Two months down, 17 days to go here in Texas.

I had hoped to lose 50 pounds in May and June, but I came up short. Just short. When I weighed myself this morning, I had lost 49.5 pounds since checking into Rancho Cortez on May 3rd.

It would be silly to be disappointed, and of course I'm not. Fifty pounds was never a goal, but just a step along the way toward losing 100 pounds by the end of the calendar year, and even that is just a step along the way to doing something I have never done before -- maintaining my weight loss.

[caption id="attachment_523" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The trail was wet"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Texas-115.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-523" title="Texas 115" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Texas-115-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

So I went out today -- the start of my third month -- and got after it. I did a tough circuit training class and then went out for my daily hike.

There was one problem. It was raining. We're getting a lot of the weather being caused down at the Gulf by Hurricane Alex, and I wound up doing my hike in rain that ranged from drizzly to steady.

It isn't easy to hike through puddles while using an umbrella, and I actually cut the final loop out of my hike, which made it about 4 1/2 miles instead of the standard 5 1/4.

It's OK, though. I'm going to try and do the entire 12-mile hike between the Missions in San Antonio tomorrow, so I ought to save a little energy today.

I'm still hoping to drop another 10 pounds before I leave.

Actually 10.5, but who's counting?