July Outdoor Goal Review for a Healthy Life

July was a month of the outdoors. We explored new areas as a family, started new challenges, and spent over 200 hours outside (including a week of camping). We made a lot of memories and made the most of one of the weirdest summers of all time.

Summer is usually days by the pool and trips to the beach. It is outdoor parties and BBQs with friends, town gatherings, carnivals, and parades. None of that happened this year. This virus could have had me down and missing the best parts of summer but instead, it made me creative and make the most of the things we could do. For my kids, this was enough.

We also started a new family hiking goal during July to try and complete the Catskill 3500 challenge. This consists of hiking up all 35 peaks in the Catskills that are over 3500 feet tall and then climbing 4 of them again in the winter. I had no delusions about how difficult this will be with kids and know that it will be a true test of our parental patience. This is a long term goal that could take us years as we train and work up to hiking all these peaks together. You can follow this journey more closely by following @CaliffLifeCreations on Instagram.

In case you need a reminder of my goals:

Spend an average of 1 hour/day outside with my kids. Setting this as a daily goal motivates me to make an effort every day instead of getting behind and then trying to play catch up. I’m hoping that we will surpass this goal, but for now, I am keeping this as an attainable goal. Plus, I made the goal in the winter and my youngest does NOT enjoy the cold.
Hike/walk the year in miles. That is 2,020 miles during the year, an average of 55 miles/day. I am recording my miles every day to keep track of this.
52 hikes in 52 weeks. This includes the trail runs that I have started to enjoy.

These outdoor goals are helping me on my journey to achieve better mental health after postpartum depression and better physical health. I feel so much better when I am on track so I continue to pursue them. Are you ready to crush some goals?

Goal #1: 1/hour outside every day in July

July’s weather was hot and sunny. It was perfect for playing outside in the mud, drawing with chalk, and sharing a snack or two. Our youngest has been exploding with imaginative play and it was really fun to watch him discover the play grills and other outdoor kitchens that we have outside.

Check out these ideas for “Summer Baths”

We celebrated the fourth of July by spending over 10 hours outside playing in the kiddie pool, buckets of water, slip and slide, and water table. We ate outside and finished the day with sparklers, small fireworks, and chasing fireflies. It was a magical summer day!

In July, we were able to venture out just a little bit and the boys were able to return to one of their favorite nature playgrounds. The garden bloomed and gave us food. We even set up an outdoor movie as a special surprise for our first!

To finish off the month of July, we planned a week camping on the Fire Island National Seashore at Watch Hill. This was our first big family camping trip and took a lot of preparation. We hauled a week’s worth of gear and food on an overloaded boat out to the campground and said goodbye to civilization for a while. I took the boys down to the beach to play while my husband set up camp. By the time we returned there were shade and chairs to sit in! The week was full of long stroller walks on the boardwalk and dirty feet and faces.

Nights weren’t easy as we would all lay in the tent until the boys finally wore themselves out enough to fall asleep. Then my husband and I arranged ourselves and went to sleep. We slept and woke with the sun and enjoyed each other’s company.

The boys loved digging in the sand and dirt. Looking back on the photos I smile at the look of pure joy on their faces. The days were full of simple entertainment and family love.

A simple camping activity for fine motor skills for kids — **Tip: This is a simply fine motor activity that both kids loved. We collected small rocks on the beach and then they put them into water bottles. kept them entertained for a while!**

Beach camping wouldn’t be right without trips to the water! We walked back and forth a million times and the kids had so much fun chasing birds and swimming. Although we did go to the ocean a few times, the waves were a bit too strong for our little guys so we mostly played on the beach by the bay. It was much calmer there and I was able to finally use my paddleboard! The boys even rode it with me.

