Water

have a good weekend mt dew! have fun! you're doing very well and eating a few times throughout the day will give your body the energy it needs and help it to be burning calories more efficiently throughout the day. when most of us starve ourselves, (ie no breakfast or lunch) the body responds by thinking this is a 'famine' and it must conserve energy, hence long term lots of that starving behavior with sudden large quantities of food, the body is geared to 'store store store' and not to burn. good job on the soda too!! just don't hard on yourself (if you're that kinda person) IF you do wake up and feel like a soda or now drink 3 or 4 in a day sometime-its not the biggest deal. you are looking for making lots consistent small changes over a long time - so long as the trend is in the right direction small aberrations won't matter much and are only worth learning a bit from and moving on.

one of the worst things i do for my health is not sleeping enough. i will consistently stay awake, piddling around with little things around the house or on the computer, sleeping for 3-5 hours a night. then on a weekend sometimes I'll sleep for 9 hours and feel caught up a bit but for the most part I feel like sometimes I'm screwing myself, sleeping 3 hours on a weeknight with work at 8am the next morning.

yeah! they would have to sell it for $40 to get me to bite on that.

http://www.steepandcheap.com/ everyone just LOVES the pretzel zefurrr ropes!!!! $119 hahaha

okay thought so, it seemed so ludicrous

what the hell...? is this for real? feedback from experienced folks?

mountain dew, AWESOME! Starting small is the way to go! Do a few little things, even if its only a few days a week, it'll help to break old habits and start making new ones. Going out for a walk is a great way to get the ball rolling on the exercise! I've had friends who tried to quit smoking, start exercising, and start starving themselves and it was always a failure because they didn't moderate. Just instead of having too much food, smokes, sitting...they went for the other side--not enough food, no smokes, unrealistic exercise regime. I'm sure you'll have tough days and better days..in time if you keep it up though, the positive changes will start to snowball and you'll find it'll be easier and easier to ride that horse to the finish line and beyond. keep up the good work!

fair nuff, sounds quite reasonable to me. No insane prognostications. With that said, between the current economy and health insurance costs over the previous decade, this issue having been relatively ignored for too long, there is plenty of argument that 'nudging' over time is ineffective, especially in the short-term nature of politics. Health Care is at a head, hell, it burst long ago... clean up with a single square of TP or a dump truck of legislation saw-dust dumped on it... i too wish I knew the best way that could actually be successful in politics and in practice.

So with a good idea, but zilch for application for it, and acknowledgment that there would be comparable vehement opposition to such changes if they were advocated at the national level -- you fault obama for.... ...and i realize there are faults, but, you would do better how?

now that sounds beyond reasonable. however, how would you propose that such measures are instituted? Especially altering the health insurance industry to be non-profit. I can imagine (the government regulators) asking the health insurance industries to switch to a non-profit model. I spose the town hallers would jump on the bandwagon for that one...

would a 'pure' (aka no such thing even) capitalism lend itself to approach healthcare from the directive of reducing sickness and investing in and incentivizing preventative care to gain long-term goals of less treatment (reduce long-term potential for profits)? Is there any reason why a private health insurance company who's shareholders are the ones who must be answered to at the end of the day would take this approach? What would the competitive advantage be?

how old are you? just cause you can find an entry on urban dictionary doesn't make it so. Coming from in situ experience, the definitions stand as I stated them. Maybe on the interwebs you can pull it off but among those who know, you do not.

well taxes would have been cut across the board to promote piss-down economics, all social welfare programs significantly cut, tons more troops to both wars, and update of national science education to reflect that both global warming and evolution are both just one of many different 'theories' out there. basically our problems would have been solved! another lovely hypocrisy of the tea garglers -- they don't 'want the government' to be involved with healthcare, but they are more than happy to have the government (law) tell a woman what healthcare she can and can't have. always a hoot to stare at, them folks

not in on this thread at all but need to clarify something. my understanding is that the skin between the balls and ass is called one's taint. a chode (choad) is a penis that is wider than it is long. if this fundamental misunderstanding of your own reproductive and excrement areas is any reflection of your comprehension of political theory and practice, i take pity on you.

