A family emergency took me away from the computer for some time, to Phoenix where my grandfather, aunt, and some cousins live. While there, I was reminded how incredible a hike can be when I climbed Camelback Peak - 45 minutes of extremely steep uphill terrain, if you keep up a fairly decent pace.

Not only did the climb motivate me to step up my fitness routine - my entire body was sore afterwards - but it gave me some joy in an often difficult weekend. It’s wonderful to be with family, of course, but difficult when sickness is the reason.

Anyway, whatever your challenges, I highly recommend plotting a weekend excursion that will push your body to the limit — and enjoy every minute!

A couple announcements:

• I’ll be shifting from everyday M-F posting to approximately M-W-F for the time being.
• Coming soon: Updates on my fitness journey, an abundance of kitchen-tested soup recipes, and a series on yoga!
• If you haven’t discovered the joys of an RSS reader such as Bloglines to manage your online reading, I highly recommend it — that way you don’t have to check back looking for new posts, they’ll simply pop up in your reader. Try it!