Success Stories
I just read yet another pilgrim's account of the Camino de Santiago, Off the Road: A Modern-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim's Route into Spain by Jack Hitt. Even though I have only the vaguest of notions that I might someday walk a long path, I read a lot of books written by people who have done so. I believe this has to do more with my deep-seated desire to have a good success story someday than an unrecognized longing to walk to Santiago. Written accounts of pilgrimage or long-distance walking almost always conclude with the author describing the successful completion of the journey. I can complete a journey, even though other long-term goals of mine remain stubbornly elusive.
In early 2024, I plan to combine a journey with a renewed attempt to reach some personal health and fitness goals. I am going to drive our travel-trailer out to California by myself and meet Randy out there for a two-week visit to the Golden State. Although in some ways a long road trip is the worst time to recommit to healthy eating and daily exercise, I am hoping that a few weeks with no one else to feed will remove my excuses for buying snacks or preparing too much food. As for exercise, my goal is to remove excuses and put myself in a situation where exercise is interesting and even more necessary.
This isn't a pilgrimage, but it will be the most time alone without work or school I've ever had. I'll turn 57 in 2024. My children are in their mid-twenties. The only reasons I don't have a health and fitness routine are internal. This journey will give me enough external structure to prevent the kind of idleness I can practice at home. Routine is hard for me, but this journey will force a routine of sorts and I am in the process of planning how to structure these days all to myself.
For healthy eating, I plan to cook dinner every 2-3 days and eat leftovers in the camper most other nights. For lunch and breakfast I will use Hungry Girl recipes because they are simple and filling. Sometimes I will want to try a special restaurant, and I can usually make fairly healthy choices for my main course. The challenge will be avoiding cocktails, wine, beer and appetizers.
When we travel, I feel the need for exercise more intensely. If I skip, I start to feel the aches and pains of travel and aging. I love Apple Fitness+ yoga workouts. (Dice is my favorite instructor.) I admit that it is hard to do these when we travel by RV because I am self-conscious striking a downward dog in front of witnesses. There is just enough room for me to do yoga inside the camper, but the dogs get excited about it and try to join me which is a little frightening frankly. My hope here is that some campsites will be private enough to allow me to feel like I am not too much on display for an outdoor workout, and that the dogs will get used to me doing yoga with them around and get bored. My backup plan is to find yoga studios here and there with drop in classes. I don't think that will be a problem once I'm in California.
Other exercise will be more fun though--new trails to walk and bike. The girl dogs are going with me, and they are both up for longer hikes. I think I will also pack 8 and 12 lb. dumbbells to throw in an Apple Fitness+ strength workout here and there too.
The trip is 40 days from start to finish, and I won't be alone the entire time. Once the journey is completed, I hope to have made a good start on my fitness success story. It isn't long enough for me to lose all of my excess weight, but certainly it is long enough to start a couple of new habits in a simpler environment.
Who knows, maybe this will lead to a long walk somewhere.
By the way, health and fitness isn't an area of deep interest to me so I can't recommend books in those areas, but here are some of the pilgrimage/through hiking books I've enjoyed:
A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of Faith by Timothy Egan
Furnace Full of God: A Holy Year on the Camino de Santiago by Rebekah Scott
The Only Way is West: A Once in a Lifetime Adventure Walking 500 Miles on Spain's Camino de Santiago by Bradley Chermside
The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert Macfarlane
The Journey In Between by Keith Foskett
On (and Off) the Portuguese Way: Celtic Connections - Galicia, Ireland and Everywhere by Roy Uprichard