Category Archives: Health

Out of the Cage and On the Road Less Traveled

I had a doctors appointment in Fort Collins today so Cassie and I both took the day off.  I spend a lot of time working in the basement of a big concrete square building in front of  computer screens.  So I am always surprised at my reaction to the “outside world” on days off.  Just about anything and everything seems amazing to me.  From the amount of people driving around (pretty normal) to helicopters flying around with the President inside (not so normal).


Obama’s Helicopter (I think)

They had the whole highway shutdown and I could only get to within a block of where my appointment was, go figure.  Cassie and I decided to just walk across the shutdown highway.  It was the right choice and took less than 5 minutes.

After the appointment we decided to get some lunch.  Since we were out and about we didn’t want to eat somewhere we had been before so we went to the Taj Mahal.  Not the real one of course, it’s a restaurant in Ft Collins.  The flavors in Indian food are much different than what our palates are accustomed to, which is what we were after.  So we ended up eating too much..lol.


lunch

After lunch we went for a short walk down the Poudre Trail in Fort Collins before heading home. When we were walking down the trail, it split off into two paved ones and a dirt one. Cassie said, “Two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” I didn’t know what she was talking about, so she said to look it up. I looked it up and found Robert Frost’s poem on my phone.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Just then we saw an awesome huge tree that we would not have seen had we taken the well-worn trail. It was pretty cool.


Cassie in the Tree. How cool is this tree!?

I work almost every weekday and simply don’t see the outside world often.  Even something as simple as a doctors visit can turn into a fantastically different day and an opportunity to experience something different in life.  Weird, I know, but I am ready to take the road less traveled for I truly do believe that will make all the difference.

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The Rad Dish…New Website Project!

My friend Kelly and I work together at the Health Dept in health promotion and are always talking about health issues, and especially those that affect us directly the most. She had recently read a couple of books by some food and health bloggers and knew that Britton and I write this blog, so she asked if I would like to do a collaboration blog project with her. I thought it was a fabulous idea! We used to be health bloggers for the Greeley Tribune which is the newspaper for this area, so this is sort of an extension of that, with a little more personal touch.


The Rad Dish!

We’ve just set it up, so it will be formatted and changed around a little as we get things going, but the basics are there! It is called The Rad Dish and we will be posting the latest health news and tips as well as our meals and exercise and some just plain fun stuff as well. We hope you’ll have a chance to stop in a see what we’ve been up to by way of food, exercise and health. You can also “like” the Facebook page too: Facebook/theraddish.

One of the features of the site that I am most excited about is the ability for readers to upload a picture of their own! For instance, you could take a picture of your plate of food, or your grocery cart or even the insides of your pantry or refrigerator and then we will give you feedback on the best ways to improve it for health (if needed) and give a grade score! You can check out this post as an example.

We hope you visit it and like it! It’s a fun project, but still work, so it’s always great hearing from people that it is useful to them.

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Sometimes…You Get What You Need

We went on our third annual Greeley Moonlight Bikeride last night.  We had been noticing that our blog and our lives seem to repeat themselves in a loop.  Not that this is bad, we actually have nice lives and enjoy what we do, it just isn’t as fun as a new adventure might be.   Regardless we took our bikes to the Police department and met all the other bikers.  We noticed that the light on Cassie’s bike had stopped working….Well, that’s ok.  There will be a large group of people with lights, so it won’t make too much of a difference.


At the PD

The police pick a route thru town, and this year the ride was much more ‘flat’ in elevation change than last year’s.   This was nice because last year’s ride was killer.  I think they must have received some feedback on that.  We aren’t a group of hardcore bikers, and it’s just a community ride. 

Well we actually ended up riding right by our house, then by the dog park.  We went all around the west side of town. 

Enroute, with Cops Blocking the Way!

When we got back from the ride, we ate sandwiches and had drinks.  They also announced the winners of the raffle.   We WON A NEW LIGHT for Cassie’s bike!  The guy next to me also won, but he won some socks.  He and his wife/girlfriend told us that they were just talking about needing socks too.   The universe is strange like that.

The Universe Gave Us a Taillight!

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We Climbed a Colorado 14er!

