On my last day of my Health Adventure Immersion at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, I stepped outside my rim view cabin and walked nearby to Bright Angel point!  The clouds from the previous day’s rain were gone. The sky was fully blue and the canyons were alive with colors that only the eye can see.  

Did I really just hike 24 miles across the Grand Canyon?  I DID and I feel amazing!  I was still a bit sore but my muscles were loosening up quickly.  

I feel accomplished, content and relaxed to know that I am healthy enough to do this at 60 years YOUNG.  I am choosing to live my life as an Adventure.   

I changed my health from asthmatic with sore knees and 225lbs to asthma-free & pain-free and weighing 125lb by living a holistic, low carb lifestyle.  

I had struggled with my health and weight for my whole life and this hike was nothing compared to the agony of feeling hopeless to change my weight & health.

This hike was nothing compared to the emotional pain I experienced the first half of my life.  

This is why I hike the Grand Canyon every couple of years.  I would do it yearly if I had more time freedom–so I will make that happen. I feel at home here and content.   This is what I visualize when I practice my Abundance activation.

This is my pain-to-passion story and I am crying as I write this because it moves me so much, motivates me and gives me so much pleasure in my heart and soul.  It has given me my life purpose.  Now I am here to motivate and inspire you to choose health.

I hiked the Grand Canyon from 5am at the North Kaibab trail at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to 7:15pm at the South Rim along Bright Angel Trail–just over 12 hours. It rained lightly the first 5 miles off and on and then again near the Indian Gardens.  

I saw others walking faster, some jogging and a lot of hikers passed me but this was my health journey and not a race.  We are all in our own life challenges here in the grandest canyon of them all.  

This can be a test of courage.  This is also a test of strength. This can be a test to choose health and live life to the fullest.   This is where my journey started 8 years ago.

On this hike, I barely rested.  I had a few bites to eat and drink and breathe.  I sat down at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon  with a $6 cold, iced coffee (hat I was grateful for) for 15 minutes, restroom breaks (lol) and for 5 minutes at Indian Gardens to consume a Keto Sustain meal pack while trying to stay out of the rain.  My goal was to get across close to dark.  

I missed this by half an hour!  My headlamp came out at the first tunnel hiking up along the mile and a half section of the trail.  And I missed my hiking friend who came down from the rim in sandals and a brand new jacket (as her clothes had been soaked) to greet me and help me celebrate my 60th birthday.  But it was dark!  And it was cold.

This may have been because of the beautiful canyon kept beckoning for another photo I just had to take.  A cloud bank kept approaching and dispersing and I wondered if it would completely obscure the trail.  It dispersed.  But the beauty was too much for me and I took another photo.  The sunset was glorious.  I missed being greeted by my friend by 5 minutes, but we met up for dinner!

This is why we who hike put up with the pain, the difficulty and the discomfort.  This is why we come back.  There is so much joy here to gather into our hearts and souls.

This is afterall a journey of discovery of who we are, what we can accomplish and becoming stronger, body and mind to accomplish a great challenge and feel alive.  

I didn’t have much pain on this hike but my right knee was sore after 20 miles of the punishing Up and down steps with a backpack that weighed more than I am used to.  (My core was challenged this day and I realized I need to focus more on strength training.)   

I wasn’t the only one trying to avoid the tall step-ups, going around to the edges that were less steep.  I wasn’t the only one using my poles to help pull me up!  The holes in the ground above the steps were proof of that!

So I took some ibuprofen.  I contemplated that there were probably very few people who didn’t have some type of pain on this hike through the canyon.  I didn’t need to feel weak for this temporary pain.

I look back now less than a week later and my body is fine. No pain or discomfort. 

I look back and feel I may have walked slower than a lot of people on the trail but I finished the hike with enthusiasm and feeling strong. 

I completed this milestone hike!  

The 1st and 2nd night after the hike,  I had no pain in my body while resting. No aches, no mineral imbalances causing leg cramps. 

I was fully dialed into my body and lifestyle. 

So with excitement I got up to see the view of the canyon from the Bright Angel Point. 

Two others were there and we were happy to just be there and chatting. 

On the way back, I sat for a while on a stone and just soaked in the view. It felt right and I knew I would come back again. 

