Since my first post last month I have undergone some major transformations in my life. In the past 2 months I have switched jobs and begun to reintegrate exercise and healthy eating into my life. While the weight has not begun to come off just yet, I feel that I have now created a more conducive environment to focus on my health.  Below I have gone into detail about several aspects of my life that have changed to help accommodate a more healthy and sustainable lifestyle. 

My Job
When I started this blog, I was working at a top notch digital marketing agency in the silicon slopes. Anyone who who has worked in a marketing agency know that this is not an environment suitable for living a balanced and healthy lifestyle. This fast paced job was filled with lightning quick deadlines and mountains of stress. While I loved the work, it never seemed sustainable over the long hall.  While I was not aggressively looking for another job, I came across an incredible opportunity with a Tech Startup called The Blogger Network. After meeting with several of TBN's partners I realized that the opportunity was too good to pass up. After being offered a position as Director of Marketing I realized that the switch fell in line with my goals and was a great opportunity to progress my career. . 

Having now been with the company for more that a month, I am confident that I have made the right decision to pursue this opportunity.

Integrating Health
Along with this new job has come several opportunities to begin integrating more physical activity into my life. The first step was simple. Get back into the gym! Luckily we have an incredible gym across the street from our office. This has made it so easy to make working out part of my daily routine. 

The second major change is waking up early again. When I was more fit I would be out of bed by 5:00am allowing me to get a head start on the rest of the world. By 9am I had already competed several hours of work. This gave me a huge advantage in the workplace. Not only did this make me more productive but also reduced my levels of stress. by accomplishing tasks early I was able to feel a great sense of accomplishment early by noon. 

Find That Thing!
Everyone has something in there life that is there major stress reducer. For some it is playing video games and for others it is reading. My stress reducer is getting into the mountains. While this is not possible for everyone I am fortunate enough to live a 15 min from 4 of the best ski resorts in the world. At least once a week a make sure to go up into the mountains for a couple of hours. 

The mountains help to put life into perspective. When I see the grand ice encrusted peaks stretching into the heavens I am reminded of the insignificance of my problems in life. There are so many forces at work that extend far beyond the reach of our lives. The mountains remind me of this.

     After months of research and reading I decided to try my first mountain.Slide Mountain is located in the Catskills mountains in Upstate New York. This small mountain with only couple thousand feet of vertical altitude gain was a perfect spot to begin my pursuit of mountaineering. Despite only being a 6 or 7 hour hike, it was an amazing experience. My father and summited around noon and returned to the car several hours later. Hiking and mountaineering were a great way for my father and I to spend time together. Eventually this shared passion led us to Mt. Kilimanjaro otherwise known as the summit of Africa.

​     Although my passion for mountain climbing was new, my love for the outdoors goes back to my early childhood. I was very fortunate growing up to travel to some of the most amazing destination on the planet. My parents took my sister and I to different exotic places all over the globe. Looking back, the moment that I really fell in love with the outdoors was in Alaska. For my fathers 40th birthday the four of us spent a week traveling around the wild state followed by a week cruise through the inside passage ending in Vancouver. During our time in Denali National Park we were improperly booked on a 7 hour wildlife bus tour. As you can imagine my parents must have been freaking out going on such a long tour with two small children. During that tour I fell in love with the awesome and wild landscape. We saw more than 35 grizzly bears at close range. Although we never saw Denali the mountains that were visible were still many times larger than any mountain that I had ever seen in my life. As strange as it may sound I felt at peace in this harsh and unforgiving landscape. There was something about the rawness of it all that was so enticing. But more on this trip later.

     Over the years I have been on a host of trips and expeditions around the globe. My travels have brought me from Glaciers In Africa to Shark Diving in the South Pacific. Each trip has changed my perspective and taught me many lessons about life and how it should be lived. However over the past 3 years I have let my struggles with physical fitness get the best of me. I have made several half hearted attempts to get this area of my life under control. Expedition Health is more than just a blog. It is an opportunity to travel the world as I regain my fitness. My hope with this blog is that I can inspire others to regain control of their health and show them how improving your fitness allows you to experience the worlds most amazing places.