Mountain Climbing and Bragging Time

I just have a short post today. This is a photo I took Sunday as I was hiking up a local mountain. Every year, the folks at the city offices in Nishiokoppe organize this hike, and this year we joined it. Aaron generously agreed to only hike halfway. One of my co-workers, sensing our desire to hike together, had offered last week to hang out with Ridge and Holt for a little while so Aaron and I could both hike a ways, with the understanding that one of us would turn around halfway and come back for the kids. We are in the land of no babysitters, remember? So, this was a pretty awesome offer. Anyway, this is a view from past the halfway point. If you look closely at the second photo, you'll see two peaks. We hiked to the peak that is furthest and to the left. You can even see a bit of the trail that follows the ridge. Needless today, I’m still recovering today! I’ll post more of the photos later this week.

As for the bragging bit, I guess I’ve decided that I finally deserve a little bragging time regarding my weight loss. Aaron and I started to “do” the South Beach diet back in January, something that caused and still causes no end of consternation with our Japanese friends (“what do you mean, ‘no rice’?!”). Aaron’s now lost almost 35 pounds. I’ve lost almost 20, and have started running three days a week (the other days I walk or run up the steps to the shrine 3 or 4 times). My goal is to be running 5k by the time we return. I’m up to 3k now, but my legs need a break after our killer hike yesterday. Anyway, here’s a couple of photos. It seems that the only pictures I have of me are photos someone gave me, so I had to take a picture of a picture – the quality is therefore not very good, but you can still get an idea of how much I’ve changed. The first one was taken at the end of September in 2005. I actually gained weight after that picture was taken, and have since lost it. The second picture was taken yesterday as I was resting on the top of the mountain. I was so stunned by how I looked, I guess I just needed to brag a bit.

September 2005

June 25th, 2007