Jan Irys Life

Hey everyone, if you’re at my age you don’t always have the time or energy to go to the gym. I mean, I don’t even close to a gym yet so that’s a problem too. I think I have to drive at least an hour or so to get to the closest gym where I live. Yes I live out in the wilderness, but that’s pretty obvious isn’t it?

So anyway, recently I found a good way to get in better shape by almost not doing anything. Sounds crazy right? Well what I’m about to reveal might change your life, or maybe not, depends on how strong you are. The secret is called a weighted vest. I stumbled across a great website that had plenty of information regarding weighted clothing and such. Up until that point, I had really no idea that a weighted vest could be such a good idea for getting stronger and becoming healthier. While a lot of people used weighted clothing in combination with ordinary exercises, you have to remember that I’m pretty old. I can’t do all those crazy body weights exercises everyone does nowadays. An article on this site talked about the pros and cons of wearing a vest all day and it had me intrigued. Not only does it improve your bone density, something which is highly important for old folks like me, it also builds strength and muscle. It just seems like a win-win scenario in my eyes, I’ve yet to see any downsides but I just can’t come up with any. Can you?

There are of course risk with this method, I mean wearing additional weight ALL DAY is not good for you body, even worse when you are older. So my plan is to start really slow, I mean really slow, and increase the weight gradually. I don’t have that much muscle to begin with so I think that a simple 20 pound vest will probably do me just fine. Because I live in the wilderness and have plenty of “farm work” to do each day, having that vest on me will probably provide a nice workout I imagine.

One thing that bothers me though, is the fact that I cannot gain any benefits from the vest if I were to paddle. Since I’m basically using my arms most of the time all that additional weight won’t do me any good. I’m thinking if some weighted arm sleeves or wrist weights could be the answer for this? I mean just imagine having two weights on your hands when you paddle, you must become sore in seconds! I think I’m going to buy myself a pair to see how they perform, or rather… How I perform haha! I’m sure I will feel the burn very quick, but who knows, maybe I’ll get strong and big arms like those super heroes?

If anyone has ever tried a weighted vest before, could you please let me know what you think of it? Do you think it’s a good idea to wear it all day, even if I adjust the weights gradually? Answer in the comments down below!

Hello there readers, long time no see. After last post I had to buy a new computer, somehow I forgot about the website until now. That’s what getting old does your to your brain hehe. Anyways, I hope you guys have had a great year. I know that a lot of people found 2016 to be a terrible year and I fully understand why, Trump got elected, lots of terrorist attacks and the whole refugee situation. I don’t want to come of as mean, but personally I had a really good year, especially when it comes to kayaking. I explored so many new spots around the country and lost a substantial amount of weight too. Couldn’t be happier.

Today I’m not going to ramble about politics or any other world events but rather my passion and hobby, kayaking. Seeing as I live in California, I am not really bound to the weather like most other people are. Taking my kayak for a spin in December is actually quite pleasant, I can imagine for the folks in the east coast it must be different. One thing that does annoy me a little though is the darkness. I love those long summer nights during the summer, I can be outside and paddle all day. But during the winter it’s dark around 6 o’clock which is way too early for me.

To fix this little issue I decided to get myself a headlamp. At first I was thinking of a flashlight that I could mount on my boat somehow but quickly decided against it. I found a website called the Theflashlightexpert which talked about the brightest headlamps, I can say their article grabbed my attention right away. I hadn’t thought about headlamps up until that point if I’m going to be honest. But when thinking about it, a headlamp is so much better. It allows me to paddle my kayak with both hands and not worry about dropping the light into the water.

I have since then bought a 575 lumen headlamp which has probably been used over 200 times last year alone. For me personally, it wasn’t very important with a long reaching beam but rather how much of a floodlight it was. I get it, some people enjoy having the ability to light up objects far away. But for me, it doesn’t really make any sense. I mean I need to see the surroundings close by, so a wide light is always preferred.

