The holiday season can indeed be the most wonderful time of the year. But they can also bring a dastardly duo of stress and indulgence. We’re here to help you avoid that.
Last week, we offered advice on eating better over the holidays from Shelly Wegman, a registered dietician with Rex Nutrition Center in Raleigh. Today, we offer the best way we know to combat stress — moving. Specifically, moving down the trail.
Now isn’t the time that our thoughts turn toward living healthier. That won’t happen for — when’s New Year’s Day? — another month and a half.
We’re here today to suggest, on the cusp of the eating season, that now’s exactly the time to start living healthier. And that typically means two things:
It’s happening, people! Starting this Sunday, that dwindling daylight will sharply ratchet back an hour. So, while you might be able to sneak in a quick hike after work this evening before the sun sets at 6:19 p.m., next week you’ll be hard pressed to hike before the 5:12 p.m. sunset.
In early December, we’re doing a GetBackpacking! trip on the 21-mile Neusiok Trail. It’s a two-nighter, with a 2-mile hike in Friday evening, 8 miles Saturday, an 11-mile hike out Sunday. Pretty good distances for a backpack trip.
It also makes for a great day hike — a great long day hike.
Before I head down the trail with a batch of hikers, I do a bit of scouting. Even if I’ve hiked the trail before, the nature of things might have changed. If it’s a trail I hiked just last week, I might just scout the website to see if there’s been any flooding or tree falls. But if it’s been a while, and maybe in a different season, I’ll head on over to the trail and see for myself what’s new. Because, although it’s true that part of the delight of hiking is discovering new things, we don’t want to discover that a trail is impassable or there’s not enough space for overnight camping or there’s no water source for miles.
