I just used spinners, Steve. The gold ones work best. I had one that was black with a couple red spots on it with a gold spinner and they loved it!
As for the weight loss I was never hungry in terms that I did not have enough food. I learned last year how to do it better and my typical days were something like: Eat dry bad for your kids cereal for breakfast such as Coco Pebbles and I would eat half a bag a day so 1 box was for 2 days. Lunch varied depending on where I was but most typically was crackers and peanut butter, a beef and cheese stick, beef jerky, corn nuts and flavored drinks. Dinner could be a single serving Hawk Vittles meal or Ramen & mashed potatoes mixed, sometimes Pasta Sides with Tuna dumped in it (my favorite) and then cookies for desert. I have no idea how many calories I was eating a day but it wasn't enough of course!
Some important details is I was very out of shape when I began this trip and I was up to 245 pounds which was the heaviest I have ever been! So I had lots of room for weight loss and I still consider myself over weight for being 40 pounds lighter! Last year I was only eating 1500 calories and I felt it big time and often had a lot of trouble climbing those switch backs because of the lack of energy but I never had that problem this time.
As for appearance I do have some shots from day one on the trip but I didn't get a shot on the last day! And looking through my photos the last decent shot of me was on Mt. Barnard which was day 55 so that still left over 2 more weeks of the trip. I certainly notice looking at pictures from day one how chubby I look in my face and everything else and now I am not lol.
As for doing anything differently not really, I have now better defined what is good and not so good with food and I have more ideas for things to bring but generally I did ok this year and only the meal of eating Salami, Cheese and Tortillas I feel like I no longer want to get again but I was already getting burned out on that before I took it for lunch the first 10 days. Last year what I ate left me never wanting it again and I haven't eaten it since.
And by the end I did feel really in shape. Unless it was 3000 feet or more of climbing for the day I didn't think it was anything. I did have a couple problems with my feet here and there but no blisters and nothing that kept me from continuing.
My upper back was having bits of pain by the end mostly because of leaving Horseshoe Meadows with 12 days worth of food on my back then 3 cans of Pepsi and a full bag of chips!
