Introducing Alyssa Huiskens!!

Hey there! I’m Alyssa Huiskens and I am a student, Kangen water distributor and digital nomad. I have always lived a very non-traditional lifestyle, I grew up homeschooling, on a small farm with alpacas, chickens, and goats. I went to a charter school after elementary and took a non-traditional path through high school. It has allowed me the freedom to think for myself and have the confidence that I can learn and do anything I set my mind to. Currently I am living above and below the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan. I have always loved traveling, going on day adventures and am a road trip/camping enthusiast. I am studying biology in college, but I am also an avid writer, painter, and athlete. I play ice hockey, snowboard, and surf and I am in the process of going vegetarian. I am working to live a much more sustainable lifestyle for our planet and spent most of 2020 outside connecting to the Earth and especially Lake Superior.

Alyssa’s story

I always knew I wanted to travel. Ever since I was a freshman in high school, my dream destination was Ireland. It still is, among many others, but I knew I wanted to find a job that would allow me to travel and do things that I was passionate about while still making a difference in the world. I decided when I graduated high school that I was going to go to college, continue my hockey career playing at the colligate level and study biology. At that time, I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian, because I have grown up on a small farm an absolutely love animals. I also have a deep love for the ocean after my family and I lived in Oregon for 3 years before coming back to the mitten, so marine biology was always high on my list of careers as well. But both of those things would be to the exclusion of all of my other creative passions.

I sort of went along with it, circling around to different motivations and paths and career choices, always coming back to the idea that I would probably try for vet school. As I got farther into my degree, I started to realize that going to vet school wasn’t what I truly wanted. I really didn’t know what I truly wanted because I thought that I was limited to what my degree would get me. I would spend hours looking at jobs that I would enjoy, and that I would be able to make enough money at to be able to take time off and go the places I wanted to go and make a little time for my art, and writing and hiking, surfing etc. I spent a lot of my freshman and sophomore year feeling unmotivated and a bit lost. I was at school, having fun, playing a sport I loved, but what was I going to do after I graduated? That was the whole point of working so hard for my degree.

I go to school in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and it snows and gets very cold from about October to April. I had a job at one of the cafeterias on campus, and some of my shifts were at 6am in the morning. I was so busy with work, classes, homework, and hockey that I didn’t have any morning routine, I wasn’t focused on self-care, I really never even thought about doing any of those things. I was just putting the work in, stressing and trying to get the best grades I could without giving a lot of thought to my wellbeing.

There was a point, my junior year where I woke up at 6:50am, scraped off my car, went to work and realized, I was unhappy. I dreaded getting up every morning. I got anxiety every time I heard the specific noise my alarm made. I was making minimum wage, living paycheck to paycheck, working my butt off and I didn’t even know why. What was my motivation?

So, I started looking for other options. It really all started with the whole job thing, which has got me to where I am now. I found out about being an Enagic Distributor, and I was immediately hooked. Along with that, I found a community of people who were also Enagic Distributors, but were focused on self-care, and living your dream life. I realized then that I would be able to not only incorporate my degree, my art, my writing, being an athlete and create a life where I would be able to travel, donate generously and make a difference in the world. Starting my own business was really a no brainer. I shared this opportunity with my brother, who was also looking for something similar at the time. Being super close with our parents, we shared it with them as well, and have gotten them involved too. They have been so supportive of us an all our endeavors, and this was our way of giving back to them.

Finding this opportunity has given me the motivation to live the dream life I have always wanted and never stop working towards it. I started my business in the late summer of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, so it’s all still pretty young. I had total confidence in it and have been working hard every day since. It’s been one of the most incredible experience of my entire life. I have evolved so much in this short amount of time with a lot of hard work. My self-confidence has grown immensely, my vision and passion for life, and my love for myself, the earth and others has blossomed. I now have a morning routine that I do every day, I workout, I am stronger than I ever have been before, and I have impacted more lives that I had thought I would.

