First, I must credit the title of this post & the motivation for it to two awesome friends, M.T. and I.M. (yes, I decided to use initials starting now). We just came back from an incredible trip to New Hampshire – also made stops in Massachusetts and in Maine. Overall, my impression of New England as a whole has greatly improved and I’m officially in love with nature, the earth, hiking, and overall body movement.

Despite an insane lack of [comfortable] sleep, I felt like I came alive being in the forest. Climbing sure left me short of breath because I’m an American. As much as I hate to admit this, I have totally absorbed the American way of life into my daily routine. After this weekend, I want nothing more than to be rid of it. As I sit here and write this post, I am absolutely missing the feeling of my limbs moving. We have evolved into an increasingly sedentary society. We sit for work, we sit on our way to and from work, whether we’re driving, flying or taking the train we are constantly sitting. We get home from work and sit in front of the television; we sit down at a dining table for dinner, then we do some more sitting before we go to bed.

The sedentary society that has come to be in clashes drastically with human physiology. We went from moving all the time too hardly moving and our bodies aren’t adapting well. For tens of thousands of years humans were nomadic, constantly walking from settlement to settlement. Fast-forward to the present and it has only been about 50-100 years that so many of us sit all day long. Even in just the past 20 years, because of the predominance of computers in daily life, sitting is a “new” phenomenon for the body.

I have often categorized myself as a pretty active person, because in comparison to many people, I am.. I bike ride as often as possible, sometimes going for 20 or more miles. I walk at least 5 miles every single day of my life, I do yoga, and I genuinely enjoy things like Zumba, Insanity, hoop dancing, etc. My workout DVD collection allows for a lot of variation and keeping things interesting… I do cardio and weights and everything else you can come up with. Taking walks or doing any physical activity with close friends around the city always gives me at least a small ego boost because I never lose stamina (sorry ladies, just the truth), and am never tired as quickly as some of my girlfriends tend to get.

Frankly, that’s all bullshit. Being out in nature and feeling my body do what it’s meant to do was incredible and rejuvenating and exhausting all at once. I don’t remember the last time I felt so.. free. I feel like I should be hiking every single day. Like every part of my body was woken up. It was exhilarating. Although I’m sore as all hell today… I am thoroughly enjoying every minute of feeling my muscles burn – it means they worked, and furthermore, it means I worked.

We as humans are constantly finding ways to make things simpler, faster, easier.. we’re all about doing the least amount of work. Examples are everywhere: The hostel where we stayed had real garlic and a jar of crushed garlic – guess which one I used for cooking? Obviously I took the easy way out, as so many other people would have. I’ve been trying to transition to a whole foods – plant based diet and the first question I always get from people about it is: was it hard to stop eating meat? Of course it’s hard, why would you want it to be easy? What’s the reward in that? I consciously decide to put healthier foods into my body every day. Is it easier to walk to McDonald’s and order things based on NUMBER? Sure it is. Is it making me feel good about myself, my body or my life? No, it’s not.

My point in all this story telling is that you should get out there. You should discover something new. Every day should be different and challenging and exciting. Make your body work because Humans were made to move. Stop taking short cuts because life is only worth it if you work hard for everything you achieve. The world is beautiful.