Frolicking in creation

Over the last two years, my body has gone through some major changes - going from living at sea level to 8600 ft above sea level, pregnancy, giving birth, and recovering from giving birth. Yup, major changes over here. After seeing what my body has been through, I find I have a new respect for it. Does that mean I eat only organic foods, drink fancy water and exercise daily... no! I have discovered that I am happier with my body now than I was pre-pregnancy. I do love to play and be active. I do try to drink lots of water (helps with the milk supply). I am eating better now that I am being tested for celiac or maybe it's that I am more aware when I am not eating well so I try to make better food choices. I have also realized this last year that although I am very active, I have never set fitness goals and really worked hard to achieve them. I wanted some kind of motivation to train and see how far I can push myself. My first goal was to lose my baby weight in six months. Then when I went in to the doctor's office 13 days after giving birth and realized that I only had 13 more pounds to go, I changed my goal to my birthday (approximately 4.5 months post-birth). I achieved that goal!!! Did my body look the same, no way! Progress is progress though and even now that I weigh less than my average pre-pregnancy weight, it is not the same. My legs may be leaner (God bless walking) but the skin on my stomach isn't as tight as it use to be. Am I happy with how my body looks, absolutely. Are there still areas I'd like to tone, for sure. I'm a firm believer in the saying, you get out of it what you put in to it. If I fill my body with junk food then complain about it being 'flabby'... well honey it's your own fault. I use to eat whatever I wanted because I was so active that it didn't really alter my appearance. Now, however, I am beginning to notice when I eat too much chocolate and not enough veggies. Oh how habits need to change the older you get.

As I mentioned in my previous post, my husband is super active. Matt just loves to play. One of his passions is mountaineering. Now I have never really seen the draw to alpine climbing. Trekking over glaciers and up incredibly steep terrain to walk across a knife-edge ridge simply to spend a few minutes at the top then turn around and descend the same path. Nope! Not for me please! However, something changed in the last year. My next fitness goal has been to climb Mt. Baker in Washington State. It is a 10,781 foot dormant volcano that has been my comfort mountain for as long as I can remember. It is clearly visible from the house I grew up in as well as the house where we currently reside. I always look for it when returning from a trip because it does not feel like I am truly home till I see my mountain. Why not climb it right? It's one of those things where I don't think I can actually do it and it scares me, but I'd like to push myself. So I've been training for the past few months; actually I've been simply stepping up my typical daily exercise routine to include a few more mountaineering specific exercises with the hopes that they will help at least a little.

The Goal! Mt. Baker!

Matt and I decided to test out how well I've been training and go for a 'long' hike. We had my mom come over to watch Caleb and we left for the day. It was the longest I had ever been away from Caleb and I was both excited and nervous. I was more nervous that something would happen to Matt or me and Caleb would be orphaned. Poor kid. We set off anyway. Flora Lake was our goal. (http://www.trailpeak.com/trail-Flora-Lake-Trail-near-Chilliwack-BC-746) There is a loop that connects three lakes and that was my original goal but upon further review 20 km in one day was out of the question (we got a late start). Okay, now we were going to make it to Flora Lake then see how we were feeling after that. This is a beautiful hike; however, it starts out with a brutal incline that made me want to turn around and go home, never to even contemplate climbing Baker ever again. I figured if I can't make it up this, how in the world am I going to get up a major mountain? Thankfully, after the first 2.5 km it really wasn't that bad.

It had great views of Chilliwack Lake and a few nice places to stop and rest or camp for the night. 

We did encounter snow fields, which I was not expecting. But with this guy as my fearless leader, I couldn't complain about anything (except that brutal first few km). 

He's so cute!

Matt's words: "This is better training for Baker than I expected!" He kicked steps for us to get up the steep slopes. We boot skied (or fell/slid) down those same slopes on the descent. 

This hike has made it to my top three favourite hikes of all time. Yes, the start was steep and tiring and I wanted to quit; but we pushed through and I feel much more confident about climbing Mt. Baker now. The gorgeous views along the way make this journey incredible! God is amazing to have created all of this! We arrived at the saddle and had a choice in front of us - continue climbing the snow fields and make our way to the lookout or climb down into the valley to get to Flora Lake. We opted for climbing up to the lookout. I was shocked that I had such a good attitude about it. I was tired and wanted to stop to eat lunch but I just knew the view from the lookout would be incredible. I was right. We were rewarded with an epic, panoramic mountain view! Words cannot describe the majesty of these peeks! Wow!

This picture does not do it justice but it's the best one I have. Mountains as far as the eye can see. We spent over an hour frolicking on the peek. It was delightful! 

The whole trip was approximately 7 hours of hiking, with 1400 ft. of elevation gain, over 13 kms. I highly recommend this hike but remember to push through those first few km. It is worth the struggle.

Now I wait and continue to train till the timing works out for the big trek. We need good weather, Matt to get his passport delivered, a healthy baby (he's had a teething fever the last number of days which has resulted in a lack of sleep for the whole family), and my parents to be available to take care of Caleb. We were planning for this week but that might not work out since Caleb has been ill, we haven't been able to train the way I would have like to, and Matt still doesn't have his passport. The goal is to do it this summer but our summer schedule is filling up quickly. One of the joys of having a husband who is a teacher is that we get to play all summer long! Plus, living in Beautiful British Columbia, we have gorgeous summers to go play outside! I'm sure I will let you know once this fitness goal has been accomplished! Stay tuned!

Fitness Challenge For You: go outside and play! Go to the park and toss a frisbee, run, walk, swim, bike... DO SOMETHING then let me know what you did! What's your favourite way to enjoy God's creation?

Be joy-filled!