Weekend Activities

• Participated in an Eagle Scout Court of Honor and helped out another Eagle in his project
• Ira Glass at the Balboa Theater

Summer Reading

• History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade by Susan Wise Bauer - great overview of the history of the world during this time, not just Europe
• Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James Loewan - eye-opening
• SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard - long and tedious
• Snow Travel: Skills for Climbing, Hiking, and Moving Over Snow by Mike Zawaski - some material for high adventure training
• The Earth is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars For the American West by Peter Cozzens - great narrative
• The Confederate Invasion of New Mexico: 1861-1862 by Helen Haines - short
• Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Incredible Story of World War II's Largest Naval Battle by C. Vann Woodward - dated language but good

Potato Hack Diet

Since I am on my own this week, it is the perfect time to do the End of Summer Potato Hack! Bring on the taters.

Fitness After 10 Plus Years

I have been focused on health and fitness for over 10 years now and I thought it was a good time for reflection on where I was and where I am headed.
In the beginning, I started out with the conventional wisdom stuff.  Low-fat diets, jogging and moderate weight training.  I got bored quickly and didn't see much progress.  My big step came with P90X.  I started the program and finished a full 90 day regime including the diet, for the most part.  I really saw progress and was eager for more.  Next up was Tim Ferriss' book "4 Hour Body". Two things immediately jumped out at me.  One was the diet, which he calls the "Slow Carb" diet.  The other was the high intensity workout stuff.  I started the diet and felt better immediately.  Tim's diet contains a cheat day every week which I think is great for those starting in the paleo/primal world.  I then came across Mark Sisson and his blog Mark's Daily Apple.  This was a life changer. The primal lifestyle really resonated with me and I converted quickly. Now I know how diet and exercise affect me and after a few years, I am healthiest I have ever been.  Grok on!

Current:

• Diet - 90% primal; my main cheats are wine and snacks my son keeps around
• Exercise - I toggle between P90X (usually only doing half a workout but with higher intensity), sprints and weights

Future:

• Vision - my eyes have been getting slow but steadily worse.  I recently got bifocals and felt very old.  So I am going to start some exercises that I got from my father-in-law to help reverse that effects.
• Flexibility - I am not very limber and would like to get more flexible
• Tai Chi - something to focus the mind and body
• Body Composition - I am still looking to drop some body fat to get more tone; I will am going to look at optimizing different diet and exercises

Philmont 2017

The troop had an awesome time at Philmont as Crew 718-G!
We stayed the following camps:

• Minnette Meadows - very nice low altitude trail camp
• Cimorroncito - I finally tried rock climbing and rappelling
• Cyphers Mine - my second favorite camp with the mine challenge, blacksmithing and Stomp!
• Mt. Philips - hailed like snow
• Cherokee Creek - trail camp with a steep climb from the river
• Apache Springs - sweat lodges were great
• Fish Camp - loved the lodge
• Abreu - they let us sleep under the pavilion due to rain
• Stockade Ridge - nice jumping off point for the Tooth of Time

We had rain most of the last 8 days of the trek.  Sometimes it was heavy but our crew did great.  They all had effective rain gear and knew how to deal with the weather.
Can't wait to go back again!