For a New Years Day activity, I hiked out to Feather Falls today with the Sacramento Hiking Meetup group. We had a great time, the weather was wonderful, and I finally got to go to the top of the falls.

More importantly, I had no problems at all with the hike. I was tired on the way back, sure, but nothing like in the past. This is good news!

It does tell me I need to do some stairclimbing, or something similar before Half Dome this summer. I'm sore! But that's okay.

Anyway, a few pictures are in order, of course. Here's our group, prior to leaving.



Even though they tend to not change, here's the falls.


And here I am, at the edge of the falls, or at least as close as I was willing to get.


Finally, the edge of the falls. This is the view through a chain link fence that has a million warning signs saying not to get too close. I didn't.


All in all, a great day. I love this place!

I've come to the realization that I need to post blog entries more often.

We'll see how it goes. Let's see what's new.

Weight loss: I'm down to 160 and my waist size is 29".
Hiking: I'm doing this much more often and have a trip to Feather Falls planned for January 1.
Family: Christmas was great, the kids had a blast. I have pictures, haven't put them online yet.

This post was mainly to test to make sure it still worked. Since Blogger recently changed their interface, and the site recently changed hosts, I wasn't so sure. Watch for more detailed posts later.

If you care, anyway . ;)

When I checked the mail today, I found that the Foursquare Church magazine called Advance has finally published my photo! Kim Sedlak from our church wrote an article about herself and her faith, and Advance had me do a photo session with her family. One photo from the session accompanied the article.

Here's the header from the cover.


And here's the page with the article & photo.


I'm extremely happy the way it turned out. I'm hoping it will bring about more opportunities. We shall see.

I just got back from my weekend camping trip, took Friday off. With the proper planning, I ate just as well as I do at home while gone. Lunch on the way down was in a restaraunt, and lunch away from camp was at one as well.

On Sunday morning I even jogged. The "hiking trail" (just a half-mile loop) was up to the top of a hill and back down, which really got me out of breath. After 5 minutes I had to stop, in the end it was 15 minutes. But on vacation? I think that was pretty good.

Back to reality, I got back to the exercise routine. My computer-generated workout got upped a level the past few weeks, but with the weather being cooler outside (71 degrees at lunch), I went ahead and did the increased workout.

So for the first time yesterday, I jogged 50 minutes! I'm used to 30, and those last 20 were LONG. Nevertheless, I did it, and the rest of the day felt fabulous. Today's jog will only be 20 according to the workout, but I'm still amazed at myself. 50 minutes would have been an eternity a year ago.

The best part in was weigh-in this morning. I've hit 167 pounds, which comes to 60 pounds lost! It should be interesting at my aunt's funeral tomorrow, most of my family hasn't seen me since prior to the loss. I'm VERY happy with it.