150 – Climbing Mountains and No Regrets
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Highlights from today’s show…
- She’s back! Yoko is live on today’s show.
- Dave & Yoko talk about what is was like to summit two 14ers!!
- Dave gives you some homework that will change your life! Can you do it?
It’s Dr. Dave here and welcome back to another episode of The David Madow Lifestyle Show. This is the show where I help you live stronger, thinner, healthier, and happier. I am in my outdoor studio today as usual but today my outdoor studio is in Breckenridge, Colorado.
If you are a long time follower, listener or friend, you know how much I love Breckenridge. Not only how much I love it here in Colorado but my guest today loves it as well. It’s been a long time since I have had this person on my show. She used to be kind of a co-host but I don’t know, it sort of faded away a little bit. It’s my wife, Yoko. We’ve had a lot of requests for Yoko to come back on the show. So I am glad she is on the show right now and there’s a reason she’s here. I am not bring her on just to have her. There’s a reason. And the reason is because today outside of Breckenridge, we summited 2 “14ers”. If you are not sure what a 14er is a mountain that has an altitude or a summit that is over fourteen thousand feet. Colorado has a lot of them. I think at least 30-40. I am not sure of the exact number.Today we did two of them, Mt. Cameron and Mt. Lincoln.
Be sure to follow my LIVE daily broadcasts on Periscope at www.periscope.tv/davidmadow.
There is a technicality here, I will tell ya. Technically, mountaineers do not consider Mt. Cameron a 14er. It has to do with the amount of distance between the saddle of the two mountains and the altitude of the summit but we’re not going to get into that. Let me tell you, when you summit both Mt. Cameron and Mt. Lincoln in one day, we consider that you did two 14ers.
So I want to bring her on. First of all I want to congratulate you. It’s an incredibly invigorating day when you wake up at 3am to get out of bed, have breakfast, and pack up your stuff. To get to the trailhead by about 6am because storms in Colorado in the summer roll in and you want to be off the peaks before any kind of electrical storms come in or you could be in big trouble. So when you are climbing mountains in Colorado in the summer, you have to be very careful. You have to watch the weather and the time of the day.
Dr. Dave: “Yoko, I want to congratulate you for helping me. We did two of them today. It’s evening now. We got back, took a little nap, and got something to eat. We are in our outdoor studio right now. So how do you feel?”
Yoko: “I feel wonderful. Very very good. I mean, the first time we did 14ers was Quandary Mountain 3 or 4 years ago. It was a little difficult for me because of the altitude. My body had never ever been at 14,000 feet so towards the end I was out of breath. Just maybe ten steps and then I have to rest, and then ten steps, and I have to rest. But this time I wasn’t like that. I kind of kept going. It feels good.”
Dr. Dave: “You were like a machine. It’s hard to explain what you feel if you’ve never hiked a 14er. By the way, here is something I recommend on my show. Pick an extreme activity whether it’s a marathon, a half marathon, or maybe your first 5K. Pick something with a goal in mind. Train for it and do it. It does not have to be a 14er. Just something that you’ve got on the calendar that you know you’re gonna do. What it does is force you to train for this.
Now, as Yoko said, several years ago we did our very first 14er and it was very very difficult. Number 1, it’s difficult to hike up a steep mountain. But when you are hiking up a mountain at 14,000 feet, there’s not a lot of air up there. Sometimes if you’re not acclimated you are just gasping for air. Your heart and your muscles need oxygen so it’s difficult. It was very challenging. Yoko, as you said a few years ago when we did Quandary, it was difficult and we had to stop every ten steps maybe and take a breath. Today, now that you feel you’re more trained and acclimated to the area, it’s just a totally different feeling?”
Yoko: “Yeah, totally different feeling because last year we did Mt. Democrat and them Mt. Cameron. So we couldn’t do Mt. Lincoln. So this year I really wanted to summit Mt. Lincoln which we have to pass Mt. Cameron on. We have been here a little over one week but since Dave had to work I just tried to walk, hike, and tried to go up the mountain. I trained for it. I prepared. Once it’s in my mind, I’m going to do it. Like Dave said, I know I want to do it. So then I want to do it comfortably. So that means if today I feel lazy, but I can’t be because I have a goal ahead. I know I should do something. That was my motivation for a while.”
