The Liz Moody Podcast - Healthy Travel Secrets, Hiking & Camping Tips For Newbies + How To Find The Most Beautiful Places In The World with Renee Roaming

Episode Date: July 14, 2021

I have been feeling VERY wanderlusty lately—I have an adventure itch, and there was no one better to scratch it than Renee Hahnel, otherwise known as the powerhouse Renee Roaming (@reneeroaming). The author and mega-successful social media star and blogger joined me to talk about all things travel and getting outside, including: her best tips for taking amazing travel photos what shocked her about the US when she moved here how to take big, risky life steps without fear the harder parts of living abroad that people don’t talk about healthy living secrets from australia a genius tip to dip your toes into hiking & camping the gear you need to get out on the trail how to not be afraid of ticks & bears (including her crazy personal bear encounter story!) how to protect yourself as a woman hiking/camping alone the most beautiful place she’s ever been how to not fight when you travel with a partner how to find the best spots to visit how she stays healthy when traveling and so much more! PS: Have you snagged my Foodie preset pack? You can get all 8 presets, designed to make your food pics look as good as they taste, at lizmoody.com/presets. PPS: Healthier Together is officially a number one best-seller! You can get your copy on Amazon or at lizmoody.com/cookbook. Please keep sending me your creations on Instagram—they make me so happy! This episode is sponsored by Seed, the makers of one of my all-time favorite supplements. Their Seed Daily Synbiotic is a game changer—it contains both pre- and probiotics, survives INTACT all the way into your gut, AND contains the most studied and powerful strains of probiotics out there. You can get 15% off of your first month’s supply of Seed’s Daily Synbiotic by going to seed.com and using the code LIZMOODY. This episode is sponsored by Paleovalley, who make incredibly high quality supplements. If you’d like to check out their Turmeric Complex, Vitamin C, Neuroeffect, or any of Paleovalley’s other amazing products, head over to paleovalley.com and use the code LIZM for 15% off. Healthier Together cover art by Zack. Healthier Together music by Alex Ruimy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Healthyer Together podcast. I'm your host, Liz Moody, and I am a cookbook author and long-time journalist, and I am so excited about this episode, which is all about scratching that wanderless itch. I wanted to do a series called Wellness Around the World, where I have on guests who live in different parts of the world and ask them to share what the wellness routines and practices are like there and how they differ from the U.S. I invited on Renee from Renee roaming a massively successful travel blog and social media account with the intention of getting her almost reverse take as a foreigner living in the U.S.

And while I thought what she shared about that was absolutely fascinating, this conversation ended up being so much more than that. We talk about getting outside and having adventures, including the gear you need, how to get started, and how to find the best hikes and photo spots in each place. She helps assuage my fears of bears, ticks, and hiking alone. We talk about how she healed her gut and stays healthy while traveling the most beautiful places she's been. and so much more. So maybe this is the first episode of the Wellness Around the World series, and maybe it's just like a fun summer adventure series.

Let me know whether you want more wellness around the world content or summer adventure content. I kind of want to get some like van life people on here. I don't know. I would love to hear what you are into so I can give you more of that. You can find Renee on all social platforms at Renee Roaming, and I of course am at Liz Moody. would love to hear from you as you're listening to this episode, or if it inspires you to get

outside, send us your cute nature picks from your hikes I would love, love, love to see. And if you have a friend who's feeling that wanderless like I am, send them this episode, use it as an opening to go explore and have adventures together. And if somebody sends you this episode, don't forget to subscribe. We have a ton of fun episodes coming up, including a new How I Learned to Love My Body, featuring the amazing Katie Sterino and Ask the Doctor Dental Health Edition and so much more. All right. Let's get straight to it. Here's Renee.

All right, Renee, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. Thanks for having me. I am such a fan of your work. It inspires me to get outside and to travel. And like I was telling you before we got on, it really inspires me to demand better photos from my husband. It was like, I'm not a professional. Why are you holding me to this standard?

But it's beautiful. For people who aren't familiar with your work, can you just tell me a little bit about who you are and what you do? Yeah, so I'm based in Seattle. I'm Australian, if you can't tell by my accent. I'm a full-time photographer and blogger, mostly in the travel space, but also a lot of outdoor content and hiking and backpacking. Yeah, I am also a published author like yourself. Yeah, and I'm really excited to chat with you today. I'm so excited. I have so many questions, but I want to get into something that we were talking about before we actually got on, before we started recording, which is you said, you have a hard time sort of relaxing and you always have this urge to be productive. And that's me too, full stop. And I think that's a really interesting relationship that

I have with hiking is that I feel like it's relaxing, but I'm being productive because I'm, you know, traveling many miles. I'm like getting a workout. I'm, I even will tell myself sometimes when I'm going through trees like, oh, you're forest bathing right now. Like, this is good for your health, blah, blah, blah. And I'm curious what your relationship is with nature in terms of like, does that let you really relax? Or does that feel productive? Especially because it's part of your job now. Yeah, I would say it would depend when you asked me that question. So definitely like five years ago, I would have 100% being in the camp of I can fully switch off. it's like 100% my happy place.

You know, it's where I can just focus on moving my feet and getting from A to B. But I'm going to be completely honest that these days, especially now with like Instagram stories and reels and TikToks and stuff like that, I do find it a lot more challenging to get back to that space where I'm 100% just focusing on being out in nature. And it's something these days I'm more actively. have to bring myself back to and think about being present, which just honestly makes me a little sad. But at the same time, I just love that I can, like, hiking is one of my favorite things in the entire world. And I can literally, you know, make a living from doing that. So at the same time,

I have to bring it back to gratitude as well that I can do something that I love for my job, even if that takes me out of the moment and being present sometimes, like, you know, pros and cons, right? How does it work logistically? Like, when you're on a hike, are you just always sort of looking for the most beautiful view, the most beautiful place? And then you set up your camera and then you shoot it? Yeah, it's, I think any, like, photographer would probably understand that it's literally something 24-7, unless you're asleep, you can't switch it off. You are constantly looking for, you know, is the light really? pretty, oh, how would that look in a photo? Oh, that would be a nice video. Literally, even just

sitting in my living room, I constantly like, oh, the maple tree looks really nice right now. Maybe I should take a photo. And I just, I creatively just can't switch that off. It's like the only time that I can switch it off is if I leave every kind of device at home or in the car or whatever. and still in that it takes a little while before I, you know, stop thinking, okay, right, I don't have that like stuff on me. So yeah, it's definitely, yeah, when I'm hiking, I'm definitely looking around constantly. It's not even something I'm conscious about. Would that be a nice photo?

Would that be a nice video? And my husband's doing the same as well. We work together. And so it's pretty hard when you've got the two of us there to not be constantly. stopping for photos and doing things, but I still love it. Do you have any hot tips for taking a beautiful nature pick? Yeah, so probably, and you know, not everyone likes to get out super early in the morning or stay out later, but I personally, I can't wake up in the morning. Every time my dad comes to visit, he's like a five, he likes to do landscape photography and like just as a hobbyist,

and he's always like, let's wake up at five and catch the sunrise. And I'm like, no. I can't do. It is definitely the best time a day. Sunrise and sunset, you just can't beat it for photography, especially in nature, just looks, you know, on it on a clear day or a partly cloudy day. The mountains or the beach or whatever it is just looks stunning in that golden hour or blue hour time. But that's really hard in summer. Like I think at the moment here in Washington, sunrise is like just after 5 a.m.

