First: Go to Texas in late summer.
Second: Put on long pants, undershirt, and a long-sleeved jacket. Oh, and also wear a black wool hat.
Third: Walk around.
That is it. Instant five pounds of weight lost through your pores.
Potential side effects: Severe dehydration; soaking your clothes so you feel disgustingly soggy all day; sweat stains and salt lines in strange places (upper, outer thigh?); and feeling irresistibly drawn to all sorts of air conditioning.
Seriously, I lost more than five pounds today. I only hope that some of that weight loss is of a more permanent nature, since I am also drinking like a fish to make up for water loss. And it is not like we were doing anything strenuous. We just had a group march, at a slow pace, from one building on base to another. Took us maybe 30 minutes. But by the time we got to where we were going, I was drenched in sweat, as was almost everyone else.
It seems that the Army has 5 classifications of heat conditions, and these classifications determine what can and cannot be done in terms of strenuous physical activity. Well, we have been in Class 5 Heat Conditions ever since I got here. When we line up at 4:00 for role call, which should theoretically be the coldest part of the day, it is already 85 degrees outside. But, since we can't exactly phone in our training, we have to get together and do some limited stuff outside in the heat. I am hoping that I can get used to the heat pretty quick, because sweating a half gallon a day is not my idea of an ideal way to spend 9 weeks in Texas.
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