Since 2020 was, well, the year that it was, I wasn’t able to stray very far. Most of my days were spent out hiking, meditating, camping all over the state of Michigan (I usually camp in a tent or a hammock, but I tried car camping for the first time this year and holyyyy cow was that cozy. I loved it!). When you have a nomadic soul, you still find ways to explore and move around even if it’s on a smaller scale.

Tips to aspiring nomads

Journal, write your goals, get really, really clear on what you want + your vision.
Stay true to what you want. We are so influenced by others and what others think its so easy to start thinking, “this is what other people would want me to do”. No, you do you.
Once you have everything written out, start taking action. They don’t have to be huge action steps. I went a little bit at a time.
Nothing is too small an achievement to celebrate. If you have a terrible fear of talking on camera, or going on a hike by yourself, that is a big deal. You have just taken action on your dreams. Hype yourself up, celebrate! You’re a badass!
Find 2 or 3 people that are doing what you want to be doing and dissect how they got there. Reach out to them, make connections. Find out their story. Use what they have done to create action steps that are specific to you. Copy and Paste doesn’t work. You must make it yours.
Stay authentic. Keep it real, keep it vulnerable. Keep it true.
Do things that make you happy. All day every day does not have to be focused on action steps. Sit down and paint, go for a hike. Do yoga. Make time everyday for at least one thing that makes you happy.

Routines that help Alyssa make it through the day

I always do yoga in the morning and try my best to always write a page of gratitude in a notebook before going about my day. I keep my phone on airplane mode for 1.5 to 2 hours in the mornings to keep from being distracted. It’s simple, but I tend to get up and want to start doing things right away, so I usually try to keep it simple to allow myself to take time for self-care/love.

Throughout the day I always try to make sure I drink at least 64 oz of water, preferably 96oz. I just carry/have my 32oz Nalgene water bottle with me 24/7.

Things Alyssa makes time for in her day

I always make time for my morning routine for sure. I work a lot by choice, but I always make sure I take at least two hours to do something completely unrelated to work during the day. This just keeps me doing other things I love as well. Whether it’s reading a book, watching hockey, surfing, going for a hike, writing or doing art of some kind.

I always make time to hug my animals (depending on where I am at location wise) and talk to people I love. I work really hard not to ever take anything or anyone for granted especially after 2020.

Alyssa’s interests outside of her work

In a nutshell… I loooovvveee creative writing, (acrylic) painting, drawing (pencil), hiking, swimming, surfing, snowboarding, playing hockey, watching hockey, watching surfing, filming videos (for work and soon for YouTube!), animal care + love, hanging out with my friends, going on random exploring adventures, eating food, making acai bowls, dreaming big, working out, pushing my body, and going out of my way to make someone else’s day better.

A few of Alyssa’s favorite outdoor activities

I absolutely love hiking and meditating under a tree or next to Lake Superior. I also really enjoy surfing, paddle boarding and snowboarding in the winter. I am usually somewhere near the water for any of those activities, and when there’s too much ice or its below freezing, I take to either the backyard, ski hills, or even the side of the road sometimes for a good snowboarding session.

Tree hammocking is also so much fun (as long as it’s not harmful to the tree!). I’ll set up my hammock near the water or in the woods and read or write.

You have work with what you have, where you are. Every location has something different to offer. It’s just about finding it and taking advantage of it.

A few of Alyssa’s favorite hiking trails & parks

YES! So many. Presque Isle Park in Marquette, MI is one of my all-time favorites. I feel that I have deeply connected with the land and the lake there. Sometimes you get to know a place inside and out and it just has so much to offer you find something new every time you go. Its only 2.8 miles around, but I have my secret places that I go to sit especially during big storms to watch the waves.

Another one of my favorite hikes I’ve ever been on was Smith Rock in Oregon. It’s so high up and you can see so far, it was a challenge with switchback trails but so much fun and so worth it at the top. I was at the same level as the birds and had a huge turkey vulture land a couple yards away on a rock.

Picacho Peak in Picacho, Arizona was another challenging but rewarding hike. They actually leave a supply of gloves so you can climb up the rocks by holding onto steal cables to the 1,500-foot summit. The view was again, incredible. It was the fist time I had ever seen a real cactus up close, so I was obsessed with the saguaros and so interested by the lack of water and grass, it just kind of blew my mind.