So it's really early. So sunset, you can just like skip something. sunrise and just two sons. I have another kind of, this is like a weird question, but you always look so cute in your nature photos. And I feel like, do you think about looking cute when you hike? And is there like tips you have for looking cute whilst hiking? I love that question. Yeah, I'm not going to lie. I do like think about the outfit choice and things like that. I'm usually shooting for clients when I head out on different adventures. And often the client may be a part of what I'm wearing, like maybe my hiking boots or my

jacket or something like that or my backpack. So I do have to be conscious about what I'm pairing together and things like that. And I'm not going to like sit here and pretend that I don't actively try and pick a cute hiking outfit because that would just be not true. I am conscious about what kind of outfit I pick. And then in terms of like looking put together, I don't know. I think maybe I'm just the kind of person that doesn't get like too crazy, sweaty and gross on hikes.

I usually hike like with my hair out or just in like a braid or something. And I have a lot of people say, oh, my hair just gets like so ratty and stuff. But I don't know. Mine just doesn't. I just keep it together somehow. And sometimes I'll just run my fingers through my hair. or take a moment to like try and not look as like red from climbing up the mountain before we take photos, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, it depends on the hike. Yeah, my sister can hike with her hair down and I feel like I always do that sort of ugly top knot because I just, it does, my hair gets like a big rat's nest. So that is a special skill you silky people, you silky haired people have. Okay, we're going to get back to the nature step in a second. But a big part of this series is about living abroad and it's sort of like a soft. summer travel series. And I'm curious because you're a person who lives abroad, but you live in the

U.S., which is where many listeners of this podcast are. Although, shout out to all of my overseas listeners as well. When you moved here, was there any culture shock? Like you and your husband, I don't know if you were married at the time, but you just got like a green card and were like, okay, we'll move to Colorado, right? And you hadn't ever been there? Yeah, I know. It's so bizarre. We had been to the US. We'd actually seen a lot of the US. We've done a three-month road trip across, I don't know exactly how many states, but it must have been at least like seven or ten states or something.

So we had already seen quite a bit of the US, but we hadn't been to Colorado. And we had met a lot of people saying, oh, you guys would really like Boulder, Colorado. And because we liked Bend in Oregon. We liked the vibes of somewhere like San Francisco, but we didn't want to live in a larger city. And we spoke to a lot of people and they were like, yeah, you guys would really like bold us. So we did some research and it honestly just sounded like the coolest town. And we thought, all right, well, let's just give it a try. So we each packed.

I think we had like three suitcases each, which is obviously a lot. but it was like our whole lives. And we flew over to Colorado one day and landed in L.A. And then quarter flight to Denver came out. We picked up a rental car. And then we drove to Boulder. We had done the like silliest thing ever. We had found an apartment, like a tiny one bedroom apartment on Craigslist,

which I used to call Craigslist, but Craigslist. and we had like sent this lady money to like put the deposit on the apartment. Don't worry, she didn't scam us. But now we look back on it. We're like, that was the stupid thing we've ever did. But anyway, we did that. And we luckily got a really great landlord. And we just turned up at the apartment.

She had put the key under the dormant. We opened the door. We walked in and went, okay, well, this is cool. We slept on the floor, like literally just on the carpet. it because we had absolutely nothing. And we woke up the next morning and there was snow everywhere. And being from Australia, we were just like, okay, well, we knew it would snow in Colorado. Like we moved in winter. But we still, it was a shock. Like it was a shock living in a place with snow in the sense of we didn't know what to do. Like we're like, can you go outside?

This is a stupid question. Is there no snow in Australia? There is on a couple of mountains. Like you can go skiing or snowboarding in Australia, but you have to like actively drive out to a mountain. So there's no city it would snow in? No. Like very rarely. And if it did snow, it would be the kind of snow where you would slightly be sleeting and it would never collect on the ground. Right.

Okay. Yeah, I'd been to the snow. Like I'd seen snow before, but I'd never driven in snow. I thought to go outside when it was snowing. You had to be like the abominal snowman and have like crazy snow ski clothes on. Like I didn't realize you could just wear like jeans and boots out in the snow. And so my husband and I woke up that morning to the snow and we were literally like, are you allowed to drive?

Like can we go outside? And we just, yeah, culture shock majorly in terms of the weather. Oh my gosh. And definitely other things as well. Like we had to, I think the most challenging thing was navigating all the logistical stuff. So we had no credit score, obviously. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah.

So at the time, I think we were 25. Yeah, we must have been 25 at the time. This was now six years ago. So we didn't have credit scores. We obviously had driver's licenses in Australia, but we, didn't in the US. So we technically, when we first arrived for a few weeks, we were just driving on like, you know, an international license kind of thing. Okay. Luckily, we like never got pulled over and didn't have to like kind of explain all that. But we had to go for our driver's license

tests like on the other side of the road, you know, so we were used to. Yeah. Yeah. We were used to driving not only on the other side of the road, but on the other side of the car. Yeah. Yeah. And like reverse parallel when you're on the other side of the car, on the other side of the road is like a whole other thing. Oh, I grew up driving here and I still can't parallel park. So props. Props to you.

Yeah. So we didn't, yeah, we had to do that. We managed to find a bank that would like give us accounts. It was Chase actually, who we're still with gave us, like, opened up accounts for us, which was like so great because some other banks didn't want to. because we had no credit score. And then we couldn't get credit cards or anything. So there was like no real way to build out credit, you know what I mean? That's interesting.

Yeah, that was like a challenge. We had to get these like weird like kind of credit cards to do that. And we couldn't get like a car loan. And that whole thing and then navigating healthcare. It was like, wow, we just don't know what we're doing. Are you thinking you'll live in the US like long term now? Yeah, we just bought a house in, we bought a house in 2019 here in the suburbs of Seattle. So it's definitely like we're here at least for the foreseeable future.

Like I couldn't imagine we're moving back to Australia in the next three to five years. But we've never like had a plan around that. And some people think that's so weird. But literally from the day we left Australia, we said, well, if we don't like it, we'll just move back six months, 12 months, five years, 10 years, 20 years, whatever. So I love that philosophy. And I think it's really hard for a lot of people to embrace because they're like, well, what if this?

What if I'm behind in my career? What if I have to make friends again? What if it hurts my finances? There's just so many sort of negative scenarios people can walk through. Is there any advice you would have to somebody who like is more afraid of these big life changes, these brave steps that you took? Gosh. I don't know. I've never like really spent a lot of time thinking about what makes us like that and why why we have the confidence to live like that. I honestly think a lot of it comes down to that we both, my husband and I have very supportive families. And like we were very supported moving to the US. And we knew that if we didn't like it, we could 100% come back and people weren't going to judge us or see.

us as, see it as a failure. So I think that gave us a lot of confidence, but also I think it's a similar kind of confidence to going out and starting your own business or like becoming self-employed. It's similar to that in that you do just kind of have to believe in yourself and know that you're 100% going to make mistakes. You're 100% going to F up and regret things. And you just like have to have to be content with that, that it's not going to be a perfect linear path. There's going to be lots of ups and downs. And we've certainly had a few moments that I'm like, okay, has this been the right choice or we're kind of running out of money and stuff like that where, you know, I did question

whether we'd made the right choice. But ultimately, you just have to persevere and believe like the reason you moved here, you know, you moved for a reason and you just got to keep at it and work towards that. What was your reason? Like, what attracted you to the U.S. in the first place? Yes. So we did that big road trip that I, that I was talking about. And we visited, that was like my first time visiting a national park here in the U.S. It was my first time hiking any of the mountains and seeing the beaches and the lakes and things like that. And it was nature that we fell in love with. Not that Australia doesn't have amazing, beautiful, natural places. We just really

love the mountains and Australia just doesn't, I mean, it's not comparable Australian mountains to mountains in the US, particularly on the West Coast. And that's where we did. A lot of traveling was on the West Coast. And we also really fell in love with a lot of the towns, like I mentioned, like Bend, Oregon and places like that. We traveled to and we're like, wow, we really like the vibes in places like this. And the people were like way friendlier and just so great than I had imagined it would be in the US. And the food was better. Like everything was just better than what I had sort of thought it would be. So we had a really positive experience that first time we traveled to the US. And then we heard about that around the.

world you can apply to go in this lottery. It's called the DV lottery to get a green card. I don't know how many listeners have heard of that, but it's a legitimate thing run by the government. And so we went ahead and applied for that after we got back from that trip. And we didn't get it that first time. But then the second year we applied, we actually won our green cards in a lottery. What are the chances of that? Like, do you know, is it like, Do you know what the odds are that you'd win? It depends on which country you're applying from because some countries, I know particular countries in like Asia and Africa, the rates of application is really, really, really high.

