Finished? Not Yet!

  Today is September 4, 2011. Thirty-one years ago today I climbed the last mountain of the Appalachian Trail. The official mileage that year was 2,106 miles from Springer Mountain in North Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. It took me 146 days to hike the entire Appalachian Trail. This year I set out on a journey to accomplish two objectives. First, I wanted to reduce my weight to 165 pounds. Second, I wanted to tell stories about the Appalachian Trail along the way.
   Up until about three weeks ago I was making good progress on both objectives. I wrote stories about events from Georgia all the way to Vermont. But I have not finished....not yet! As far a weight goes, I have made significant progress. As of today I weigh 167.4 pounds. That means that I have lost a whopping 19.4 pounds! But I also have 2.4 more pounds to trim off of my body. No, I'm not finished with this objective....not yet!
   What happened? Well, life happened. It's hard to do anything consistently for 146 days in a row. And, to be honest with you, I got a bit discouraged. I hit a period of time where I had a difficult time losing weight. In athletics it is called "hitting a plateau." No matter what I tried, I had difficulty getting below 170 pounds and staying there. For some reason 170 pounds has been my plateau point every time I have tried to lose weight.
June 25, 2005 I weighed 185.            July 20, 2006 I weighed 170.
December 11, 2008 I weighed 180.   February 25, 2009 I weighed 170.
February 15, 2010 I weighed 182.     May 28, 2010 I weighed 178.
   So, this time when I hit 170 pounds and stayed there I just kept trying to do the right things. I kept on running. I kept on watching what I ate (without starving myself). Finally, after a few weeks I finally started to trim my weight down again. 167.4 pounds is the least I have weighed in over eleven years! I know if I keep on trying, I will be able to get all the way down to 165 pounds. A friend of mine just had a heart attack (he is only a few years older than me). Fortunately it was relatively mild and they caught it in time to treat it. I want to do everything I can to keep from having the same problem! I turn 50 years old at the end of this month. I want to be as healthy as possible and getting rid of extra weight is one of the best ways to stay healthy!
   The thirty-first anniversary of hiking the Appalachian Trail has been a tremendous motivation to finally lose weight and get healthy. Just because it is taking me a bit longer to finish my "journey" doesn't mean I am giving up. A lot of people who hiked the trail would take off a week or two in order to go home or have a side trip. They would return and finish the trail. I think I will treat the last three weeks like a side trip.
   After all, some great things have already happened. My blood pressure is normal. I can wear clothes that have been sitting in the top of my closet for many years. I ran in a 5K road race on August 20, 2011 and had a time of 28:33 (which is 3:20 faster than my time on June 4th). This project is a marathon, not a sprint. I'm not finished, not yet! I will keep on trying to lose weight until I hit 165 pounds. And I still have at least three more weeks of stories to tell about the Appalachian Trail. So...if you will stay with me, we can still finish this journey together!