Aug. 7, 2010: End of Week 5
I've been wondering when I would be able to see a difference; this morning I did. My face seemed skinnier. That's normal. Now the remaining fat will redistribute and the belly should shrink some. This will sound silly, but I also tried the scale at the gym for the first time in a year or two. Tuesday I was at 231 on my home scale, and I was starting to wonder if it was a magic scale, always trending downward. I figured if I tried the gym scale I'd break the spell but Thursday I did, and it was down below 229. Corroboration!
The early morning meetings meant I was more rushed, and more tired, so I didn't eat as well at breakfast but I still stuck to coffee, a canned protein shake and a piece of fruit, and took quinoa/vegetables and fruit to work for lunch. But Wednesday we had an organizational potluck picnic, Thursday I went home early and ate everything in the house but the kitchen sink, and a couple of hours ago after my hike was my real splurge and the only meat this week, a couple of cheeseburgers, and fries, at In-n-Out Burger. I've been having some strange cravings.
I did get back on the Ridge Trail today, though, for the first time in weeks, and I over reached. Some serious steepness and 1200' gain, at six mile my longest hike since the beginning of May. Not sure if it was the week's exercise or the hike but I was tired throughout, I'm wiped, and my feet are sore.
My Goals
• Write about the outdoors.
• Get in shape; current goal, drop from 245 to 200 lbs.
• Experience joy more frequently.
• Cycle and Hike, and Popularize the San Francisco Bay Trail & the Bay Area Ridge Trail.
• Leave things a little better than I found them.
• Donate 5% of my income to worthy causes.
Aug 7, 2010
229 lbs (current weight on August 7, 2010); 245 lbs (weight July 5, 2010)
Bay Trail cycling miles: 19
All other cycling miles: 32.7
Ridge Trail hiking miles: 6.6
All hiking & other cardio miles: 35.2
Gym visits: 12
Finding Joy
Joy was almost daily this week; a good part of it is clearly related to exercise in cool fog weather and being by the water; it was nice being up at the Russian River last weekend too--great stars in the night sky. I was smiling while cycling in San Mateo Sunday, my gym workouts were good, I got the go-ahead for two significant projects at work on Wednesday morning and was on one of our properties for a Board potluck Wednesday night. We're restoring it and it's always a thrill to see how fast the native plants we've reintroduced are growing. There were bats flying overhead in the night sky too. I tested out my lighter weight running on the treadmill one day--I'm still not in running shape but I'm feeling encouraged. Prop. 8 was over turned the other day and Elena Kagen was confirmed to the Supreme Court. Hiked my new property Friday and up to the big oaks on the knoll top--serious beauty--and lay on my belly looking at stickleback fish in the stream pools at another property. Today's hike was tiring but the descent was almost ecstatic, gravity doing the work, the fog topping the ridge in waves of white, and the wind was gale force but cool. The colors of the water in San Pablo reservoir, the dense green woodland and the golden meadows, the white fog against the bright blue sky--it was almost crystalline beauty, when everything clicks and it's so beautiful your heart stops. Even the two cheese burgers I ate this afternoon. I'm making so much progress so fast, I can see my goal and it seems much closer than I imagined. I'm sure there will be setbacks.
Giving Back
I'm picking up a little trash on each bike ride and hike--my price of admission to the parks I visit. I'm also donating about 5% of my income to charity. I was wondering which cause to help this week, when a direct mail inquiry came in from Save the Bay. It was a no brainer given how much I've been enjoying the bay every week. Work might not count but I assigned staff and volunteers to finish up cleanup of a pot farm we found on one property and made a note to check another 4 or 5 nearby canyons annually, we're continuing to water plants we've installed on two properties, continued planning native grassland restoration on several properties, construction of an outdoor shelter, scheduled a work party to remove thistles from the new property and began thinking about collecting acorns there to get some some young trees going near the big ones--after nearly 200 years of over grazing there are only big old trees on the property, when they die there won't be any unless we lend a hand.
Donations this year
Save The Bay
Sonoma County Food Bank
Friends of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden at Tilden
To a friend
PAWS
Save Mount Diablo
Bay Nature magazine
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