So your chances are much lower. But I think winning from Australia, it's not actually that crazy to think about because I think they give like a thousand or two thousand green cards every single year, which is a lot. The population of Australians is only 25 million people. And most people, like I would say 99.9% of people have never heard of the green card lottery, nor like do most people have an interest in moving to the US. So you're already cutting out like all of those people. So I don't know exactly how many people apply in Australia every year,

but I know there's certain criteria. You have to have either a degree, like a bachelor's degree, or I think it was three or four years. of work experience in some sort of like trade or career that you can prove. You have to pass medical tests. It's like they don't just let anyone in. But yeah, it's a process. But I like what you said that like a lot of people don't even know this exists. And I think a lot of people when they want to like take a big trip or move abroad, they just put it off limits to themselves. And they're like, oh, there's no way this could work. I would never be able to get a visa.

there's just this is an impossibility. And I like that it highlights that it actually might be a possibility. You just need to sort of explore different options that you might even be aware exist. Yeah. And I'm fully, I do want to preface that too, that I know that my husband and I are incredibly privileged that, you know, we even have that work experience and degrees and things that that allowed us to apply for that. And also, I know applying from a country like Australia gives us better odds as well and being white and English speaking and all these things definitely has helped us get to the US. But going back to what you said, definitely, I think a lot of people either don't research the opportunities or they believe those opportunities are out of reach to them.

And why not apply? You know, you might win it. For sure. I'd love to talk about some of the harder parts of living abroad. Like you mentioned that one of the reasons you guys can be so brave in your life choices is that you have the supportive family, but now you're very, very far from said family. I'm curious how you deal with

the loneliness, the missing your family, the feeling like a cultural outsider. I lived in England for a few years, and it's crazy how often it comes up in conversation where people are like, oh, let's see what the American thinks about this. Like, they don't know about this. It's like you're like a fun little

like doll for people to play with in some ways, even in countries that are so culturally similar. Yeah, definitely. I find that kind of thing fun, but I also think I don't probably get it as much as most people in the sense of ever since moving to the U.S., the job that I had for the first 18 months was like not an office job. I was going out into the community and I was, I didn't have like co-workers like sitting right next to me. So I didn't have that sort of environment where I might get asked a lot of questions like that. And also a lot of our friends are like very, very well-traveled. And we're not

really that interesting to them, you know, in that sense. So maybe I haven't had to deal with like, oh, she's the Aussie quite as much as what some people might have. But you asked about things that are like more challenging with family and stuff. Yeah, that, um, especially in the last year has been quite challenging because when we first moved, our family were really excited for us and they both both our like sets of parents and also my sister visited us in the first like year of living in the US. So that was so fun. We had some friends visit as well. And honestly like, you know, it didn't even feel like we'd been away for that long. And then that we sort of transitioned into working for ourselves.

my husband and I, and we then hit the road and did this massive road trip where we traveled to every national park in a van. And we were just so busy that I literally didn't have time to think about missing my family, you know. But as things have, you know, slowed down in the sense of, you know, we're not as go, go, go now, I do find there are more moments that I'm like, dang, I wish I could just like go over to dinner at my parents' house, you know. And especially in the pandemic, like, I think it hasn't actually changed anything in that, you know, it's not like I was flying home to Australia every week before this. I was only visiting Australia once every, like maximum once every 12 to 18 months, more like once every two years. And but as soon as the

pandemic hit, it was like, okay, now I can't travel back even if I wanted to. Yeah. Like, you know, touch would if something happened to one of my parents or my grandparents or like something like that. Like I can't even go back and see them, you know? So it has made me feel much more isolated and like, gosh, thank God for video chat and the internet because I don't know how people used to do long distance living when they just had to write like letters and stuff. letters. I mean, the day you get that ladder would be like a very exciting day. Yeah, but you would lose. Like I have, we have nephews in Australia. My sister has two boys. And the video chat and

photos and stuff like that and them sending videos is the way I've been able to watch them grow up. So I, I can't imagine like what it would be like not being able to have those videos. But that, yeah, that in itself has been very challenging, not being there for like every birthday party, every wedding, funerals. Like we've missed some pretty significant events that we 100% would have been there for if we were living in Australia. How do you deal with that emotionally? Like does it ever make you feel guilty that you made this decision or question this choice?

Oh, for sure. Yeah, I've definitely felt some guilt around missing certain things. But I think ultimately, like, I know this is the right choice for us and I know that our family knows that as well. So even if like my family is so supportive, but particularly like for my mom, I know it's hard for her, definitely that we live here. And sometimes she'll say things and I'll be like, damn, like I feel bad that I am, you know, not around for that. But I, yeah, Ultimately, like, I know that just comes from a place of them missing us and not them judging us or them, like trying to make us feel guilty, if you know what I mean.

Yeah, I totally know you mean. Are there any healthy living things that you learned in Australia that are like part of your life? And are there any that you've learned in the U.S. that you've made part of your life? Healthy living things. I don't know if they're necessarily like Australian base. if you know what I mean, or if it's more just me as a person. But I think growing up in Australia and living in Australia, it's like a very, very normal thing to travel and to take like holidays

or vacations in Australia because people get much more paid leave. And work life balance in Australia is just, it exists compared to here in the US where it doesn't really exist. So I think growing up in Australia, I definitely was privileged enough to get that travel bug and that interest in traveling and getting outdoors and doing things. And I've definitely obviously brought that with me over to the U.S. And yeah, we've lived here just over six years now. And I think we've been to about 40 states, every national park. like hiked literally probably thousands of trails. And I feel like I've probably seen more of the country than a lot of Americans,

which I feel so thankful for. But I think a lot of that probably stems from that mindset I came over with of wanting to explore and wanting to really get to know this place that we were moving to. Other healthier things, gosh, I think in general Australians are like pretty healthy when it comes to, like, eating and, like, knowing where your food comes from and that. But it also depends, like, where you grew up. I grew up in the suburbs of Melbourne in Victoria, which is much, it's definitely a more metropolitan area, you know, access to cool, like, brunch cafes.

And, like, I grew up really close to lots of amazing farmers markets and access to fresh seafood and things like that. So I probably had maybe a different experience to someone who grew up in the countryside of Australia who has less access to things like that. But I definitely was a little surprised moving to the US that unless you're in like one of these larger cities, access to some of those things like farmers markets and super fresh produce, I feel like it's a little bit harder here to have access to those sorts of things. Yeah, well, Australia, you guys are like the inventors of avocado toast, aren't you?

Yeah, absolutely. The best brunch in the world is in Australia, and there is no arguments about that. No one can convince me otherwise. What about on your international travels you've been to, do you know how many countries you've been to? I think, gosh, I'm trying to remember. I think about 37, 38 or something. Have you, like, taken anything? I, I often ask people on the podcast, like, is there anywhere in the world that you feel like these people really got it right in terms of like living a healthy or happy life? And if so, where was it? And I feel like you have such insider knowledge on all of these places. So either that or like little tips or tricks that you've learned from the different places you've been.

