I think I was 18 when I took my first real hike. I grew up in the Inland Empire and was lucky enough to live close to a trail called Skyline. I used to go early in the mornings when the mountains were still a little misty from the morning fog. Those moments of solitude where it was just me & Mother Nature was the reason my love of hiking truly grew. I realized that not only was it giving my entire body an opportunity to move and exercise but it was also giving my mental health an opportunity to recover. I hiked that trail often, up until I moved to Los Angeles.
I put out a request on my insta stories, as to what you would want to read on my blog. @im_lola__ asked for my fitness regimen and some of my health philosophies. Well, here is my top choice when it comes to my fitness regimen, waking up early and heading out to a local hike. When I moved out to LA, I forgot about that love I had for hiking. For fitness I pushed myself towards going to the gym, because I didn’t know the new area I was living in very well. But after some self evaluation, I’ve realized that the gym is my last resort to workout if I could be honest. Mostly, because I haven’t educated myself on what works for my body..maybe soon I will. Recently though I introduced Bryan to hiking. He’s the opposite of me, he’s a gym guy and hiking was his last resort because he had never done it. Now that I’m getting more comfortable in my area, I wanted to find a local hike that I can familiarize myself with and can be my go to spot. Since I would be exploring new areas, Bryan agreed to start hiking with me and we’ve been having such a blast!
I think we finally found one, this hike is about 18 mins away from our apartment and it has several different trails to keep you adventuring through different ways on different days. It’s super easy to find and lots of parking around. So, if you’re in the area I would definitely check this one out.
The photos above were the first time we took on this hike, it was rainy, extremely LUSH and we climbed over 2 huge hills as a great workout. Today, pictured below – we started the day a little later so the sun was extra hot, but we were lucky to have a breeze to help us cool down. The hills were yellow and filled high up with mustard plants towering the paths we were walking. We went on a different path than before, this one led us down narrow pathways like this and it was SO COOL! 🙂
I also like to bring my booty band with me to use when I’m going up the hills and even using it to do some arm exercises as we walk. I try to hike one or two times a month, but most days I have loved incorporating workouts at home or the gym at our apartment complex. I’ll share that with you on another post soon. But for now, I hope you enjoyed reading this post and understand why I love hiking so much. I hope it inspires you to go enjoy a morning hike on your next day off. If so, let me know! I’d love to hear where you went!
ps this was my first time wearing shorts on a hike, I wanted to tan my legs to be honest, but learned my lesson to wear pants because the brush made my legs so itchy!
xox, Lex