Outskirts Overland Podcast
📸 Join us as we dive deep into the thrilling world of overland travel, off-road exploration, and outdoor adventures! 🌄
🎧 Tune in to hear captivating stories, expert tips, and interviews with fellow travelers and industry professionals. Get inspired to embark on your own epic journeys! 🌍✨
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Outskirts Overland Podcast
Finding Balance: Maintaining Wellness While Overlanding
The unexpected toll of a nomadic lifestyle isn't always about breakdowns or bad weather—sometimes it's about what happens to your body when adventure becomes your everyday reality.
Today we're diving into the overlooked health challenges of overlanding and long-term travel. While we celebrate the freedom of the open road, there's an uncomfortable truth: this "outdoor hobby" keeps many of us sitting for hours on end, from long drives to campfires, creating a surprisingly sedentary lifestyle.
I share my personal awakening about needing a concrete health plan as my overlanding frequency increases. With gas station snacks, energy drinks, and freeze-dried meals becoming dietary staples, how does anyone maintain wellness while embracing the nomadic life? This conversation feels especially crucial as I approach my long-term goal of full-time road living once my children are grown.
The discussion extends beyond just exercise routines to holistic considerations: telehealth options, laundry schedules, and minimalism as necessity rather than philosophy. For anyone who dreams of transitioning from weekend warrior to full-time adventurer, these practical concerns deserve as much attention as vehicle builds and gear selections.
Whether you're planning your own nomadic future or simply looking to balance weekend adventures with wellness, this episode offers honest reflection on making health as much a priority as the horizon ahead. Share your own strategies for staying healthy on the road—I'd love to brainstorm solutions together!
Welcome to the World of Warcraft, episode 1 the Warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft, warcraft. Hey guys, good morning. It's Tuesday the 22nd. It's the week of more. Appreciate anybody that's here being here and listening. I'll just let you guys know that on friday I will be at more booth 264 with midwest adventure outfitters. We will be doing a little live show slash podcast, slash party. So go ahead and come by and see us. We'll be there saturday too, not just friday, but we'll be there saturday too. So go ahead and come by and see us. We'll be there Saturday too, not just Friday, but we'll be there Saturday too. So go ahead and come by and see.
Speaker 1:Secondly, I'm not a commercial guy, but guys, really, really really, go ahead and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Leave a review. It helps me a lot. Podcast's been doing really good, and it's because of you guys, and I appreciate that. But in order to keep doing this, you know, just for me, just in order to keep doing this and staying motivated I say it almost every episode I really the feedback helps a lot, because I don't have anybody. I don't have any brands, I don't have any sponsors, I don't have any partnerships that are kind of helping this thing go. So make it, keeps me, it keeps me, it keeps me, it keeps me, it keeps me engaged with keeping doing it and spending the money to do it, because this is definitely a total loss for me. Anyways, go ahead and leave a review. I will hopefully get a bunch of pictures with you guys too this week when we're at more Can post up on socials. So can't wait to see you guys, meet you guys, talk to you guys. Come on by, have some questions ready. We're going to do like a Q&A so you can ask you know whatever. Just get to know us. Or Overlanding or Builds or Gear, or you know funny stuff, whatever. So we'll be around for that and open for that and I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1:Last night I was watching Independence Overland's video. He's building a new Trailhunter Tacoma, which is a sick vehicle. Nonetheless, he's got a. Anyways, it doesn't matter, it's not a point, he's building a new Tacoma, but he found a couple problems and he's like man, I don't know that I get time, it's adventure season. You know it's adventure season right now, camping season, whatever. And man, I did not need to watch that video because I still don't have my truck back and I, at this point, I don't even oh gosh, I don't want to say that I let's manifest that it's gonna be ready before more. That would be chaotic anyway. So let's just hope it's ready. Okay, guys, let's hope it's ready. Okay, we're gonna just let us pray. Okay, let's hope it's ready. We're gonna just let us pray. Okay, hope is ready.