Yeah. I think definitely a lot of Scandinavian and European countries are doing it right when it comes to work-life balance and, you know, just like their social structures, like things like maternity leave and paternity leave and just the way their societies are set up to really like honor people's time and mental health and travel and eating healthy and all those sorts of things. I think in a lot of countries in like particularly Scandinavia and nearby in Europe, it seems through my travels that it might just be a little bit easier to live a healthier lifestyle in those countries, given all the supports that are already set up for you and like free

healthcare, you know, you're not going to put off these health complications or these certain things in your life because you can't afford it. And that has been a big barrier for me. And I know millions and millions of people in the US that, you know, yeah, we just like have something minor and it's a big deal going to the doctors because it's freaking expensive. And I think some other countries may be doing it. Right. Is there anything you keep sort of bringing up the work life balance that other countries have that maybe we lack here a little bit more? Do you think when we don't have the systems to support the situation, like I don't know if hopefully the overall system will change more in the direction of like

flexibility, work life balance, whatever. But until we have that, do you think you can change your mindset in a way that makes that accessible to you, that like you can take those learnings and sort of apply it to your life here by just taking all your vacation days and blah, blah, blah. Oh, absolutely. And I think there's obviously a lot of people here in the U.S. that have worked out how to have a brilliant work-life balance. But overall, I feel like having also worked, I've obviously been working for myself a majority

of the time here in the U.S., but I had a period of time where I would have. had an employer and also chatting to friends and just hearing about people's experiences, I think overall there are more barriers to being able to request that leave or to even just have access to like, what is it, most people only get two weeks of leave here in the US. And they don't take them. Yeah. They get two weeks and the vast majority of people don't take the full two weeks either. And from what I've heard, it seems that a lot of reasoning around not taking those two weeks is

feeling pressure that you might not get a promotion. You know, you won't be advanced in your career because you look like you're lazy or you don't care about work, which is crazy to me because I know firsthand, and I'm sure everyone listening can relate to this. When you take a vacation or a long weekend or whatever it is, you 100% work better when you get back because you're refreshed, your mental health is stronger. Your body, like, you're not as tired. There's so many reasons why taking breaks, whether it's a staycation or not a staycation,

is just so important. I completely, completely agree. And my last job that I was working for an employer, we had to finish all of our work for our vacation before we went on vacation. So you'd spend like two weeks doing an extra two weeks of work on top of your normal work. And by the time you took a vacation, you just felt like you were dead. Like it just wasn't fun anymore because you're just like, well, I burnt myself out completely. But the vacation was needed at that point. So. But it shouldn't be like that. It should be that someone replaces you while you're gone or their system set up. Or just like a little bit less work gets. And I do think it's so funny societally. We have done this trick of convincing ourselves that our work matters so much. And I think in. something, you know, if you're a fireman or like a doctor and you're literally saving lives, like, yes, it does. But in every job I've had, the difference between me doing some work now

versus a week from now or two weeks from now literally is nothing, you know what I mean? But I can convince myself that even working for myself, like it literally doesn't matter, but I can convince myself that I should stay up to like 11 at night finishing a blog post when it, like, who says it needs to go up then. It's an arbitrary thing that was decided, you know? For sure, absolutely. We love talking about our gut health here on the Healthy Together podcast, which is why I'm so excited to share the life-changing Seed Daily Symbiotic. I actually discovered Seed back when I was working as an editor full-time, a bottle came across my desk, and I was instantly taken by how cute the green glass packaging is. Then I found out that that packaging was actually refillable so that

seed could share its products as sustainably as possible. And then I actually looked into the research behind seed, and, well, I was blown away. First of all, seed is not just a probiotic. It is a symbiotic. That means it contains both pre and probiotics, which is super important. In fact, if you remember my Asht the Doctor gut health edition, we talked about how prebiotics are one of the most important and often overlooked components of great gut health. Let me break it down for you. Probbiotics are the live bacteria that are so beneficial to our gut health. but prebiotics are the food that those probiotics need to thrive. If you don't have ample prebiotics, the probiotics you're consuming will be undernourished and not be able to help your health in the way that you want.

Speaking of your health, there's also a common misconception that probiotics or symbiotics are for people with gut issues, which is so not true. Like, yes, the seed symbiotic is amazing for your gut health, but your gut health impacts everything in your entire body. Your skin, your mental health, your cardiovascular health, your ability to actually assimilate the maximum amount of nutrients from all that healthy food you're eating, having a happy gut is critical for all of it. It is hard to narrow down everything else that I love about seed. I am extremely particular with my supplements and I don't take many, but seed is just stellar across the board. It's been tested and tested and tested. Seriously, their testing process is bananas to make sure that it has 100% survival through the digestive process,

which is so rare. And somehow they do all of it. that without needing refrigeration, which is very handy. I find that when I have refrigerated probiotics, I just forget about them and they get buried behind like old jars of pasta sauce, whereas I keep these on my bedside table, so I'm reminded to take them every single night. They also contain the 24 strains that are the most scientifically studied to support your whole body's health. I am obviously passionate about this stuff. Taking care of my gut has been a key part of my own anxiety journey, and seed has been a vital part of that. So feel free to reach out. with any questions. And if you like learning about gut health and how probiotics and prebiotics actually

function, I highly recommend heading over to seed.com. They have a whole educational section that breaks down the science behind your microbiome and some of the easiest to understand ways that I have ever seen. And if you would like to try a seed for yourself and pretty much change your life forever, you can go to seed.com and use the code Liz Moody for 15% off your first month supply of seeds daily symbiotic. Again, that's code Liz Moody on seed.com. Now, let's get back to the episode. Okay, let's get back into some nature stuff because I think a lot of people want to get outside, especially now that it's summer, but it's intimidating. And myself included, I went camping for the first time recently, and I shared that on my Instagram and everybody was like, they had so many

questions about it. And they were like, where do you poop? And all of these things. So I would love to sort of get some, first of all, if somebody wants to get out in nature and they're really intimidated, do you have like a first starter thing you would recommend to people? Like, how do you dip your toes in? Yeah, so a really great way to dip your toes in. Firstly, and this is not going to be applicable to everyone, but firstly, do you have anyone in your life already that does that? A friend, family member, a cousin, whatever. Because if you do, that's a great place to start. Just, just. having a phone call, and meeting up with them and just chatting about stuff

and then taking your first adventure with them. If you don't have that person in your life, which is a lot of people don't have that, I would highly recommend joining some Facebook groups around hiking. It depends where you live. There's some broader ones, just like outdoorsy girls and stuff like that, which is like everywhere.

But then, for example, here in Washington where I live, there's a couple of really great Pacific Northwest. women's hiking Facebook groups and just and for men as well there's there's all different groups they're just phenomenal the people you meet on those groups literally every day there'll be someone posting hey I'm a beginner hiker and I'm looking to find a group of ladies to do a hike you know once every weekend like who wants to join me and there'll literally be hundreds of comments oh that's amazing yeah like come with us or I want to join you that's a great way to make friends too. Yeah, exactly. People literally post on these groups like, hey, I'm looking for

some girlfriends. I've just moved to Seattle and I don't know anyone. Oh, I love that. Yeah, it's really cool. And I did that when we moved to Colorado. I, um, back then the app meetup was a little bit more popular, I think. So like, I went to a few meetup events and joined a few Facebook groups and met some people that way. And also through social, uh, Instagram and other social media. I linked up with some people. But definitely that's a great way to feel more confident is to have people around you that either know what they're doing or they're interested in learning alongside you. I just think it's so cool.

But then in terms of like going out there and not killing yourself, you should definitely learn a few things before you go out. And I personally, I might be biased because I have a travel blog that is largely about hiking and camping and backpacking. But blog resources is like just so helpful. And it's, I've learned so much personally from people's online, like free online guides about, you know, exactly like you said, how to poop outdoors.

