One week, 7500 feet of elevation climb, lots of walking, service, various projects, and sleeping away from my own bed for seven days… just another week in Paradise (LOL!).

This morning's weigh-in had me at 201 pounds. That translates to no movement on the scale… and I couldn't be happier :). My goal was just to get through this week with no injuries, no hurt feelings, and no calls home to parents to pick up boys for bad behavior (which would *not* have been trivial, considering we were 240 miles away from home).

For those who have followed this adventure of mine through this time, you'll remember that my goal was to get myself back to 'fighting weight" to bring my boys to Scout Camp this year, and frankly, I'm glad I did. The camp the boys chose this year was Camp Oljato, which is one of three camps located on Lake Huntington (about 70 miles East of Madera and Fresno, between Yosemite and Sequoia Natl. Monument). Entry to the camp is by boat only, so it helped to be economical with what was brought, and the fact that bears are in the area required all food items be locked up at the main dining hall in a second story bear box only accessible by ladder. Our camp site was the farthest west of all the areas, about 1500 feet away from the dining hall… needless to say, this kept snacking to a minimum, as every trip from the campsite to the dining hall and back resulted in a half mile walk. Meals were adequate if not stunning, but hey, I don't really expect culinary excellence of a high order at a Scout Camp. I've had better, but I've also had far worse. The fact that getting more food in the dining hall meant that you had to wait in a really long line (300 people up at camp all told this past week) also made me choose the salad bar over the main steam tables many, many times. In short, I worked hard, I walked a *lot*, I ate well, and I came back at a dead even weight from when I left. That's a good feeling. Now if I can get it to translate to my daily life the rest of the time, that would be awesome (LOL!).

Some highlights from this week… a very successful camp for all of the boys. Out of eight boys attending, we bagged 25 merit badges (including two that were completed just before we left for camp), 6 rank advancements, and did enough while there to earn the Honor Troop award and have all of the kids and both adults that attended qualify for Tribe (many Scout camps have a set of goals that, if you complete them, qualify you as a member of the camp tribe; of course we decided to go for it :) ). My son Nick bagged the Environmental Science, Camping, Wilderness Survival and Climbing merit badges. He also sat for his Life Boards of Review with the camp staff at Oljato. He said this was the toughest Board of Review he'd ever been through; they grilled him for a full 45 minutes. He was very relieved when they said that he'd passed (for those not familiar with Scouting, the Life rank is the one just below Eagle Scout). Nick is just shy of turning twelve, and has only been in the Boy Scout program for fifteen months, so he's come a long way in a short amount of time. Granted, he'd been in Cub Scouts for five years, so this is just a natural extension for him, but that level of achievement in that short a time frame is still pretty awesome! The only thing separating him from his Eagle Scout award is three required merit badges (Citizenship in the Community, Personal Fitness and Personal Management), an Eagle Scout Service Project (he's already got ideas as to what he wants to do) and a minimum of six months active tenure as a Life Scout. The thought that my kid could earn his Eagle at age twelve just totally blows my mind!

One other huge success and great revelation from my boys is that they almost to a man have decided there's one activity that they really love and can't seem to get enough of, and that's Rock Climbing. I'm talking the full ropes and harnesses, cliff face kind of Rock Climbing. The Troop as a whole decided that they wanted to focus on Rock Climbing as a troop specialty… which means that their Scoutmaster now has a new hobby, whether he was looking for one or not (LOL!). Thus, Ego Over Matter now has a new element to it. I pledged to the boys that I would get certified in climbing so that I could lead expeditions with them, and now my diet and fitness has a whole new trajectory. I wonder how hard it is to become a proficient rock climber at 40 (LOL!).

So there it is, we made it home safe and sound, and now I have some new goals to aspire to, and yet even more reason to bring my weight down, my strength up, and keep a focus on staying in "fighting shape" for the long term. Wish me luck :).

I will have to do a mid-week entry this time, as I'm leaving for Scout camp with my son in quick bit, and thus I won't be able to do a full run-down on Monday.

Today I sit right above 200 pounds (my scale is analog, so it could be 201 or a tiny bit less, but it's close enough). That means we are officially at 1 pound down for the half week, and 19 pounds down from the start.

So here's where things get interesting... I will be offline for a week, and I'll be nowhere near a scale or my regular routine. I'm curious to see if I hold ground or if I regress this week. I'm certainly hoping I do not regress, and it would be great if I push past the 200 mark by the time I get back. I guess we'll just have to wait and see :).