Speaker 1:But, man, I want it back because I am, I go camping, exploring, overlanding, adventuring, whatever, and like I just haven't had it for a month and it is wearing on me again. I've said it like five times throughout all the episodes it's at gray industries cruisers, they're working on it. I mean it's not like. It's not like it's a, it's not like what's getting done. A is a little job and b is like I had an appointment. I literally was like hey, man, because I just want it back. For you know, I want it back in time for the real season, so I didn't want to be getting it done in May or June. So here we are, you know, toward the end of April and it's going to be done. You know, more expos, just kind of icing on that cake, for lack of a better term. So that's just what it is. But man, I'm really ready to have it back. Good dude, I just hope that happens soon. I'll be so happy to have that done, get it back.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it just hit me yesterday when he was talking about it too. He's like man, I just can't my truck's. He's like I just can't, you know, afford time-wise, you know like time-wise, to be screwing with this thing. I really spent the whole winter trying to get it done. You know he's alluding to this, it's not word for word, but just I spent the whole winter trying to get this thing dialed in and now he found like a leaky shock. And he then, and now he found like a leaky shock and he said, you know, and he's got to deal with it, he's putting new springs on the shocks, just it's. There's a lot going on. So he's like man, this is like you know, I don't know. So I was like man.
Speaker 1:I feel you like to my core, although mine will be done. I'm being slightly impatient and I don't know whiny would be the word. It will be done. I'm being slightly impatient and I don't know, whiny would be the word. It will be done. None of it's the end of the world If I don't have my truck from War Expo. That's extremely unfortunate, but it's also not a trip.
Speaker 1:Where the truck is. You know, I would love for you guys to see it and I'd love for it to be there. To you know, for the brand, you know from my brand, to me, to you know, everybody's like oh, it's a real thing here it is, but it's not like we're wheeling, we're off-roading or I need it for any of that. It is a quite a bit more comfortable camping setup, for sure. But I do have air mattresses, gazelle. I mean, it's fine, I'll be just fine anyways. No, any, any way, we go, it'll be fine. So just ready to have it back. And it's watching that video. Last night I even just went to bed. Afterwards I was like duh man, I feel this in my soul, so ready to just have it back. I don't know. Does anybody else feel like that?
Speaker 1:I never have work done on my car Ever, like I always do it, so like I don't know. It's like a separation anxiety, I guess. I don't know, I don't know what it is. It's just weird, not something I typically deal with. I just don't do gear work, and I have done gears in the past, but I just bought the gear set like the third already made in the instance of the truck. That was an option, but I don't know anything about doing air lockers. So here we are. I don't know a single thing. I mean I guess I know about it, like I know what it does. I think I know basically how it works. I've never done it, though. I've never wired an air compressor, so it just made more sense to me to have it done by somebody that knows what they're doing. And uh, so yeah, that's just what it is. But, man, I'm ready to have it back, I'll tell you that. So ready to have it back. I don't know, I might have knocked my truck. I've not been away from it this long like ever. So, man.
Speaker 1:But I talked yesterday and I've got a ton of podcasts out at this point, like I've done one like almost every weekday for over a month. So look back at the backlog. I mean there's a bunch. See if there's a topic you guys like, go listen to one.
Speaker 1:But I was talking yesterday about that tornado that hit. It was an EF1. They confirmed it yesterday. It traveled almost seven miles and it was a hundred yards wide and it was a ef1. So yesterday I was talking about wind speeds and I was like winds were like 70 miles an hour, but I knew like an ef3, it was like 150, 140. So I was like it's not, it wasn't crazy, but I mean our recycling center is gone Like and I laugh, it's not funny, it's not funny at all, but like it tore some stuff up. It was an EF1. It was a real deal. It really happened Like absolutely completely a tornado.
Speaker 1:So my yard's still. Oh, sorry guys, I slept a ton, I don't know why. I'm tired, I'm stressed, but my yard's still pretty much underwater. A bunch of my coworkers sit there Like they live by creeks or rivers and like they are way overflooded. Roads are impassable, except even last night. So hopefully today it's warmer, the sun's out, hopefully that can at least some of that can you know run on down the line. So that's what I hope.
Speaker 1:All the schools seem fine. Nobody's out of school. I haven't seen too many beat up cars or houses. I really did tear some stuff up, though. Oh, excuse me, I wish I could yawn. So yeah, that's what's going on.
Speaker 1:You know that was real, that happened. If you guys watched the stream, you saw the tree. That was just like sitting in the parking lot. That was crazy. That was absolutely nuts. That was just crazy. Just roots in the hole. Weather's so crazy, man. But yeah, I don't know, I don't have a lot of overlanding stuff to talk about because I don't want to talk about too much, because I mean, I'm going to spend three days talking to you guys and I don't want to just be a, you know, be a repetitive, like a broken record.
