…but so is Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred. I’ve made it to “Level Three” of Jillian’s $10 work-out video, so I guess that makes me a fitness buff. Other qualifiers: I’ve run three half-marathons and three 10Ks; I memorized Claudia Schiffer’s “Perfectly Fit Abs” in high school and have done the work-out ever since; I’ve worked with two personal trainers—one in New York City and one in Greenville; I’ve tried the Master Cleanser; I did the Hallelujah diet for a month; and I own a 5lb container of Elite Whey Protein Isolate. Jillian would be proud.
I’ll be taking my 30 Day Shred DVD to Ecuador with me. Here’s hoping the cabana floor is sturdy enough to sustain jump training! But for now, my Top Ten Travel Fitness Memories: (Drum roll.)
10) Hiking a rain forest in Puerto Rico—beautiful
9) Five hour hike in the Pyrenees, Spain—who knew five hour hikes could be so fun? Water never tasted so good, and I don’t know if it was because it was packed with minerals from the fresh spring, or because I was exhausted.
8) The Sugar Dare, India—my friend Samuel challenged me to not eat sugar for a month, and I took him on…then he left chocolates on my pillow called “Temptations.”
7) Hiking the Grand Canyon—nuff said.
6) Salsa dancing in Antigua, Guatemala—ahhh salsa, my love, and Guatemala was my first love of this dance…infectious, passionate, exhilarating…always work up a good sweat!
5) Winning the crossbow game in Thailand—2 shots = 5 baht, Kicking the Australian guy’s butt = Priceless.
4) Playing soccer with the orphans in the Dominican Republic—Orphanage Outreach was the program. The kids were awesome.
3) Climbing an active volcano in Guatemala—I looked down and saw the red hot lava bubbling beneath the rocks where I stood and wondered how it was legal for this tour to even exist…
2) Awakening my kundalini with morning yoga in Bangalore, India—We woke, took cold showers out of buckets, and walked to yoga class before breakfast. We practiced deep breathing with sound and touch. We imagined a light in our hearts with a fire that spread throughout our bodies. We let the dead man’s pose take us to another level. We experienced an overwhelming sense of love, calm, and wellness through visualization. We did the laughing man exercise and felt really awkward. We practiced no breath. The pendulum swung. We surrendered.
1) Running in Ankara, Turkey—I know, it sounds so boring, but let me give you some context. My group arrived in Ankara after spending ten weeks in India. I couldn’t walk down the street in India without red-toothed, wide-eyed staring men harassing me. But thanks to Ataturk, Ankara felt like home. And oh how I missed a good long run with my music and for the world to just leave me alone for a minute…or sixty.
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