this opportunity.
           In the next couple of years I think we will be getting ready to settle down into a house and have our RV for travel. We have so much more we want to accomplish and living a nomad life can be very hard with not having a physical address. BUT the journey of our RV life still goes on, and my goal will be to blog more this year and start vlogging too.

Stay tuned!

National Parks U.S.A & Canada

       We had an amazing opportunity to travel to many National Parks in the U.S and Canada, and let me start off by saying CANADA ROCKS!!! I'm not saying that the Canadian National Parks were always prettier, but they were more friendly, dog friendly, the wildlife was unbelievable, and you didn't get overwhelmed with how many people are visiting the ones in the U.S
       First off, I do understand that the U.S has a no dog rule on the trails for the safety of the pets and the wildlife, but seeing how much more wildlife was in Canada, I don't think this truly applies. It should be more of a concern for people who can't handle their pets, and they can become a nuisance.
         Grand Teton NP was truly amazing. One of my favorite in the U.S. The views and the campground were the perfect way to start our trip. Even though they said no dogs on trails, they were super relaxed about it, and we were able to truly enjoy the park with our pups.

        Yellowstone NP had a lot of wildlife, but the crowds took away from the experience. Road rage was occurring with almost every driver, and the RV park was truly the WORST one we went to on the whole trip. It felt like we were sardines, and with the money they are raking in, I'm sure they could have improved it by now. But the sights were incredible!!

         Waterton Lakes NP in Canada was sooooooo much prettier than Glacier NP (even though they are an international protected park), and we got to see two grizzly bears! We went during the off season, so a lot of the park was closed, but it was extremely worth it!

Then lets talk about Banff! The roads were immaculate. We drove there several times from Calgary, and it flew by every time. They also have overpasses and underpasses for the wildlife and most of the highway has nice fences to reduce accidents with the wildlife. The mountains and the views are like nothing I had ever seen before. Lake Louise and the Chateau were breathtakingly beautiful.

          As we left Calgary and made our way past Banff towards Emerald Lake Lodge for our wedding, I truly couldn't believe how many beautiful things we were seeing. The water was an emerald color that I had never seen before but in pictures. As soon as we approached the lodge it's like we entered a fairy tale. Yoho NP was the most magical place out of all of our stops. Words wouldn't be enough to describe the views, the water, or the feelings while we were there. Maybe I feel this way because that's where we got married, but after speaking with a lot of other travelers, the feeling was mutual.

     On our last day at the lodge, we went on an all day trip. We went to Northern Lights Wolf Centre, we learned a lot at this place! Next we went to Radium Hot Springs, I was actually truly disappointed by how they transformed a hot spring into a normal pool look alike. I'm still on the search for a real hot spring. However, we all agreed that we felt amazing after using it, and had a delicious lunch in town. On our way back to Emerald Lake Lodge, it did not disappoint. We stopped several times for wildlife sightings that you just would not experience in the U.S.

      Our next National Park stop was in Washington. We traveled west to Pentiction, Vancouver (which was EXTREMELY crowded), and Victoria, which is one of the coolest places I've ever been to. We took the ferry from Victoria, to Port Angeles, and for 24 hrs we soaked in as much of the Olympic NP. WOW! It was as if we traveled back in time, to this dark and mysterious place with the most vibrant colors of green I had ever seen. I have to admit, I was definitely on the lookout for Edward.

        We continued traveling south on route 101, but even though it was a beautiful road to travel, it sure was the most obnoxious with the RV. The winding and slow pace made it seem like we were on it forever. So we decided to listen to google maps and continue the rest of our route on a fast pace to Calistoga, CA. I'll have to write a separate blog just on the experiences in Victoria and Calistoga alone:)
         After Calistoga, we made our way to San Diego to visit my new sister, and get some much needed rest. There were so many more National Parks that we wanted to see along our route, but we would have needed a whole year off to really soak it in. San Diego was a blast, and our last stop before heading home was the Grand Canyon.
         First off, we experienced the most magical boondocking experience right outside of the park. It truly doesn't get any better than piece and quiet in the middle of nowhere. The following day we listened to the advisory to show up before 9am. We rented bikes and we were off! What a sight! Pictures do not give justice to the vast views and the enormous vibe you get by starring at the canyons. We biked our way up the steep hills and looked at many of the view points, and every single one had its unique beauty.

         Seeing all of these National Parks and beautiful sights in both countries makes you appreciate what we are protecting and how important our role is in this planet. It's amazing how preserved these places still are, and I hope it stays that way for the rest of time.

If you have any questions about the parks we went to, or any part of our trip, feel free to ask!

Happy RVing and traveling!