Whether you’re into bodybuilding, weight loss, cardio workouts or just a quick pep up for the day, Santa Fe has a gym for you. Sure, you can go for a spin on the exercise bike, a yoga class or a game of basketball; but what about a CrossFit workout, a mixed martial arts match or an urban parkour trek?

I admit it’s been kind of a while since my eighth-grade graduation from the Santa Fe Waldorf School and, even then, it had been some years since the school employed a regular eurythmy teacher.

For millennia—some say for 4,000 years—hygienic Indians (as in, from India) have been receiving what we are only just discovering in the rest of the world: the legit benefits of having someone rub your head for a while.

Is there anything more relaxing than a (trained) stranger’s hands kneading out the tension from your muscles? What about a seaweed body wrap, refreshing cucumbers over your eyes, hot stones against your back and a facial mask?

I’m not sure why I wanted to starve myself. I like my body, and I take fairly good care of it. Granted, walking my dog is the only exercise I get these days, and the svelte, yogic physique I had once carved for myself has settled back into its natural, softer state, but I’m no body-hater.

It makes sense that firefighters need to be in good physical shape: running into burning buildings, scaling trees to rescue cats, freeing injured people from mangled cars, handling heavy equipment—it’s best we weed out the wheezing, overweight, weakling masses.But Santa Fe’s firefighters aren’t just fit—they’re well-oiled cyborgs.

I woke up one morning last spring and decided I wanted to be a backpacker. (Yes, it really did happen that quickly.) I am not your ideal backpacking candidate: I haven’t hiked in years, I’m overweight, I’m a bit of a hygiene maniac, I can’t cook and I don’t like peeing in the woods.

While you might believe the fun ends with the arrival of school and the changing colors and temperatures of fall, there is still plenty to do outdoors. SFR chose 10 possibilities for stimulating and—most importantly—active events happening in the north.

Seemingly on cue with my second heaping plate at the holiday party, and with the soft layer of flesh enveloping my hips and escaping my waistband, SFR got me a one-month kickboxing membership for Christmas.­­­­ The cave was populated with accustomed bodies that exhaled a comical “neesh, neesh” as they landed their kicks and punches. Huge punching bags stood at attention in ordered relief to sundry workout equipment and countless placards.

For those of you outside the yoga thrill cult, Kripalu is a major yoga center nestled in the Berkshires approximately three hours north of New York City. Citing Kripalu to my old high school chum was akin to mentioning backdoor access to The Vatican in a room full of rosary-bead-worrying Catholics.