Travel preparations

Does anyone else feel foggy brained when you have a trip coming up? I mean really just out of it. I imagine that this is sort of a role reversal.....perhaps I need to explain.

For my birthday this year I am traveling to Orlando, FL - to Disney World to be exact. I love Disney World, I use to work for them, visited many times and still am eager like a little kid to go back. This trip is special because I am flying out from Los Angeles,CA and my parents are flying down from Syracuse, NY. As you can imagine I don't get to see them often since moving across the country. With that in mind we have set two main rules for this trip. 1 -  no complaining....about anything...this means you, Dad ;). It's Disney - you know the prices aren't cheap, you know there will be crowds....we (my mom and I) warned him that if he puts up a fuss we are leaving him in the lobby haha. 2 - no appointments... no meeting up with anyone, no extras - just vacation and relax and have fun (there is one exception to this rule and that is my mom's bday present of Cirque de Soleil La Nouba tickets).

I will still be posting and doing the social network thing - and I am planning to shoot some video for YouTube about travel/hotel workouts (look for it to be posted when I get back and can upload). But for the most part this is a fun trip, a "calm before the storm". When I return from the trip is will be just over 16 weeks from my first competition of the season and prep will begin! SO needless to say this is an important trip to me. It is my last break before months of competition prep, carb cycling and circuits that will kick my ass. It is one the few times I get to see my parents in person and it is in the happiest place on earth.

So you think I would be packed already right? Not even close......

My parents have been ready to go for awhile now, they are retired now and are excited and ready for the trip! Me, I'm running around still working and training, nothing packed, nothing ready, I still have to get cat supplies for them to last the duration, a spare key made for the pet sitter (Thanks Charlotte :) ! ), clean the entire apartment and so on and so on......

It all makes me laugh because I imagine this is how it was when I was little....I would have my little suitcase packed a month ahead and my parents running around frazzled trying to get everything ready. Irony?

Anyway, as part of my travel preparations I have packed a few items that help with hotel and travel workouts (that is to say they will be packed haha). I won't have access to a gym while I am there and my coach gave me permission to take it easy (like I said calm before the storm). But I want to show how easy it is to get at least something of a workout while traveling and where better to do that than with Disney as my backdrop. So here are some items that help when all you have is what you put in your luggage and your hotel room/surroundings.

Resistance bands, Therabands, sneakers and a jump rope...

I got these at a large retail store (ahem, cough...the one with the bullseye). I got the package of three therabands  - light, med, heavy, and the adjustable resistance band with handles - light, med, heavy. 

I'll be blogging about my trip while I am there but when I return I will upload the workouts that I do with these as well as some other exercises you can do using your surroundings to my YouTube Channel JeniroseMuscle. 

Another aspect of traveling, is how to travel with supplements. Fortunately for me, this is also a break from protein powder, I'm done with my off season supplements (such as pre-workout drinks) and I don't start competition supplements til I get back and even then not really until March (i.e. fat burners, whey, etc). So for this trip I merely need to pack my multi vitamin packs, my omega packs, BCAAs (which are tablets) and my extra vitamins (C, Calcium/Magnesium/Zinc). That's pretty easy and I should have no problem with only using a carry on bag. 

Last year when I traveled home I had more supplements to bring as I was preparing for the Ironman Natural at the LA Fitness Expo. For that I had a checked bag, and I put my protein powder in labeled snack size zip lock bags in individual servings and then in one larger bag and did the same for my BCAAs (which were powder drink form then). They traveled just fine in the checked back and no fuss was made so I guess that was an ok way to do it :)