Time for Change – The excitable adventurer
At 45 it’s great to discover that you can do anything if you put your mind to it; you can unlock a world of possibilities! I’m glad I’ve discovered this now when I have the potential of many more years of discovery! When the opportunity to raise money for St Luke’s Cheshire Hospice, by trekking the Sahara Desert, arose something was ignited inside of me! Just over a year ago, 4 of us from The Hollies signed up to what has turned out to be the adventure of a lifetime!
Our little tribe had just spent 5 days together in the Sahara Desert. An out of this world experience that has drawn many beautiful souls together. We had spent 12 months preparing for the 50km trek for St Luke’s Cheshire Hospice. We had raised over £10,500, joined gyms, paced through exercise classes, climbed Snowdon and lost nearly 6 stone (in my case) in preparation for our expedition. During those 12 months we had done many more things together, through fundraising, testing our walking pace as a group and supporting each other with kit lists and the mental strength.
Nothing prepared me for the overwhelming love and laughter of the trek. 12 people became a family; we even had a trek dad and 2 Nanas! The back-stories that brought that family together made the trek so much more meaningful for us all. Lifelong friends have been made, souls have collided and the most amazing experiences have been logged in the memory banks!
It’s amazing how humans adapt from the luxuries of the norm to the realities of the wild! From comfy beds to mats & sleeping bags under the stars; from porcelain toilets & running water to wild toileting with a poo buddy (a role created just for the Sahara trek!) All testing at first, but after your first wild ablution, you do feel like you are empowered to conquer the world!!!
Focused on the 50km over 3 days in the blistering heat, trekking across mixed terrains of sand dunes, rocky flatlands and climbing parts of the Lower Atlas Mountains meant that everything else was unexpected, magical and uplifting!
Sharing moments of someone else’s grief sat on the side of a mountain is soul lifting. Pushing each other on when the heat was so intense & the blisters were stinging is heart warming. Seeing the sunrise and sunset in the desert opens up the whole world and it’s possibilities to you, in awe of the beauty of it all. There are the beautiful moments where the Hokey Cokey unites 2 cultures as we danced with the Berbers under the moonlight. What a gorgeous population they are too, so generous and caring. They ensured we ate like lords, were as comfortable as possible in our camps at night and had so much fun; camel rides, sand dune rolling, traditional music, candlelit meals, sleeping under the light of the full moon & a sky full of stars and so much more!
When you haven’t showered for 4 days you & your fellow trekkers are taken back to basics. I had the worst bed head all day every day, we were all aware that wearing the same clothes that we were sweating in each day was going to test our huddling abilities!! Somehow we still overcame all of that and hugging each other was still, if not more, appropriate than ever!
We have all left this experience with extra large hearts, fewer inhibitions and lifelong friends. As I reflect on the last 12 months that got me to this point I am again so grateful to Emma of Emma Wilson Fitness who has supported my weight loss and fitness transformation. I was able to spend more time in the moments appreciating its awesomeness because I was so mentally and physically prepared for the trekking part and the hammam experience that followed!!
Anything is possible! Things become more possible if you embrace Clean & Lean by Emma Wilson Fitness as it enables you to take some control of your body & mind through what you eat and how you move!
So what’s next? Well Clean & Lean is the lifestyle change that makes the challenge attainable, the mindfulness to pursue your heart’s desire, to love like you’ve never loved before and gather souls who make changes in this world. St Luke’s has already given so much to me (without needing to use their services) that I know I’ll be doing more for them in the future. Oh and there is an excitable adventurer in me now that has the desire to do more!
Find out more about Clean & Lean by Emma Wilson Fitness
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