Speaker 1:But one thing that I've been thinking about often and maybe this resonates with a lot of people in overlanding overlanding is an outdoor hobby. You know, quote-unquote outdoor hobby. But really you're doing what I'm doing right now. You're sitting in a car, a lot of it. You're doing what I'm doing right now. You're sitting in a car, a lot of it.
Speaker 1:I got to find a way to incorporate a like and there's people that do it and it's not like rocket science, but like. I got to start to incorporate like a health plan. I go so much and like I'm so, um and I'm so, am subject to kind of the same foods and this and that, but man, I got to get that locked down. My health is more important than that and I'm going to start getting old fast if I don't and I don't mean, like I say getting old fast, but like aging, like wearing down, like stuff's going to start falling apart if I don't keep it together, you know. So I'm going to start not going to start.
Speaker 1:I've been, it's been in my mind for some time now, but I got to get it in, I got to get in check with some type of like getting some exercise, getting a routine for when I'm doing that. You know I don't live on the road but I I go frequently enough to where some type of health routine would make sense. I I don't set an alarm when I go camping, but again, I go so frequently now like I need to put a routine in place or I'm going to just deteriorate because it goes. Drive somewhere. You know. Sleep, camp, eat, hang out, drive somewhere, whatever. Stop, you know, eat, hang out, fire, that's all sitting mostly. Go to bed, you know. Wake up without an alarm, you know. Pack up, get in the car and go again in the car, still sitting, though like I'm gonna have to start figuring something out, like whether I run a mile or something.
Speaker 1:I gotta figure something out, or I'm just going to get overweight, more so than I already am and by no means am I bad, like bad at all for me, having been a trainer for 15 years and like being in extremely good shape. I'm bad to me, but. But I don't want to wait until it's bad, until I do something about it. So I've got to get some type of plan. It's bad till I do something about it. So I've got to get some type of plan in place for while I'm overlanding. I haven't. Yeah, I got to figure something out. I've got a rack and I can hang all this stuff off a rack, like there's no reason I can't figure. There's just no reason I can't be figuring this out. So that's something I'm going to make a priority of mine this year with my setup, not a priority of mine this year.
Speaker 1:Like health, like health's always on my mind, you know, not just eating crap all the time, but exercise more. So, like, how do I exercise while I'm camping type thing, and a lot of people hike and do, but like, I just want to like actually exercise, like my excuse me, my exploration is by far the truck and I like that. I have no desire to change that. So hiking is more like foot traffic exploration. I mean actual, just exercise, not activity. Yet Exercise, whether that, excuse me whether that's push-ups, running, lunges, making a program program, any number of things but I got to get that. I got to get that locked down because right now the way I'm doing it is relaxing. But I've gotten to a place, you know, where I've made goals of I want to open up time and space and money, and so I can go a lot. Well, now I am going a lot, but it's a lot of sitting, guys, and I can feel it in my body Like I have a desk job now which, for again, I was a trainer forever, so I walked around all day, every day.
Speaker 1:You know, as a trainer, I was on the floor. Now I sit all day, sit know, as a trainer, I was on the floor. Now I sit all day, sit all day. Then my hobby is this, which is sitting around a campfire, sitting in a truck, and even if I was to stand, I mean it would make a difference, but it's not going to get me where I want to be with my life. You know, there's a saying and I'm a guy. So if you're a girl, you know, listening to this, like don't let the old man creep in. And I'm a guy, so if you're a girl, you know listening to this, like don't let the old man creep in. And I've been letting that happen for the last three, four years probably and it's time to get my you know, for lack of a better term just get it together. So I've been thinking about that.
Speaker 1:You know how I'm gonna change what I pack and take to eat more. You know, less snacks, more fruit, better meats, you know, not not processed, like I love my freeze-dried meals and some some are definitely healthier than others, but naturally, because they have such a high shelf life excuse me, naturally, because I have such a high shelf life, there's preservatives, so and you know, I gotta get off of freaking these energy drinks and get to coffee. I did buy the brew tech. What are they? Brew tech? I think. Brew tech, uh, french press mugs, they're sick. So, but there's no piece of gear that's gonna get my.
