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Bye!

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Hey team, it's Miki here. You're listening to Mini Mikkipedia on a Monday. And this Monday, I want to share with you just a few things which I've been receiving a number of questions about regarding travel and what we've taken camping, how do I navigate staying at people's houses with regards to the food, what are some of my top tips that may help those of you who are interested in the type of holiday that

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we've been having and by the time you listen to this, we would have been home. Just maybe to help you make different decisions or better decisions when it comes to planning your trips. So I'll start off first with the travel over. My best top tip for the travel over, I've got a couple of them. The first thing is obviously compression socks and getting medical grade compression socks from

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pharmacy or similar rather than relying on two times you or underarm a compression gear or anything like that now This is not just regarding the fact that these aren't great products And if you notice a benefit of using them when you are recovering from a hard session however, the medical grade stuff is actually really awesome for

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helping minimize the canklage that occurs after flying long haul. Typically, I don't see my ankles for a few days. And interestingly, this time around, I just wore my compression socks from the get-go, like before we even got on the plane, for the entirety of our travel, which was the 12-hour trip to LA and then an additional three hours to Denver. So we were probably traveling for around about, well,

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not quite 24 hours, maybe sort of 18 or 19 hours by the time you took into consideration the wait time in between our flights. And strangely, I saw my ankles when I took off my compression tights, which doesn't often happen with my compression socks. So that is my first tip, get yourself a decent pair of compression socks and never lose them.

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So the second tip I will have with traveling over is take additional protein options with you to eat. Obviously you'll get fed on your long haul trip. And despite the fact that these will be meals and it'll be beef, it'll be chicken, or if you're having vegetarian, well, it might not have any protein in it, but often they are small and dense. Now they have adequate calories, absolutely, more than you need.

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probably for most of us, but these will be coming predominantly from fat and carbohydrate, which you don't really need as much as you do protein. So you have the ability to take any additional fresh protein that you might have, like leftovers, salad, and as long as you consume it before the end of your first long haul flight, and you're not taking it into a different country for most countries, then

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you are absolutely fine with taking it with you on the plane. So this trip around, I took with me, I had air fried chicken that morning and it was just left over, so I bunged that in a plastic container. I also had a couple of carrots that were left in the fridge, took them. Took an apple because I am a big fan of an apple and don't like to risk, I don't know, like getting a crapple from the...

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from any sort of long haul meal. And also I took a couple of serves of protein powder. I took one in a small container, which I could just add water to. And then I took another serve of protein powder in a snap lock bag for later use. And this just, and I took a couple of protein bars as well. So this might seem a little bit OTT to some of you, which is fine, but.

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If I'm hungry, I'm going to want to eat something which I know, which I want to eat. And I'm very big on that. I have no qualms in leaving food on my plate that I don't actually enjoy eating or pouring down the rest of a beer that I don't enjoy drinking because I always want to enjoy what I eat basically. So taking, you know, carrots and having protein powder and

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which you can mix with the yogurt if you like, even though they always have sweetened yogurt on the airplane, so I'm not sure why. And then having additional protein to add to your meal or to eat before or after is also just great. It just means that you're not hungry and then having to rely on the crackers and the bread bun and the rice or potato or pasta that you also get with that meal. And I'm not saying that you should avoid these things if you like them. You can do what you like.

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I'm just telling you what I do. I know some people really like to fast throughout an entire sort of long haul flight of like 12, 14 hours, which is awesome. And if that's what you love to do, that is so good. I find I just get hungry, to be honest. Which I don't really think that says much about my fat metabolism because I can pretty easily go out for three hours without taking much else other than water and feel completely fine. So I don't think that it's.

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that I'm not fat adapted or anything like that. But it is true that the leaner you are, the more you can sort of dig yourself in a hole if you just don't provide your body with calories. So ensuring you have good calories on board, I think makes better sense rather than sort of thinking, oh, I don't want to be eating this stuff, so I'll just fast. It's actually a little bit more challenging than that. However, if you are someone that enjoys fasting and likes this opportunity,

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That is one of the recommendations for getting into the time zone more quickly once you land. And I think another way you can do this actually, flying from New Zealand to the States is pretty easy because you get fed dinner and then you get fed breakfast and by the time you land, typically it is just after lunchtime. So meals aren't that out of sync. It is a little bit different if you're going elsewhere though. But if you do enjoy fasting.