Do you have a blog post on how to poop outdoors? Yeah, I have. It's actually one of my most popular blog post. So people could just search like Renee Romney and poop and that would, I don't want to like send people down a bad. I don't Google that. But if you have one about that. Yeah, I have a blog post about it's called like eco-friendly outdoor hygiene

tips for high-kidgeny. That's a very nice way to put it. Yeah. And it's about how to pee outdoors, how to poop outdoors, how to keep yourself clean, how to also do all those things while leaving no trace. So protecting nature and not leaving. leaving toilet paper everywhere and all that kind of stuff. So I would highly recommend looking online at resources like that. So you're 100% going to make some mistakes when you start

outdoor stuff. Like 100% you're going to make some mistakes. But if you can limit some of those pretty major mistakes around safety and being a responsible outdoor adventurer, then that's going to be good for everyone. So I'll go check out all the resources. But can you tease us maybe with like a few genius tips that for hiking or for camping to make it easier or more fun or more comfortable? Yeah, let me think. I would definitely say this might seem kind of obvious to some people, but the importance of having a backpack and shoes that are comfortable and fit you well is just like you just can't beat it because you're not going to have fun when you're hiking if you have shoes or a backpack.

it don't feel comfortable. And when I say a comfortable backpack, what I mean by that, and this is speaking personally to mistakes that I made when I was first time starting out, was a backpack that has hip straps and a sternum strap because it doesn't matter how much weight you're carrying. If you're carrying it for a long time and you don't have hip and sternum support, like a chest strap, I should say, you're going to get sore shoulders and it's not going to be fun and you might even get blisters on your shoulders and stuff like that. So I would definitely look to invest or borrow or get from a thrift store or whatever a backpack that has those two kinds of straps. And then with shoes, they don't have to be like big hiking boots, particularly if you're hiking somewhere that's

hotter or drier, but just some kind of shoe that your toes aren't hitting the end. Because when you go downhill, you'll know about it if your toes are hitting the end. And always, always, always, always packing like band-aids and toilet paper. I have a rule that if you don't bring toilet paper, you will get like terrible diarrhea on the trail. Like it doesn't matter what you've eaten or what the day is like, that's just what will happen. And it has happened to me. And RIP, my friend's socks that I was hiking with, you know. Oh, okay.

That's horrible. Yeah. And ever since then, I'm like, I have my toilet paper supply and it's very, very, important to me. What about stuff that we're afraid of in nature? So I'm going to list some of my personal bears, bears, big one, mountain lions. And then ticks is a big one for me that I'm afraid of because I'm terrified of Lyme disease. So how do you, are there precautions you take? Is there something that you tell yourself to not be scared? Yeah. So firstly just starting with the tick thing, like wearing, like not having skin exposed is going to help. So like leggings that.

You've got socks tucked over and then like a long, a long sleeve top and things like that is going to really help with ticks. But then when you get to your campsite, like, are you like picking ticks off your clothes? You can be, yeah, but it's better than they're on your skin. And you can also, one thing you can do for ticks is treat your clothing in, I don't know how to say it. It's like. Permerth. Yes, that one. If you just, if you do like treatment for clothes, for hiking clothes, mosquitoes, ticks, it will come up.

Okay. And it looks like per mert, then. Yes. But that you can, you can treat your clothes in that. And that supposedly really helps. Another thing you can do if you're, I guess you could take one with you as well, backpacking. But certainly after hiking back at your car, you can use a linked roller and put, that across all your clothes. Oh, that's, that's smart. Yeah, and that will catch any ticks that are just

sitting on your clothes before they burrow into your clothes and go into your skin. Yeah, so that's a tip for ticks. How often do you find ticks on you after hiking? I've only found maybe like three or four ticks in all my hiking. I've never had one on my skin either. My husband has had one, I think he's actually had two that have attached to him, but we've found them relatively quickly. Okay, that's like not a bad ratio given how much you hike to. Yeah, I've done like so many trails and have you ever only had like three or four. Okay. Supposedly though, I don't want to like scare anyone, but supposedly they are getting worse ticks, something to do with like the weather warming and climate change and stuff. I know. I just want us to like find a really solid cure for

Lyme disease and then I'll be like a happy camper literally. I know. Yeah, ticks definitely worrying me as well. but it's the kind of thing you can take precautions and then you just need to be like, all right, I'm doing it now. Okay, what about bears and mountain lions? Okay, so I'm kind of more specifically talking about black bears. I'll touch on grizzlies in a second, but black bears like don't really scare me because they're just like big fluffy things that will run away if they see you. If you take proper bear precautions, like you're like you're not going to get eaten by a black bear

or have problems with black bears. I can't cover like every single tip right now. But if you like I have a blog post on it, lots of people have blog posts, YouTube videos. Just type in bear safety precautions, hiking and camping. And you'll find so many great resources like storing your food properly, making noise on a trail if it's like a very berry area carrying bear spray and actually knowing how to use bear spray. I know. We carry bear spray, but I'm like, bro, if I get a lot, to the point where I have to spray bear spray, that's going to mentally mess. Like, yes, I won't be eaten, but, like, that's going to be a really rough day for me, you know? Yes, obviously. I think that would scar most people. But knowing, like, actually being able to access your beer spray is so

important because a lot of people carry bear spray and it's, like, in their backpack. Right. One, don't put it in your backpack because you could accidentally, something could, like, set it off in your backpack, like, and that's not cool. Have it on the outside of your pack, preferably like on your hip belt or something, you need to be able to grab it straight away. So like a little holster on your hip or something. And in saying that, like, I'll be honest, I don't usually carry bear spray in Washington because the chances of seeing a bear here are just depending on where you are. It's very low. But there are certain areas like Montana, Wyoming, Canada for sure, Alaska, 100%. You do not want to even step out your door in Alaska without bear spray. And you want to be prepared. Have you ever used

bears spray? No, no. I've never even gotten close to needing to use bear spray. Have you run into bears on the trail? Yeah, yeah, I have. In Alaska, I have, like grizzly bears. What did you do? What did you do? I was with a guide actually and she just yelled bear. And that's actually another tip is that when you're hiking along, don't, a lot of people to make noise, they yell, hey bear, hey bear, hey bear. But what that does is, is desensitizes everyone to the word bear. And then when you see a bear, like you just think someone's saying, hey bear. So you're actually better off walking along being, If it's like grizzly territory, you better off walking along being like, eh, yo, or like making kind of just like random noises. And then if someone sees a bear, they can yell bear and everyone like actually knows there's a bear.