If you want to read more about the headlamp I got, I can recommend checking out the Petzl NAO. It’s pretty cool looking and works great, however the price tag might be a little too much for some. You might get lucky and get it for sale, I bought mine for $175.

That’s all I had to say for today, hopefully I will remember to update my blog more often from now on. Stay safe out there!

I just want to say that I absolutely love cats! I’ve spent my entire weekend with my brothers cat, called Lee. I don’t know what race it is, but it’s 9 years old but still looks like a little kitten. Very cute.

My brother knows I love kayaking so I kindly asked him if he wouldn’t mind if I took Lee for a little ride. Of course he agreed to it! Lee loves the outdoor actually, it’s not uncommon for my brother to bring along Lee on his hiking trips in the mountains. Usually he puts Lee in his backpack, that way Lee wont get tired and neither will he have to worry about him running away.

So I was very excited when I got the green light from my brother. Because I’ve never paddled a kayak with a cat on board I decided to head down to a very calm lake, so I could try things out with Lee and see how it all works out. My biggest fear would be that his claws would puncture the hull of my kayak, so I brought along a couple of towels which I put down all over the kayak floor.

I got quite the looks when I arrived at the beach with Lee. People were curious what I was going to do with Lee and my kayak, because they’ve never seen a cat that likes to be close to the water. Hah! You guys don’t know Lee, he’s a cool cat and loves adventure. Inflated my kayak, put down all the towels and asked Lee to jump in. He did it without hesitation.

We paddled out a bit to see how Lee would handle everything. Now remember I’m by no means a cat whisperer or anything close to that, but I am pretty darn sure Lee enjoyed sitting on my cat while I paddled. He was so calm he even started to purr, I guess it’s hard to not like paddling!

We spent the entire on the lake, he even got up and looked around. He seemed to be generally excited and was actually looking around enjoying the environment. I can tell you one thing for sure, this is not the last time I am bringing Lee with me. Next time I will probably even wear my Schrodinger Cat Shirt to make Lee feel a little bit more comfortable.

Hello everyone, my name is Jan Hoth.

I am an older guy that loves to be move and be active. My biggest passion in life is kayaking and spending time on the ocean, in my total life I must’ve spent at least 10,000 hours out at sea paddling various kinds of kayaks. It might sound like a whole lot, but you got to remember I am probably a lot older than most people reading this.

I plan on updating this blog at least once a week, or so I hope at least! I’ve never been very much into writing, but lately I’ve gotten this strange urge create myself a blog. Maybe I just need to get things of my brain, and what better way to do it than a blog? Now please bare in mind, I am not the most competent writer. I just barely passed my English class in High School and have only written occasionally since then. Thankfully I have auto correct on my computer which will help me, at least a little bit!

So a little bit about myself. I’m now retired and spend most of my days kayaking the coasts of Great Britain. My plan is to kayak around Scotland and hopefully Ireland the next following years. But due to my age and my limited mobility, I cannot go out as often as I’d like. Back in the day I used to paddle regular hard shell kayaks, but nowadays I’ve moved to inflatable kayaks instead. You probably wonder why anyone would choose an inflatable kayak over a hard one. Well first and foremost, inflatables are a lot easier to store and transport. I can actually fit my inflatable kayak underneath my bed, and no it’s not a small one either, it’s about 14 foot in length. This also allows me to put it in my small car, I don’t have a roof rack so it makes it really cumbersome to transport large things, like a hard shell kayak for example.

I also found that inflatable kayaks handle just as good as regular ones, I have no problem keeping up with my friends for example. Sure, there are some cheaper models that do not paddle as well as the more expensive ones, but I got an expensive one so that doesn’t apply to me. 😉 If you are interested in getting one yourself I can highly recommend this site http://inflatablesguide.com/articles/best-inflatable-kayak-reviews It’s a good friend of mine who has written that article, he has years of experience so you can be sure you’re getting top advice.

Hopefully this will be a great summer for kayaking, that way I’ll get to spend loads of time out on the open sea, enjoying and living the life.