Familiar face, travelling and attempting to get in shape on PCH

[irishpolyglot]

Hey everyone! My name is Benny, I'm from Ireland and some of you might have come across my blog on language learning. I'm a friend of Steve's and was hanging out with him last weekend!

 

Anyway, I've been on the road for 10 entire years, and I was doing pretty well keeping in shape until about 3 years ago when I was getting salsa lessons in Colombia on a daily basis and did some bogus calorie calculations and figured I'd deserve a huge pizza after every work out. Since then I've been a little heavier and been trying to get rid of it. I'm a vegetarian (always have been), and this makes it trickier in some countries where what they have is mostly pure carbs rather than healthy vegetables and such.

 

Rather than being in a mad hurry, I'm hoping to get back to my healthy weight range by early next year. I'm hardly super overweight so this is plenty of time to make sure I can make relatively easy changes that stick.

 

One thing I wanted to ask right now though, is if any of you have tips for things to keep me physically active while driving the Pacific Coastal Highway? I'm on holiday the for the next month here, in Portland (OR) for the next week, then Redwook park for 2 days, then San Francisco until the end of the month. I'd love to find some dance lessons, or power yoga, or organized hikes or kayaking, or 5Ks (I did one last Christmas; unfortuantely for now this is my limit, but once I get comfy in these I can aim for bigger ones and then do a marathon later) and the like to keep me active every day. But I don't know the area at all, and at the moment I was only thinking of going to parks and jogging every second day.

 

Tips for this region greately appreciated! Then I haven't actually made any plans for August 5th to 12th, other than the fact that I have to make it down to San Diego for at least one day, but that I'll be in the general LA/San Diego area. Are there any retreats or several-day activities, easy hikes, intensive dance courses etc. that anyone may know around that time?

 

While I'm more aware than anyone what 100% focus over a short time could get me, I'll have language projects that get my undivided attention once my summer holidays are over, so I'd rather simply change my routines to be more healthy. Luckily, I'm finding that I can eat very healthily on the west coast, especially with many fantastic vegetarian options. This alone has already made me start to lose weight in the 2 weeks that I've been here! But I'd like to get more physically active, as I get exhausted way too easily if I jog or go out dancing.

 

Thanks, and looking forward to being part of the rebellion! Maybe I'll see some of you on my travels!

[DaggerBlaze]

Hey Benny! I just wanted to say hi to a fellow Irish person!! XD I'm down in County Kerry and we're enjoying some awesomely hot sunshine right now, believe it or not!!!! Best of luck with getting fit!