So this is what our guide did. Wait, so what did you do? Yeah, so this guide yelled bear and I just, you know, kind of pooped my pants. But not really. And we, so she just yelled bear. she turned around and started walking towards us and she said, we just need to get back. So we all got out instantly. I had my bear spray out and I didn't take the cap off yet, like the safety thing,

but I had it in my hands like on the cap ready to take it off. And we just stayed and watched where the bear was going. We made sure he wasn't coming any closer. And then he sort of just went off and did his thing. And we had to sleep that night. Oh, my God. tents right near where the bear was and I was by myself in the tent too because my husband wasn't with us at that point and it was terrifying I was like messaging my husband on like our

emergency device where you can like text your family or whatever and I was like I'm going to die that was a crispy bear he was like you're okay you're oh my god um but yeah no it was fine like it was honestly pretty scary especially when my guide said, wow, that's the biggest inland, like, on coastal bear. That's the biggest inland bear I've ever seen. That's the size of the ones you see on the coast, the brown bears. And I was just like, why did you tell me that? I do not want to know that. But in general is the idea that they don't really want anything to do with you. And so if you're loud, they will be like, oh, I don't want to go in that direction because it's like loud over there. Exactly. And the whole point of making

noise on the trail is you just want them to know you're coming. You just want them. You just want them to know that you're there, especially if you near like a creek or a river or something that's kind of loud, you need to yell extra loud around corners and things like that. You just don't want to walk around a corner and there be like a mama bear there with three cubs because she doesn't want to eat you. She doesn't want to see you. Like literally she wants nothing to do with you, but she wants to make sure her cubs are okay. So you just don't want to like put yourself in that situation. You want her to hear you coming and take your cups off the side and you just never even know she was there you know what about as a woman by yourself i know

know that you've traveled and you've talked i assume you have a blog post about this but i've seen you talk about it before do you have does that scare you or are there any precautions that you take to avoid unsavory characters on the trail yeah i i do have a whole blog post about um solo backpacking as a woman and all those tips apply to solar hiking as well um my top things that i'm worried about when solar, being solar in general, whether it be in the wilderness or in a city or wherever, is men. It's not animals. Oh, for sure. Yeah. For some reason, too, like, if I'm camping, if I'm hiking on the trail and like Zach leaves me for like 10 minutes, I'm like, oh, a man's just going to peer out of nowhere and, like, attack me. And it's like, why would a man be like five

miles out in the mountain? But I'm just like, no, I'm sure he's there waiting for me. No, exactly. Like it's these irrational thoughts that we have. But I have a lot of friends that have done solo backpacking and hiking. And I don't know anyone who's had a bad experience. Some top tips are don't camp like right next to a road if you can avoid it. So you're actually more safe the further you get into the back country. That makes sense.

Yeah. So that's going to, you're more likely to avoid opportunistic situations. if you're like, if you're parking it near a highway or something like that, that's less ideal. I'm not saying not to do it, but that's, if you're worried, that's something to consider. And then as you're hiking along, don't tell people where you're going. Like, because people are friendly. They'll ask you like, hey, how's it going today?

Where are you camping? And if it's a man and you're hiking solo, no matter how, like, nice they seem, just be sort of nondescript. Oh, I haven't decided yet. or I don't know which lake I'll camp at or I don't know, I might head back to my car. I'm not sure if I'm going to camp or something like that and say something like, oh, I don't know, I'm going to wait for my husband to get here and then we're going to decide he's hiking in later or just pretend you're meeting friends at the lake or whatever it is.

You just want to be a little nondescript about where you're going, how long you're going to be there for and who you're going to be with. Like just don't really point out the fact that you'll be solo, just in case, which is very unlikely that person is actually a crazy person. Okay, let's go positive. What's the most beautiful natural place that you've ever been? Oh, wow. It would probably be, it's hard, honestly, but probably the Dolomites of Italy. Oh, that's so high on my list. Yeah, the mountain ranges there are just insane. Like, literally all the freighters. you see, it's better than that because you just can't even fully capture it in a photo or video,

whatever it is. But being there with those ginormous peaks and there's pizza and there's wine. And you can like hike. I have a friend who hiked between different like huts that you stay in at night and they give you like dinner and wine and then you hike all day the next day. That sounded so dreamy. Yeah. And you can do that in other places as well, like Switzerland and Austria. and France have had hikes like that as well. And you do have to, I think, reserve them like pretty ahead of time. But we, last time I, in 2019, I was in the Dolomites in fall. And we had dinner at one of those mountain huts before we hike down the mountain. And it was like the best dinner of the trip. We had like spaghetti and wine and like some sort of cake thing for

dessert. And there was this big Bernese mountain dog that was sitting under the the table the whole time and we just could like pad it the whole time it was like yeah and the owners of the heart would just lovely very very good experience if you can ever do it what about most beautiful place in the u.s like nature wise yeah um i'm like pretty partial to washington hence why i live here i know i feel like the washington tourism board needs to like sponsor or maybe they do but like you you talk about how beautiful it is in a way that is just it's very compelling yeah i love the scenery here in Washington that hence why we moved from Colorado to Washington. We loved living in Colorado, but we were just really, really in love with the rugged, jagged mountains here in Washington.

They're just much more dramatic than in some other places of the U.S. So like the North Cascades and Mount Rainier and places like that are insane. But I mean, I have to also give a shout out to Alaska because the glaciers and the mountains and everything there at just next level, ridiculous. You have to be like, are we really in the U.S.? Like, this is crazy. I mean, barely. You're like way. Alaska is so fascinating to me because it's, I feel like it's more, I love places that you can go in the U.S.

that still feel really culturally different. Like I love Charleston, South Carolina, or Alaska feels like that to me, where it just feels like there's a specific type of person who loves Alaska and thrives in living there and a specific type of nature. And you can almost get that feeling like when you're in Europe and you go from one country to another. It feels like you can get that within the U.S., which I think is really cool. I think people who choose to live in Alaska fascinate me. I just think they're the coolest people. It just feels so rugged, so like pioneering individual.

I don't know. I just think they're – I could talk to somebody who lived in Alaska for. hours and hours and hours. Especially the ones that live in those places where they have to take the bush planes. Yeah, the little planes out. Like that fascinates me because they get their gross, like they fly in their groceries from Anchorage and live through the winter out there. Like I, not for me, but I fully am interested in like seeing and hearing about their experience. Yeah, me too for sure. Do you have any tips for traveling with a partner? Yeah, I do.

So most of the traveling I've done has been with my husband or for many years, it was him as my boyfriend. And I would say to give each other space because especially like if you're in a car or like on a road trip all the time or if you're living in a or like traveling in a camper van or staying in little Airbnbs constantly day and day out for weeks or months or years on end, you know, everyone needs their space. And I think, especially when it's your partner, you're like, oh, but we should always just love each other 24-7. Like, if it's not like that, then there's something wrong with us. But that is just not true. You definitely need to prioritize things like alone time and like, hey, I'm just going to like put my noise cancelling head rings on and like chill over here for a bit. And like you go over there and chill for a bit and or like go for a walk separately or whatever it is because I personally really thrive on having some alone quiet time.

And I think all that ever does is make your relationship stronger, particularly when you're traveling, like it's doing a little bit by yourself. And then I guess some other tips would be compromise because you're 100% not going to want to do all the same things all the time, right? Yeah. So, yeah, you might not want to go to that castle that. that she wants to go to, but just go to the castle and just go to the castle and just see it, because then she'll go along to that whatever thing you want to do. And I think it's so important

when you're traveling with someone to take everyone's considerations in and meet somewhere in the middle and compromise so that everyone has fun and is, you know, spending their money, the way they want to spend it and getting the most out of the trip. Do you feel like your relationship is stronger for having, traveled together so much? Do you feel like you've learned things about your husband you might not have learned otherwise? Oh, 100%. And the first long trip we did together was when we were 19. And so for reference, I'm 31 now. And we saw each other have explosive diarrhea that trip and vomiting. And you know, you also learn how in those moments that are very, very hard and you like

feel like you're going to die or whatever. To see how someone, your partner treats people is so important. And like from a young age, I could see that my husband, he was polite to strangers and courteous and like those core values that you want to find out about a person really come out in trouble, you know? And it's a real good way to know someone quickly and to know, you know, is this my person sort of thing. So I recommend if you can, like financially, if you can, even if it's just like a local road trip, like car camping or whatever, if you can travel with your partner before

committing to something like marriage, I think it's a very good idea. Or like really early on, like I had friends that took a camping trip and they'd been together for like three weeks and then they ended up seeing sides of each other. They didn't like as much and they broke up. But like, that's time saved in essence. I think that the doctor I interviewed on my happiness podcast basically said, dating isn't, it should just be about narrowing things down to find your best match. And so the more information you have the quicker, that's better for you, even if it's bad information or negative information, you know?

