Achieved - a key health goal

Our goals for a better life are more love and laughter, improved health and worthwhile challenging work.  Improved health for both of us has meant working on a less stressful lifestyle, improved fitness and for me – achieving a BMI which is considered healthy – 25 or less. It’s taken me nearly 5 years to achieve this goal and along the journey I’ve lost 20% of my body weight.

The before photo, taken on a cycling trip in Laos, prompted me to “action” and contrasts with a photo taken today to celebrate the goal achieved.  This journey has had such a positive impact on both my physical and mental health, my energy levels are higher, my balance is much better, I feel 20 years younger and I’m fitter, stronger and more toned than I recall being ever before.  I have much more confidence in my ability to complete the long walking tracks and cycle trails that are on my bucket list.

As my goal was about better health I achieved it by the formula of eat less, exercise more – this formula is so simple to write, but much harder to implement.  I always ate healthily, but even more so now, and I eat a lot less. I always exercised, but I exercise a lot more now, especially up hills which gives the benefit of high intensity exercise.  I love to exercise in the great outdoors, preferably in sunshine, but also in wind and rain.  That’s been so good for my mental health as it puts life’s problems into better perspective and reminds me of the glories of nature.

With the benefit of hindsight I wish I’d achieved this health goal much earlier in my life.   I ponder why no health practitioner ever suggested to me that it might benefit my physical and mental health to lose weight.  Most of all, I’m determined to maintain a healthy BMI to facilitate the active lifestyle I’m intend to continue living.

Living a better life

Our determination to live better dates back to around the time my mother died.  During the reflective time after her death, a friend asked whether I had unresolved dreams for things to do with my mother which we hadn’t been able to achieve. Although the answer to that question was no, Ross and I identified that we had many unrealised aspirations to do things together.  We set about changing that, particularly in relation to travel - to see family and to explore places – in conjunction with work trips and just for pleasure.

By 2011 our aspirations had evolved further: we wanted to be able to respond to the interesting opportunities that were being presented to us, we wanted more love, laughter and adventures in our days – to spend more time with family and friends, more time in the sunshine being active and we wanted to do good work.  We wanted to be open to adventures, either at home in NZ’s great outdoors or overseas if opportunities presented themselves.  The plan was not to have a plan.

It took some months to divest ourselves of the financial responsibilities of the old life that tied us to corporate jobs and salaries and to achieve a financial position that allowed us to take up work that was worthwhile, interesting, and challenging, but not necessarily well-paid.   We down-sized from our large family home appropriate for raising a family, to a mobile home suitable both for adventures and also as a base in shaky Christchurch where we worked on documenting the impact of the earthquakes in photographs.   

Opportunities to work overseas opened up for me, providing consultancy services to improve research and information services in developing parliaments.  The short-term assignments in Myanmar developed into a longer contract so that Ross joined me there in 2013 where we fell in love with the gentle people and the beauty of the landscapes and temples.   It was an extraordinary opportunity to work in the Myanmar Parliament just at the time when democracy was being established and the people could choose their leadership for the first time in 50 years.

When my contract in Myanmar ended in 2016, the next adventure beckoned us to live in Yorkshire for 6 months helping to run a B&B on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.  We loved both the work and the opportunity to walk or cycle almost every day exploring the glorious landscapes of the Dales.  

By the end of 2016 it was time to head home to New Zealand.  While I was sorting out what came next for work we began our South Island Odyssey  through the south of the South Island, cycling every NZ Cycle Trail and walking the Rakiura Track in Stewart Island. 

What came next for work, was a role in Auckland, which allowed us to explore a region that we didn’t know well.  We particularly loved the coast and the estuaries, as well as the volcanoes and the forests, so we spent our weekends and holidays exploring.  

Now that the time has come for us to leave Auckland, we are undertaking a North Island Odyssey, with the intention of cycling most of the NZ Cycle Trails in the North Island and walking another of the Great Walks - Lake Waikaremoana.