Geocache Diet - Day 15

959 Geocaches – 2395 km on foot – 90lbs – 350 Days!

I am actually losing weight doing the geocaching diet.  I just did my second weigh in and I am now 10 lbs lighter than when I started two weeks ago.  When I came up with this challenge I knew it would be a lot of fun, but I was not sure if I would actually lose weight.  I am being very careful with the size of my portions at meal time and I am trying not to snack all the time but otherwise  I am not sticking to a strict diet.  Our meals are simply what we should be eating to sustain a healthy lifestyle long term.  In the first week I was constantly feeling hungry and now I am only getting that feeling when I am actually hungry.  My muscles are also not as stiff as they were in the first week.  I walked 13km yesterday and I feel pretty good today.  I still have a lot more aches and pains than I should but at least I am seeing some improvements.  If I can average 5lbs a week I can reach my weight goal by June.  Ok, I know that the closer I get to my goal the less I will lose each week but I can dream right?  Seeing some early results is at least providing some more motivation to ensure I reach my desired fitness level.

To lose the 90 lbs I want a lot of dedication will be needed.  Fortunately as I am moving from being a geocaching ‘nut’ to being a geocaching ‘junkie’ I realize the common characteristic of other ‘junkies’ is their dedication to geocaching.  I am not their yet but I am slowly learning what it takes.  The other night we had just finished putting the kids to bed when I checked my e-mail and noticed that there was a new cache only a few km away.  I ran upstairs to get tell Lisa where I was going, grabbed my caching backpack and ran out the door.  My heart was beating rapidly and I had a hard time keeping within the speed limit as I wound my way through the dark streets to the location of the cache.   My heart sank a little when I see a couple cars on this dead-end street but I did not give up hope as I thought I should be able to catch up to them.  I grabbed my flashlight (I have to get a better one) and I rushed towards the first location of this multi-staged cache.  Just then I heard voices, I looked towards the location I was headed but I did not see any lights.  I look around and I saw some flashing in the bushes (tee hee) before I saw the group of people who belonged to the cars.  My shoulders dropped as I slowly moped over to the flashing lights and jubilant voices.  ‘I’m too late eh?’ ‘Yup’.  No first to find for me on this cache.  I arrived at the location 25 minutes after it was published and yet it was far too late.  I fumbled in the woods half heartily for a while before deciding I would be better to walk to this location the next day, get more distance on my walking challenge, and find it in the light.  Watching the local first-to-find club in action showed me that there are another few levels of dedication needed before I reach their professional status.  As I mentioned on day 4, I’m hanging with the cool kids now.

Last night was perfect for night caching.  It is mid-winter in Canada and I am walking in the woods, in the dark, in the drizzle, with a light jacket on, looking for caches.  What paradise have we moved to.  I met up with some local geocaching legends and we hit the woods to find two new night caches in my favourite park in the area.  I was lucky that they allowed me to tag along as I still am not too fond of geocaching at night by myself.  Night caches  are definitely much better to do in a group though your heart-rate still reaches the same extreme levels when you see ‘eyes’ reflecting back at you.  These guys were pros and we found the caches much faster than if I had gone alone.  I think I have to do more caching with a group as it was a lot of fun last night.