Stay on Offense Climb Mountains

Attacking Adversity

Go Hiking But First Take My Course – Attacking Mountains At Any Age

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If you want to be a hiking warrior, then it is time for you to take my hiking course. If you are a beginner and want to learn the basics in a fun way, plus avoid a lot of mistakes (ones I have made), then let’s go! If you are a little older and would like to get into the mountains but you have some challenges then I can help. Go to the course:

https://bmontgome.mastermind.com/masterminds/25439

In the course I give you the basics and discuss how you can prevent injuries. If you have bad knees I talk about how to get around that. There is always a way. Maybe you say, I climbed this one mountain in record time when I was 18 years old, but now you are 50 and all you talk about is when you were 18. You can do it again! Don’t stop living just because you are a little older.

Training

You will learn how to train for hiking. What I do and don’t do. If a 76 year old man can keep himself on the trail for 30 years think how much you can learn and how much pain you can avoid!

Did you think you could just go climb mountains every week without training? No! You need to get in shape and stay in shape.

Mindset

This section of the course is worth the price by itself, because it will give you tools to help you achieve goals you set in every area of life. Find out what your “why “ is in every area of life. Learn the motivation formula so you can get yourself to do what you say you want to do.

Mindset is so important if you set a path to climb mountains once a week, three times a week or even once a month.

Diet and Nutrition

I don’t have a diet for you, but I call this section “The Chocolate Bar Diet and Nutrition Plan.” I tell you up front it is really not a diet but my philosophy about diet. I also give you some recommendations for supplements.

However, twenty years ago I weighed 214 pounds and I dropped that weight and kept it off. I am 165 now so I know something about this area. As I say in my book, “Attacking Adversity,” diet and exercise are strategies one and two for getting through any adversity. Simple? Yes, but not easy! Don’t stay on the SAD (Standard American Diet).

Click on the link above and take my course. You will be glad you did!

Go Hiking In Shorts, No Shirt When It Is Freezing

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No, I won’t do it. Wim Hof’s book is a great one and will inspire you to do what he says to a point. However, when he talks about climbing mountains wearing no pants or shirt I have little or no interest.

Cold showers are just fine. I might even do a cold plunge if the opportunity presented itself, but when I hike I don’t just want to be covered up, I need to be. This is true especially in the summer months when it would be warmer as supposedly easier. That’s because of my allergic reaction to Mosquito bites! Now I would be safer in the winter cold with snow and ice because they stay away then, but four or five hours in the cold doesn’t inspire me.

Training

Wim Hof trains people to climb in the cold. Maybe that is what I would need before was ready to give it a try on my own. I could fly over to his location and take his course. There are people here in the United States that teach his method as well. So that is a possibility.

The method includes three main things. Cold, breathing and mindset. I think I would need a huge change in mindset. I would need lots of practice in “setting my intention.”

Motivation

Hiking with almost no clothes in the cold would surely be out of my comfort zone. That is supposed to be a good thing. Get outside your comfort zone the self help folks tell you. Always be stretching yourself. Push your limits. Dream big and set goals to achieve them.

It all sounds very good, but hiking in the cold is not a dream of mine. I would need some more convincing. Hof says that after doing the breathing is the best time to “set your intention.” That intention might be to climb up a mountain with no shirt, but it won’t be mine. Not yet. My guess is you would need some in person training before you should even try to attempt something like that unless you like frost bite.

Go Hiking Because You Are Built for It

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It is so obvious, but it took the title of today’s Bookish Weapon to really consider this. You have two legs and two feet. Your ancestors walked a lot. Actually, no. They hiked! Everywhere!

So why no do something you were built for? It makes perfect sense. However, any have excuses.

My Back Hurts

You are not using your back when you hike and haven’t you heard the mantra of physical therapists everywhere; motion is lotion! Wim Hof (the Iceman) says BREATH!! I say MOVE. What better way to move than using your legs and feet.

Your back will heal and get stronger as you move. Maybe no pack on your back for now. Just get yourself up a mountain.

But My Knees Hurt

Yes, so do mine. Especially the left one, but both have arthritis. One has had surgery. What is the best medicine for that? Movement!!! After a coupe hours of hiking your knees are gong to feel better (usually). Not so much if you fall down and bang it on a rock.

Make sure you use the Couch stretch after climbing. If you don’t know what the Couch stretch is then look it up online under Kelly Starrett.

I Am Too Old

Unless you are in your nineties, you can’t play the age card with me. I am seventy-five. I don’t listen to people that say I shouldn’t climb mountains at my age.

Remember the cliche that you are only as old as you think you are. Never stop moving. Can you get up off the floor without using your hands? Neither can I, but that doesn’t stop me. It might keep me out of the 100 year old Olympics according to Dr. Peter Attia, but it won’t keep me off a mountain.

Go Hiking and Get Your Life Back

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So you ask me, “How does that work?” Well, if you have been reading these odes to the mountains you will understand that is the easiest task. All it takes is a few hikes and your life changes.

