Sam Heughan – Take a walk!

In 2017 I joined My PeakChallenge (shortcut: MPC). According to its founder Sam Heughan, who I also mentioned in a previous blog, My Peak Challenge (founded in 2015) is “A healthy lifestyle and fitness program. It offers a workoutplan and nutritionplan and it is scalable to all levels and abilities. It aims to give our community the support and knowledge to help themselves, whilst helping others. On top of that 50% of the membershipfee goes to Bloodwise for Blood Cancer research.”

My Peak Challenge encourages its members to set a challenge (physical or nonphysical) and while working towards it with help of the program, learn to live a healthier, happier and more balanced life. On a private Facebookpage members, called Peakers, can share their stories, worries, goals and achievements. It’s a safe place to find help, encouragement, inspiration and motivation and give the same in return. Meanwhile 50% of the membershipfee goes to charity and worldwide there are more than 10000 Peakers at this moment!

I mainly joined MPC because of the charity. In 2003 my father died of cancer. One of the 3 forms of cancer he suffered from was a rare type of bloodcancer, so this was, and still is, a perfect way to help raise money for Bloodcancer research.

MPC is a global community. It connects people from all over the world, as I experienced myself. And although I may never meet some of these friends in real life, the friendships are strong!

In many countries Peakers also founded national groups and shortly after I joined MPC I joined the Dutch Peakers in the Netherlands. Little did I know at that time how important this group would become in my life. These past 2 years I participated, together with them, in activities I never would have thought of before and we all stepped out of our comfortzone more than once. We come in different ages and shapes, and from different backgrounds, but we lift eachother up, help, encourage, inspire, motivate and comfort when needed.

And so, while not following the mealplan and workouts on a daily basis, I benefit from MPC in more than one way:

Adjustments to my meals helped me to lose the last few kilo’s I never got rid of before (and they stay off!!)
The workouts, goals, progress and achievements from other Peakers made me realise that I set my own limits, my own goals and that age is just a number!

But best of all: My Peak Challenge enriched my life with a group of women, here and around the globe, who have become more than friends, they are my chosen family!

What started as an hour walk to stay in shape and stay fit after surgery, gradually became longer walks, exploring different parts of my hometown. It’s amazing how much you discover on a walk in a place you live for almost 30 years. Walking not only takes you to different roads, streets and paths than you would normally do by car or bike, but because of the different angles and viewpoints it gives you new and unexpected views! I discovered my hometown and its surroundings in whole new and surprisingly beautyiful way. My appreciation of my hometown has definitely grown!

In June 2018 I watched an episode of The Adventure Show (BBC2) “Take a Hike – The story of Scottish Walking” where host Cameron McNeish, a well known hillwalker and author of “There’s always the hills”, was joined by actor Sam Heughan on a hike in the Scottish Highlands. The two men hiked in winterconditions, showing the beauty of the Highlands, but in this episode Cameron also showed parts of hikes in summerconditions and one of them was The West Highland Way. I had heard of this famous longdistancewalking path in Scotland before, but seeing the fantastic scenery and because of my latest passion, I got completely hooked on the idea of seeing it with my own eyes. My wish and dream of visiting Scotland suddenly revived.

I searched the internet for information and what was necessary to walk the WHW and slowly started making plans to go there myself. My initial plan was to go there and walk the first 3 days of the route, mainly along Loch Lomond, and asked if my brother and sister in law were interested to come with me. Both were, but had to cancel due to important events in the period I wanted to go there. I decided to go anyway, but also started thinking of walking the whole 154 km, instead of a short part now and the following part in another year. Who knows what might happen in between, I might never be able to go back to finish, leaving me with eternal regrets. My hubby, who supported me from the moment I told him about my intention to walk a part of the route, had only one thing to say when I told him about my plan to walk the entire route: “if you think you can, you should do it!”

And so, after our vacation on Crete in September 2018, I told my family I would go to Scotland in 2019 to walk the West Highland Way!