In preparation for my first weekly weigh-in this morning I found the motivation to tackle a mountain yesterday. Such as it is.
I’ll let the pictures do my talkin’ about my walkin’.
You gotta start somewhere, so I started by walking out my front door…
…and into the street…
…from where you can view my ultimate destination.
This storefront seemed to be offering me encouragement to plod on…
Came to a fork in the road–to the right the road leads up to the Grand Hyatt. To the left–who knows? I went left…
…making progress…
…but first I must manage these many, many steps.
After all those steps I was not in the mood for an exercise break…
So I followed the path that lead steadily upwards…
I was getting hot and sweaty, but not feeling philosophical about it…
Almost there, but had to breach the wall first…
Not a particularly clear day, but Seoul is still awesome…
That’s my hot, tired and sweaty look…
Goal achieved!
A bitter reminder that all the locks in the world won’t chain the heart of a soul who yearns to be free…
So, I screwed up on the way down. I was thinking I was on the path that would lead to the National Theater and figured I might even find a cut-off leading to the Hyatt. By the time I realized my route was taking me to the wrong side of town, I had a pretty good bit of backtracking to do–mostly uphill. So I eventually found a trail with the word “Hannam” in it, and I figured close enough. Especially since it was going downhill…
And I wound up on the opposite end of Itaewon/Hannam from where I live. I had planned on a two hour walk, why not two and a half?
There’s always something interesting to see on the mean streets of Seoul…
I didn’t walk at a brisk pace…I guess you could say I was dogging it…
But I had a Great Dane anyway. *ahem*
When I finally reached home I was tired and hungry. Baby back ribs were my reward…
So I ate and took a nap. Then did my usual Saturday night gig at Shenanigans.
Which means keeping my lady friends entertained…
And that brings us to this morning’s weigh-in. I’ve been doing reasonably well on the diet. I don’t think the walking adds much value other than keeping me motivated to not eat my usual junk thereby negating the time and effort spent on walking. As I mentioned last week, my goal is to lose 50 pounds. So if I can average losing one pound a week I’ll get there in less than a year. Last week I was 269.2 and this week–
Woot! Down 5.8 pounds! More than I dared hope for. Of course, in the early stages of the diet you get bigger drops, and then your body adjusts and it gets tougher. Still, just give me one pound a week and I’ll be happy…
I guess I’ll just have to keep on keeping on.
Week 2 Kickoff breakfast. Eggs , cheese and salsa with leftover ribs..
And an afternoon stroll to the Han River is in my immediate future.
Congratulations! Those are great pictures. You took a route up Namsan that I’ve never taken. I was amused to see mention of a “Philosopher’s Area,” because on my own blog long ago, I had talked about a particular path that reminded me strongly of the Philosophenweg (Philosophers’ Way) in Heidelberg, Germany. I somehow doubt the “Philosopher’s Area” is the same as my Philosophenweg, but no matter.
I’m curious, now, as to which route it was you took. There’s a surprising number of different paths up to the summit and around the flanks of the mountain, and I know only a few of them. I will say, though, that it’s good you’re using Namsan this way; before I’d regained my weight, I credited the mountain with saving my life—weight was lost, blood pressure and resting pulse were down. Namsan may have to save my life again soon.
Great photos, and what appears to be a great hike. I also envy you those damn ribs. They look luscious.
Thanks, Kevin. Actually I don’t know how to tell you where I picked up the route as I was basically just meandering towards the mountain and came across the trail head. Not far from Haebangchon is the best I got.
Well, realistically I’ll only do the mountain on weekends. But it is nice to get out of town without leaving town.