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or you feel like having something in addition to, or instead of the meals, you could try taking ketones, absolutely. Or just having yourself those protein options, which I think makes good sense. So we did a bit of camping when we were away, and I just wanted to share with you the brands of the products that we used. And some of them are several years old, actually. But they're still really decent. So we took our two men

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a two man tent and it is MSR brand and it's the Hubba Hubba. And we bought this about seven years ago and it is still very light and it is not at all clunky to put up. It's very simple to put up and it is nice and snug yet quite spacious actually for two people. So that is the tent that we took super easy to bring with you. We also have XPed sleeping

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X PED sleeping mats and they are tiny as actually and also super comfortable. These I believe that we bought these in New Zealand so they are available. The Hubba Hubba tent we got in England because as you know Hubster is British and we also have enlightened sleeping bags and they are so light and so warm I highly recommend them.

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So that is Enlightened E-N-L-I-H-T-E-N-E-D. And super small and super light to carry, because obviously that is important when you are traveling overseas. You don't wanna be lugging around your really heavy stuff. We also have a Jetboil, which is amazing. And we just bought gas when we got to Colorado, as opposed to bringing it with us, obviously.

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We have the jet boil and we've got a little plunger that goes in the jet boil as well. So you can boil your water and then you can add a little plunger attachment and then voila, if you've got coffee then you've got coffee. And we've also brought a little fry pan to go with that plus a couple of Systema containers. I'm pretty obsessed with plastic containers to be honest.

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but we wanted a couple of Systema containers just in case anything was left over from the meal that we were having camping that we could have for leftovers the day afterwards. So we had the Jetboil frying pan and also the a couple of Systema containers. We also have like we also bought a Katmandu little kind of travel plunger with us.

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as well. I find it super easy and I've had one of them for many years now and it's super convenient to have. And we also had our Black Diamond head torches which were pretty awesome actually. We really love them. They're super bright. They've got a number of different settings and we can take them running with us as well. So really enjoyed or so we made sure we had a couple

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Also, if you are camping, we really recommend, we recommended this from a friend as well, is to take cash with you, because often when you get to the different campgrounds, there may not be cell coverage or service there. So you have to pay, I don't know, anywhere between 23 and $28 a night for a campsite and or at least a tent site. And it's super convenient to have cash

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with you if you're not booking in advance. So you're not relying on cell phone coverage to do anything online when you're there. So always take a bit of cash with you, with ROOP4, to help with the sort of camping. And then once we arrived, we also, when we got some of our food for our trip, we got a couple of big water containers, like I think they were about four gallons each. The campsites we were in did have water, but we weren't sure.

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We had paper towels, we had toilet paper just in case. We got a little dishcloth that also had a little scrubber on it to help with the washing the dishes because we bought our Sea to Summit plates and our little knife, spoon and spork that were on, a little hook that just sort of stayed together. We bought salt with us. Oh no, we bought salt here, I'm sorry, as well. So you know how I feel about salt, I'm a big fan.

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always like to have it. And we also had a we have a sink actually a Sea to Summit sink super handy and it's made out of a material like a like a it's not Gortex but it's like that kind of like jacket material and it scrunches up really small super easy to carry around with you super quick to dry and really robust actually so we bought our own little sink because often at the camping sites

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at the Recreation Services camping site, which is like a dock site if you like. They have toilet blocks, but they say to you to do your dishes at your own campsite, not to do them in and around the sort of the tap or the water where they provide the water. So really recommend that. It's super cheap too. We also bought a little portable shower with us, which we didn't end up using actually because we were on the move quite a bit.

