Mermaids JUJU

I’m sure I have mentioned that I don’t like exercise. As I wrote about in my previous blog post Freaking Diets!!! I hate ‘Em!! But a good hike? Count me in.

I am so grateful to live in the beautiful state of Utah where the weather rarely gets too hot for a good hike. The mountains here are usually a good 10-20 degrees less than the valley temps, making a hike in the middle of the Summer months a great option for a workout.

Along with our new diet plan my husband and I are committed to exercising more. On the weekends we have some recreational property that we love to go up and use. It’s called Beaver Creek Canyon, primarily because of the abundance of beaver dams along the creek. Here’s a pic of our little piece of Heaven taken from the hillside above on one of our hikes.

This was a few weeks ago, so the trees are just starting to get green. Isn’t it beautiful?

I did a little research and found that I wasn’t just imagining things when I feel like I am using all of my muscles while hiking. Fitness Blender Blog says this about hiking:

Hiking is a fantastic workout for burning calories and building muscles and often times you can even forget completely that you are technically exercising.

Quote:

Hiking builds multiple components of fitness simultaneously, predominantly cardiovascular health and strength – especially of the lower body.

What Muscles are Used Hiking?
Trekking up hills or mountainsides is hard work, and it engages multiple muscle groups in tandem, all while burning a serious number of calories and increasing your aerobic threshold. Here are the muscles used most strenuously:
• Glutes
• Quadriceps
• Hamstrings
• Calves
• Abdominals
• Lower Back
• Obliques
• Ankle and Knee Complex
• Inside and Outside Thigh

To burn even more calories and to engage the upper body further, consider walking with hiking poles.

End of quote

I think I might have to get me some poles for our next hike. I would like to get my arms looking better along with my legs.

The hubbs is looking fantastic in this pic! Those arms are amazing!

We plan to go every weekend on a good hike, I can already feel a difference in my endurance from the first one this year. I can go further without stops and my lungs are getting better at the changes in altitude. I need to build more leg strength , but I know it will just take time.

Wouldn’t it be cool to start and not stop till you reach the top of the hill? These views will help to keep me motivated.

And certainly I can hike if my poor little grandma dog Callie can do it! She’s thirteen in human years. Grey as a ghost, can hear, can only see shadows and her back legs are not helping her out at all, I have to help lift her up over the big logs and rocks. But she has a lot of heart and won’t stay back at camp. She inspires me too.

Here’s a shot of my basset hounds following their leader.

Callie is the first in line. Partially because she is so attached to Scott that she doesn’t like it if she loses sight of him.

I’ll keep you posted on our progress throughout the Summer. Maybe I’ll be able to reach the top without stopping buy August or September.

Also stay tuned for posts about the other kind of workout I like…
Swimming. I’ll be doing a bit of that on our upcoming trip to Lake Powell.