Informal Exercise

I am still on the amazing island, but my days are dwindling. We have to head home Monday for boyfriend to work on Tuesday. We have moved up to the mountain with his sister's family for the rest of the trip.

That photo is from the day we boated over to the bigger island to get groceries. Yes, we have to take a 40 minute boat ride to get groceries like fruit and meat. But our other food comes straight from the ocean or the ground.

I started this blog to keep track of my exercise. I had found this challenge to do 30 minutes of physical activity a day for 365 days and I wanted to see if I could. Before I left on my trip, I had done something every single day. But it was taxing. I was getting tired of the gym. My runs were getting hard and not as enjoyable. Then I came here and remembered that exercise doesn't have to be in a gym and it doesn't have to be structured.

Here, after we are done eating breakfast and playing a card game or five, we are constantly moving our bodies, but not in a let'a exercise for an hour kind of way.

For one, we walk everywhere. Occasionally we will take a truck, but the island is only 4 miles around (as the crow flies). If we don't walk, we ride bikes. We all know how much biking kills me and how I avoid it at every cost, and there is no shortage of elevation changes on this island, but here I enjoy it because it's outside with people I love. We also have been following a treasure hunt that was left for boyfriend's cousin, which helps make the biking really fun.

As I said, boyfriend's goal was to teach me to row. After our big day off island, we set out to row around to Disney Point so he could get some kelp to dry. He told me it was only 2 miles. Turns out, I rowed 6 miles! I was so sore for two days and couldn't figure out why. Then I realized it was from the rowing! Rowing is a full body exercise that engages your core, works your arms, and your legs. And it's so much more fun when you're in open water instead of on the rowing machine at the gym.

Plus we got to row home to this.

Hiking is another phenomenal form of exercise that doesn't feel formal. I love to hike and have been on many backpacking excursions, but life gets in the way and sometimes it's easier to get to the gym than plan a hiking trip. A few nights ago, we packed some snacks and a sleeping bag and hiked up Point Disney.

This place is magical. We slept on the cliff and watched shooting stars. And in the morning, we hiked back, so we started the day with some exercise.

I don't think pictures do it justice. Those are 500 foot cliffs I'm standing on the edge of.

So all of the anxiety I had about leaving my routine and not getting (formal) exercise has all washed away. I still have done 30 minutes of physical activity every single day, just in a very different way than I do at home.

I am sad to be leaving so soon. Every time I come here, I don't want to go home, which is a strange thing for this homebody. In other, really exciting news, I am almost positive I will be participating in a Ragnar in November. Boyfriend will be doing it with me, so be prepared for a lot of training posts. It's been awhile since I've had something to train for, so this is really exciting! 

I hope everyone is amazing and I will be back on the blog commenting train shortly!