26: How To Travel And Still Be A Bodybuilder

We are about a month into our travels taking this podcast on tour of the United States, and have settled into somewhat of a groove with getting our nutrition and training in while on tour. Today I’m going to talk about the things we have done to adapt to getting our nutrition in while not having the luxuries of a stove, fridge, or much storage at all. I’m also going to talk about how we are adapting to changes in elevation, time zones, and lack of sleep.  I’ll also touch on some of the gyms we have stopped at and the people we have met along the way. 

Be sure to join the Facebook group called “The ‘Everything Else’ in Bodybuilding Podcast Insiders!” to discuss episodes and follow the podcast tour as we travel the USA promoting the show.

Additional Resources:
-Need accountability for your ongoing posing practice? Jump on my weekly posing practice classes at http://www.weeklyposing.com
-Doing a show? Not sure if you are posing correctly? Come to a Learn To Pose™ LIVE Virtual Clinic! www.posingpractice.com 
-Want to WIN your next competition? I can help! Learn more at: www.posingwinsshows.com
-FREE posing tutorials for Figure, Bikini, and Men's Physique competitors at www.learntopose.com 
-FREE ebook “5 Things Every Bodybuilding and Fitness Competitor Needs To Know Before Preparing For A Show” at www.eeinbb.com
-Grab your “My Own Motivation” tank top at shop.killitwithdrive.com 
-Support my podcast tour of The United States with a donation via Venmo! https://account.venmo.com/u/Michele-Welcome

Key Takeaways:
*Responses from people on the road (2:21)
*How we are getting adequate protein in (3:29)
*Suggestions on how to get adequate protein when flying (5:28)
*How we are getting adequate carb sources in (5:54)
*How we are getting adequate fat sources in (6:50)
*Current status of workouts (8:00) 
*Meeting Ken Weber from The Brickyard in Milwaukee, Wi (9:39)
*Meeting Dan Pasholk from Midtown Fitness in Madison, WI (9:57)
*Check out our tour dates and locations at eeinbb.com and text me 702-637-0091  to schedule a 1 on 1 in person posing lesson when we are in your area (10:47)

—Transcript—

We are just about a month into our travels as we take this podcast on tour of the United States. As you might know by now we are living in our van so we don’t have the luxuries of a refrigerator, stove, or really much storage at all.  We are traveling through multiple time zones and adapting to the various weather conditions as we migrate from place to place around the country. We are meeting a lot of really great people, visiting a lot of really great places, and building new relationships with people you just can’t do over the phone.  

We’ve only been flipped the  bird once so far by another driver.  Not quite the honk and wave if you see us response, but after many hours of driving it was a nice change in scenery. A young guy did walk into a pillar checking out the van at a gas station and I had to speed walk to get inside to hide my laugh. I’m not very good at holding back when things are funny.  Especially if someone trips. The obnoxious flailing of the arms……the ridiculous fall…I’m done. We did get an honest question from a young guy asking us what the podcast, the everything else in bodybuilding, is about.  Vassilios was stuck for a moment not sure how to respond, but he was great about it and encouraged him to listen to the show. 

I’m actually talking to you right now from Santa Fe New Mexico in a 2 star hotel room I got a last minute deal on from the Hotwire app. It feels good to have some space that we can sit down in and kick our feet up.  Vassilios has been inspired to write music so it’s been nice to have what I call living room concerts while I work on my computer. We haven’t had a good night sleep in weeks so it is a real treat to be here. 

As you can imagine there is a lot of instability when living in a van and not having simple pleasures. So how do we manage being a bodybuilder during all of this? 

We’ve settled into somewhat of a rhythm now with our eating patterns. We both consume a lot of protein so we supplement with at least 1 meal replacement shake a day so Vassilios doesn’t have to grill our protein on the side of the road more than 1-2x per day.  We ran out of those meal replacement shakes that I love and grabbed a box of some generic chemical shitstorm meal replacements from the grocery store until we can re-supply ourselves with the good stuff.   The store bought shakes taste gross and give me heartburn from all the gums and fake thickeners in them but it’s an easy way to get 30 grams of protein in.  It takes me forever to drink them but eventually I get it down.  

Meal replacement shakes in powder form are good for flying too because you can bring a shaker cup and a packet of protein with you and just grab an overly priced water bottle from the airport and mix up a shake during flight.  The shakes I drink have 36 grams of protein, 21 grams of carbs, 6 grams of fat, and loaded with vitamins and minerals. It’s not just a whey protein shake, it’s a complete meal replacement.  So when traveling I have 2 of them a day and that gets me 72 grams of protein.  Vassilios sometimes does 3 shakes since he eats over 300 grams of protein a day. 

Besides the shakes, Vassilios cooks me burgers on our grill every day unless we grab a rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods or, out west ,there is a nice small store called Sprouts that I like to get groceries at.   

Once in a while we grab steak from a restaurant and I take half of it to go so I can eat it cold as a snack later. Instead of a giant to-go box for my little bit of steak, I ask for tin foil to wrap the steak in so it fits in my purse. Vassilios gives me gross face when I whip out my foil covered steak from my purse and start munching on it. He then proceeds to drink one of those store bought generic shit storm shakes so I give him gross face right back.  If you are flying somewhere and don’t care about eating meat cold like me, you could always get a solid meal at the airport with steak or chicken and take the extra protein with you on the flight too.  Sometimes you get stuck with an airport that only has fast food though so meal replacements and jerky will be your best bet in those situations.  

If you are flying and in contest prep, and need to measure your food extra closely, you can cook your meat ahead of time and freeze it.  Frozen meat will keep on a flight, especially if you wrap it in frozen veggies.  You can’t bring liquids on a flight, but you can bring food, so I use frozen veggies over freezer packs.  Measure your meat out ahead of time, pack them in individually wrapped zip lock bags, label them, freeze them, and then pack them. 