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So we just ended up using showers, in fact, at laundromats and at these little hostels, which just sort of advertised shower services. But a portable shower could be super helpful. So our idea was to fill it up with water in the morning, go for a run. The sun would come up, it would warm the water, we could have a shower. But it never quite eventuated that way because we were either too late and had to check out of the

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You know if you're staying in one place then these little portable showers are awesome actually. So that's really our camp gear. With regards to running, we have, because people have asked me about the gear that we use with running. So in addition to the Black Diamond torches, which are super great if there's not a lot of light, we have Black Diamond poles, which have been so helpful with the sort of elevations and the vertical.

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sort of meters that we've been getting on the runs that we did this holiday. Uh, not only going up, but also coming down. So the black diamond poles are really awesome. We have icebreaker tops for multi-day runs are super convenient because they don't smell actually. And so you wear it and then you can wear it multiple times, um, without worrying about it, you know, smelling terrible. Um, not that I would necessarily worry about that if I'm honest, but.

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You know, some people do, but they're really robust and they will last the distance. They are expensive. I don't know if you're like me, wondering how on earth you used to be able to afford a lot of icebreaker 20 years ago, and now it seems just ridiculously expensive, but if you want something to invest in, I think a couple of icebreaker tops could be really handy. Also super important actually is, we saw a number of people with these on the trails,

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Garmin InReach Mini and so many people have them. Our friends Anna and Brass who we're staying with they've got one. We saw multiple people on the trails with them. It's super important to have a personal location beacon because if you get into trouble and there's no cell coverage then you could be in dire straits and you never want to be in that position. You always want to just ensure that you're safe regardless.

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Although you need to have a subscription for it when you want to use it in order to sort of access safety services, what we tend to do is just activate that subscription for a month when we're using the inReach. Otherwise, of course, we don't need it, so we don't have to have that extra cost. But it is super helpful if you're on long day missions or you're multi-day tramping, you're by yourself or you're just, you know, with a few of you, just in case anything goes wrong.

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Something else which is really important is having gear with you that you're probably not going to need, but just in case. And you just think about it in terms of, it's not just your own safety that you're wanting to ensure, but it's the safety of other people around you. You could come across someone who is in trouble, who needs to have another layer that they didn't bring or needs food or, you know, needs a safety blanket, needs some sort of first aid kit. And it is almost like just.

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trying to be, I guess, helpful to those other people around you as well. So of course, first and foremost, you want it for yourself, but you might come across someone else who might be in trouble. So making sure you've got an adequate first aid kit, you have warm layers like merino or polyprop layers, you've got a waterproof jacket, waterproof pants, you've got a hat, you've got gloves, you're taking your torch with you.

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Like these are just some super simple things. And if you can fit a little puffy jacket in there, like the Patagonia ones, do that as well. And then of course, food. Always take more food than you think that you need. Energy bars, protein bars, gels, pouches of food, waffles, like the stroop waffles. Super important. And again, take more than you need. Like when we were on our runs for this holiday,

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We had with us protein bars, we had Ucan gels, we had NAK, N-A-A-K, we had Energy bars, Stroop waffles, and we had some spring energy gels with us. So not only were those waffles from NAK super delicious, as were the Energy bars, super great, particularly on that last run where it wasn't just the run we were fueling that day, but it was the accumulation of a number of

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sort of hours on our feet, even though they were hike running, that required additional fuel. So always take more than you think that you need. And again, super handy for if you come across someone who might be in trouble, who hasn't prepared, then you're able to offer them something but not necessarily go without yourself. So I think that's, you know, that's a sort of safety and something that you might not necessarily think about. We have Solomon Vests as well.

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So I have a 10 litre, Braz has a 12 litre. And for my poles, I don't have a little place to put my poles actually, but they go really easily down the back of my 10 litre vest. And as long as I put them in the right way, they're not gonna sort of scratch my back up, which I didn't do. And I've got a very big scratch on my back the first time, but that's fine. We bought beer spray and got incessantly mocked by our friend Braz.

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Ron Brazelton. However, he did say that he would feel terrible if we then ignored our bear spray and we got eaten by bears. So there you go. We also, as I said, cash for camping grounds, we just had some cash on us, and also credit cards for shopping. Because pay wave seems to be sort of 50-50 around here. And we were, we went to Ure and got, we were very limited at the places that we could eat.

