Occasional Unplugging is Crucial for your Sanity

It's been a few weeks since I've posted and man, do I feel awesome.

I've just returned from a nearly-month long sabbatical to Southwest Colorado, where I camped, often for free in National Forest land with raging whitewater rapids roaring right by my tent.

I took a horseback ride up harrowing switchbacks past 10,000 feet in Ouray (the "Switzerland of America"), where I also hiked the Horsethief Trail up to the "Bridge to Heaven", where the summit was over 12,300--by far the highest I've ever been. (The last 45 minutes were exhausting! Lesson learned: eat more when hiking; you burn so many calories at high altitude and steep terrain, you have to frequently refuel.)

I whitewater rafted (with an outfitter) down some fun class III rapids. I was in wide open green spaces surrounded by 13 and 14,000-foot peaks with no houses and hardly anyone in sight. I connected with nature in a way that I haven't in quite some time.

Totally cleansed of any stress I was holding on to, my challenge now, will be to hold on to that spiritually-renewed feeling. Not that my life is too stressful; I've chosen to lead a stress-free life and have created just that, but any stress I was having completely melted away. Even if I had lots of stress in my life, this trip to Colorado would have profoundly changed me.

I'd be lying if I said I never checked my email while I was away for a few weeks. I did in fact check occasionally, but I unplugged from my complete dependency on electronics. The cell phone was switched off most of the time, and I barely used my laptop. Emails were checked in funky Internet cafes.

Connecting with nature, disconnecting from the grid, camping....I recommend this for everybody to do at least once a year for two weeks.

Easier said than done if you have young kids, but I saw plenty of nouveau-hippies (new agers who don't indulge in drugs or smoke cigarettes like the old-school hippies) with toddlers camped out.

Wellness newsletters have become too saturated with marketing, scaring us much of the time with the new health scourge of the week. Some people may be accustomed to getting in the inbox a health email with a subject line such as: "Why Taking This Supplement Will Kill You".

Maybe some readers of this post couldn't care less about my camping trip to Colorado; maybe they'd rather read about eating organic and if it's really better for you.

But taking a break from your normal day to day routine like I did can profoundly change your state of wellness for the better--mentally, spiritually and even physically.

I was so relaxed throughout the trip that even though I always emphasize yoga and stretching in my wellness routine, I didn't even stretch once or do a lick of yoga. I didn't need to; my muscles weren't holding on to any stress.

Besides hiking, I gave my muscles a rest. I thought I'd lose muscle tone and gain fat if I didn't do any upper-body strengthening exercises, but I discovered that if I stick with my metabolic type nutrition lifeplan, then I don't have a thing to worry about.

If I fell off the wagon and had hot dogs (with bun) cooked over the campfire and roasted marshmallows for dessert, I didn't worry that I wasn't "eating healthy". I just made sure that the rest of the time I was eating high protein and high fiber foods and drinking lots of water.

I had a realization that if you invest some time (everybody is different, but I'd say at least two years) into strength training and eat properly for your metabolic type, you can go for extended periods of time without exercising and not put on any weight. In fact, you will preserve your muscle tone and may even get leaner.

I'm already looking forward to my next trip in the woods. If it's been a while for you, make a plan to get there soon.