This Canyon has been my healing journey from pain to passion. It is in my heart.

When I first started hiking this Canyon 8 years ago, I had knee pain from the moment I started walking down the 1st mile along Bright Angel Trail.  (This is the challenge for all of us.)

It was excruciating pain. 

Now I go back each year or 2 and hike and there is no pain.  It is gone. 

I am stronger in body and mind each time. 

So for me this has been a way to document my healing journey. 

A way for me to remember how it was. How hard it used to be. And how much easier it is now.

There is a saying, “Do the hard now so life is easier later.”  Changing your lifestyle to be healthier now and losing weight now is easier than having to live with a disease and continued obesity.  

You can not get time back.  And I remember how i lost out on quality life in my 30s & 40s

For me the hike wasn’t easy but it also wasn’t technically hard.  Overall, it’s the excitement in the moment that just propels you to finish.   Afterall, once you descend you do have to ascend! lol

We who hike, hike because it’s exciting to be in all the grandeur of the canyon amongst all the energy that radiates. To be in nature and all its glory.  My friend Linda has been my hiking companion.  In all her pain, she tackles the challenge with courage and hikes.  

Hiking the Grand Canyon is an event to feel alive, to be excited about living and to come out the other side stronger!  It is courageous even in pain and worry of the success to be had.  

This is about living life to the fullest and living life as a health adventure.  (see the slide show below)

I didn’t start out healthy. I had to build my health through a lot of heartache, determination and perseverance. I had to be different.  And I felt alone.  

I had to do the work, read, study and apply holistic, functional nutrition and see what worked for my body.  And it did.  I got my life back.

I am successfully healing, growing and becoming stronger daily. 💪

I am successfully keeping the weight off after finally being down 100lbs!🔥

And I will be back here again in 2025 and I am hoping to stay a night at the Ranch. 

Life is what we make it. What we can create. Life isn’t always easy. That which is rewarding takes effort. Yes this hike was hard but life is hard.  

Life is also what we make of it.  We can be positive or negative.  We can choose health or not.  We can feel abundant or lack minded and a victim.  

This is also how I see weight loss and living a holistic, low carb weight loss lifestyle. 

I call my lifestyle “Aging Adventurously” and my VIP program is “Aging Beautifully” because you will!  For the first time in my life I actually feel beautiful in my body.  This is my success story and no more will someone ask me, “when will I lose the weight.”

I have come to understand that weight loss isn’t about dieting but about changing to a holistic, low carb lifestyle which then gives you permanent weight loss.  I’ve lost more than double the 100lbs I am down.  But this is the scale weight and it is my successful lifestyle results that for me will be permanent weight loss.  Truly 100lbs down.

I have learned and understand how to live a holistic, low carb weight loss lifestyle and Aging Adventurously is that lifestyle.  Now as a Certified FDN Practitioner, I guide women with FDN principles, diagnostics labs and holistic, low carb lifestyle management to successful weight loss and health rebuilt.   

I’ve come out of the fire, bronzed, determined to be successful as a woman and an entrepreneur.  This is my superpower.  Hiking is my life’s blood.  

Now I guide women to understand and be empowered with nature, sunlight, grounding and to use Health Adventure Immersions to inspire and motivate them for a successful weight loss lifestyle, reverse aging.  Like…

…my friend Pia who has chosen the Grand Canyon health adventure journey (2020) as well, with sore knees, determination and finally success as she lost 50lbs and turned off the pain of inflammation and now hikes in Sweden pain free.  I am ever grateful to know my journey has encouraged my best  friend and continues to encourage others to make the lifestyle changes needed for better health and weight loss to Aging Beautifully and Adventurously.

My client Stacey, has chosen Zion and will be ready to hike Sedona and the Grand Canyon with me in 2025.  There is no holding back a soul on fire for freedom from the pain of obesity.  Another superpower of mine–I did it and I’ve got your back!”

My journey started from pain but has become my purpose and passion in my life and my brand, Lori Balue Aging Adventurously!  I hope to see you at the Grand Canyon as we walk the rim, spy the Condors soaring, feeling abundant and feeling the contentedness of being on a Health Adventure and thriving.  You’ve got this!