OK, here we are at the six week mark. I said if I could hit 205 by this point I'd be happy, and if I could hit 200, I'd be ecstatic. Is there something in between happy and ecstatic (LOL!)?

Today's weigh in has me at 202 pounds, which is two down from last week and eighteen down from the start of this project. Plus, I still have six days before I and a motley gang of eleven and twelve year olds leave for summer camp (one of that motley gang, of course being my own son). I will likely post something Saturday Morning to that effect. I've also decided that I like the feedback mechanism that this provides; I've realized that the drama of losing it, while entertaining, isn't nearly as important as the slightly less glamorous but much more important aspect of actually keeping it off. So y'all will still hear from me, just probably not as loud or as often, but I'm going to keep goals posted and I'm going to share my ups and downs on reaching each of them.

Two pound loss. All right, that's what I'm talking about! Not too much to give me worries of catabolization, not too little to make me bummed I didn't make weight, just the right amount :). What makes this "just the right amount" cool is the fact that I had two fairly big parties this weekend. The first was a special Eagle Scout Court of Honor for three of the older guys in my Troop. I just recently took on the full time role as Scoutmaster, so I don't get any credit for these boys being where they are today, but it's my gig to throw them a party and throw it I did. In addition to being the MC for the event, I also did my part by springing for the Hawaiian Barbecue chicken and rice (and oh, was it good!). One of the mom's makes an *awesome* cake for each Eagle Court that we hold. Think I'm passing up on that action? Think again!!!

Last night we all gathered together in the old Danville homestead to celebrate my Dad's birthday, so that meant another great dinner and another great cake. I controlled myself, but still, it felt nice after that kind of a weekend to "make weight", so I'm pretty chipper this morning, to say the least.

Next week will be very interesting. I wonder what my readings will be when I come back home from Oljato? Also, I wonder if some fun my wife and I will be having this coming Friday Night will set me back any (LOL!)? Oh well, guess we'll just have to wait and see, huh? I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of you this Friday. Don't be afaid to walk up to the tall bald dude and say hello :).

Wow, have I been at this for a month already?! It seems like it was just yesterday I started this, and at other times, it seems like I've been doing this forever (LOL!). OK, let's get to the numbers, shall we.

This morning saw me tip the scales at 205 pounds, which means I'm down three from last week, and down 15 from the start. Again, fifteen pounds in one month is still pretty darned aggressive; it's the equivalent of 3.5 pounds per week, although I'm taking some comfort in the fact that the last two weeks have slowed down without radical change in activity or eating, so maybe this time around I'm still on the normal side of things.

I had a bit of an embarrassing incident on Saturday. As part of Order of the Arrow, I was asked to help one of the boys in our Lodge receive his Eagle Scout award, and as such, I was asked if I'd be willing to wear regalia for the ceremony (read, full Native American buckskins, feather headdress, the whole nine yards). Since the ceremony was at 2:00 PM, I just kind of went about my day, then got to the place the ceremony was being held, helped set up everything, and then went in to do the ceremony. Well, in a small enclosed room, and trying to keep things going smoothly, I had basically "forgotten" to grab anything to eat or drink prior (that's one thing about getting into a diet mode, you can genuinely "forget" to eat or drink at odd times, because your body isn't telling you it's thirsty or hungry. Well, about three quarters of the way through the ceremony, I start to see purple tracers appear in front of my eyes… anyone who has had this experience knows what happens next. Next thing I know, I'm sitting on my butt, the master of ceremonies is asking me if I'm OK, and everyone has this concerned look on their face. I just thought, Oh crap, what did I just do?!" Fortunately, it was a quick spell of light headedness, maybe about 30 seconds until I was back to myself, but the fact that it happened at this kid's Eagle court made me really embarrassed. Note to self, next time you are in full leathers in an enclosed room that gets really hot, make sure you have a water bottle nearby and drink from it regularly (d'oh!!!).

Anyway, I just wanted to mention that little scenario to people to realize that, sometimes when you get focused on a goal, you sometimes lose track of what you are doing, and if you lose track at the wrong time, you might find yourself parked on your butt thinking "aw man, what just happened?!" Hopefully I'll be able to prevent things like that from happening again, but most importantly is to, honestly, remember that when your body is dieting, it doesn't really care at what point it stops behaving itself. The mind and ego are tough competitors, but ultimately, in a battle of wills, the body's survival instinct will win out (LOL!).

So that's this week's reality. Tune in next week as I see whether or not my burn rate slows or keeps at its current pace (a little slower i.e. two pounds a week, would be a good signal right about now :) ).