I also love Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. My third favorite hike I have ever done was just off the trail, following the shore of Lake Michigan up to the peak of the tallest dune. It was in the middle of January, but there wasn’t much snow, so it was mostly ground cover and frozen sand. It was so empty and beautiful it looked like the moon. I was exploring with my brother, and we just kept walking and walking without really having a destination in mind until we got there. The road to original hike we were going to go on was closed for the winter, and we decided “we didn’t feel like walking that far” to get to the trailhead and ended up walking about 5 miles farther in the dunes instead!

The Hobbit Trail along the Oregon coast is another one of my favorites. I love Lord of the Rings, and am a Hobbit at heart, so it’s right up my alley. A narrow trail enclosed by low trees and bright green ground cover with the ocean and sandstone rocks at the end.

There are so many incredible places I just want to name them all!

How Alyssa maintains a healthy diet living nomadically

I have food allergies, so I have to stay away from processed, preserved foods generally. I pack a lot of things myself and if I’m on a road trip I don’t really ever stop at gas stations or fast-food places to eat. At my starting point I usually make a lot of food, and pack things like nuts, dried fruits, granola bars, and a lot of other non-perishable foods. I usually bring things like potatoes, canned beans, and anything I can cook over a campfire for camping, apples, pears, carrots, things like that, that I can stick in a cooler for fresh food.

I always do my best to store my food in reusable containers and try to stay away from plastic baggies, or if I do use baggies, I make sure to rinse them out and reuse them for other things.

Alyssa’s top 3 luxury items she brings on the road

Hmmm… this is hard… I suppose my view on “luxury items” might be a bit different, so bear with me. I usually keep things pretty simple when I travel. When I go for longer road trips I usually tent camp, so having my own pillow, and a comfy camping pad is pretty luxurious. I have a smallish daypack with a water bladder that I feel is also quite luxurious because I don’t have to carry my water bottle on hikes.

1 pro and 1 con about nomadic living

Pro: see and go wherever the heck you want whenever the heck you want

Con: miss being grounded in one spot and having a set work area or schedule.

Advice from Alyssa to the community

Follow your heart and your dreams. Don’t hold yourself back from things or people or places because “that’s what society thinks is normal or right”. You do you and don’t ever let anyone tell you different. That’s what being a nomad is. Being yourself and wandering where you feel called.

Additional Thoughts

I just want to say, that there are so many different ways to be nomadic. I would love to live the vanlife at one point in my life, but I feel I can be as much of a nomad locally as I can when I drove all over the country. I have dreams to go to Ireland and be a nomad there. I want to wander though the Hawaiian Islands. Go to Finland. There are so many ways to be nomadic.

If things don’t seem “in order” for you to be a “nomad”, start small and build bigger. Wander local and then go farther.

You can be whatever and wherever you want to be. 😊

Shoutout to Alyssa and her business!!

I am a Kangen water distributor, on a mission to change the world with water. I am all about sustainability and I have found that the average American can replace over 92 plastic containers per year and improve your health just with a Kangen Water Machine. They create Elecrolyzed Reduced Water directly from your tap (I have friends who have installed them in their van!) and combat free radicals in your body with a selective antioxidant, H2. If you get hooked on the water, health and sustainability aspects like I did, there is an opportunity to start your own business sharing Kangen Water as well. It’s a business that you can take with you anywhere, with the intention of helping others and making a positive impact on the world. Plus there is an epic compensation plan + retirement plan attached. Having Kangen water in my life has made such a huge impact on my health, my family’s health (including my animals!) and the environment in all the best ways possible. I hope that I can share Kangen Water machines and this incredible business with other aspiring nomads to be able to travel and work from wherever you want to be and promote health and sustainability.

Contact Alyssa!

I am super active on Instagram; you can find me @lyss_on_earth or by email lyssonearth@gmail.com

I love having conversations about life, sustainability, health, hiking, surfing… anything you can think of, I am here for it. Making connections with epic individuals is so much fun and I can’t wait to hear your stories!

Q+A with Alyssa Huiskens