(Day 507 / -162 lbs.) Nature - 1, Steve - 2

So after a week of freezing my butt off at night and hiking hill and dale during the day, I'm out of the woods and back to civilization. It was an excellent trip chock-full of wilderness and wildlife fun, and most importantly, we all survived AND I dropped another two pounds!

To what do I owe the weight loss? Exercise and diet, of course. It's weird, I know, but the same things that work at home also work quite well out in the woods.

Exercise-wise, we spent each day hiking around the surrounding hills- usually about 3 - 5 miles and ate much the same as I do at home. We had modest meals (6) throughout the day, small quantities of tasty things meant to provide fuel for the days activities rather than become the focus of the trip. I snacked on gorp and fruit, and avoided the soda and breads. During hikes I would eat a Clif Bar to keep my energy up, always keeping a mental ballpark tally of calories consumed lodged in the back of my skull in an effort to avoid over-doing it.

But you know what? Over-doing it was never an issue. I think I was too distracted during the day and too tired at night to pig-out. I didn't want to and the cool thing is that I still don't (want to pig-out, that is).

So here's the deal, now that I'm back and elbow-deep in make-up work I'll need to really focus to retain the effects of the past week. No mindless munching on snacks- only fuel to maintain my energy. No 12-hour ass-plants at my desk without getting up to move around- frequent breaks to stretch and get the blood flowing. No calorie bingeing before bed time- just six evenly-spaced meals throughout the day.

I've made some decent progress over the past few weeks and am feeling pretty good about it all. My clothes are fitting better, which is cool because they're clothes I haven't been able to fit into in over a decade. Horribly out of fashion but hey, I heard that comfort never goes out of style.