Here we go!

So here I am! This year has proved to be full of life and I think its about time to share! Let me give some background here first.

My brother left for the army in February and it made me think, hm... this could be an opportunity. My brother has always been concerned about my health (not always expressing it in the most sensitive ways, but I know its out of love). So one morning I was driving to work when I heard a story on the radio. The story told of two people who were going to be separated for a significant period of time and one person decided to make some health changes and surprised the other when they returned home with their transformation. Cody being gone for 7 months for Basic Training and Officer Training provided a reasonable time period to just make a couple small changes in the physical health aspect of my life.

I started with mindfulness. It was never any specific changes to only eating certain foods or cutting out anything specifically from my diet, just to be mindful of the choices I am making and the consequences that follow.

The second thing I decided was to change my activity. I was going to the gym several times a week, but I needed something to push me in a different way. My summers at camp taught me that hiking was an activity that made certain changes in my body.

Bringing us here. I made a challenge to myself to hike 100 miles this year. It being February already, I would have to hike about 10 miles per month to meet my goal.

What I didn't know was how this journey would drastically change my life...