I Blame The Buttered Popcorn

Last week was my monthly weigh-in. I felt like I had lost a couple of pounds but it turned out that I had gained back one. Which just goes to show what a lousy sense I have of my own body: last month I thought I'd gained a couple of pounds but in fact lost four.

I'm not sure of the cause. I didn't get out hiking and geocaching as much as the month before, but I spent more time on the exercise cycle, which should have compensated for it. It's possible that my body metabolism has finally adapted to the increased activity level, but I would have expected that to happen more gradually, with the weight loss tapering off over a couple of months. Most likely it's just that I ate too much crap. I ate out more often this month than last and I did a lot of late night snacking. Large bowls of buttered popcorn have been a mainstay of my diet of late.

So I'll try to tone it down a bit, but even if my body has reached a new set-point, it won't be the end of the world. The 25 pounds I've already lost should make riding my bike up the local hills a bit less gruesome. The warmer weather will be here soon and I'm hoping to start taking the bike for little errands, like picking up milk and bread. The less exhausting it is, the more likely I am to do it.

Now my focus turns to the kind of food I'm eating. As noted above, one problem area is snacks. Fruit is tasty enough that it would make a good snack except that I don't find it at all filling. I may enjoy munching on an apple but I still feel just as hungry after as before. If anyone has good suggestions for healthy snacks which taste good and don't leave a hollow feeling in the stomache, let me know.

My bigger problem is eating healthier meals. Most of the time I either don't have the time to prepare a proper meal or simply don't want to be bothered. So I eat whatever is fast, which means frozen pizza, canned soup, sandwiches, etc.

I'm thinking that I should just admit that I'm a lazy bum when it comes to cooking and stock up on healthy frozen meals, like Lean Cuisine and Blue Menu. It may be a bit expensive, but if the alternative is a heart attack, I think I can afford it.

A problem that I've had with healthy frozen dinners in the past is that the portions are so small I don't find them very filling. But even if I were to eat, say, two Lean Cuisine grilled chicken primavera, that would still be more nutritious and have fewer calories than a can of Chunky chicken corn chowder soup, or two slices of President's Choice sausage and pepperoni deep dish pizza.

Lost!

Last Saturday I went out geocaching and did not have an enjoyable time: I only found one of the three caches that I searched for; when the batteries in my cellphone started to run low I discovered that the recharger for the truck was missing and my backup battery pack was dead; it started to rain (albeit lightly) when I got to the third cache; worst of all, I got lost in the woods.

The third cache was located on the northeast side of Mount Hayes above an old clearcut. The trail leading up to it was mostly overgrown and marked with occasional bits of yellow or pink flagging tape. When I reached the cache site I was exhausted from the climb, dispirited by the lack of power for my cellphone (which doubles as my GPS unit) and annoyed by the rain. I only searched for the cache for 10 or 15 minutes before giving up in frustration and heading back down. Somewhere along the way I followed the wrong set of pink flagging tape and ended up on an even less used trail which eventually petered out, leaving me stranded on the wrong side of beaver pond, in an area I didn't recognize.

Now I have to say that there are worse things than getting lost on the side of a mountain. At least you know which way is down. And in my case I knew that so long as I kept heading down, sooner or later I'd run into a road. I had a compass with me and I'd hoarded the remaining power in my cellphone so that I could get a final GPS fix on my location before it died. So it wasn't like there was any chance of me wandering in circles until I died of starvation.

Still, it did make me nervous. All alone in the woods, not sure of the way out, with sunset just an hour away and no way to call for help.

My ordeal did not last long. The GPS fix I'd gotten had told me that the main logging road was only about 300 meters away, on the other side of the beaver pond. I had no idea how far the pond extended to the south but I could see a rise at the north end, so I circled around to there and almost immediately came upon a small tertiary logging road which wasn't on my map but ran in the right direction. I followed that and about fifteen minutes later was back on the main logging road.

So as wilderness survival epics go, mine was tame to the point of being housebroken, but it nonetheless left a bad taste in my mouth and contributed to overall pall which hung over the outing and it was a week before I finally got around to logging the one cache that I did find that day.

A Better Outing

After last week's disturbing outing I knew that I had to get out there again soon before it permanently marred the pleasure I take in geocaching. Today it was sunny and nearly cloudless. A perfect opportunity!

I faffed the morning away. I started to faff the afternoon away as well but took myself by the scruff of the neck, threw myself into the shower, and by 15:30 I was finally out of the house and on my way to McKay Lake. Thank god the days are getting longer again!

There's a section of the Trans-Canada Trail which runs past McKay, from the suspension bridge across Haslam Creek, up to the Nanaimo River, where a bridge has been pending for several years now. The first cache was located right at the trail head. I'd tried to find it once before, but to no avail. Today, rather than waste more time on it, I headed off down the trail to the second cache.

When I got to the cache my cellphone was having a hard time getting a getting a good fix. First it told me that the cache was at the bottom of the hill, so I climbed down. Then it told me the cache was 20 meters to the west, so I went there. Then it told me, no, it was 44 meters to the east, so I went back there. Then it told me that the cache was up on the top of the hill, more or less where I'd started out. Despite the runaround, I did eventually manage to find the cache. The log was wet so I dried it before signing it and dried the inside of its container while I was at it.

For the third cache I was unable to find a trail which would take me to it. Again I found myself climbing up and down hills, but each path I tried started out strong only to peter out into the bush. I backtracked almost all the way to the second cache and spotted a promising side trail that I'd missed earlier. It soon started to curve back toward the road, though, taking me ever further from where I wanted to go.

I was pretty tired by that point so I decided to give up on the third cache and continued along the trail to the road then followed that back to the trail head, where I'd parked the truck. At least it made for a nice loop and my legs were telling me that I'd gotten a dandy workout in the process.

When I got back to the trail head I pulled out my cellphone and reread the description for the first cache. The cache owner had posted an update, saying that the original cache had disappeared so he'd replaced it. Not only did that explain my earlier failure, but it also meant that I had a good shot of finding it now. And indeed it only took a couple of minutes to make my second find of the day.

Despite the frustration of not being able to get a good fix at the second cache and being unable to find a trail to the third, I ended up feeling pretty good about the outing. I know that that is strongly influenced by the fact that I still managed to find two caches (bringing my total to 215). Had I found none or even just one, I'd probably be viewing the day in a considerably dimmer light.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I should be happy just be out in the fresh air, amidst beautiful scenery. Alas, I am not yet sufficiently evolved for that. Maybe in another 20 years or so.