HUDSON VALLEY

Meet your chapter leader: Alexa Rosales, she/her

As someone who has lived in a bigger body since birth, most physical activities or outdoor adventures have always come with a caveat: they had to help me lose weight or perform some miraculous body transformation. If it wasn’t about losing weight, then what was the point?

This belief takes a toll on you after awhile. When the weight loss or body transformation doesn’t happen—you’ve “failed.” You must’ve done something “wrong” and have to try something else because you “weren’t capable.” It starts making you affirm that you aren’t worthy of doing things for enjoyment unless there is some way it will lead you to changing yourself. Eventually, you avoid doing things for joy altogether and your desire for looking a certain way becomes inundated in every facet of your life. Joy through movement becomes dreadful, and you become avoidant of anything that could potentially be incredible for your mind and soul. It’s a very unfortunate way of existing. 

Body Liberation is eliminating the notion that you need to alter something about your body to be worthy of joy. I will say it now and I will repeat this to each of you at the beginning of our hikes: “The person you are NOW deserves this moment to connect with nature. You are NOT defined by your abilities, but your willingness to free your mind through hiking this trail. You are worthy of the healing properties nature has to offer just the way you are.”

Favorite hike? My favorite place to be in nature has to be anywhere around a campfire or floating on a lake, but also a huge fan of mountain vistas overlooking the Hudson River like Anthony’s Nose in Cold Spring, NY.

Favorite podcast and book? “Spooked,” “In the Dark,” and “The Daily”—but when I’m feeling like I want to rage against diet culture (at least 10 times a week) I’m listening to “Burnt Toast,” “Maintenance Phase,” and newly discovered “Food Psych” (thanks Annie from our Berkshires Chapter!). It’s really difficult for me to shut off and get into a story, which is why I prefer listening to audiobooks and reading physical books at the same time. I love whodunnit page turners like The Unwanted Guest by Sherry Lapena, personal journey narratives like The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, and The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom—and last but not least Roxane Gay’s Hunger and which changed my life.