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because we did not have our credit cards, we only had pay wave. So that's something else to sort of consider as well. And then finally, how to navigate staying with people and integrating how they eat with regards to what you eat. And the first thing I will say is, if you are on a short trip like we are of two weeks, you just don't stress about it, to be honest. Like...

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you will lose a lot of the enjoyment of your holiday if you're stressing because all they've got is toast for breakfast and normally you have your protein shake with chicken like me, for example. You know, obviously you will bring food into the house and then maybe what you do is you bring in items that everyone can enjoy but are protein focused like cottage cheese, deli meats, like you might bring over on your trip with your protein powder, which I didn't do

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We just didn't have the space for me to be able to do that, but that was fine. And then you might buy protein bars over here. And obviously this is state specific, but I really like the Barbell protein bars from Trader Joe's. I also enjoy the No Cow bars. They're vegan and dairy free. And we also get the Fulfill bars over here. If you're going to the UK, you can find...

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pretty easily the Fulfill bars and the Grenade bars actually. But just have a few more of them sort of around with you as well. But ultimately, don't stress. Two weeks is not the end of the world. Normally, people when they're on holiday, they're much more active than what they are in real life anyway. Yes, you will eat more. Yes, you will drink more. Well, maybe you will. But as well, you're stress-free.

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you are probably sleeping more, you're enjoying yourself, you can leave a lot of your real life behind you. And so much of our response to food is tied up into the stressful elements of our life. So therefore when you leave those elements behind, even if it's just for two weeks, the sort of consequence of doing something different for your body is far less than what you think. Worst case scenario, you come back from holidays a little bit heavier than when you left.

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No big deal. You know what you can do. I mean, hey, you could even join up to Monday's Matter. Registrations for that open this Thursday. But ultimately, if you listen to anyone like me, you probably have the tools to get you back on track when you get back from holiday anyway. So I just, I don't stress so much about that stuff. I always, when I'm on holiday, I always tend to drink more for sure, because I like to be on a global beer tour when I go away. And I like to try the different types of beers.

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I also like to enjoy the types of foods that are, you know, that, that I might not necessarily eat when I'm at home because we don't eat out that much. So the, I think the worst thing you could probably do is stress about it and then not enjoy your holiday. So just sort of see it for as it is. Those people who are, you know, trying to watch their weight and, and indeed are, you know, uh, watching their calories.

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and are a little bit worried about tracking, just make a deal with yourself that the two weeks you're on holiday or three weeks or whatever, you're just in maintenance. And then you just focus on protein for your meals where you can and let everything else fall as they may. And so often people are pleasantly surprised to come back from holiday and they're no worse off, and some people are even better off than when they left the holiday as well. So I gave you some tips about going into that long haul flight.

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taking additional lean protein options with you. And then just, you know, if you're at a hotel buffet, you'd focus on those protein options like eggs and omelets. Focus on them first before going for pastries. Like always eat your protein first. Same thing at restaurants. Choose a protein-focused meal, ask for sauces on the side, and then enjoy whatever else that you want to have. Because if you fill up on the stuff that you need,

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you can still enjoy some of what you want. But I would say always try to get the sauces or the dressings on the side because there's a lot of additional calories that, hey, you could be using to, I don't know, have a toffee apple because that's what's available in San Francisco from Fisherman's Wharf and that's what you wanna be eating. Rather than the fact that you forgot to ask to get your dressing on the side of your Caesar salad and now you've got an additional 400 calories of ranch dressing or whatever.

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You could completely not even bother, worry about that stuff either, and just take this as a two week holiday, really enjoy it, then get back to business as usual when you're back home. That's the important thing to take time out of real life, right, for a holiday. So hopefully these tips were helpful. And as I said, Monday's Matter Registration opens this Thursday. We kick off Monday 25th of September. This is perfect timing if you've been hibernating over winter.

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and you want something to kick into gear, your motivation coming into this summer season. As always, DM me. I'm on Instagram, threads and Twitter @mikkiwilliden. I'm on Facebook @MikkiWillidenNutrition. Head to my website, mikkiwilliden.com, shoot me an inquiry and I'm here to help you with your nutrition related needs.