The Journey in August and beyond

If you are just now joining us, go back six or seven posts the read about the Journey from the beginning...

So by August we had done a lot of hiking, I hadn't had a soda since late March and I was closing in on the 40 pound mark on my weight loss. When I had started the Journey the goal was to lose weight by cutting out soda. I was feeling pretty good. My parents were coming up to visit in mid-August. I was wanting to hit 331 by then, and I almost made it. But after losing 38 pounds I wasn't too worried about just being 2 pounds shy.

Here's what August looked like:

(click on image to see all of it...)

Up to this point my focus was on getting to my parents visit. There was a couple of reasons for this. For one, I knew how hard it was going to be to give up soda. By setting a defined, short term goal it was easier to stay motivated. Also, on their visit we were going to be road tripping to Valdez and going to Alaska State Fair. I couldn't see doing a road trip with no soda and I really couldn't see going to the fair with no soda. The whole point of going to the fair is to overindulge yourself.

As hard as not drinking soda was (and is) by this point I felt I could keep on doing it. And while almost losing 40 pounds was nice, I still at least 110 pounds more that I needed to lose. I began to realize the Journey had only just begun...