Traveling the World Will Get You in Shape

By SammyK on Mon, Dec 29th 08 at 08:55PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

If you've been looking to lose a few pounds, I'd highly recommend traveling the world for some months.

I've lost about 15 lbs on the Travel the World diet so far.

And it's not just poundage, but I'm actually healthy!

Part of the reason is because William and I walk everywhere we go. The thought of walking 10 miles doesn't really phase me right now.

Maybe that's the reason why we were passing people like they were stopped while hiking up the Devil's Staircase at the Tongariro crossing.

I gimped my knee and fell behind on the last day of the hike. Antia, a German girl that was hiking back with us, was just in front of me.

We had been hiking for a few hours when we started up a fairly steep grade. When we reached the top Antia had to stop and hunch over while sucking in air hard. I was breathing just barely faster than normal. It was at that point that I realized that I'm more in shape now than I've been in a really long time.

Oh, and the whole time we did the hike, we were wearing our big backpacks.

However, traveling the world is not 100% good for your body. My knees hurt more now than they ever did. They really only flare up when we go hiking, but when they do start hurting, it's almost unbearable to hike downhill.

But heck, it's better to say, "I have bad knees because I traveled all around the world," rather than, "I have bad knees because I just sit at a computer all day."

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Comments

Daniel wrote on December 29th 08 at 10:07PM

AMEN!!

Corey wrote on December 29th 08 at 10:38PM

And another great reason to do a trip such as yours!

Geoff wrote on December 30th 08 at 01:27AM

If you can find any cheap ones, it's worth getting some walking poles for hiking - they really do make a difference (I suffer from the same problem with my knees).

SammyK wrote on December 30th 08 at 02:34AM

@Geoff: Great tip! I actually rented some for Torres del Paine and I'm sure glad I did. My knee would have been hurting a lot worse for sure.

Shane wrote on December 30th 08 at 06:53PM

Alpenstock. They're the walking poles. Very popular with Germans. When you're near walking/hiking areas in Europe you will always hear the Germans coming before you see them because of the clack clack clack of the alpenstock on the path.

Bethany wrote on December 30th 08 at 10:43PM

Nice post! Good to hear about the easy weight loss :) Great video too!