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Striding Towards a Life More Extraordinary
At BikeHike Adventures, we like to think all of our travellers are inspiring. After all, we love that rather than choosing to sit on a beach chair while on vacations, our travellers are choosing to get out into the world and actively experience it, allowing us to help them make memories that will last a lifetime.
During the past 21 years, BikeHike Adventures has stockpiled a number of wonderful stories about the people for whom we have designed trips. And we have noticed certain recurring themes.
Michele and Glenn are an inspiring couple in their mid 40s who are currently travelling with us in South America, having also recently traveled with us in Galapagos and Ecuador. They have graciously allowed us to retell their story as a beautiful example of the ways some of our travellers actually use travel as motivation to help themselves set and maintain fitness goals. Over the past two years leading up to their current adventures with us in South America, Michele has shed nearly half of her body weight, reducing her weight by more than 130 pounds! Glenn has also shed an impressive 90 pounds.
Choosing Yourself, and Pushing Through Life’s Barriers
Michele admits that if you were to view a picture of her dated more than 2 years ago, you would not likely have associated her with adventure, let alone fitness of any sort, her weight having skyrocketed over the last two decades to around 300 pounds.
Yet, she explains, when she was younger that was not the story. She used to be the picture of adventure — a skydiving enthusiast, she couldn’t resist jumping out of planes at every opportunity, and by the age of 20, she had already obtained her pilot’s license. “[I had] a desire to see and experience all life had to offer.”
However, “somewhere along the way I lost that spark,” she admits, as jobs and the daily grind of life took over. And then pounds steadily piled on.
By the time she reached 300 pounds, enjoying her previously adventurous life became too physically challenging. Until one day, while planning a vacation to Vietnam, she had an AHA moment. As she browsed some of the most attractive itineraries, she found herself thinking, “bummer, too bad I’ll never be able to see that.” She couldn’t see herself biking or hiking the distances required to experience some of those landscapes.
Michele says she realized in those moments that she was the one preventing herself from achieving her own dreams, and that was something only she could change. “I realized, quite to my astonishment, that I had somehow become a spectator in my own life.”
Never Underestimate your Own Potential
“I could continue to be a spectator in my own life, all but snuffing out the internal flame that sought activity and adventure. Or, I could seek to uncover my former self and put her back together again. I chose the latter.”
Michele and Glenn decided to actively participate in their own lives again on every level, and began making very deliberate daily decisions to challenge themselves daily with health and fitness goals, both small and large — all necessary steps toward reaching their ultimate goals, living a life in which they knew they were reaching their full potential and not settling for second best or “just okay.”
As Michele and Glenn have begun embracing activity in their everyday lives, their dreams have been becoming realities, one by one. Not only did they manage to complete that once daunting trip to Vietnam, actively biking and hiking across much of the country, but they have also just taken a 6 month sabbatical from work to hike, bike and kayak their way around South America, a way of continuing their fitness momentum. Since their 6 month adventure began, their days have been stacked with activities, adventures Michele says they once would have considered impossible.
The couple began their 6 month trip by biking and hiking on the Galapagos Islands and in the Ecuadorian Andes, with BikeHike Adventure. While in the Galapagos, Michelle wrote to tell us that one of her proudest moments so far was when our BikeHike guide told her, “Wow! I’m not worried about you on this trip. You can handle anything!” They had just accomplished a difficult, high altitude hike at Fuya Fuya, one many travelers find challenging. She said that accomplishment really meant to the world to them, and it truly strengthened her confidence after their long fitness journey leading up to this trip. After Ecuador, they continued on to Chile and then Bolivia, where they successfully cycled the high altitude Salt Flats, again with BikeHike Adventures, and the Salt Flats ride is yet another challenge they were excited to face, and conquer.
Crossing the Finish Line — One Day, One Stride at a Time
Michele and Glenn credit travel and adventure as being a great fitness motivator, but Michele reminds us that health and wellness is a daily journey. “Glenn and I have been working hard to be healthy and active…each and every day. In many ways our journey toward health has been an adventure all on it’s own.”
Even when a goal is scary, Michele has this advice to offer: “It’s still worth the risk of taking that first step…and then the next…and the next.”
Despite completely transforming her outward appearance, Michele points out that the real transformation was internal. “It was also a transformation in my frame of mind…I’ve reconnected with that adventurous girl that lives inside me. I’ve worked hard to dig her out, dust her off and put her back on her feet again.” We are so incredibly proud of Michele and Glenn’s accomplishments, and we’re equally honored to be able to share their story about taking back control of their lives. And we’re so happy that some of our trips were able to provide the motivation and challenge they desired to keep pushing themselves further on that journey.
Michele currently chronicles their active adventures on a blog, called “A Life More Extraordinary.”
To learn more, please visit BikeHike.com