Winter Hiking

 

Hello All,

I have notice ever since I started walking on a regular basis and hiking (I call it  hiking anytime I’m not on a smooth paved road or trail) that if I’m sitting still for too long I get anxious to move. This surprises me,  a guy  who use to watch a show I don’t like because I could not find the remote control and was too lazy to roll off the couch.  The winter has blown in and so I sneak in a short mile walk everyday  instead of sitting in our lunchroom. My lunch is now a protein shake and then I head out for a walk.

You do not need to be out for long before the cold finds all of your exposed spots. The simple thing to do is be prepared and take note when your out what your missing and what would have been useful to you.

Quick story, on a cold Saturday morning I went out for a walk wearing my vibram five toe shoes, now these are popular in the primal  world so I gave them a shot . Pros you feel like your walking barefoot but protected (sounds like an add for something else) and great for your balance and just feeling the Earth.  Cons I found out on that cold Saturday walk I had wore holes in both of the shoes and I had stepped in a few icy puddles. Well soon I was aware of the pain and I looked around and I was about two miles from home. My feet were freezing and because of the ice it was hard to move quick, in short I was not prepared and had I been out further I might have been at risk for frostbite.  Still love Vibrams just not for Winter as far as I’m concerned.

So bad things can happen and trouble can escalate in no time at all.

Here’s my basic list on my short day hikes (under 10 miles)

Layered clothing: I wear a long sleeve thermal shirt and add on a tee shirt and wear a water resistant jacket.  track suit pants again water resistant. Scarf,wool hat and insulated/water resistant gloves.

Cell phone and if I’m walking alone I let my wife know where I ‘m hiking and when I plan on returning. I get into some remote spots on my own with no service and its just a good plan  that someone knows where you are at.

I fuel up before hand but I like to have some type of snack handy like trail mix.

The solitude of Winter walking is wonderful and speaking for myself mandatory for peace of mind. The air is crisp and sounds travel far making the whole experience seem like your on a different planet. So please don’t miss out on the beauty of Winter or get hurt by not thinking a bit before you hit the trails.

If you have some thoughts or tips to add to this I would love hear from you.

Peace and Love all!

10,000 steps part 2 minus the gadgets

 

Hello All,

Lat year I gave up  my obsession with using a scale, in brief it does not tell the whole story in where your health is at and can be very misleading if your goal is to be fit. I decided to focus on being fit and adding muscle and the numbers on the scale no longer matter to me. My mood improved over night.

Now also last year a co-worker /friend (Sunshine) was kind enough to give me a Fitbit , she is very keen on working out and is looking great and bless her heart she is an early adopter. So she always seems to have the latest thing and she shares her info with me, again thank you Sunshine.

I wrote last year if your interested about Fitbits and why 10, 000 steps (please check out last years blog). So it soon became part of my life and I was amazed to find out first off I was not walking near to 10,000 steps at the time.  So my Fitbit became my constant companion on all my travels be it hiking through the woods or walking the endless halls of my work. I had a full day to get in my 10,000 steps . Now leap ahead to present and I noticed a trend starting in me where my old pal obsession came back into view. Fitbit  and other such devices offer all sorts of fun games that inspire you to walk further and compete with other users etc.. Well it soon became for me something I was always checking and my short term focus soon turned to see what everyone else was doing and I would feel like I lost because “Sally” got in 3000 more steps after I went to bed so therefore I was having a lesser day.

All crap in my own mine I am aware,but I am also very honest, this was warping my enjoyment of going out just for a walk. So today I switched off the Fitbit and I will pass it on with Sunshine’s blessing to another user. Fitbit and the rest are excellent tools for health management do not get me wrong please,but after a year I know how many miles or so I walk on a normal day and I never used it to its full potential like my wife does and records calories ( I also don’t count calories ) and she loves hers.

You know by whatever means possible to get you off your butt, so Fitbit I thank for letting me know I was not moving as much as I thought I was and it was fun to have a trendy band on my wrist for awhile. For myself in this next phase of my health I’m looking for more fun on my road to fitness and changing up the paths not because of more steps but because I like the view.

 

Peace and Love all!

Are you having fun?!!

 

 

If your not having fun then you are doing something wrong. I think life is very simple and people just can not seem to stop making it hard. We create stress where it never existed, we set up arbitrary rules and times and borders and titles etc.. such madness.

So lets take a breath settle down and enjoy life and have fun, its OK you can have fun.

I think this applies to almost everything, it does not mean you don’t try hard and focus on problems, its about  trying to  keep things in perspective and enjoy your life.  I work in a corporate world five days a week and I’m on call 24/7. Events do happen that I use to allow stress to take over. The result was I would panic and get the job done but be wiped out and mentally drained and dreading the next situation. Once I discovered I chose this stress and no one else I started to work out ways to deal with it.

At work I adapted the view that everyday would be different and filled with change and to expect it several different versions of what needed to be done and than it would be changed again. I have little control of what the powers that be want in the long run,but I do know what is required at any given moment so I focus on that to my best. The result no stress and I keep busy and the days go by fast.

Its that time of year I use to dread: putting up and taking down the Christmas tree  and outside lights ( I was fat and lazy) and now I look at it as and easy way to get in some extra steps (10,000 a day is mandatory) and a light workout. I also love getting my house back to normal after the holidays. I just simply changed my view of what needed to be done from drudgery to fun.

