The View From The Top

Well this week with summer like tempatures blazing outside…wildflowers blooming all over…and an extra hour of daylight to work with…I thought I would talk about getting outside and doing one of my favorite activities!  For me hiking is about getting outside…being in nature…exploring and experiencing new challenges.  It is a gift because you earn your views…you go where only those that braved the hike along with you get to go. 

So when I say “hiking” or “outdoors” are many of you getting scared and envisioning a buggy, hot, dusty, sweaty mess of an afternoon out?  I can understand…I used to be someone who would have rather been in an air-conditioned movie theatre watching aliens blow up the earth than doing pretty much anything outside.  I had no idea what REI was (which if you still aren’t sure- it’s a store that is the holy land for outdoor enthusiasts).  I really never thought of myself as an “outdoors type person”…that is until I traded my flip flops for hiking boots…my popcorn and Milk Duds for trail mix…and hit the hiking trails!  Funny enough some of this motivation for hiking came from going to REI.  Several years ago- I wandered around the store one afternoon wondering what in the heck people did with all of the equipment that I saw for sale there (some of which was totally unidentifiable to me).  And it got me thinking…”what am I missing here”?  As I watched all of the people buzzing around the store and picking up maps…backpacks…hiking shoes…and talking about the places they were going and have been- they sounded so excited…like they couldn’t wait to get out of the store and onto their destination!  The excitement and pure passion was fascinating to me. 

However- in my world hiking at 350 pounds didn’t seem like a great idea.  I thought about what would happen if I got  tired and couldn’t make it back.  And that scared me.  Scared me so much that I didn’t have the confidence to even try it.  However- confidence is a funny thing…all you need is for it to kick in one day…and confidence breeds…well breeds more confidence.  So that is what happened…one day I decided to just try hiking in Peter’s Canyon.  I had no idea what to really expect but I just got tired of sitting on the sidelines.  I had been doing a lot of training in the gym…and I knew I was getting stronger and I had quite a bit of endurance…but it was somehow different outside…less forgiving.  I knew if I pooped out on the treadmill I could always hop off and go sit down.  But outside…on a hike…if I pooped out- well I needed to some how get back home…even if I needed to crawl.  In other words this was a true challange for me…something that scared the heck out of me.  I now realize that so much of that fear was in my mind…and (forgive the pun) it wasn’t a walk in the park…but hiking Peter’s Canyon that day was not scary or daunting and I certainly did not have to crawl back!  Even when I eventually came to the granddaddy of all hills who’s nickname is “Big Red” (well because it’s big and it has red clay like dirt that covers it)…I looked up it and at first thought maybe I had gotten too much sun for even considering climbing up there.  And then I thought one of the greatest things during this weight loss journey…”what is the worst thing that can happen”?  What is the worst thing that can happen from you trying?  The worst thing was that I would climb back down and not make it to the top.  The earth would not come off it’s axis or explode…I would simply come down and try again on a different day.  Now- what is the best thing that can happen?  I could make it and get to see the view from the top!  Yep…and I probably don’t need to tell you – but as I reached the top of Big Red that day I was filled with so much accomplishment!  And I “got it”…I finally understood what all of those people were doing in REI and why they were so excited and passionate!  It wasn’t about the destinations that they were going to…it was about accomplishing…overcoming…conquering…and having their own personal journeys! 

     

Rocky Balboa Made It Look Easy!

I thought for the first posting I would start out with something that is an absolute key to weight loss and also one of the hardest things to maintain while losing weight.  Motivation.  Come January 1st…we have all had New Years resolution’s that read something like this….I’m going to go to the gym everyday, eat rice cakes for meals while starving myself, and not touch a cupcake (even if there is a gun to my head).  However- by week three we are ready to bite someone’s head off….sneaking food and popping Reese’s peanut butter cups like we are some kind of addict…and we haven’t seen the inside of the gym in days.  Good intentions…do not always equal good results.  When it comes to weight loss we have no shortage of supplies, diets, pills, surgeries, television programs…and even infomercials that promise tight abs with minimal effort.  We look to movies like “Rocky” and think that we can change our lives and bodies over the time lapse of one song (albeit a great motivational song like “Getting Stronger”).  However- when actually stepping into the gym at 6am before going to work…the “getting stronger” mentality quickly dissipates and takes our motivation with it.  So this brings me to our first topic…and that is maintaining motivation. 

Let’s face it- some days  it’s not easy to exercise.  It’s sometimes not even easy to drive to the gym – much less work out in it.  However- someone once said that “half of life is just showing up”…and when it comes to exercise and the gym I think that couldn’t be more accurate.  You have to find ways to motivate yourself into movement everyday.  What is your motivation?  Better health…more energy…being able to play with your kids…looking awesome in that little black dress…fitting into the seat on the Montezuma’s Revenge roller-coaster…shopping couture…traveling through Europe and being able to sightsee for hours at a time…running a marathon…biking on the weekends with your brother…feeling 25 again…bringing sexy back…or being bikini ready come June!  You have to find “that thing”…the thing that will motivate you come 6am when it’s still dark and rainy out…to get moving and pushing toward your goals.  Once you find that thing that is motivating you…hold on to it!  It will be your guiding light…and when your feet are hurting and you think you can’t possibly go another step…call on it…visualize it…and then get out of bed and get to the gym!  Your dreams and goals will thank you in the end!  And I will tell you that without that motivation…you can get as off track as Britney Spears at a Mensa meeting!     