Speaker 1:Get it together for me, like that's a cool piece of gear and it's gonna help me drink coffee like versus energy drinks, but at the same time, like the action is what's necessary, not the cup, like they're not gonna buy a new, not gonna buy a fancy cup, and it's gonna change my life. You know like I need to change my life and just have a fancy cup and it's going to change my life. You know, like I need to change my life and just have a fancy cup. There's a peek into my mentality. So that's just something I've been working on thinking about a lot Like as I do this, and my goal, you know, maybe isn't your guy's goal, but my goal is to be full time on the road.
Speaker 1:You know, maybe isn't your guy's goal, but my goal is to be full-time on the road. Um, you know, pretty much as soon as my kids are, as soon as my kids are old enough to, you know, live on their own, which is, you know, it is far away, but it's also not far away, like I know how I can remember, like this is how I look at it in my mind and justify it, but I can remember, you know, as many years ago I can remember clearly as I have years left till they're gone. So in my mind I like, I package it that way, like 12 years ago. You know, I remember 12 years ago like super well. Well, in 12 years from now, that's where I'm going to be and I don't want that to creep up on me without, you know, working toward my goals. So I, essentially, am going to go on the road full-time, whether I have a job, whether I have a day job or not, work remote, whatever, but that's, that's what's happening, that's what I'm going to do.
Speaker 1:I don't know what that looks like as far as you know, 12, 12 years ago. You know I've been doing this almost 20 years and, and, and a lot of the stuff that's out now is new, you know, newly developed, newly. You know I don't know what'll be out or what'll be the cool thing to have, whether that's whether I'm doing van life or a. You know I got a more of an expedition truck or, or who knows? You know I might be. You know I might be on a motorcycle by then. Who even knows? I don't know, you know.
Speaker 1:But I do want to be on the road full time. I don't necessarily mean traveling all over the place all the time. I may still even be close to where I live now. I just am going to be in a vehicle and not have a house. I want to be camping, I want to have the freedom to roam and do that. But I do think about that and the closer I get to that and learn new things and get equipment lined up, as I get closer to that. Like, my health matters. So I've been thinking a lot about that. Like, how do I get telehealth going? How do I get an exercise plan in place? What's you know what's it look like? I don't have a oven. You know I don't have an oven. I can't. What's that look like? How do I make food? Do I just what? All does that? What does all that look like for me as I move forward into, you know, preparing myself? You know I'm doing it frequently now, but as I prepare myself to do it full time, what does that look like?
Speaker 1:Like I don't want to get to a place like and we all as overlanders, nomads, whatever we can get to a place where we have too much stuff and then we downsize. I want to be in a place where I'm not going through that, going through that, you know, learning curve. I want to. I want to have that dialed in a little more. Like you got to pare down everything like and not to a minimal, maybe even to a minimalist level. But you got to pare everything down. Like you can't just have a new pot and a pan for every day. You can't have endless amounts of clothes. You can't have 16 pairs of shoes. Like you can only have so much stuff and travel a lot and live on the road. Like you can only have so much stuff, you can only do so much. So I really got to lock myself down into a like a legit routine. Like like this day I do laundry. This day I do this this day I do that or I'm not going to be a success. I'm not going to.
Speaker 1:It's going to be way harder to make that transition in the next many years and transition as time goes on toward that goal, cause that's my ultimate goal, guys. I want to be on the road full-time. That isn't like some pipe dream or something. I have kids right now. Okay, before I had kids I did different stuff. Now I have kids.
Speaker 1:This is the point in my life where having kids is what I'm doing, but I can't let my body go, I can't let my progress go to where my end goal of being on the road all the time, um, is it feasible? So, and that's that's the goal for me. So I think about that. You know, once in a while I put more thought into it than others, cause I I do have people in my life, you know that that like having me around, and I think they get nervous when I talk, talk out loud about it too much, cause they think I'm about to just jump ship. But just to be clear, like I'm going to do that when it's time to do that. It's not going to be before then. I'm not ditching my kids, I'm not ditching my family, like it's just a life I want to live. I've lived, I've lived that life before.
Speaker 1:Okay, like, very truly, really like not in a van, not in a truck, but in a camper. I've lived in a camper for years of my life, before kids, and it's small and I understand. I understand how hard it is to do a camper like a fifth wheel camper, like a 20 something foot, you know, with beds that are already out and stuff, like. I am completely and fully aware, aware how difficult that is. So I know that going smaller yet has a ton of benefits for mobility but and electricity and different things. You know you don't need hookups, you don't need some big truck, like you're the truck and the trailer together. You don't need external power because you got solar and all these things. Like that's what you know.
