Hiking with Winnie!

I hiked Lake Annette (also known as Annette Lake) with Leslie and her new dog, Winnie.  This was the first time I met Winnie and she is absolutely perfect.  I fell in love with her immediately.  Winnie is a year and a half old and Leslie adopted her 16 days ago from a dog shelter.  We don’t know much about Winnie’s life before the adoption, but we do know that she knows some 10 commands and is very obedient, walks wonderfully on a leash, is very shy, spooks easily, is already very attached to Leslie, and most likely had been neglected and abused in her previous home.  She was underweight when adopted, but has already put on 5 lbs. which is good. She is absolutely beautiful and it was a pure joy to hike with her.

When I talk to Winnie, she tilts her head to the side!

Turns out that today was yet another beautiful warm day in Seattle, so the trail to Lake Annette was very crowded with other hikers and their dogs enjoying a sunny Sunday afternoon on a trail one hour away from the city!  We have never seen a trail so crowded!  Winnie did very well with the other dogs on the trail.  She is  sweet and gentle towards other dogs.  Our guess is that she may never have been on a forest hike before.  At the start of the trail, she wanted to smell every rock and tree.

Humpback Creek waterfalls

Annette Lake lies in a cirque, surrounded by mountains.

Winnie has been on running trails and lots of walks with Leslie, but we may have overdone things by bringing her on this 7.5 mile hike, with its 1400 ft. altitude gain.  She did really well, but by the time we got to the car, she was pretty tired out!  Well, so were we!  I am certain that she will sleep really well tonight!

“Can we go HOME now?” Winnie, at the end of the hike, back in the car.

One of my yoga students brings me news articles and interesting magazines.  The other day, he brought me a Canadian natural health and wellness magazine called Alive.  It had some great articles in it.  I liked the article called Top Workout Foods.  For Winnie, pre-work out food consisted of trying to get her to eat some kibble and some chicken jerky.  Her post work-out consisted of a real treat:  turkey slices from Safeway.  She gobbled up the turkey slices.

For humans, according to the article, Top Workout Foods, pre-workout energizers consist of oatmeal (this has a low glycemic index (GI) and people who eat oatmeal three hours before a workout burn almost twice the amount of fat during exercise compared to those who ate a breakfast with a high GI rating!!!) and beets (beets are said to enhance athletic performance because they have nitrates which, when derived from vegetables, increase oxygen delivery to muscles by improving blood flow!).  I read the article before going to bed last night and thought that I should have beets after my workout, so I drank a glass of beet juice after our hike today.  I suppose it doesn’t matter if I had the drink before or after because I love beets and the drink was delicious!

Two more pre-workout energizers are watercress (“packed with health-promoting nutrients and is a surprising source of muscle-building protein”) and watermelon!  According to the article,  ” the amino-acid L-citrulline has pain-alleviating effects and significantly lessens muscle soreness.”

Post-workout re-fuellers consist of, according to the article, chocolate milk (because of its four-to-one ratio of carbohydrates to protein) as studies show ‘runners who drank chocolate milk have a greater skeletal muscle protein synthesis (sign of muscle repair)”.  Too bad I don’t like chocolate milk.  I have a feeling a glass of milk will do the same thing, if you drink milk….Chia seeds are the all new superfood full of nutrients (muscle building protein, calcium, manganese)  that helps with post-workout recovery.  Bananas and Greek yogurt are also at the top of the post-workout recovery food list!

Or you can just have what Winnie had, Safeway turkey slices, and call it a day!