Buckle Up The Buttercup
Living Fiercely over 50
Fit Life

Hiking for Life

Today’s fitness commitment was a hike. Long, sweaty runs and intense lifting sessions are no longer on my agenda. Fitness after 50 looks different—more realistic, balanced, and sustainable.

With a couple of errands to run, I loaded up the dog and headed out. My favorite trail, often empty except for birds and turtles, happens to be along my errand route. No special gear—just me, my dog in a harness, and my running shoes.

On the trail, I make a point to notice things—listening for birds, watching for turtles, and scanning the river for fish. But the most interesting sights are often what I call “natural oddities,” and today was no exception.

Ever used the phrase “this meeting is like a stick in the eye” or “I’d rather poke myself in the eye with a stick”? Well, I came across something that gave that expression a whole new meaning—and I had to capture the moment.

Fit Life

Hitting the Trail

Fitting in exercise is a challenge for just about everyone. Today I brought along my hiking companions. The house is currently undergoing some renovation thanks to a water disaster. The pups have been cordoned off to one part of the house and are a little stir crazy. A hike seemed like a good way to get us all out and on the trail. There’s a nature park not far from the house, tucked right off a main thoroughfare here in the Washington DC area. Some days it is quiet and I only see one or two other people out, usually bird watchers or nature photographers with their impressive cameras.

Our smallest dog doesn’t see well anymore–she’s 14 now–so I bring her along when hiking easy, broad trails. She loves sniffing around but doesn’t like to go off-road anymore.

We got 45 minutes of hiking in and now the pups are sleeping. Except the big one. He is pacing liking a caged tiger, probably wanting to stay outside where he can chase the geese.

Fit Life

Yoga with Tim

By now my husband is probably wondering who this yoga guy “Tim” is. At the tail end of my Army career, my body began to protest the decades of damage done carrying rucksacks, wearing body armor, and trying to crush every physical fitness test even in those years that my idea of fitness was running like a madwoman to pick my kids up from daycare by 6PM (my husband was deployed and I was hoofing it every day after working 10-12 hours!). After I tore my hamstring completely, I realized I needed to make some changes, so I picked up yoga.

I don’t know about you, but up until then, I thought yoga was a bit pretentious. I had this vision of me in spandex carrying a yoga mat to a fancy studio. Well, it can be that, but it also can be me, in my office at 7am rolling out a mat on the floor and getting a quick series of stretches in before the office gets crowded. I learned that yoga is a combination of all the things I had been told to do in many years of repeat physical therapy sessions that I would do for 6 weeks and then forget. Yoga has had an absolutely amazing impact on my body and mind and all I need to do it is a phone/tablet and some sort of mat or towel.

Who is Tim? My absolute favorite yoga teacher on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@yogawithtim

Where to next?