Dr. Dave: “And we did it! We had a goal, we had it on the calendar, we knew we were going to do this, and guess what? We summited two mountains today! So again, you might be sitting on the sofa right now or you might be in your car driving right now and you’re thinking; you know, I need to get out there and do something kind of cool and should really challenge myself so what should some of the things be? I know a lot of people that do these multi-day bike rides. Most of them are for charity. A lot of people sign up for marathons or half-marathons. And of course triathlons, but that’s pretty extreme. You don’t have to do something that extreme. But the most important thing is to just come up with something as a goal, get it on the calendar, and train for it.”
Yoko: “And also I was just thinking. Why am I doing this? Why? Because I love it! I just want to do what I love. Of course, sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to but life is only one time. For me, I don’t want to regret anything in my life. So that’s my motivation too! In my head, I’m thinking oh I want to do this. I do it.”
Dr. Dave: “Yeah, so that’s a really good point. If you do something and you’re not loving it, you’re not going to continue it. One of the things we love is hiking and climbing mountains. And I just want to describe a little bit about what the day was like. My alarm went off around 3am. So I got up and made some breakfast. Hung around and packed up our stuff. By 5am, we are out the door in the car driving to the trailhead of the mountain which took about 50 minutes. We got to the trailhead and it was just getting light. We started to hike up the mountain. It took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to reach the saddle, which is a concave area in between two mountains. When you reach the saddle, there’s some pretty serious hiking and then you have one final big climb up to the summit. So it started to rain a little and the rocks were getting a tiny bit wet and we saw the clouds rolling in. But we wanted to do this so we summited Mt. Cameron. It got to the point where I just decided I was going to get there. I put one foot in front of the other even if I am tired or if it’s hard to breathe. There were time when I took maybe five to ten steps and then I stopped and just rested for a few seconds. And then took five or ten more steps because you just have to keep doing it. Keep plugging away. We got to the top of Mt. Cameron and then Mt. Lincoln. We hung out there for a few minutes. We ate some. We didn’t really spend a lot of time eating lunch. Yoko was freezing! So we did a Periscope broadcast from the top of Mt. Cameron.
As we started coming down, the rain started rolling in. And we’re hiking down a 14er. Picture this. It’s very very rocky and there’s a lot of scree (a mass of small loose stones). As it’s raining, and the rain is coming down harder and harder, it’s getting more dangerous and more slippery. We have hiking poles but you have to watch every step. One slip on a rock could mean a very serious injury. You have to be very careful. Our last 15 minutes down the mountain, it’s raining really hard. I didn’t have true rain gear on. We both had rain jackets but by the time we got down to the car we were pretty darn wet. Not only that but you have to be very careful because of hypothermia. If we were in the middle of nowhere and we weren’t prepared, hypothermia can set in and we could get really chilled. It could be a very dangerous situation.
All in all it turned out to be an incredible day. At the end of the day I looked at Yoko and said, Yoko I had a great day today. It was just so much fun. And she looked at me and said the same thing. It was a blast. I encourage you to get out there. Do something cool!
We happen to love Colorado. One of the reasons we love it is because we walk almost everywhere. I wear a Fitbit and on an average day I take at least 15,000 steps. We walk to the grocery store if we want to get something to eat. We walk everywhere. We walk on trails. It’s just a really really healthy lifestyle here. And Yoko loves it too. It doesn’t have to be Colorado. It doesn’t have to be a particular area. Wherever you are you can do something. You can move your body.
You can also eat well. Yoko and I both eat a vegan diet. We’re totally plant based. We don’t eat any meat, any fish, anything that comes from an animal. I think that’s really helped out lifestyle over the past several years and we just feel great. The first time we summited Mt.Quandary I don’t think we were vegan at that point. I don’t remember but I don’t think we were vegan at that point and I noticed a difference. We’re getting older. We’re all getting older. But as the years go on, I am finding it easier to summit these 14,000 foot mountains and I think that a lot of it has to do with being plant based and not having these toxins in my body. Maybe it’s just my imagination, I feel so much better. But I don’t think it’s my imagination because whenever I go in for a physical I get great reports. And a lot of it has to do with being vegan.
So Yoko as we are walking here and looking around we see the mountains in the background. Why is it that you love Colorado so much?”
Yoko: “Why?”
Dr. Dave: “Why do you love Colorado? What is it about Colorado that you love so much that it’s like a lifechanger?”
Yoko: “Hmmmmm. I don’t know. I love everything.”