For sure, absolutely. And also depending on your age or how quickly you want to find that person, Like if you can narrow that in quickly and work out at a core level if this person is someone you want to be with for a long time, like that's definitely a good thing. I remember one of mine and Zach's first trips. We still don't really poop in front of each other. Like we're closed door poopers. But we were staying in these places with like just they were cheap and they had really thin walls. And so we would have like headphone time where I'd be like, okay, go listen to your music really loud on your headphones.

And then I would like, there's one place that had a curtain for the bathroom. So you just like pull the curtain. Or there's one place I stayed at in Sweden and the bathroom door was glass. So it was transparent and there was no way to like flip a switch and make it opaque. And so you just sit there. And I just be like, okay, headphone time. Like go listen to your music. I'm going to go take big poop.

And it does, it makes that stuff more comfortable because like pooping is the fact of life, you know? Yeah. And if you can get comfortable with that stuff, I think it's really good. When I worked as a magazine editor, I wrote more than a thousand articles about turmeric because pretty much all of the doctors that I used as sources kept recommending it or citing it is one of the supplements that they would personally take. Here's the background. Turmeric is one of the most powerful ways to fight inflammation. In a nutshell, there are two types of inflammation, acute and chronic. Acute inflammation can actually be a good thing. It's one of the ways that

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this stuff. Now, let's get back to the episode. How do you find like really beautiful places? And I'd say both in macro and in micro. So like, how do you know this is a country or area you want to go to? But then when you're there, how do you know the gorgeous photo spots and the really good hikes? Yeah. So my top tips for like how I plan trips or how I find certain things, I firstly, often like the very, very initial thing that might inspire me to travel somewhere or like put it on my bucket list would probably be Instagram just because it's like so easy these days to see really beautiful places on Instagram and we're pretty bombarded with beautiful stuff. But it's also a lot of it is kind of like lies too, you know what I mean?

Yeah. It's like really edited photos and it's hard to tell. Yeah. So usually I will come across. cross something on Instagram or maybe it's like TikTok or whatever and that will sort of open my eyes to this destination and then I like 100% do more research so I turn to things like Pinterest is such a great resource for traveling and also for finding hikes and camping and road trip stuff so Pinterest will lead you to so many great blog posts you can just Google for blog posts as well obviously but

I personally find things like longer YouTube videos or blog posts where people go into more depth about their trip. Like, this is where I stayed. This is what I did. Oh, this is what I wouldn't recommend. I find that stuff really useful. And from that, I'll usually make some sort of Google sheet or Google Doc or something like that or just whatever a note on my phone where I'll just start listing some things I want to do,

some hikes I want to do. And usually before a trip, we'll book some stuff. So obviously flights, usually like an initial accommodation or a camper or something like that. But I personally, and not everyone likes to travel like this, I personally like to kind of get to a destination and then sort of like see how the weather's going, what's looking good, how I'm feeling if I liked somewhere, and then sort of just tailor my itinery as I go. But I know that. I know that. kind of travel isn't for everyone. So you can have as much of an itinerary beforehand. And my last tip on that would be like 100% speak to the locals because they know what's best. They'll tell you all the best spots. Speak to like the ranges in national parks.

Go to the visitor center. Ask questions wherever you're going like chat to someone because they will tell you all the insider tips. And will you ask them like I'm looking for a beautiful photo for my blog post, where's gorgeous? Or? No, I probably wouldn't say that because I, like, don't want them to ask. Like, what's your Instagram? What's your blog? Like, I just don't, I don't, I like, I don't want to go there.

I like to fly under the radar when I go places. So I won't usually say anything like that, but I'll, I'll say, hey, like, my husband and I love, like, hiking. And we want to do, like, a really pretty sunset hike to see. this mountain range or like whatever it is like what would you recommend or if I have a photo maybe that I've seen online that I just no matter what I did with my research Google earth maps all the things I just couldn't find where it was that's a really good thing to ask someone who's local or a ranger or something like that like hey do you recognize this spot do you know if this is a local hike

and you know at least half of the time they'll they'll know where it is sometimes rangers act dumb and if it's like somewhere they don't want you to go because of like it might be off trail or something like that they'll be like no I've never seen that before and you're like yes you have but for the most part people will give you their best answers how do you stay healthy when you travel like do you have any secrets to kind of like I always bring green powder with me and it just makes me feel like I've gotten some greens in even if that's all the greens I've gotten in How do you approach that? It does depend on the trip.

I find when I'm taking trips that I'm staying in Airbnb's or hotels, I just in general am better at sticking to a routine and being healthier. I do find it a little harder when camping or taking road trips and I don't have, you know, that kind of normal space to like work out or do something like that. But one thing I do do every single trip is I bring. like my vitamins or supplements along and like you said that helps me feel like I've like done something and then I also am pretty religious about like doing my skincare routine morning and night it's just like one I have to do it because I have like skin that is problematic but also it just helps me

have that little bit of self care time and like I have taken some steps that day to do something for my body that is nice and I haven't just put it through the ring out all day traveling. I do think having little bits of routine, whatever they are, like I try to meditate at the same time even if I'm traveling or you have your skincare. I should be better at skincare. Someday I'm going to get good at it and I'm going to be real proud of myself. But I do think having this little bits of routine go a really long way or when I'm traveling I try to do not more than one meal out a day so that I'll have like breakfast and lunch at the hotel and my like oatmeal in the hotel room or at an Airbnb because I just feel like when I'm doing three meals out of day. One, it's the best way to get bored of whoever you're

traveling with. Like even Zach, I love him so much, but having to sit across from him at a restaurant for like three hours a day and like one hour each at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I'm just like, I don't have anything to talk to you about anymore. And then two, you just feel gross so fast. So I feel like if you can just do one meal out and enjoy the culture, it really, really, really helps. Yeah, and everyone is different, obviously, with how they, with how they eat and their meals and all that sort of stuff. But one thing I do try and keep kind of consistent when I travel is at home, I personally feel really good when I intermittent fast. I often don't eat like a proper meal until around lunchtime. And it just makes me feel so good.

And when I travel, if like you said, I'm finding myself eating three meals a day, like three heavy. like three heavy meals out at restaurants or whatever it is. Literally after a couple days, I just feel crap. And I have to, okay, I either stop eating so much out or I revert back to that. Okay, I'm just going to eat two main meals, you know, maybe snacks. I don't like limit myself. Yeah, I'm like an intuitive eater. But I find, like you said, if I'm eating three meals out a day and it's just making me feel gross. I have to sit back and evaluate, should I, like, go back to my kind of normal schedule that I have at home or what kind of food can I make on the go that I don't feel so icky. But eating is definitely the hardest thing when you travel if you're trying

to stay healthy or maintain some sort of schedule. I feel like it requires a little bit of planning ahead and some thought. Well, and it's hard because you want to try, like when I was in Santa Fe last month, I got more restaurant recommendations from people that I could go to, and I was there for a month. So it's like, it's hard because you want to engage with the local culture, but also it's a lot to engage with. And I think the fomo of that can be even tricky to navigate. For sure. What have you learned about yourself doing all of this traveling and adventures or how have you grown through it? Yeah, good question.

I think in a lot of ways the whole outdoor thing and traveling and having to be more independent and trusting myself to, you know, not screw up, definitely given me more confidence and that confidence has gone into other aspects of my life, whether it be caring less about how I look, like, or confidence in my business, like doing things like this podcast. I was like so bad at interviews. And I'm not not saying that I'm like really good at it now or anything, but I was so bad at doing stuff like this a couple of years ago. And I think definitely just having more confidence doing things outdoors and traveling, particularly solo stuff, I think has like proven to me that that I am more capable and stronger and smarter and all those things than I give myself credit for. And I think we can all definitely learn something from that for sure. What else?

