Making Time For Your Health

How are you spending your time?

Of all the health advice we are exposed to, it can sometimes be all for naught if our schedules don’t concur.

You see, we all have 24 hours a day to spend on whatever we freely choose. Your time is valuable – actually the most valuable of all possessions because it is what we all have the least of. It is inevitable that our time must be spent on something as this great planet spins around and around. So, how and where we spend our time can have a great impact on our health. It can very well mean the difference between sickness and wellness.

They say if you want to know a man’s priorities take a look at his schedule.

These days the vast majority of us have demanding careers to go along with spouses, children, family commitments, classes, errands, friends, chores and worship all requiring their share of our precious time. We also have a great desire to take steps to improve our health.

Surely we are tough enough and able to balance all these demands in our lives, right? Well

The city’s sixth annual Trail Fest is coming up May 7 and although the event skipped a couple years it promises not to skip out on fun.

In addition to enjoying some snacks along the trail, residents and visitors who take the time to walk, run, or bike along the three-mile stretch of the trail from Old Town’s Treasure Ingmire Park to Dry Creek Park will be able to stop and enjoy a variety of fun, interactive activities.

“The goal is to get people out by having booths for them to check out along the trail,” said Shonna Halterman, the General Services Director for the City of Clovis. “Everyone wanders around and we find that people end up going much farther than they planned because the whole event spans six miles. So, by the time they go around and get back to their starting point, they’ve done that six miles.”

While Trail Fest certainly promotes health and wellness in the community and is a great motivator to get people out there moving, Halterman said for the city it’s all about making people aware of the great trail system Clovis has and encouraging people to use it.

“I think Trail Fest promotes our trail system and our parks,” Halterman said. “It lets people know what is out there. Plus, if we have a healthy community, that benefits everyone.”

General Services Manager Amy Hance said the trail is one of the best amenities the city has.

“We just want to highlight the trail and what a great amenity it is,” Hance said. “Tons of people use the trail. They do these counts on them and it is tens of thou- sands of people who are out there monthly and I’m one of those, but this community is big, it’s over 100,000 people so that means not everyone is out there. One of the best parts of our city is that trail [system] so we want more people out there using it.”

Halterman said Trail Fest attendees are welcome to start walking or biking from any point on the trail and can show up anytime within the four-hour window and browse booths and do activities at their leisure during that time. She encourages participants to bring a backpack or some kind of bag as many vendors will be