A determined woman with a huge body is fighting the stigma related to sports and heavyweight by hiking mountains.
The colossal size of her body is not something that can hold back 33-year-old Celeste Mick from her trekking and hiking passion.
Mick started hiking while she was living in Hawaii and now, she does a new trail every single week.
Meet Mick in the video below.
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Video credit: Rumble
Barcroft TV reached out to cover her story. Mick, a Californian, told them: “I was actually coming from a really dark part of my life and I was looking for something that would change how I was feeling.
“I didn’t have any hiking knowledge but once I made it to the top, it was pretty intense because I felt empowered.”
Obviously, Mick is not just another hiker you meet on the trails. Seeing her huge figure, people hardly believe if she can even hike at all.
She explained: “I did feel some people were like, ‘How long did you hike?’, ‘Did you make it to the top?’ Like almost questioning as not believing it.”
Due to her extraordinary size, Mick has to get all her hiking equipment made to fit her size. “I’m on the biggest plus size, I guess size range, and it’s pretty hard to find clothes regardless,” she said.
Such petty obstacles are nothing in front of Mick’s extraordinary determination for hiking.
Currently, the motivated hiker is planning to hike in every state and aims to conquer Mount Kilimanjaro within a year.
To get ready for the big trekking challenges, Mick practices on local treks, carrying heavy weights to test her endurance and build up her stamina.
Mick’s greatest supporters are her mother Estela and her partner Don, who proposed her during a hike they were together on.
Don told Barcroft TV: “I got into hiking when Celeste and I got together, she was kind of knee deep into the hiking game and showed me some of the areas around LA.
“We were in our own little world. And I was like, ‘Okay, this is the perfect time to do it.’”
Mick added: “I’m wearing like hiking gear, I’m sweating, looking like we were just chased by bears, but it felt like us.”
Mick runs an Instagram account “fatgirlforthefitsoul” which is aimed to motivate other people of Mick’s size to go out, exercise and adopt an active lifestyle.
“I don’t come across a lot of plus size hikers,” she said. “I’m hoping that will change in the future, to see more diversity, on the trail.
“The mountains do not care who you are. They just want you to be there.”
Mick found hiking the support that she needed to get out of the dark times in her life. It has also greatly boosted her self-confidence.
Whenever she hikes to the top of a summit, it fills her with immense joy and a sense of fulfillment. It gives her the inspiration that she can conquer other things in life just like these summits.
She said: “Hiking has taught me to be confident at a level that I never experienced, even when I wasn’t a fat person.
“You have to love yourself in your skin that you’re in right now. And if things change, you’re going to love yourself even more because you learn that you’re worth everything.”
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