How does it change? First, you go hiking. Before you went hiking you were so distracted by emails, Instagram, Tik Tok, and even Microsoft teams that you had lost your life. It had disappeared into the electronic Matrix. Once you get on the trails things settle down.

The Matrix

You might think that when you are looking at your phone instead of looking at the person across from you that you have your life firmly in hand. Or you are supposed to be exercising but you are sitting on a bench at the gym staring at your phone.

Your mind is in a Matrix composed of all the lures of the electronic universe. You have to escape it to see it for what it is, an addiction so heinous that it will grind you up and spit you out into a pile of wasted lives.

Busyness

Oh, you say that you have your phone under control and you are in charge of it. But you are going from one meeting to another, rushing from one office to another, catching a plane, a lunch date, or grabbing a bite on the run. You have lost your life in the busyness of it.

How long has it been since you had time, even ten minutes to sit and think? A long time I imagine.

The Solution

The best solution is to go hiking! Put your phone in your pack and only take it out to take a picture when you get to the top of a mountain. If you need to take a picture before you reach the top then you still need to keep it in your pack. Make it hard to get at.

Then you hiking, with trees surrounding you and the odor of pine needles or will strawberries wafting up to you. The breeze is on your face. You relax as you push yourself forward. You become one with nature. You get your life back.

A Little More

Maybe a quote from one of Eldredge’s other books, Epic. He says, “We have grown dull towards this world in which we live; we have forgotten that it is not normal or scientific in any sense of the word. It is fantastic. It is a fairy tale through and through. Really now. Elephants? Caterpillars? Snow? At what point did you lose your wonder at it all?” “Perhaps we come upon a waterfall, clouds have made a rainbow in a circle around the sun…”

Go hiking, experience it all (maybe not Elephants), and get your life back!

Go Hiking and Do Some Rethinking

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Hiking is a time when you can think about all sorts of things you have been putting off. Be honest. It is hard to find the time to just think.

So when you go into the mountains make sure you bring your brain along with you. It can be a great companion and you may learn all sorts of things.

Rethink Your Life

You can rethink anything, not just positive thinking discussed in the book. You can rethink your whole life. Have you thought about your life lately? Most people don’t think about their loge as whole until they are a little older, but it can be useful at any age.

Maybe during the first couple of miles, you think about your childhood. Then the next couple miles your teen years. Then the next couple your twenties and thirties. When you get to the top, you’re probably just starting to reach your forties unless of course you are much younger and have not reached that age yet. If you are older like me it will take all the way up and all the way down to get through your life.

Rethink Your Health

Are you doing everything you can to stay healthy and fit? Are you using any technology to help you? Did you know that according to Kelly McGonigal, “The average daily step count required to induce feelings of anxiety and depression and decrease satisfaction with life is 5,649 the typical American takes 4,774 steps per day.” Brian Johnson quoted that the other day. So are you using a Fitbit, Garmin, Suunto, or something else to track your steps? Why not?

How are you and sugar doing? Maybe with you, it isn’t sugar but chips or something salty. Quitting sugar was the biggest contributor to me dropping lots of body fat over the last year. You can climb a lot of mountains but if you are packing the sugar away it won’t help you much.

Rethink Anything

You get the idea. Use that hiking time to think about anything you want. Maybe it is your relationship or lack of one. Maybe it is your job or lack of one.

What a blessing it is to be so close to nature and able to use it to help you connect with yourself. So go hiking and rethink some things.

Go Hiking Because Everything Is Spiritual

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Go hiking!
It’s spiritual
Why? Because everything is spiritual.

When you are climbing a mountain you can’t help but notice all the living things around you. That obviously makes you think of God. Well, it does me.

God is in nature
So you should be too
What’s holding you back?

It really doesn’t matter if you hike early or late. I know, that speaks against my mantra, but there are advantages to a late start. You could see a sunset. The lighting is different so your photos will be different. Maybe even better.

How

Put your boots on.
Get your trekking poles.
Take the ten essentials.

It is also important to be sure you have the right trail pass for a particular hike. Check the weather, the distance, and know-how long it will take you to finish. Take two of everything. “Two is one and one is none.”

How can preparing for a hike be spiritual? You know about Brother Lawrence, the monk that connected with God when he washed the dishes. You can connect anytime you do anything!

Be Consistent

Go hiking on a consistent basis.
Every day.
Every week.
Or every other week
Or every third week.
Be consistent.

When you are consistent it will become a habit. Hiking will be like brushing your teeth. It will be something you do all the time and it will become part of your identity. Why? Because anything we do over and over becomes part of our identity. How about that!

Take A Break

Your body needs a break.
Your mind needs a break.
Breaks are good for the soul.
They are spiritual!!

How long a break you take depends on how spiritual you are feeling. Now, I am not talking about a rest break when you are climbing a mountain. Those are forbidden! I am talking about taking a break from hiking altogether. I take five months off every year just to make sure I am ready for the next season and feeling spiritual about it.

What do you do after your break?
Once again, Go Hiking!