Week 106 Update

It was 05:30 when I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, "182.5 pounds!"

Well, I came a lot closer to getting back into my range this morning than I expected to. After 3 days of muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories, and a week or so of Advil before that, I have to be satisfied with being a half pound over my range. (At least I am still below the top of my old range.) It has been since Christmas of 2001 since I have been over the top of my maintenance range, and I don't like breaking the streak, but when you have an injury, you just have to accept the consequences.

For my average weight this week, I wasn't that close to being within my range. At 184.0 pounds, I was two pounds over. So, by pulling back on my points, I was able to drag my weight back down nearly all the way for weigh-in, but for the week I was up every day since Saturday.

For eating this week, I started off on Saturday, weighing 181.5 pounds. I ate 50.0 points, which was not that high for what I had been eating the previous weeks. However, with a little bit of help from Advil, the scale jumped up to 183.0 on Sunday. I was not yet seriously worried, and so I ate 41.0 points. That was actually low for me, but not real low. Monday my Advil-impacted weight jumped up to 184.0. Also, it was clear to me that the Advil was not going to be enough to help with the pain that I had in my back. I went and saw my doctor and he put me on some muscle relaxants, and anti-inflammatory medication. My back liked the medications, but my scale did not. I only ate 26.5 points that day, but the scale held steady at 184.0 on Tuesday. I ate 33.5 points, and the scale crawled up to 184.5 on Wednesday. I only ate 28.0 points, and then on Thursday it held at 184.5. I ate 35.5 points and the scale jumped up a pound on Friday to 185.5. Whoa! I had been slowly backing off (no pun intended) from the medications, and taking a bare minimum by this time. When I got home from work on Friday the scale was down to 183.0. I had not eaten much for lunch due to time constraints brought on by my walking. I could see that if I didn't eat a little something extra, I would be holding my points to 21.5 for the day, and even though I was not overly hungry, and would have had no problem staying at 21.5 points, that is just too low for me (especially with our hike scheduled for today). So, I grabbed a couple of items, that I had skipped at lunch, and that totaled 7.5 points, and I had them also with my dinner. That brought my total up to 29.0 points. This morning my weight had dropped to 182.5, and I had nearly pulled off an upset. Hopefully, next week I will be back (I just can't get away from that word) to normal.

My water for the week was very good. I had two days that were only 6 cups, but all the rest were above 8 cups. Overall I averaged 89.14 ounces (11.1 cups or 2.6 liters) per day. I am very happy with that.

For exercise, it was not a normal week for me. With my back aching some, I had one of the physically most demanding weeks that I have had at work for a long time. (Murphy's Law) After our 4.5-mile hike to Punchbowl Falls on Saturday, Monday I was on my feet all day working on a machine. In fact I spent quite a bit of time working at a very awkward angle for my back, and it was hurting pretty good by the late afternoon when I finally made it to the doctor's office. Tuesday was a continuation of what went on on Monday, but not quite as bad. Then Wednesday, I was tasked with doing a mechanical alignment that I had not done since I left the factory in 1995, and I was on my knees, up and down, and turning wrenches all day long. I was really worried that the twisting strain would irritate my back problem, but it didn't turn out that way. The next day nearly every other muscle in my body was sore from the workout, but my back felt no worse at all. Thursday, I was thinking that finally things might quiet down for me, but I was back (:^)) at it again, on my feet and working on a problem. I thought Friday was going to finally be an easy day. In the morning, I was able to finally get all the paperwork done for the physical labor I had performed all week, but then in the afternoon, I found myself back inside a machine turning wrenches and screwdrivers. I even had to do some lifting that was beyond the 20 pound limit that the doctor had requested me not to exceed. However, I leveraged it well, and it was a short lift, and no harm was done. Even after all of what went on before, on Friday I walked a mile before work. I was not sure how well I would feel after not doing any walking since Saturday, and so I kept the pace down to 16:24 per mile (3.66 mph). I didn't feel too bad, and so at lunch I set out on another walk. I walked 2 miles, and in spite of the temperature getting up into the high 70s, I still felt pretty good. So, I walked an additional mile to make a total of 3 miles. The time for all 3 miles was 47:21 (15.78 min/mile or 3.80 mph). That was still not a barn burning pace, and I did not ever go into a deep breathing technique for the walk like I do when I am speed walking. But still I felt good all the way, and for the day I ended up with 9.06 aerobic points.

Due to my back injury, I didn't do any weight training this week. Also, my total for aerobic points was just over 20, which is only 2/3 of what my goal was. However, considering the problems I was having this week, in addition to all the physical exercise that I got at work, I am quite happy with that.

In spite of my out of limit weigh-in, I consider this week to be a total success! My eating average was a full 17 points-per-day less this week than it was last week! That is a huge drop. As a result my weight did not run away with me because of the meds, although it tried. I am hopeful that next week will see me back in range and doing better all the way around.

2 years, 12 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/182.5/180±2/BMI:22.81/WK-106
Weight Loss Graph/Year 1 Maint. Graph/Year 2 Maint. Graph/Success Story