Car, Bike, or Run? 🚗🚲🏃
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Hello Reader, Heya Fit Travel Tribe, Let's kick things off by talking about something boring that can eat up a lot of time in our day... 🚗COMMUTING 🚗 Lately, I’ve been experimenting with a slightly different way of getting to the gym. Instead of walking, I’ve started running there. Not every time, but often enough that it’s become a surprisingly fun little addition to my routine. It started because my best friend and I began running after some of our fitness classes. Then one day I was going to teach at a gym that was about a 35-minute walk away, compared with my usual 20-minute walk. Even though I love walking, I didn’t really want to add another 60+ minutes of commuting to my day, so I thought, what if I ran there instead? Turns out, it works pretty well and now it's something I might do every so often in the future. But...running with a backpack full of stuff? YEP! Here's what I pack in my small, lightweight backpack: 👟 Shoes for the fitness class That’s about it. The backpack needs to fit snugly so it doesn’t bounce around or rub, and I keep it as light as possible. I’ll listen to my fitness music on the way to prepare for class. And I just try not to mind showing up sweaty even before the fitness class starts! The bigger takeaway for me is that your commute can be part of your workout. You don’t necessarily need to carve out another hour for exercise. Sometimes you can just change how you get there. Can you bike instead of drive? Get off the bus one stop early and walk? ....or maybe get a little cray-cray and run with me? Hello from Sofia where our home is a bit of a MESS 😅 After finishing up in Romania, my partner and I visited Corfu. Besides plenty of beach time, I created two walking routes in the Old Town (one for the Old Fortress) that I'm excited to finish later this year. Now, we are in full renovation mode at home. Since buying our property, we decided to freshly paint all the walls and ceilings. It'll take some time, but at least it's quality time with my partner (yay teamwork!!!) I’m also continuing to crank out VoiceMap tours. Belgrade is published and Pristina, Kosovo is too (just as of today!!) I’m hoping to have more tours go live over the next month (Rhodes and Rutgers New Brunswick). I’m gearing up for my Germany trip later this month, followed by a trip to the States end of October. At this point, I’m pretty sure I have eight more flights left for the rest of the year. And I am VERY confident that’s it. Which is exciting because I love traveling, but even I have to admit… that is a lot of airplanes. 😂
🐍Are Nutrition Labels Being Intentionally SNEAKY? I've been slowing down creating new blog posts for my site, in part because the audio tours are kicking into gear, plus, I'm thankfully getting paid to write a lot of posts for the Sofia Expats blog (like this one - yay actual money). So, let's do a throwback highlight on a post about NUTRITION. Do you actually read tiny, detailed nutritional label on the back of the product? And, when you're traveling, it's in a foreign language which makes it extra daunting. Do you just read the BIG LETTERS on the front of the package? BE HONEST!!!! But guess what....it's a TRAP! That's exactly what the company's marketing team WANTS you to do!!! The big letters screaming 18g of protein makes it sound like that protein bar is an excellent choice, yeah? Hmm...it's like the marketing team wanted to mask the fact that there's a lot of sugar in that product... Good news: You don't need to become a nutritionist to read the label. Just learn a few quick tactics that will take 5 seconds to navigate the numbers and give you healthier options.
🏰Walk the Old Towns & City Centers One of my favorite things about city travel is that you can accidentally get a serious workout without ever calling it a workout. You know those people who say they normally get 5,000 steps a day, then go on vacation and somehow come home with 25,000 steps every day? Love. This. For. Us. 😂 That’s one of the reasons I love walking-heavy destinations like Corfu Old Town. You’re sightseeing, taking photos, stopping for coffee, wandering down another little street because it looks interesting, and suddenly you’ve been on your feet for six hours. Walking may not feel like a traditional “workout,” but it absolutely counts as physical activity, and it’s one of the easiest ways to stay active while traveling. So when you’re planning your next city trip, don’t automatically look for the fastest way to get everywhere. Sometimes the long way is the workout. 💸Regular Spending gets you FREE Flights & Hotels I’m currently on the hunt for my next travel credit card, which has me thinking about just how much money I’ve saved by using points and miles. For my upcoming trip to the States, I’m using miles to cover a big chunk of the flights. I booked 3 one-way flights (Sofia to Cali; Cali to NJ; then NJ home to Sofia). That's usually VERY expensive, right?!! Here's the breakdown of what it cost me: That’s a pretty damn good return for learning how travel rewards work. And if you’ve never looked into credit card points before, I have a beginner’s guide to credit card hacking that breaks down the basics without making you feel like you need a PhD in airline loyalty programs. 👉The basic premise for beginners is focusing on a big sign-up bonus that typical requires regular spending, but now just on your new credit card.
And if you’re already a points-and-miles nerd, well… I’m currently deciding which card I’m going to add to the collection next. 😂 Always on my mind: More money for more travel! It's often worth a little homework for those savings 💸 Feel free to always respond back to this email with any thoughts and questions you might have or content you'd love to see in the future. Happy travels & healthy living, Heidi Note: Some images and GIFs sourced from Unsplash and Giphy. |