Read About Monica’s Weight Loss Journey:

“Challenges are what make life interesting;
overcoming them is what makes life meaningful”
-Joshua J. Marine

“Confessions of an Ex- Couch Potato and My Second Chance at Life”

I want to start out by saying that in all honesty if someone would have told me two years ago that I would be writing articles about weight loss…healthy living…exercise…and proper nutrition – I seriously would have thought that I had landed in an alternate universe. My life was the polar opposite of all of those things. I knew nothing about weights or reps and to me a “circuit” was something that had to do with electrical wiring in the house. The gym used to just be somewhere that I drove past on my way to California Pizza Kitchen…and my old food shopping trips consisted of me whizzing past the produce on my way to the Doritos’s. I had spent years running past full length mirrors and avoiding the scale like it was the plague. It’s hard to explain how something so immense and so obvious could “sneak up” on me…but it did. Stepping on that scale and seeing 355 pounds pop up was probably one of the most horrifying moments of my life. It was worse than seeing Milli Vanilli in concert…it was worse than watching the movie Waterworld…it was worse than having liver and onions every day of the week. However, it was at that moment that I knew I needed to change my life. Not just another trip to Jenny Craig but a true total and complete lifestyle change. I guess there are only so many mirrors that you can avoid before it all catches up with you.

So I started…I took the first step that launched a whole new journey in life for me! I started Lisa’s Lifestyle and Weight Management program and after spending several afternoons talking to her and actually seeing what she had in her kitchen…I could see that I was going to need to rethink a lot of the things I had been doing. I got a garbage bag (actually several of the big leaf bags) and I just started throwing away and getting rid of stuff that didn’t need to be in my pantry. I was then introduced to Trader Joes…Mother’s Market…label reading…cooking…spices in food…low fat solutions to some of my favorite items…and my world began to change! I started getting out and walking everyday…each day I tried to go a little further. I started doing strength training… stadium stairs…the elliptical…biking…treadmill…and then everything but the kitchen sink! I started getting out on the weekends and instead of just going to a movie…I went out for a hike. I became active…felt awesome…and yes…lost weight! However- I didn’t just lose weight…I found a whole new part of myself that I never knew existed!

Sometimes change can be scary and other times it should be seen as necessary and wonderful. We all have challenges in life…things we want and need to overcome and it’s at that moment that we get to see all that we are capable of. We are reminded of things that we let fall by the wayside and we are introduced to things that we never even knew existed. I was reminded that eating those In & Out burgers did have a cost…even though I wasn’t aware of how big of a cost at the time. It cost me a day of volleyball on the beach; it cost me awe inspiring hikes up Yosemite Valley; it cost me whipping break neck speed down a mountain on a pair of skies…and eventually I realized that the cost was just too great. I never knew how many active things I wanted to do and would enjoy doing! I never realized that there were awesome hiking trails within 5 minutes of my house…or that kayaking on a warm summer’s day could be such a wonderful experience! I never thought I would be running in a 5K at 7am on a Sunday morning…or climbing to the top of a big hill and loving every minute of it! I never thought that the couch potato that sat home watching the Travel Channel…writing down all the wonderful destinations in a little notebook (in essence my life’s “To Do List”)…would be crossing off so many things these days! I have had the wonderful opportunity to travel the world…and now I’m not afraid of fitting into a seat…or walking around sightseeing for hours at a time. Furthermore- I realized walking around those Roman ruins… Paris streets and museums…and hilly Italian towns – it wasn’t just the amazement of seeing all of these things. It was seeing all that I had been able to accomplish. It was seeing that I had completely changed my life and with it I was rewarded with living my dreams!

Not to say that there weren’t “road blocks” on the way…because there were plenty of those. I had a string of unfortunate events that challenged me physically, emotionally, and mentally…and I wondered many times if my journey was going to end with me retreating to my old habits. In fact…one of my major hurdles was when I broke my foot about a year into my weight loss. I wish I could say that I was out mountain biking down a huge hill, instead of me just being klutzy and missing the last stair – falling on the side of my foot. Yet…there I was not only battling trying to lose weight but also battling with a cast on my foot and lots of pain. I was stuck on the couch…on the sidelines…with a perfect excuse to revert to my old ways. And that scared me…I was hardly able to even move around the house…and I had no idea if I could sustain all of the momentum I had been able to gain with my weight loss. However- someone once said that “you don’t realize how strong a person really is until you see them at their weakest moment”. I got to actually see that I was a lot stronger than I thought I was! I got to see that the couch potato that could watch hours of TV with no problem…does not exist anymore. The “new me” took over…and while the broken foot slowed me down…it didn’t take me out! I actually went to the gym…wheelchair, crutches and all… and did lots of upper body and one leg workouts! I still lost 7 pounds during those two months! And most of all…I realized that I could make it…and I would make it! I had finally “got it”…I had changed my life…my priorities…and the way that I dealt with everything that came my way! I realized that we are always going to have challenges in life…hopefully not broken foot challenges…but challenges none the less, and it’s all in the way that we deal with those challenges. We can overcome a lot more than we think we can!

Paying It Forward

There are few times in life that we can say we had “a calling” to do something. But sometimes if we are lucky in-between car payments and mortgages – something speaks to us in a way that is hard to explain. We find the thing that allows us to feel passion… excitement…meaningful purpose…and we believe that we can help make the world a better place than we found it. I discovered all of those things during my weight loss journey and I truly believe that it’s important for me to “pay it forward” and give to others all that was given to me. I was given a second chance at life…a chance to rediscover and reinvent myself…and in the end – I wouldn’t change my journey for anything because I couldn’t be here if I hadn’t been there. I know it’s hard to believe that I would be standing here…with a weight loss of over 140 pounds…a person that just a short time ago needed so much help, to a person who is now able to give so much help and guidance. However, unbelievable things sometimes happen in life; things that defy what we believe is possible. So just remember that even the highest mountain has a top and to get there you have to just start…put one foot in front of the other…and soon you are scaling great heights and realizing all the things in life that are possible!

Monica Hirtreiter, Whole Body Fitness Personal Trainer

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