01.13.10: Help Haiti

As I write millions in Haiti are awaiting help after a devastating earthquake rocked the region. Countless are dead.

Please take a moment to Donate to the Red Cross International Relief Fund to get aid to Haiti, takes less time than buying coffee. https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?4306.donation=form1&idb=991405240&df_id=4306

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

I just wanted to share that I finished 2009 with a trek up Kilimanjaro for AIDS orphans. It was an amazing finish to my year of taking on a physical event for charity each month.

I raised more than $10,000 for charities and dropped several pounds. Most importantly, I feel more empowered about me and the world around me.

I wanted to share that my story will be featured in the February edition of Redbook (out the last week of January).

Also I would like to invite you to my upcoming speaking engagements:
7 p.m. Jan. 14 at REI in East Hanover, NJ
7 p.m. Feb. 19 at Green Mountain Club Headquarters, Waterbury Center, VT

So what's up for 2010? I will be taking on just one challenge for charity -- The Warrior Dash Sept. 18 at Windham Resort, NY (Charity TBA) so I may focus on my family and my book project.

Wishing you an incredible and inspiring year to come!
www.fatwomanonthemountain.com

Successful Trek Up and Down Kili

Just wanted to let you know I made it up to Hans Meyer Cave on Kilimanjaro -- and back down safely. I will leave Africa tonight. It was a successful hike, having raised more than $5,000 for AIDS orphans....

12/13/09: A Year in the Making

I started to get nervous -- really nervous -- about the challenge ahead of me. Five and a half days up, one and a half days down Mount Kilimanjaro. While there is a greater cause at hand -- Global Alliance for Africa's AIDS orphans programs -- it is still going to be crazy hard.

Then I started to think about how every moment of this year -- all the other 11 Save the World Diet challenges have prepared me for this moment.
-- January: The Midnight Run For UNICEF, which was held on a night with 40-mile-an-hour wind gusts prepared me to brave the elements.
-- February: The Penguin Plunge for Special Olympics Vermont taught me to be a little crazy, and how to survive when cold and wet.
-- March: Walk MS taught me courage as I participated in honor of my friend Marilyn's brave journey back after a massive MS episode.
-- April: The Revolution Run for the National Parks Foundation allowed me to appreciate and honor nature at Valley Forge, Pa.
-- May: The Flying Pig Marathon, which benefited dozens of charity, taught me to put one foot in front of the other no matter what.
-- June: The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Shenandoah hike, which I hiked in honor of a friend who had Hodgkin's Lymphoma, taught me humility as I took a tumble off the trail, and had to pull myself back up to hike with the group.
-- July: The Mount Trashmore YMCA 5K, taught me that I have a terrific family behind me. My daughter participated in her first Tot Trot.
-- August: The 5K Beach Challenge Austism Speaks taught me that sometimes it is good to get out and relax.
-- September: The American Heart Association's Start Heart Walk reminded me it is never too late to get going in the direction of good health.
-- October: The Tour De Pink showed me the strength of survival as I rode alongside young breast cancer survivors.
-- November: The Goodwill Rescue Mission 5K taught me to share with my neighbors.
And so now, on Dec. 13, I am indeed ready for the challenge ahead of me. It has been a year in the making.

Please make a donation on behalf of my effort at:
www.globalallianceafrica.org/personal/savetheworlddiet
Thank you!

12.12.09: Almost there

I started out this year saying I would take on a physical event for charity each month of 2009. I have done 11 challenges so far.

Tomorrow I start #12 -- the Kilimanjaro hike for Global Alliance for Africa's AIDS orphans programs.

In a way, I have already had a successful climb. I have raised funds more than $5,000 to date and awareness for the issue of AIDS orphans. I have shared the needs of these 18 million kids who need fresh water, a chance.

So Twende! (Swahili for "Let's Go!)

11.21.09: Slowly, Slowly

Weight loss is kind of like hiking up a mountain. It is hard, slow-going but if you keep moving forward eventually you'll get there.

In fact, when I am hiking up Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, to benefit AIDS orphans, the slower, the better.

It is a wedding march pace to the 19,343 foot peak and if you start to break stride, the guides will tell you, "Pole, Pole." Swahili for "Slowly, Slowly." That is because the air is so thin that you have hike slow, to let your body adjust to the altitude.

I have been swallowing a lot of self doubt this week, wishing I had lost more weight this year to prepare for my Kilimanjaro trip. (If only I had cut out those cookies!)

But then I realized, I just have to keep moving forward, and stay focused on the bigger picture. I had a great training hike up Mount Tammany at the Delaware Water Gap with my family. I really do feel stronger with each step.

Slowly, slowly and eventually I will get there.

Please help me support AIDS orphans. My goal is to raise $10K for Global Alliance for Africa's AIDS orphans programs by World AIDS Day:

http://www.globalallianceafrica.org/personal/savetheworlddiet
(We are about 1/3 there -- checks and pledges don't show up on the website)
Thank you!

11.18.09: Labor Of Love

When I hiked up Kilimanjaro in 2007, a fellow climber had said to me that climbing the mountain is like childbirth. You don't remember how painful it is until you are actually doing the hike a second, or third time.

Two climbers, who had reached the summit during their first climb, didn't make it up the second or the third time.

Then there is the altitude. You could be in terrific shape but succumb to altitude sickness, even it didn't cause a whiff of trouble the first time around.

Unlike my other Save the World Diet challenges, there will be no sweep bus, no sag wagon to pick me up if I can't make it to the top. It is just me and my feet.

So I am pushing hard -- in this labor of love -- training as much as possible to make it up the mountain a second time for kids who need help.

Please help me raise $10K for AIDS orphans by World AIDS Day (Dec. 1)

http://www.globalallianceafrica.org/personal/savetheworlddiet