For our carbs sources while we are on tour, Vassilios likes bananas and I like clementines, especially the smaller ones that tend to be sweeter. By the way, they are easy to bring on flights too.  The key with fruit on a road trip, though, is to make sure the fruit has a natural casing so it is less likely to attract flies. While traveling through Idaho where it is pretty much all farms and there are flies everywhere you go, If Vassilios cut into a pineapple, within seconds there was a swarm of flies. I got so frustrated one day I went to battle with the flies. I bought a $1 fly swatter from the gas station and hopped in the back of the van and flung that fly swatter around like a mad woman until every fly was gone.  Every time I got one I would let out a good cheer.   At first Vassilios thought I was going crazy until I caught him grabbing the fly swatter, catching a fly, and letting out a “take THAT mother fr”. As you can imagine I wasted no time laughing and teasing him! See!

Getting our sources of fat in is pretty easy. Although I get the leaner ground beef, there is still fat in the beef.  I supplement the fat with butter.  Vassilios really loves the Kerigold brand of butter and just bites into it like a candy bar. He gets a lot more fat and carbs than me so our challenge is making sure we keep his volume of food UP every day.  For fats you can do things like almonds and other nuts too, but I’m liking the butter right now because it has barely any carbs, and nuts have carbs, so having butter means I get to have more clementines for my carbs. 

On our long travel days between cities our go to protein snack is beef jerky. Beef jerky travels easy and is packed with protein so it’s great for when you are on the run.  It’s great if you are flying too because you don’t have to worry about liquids.  It’s not easy finding beef jerky that is either tender or not loaded with chemicals. I grabbed an all natural bag of jerky at a health food store one day and I had to stop eating the jerky halfway through the bag to let my jaw relax.  It was so tired of chewing.  Plus the flavor after a while became pretty pungent too.  So I always make sure we have a bag or two of the brand we like on hand. We even found it at Walmart for much cheaper than at a gas station, so we stock up whenever we are there.  

As for our workouts, I’ve been pretty fatigued from driving, lack of sleep, and intermittent sleep, so I’ve been listening my body and making sure I get the work in to sustain my muscle, but I haven’t been training to make gains for a few weeks now. My strength is still up, and is actually climbing with some exercises, so I know I’m still ok for the time being. 

Plus, we have been in areas with a high elevation and that has greatly affected our workouts.  Man has it been a challenge to train in high altitude. People say it all the time, but you have to experience it sometime to know what it’s like.  We were in Colorado and Utah a week ago where the elevation was around 5,000 and when trying to train I would get light headed with every set. My strength was good, but the cardiovascular component restricted my total output. Right now in Santa Fe, the elevation is over 7,000 feet, so I’m taking more time in between sets to make sure I don’t pass out.  Even getting up and down from the floor when doing laundry makes me light headed. 

In another day or so we will be heading to the San Antonio Texas area so we will be back to a lower elevation soon.  But in the meantime, the goal is to get enough work in to keep up the momentum with my strength and muscle mass. 

We have a membership at a corporate gym that has a ton of locations around the country so we have this gym as a fallback to get our workouts in no matter where we are in the country.  What’s been cool are some of the really cool non-corporate gyms we have stopped at along the way to get our workouts in.   We did a couple pop up mini interviews of the owners of a couple of these cool gyms and I filmed a bunch of footage of the facilities too. 

I will be making some YouTube videos of these experiences so be sure to search my name on YouTube and find my channel.   We spoke with Ken Weber at his facility, the Brickyard, in Milwaukee which is known for it’s old school machines and talked with him about the evolution of the gym environment over the past 40 years, since he has owned facilities and competed in bodybuilding since the 1970s. It was a great interview.  

We also did a pop up interview of Dan Pasholk from MadTown Fitness in Madison Wisconsin.  You might have seen the interview and tour John Meadows did a few years ago when he stopped by this facility.  Since then a lot has changed and you’ll hear about it in the mini interview we did with Dan in his parking lot. The gym has a ton of unique equipment and I especially loved all the leg machines.  One stand out for me that I absolutely loved about his gym, is his new posing room.  Dan built it himself and there are mirrors from all angles so you can see your physique from all angles.  I filmed the room and the facility and I will show you on YouTube.  

Dan, by the way, was a really nice guy. We even talked with him about doing a pop up posing clinic for all his gym members the next time I am in the area, and he was excited about it.  

Speaking of, you guys, we are still on tour and will be in Texas for a bit before heading on over to North Carolina and then New York. Check out our tour dates and locations at eeinbb.com and text me 702-637-0091  to schedule a 1 on 1 in person posing lesson when we are in your area. You will get film footage and custom drills to do after your session so you know the things to work on to help you excel at posing.  So send me a text and let’s connect!

In the meantime, let me hold you accountable with your posing practice, and jump on my weekly posing practice classes going on right now at www.weeklyposing.com or if you are new and want to learn how to pose correctly from the start come to a virtual posing clinic at posingpractice.com .

I’m signing off for today since it’s time to check out of our hotel but I will be back next week with another interview. The most listened to episode of my podcast so far was episode 7 with Jamie Pinder and all about performance enhancing drugs.  My next interview is with someone who gives the male perspective of performance enhancing drugs and turns the protocols out there for both men and women upside down.  He is known for ruffling quite a few feathers because he calls out so-called gurus in our sport.  I think you guys will find what he says very interesting.  

And if you get chance, like, subscribe, and leave a review on iTunes if you are listening there. If you are listening elsewhere you can’t leave a review but you can share it in fitness groups to spread the word. If you see us on the road, honk and wave, or you can flip us off too.  Talk to you next week!