Glacier, Wind River Range, Wyoming

If there was a blog posting police, I would have surely been arrested for a grievous lack of posts. While Solo Road Trip is a combination website/blog site, the Grand Climb site documenting my attempt to summit Grand Teton this year, is purely a blog. I’ve been unforgivably lazy in executing what I know is expected of a blogger and for that extend to you my apologies. I pledge there will not be future significant absences as I find apologies to be draining. And I need all my energy.

If you’re feeling you’ve missed out on strategic preparations for this climb, let me offer a teeny bit of comfort. Nothing has happened.

Today does however mark the 2 week point of my diet. 4 pounds have been dropped in those two weeks!

Over the years I’ve tried lots of techniques for shedding excess pounds. The one that works for me is the simplest – limiting my daily intake to 1500 calories per day, tracked by writing everything down on a small notepad kept in my kitchen. Renee Zellweger, when asked her plans to lose the weight she gained during the making of Bridget Jones’ Diary, said it was simply a numbers game. Technically. But when you don’t have the luxury of someone writing it all down for you, counting the calories you had for lunch, monitoring where you are for the day, snatching that cookie out of your mouth, cooking meals that are light, delicious, and filling, it becomes much more than a simple numbers game.

To help make the process as easy and accurate as possible, I bought a food scale. I’ve yet to cut anything out completely – just eating less of everything. I discovered quickly to stay full means eating things that are low in sugar and/or fat. In other words, a cheeseburger can be had for lunch, but I’ll go to bed hungry because of it, unless of course it’s the last 550 calories of the day. Preferring to eat my 1500 calories per day has also meant drinking nothing but water and an occasional diet coke. So far the plan is working and I don’t feel deprived (much).

“I’ve been on a diet for two weeks and all I’ve lost is fourteen days.” — Totie Fields

This alpine lake is what we discovered at the top of the glacier pictured above. No technical climbing -- just a bunch of scratching and clawing.