The Great Outdoors - One Great Workout

Health and wellness has quickly become the buzz phrase on the minds and on the tips of tongues of people throughout North American. Unfortunately, it’s easier said than done to begin incorporating these aspects into everyday life. Everyone has good intentions. You join a gym and start including healthier foods into your daily lives, but then life starts getting crazy and all your good intentions fall by the wayside, and you end-up paying for a gym membership that never gets used. The thing is, and this is my own personal feeling, that many people who want to start living a healthy lifestyle become so overwhelmed with the idea of using the gym and changing eating habits. But it doesn’t have to be; it can be really easy if little steps are taken and you work on solidly changing one negative aspect in your life at a time.

For my first ever blog, l'd like to address this issue of physical activity. If anyone is like me I feel I get a better burn at the gym than say going outside and running. I feel like I can challenge myself more in a gym setting by increasing the tension or incline, because god knows you can’t find too many hills to run-up in Winnipeg. But I was completely foolish and blind to the bulk of outdoor activities there is to do in and out of Winnipeg. Just this past Labour Day weekend two friends and I decided to load the canoe onto my friend’s Rav 4 and head toward Caddy Lake in Manitoba’s Whiteshell Provincial Park for an amazing three-day canoe trip.

Now the great thing about heading towards Caddy and its surrounding lakes is one, there is no fee to get into any federal or provincial park for the next two years, in case you didn’t know. Two, even though at times you feel like you’re the only one on the lake your really not, so if anything were to happen there are people around to help. And last, but not least, canoeing these lakes is totally, and completely easy, but please make sure you have at least one person that knows how to steer a canoe. So off my friends’ and I went with our GPS in hand, which by the way I really recommend, paddling across Caddy Lake through two tunnels to reach our destination of North Cross Lake.

The paddling wasn’t crazy intense. But it got us working hard increasing our heart rate, which makes our bodies work harder in order to pump blood quickly to the muscles being used to give them energy. The more energy our muscles use means burning down more of our bodies food stores, which leaves us with less unwanted body weight and a healthier heart.

The amazing thing about going on this canoe trip was not only that we got to be physically active, and really we worked our butts off, but also we had a great time doing and that is the most important thing about being physically active. Canoeing is a great way to have fun and be active with the whole family, or with a girlfriend or boyfriend, or with friends. Please remember that you need to be prepared. Plan your trip; bring a GPS, tell conservation where you plan to paddle, and bring the right equipment because you still need to remember your on the water and in the wilderness so you do need to be prepared. On top of being prepared for anything please, please remember to take your garbage with you because it’s important to leave nature beautiful and free of garbage not only for us, but also for our kids and their kids.