Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The skinny on The Inca Trail

Hi again! I know, I know...twice in one night?!?

I thought I should do a quick de-brief on the rest of my trip, while the TV is still off! In a nutshell, it was the most amazing thing I've done to date. The Trail itself was incredibly beautiful and wickedly challenging.

I learned alot about myself while I was hiking. Things like:
- the only thing that saved me from my own evil, sabotaging thoughts was to count steps. Seriously! During the really difficult hiking parts (like, three of the four days!), I had all these thoughts that weighed me down. Inner Critic? Perhaps ... or just fear and exhaustion. Anyway, I learned that the best way to stay focused was to count my steps! I tie this back to when I was running all those steps before I left. Remember? I had to reach the goal of 2,000 steps so every time I ran them, I counted. Quite interesting!

- even stale, white bread can taste good when it's slathered with butter, jam or a Nutella-like mystery substance.

- a physical challenge like this has an amazing way of bonding a group of people. On the second day of the climb (called "The Sacrifice when we went from 9,300 ft to 10,100 ft), I hiked to the top of Dead Woman's Pass behind two folks. We were all struggling, physically and emotionally, to get to the top. The motivation for the three of us? Pinky swear commitments to stay with each other and the shouts of congratulations we heard as other people reached the top! For myself, those cheers were like an angel's chorus calling me above the clouds ... heavenly ...

- there is no graceful way to enter or exit a two-person pup tent. You either do it bum first, which is not a pleasant sight for the innocent folks walking by. Or, the other way is feet first, which means crawling out on your bum and getting dirty. By day 4, getting dirty didn't matter to me...nor did having hair that stuck to my head or smelly feet for that matter...just sayin'....

- I have set the standard of physical activity for my vacations. No longer will my vacations just be about vegging. I expect to have a good combination of physical challenge and relaxation. Camping without running water for 4 days, not so much...

There are so many other learnings to share, but I'm starting to feel the need to pop on the TV and mentally check out for the evening. I promise to provide snipets in my upcoming blogs. In the meantime, I've made a Picasso web album of the trip. Feel free to check it out! BTW, you may need to cut & paste the link into your browser to make it work.

http://picasaweb.google.com/114426312429469241773/TheIncaTrailMay2010#
(a) yt xox

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Mountain or Mole Hill?

Well hallooooooooooooooooo! I'm back and happy to be here...again! What a ride it's been. Thank you for coming back. A special thanx to those of you who have, patiently, asked and waited for me to return.

A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine casually said that I make mountains out of mole hills. My first reaction was to freak out, get pissed off, then actually register what was said. I had a feeling that my initial reaction could've been a good example of me making a mountain out of a casual observation...hmmmm...the drama queen returns...

This innocent comment got me thinking about a whole bunch of things going on in my life, and how I had been approaching them. Admittedly, I was out of sorts when I returned from Peru, calling it my "post-Inca Trail Blues". While the trip was TOTALLY AMAZING, I experienced quite a let down. I understand this experience is "normal", however it really put me into a funk. Since I had been planning for this trip - physically, emotionally & financially - for close to a year, having it over left me without focus. I kept asking myself "what's next?"

... what goal do I have to work towards to get the last of my weight off?
... now that I'm back to "reality", what am I going to do to make money?

These were big questions for me and I started to feel overwhelmed and, yes, a bit depressed. Clearly I'd lost my drive and felt REALLY unfocused. I gained 14 lbs....yes, FOURTEEN... and stopped exercising regularly. I still had my weekly work outs with The Evil One, but didn't go into the gym beyond the one/week. And forget about working out at home...

So, here I was feeling blah...so blah that I couldn't even blog about it...when my friend made the statement about me making mountains out of mole hills. It got me thinking about my approach to things. He was right! Cases in point...

MOUNTAIN NUMBER 1 - HEALTH
- why did I need another "Machu Picchu-like" challenge to get the weight off? How about the goals of being healthy and looking good naked? I realized I just needed to take control of one thing at a time, setting small, achievable goals for myself. Considering I ate carbs-upon-carbs-with-a-hint-of-protein on The Trail, eliminating carbs would be a good first step to regaining control. It's amazing what happens when you stop eating grains! Oh, and lest I forget the accountability. So now, I weigh myself everyday and email a picture of the scale to The Evil One. I'm losing again and I feel much better now that I'm eating healthy.

- on the exercise front, I've committed to doing a workout at least two other times/week in my condo. You'll be happy to know that Werner never caved on his commitment to my torture. I returned to even more challenging routines. For example, today I had to SKIP during my workout! My first reaction was to worry about the visual of all my jiggly bits flying about in front of The Evil One while I jumped rope. I know he's evil but even I couldn't inflict that torture on him. Unphased by my drama, he suggested facing the window (vs. the mirror), overlooking the railroad tracks outside. Imagine the "mountain" view the GO Train riders caught as they were passing through...YOWZA!!

MOUNTAIN NUMBER 2 - WORK
- it's true that the "irons" I had in the fire before the trip didn't pan out upon my return. But I realized I was still capable of developing new leads and getting other work. I'm great at networking, so a few strategically placed emails and coffee meetings later, and I'm working with my good friends, Duane & Aubrey, doing some cool work with a great organization. I'm also going to deliver my Defining Your Unique Selling Proposition workshop again (Saturday, July 24 from 9:00 - noon...email me to sign up at yvonne@ymtStrategies.com). AND, I'm in the process of collaborating with a few, different friends to develop other really cool workshops.

MOUNTAIN NUMBER 3 - THE BLOG!!!
- I couldn't bring myself to blog... I was freaking out thinking I had to be inspirational when I wasn't feeling inspired...that I had to go into great details about my trip and speak about deep, meaningful life learnings...that people were expecting brilliance when I was feeling really mediocre (Really, Yvonne? Brilliance?!?)...blah, blah, blah...Reality check? IT'S JUST A FRIGGIN' BLOG!! I just needed to sit down, keep the TV and radio off and type from the heart.

YEESH! I now GET what my friend was saying! I gotta tell ya, all this mountain climbing is mentally exhausting! And, at the end of the day, fixing my "problems" was simple:
1) get off my couch (exercise again)
2) shut my pie hole (eat the right foods)
3) be creative (network for contract work)
3) just type (for the love of God!)

Really poppits, I'm not trying to minimize your problems. Only you can separate the mountains from the mole hills. But do yourself a favour before you react: Ask yourself a simple question...

... what's the level of emotional energy this situation deserves?

It has certainly helped me to put things into better perspective. It also helps when you've got friends who care about you enough to tell you the truth. I care, poppit, just ask ...
(a)yt xox