Let Her Eat Clean

Nothing is more liberating than the great outdoors. I feel free, I feel whole, I feel like me. Nothing makes me happier than being outside.

The ever glorious great outdoors

It’s painfully ironic really given I’ll be the first to admit I’m not one to shun life’s more material (indoor) delights – champagne bars? (the answer is always “yes please”), overpriced green juice from some hipster joint? (offsets the champagne), John Lewis? (actually Mecca), a racing heart the minute I’m dragged into the “I want, I want, I want” vortex that is Pinterest? Oh, I love all that too.

But climbing mountains, pounding coastal paths and the more urban training routes of marathon days gone by make me happy. Really happy.

It’s definitely the freedom – and the fact it costs nothing. Life can sometimes be a bit suffocating but a long walk outside is like one great big oxygen mask from nature bringing relief to both body and mind.

I’ve had some seriously memorable and liberating walks. Boxing Day 2012, Sugar Loaf, to call out just one. Old school friends and my husband. Some of those that know me best. Two days after a rather traumatic incident at home and a Christmas that was a total charade for the sake of my poor Mother that didn’t really feel like my Mother at all anymore. It was foggy at the top. Misty, rubbish for taking in any kind of scenery. But what I lost out on in glorious vistas I made up for in lungfuls of liberating, soothing fresh air.

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Sometimes I pine after London. Its plethora of choices, its diversity, its get up and go. Sometimes I can feel a bit restricted in my new(ish) home in South Wales. But that so quickly changes when I pull on my waterproofs and link arms with friends and family, to take to the mountains (to my left) or the coast (to my right). We’re spoiled really – especially when the John Lewis in Cardiff is better than the one on Oxford Street…

Where’s your happy place? I’d love to hear about it.

Big thanks to Jen from Mum In The Madhouse who tagged me in her #happyplace meme.