First weekend of 2016 offers outdoor opportunities

How many pounds did you pack on over the last few weeks? How many oh-just-one-mores did you indulge? And how many dollars did you lavish on all that?

Well, good morning and welcome to the rest of your life. Feeling a little grossed out by what came before? Hey, fuhgeddaboudit. Shed the remorse and look to the future. Check out our tips for a healthy first weekend of 2016 — setting the pace for a whole new healthier you in the new year. It’s no sweat!

Or maybe it’s lots of sweat. Depends on just how hard you want to hit that new life of yours.

Robust in Ridgefield

The town that time didn’t really forget proves it during its latest First Saturday event on Jan. 2. These monthly celebrations of what sweet, rustic Ridgefield has to offer started up last year — worshipping spring flowers in May, fireworks in July, migrating birds in October — but this is the first festival to be focused entirely on you and your bod.

What could be more timely than a Health and Fitness Festival? Hurry on down to Davis Park by 10 a.m. Saturday for a 10-kilometer fun run/walk hosted by Get Bold Events. There’ll be a warm-up session led by Dessie Brice of Tailored Fitness, a Ridgefield personal training business.

Or, head for the Ridgefield Community Center, which will be fitness central throughout the day. Ongoing classes will include yoga, Zumba, cardio fitness, jump rope, running and even hand drumming. Focus on building a groove and you’ll find you’ve worked up a musical sweat without even noticing.

There’ll be healthy cooking and eating demonstrations. The year-round farmers market will be in the building for a change. Clark County Parks and Recreation will be distributing information about local parks and trails. Meanwhile, a display by the Ridgefield Arts Association surely will be good for your mental health.

Local vendors will offer information or, in some cases, sell products and services: physical therapy, massage therapy, chiropractic care, nutrition, essential oils and skin care and much more. The Ridgefield Fire Department, which is always concerned about your health and safety, will be on hand, too.

Furthermore, the city urges you to pursue the health theme — on Saturday and all year-round — by walking, jogging or biking through town, along the waterfront, in a city park or at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.

Snatch the Snitch

Right next door at the Ridgefield Community Library, you can make your own jump rope — a display of commitment to all the jumping you’ll be doing in 2016? — starting at 10 a.m. At 2 p.m., steps to the north at Davis Park, young witches and wizards who hang out at Hogwarts (or Muggles who wish they could) can engage in their favorite sport, Quidditch. Spectators are welcome, but the tourney itself is intended for ages 12 and younger only.

The library, which doesn’t want anybody to get hurt, will provide proto-brooms (dowels) for the players. So it’ll be another healthy exercise, this one requiring some imagination to lift yourself into the air on a broomstick and snatch the Golden Snitch.

Take a hike

Another way to get fit is to go lose yourself in nature. In recent years, science has been adding to what we already know about the health value of regular exercise — improved strength and fitness and decreased hypertension, obesity, diabetes, colon cancer and more. There’s also new data about the health value of nature itself: people who get out into the natural world experience better moods and less depression and anxiety. There’s something about being in the great outdoors that’s naturally great for us.

Good thing that today, Jan. 1, has been declared a Washington State Parks “Free Day.” It’s part of a nationwide movement to get people outdoors and appreciating their local public lands.

Here in Southwest Washington and throughout the region, all state parks — and a handful of other public facilities, including the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site — will be free for the day. You don’t have to buy a Discover Pass, which is normally $10 for one day (or a $30 annual pass) or pay any other admission fee. Most parks will even provide free refreshments that day, thanks to donations from the Washington State Employees Credit Union and the Manufactured Home and Recreational Vehicle Association.

While Washington State Parks will offer free guided First Day Hikes at more than 25 sites that day, none of them are in Clark County. The nearest parks offering First Day Hikes are Cape Disappointment and Westport Light on the Pacific Coast, Lake Sylvia west of Olympia and Millersylvania south of Olympia. South of the river, there are First Day Hikes at Rooster Rock, the Historic Columbia River Highway trail, L.L. “Stub” Stewart, Milo McGiver and Tryon Creek.

We wish you a happy, healthy, hiking 2016!