Workouts should be fun as well,perhaps one of the best ways to have fun. When I was a kid I played in the park and climbed trees ,rode my bike everywhere all day long in the sun. As I grew up and played soccer these rules started to set in(no fighting, no hands, don’t cross that line etc..) . Life became full of rules the older I got and the more I got in line and followed like the rest of the sheep fun soon went away. Being an adult does not mean you can’t roll down a big hill are jump in a pile of leaves. We need to laugh more and move more. The nature of your job may keep you sitting in a small box surrounded by artificial lights and computer screens,that does not mean the rest of your time has to be sitting on a nicer chair watching a TV screen.

I joined a gym recently so I would have a place to go in the Winter and have access to some weights. I don’t see too many happy people there and most keep to themselves. It gave me the idea to build my own backyard gym this year and I will write about in the months to come. My gym will be about strength and balance and funs thing I can challenge myself at.  Every month I make new plans to try out to make my life more fun.

We all know the expression about death and taxes, all true but there is also enjoyment. I spent a lot of my life filled with self hatred, being envious of people I assumed had a better life then me. Why was their life so much easier/better than mine?!!  Well its a New Year and as good a time as any to start fresh with the idea of life is good and what can I do to make it fun.

 

We all do what we have to do to make a living, I base my wealth on if I’m happy or not. Its very simple do what makes you happy and enjoy your life.

Peace and Love all!  

Bring on the New Year

 

Hello All,

 

2014 was a good year over all, I checked my list of resolutions and made good headway on all of them. We started our own small business “Shona Skye Creative” which offers creative photography and also any side projects we do like making light sabers or bits of homemade art. My band the basement gypsies also released a CD “Cellar Door” in 2014 and its on sale on Amazon and ITunes  all of which is very exciting for me. My wife and I spent many a Saturday this year helping out with transporting dogs across the state to a no kill shelter, I have found this is an excellent use of a day by the way.

So all well and good, so what’s in store for the new year??!

1. I want to take my fitness to the next level, I no longer worry about scales I’m more concerned with my size and my strength. As of just this winter I can do one chin up (this was impossible for me for the past 20 years at least) so right off the bat I want to gain more muscle so I can do 10 or 20 chin ups and then pull ups (harder still).

2. This pass year I learned more about primal cooking and in 2015 I want to double that and see how much I more I can learn to cook. Be fearless in the kitchen!

3. My biggest challenge is finding someone who wants my service as a life coach, I have a few people interested but so far no one has committed for more than a day.  Change is hard and very slow in rewards so its not for everyone. I would love to hear from anyone who is need of a little help or motivation.

4. I want to fill each month with new projects and events to attend.

5. I look forward to growing our business in the new year and see how far we can take it.

6. I want to find arrowheads, this is a new obsession for me.

I plan on keeping up my day to day challenges in the new year ,walk five miles every day, eat primal as much as I can, get out side as often as I can, laugh often, write new music,love my family and friends  and continue to work on my blog.

I would love to hear your lists or thoughts, I hope the new year is filled with joy and challenges for you to overcome with your wisdom and strength.

Peace and Love all!

Habit forming

 

You can form healthy habits! (end of blog) OK  here’s what you can do to form healthy habits and nothing is that hard to do.

My old days use to go something like this I would wake up at the very last minute and grab a cup of coffee and race to work feeling stressed and over tired. The coffee would give me enough jolt to make it to work where I would grab some candy out of the machine .  At lunch I would head over to a fast food chain and get a large cheese burger and milkshake and onion rings by 2pm I would be ready for a nap. I would get home and take a nap drag myself out of bed for a large dinner of whatever we had and ate several servings. I would make a giant bowl of popcorn cooked in vegetable oil and   laced with butter and salt. I might have two beers with that to wash it down. I would take my pills for GURD (acid reflex causing me to cough up blood) only to toss and turn all night with burning acid and sleep apnea, only to wake up and repeat. I started to change , first I got a dose of reality I was over 45 overweight and running out of time. I took a sleep study and found that I quit breathing several times a night. My blood work results said I was border line diabetic and I was given a script for my blood pressure. I was on the road to a very painful death.

I wasted a lot of time doing the wrong thing looking for a quick fix, OK this always going to be WRONG!!! This is about your life time not 30 days of no bread and pasta and that’s all.

You need to change forever. Start slow and make trade offs all day long something good for something bad.

 

 

1. Mental health : You have to wrap your mind around the fact that this is a life change.

2. Cardio: You have to move… a lot more then you think.

3. Strength :  Start with your own body weight, then move on to the gym.

My day now starts with me up before my alarm goes off and I start off my morning with a smoothie  of Almond vanilla milk and a banana and some blueberries. Lunch I now enjoy a protein shake followed by a mile walk around my work campus. Dinner is salad with meat and maybe a sweet potato. If I want a snack I will have almonds or banana chips. I often have a glass or two of red wine at night. If its good weather I go for a long slow walk and if  its winter I head to the gym.

 

To this day I add something new each month and try and get rid of something bad. Slow steady movement to the correct path. I make little rules for me to follow and little goals to reach.

I point all this out because I was so out of touch I could not walk two blocks with out wanting to quit. I changed my mindset, quit blaming the world and decided it was up to me.

I still stumble, have bad days but I never stay down. I do not lie to myself. I am thrilled with my results but now my next goal is just as far away from me as was losing all that fat over  the last few years.

You can change, I see it in people everyday at the gym or out on the trails.

Start today, make a list of whatever it is you want to do and start heading the right direction.

 

Peace and Love all