How to Stay Fit While Traveling (Even When You Petsit In The UK)
There is good news and bad news when you Travel as a house or pet sitter. Do you: go to the gym, walk or run, do Yoga?
If you consider your parents and grandparents and you believe you will live to your 90s and more. You seek to live your years ahead without pain, then you certainly have some way of staying fit right now. The global panic has subsided. Have you returned to your former routines?
You’ve heard the phrase, “Motion is lotion?” Just as skin lotion lubricates and hydrates the outside of us, motion lubricates our joints, right?
Currently, I’m watching my parents’ lives as a lesson in the hard realities of choices. They always had a garden, ate extremely well, kept their weight to normal, needed no medications, and had no chronic health issues. They pivoted careers at age 63 to buy, build and operate a commercial grapefruit orchard with 1468 trees as a Retirement project. They worked until Dad was 85, then sold the property and moved into town. They found easy chairs and retired there. After a few years of no activity, Mom fell and shattered her elbow, and Dad needed a walker. They’ll never recover good health. I believe the biggest factor is not their age, but their lack of activity and motivation. It’s a real-to-life tragedy to watch.
Just how do you keep in shape when you go off pet sitting and house sitting away from home? How do you maintain your gym routines? Or do you?
I believe we must do everything in our power, every day, to keep in shape physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally.
Here’s the bad news. You need to find different ways to Exercise. Well, you could choose to be a sloth but what a tragedy. Imagine saying to someone, “Oh, I went to France as a house sitter,” and the other says, “Wow, how fun. What did you do?” And you say, we stayed in someone’s house and cleaned the cat box.” Period.
Here’s the good news. When you shift your routines, you build your brain as well as your body. What? Yes, every time you change a habit, your brain must create new neural pathways thus, you grow.
Walk: Maybe your housesitting assignment is a 20-minute walk to the store. A trip each day gives you 40 minutes of walking plus weight-bearing for the return trip. It’s easy to put ten or twenty pounds of food in your backpack. Just think, milk, potatoes, fruit, and drinks can add up.
Run: Often there will be pathways along a river or a lake for you to enjoy. You can run to and from any housesitting assignment. You’ll need to explore. It’s a fun reason to check out the neighborhood.
Gym: In rural locations, a gym may be hard to find. You can create your home gym. There are plenty of instructional videos on exercises without machines. Do you know what lifting cans of tomatoes can do for your triceps?
Mentally: When you housesit, you cannot stay in a rut. Zig Ziglar said, “A rut is a grave with the ends kicked out.” Being in a rut is destructive to your brain. Those synapses and neural pathways have no ‘work’ to do and shrivel. Living in a stranger’s house in another part of the world gives your brain plenty of new input to ‘work.’ The brain fires faster with unknown stimuli. The brain is constantly evaluating the questions. What am I doing? What do I see? How do I feel? What do I need? Where’s the food?
Spiritually: If you are a church-goer, you might find similar and comfortable churches in the country you are visiting. You might not. Can you create a practice that feeds your soul? For me, all nature is God’s sanctuary. I don’t need a church or a Sunday to pray, meditate and listen, or quiet my mind. I think we lean into our spiritual practice more when we are away from home because we want to feel our travel is for the service we offer.
Emotionally: It’s challenging to be away from family, friends, and work. Even when housesitting in your same country or state you feel like a stranger in a strange land. After the last two years of forced distancing, we are all used to Technology that keeps us talking to each other. I hope we’ll keep it up.
How do you stay happy when you’re away from home? Let’s think about it. How do you stay happy when you’re at home? What elements in your home life bring you satisfaction and contentment? What brings you joy? The good news is the same factors work for you no matter where you live as a house and pet sitter. You need purpose, passion, and new friends on the horizon.
If you are a pet sitter and house sitter, you live out your purpose.
It has nothing to do with Money. You are giving your hosts peace of mind as they travel. Your hosts can now relax and enjoy their vacation.
Offering this gift of service opens you up to passion. You love the pets because they love and you want to love them in return. You mind the house because you are a good steward of what’s entrusted to you including your temporary home. The side benefit is experiencing life like the locals. It’s like stepping into a movie. And you are the hero who is living adventures.
Long-time friends are part of the fabric of your life because you lived through your life with them. Together, you experienced good parts as well as the ugly parts. You know their strengths and weaknesses and they know yours as well.
New friends are exciting because of so many unknowns. You feel engaged because their stories are novel. Friendships flourish as you share points in common. An example is sharing about your children. A most gratifying component is you get to tell your stories to a new audience.
The bottom line about keeping in shape, at home or abroad, is you will if you choose to. Yes, you are endlessly creative, and you will find different ways to exercise your body, mind, and soul.
Fitness is not about your location. It is ALL about your mindset.
Originally Published on https://www.claimingfreedom.com