Speaker 1:Again, I overlanded, I lived in a camper you know kind of thing there and so I this is not a lifestyle that I'm not familiar, that I don't know about, but I've went so far the other way now, from like I do this for my mental health and relaxing and it's a hobby. And now I, you know, I'm not, I'm not treating it like a lifestyle right now and I need to make that change in that transition and like start to wrap my head around that, start to make plans for that. And again, this is not I'm not saying everybody listens to my podcast or everybody that overlands, or like like that there's, there's not a lot of people that have that goal, you know, but I just want to be able to go. Like I like sports. Okay, guys, like I like sports I think I've talked about that before football, hockey, overlanding, camping, whatever. That's like my jam. I just want to live on the road. Like I want to go see. You know, like one year I'm a Cardinals fan, st Louis Cardinals fan. Like one year, I just want to go see the Cardinals play in a bunch of different stadiums. I want to go see state parks, national parks. I aspire to run some, you know, you know some trail races that are all over the country and I'd love nothing more than to, six months before the race, go just train where that's at. Um, yeah, I, just, I, just that's the way I want to be.
Speaker 1:I was again. I was in the military. I lived away very active lifestyle, very transient. After I got out, I lived in a fifth wheel camper. Um, I lived in like a loft apartment, like above somebody, like in someone's house up top, like real small, like I like that, you know, I like I like my life being big on, you know, like I don't like my life being big on stuff, I like it being big on joy. And what makes me happy is like going to do new stuff. I have like like I'm ADD like that, where I want to go see new stuff. I want to go check it out, like I want to go. I want to see, you know, these baseball stadiums, these football stadiums, these these places. You know, I want to just anything. I think anything you guys might want to do, like I don't know. I want to see a concert at the red rocks, maybe a bunch of concerts at the red rocks. I want to go to Baja and live on the beach for a little bit Like and that sounds like a dream to somebody and maybe I am that sounds like a dream, but that's like not a dream for me.
Speaker 1:That's a. That's a. That's a reality that I'm going to live. That's been established that way for a long, long, long, long time. This is not new to me. Covid didn't change this for me. Like I've been wanting to live like that for a very long time.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, just thinking about getting my health in line, what doctors look like. So yeah, just thinking about getting my health in line, what doctors look like, what working out looks like. Getting some type of schedule in place, like making sure I do whatever it is X amount of steps or X amount of miles of walking and you know. Quit doing gas station foods. Making sure I got snacks that are healthier nuts, berries, fruit, stuff like that in the truck that's ready to go, just paying attention. Like it's real easy to sit in the truck, eat crappy crap, drink energy drinks, drink alcohol, get to camp, set it up for 10 minutes, get your chair out, sit back down by the fire for the next three, four hours, cook some crap food you know like. And I'm not talking like. This is not a negative, it's just what I've been living and how I think of it now.
Speaker 1:So there's stuff I got to get in line. Man, if that resonates with any of you guys, I mean, by all means reach out to me and we can brainstorm. I would love some. I'd love to brainstorm with somebody else. I've been kind of alone in this forever, which is why I love that it got big, because prior to this, I was just a weirdo that did this thing and truck camped all the time and like, was this this middle ground between you know, camping and homeless? So it's got a name down at school, so that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Anyways, that's what I got for today, just rambling, getting my thoughts out there. I finally opened up my brain enough last night where everything's going on now prior to the exposures out of my control. So it's gonna go how it goes. There's nothing I can do. What I can do is done. So I finally had a chance to open up my brain space to something other than just like chaos. I got to get this done. It's just what's done is done. That can be done by me, and I just got to react to everything else, and I'm pretty good at that, actually. So I'll catch you guys tomorrow.
Speaker 1:On Wednesday It'll be at a different time, probably tomorrow, I'm not sure. Maybe I can take tomorrow off, not for any other reason than I'm you know. So stuff's going on tomorrow that I'll be gone earlier than early. I don't know that my dad really wants to be. I'm going to be with my dad and I don't know that he really wants to be on podcast. So so, uh, anyways, I'll catch you guys sometime tomorrow I don't necessarily know when and we'll go from there. Have a good day. I'll see you later.