What's up Story Chasers well this video is going to be about the lessons I
learned traveling solo to Alaska but first I think I need to do a little bit of explaining.
So I left Whitehorse Canada and I made my way back down south but I was still in this major
funk. So in my last video I was talking about some of the things that I was
going through and the emotional things that I was feeling and I still just
could not shake it so in all honesty I just didn't feel like filming or even
being on camera so what you're going to see is me traveling from Whitehorse down
to Leadville Colorado and everything in between
part of the reason I didn't want to be on camera is because of my weight gain
and you guys might have noticed it over the last couple of months I noticed it
when I was editing my videos and it was a difficult thing for me to even edit my
videos because I was seeing this weight gain and I was just feeling very upset
with myself and angry and frustrated and you know this is not something that I've
really talked to you guys about I do have an eating disorder I'm an
emotional eater and there's some things that trigger it but a lot of times it's
when I'm in high-stress situations or tension that I kind of fall back into
old patterns one of the things that I don't do is I don't do diets anymore
it's been several years since I decided to stop doing diets but I need to have
this balance right and sometimes my balance just isn't there and this was
one of those times which is why I didn't even want to be on camera
and I know there's a lot of you out there who really support me and don't
judge me there's several people out there who do because there has been
comments and stuff on my youtube channel which is really kind of sad to be honest
with you that people feel like they have to make comments about someone's
physical appearance but nonetheless I was judging myself I think and feeling
like oh my god these people are gonna see my weight gain on here and I was
just feeling really sad about the whole situation to be honest with you and
trying to understand why I was in this place again where wasn't able to control
what I was doing with my eating and balance
my weight it's one of those things that's just really really hard for me to
even discuss which is why you guys have not heard me talk about it before on my
channel but I've decided to just open up about it and maybe this can help
somebody else out there and some of the struggles that they're dealing with but
I think I finally have things under control again I'm in a much better spot
and I'm happier now I am starting he didn't lose weight again which is good
okay so let's get back to the video and the lessons that I learned while
traveling solo to Alaska and hopefully you guys can learn a little bit from
this even if you are a couple traveling just know that some of these things can
still apply to you next up is Jasper National Park in Alberta Canada this
place is just breathtaking and the water is this brilliant green glass color
sometimes a little blue I ended up staying here only one night just across
from the columbia icefields and dang what a view that was it was so beautiful
one of the lessons I learned on this trip is that I overextended myself with
work and travel driving 7,000 miles round-trip as a solo traveler and one
and a half months while operating a business and the new nomad mentorship
bootcamp course was just super challenging for me I don't even like to
drive that much even though I live in a van as some of you might think that I
like to drive because I do live in a van but I don't want to drive that much
7,000 miles in a very short amount of time is just
nuts in my opinion consequently I was just extremely tired and needed some
rest
I ended up getting a hotel room when I was in Spokane Washington I was there to
see clients for a couple of days and well a couple of days turned into about
10 days of living in the hotel room I just needed to decompress and sleep and
not move that was my other lesson learned traveling solo and working you
have to do everything drive work travel film and then do it all over again
look I'm not complaining I have a very good life
I just didn't manage my time or my self-care very well so I was exhausted I
finally left Spokane Washington to make my way to Colorado and join some friends
I felt so much more relaxed after my ten-day hotel stay and now it was time
to get back to some nature
Dylan Montana was first on my list and my resting place for the night at Clarke
Canyon Reservoir what a beautiful area I had never been here before it was
exactly what I needed to continue my healing of my funk
and getting some rest my other lesson learned was that I'm reminded that I
need to continue slowing it down and not take so many huge leaps I put so much
pressure on myself to get things down in my business that it just all came
crashing down around me I even questioned what I was doing am I on the
right path should I continue making YouTube videos and vlogging I mean I
seriously considered that maybe I should just blog and take photos and give up
the YouTube channel but at the end of the day I love it and I love sharing
