Recap from the weekend of 9/7

If you didn't know the weekend of September 7th, I took a group hiking at Old Rag Mountain in Sperryville, VA.  If you don't know where it is, I've attached the link to get to the National Park Service's site.  As you read through the description of this hike it incites fear or excitement in some first time goers.  The thing that seems to consistently resonate on a year in and year out basis is the wonder of "if I'm able to complete this hike".  The entire trip to the mountain, one of my riders kept asking me if I thought he could do this hike and I kept telling him, "it doesn't matter because you're here now".  The truth of the matter is, we can do ANYTHING we want to if we set our minds to accomplish it.  All we have to do is set our foot forward one in front the other and actually start!

I enclosed a video of pictures from the hike so you can see for yourself what we saw.  The difficulties of this hike are well worth the views and comradery that comes with making this trek up the mountain.

The parallels of the hike to our health journey or life journey are so similar.  We learned that:

1. You can do anything you set your mind to!!! Whether you're forced to do it or do so volunteerily, you can do it!!! Fear often limits us, we must overcome it and move forward for allowing fear to overcome us is often the ultimate failure.  
2. You don't have to accomplish it all at once, it takes one small step forward regularly to accomplish your goals. Don't stop moving forward!! If you keep that in mind you will always be one step closer to your goal and one step further from what you were!
3. You have friends along the way...people you know and don't know are there to encourage you! Make your journey known so that people will be there to help push you through
4. You are an inspiration.  You inspire others in your journey, you may not know who you influence but people are always watching.  Someone may have needed to see that someone else like them can do it in order for them to start their journey and you may be that someone.
5. Understand that you HAVE to PUSH YOUR LIMITS! You shouldn't be at the same place you were last week, month, or year! Yes things take time, but for example if this year you ran a quarter of a mile nonstop, by the following year you should be running at LEAST one mile nonstop barring injury/sickness.  

Have a good week and keep climbing upwards towards your goals!!!

An Unhealthy U.S. is an Unhealthy Us

When you look around, there is an increasing number of people who are overweight in the United States of America.  Is appearance everything? Absolutely not.  In a previous post I discussed how some skinny people may not be as healthy as they appear.  However, appearances are very leading and the appearance of our country is "heavy". 

Based on the map below and information from the CDC, there are no states that have less than 20% of their adult population that are overweight.  There are 9 states and Washington DC that falls between the 20% and 25% mark of adults considering themselves to be overweight, with Colorado coming in at the lowest percentage (20.5%).  Which means that at least 1 in 4 adults consider themselves to be overweight in 80% of the United States. 

What exactly does all this mean?  Plain and simple...It means WE HAVE TO DO BETTER.  Why should people care? People should be caring because your health matters.  I've heard the reasoning that "its my life, I will eat what I want and when I die...I die".  That is so discouraging to hear someone say simply because the only person you're thinking about is yourself.  Think beyond the fact that you leave and only you die, think about your associates, friends, and family!  They too care about you and your life, show them you care too!