Blog Post #4 is finally here for your amusement. Please resist the urge to skip to the bottom of the page to check out the ending joke(s) which have become a long-time tradition of my blog (a 4 month long-time tradition). Coming up with original jokes is not easy. I have moments of hilarity when chatting with friends but it seldom translates to written jokes. Many of those jokes are also way too inappropriate for the blog of a Registered Nurse and socially conscious amateur writer. That is why the jokes posted here tend to be cheesy, childish, corny and/or stupid. I wouldn’t even read them if I were you.

I’m excited to write about two of my absolute passions; travel and health. One of the reasons I haven’t posted for some time is that I haven’t been home much. My wife and I recently took a road trip to Seattle to watch a couple of baseball games. We then headed to her home town of Kamloops to visit with friends and family. There was a time when we would treat these road trips as vacations. “Bye bye nutritious healthy diet” and “I’ll exercise when I get back home” was our general attitude. When I was in nursing school, that mindset worked fine. We’d eat well and exercise regularly when we were at home and in our routine. Then we’d get the opportunity to take a road trip or hop on a plane and we could leave the routine behind with little effect (we were also much younger). The problem came after nursing school when road trips and travel opportunities became more frequent. We’d spend four to seven days on the road eating badly and ignoring exercise. We’d return home sluggish, bloated, and tired with little energy. Then it was time to return to work….feeling worse than before our time off. We needed a vacation from our vacation.

The Change

Tired of this yo-yo cycle, I made a conscious decision to pursue fitness and nutrition on my travels. It didn’t mean following a detailed regiment or skipping good food and drink. It just meant getting in my exercise and finding moderation in my diet. The ultimate goal was feeling good and having energy, making my travel time that much more enjoyable. As any change requires, it started with a mindset.

The start and stop fitness strategy that has plagued me and many others is far from the best recipe for success. Consistency is the most important aspect of achieving fitness and weight loss goals. Exercise needs to be a must-do priority in order to maintain consistency. This is the mindset I knew I would need to exercise while travelling and that it would not be an easy change.

As the saying goes, “If you’re unsuccessful in making a detailed guide to achieve, then make a detailed guide to achieve non-success” or as it’s sometimes said, “Fail to plan. Plan to fail.” Now every time I travel, I have designated times for getting my workouts in. If I’m travelling to a new place, I’ve done an on-line search of running paths, parks, and gyms. If I’m booking a hotel room on-line, I’ve looked at the fitness facilities.

Last fall, my wife and I made our way to New York City. It was an amazing trip and the start of our new “healthy on the road” mentality. Earlier in the year, we had travelled to Mexico where we drank in the late morning, napped in the afternoon, and ate low protein meals throughout the day. While we walked a lot, we never ran, never picked up anything heavier than a beer, and never broke a sweat. Not even a cheap outdoor yoga class up in the hills got us doing anything fitly (It’s a word-ish). In New York, we had a plan. We had already learned the importance of protein and had a general knowledge of calories which made food choices much easier and healthier. Again, it was about balance and moderation, not discipline and deprivation. It’s New York City! You gotta eat your way through it. We also had activity goals….walk The High Line, explore Central Park, run at The Jackie Kennedy Onasis Resevoir. Burn calories. Eat well. Feel good.

It wasn’t the perfect healthy trip but it was the start of change. A healthier mindset and vision for what our travels should look like has led to more enjoyable trips and encouragement to travel more. Soon, we’ll be leaving on a three week adventure to China. The planning has gone on for months. It’s not vacationing. It’s travelling. Our hotels have been assessed for gyms while nearby parks with outdoor fitness equipment and running paths have been mapped out. That being said, the diet will be a challenge. I’m going to try the latest North American fad diet….eating Chinese food for three weeks straight! That is probably funnier than these original jokes about travel. Enjoy.

Why did the octopus cross the road?

To get back to the ocean….because that’s where it lives.

Why did the crab cross the road?

To get back to the ocean….because that’s where it lives.

Why did the clam cross the road?

It didn’t. Couldn’t move…. eaten by birds.

For the music fans out there:

Why did the Aerosmith fan skip ‘Monkey on My Back’ and ‘Janie’s Got a Gun’?

To get to “The Other Side”