this life with you all and interacting with you and also hopefully providing
some inspiration to you guys on a living in a non-traditional minimalist life I
can see how you might be thinking that he or she is stressed out and
overextending herself and in this funk so how can that be inspirational well
this is real life and I'm trying to show you all the good stuff about this life
but also the real life issues that happen and get
as well you all need to see both sides to it most of the time I'm pinching
myself about how amazing my life is but these last couple of months have thrown
me for a loop and I've had to overcome some challenges with a van fire my
mental health with my weight gain being tired the weather driving too much and
overextending myself with my business and my travel I'm very excited to be
meeting up with some friends in Colorado Lilly and I are ready to have some
social time and enjoy these cooler temperatures and Leadville Colorado one
of the other lessons I learned was that throughout all of these challenges
things might go wrong like the van fire and things will break but the kindness
of humans to go out of their way to help you is staggering I mean mark and shea
helped me out with putting the fire out and staying with me Gordon flew up from
San Francisco to Alaska to make some repairs on my van and get me back on the
road and Jayson and Hillary let me stay at their place in Fairbanks to do the
repairs I'm just so grateful to everyone who has helped me part of that lesson
learned is that if you need parts really quickly in Alaska well that's
challenging and and of itself because it's Alaska and very far away and it's
hard to get anything overnight it there so the lesson learned here is that if
you think something might need to be repaired you might want to bring up some
supplies with you just in case you can't get to them quickly in Alaska thankfully
the things that need to be repaired on my van or things that Gordon could bring
with him or the Alaska already had and we were able to get most of the repairs
done then I'll do the rest in the lower 48
well we're in Colorado now and this is just past fruta it's beautiful over here
just pulled over off to the side to rest a little bit
truck
I finally made it to Leadville Colorado the highest incorporated city in the
United States at ten thousand one hundred and twenty five feet and just in
time for the Leadville 100 where people literally run 100 miles through the
Rocky Mountain terrain and are limited to 30 hours to complete it like that's
staggering to me we were able to cheer on some of the runners late that evening
as they pass by our campsite and I got to enjoy the company of my fellow our
beers on this dark road along the side of the National Forest waiting for these
runners to come by so that we can give them a little bit of inspiration
I seriously loved Leadville they have some incredible restaurants
however the elevation was really getting to me and I was experiencing some
altitude sickness okay guys so that was my lessons learned traveling solo to
Alaska I feel like this is a super vulnerable video for me because I've
never really talked about my eating disorder and just really some of the
challenges that I have while I'm doing this life while I'm traveling and having
a business and all of that but I wanted to be really transparent with you guys
and show you what it can be like now you may not have an eating disorder or you
may not have you may not be traveling solo you may be a couple that's
traveling but some of these things can still apply to you one of the things
that I know that I have to really manage is my self-care I am that type of person
where when I get super busy or super stressed out you know I dive right into
my work and I can work all hours of the day especially when it's my own business
so stopping and making sure that I take time for self-care is it sound like a
bird or something I was over there and anyway so stopping to you know make sure
that I take care of myself and eat well and meditate and do yoga and move around
and stuff like that is really really important so in the next two weeks
you're going to see a video that actually talks about the pros and cons
of going to Alaska based on my own experience and things that I have seen
while I was there hopefully that will help you when you're deciding to travel
to Alaska whether you're going to drive or whether you're going to fly and rent
an RV or maybe just air B&B it up there and guys I am so thankful for you I
really really appreciate you guys reaching out to me some of you have
reached out asking how I'm doing making sure that I'm okay especially because of
the van fire and I think you noticed in my videos that I was a little bit down
compared to how I normally am so I really really appreciate it I'm so
grateful to every single one of you thank you so much so if you like this
video go ahead and hit that like button if you
I subscribed already please subscribe it helps me grow it helps more people see
my videos and that's it until the next video
hey guys next week bye Mele has an aunty we are soaking her but we've got a
little bit of a wound we had to go to the vet and they lanced it