For 250 straight days, Joseph Kociper has found himself at the top of Mount Royal. The view might stay the same but for the 61-year-old Montrealer, other things, like his waistline, have changed considerably.

“At 60, I was getting a big belly and I said ‘What’s going on?’” remembered Kociper. “I said ‘I gotta do something.’ I met one of my friends and he was telling me he was going up the mountain.”

That friend, Michel Durette, said he had his own rude awakening and was worried for his own health.

“I woke up one morning, looked at myself in the mirror and I weighed 212 pounds at the time,” he said. “I went up the mountain and started thinking. I started walking up the mountain three or four days a week and changed my food intake and after five months I lost 50 pounds.”

Inspired, Kociper decided to copy Durette’s weight loss program. Now, eight months later, he’s 210 pounds, 30 lighter than when he began.

“I feel great. It’s amazing. You wouldn’t believe the feeling you have when you do the walks every day,” he said. “I feel like I can live to 100 now.”

Kociper said on that first day, he didn’t get tired – there was no jogging, just a relaxing walk up the mountain.

“I never figured I would do this for a long time. I explored the whole mountain day one. I went to Beaver Lake, Maison Smith, I went everywhere,” he said. “I said ‘Hey, this is pretty good. Let’s do it again tomorrow and the day after.’”

What began as a daily constitutional has now become a mission – one with a celebratory goal.

“At first, I didn’t really have a goal, I just went up and down, up and down,” he said. “Then one of my friends on Facebook said ‘You know, Joe, why don’t you go 365? That would be a good goal. Then another of my friends said why don’t you do 375 for the anniversary? They’ll put you in the Guinness Book of Records!”

There’ve been some bumps along the way and some days have proven to be more challenging than others.

“A couple of weeks ago when we had the big storm, the snow was up to my knees,” said Kociper. “Because I went at six in the morning, nobody cleared the snow yet. That was a really tough day.”

Still, he’s persevered and has a record of each trip – every time he reaches the top, he marks the occasion with a few photographs that he posts daily to Facebook.

His 375th trek is scheduled for Aug. 12. He has nothing particularly special planned but could think of a good companion to mark that occasion.

“I haven’t really thought about it but that would be something,” he said. “Maybe invite some friends. Maybe Denis Coderre will come and join me.”

As for what happens after, Kociper said he sees no reason to stop.

“What’s the reason to stop now? Do I just stop and that’s it? Do people stop working when they reach a million bucks? The only reason I would stop is if I broke my leg or had a serious flu or something.”