Up and up we go

It must just be confessions week, because I have another confession to make: the only reason I went for the bushwalk was that I figured it would help me lose weight by making me stick to my exercise goal. Usually weekends are a write off for any form of exercise except renovating (that’s been going on for almost 2 years) so I thought it would be a good idea. Except I don’t actually like bushwalking, so call me a hypocrite given my preachings over choosing exercise you like. Lets all say that together: HYPOCRITE.

Well, I am going to try to vainly defend myself in this circumstance with the justification that I learnt from the experience. And I do really like to draw conclusions from all my experiences. In fact, I wonder if ‘normal’ human beans go around analysing everything and ‘drawing conclusions’. Let me tell you, it’s tiring! I wish I could switch my brain off more often then not, especially when….no I won’t go there! But I digress. I learnt three important things from the bushwalk.

1. If you don’t like the pain of ‘exercise’ distract your brain from thinking about it. This isn’t very Zen I know as mindfulness is really good especially when walking. But it helps if you have to keep walking. Say you’re halfway up the mountain and you don’t get lunch until the top. So I kept my camera out and started taking photo’s of everything, mainly because I started noticing all the little details around me instead of the burning pain in my thighs. You could even say I enjoyed the experience and may consider doing it again.
   
   
2. It’s ok to be slower than everyone else and not feel bad about it. My husband was reincarnated as half human half mountain goat and I usually get hung up about that. It’s difficult not to compare or feel guilty from holding him back, but I actually got over it. He dashed up the mountain while I regularly found myself lying on my belly taking photo’s or was that resting?


3. Trust no one. If someone tells you it’s an easy 1.5 hour walk to the summit, do your own research. The view was pretty though – I guess they don’t call it the Scenic Rim for nothing.