I

Introducing Healthified 42 Hours 

By Sara McGlothlin

Having a dream for yourself is an interesting thing to unpack. Where did it come from? Why won’t the idea go away? What causes the inkling to grow so big that it feels as if it tightly attaches to your soul and won’t let go? 

Hi, I’m Sara and I have a dream of being a travel blogger. In addition to being a health coach, cookbook author, natural foods company founder, and wellness writer, I would love to be a travel blogger. You might think that adding that to my agenda is a form of masochism; to pile that on my plate in addition to everything else I have going on would be overwhelming. But that’s not the case. How do I know? Because the thought of it feels light and liberating, or what my life coach calls “shackles off.” It feels flowy, and fun. When I ask my intuition if it aligns, all signs point to yes. It’s the ego that rears its head and causes resistance. But I digress. 

I often ask myself why I want to be a travel blogger. Clearly my three-month backpacking trip in Europe one summer had a big impact on my life. But this goes back farther than that. When you start to trace dreams back to their origin, you might find that one stems from a tiny seed that was planted in childhood. Growing up, I remember watching Samantha Brown on the Travel channel with my mom. This seed takes the shape of one (very) brief conversation, in which my mom remarked how cool it would be to have her job; to travel to all of these amazing, exotic places, staying for free in exchange for reviews. I agreed with her. And just like that, the idea never went away. Thirty years later, here I am introducing my dream column: Healthified 42 hours. I have no business plan – or plan at all for that matter. what I do know is that if I don’t take the first step, I might die with this dream inside me. Pardon the morbidity, but it does put it in perspective. How sad that would be if I never even tried. I wish everyone could live their life in alignment with their dreams. The least I can do is try to live out mine. 

Why 42 hours you ask? When I was planning the logistics for our three-month backpacking trip that summer, I would devour the New York Times 36 Hours travel articles in the hopes of finding inspiration for sights to see. I remember thinking how fun it would be to create a similar format through the lens of Healthified travel. Don’t get me wrong, I like being swept in the unique culture of a city, but what I love is traveling like a local: hitting up a hip coffee shop, eating at healthy establishments, finding a fitness class, hiking in nature, and having happy hour at a nearby brewery. From 5pm day one to 11am day three (think happy hour to brunch during a weekend away), you can curate quite the Healthified travel experience, or what I like to call Retreat Yourself. 

I will likely start with Richmond as that is my home base. I would love some destination recommendations! Feel free to email them to [email protected] subject: Healthified 42 Hours. And if you want to be a contributor to the column with your own hometown, I welcome submissions!