Well I'd say it is great your daughter(s) have an interest in the outdoors and that you are very interested in encouraging this and sharing it with them. That is a pretty huge mutual part that you don't have to worry about and that could be the hardest to have happen if it wasn't that way. I'd really recommend nwhikers.net or portlandhikers.org for advice about long and short 'hikes' to the tops of cool things with views. I'm sure people here can help you out but in my opinion its a bit like asking the yankees for tips on playing softball with your family. Both of those other forums have more people geared towards your type of request and you may hear more back from them with detailed responses about specific hikes/scrambles. And as a motivator for getting in shape, being in shape doesn't mean the beer and BBQ have to go bye-bye. Just have to be moderated..and the more active you are, the more you can par-take in those pleasures without consequence, for the most part. Also I think there have been some studies lately that say those who sleep more lose more weight. I'd argue the smokes would have to go but I've seen enough folks smoking while thru hiking or climbing... not that they're helping anything at all-they're hurting a lot. I don't want to harp on it or anything as I'm sure you know a litany of reasons why you shouldn't be smoking. good luck! start with something relatively flat and short and work your way up.

i too will vouch for Aaron as a fine seller of gear going to better uses. bought a second/third tool from him last week or so. yeah I was almost going to ask you if there is some time a buddy and I can stop at an ATM and then head to your garage for 20 minutes of browsing and wallet deflation, hehe. yard sale would be pretty awesome!

can't hurt to scout-either summit is pretty. I think 75 scrambles in oregon has both - pretty sure a common approach to sacajawea goes up from hurricane creek basin (one valley to the west from Wallowa), whereas matterhorn, for obvious reasons is approached from ice lake (or for more challenge, up and over and around the ridge from raz lake--not heard of that route taken too often). Anyways I've read a report or two around the web of people trying to go from matternhorn to saca and it seems like at some point between there is a large gap that 'could' be crossed but most people whos reports I read turned around there. here is a photo looking south from saca I think. http://s683.photobucket.com/albums/vv195/fergi692000/?action=view&current=506336.jpg

uhh... weather? maybe if he was pulling a mccandless.. the write up make his intention very clear, and living in the mountains ain't it.

this looks a lot better. for a few weeks when I saw it I really scratched my head about where the heck it could be...i knew it could be flipped but was trying to think of anywhere else it could be.

yeah heading out to smith this weekend too..didnt know about this!

berl, dane, These are all things I have wondered as much... that hood should not be to the right of Adams, when looking south from anywhere on Rainier. pre-eruption st. helen's top was still a bit more pointy and rounded than the mountain in this picture I thought. I spose it was just a matter of the image being mirrored to give the mixed up view.. thanks for feedback folks! yeah I guess that is excellence..maybe just having a good view is excellence? dane you know a guy named herm who was from eastern wa? lives around bishop, ca now?

This sure seems to be a PNW volcano, just trying to figure out which ones are in the photo and where it was taken from. its my co-worker's office, he has no clue. it says 'excellence' below, its one of 'those' pictures. anyone have any speculations? Large flattened top volcano to the right (adams, rainier?) and then to the left on the horizon there is pretty pointed, looking like any number of potential volcanoes. thanks

Check ODOT for the 242 closure if that is still in effect limiting access from the west side. If so, find another route over and I'd say go to pole creek TH which is SW of the town of Sisters. From there you can take the soap creek trail and veer off after a bit on a trail which will place you right around the SE ridge of N Sister. I think I'd personally recommend getting up onto the ridge as early as possible..you don't want to keep going up the 'flat' area that parallels the hayden glacier unless you are just going to go up the S ridge of N sister. coming from the pole creek TH taking the SE ridge would be quickest, I believe good luck

this article is total crap. the fees and permits for public lands drive me nuts and i specifically avoid going to these places because there are still tons of great options that don't have the stupid hoops and planning to jump through. national parks too, i hate all the different regs and fees to keep track of, especially when all i want to to back-country camp -- and even more especially when you are required to stay at the backcountry location you have signed up for ahead of time. gives no freedom to adjust to conditions or whatever. if there ever was a schizo government agency it is the USDA.. the forest service's own mission statement is riddled with contradictory statements. it should just say utilitarian use, and be clear that outdoor citizen's uses and economic extraction activities will converge at many places. trail maintenance and trailhead crapper costs are piddly compared to building a road for logging. while there are employees of the FS i respect, i have little respect for the agency. the utilitarian balance between extraction uses and protection/recreational is not a balance..it is quite unequal. most of the pcnw looks like green swiss cheese from the air.

from everything I can tell it seems like it will just be a scree fest at this point in the year - assuming crampons would just go along for a ride..is ice ax even necessary? haven't been in the olympics cept for a hike up to the elk lake last year, so forgive the lack of knowledge--climbing in the olympics book is already out at the library. we are looking for something within 3 hours of pdx that would be some fun. have already done the sisters, and all the other peaks from mid or to south wa this year.. if you got a better suggestion than the brothers let at it.. thanks much