This weekend we accomplished one of the goals on our Colorado bucket lists: we climbed a fourteener! A 14er is one of the nearly 60 mountain tops (last I heard they counted 54) that reach 14,000 feet or higher. The one we climbed is called Grays Peak. We had never climbed to the top of a mountain before so we had no idea what we were in for. These last few weekends we had tried to prepare for inclines by going to Devil’s Backbone in Loveland and other close spots, but nothing would prepare us for what we went through in terms of length and altitude.


Grays (left) and Torreys (right) Peak in the distance

We met at our friends Kelly and Todd’s house just after 6am and arrived at the trailhead that is located near the town of Georgetown right around 9am. We arrived a little late, but still managed to find parking. We started the trailhead at about 11,000 feet (Greeley is close to 4,000) and would ascend to over 14,000 ft over the course of about 3.5 miles.

The trailhead starts below treeline, so there was quite a bit of pine trees and plants.


First part of the trail (Kelly and Todd walking) -still lots of plant life

Slowly though the trees thinned out until there was just low-lying brush and then just a little bit of tundra plants left. We saw a lot of wildflowers including Colorado’s state flower, the columbine.


Pretty wild flowers with mountains in the distance


Columbines growing wild

The beginning was somewhat steep but not too bad. It had a low-grade meadow in the middle that was great for catching my breath. My heart was pounding pretty hard and I could feel with each step that I was getting less and less oxygen. Thankfully Britton offered to be the mule and carry our backpack full of food and supplies.

 


Britton and me

We got to a point where many people were second-thinking whether or not to keep going up. I was getting winded and feeling strange with just a few steps. I had to scale boulders that were about half the height that I am. A few people were turning back. Not even the plants dared to live much further up. We sat at this juncture and had a snack for a little while. It was breathtaking in more than one way.


Looking down into the valley from whence we came as the sun and clouds chased each other 

It was tempting to stop. I was spent. We had been climbing for about 2.5 hours by then. Kelly and Todd had kept going ahead of us, so it was just Britton and me alone. People said it would be about another 45 minutes to the top if we kept walking. I didn’t know if I could do more, as it was getting steeper and steeper and the air was thinning with each step. But I convinced myself to continue to do what we had set out to do: climb a Colorado fourteener.

Some people had plenty of energy (see the guy on the rock)

Soon, Britton became worried about me as my hands started turning purple and splotchy. I felt a little nauseous, I had to sit down about every 100 steps or so. He was so great. He was very patient with me and was supportive of whatever decision I needed to make. But I pushed on. Even when I felt like stopping, I kept going. I kept counting my steps. 75 steps. Sit. 50 steps. Sit. 40 steps. Sit. Finally we started hearing people coming down who had made it to the top. “Just two or three switch-backs and you’ll be there.” That really helped in keeping me motivated. “Is it worth it?” I asked more than once. “Totally!” was the response. Just. A. Few. More. Steps. I think I probably was not fully hydrated and maybe had a touch of altitude sickness. I’m not sure, but I felt like I was dragging my body along.

Finally we looked up and saw Kelly and Todd waving at us from the top. They had been there about 25 minutes already. I pushed on and through to the zenith. Victory! It was an amazing accomplishment for me. Many moments of doubt, but I pushed through it. Through the pain and discomfort. We were there!


On top of the world! With Todd, Kelly, me and Britton

It was absolutely gorgeous and much more difficult to me than I thought, but totally worth it. After climbing this mountain I know that at least half of anything you do is mental. You can psyche yourself into or out of anything. I almost wanted to cry with feelings of relief and achievement. It was incredible.


View from the toplooking toward Torreys

We had thought we might also try climbing the neighboring peak, Torreys, but everyone felt that we had done enough for one day, plus it looked like a rain storm might come in. Britton and I reached the top of Grays at about 12:30pm. It took us about 3.5 hours.

Coming down I felt great. With each step I was getting more oxygen and energy. I was even able to jog a few areas! We made it down in only about 2 hours. By 3pm we were loaded and ready to take on the crazy I-70 Sunday traffic.


Coming down off the mountain. Look how barren and rocky it is! Like walking on the moon!

It was an absolutely amazing experience in more ways than one. If you ever have the opportunity to climb a Colorado 14er, I would whole-heartedly recommend it. And just remember, a mountain is conquered one step at a time.


Fun at the top


Look in the river

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