Somehow, I seem to have fallen into a new lifestyle.

I remember hearing that if you do something long enough, it becomes a habit. Then if you have a habit long enough, it becomes your lifestyle.

I think walking every day -- walking at least five or six miles -- has become my lifestyle.

It was one thing to do it at the fitness ranch in Texas. I was paying a lot of money to learn how to take care of myself there, and I walked nearly every day for 11 weeks. Even at Rancho Cortez, though, I occasionally took days off. I came home 19 days ago, weighing 213 pounds, down from 280 earlier in the spring. I was pleased and I fully intended to continue my weight loss, but it wasn't easy to figure out how and where I was going to hike.

I started walking through Montrose up to the 210 freeway, but it wasn't as much fun as it had been walking in the countryside in Texas. But I plugged ahead every day without ever skipping one. Even on the days I was doing other things -- like my surfing lesson earlier this week -- I still found time before leaving to hike.

[caption id="attachment_561" align="alignright" width="300" caption="A single step"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/La-Jolla-Surfing-007.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-561" title="La Jolla Surfing 007" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/La-Jolla-Surfing-007-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

As of today, I have hiked every day of the 19 I have been at home. Today I walked five miles around the Rose Bowl this morning with my friend Mick, and then I went back out and hiked a little more than three miles on my regular route this afternoon.

My weight loss has continued. Today I weighed in at 204, which means I have lost an additional nine pounds since coming home. It also means I'm just five pounds away from being under 200 for the first time in more than nine years.

It's weird to think I have lost nearly 80 pounds and am still over 200, but there's no use in being upset about the past. Yes, my weight was worse than ever earlier this year. I was stressed, and in the past, when I was stressed, I ate too much and exercised too little.

But now things are different.

Now I have a new lifestyle.

I love it.