The trip ended with an intense thunderstorm rolling through overnight and destroying our pop-up tent. We lost a couple of stakes for the tent and my husband had to run out a few times to secure it. In the end, we huddled together and rode out the storm in the tent. Early the next morning, we packed up in the rain and took the ferry back to Long Island to catch a ride home. It wasn’t the ending we had planned and cut the trip short by one day but it was worth it and we had a great time making incredible family memories.

Total time outside for the month: 215 hours

Daily Average for the month: 6 hours 56 minutes

Total time outside for the year: 651 hours

Daily Average for the year: 3 hours 3 minutes

Goal #2: Hike/Run/Walk 2,020 miles.

While camping, I had to walk my youngest around in the stroller for long periods to get him to take a nap. We also walked did a few boardwalk hikes there and big hikes back at home that did a lot for my milage during July. I am still looking to push myself harder as I did decrease the amount that I was running. It feels like a lot of my mileage is done at home marching in place since I don’t have a treadmill. Maybe I should get myself a mini stair stepper to kick it up a notch when I am resorting to getting my miles done at home.

Daily Average for month: 6.7 miles

Total Miles Walked this month: 206 miles

Total Miles Walked in the year: 1258/2020

Goal #3: 52 Hikes in 52 Weeks

We got truly inspired by our hiking in July. This included a couple of larger trips to some of the woods north of where we live and deciding to take on the Catskill 3500 challenge. As things are starting to open up a little more in New York we have been venturing out and expanding our horizons. We even found a few friends to go on both short and long hikes with.

Most of our hikes in July were short and easy hikes. They were more about exploring along the trail than getting to a destination. Sometimes these hikes are the best since my kids get more freedom to wander and discover.

Bash Bish Falls

After that, we decided to check out Bash Bish Falls as a family. It was a cool 3 miles hike from the Taconic State Park parking lot we set out from. The first section was easy hiking and beautiful through the woods. There was nobody in this section which made it even more magical. Then, we reached the official trailhead for Bash Bish Falls and encountered a lot more people. The kids thought it was cool how we hiked from New York into Massachusettes and then stood in awe of the beautiful falls we found at the end of the trail.

Slide Mountain

It was after that hike that we decided we could take on the Catskill 3500 and we started planning it. We ordered trail maps from NYNJ Trail Conference and researched which peaks were easier hikes to start with. I spoke to many people who have completed the challenge (including a family who did it with 4-year-old twins and a 6-month-old) and planned for Slide Mountain to be our first. We ended up hiking through the clouds to get to the summit and didn’t have any views but we did it and I’m looking forward to planning the next one.

Fire Island National Seashore

You know that if we are camping we will find some hikes! Beach hiking is very different and the trails that we did were all boardwalk so it is easy walking but the views are amazing. The longest hike was from our campground to Davis Park and back. It was a really beautiful hike and a fun way to get out of the area.

The Watch Hill campground also has a nature trail that is about a 3/4 mile loop of boardwalk through trees and along the salt marsh of Fire Island. I honestly lost count of how many times we did this hike so I only counted it once in my overall. The most memorable time was definitely when we sat to watch the sunset as a family.

Total Hikes this month: 7

Progress Toward Goal: 27/52

Mental and Physical Health July Check-In

The garden is still a large part of my sanity. I love to just lose myself in there and feel so in touch with myself after spending time there. It is starting to give us more food but as I write this I’m nervous for both my tomato and cucumber plants that took a beating with extreme heat and then a storm blowing them over.

My anxiety seems like it is something that won’t go away but I have learned how to push through and deal with it. I usually can slow down, take some deep breaths, and calm myself. Sometimes I’ll use some essential oils to promote a calm feeling as well. The other thing that works for me is to dance and sing! I crank the music up and sing at the top of my lungs. Take that anxiety!

Physically, I’m pretty much at my peak. It was such a slow process that I didn’t even really notice how good of shape I’ve gotten into. The hardest part was getting started. Now, I feel out of whack if I don’t get my workouts in or if I sit for too long without walking somewhere. It has become a part of my life and that makes it so much easier to keep going.