I think definitely something I've learned from traveling and being out in nature is to not take it for granted. And for those moments that, like I definitely have long periods. of time where I just don't get a chance to do things like that, particularly, you know, I think we can all relate a bit to the last 12 months or 18 months with the pandemic and lockdowns, depending on where you are around the world. I 100% very much missed going outdoors and recreating and traveling. And these last 12 months have opened my eyes up to the fact that I actually need that

in my life. It's actually really important to me so that when I am out doing these things, I kind of as much as possible bring it back to that gratitude and like, wow, I'm so damn lucky getting to do this stuff, you know? And whereas I feel like beforehand maybe, maybe I was taking that stuff a little bit too much for granted or not realizing just how privileged I was to be able to do those things. And yeah, now these days I'm just like, wow, I'm like so thankful to be outdoors or like I'm actually going to Iceland next week, which is huge because I'm vaccinated now and I can travel safely, you know, depending on the destination. And that is just pinching myself that I can get back to that sort of normality again. Have you been to Iceland?

Yeah, this is actually my fourth visit. It's one of my favorite countries in the world. It's me too, 100%. I think it's the combination of like hiking and hot springs I think is unbeatable, although I really don't like the food. Sorry. Yeah. I agree with you. And the thing about and going back to that staying healthy when traveling thing, I'm already thinking about, okay, what stuff can I take with me? Because one, Iceland is super expensive. Yeah. And two, they don't eat super healthy there. They eat a lot of junk food. Like all the roadside places just have like hot dogs and snack, especially if you're getting out of break. Are you doing the ring road? Yeah, we're going to be going all sorts of places. And yeah, from experience from previous trips, I agree. Like it's mostly the gas station food is very unhealthy. And then even when you're in the city, there are obviously better cafes and restaurant options, but it's still like a lot of burger places and a lot of fast food.

And also the food's quite heavy in Iceland. It's like a lot of different kinds of meat and seafood. Not a lot of vegetables going on. Yeah. So and the veggies are expensive in the grocery stores. So yeah. So what are you bringing in? I think I haven't fully decided yet.

But I think I'm definitely going to bring some snacks, like just some pre-package, not anything perishable, but just some like healthier snack options, some like protein bars and stuff like that so that if I just can't find anything to eat, I have something. And then not that this is like really a healthy option, but I think we're going to also bring some like camping dehydrated meals that if we find ourselves out in the middle of nowhere and maybe the grocery store just has like a thing of lettuce and like a tomato that we can buy, we can sort of like pair it with our dehydrated burrito mix and some wraps and

and kind of make some sort of dinner. It's like a backup plan that if we find ourselves somewhere where the restaurant's like $300, you know, for us to eat there, that we're like, okay, we're not going to do that. Do you do anything to make sure you can keep pooping while you're, like, eating this word food? Like magnesium or? Yeah, I take magnesium every day. So that definitely probably helps. But I also, I have just like a pretty good gut these days because I used to have.

have problems with my digestion and I did years and years and years of like making my own kombutcher and kefir and probiotics and like sourcrow and all the things and I'm very thankful and very lucky these days that my digestion is like the best it's ever been so I actually find that I do pretty well when traveling when it comes to like staying regular and feeling like good in my digestion whereas that was definitely not the case when I was traveling. The first time I went to Iceland, I remember feeling just rotten because it's like, as we said, it's like so hard to get healthy food there. And if you have any kind of digestion problems, it's definitely amplified in a place like that.

Yeah, I love the idea that like having good digestion when you're traveling should actually mean having good digestion all the time, like working on your guy all the time, and then you can reap the benefits of that when you take a trip. Oh, for sure. definitely and I like last time I went to Italy was also a world of difference compared to the first time I went to Italy last time I was eating the pastas and the bread and the cheeses and all the things and you know like those things still make me feel a bit black because they're like super heavy but but I could do that and not feel horrible and I could enjoy it and like really

experience that part of the culture whereas like when my gut was not in a good place yeah the first time I went to Italy I was eating the food but then I was regretting it highly later was there anything like just really quick anything really big you did to heal your gut in that time yeah so the main things I did actually was I also eliminated a lot of foods that until my gut was healed but like very very triggering to my gut so I didn't eat a lot of like legumes I cut out most dairy. It was like seven years ago now. I can't remember fully what I cut out, but it was like quite restrictive because I just

had to cut those things out to feel better. And then the thing I think that made the biggest difference that actually healed my gut was stuff like magnesium and some other supplements I was working with a naturopath. But also I like literally made my own big things of kombucha, key food. I think that's how you say it. And sauerkraut and stuff. Like it was kind of gross, honestly, like eating all that stuff with every single meal. But I would wake up in the morning and I'd have my like glass of kombucha like before

work and I would incorporate as many probiotics as possible. And I think it probably took maybe like a year or two years. And after that my gut was like premium condition. And then you could go back to reincorporating all. of those foods. Yeah, I'm not restrictive at all now with what I eat. I'm, you know, I try and eat healthy, but I, I'm pescatarian. I don't eat me, but that's been the case since I was like a young child. But I eat anything. So, and I don't, there are certain days, obviously, that I'm like, oh man, I'm bloated, but, you know, we're women, hormones, it happens. And certain things still,

like, don't make me feel as good. But I can eat it without. waking up in the middle of the night and vomiting or like I was in a bad way before I felt my gut. And I think, I think also like from a mental health perspective, I 100% believe in that connection between gut and brain. Because I think back on when I had really bad gut health and I, it definitely affected like my day to day happiness. And like while I was traveling and things like that, feeling good and feeling happy and in the moment and all those sorts of stuff. Whereas now, obviously, eating is something like any human. I have to think about what I put in my body, but I'm not so hyper-focused on it. And I don't have to think about, you know, feeling crappy so often. And overall for your mental health, that is just so good. Amazing.

Well, if people wanted to follow your journey, see some Iceland picks. I'm excited for that content for sure. Where can we find you on the internet? Yeah, so my Instagram, actually all my socials are Renee Rooming. Just as is Renee Roaming on TikTok, it's Renee. Roaming. And then my blog, my travel blog is Renee Roaming.com. And then if you wanted to check out my book, Roaming America, it's about our trip to all the

national parks. That is available anywhere that you can buy books. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for taking all the time. I definitely use your blog all the time. When we went to Death Valley, I was like, Renee Romine, Death Valley, and you have really amazing travel guides. And also, I want to give you a quick shout-up for something that you do that I think a lot of travel

sites don't do, which is you acknowledge the heritage and the history of the land. And I thought that that was a really beautiful way to appreciate where the land has come from, and I haven't seen that on other travel sites before. Thank you. Yeah. I'm definitely not perfect at that. It's something that I do need to go back. on older blog person and do better at that. But it is, I appreciate you acknowledging that,

yeah, I am trying to do better. And I think it's something that we should all try and be better about for sure. Great, completely. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to join me today. Yay, thank you for having me. I hope you love this episode with Renee. I hope it really inspired you to get outside and to go and have wonderful, beautiful adventures. Please send me your picks if you do. Also, don't forget to tell me if you are more interested in a wellness around the world series, if you're interested in summer adventure, anything, both. I don't know. Let me know.

Let me know you want to see on the podcast in future episodes in either of those series or something different entirely. And if you love this episode, I would, as always, so appreciate a quick rating or review on your podcast app of choice. It makes a huge difference in helping other people find the pod. Honestly, though, the biggest difference you can make in helping people find the pod is to share it with the people you love who you know will love this type of content. I so appreciate you. I love spending this time together and I hope you have a beautiful day. I'll see you on the next episode of the healthier together podcast. I very rarely get genuinely excited about skincare, but this is

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