It was great! And I felt the benefits of all that walking on an inclined treadmill at Orangetheory: I was easily able to go up steep hills today. I wore the orangetheory fitness wrist band and their app registered the peak heart rate of 156, but I did not feel so exerted. At any rate, the app only registered it for 1 minute. It was great to put to the test all I have worked so hard to achieve, and feel that I can walk up steep hills quickly without getting winded. I am reminded of one humiliating incident almost a decade ago when I was not exercising at all, and when Risperdal made me severely depressed, and I did not realize it was doing it to me; I thought my life circumstances were so bleak. So during that time I worked at an office on the second floor and there were stairs that people took, but I usually took the elevator. One day, I had to take the stairs because I was in a group with my manager and colleagues, and I got winded climbing *just one flight of stairs,* which was so embarrassing. So, something like this cannot happen to me now.

We were warned about ticks, and I will now take a temperature-contrast shower (as I prefer, to energize me for the rest of the day), and launder all the clothes I wore on the hike, as we were all instructed to do.

I did not eat or drink anything but water on the hike: my breakfast, two slices of whole rye bread, two thin slices of Havarti, and a pickle, plus a protein-fortified latte, sufficed to keep me full and I only now start feeling a little hungry, but it is past 2 PM and I ate breakfast before 9 AM. For me, given the history of frequent and painful hunger pangs back on Seroquel, this new life feels like a victory.