[both laughing]
“Well first of all summer is not humid. It is so comfortable. Of course sometimes it get a little hot. But since it’s dry, it’s good for exercise. I feel that with this weather I have to move my body. Sometimes I am very weak with humidity and hot temperature. So once it gets hot in Maryland I feel like I can’t move my body. But here I want to move my body. And also of course in winter I just love skiing. I love skiing on the mountains. I just want to be there. Also this sounds a little weird but I feel a connection here. It could be my previous life. I don’t know. Deep deep inside my body and my heart something is telling me this is my place. That’s what I feel here. I love it here!”
Dr. Dave: “So I am going to give you some homework. AS Yoko said she feels a real connection here. I do too! We love the mountains. I am looking up at them now. It’s evening and we’ve had clouds coming in. Your homework is to close your eyes. And you can do this right now. You can do this while you are listening to Yoko and I. Imagine yourself being somewhere. It doesn’t have to be on a mountain. Maybe you love the water. Maybe you love the ocean or maybe you love to be on a river or on a lake. Maybe you love the desert. Wherever it is. Just close your eyes and think about where you want to be.
Because let me tell you something. Life goes quickly. It goes really quickly. I cannot remember the number of times I have had people come up to me and say Dave you are so lucky. You get to do all these cool things. You get to go to Colorado. You get to do this, you get to do that. And I respond the same way every time. No, I’m not lucky. I plan my life out. There are things that I want to do that are very important to me and there are things that are important to Yoko and we plan our lives. We make it a point to put things on the calendar. We do things. Maybe you don’t have enough money to go to the mountains right now. Maybe you don’t have enough money to go to the ocean right now. But if you put it on the calendar and you make it a point to save up some money maybe it’s next year. But let me tell you something, life goes too fast and you have got to act on it. Too many people I know sit back and say I wish I would have done _______ or I never got to do ________. And then one day you are going to be too old. You are going to look back and say you know something Dr. Dave was right. I should have done that. I should have tried it. So I am urging you to please do it.
Mountains are our thing. We love coming here. As Yoko said we love skiing and winter sports here. We love hiking in the summer and stand up paddle boarding. Believe it or not they have a large lake around here where you can do it. At Lake Dillon you can do kayaking, canoeing, stand up paddle boarding, and boating. It’s incredible! So we love it here. But again maybe you love something even more. So just imagine what that is. I urge you to do it. And please put something on the calendar. Whether it’s a trip like this or it’s hiking. Maybe you want to hike a 14er? Maybe you want to try that. With some training, you’ll be able to do it. Trust me it will be something you will never ever forget in your life. Yoko what do you think?”
Yoko: “I just want to say whatever you love and whatever you do, just don’t regret you life. Never ever. So just think about what your life is. 10 years later, if I don’t do this right now am I going to regret it? That’s my thinking always. So of course if I want to do something, it costs money. But if I have a goal in my mind, I will always save money like not going out with friends, not buying clothes. My thinking is please don’t regret anything in your life and be happy. I feel very lucky and I think Dave too. We are fortunate. If we think we are lucky and we appreciate our lives, more good things will come to you. It’s good to feel like you are lucky and appreciate everything I have right now.”
Dr. Dave: “So again your homework is two things. Get something on the calendar, not an extreme event, but something that’s going to cause you to train for something. Whether it’s your first 5K run or whether it’s a marathon or whether it’s hiking a 14er, anything like that. The second thing I want you to do is to close your eyes and imagine yourself somewhere, whether it’s in the mountains, whether it’s at the ocean, whether it’s something you’ve dreamed of being, or whether it’s just something you feel very connected to. I want you to go there. Maybe it won’t be for 2 years. Maybe you’ve got to cut down on some things. Like Yoko said she cuts down on buying clothes and things like that because we live a pretty minimalistic lifestyle so that we can travel all over the place and do some of the things that we do. So we don’t buy a lot of clothes. We don’t have a lot of things in our lives. We don’t need things. We don’t need clutter. This is what life is all about. So I am going to leave you with that. Thank you so much for listening. It’s Dr. Dave.”
Yoko: “And Yoko!”
Dr. Dave: “And I will see you next time. If you want to hear Yoko more on the show, send me an email to my new email address at dave@davidmadow.com or message me on Facebook and let me know. She’s with me a lot and we can certainly do more shows together if you want. Until next time, see you later!”
Yoko: “Bye bye”
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