Week 107 Update

At 04:45 it was 55°F outside, and dark. I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, "180.0 pounds!" Back on target.

It is amazing, but no sooner did I hurt my back a week and a half ago, and suddenly my workday went from very slow, to where I was the busiest I have been in months. Since my doctor told me not to lift more than 20 pounds, and put me on medication, I have changed out two robots, mechanically adjusted a stand, fully taught three robots, put in a new computer monitor (which is what took out my back in the first place), and swapped out two controller boxes. It had been weeks since I had swapped out one robot, and 8 years since I had to adjust a stand, and weeks since I had to teach a robot, or swap out a controller box. That was at work. On my time, I have taken two fairly long hikes, with a lot of climbing, and some fairly strenuous walks on mostly level ground. So, things just got really busy at what appeared to be the worst possible time. However…

As the last 1.5 weeks progressed, my back felt better and better. For each of the projects that came up, I had to get less and less help with the lifting, and yesterday I did all of the lifting myself in pulling the old robot out, and putting in the new one. And while my back was hurting just a bit last night, I didn't need any pain medication, and it feels good this morning. So, all the activity has not hurt, and has probably sped up the healing process.

Getting off the anti-inflammatory medication has helped put my weight back where it belongs, and today I was right on target for my weigh-in. The drop in my average weight was even more impressive than the 2.5 pound drop I had for my weigh-in. Last week my average weight was 184.0, two pounds over the upper limit of my target range. This week my average weight was only 180.43, less than a half pound over my actual target, and over 1.5 pounds below my upper limit. That is a drop of 3.57 pounds! But it was nearly all pounds of water, not fat. My average points per day went up from 34.79 to 43.93. Eating 9 points per day more each day is not going to be dropping fat weight. Getting off the medication was indisputably the key to the loss.

For eating this week…

With my weigh-in at 182.5 last Saturday, I held my points down to 39.0. On Sunday, I weighed 181.5. However, I had gone off my medications, and I knew that I had not been eating enough to sustain 180.0 during the past week. So, to avoid a big drop on the scale, I ate hearty on Sunday, with a 41.5-point lunch, and a total point count of 57.0 at the end of the day. Sure enough, in spite of that, my weight dropped on Monday morning to 180.0. Not wanting to push it, I ate 42.5 points on Monday, and on Tuesday the scale said I was 180.5. I ate 37.5 points, and then on Wednesday held steady at 180.5. I felt like I was pretty well back to normal at this point, and shifted into my normal eating mode. I had 47.5 points. The scale moved up on Thursday to 181.0. Undaunted, I ate 46.5 points, and the scale dropped to 179.5 on Friday. Knowing how I seem to get funny results on Saturday morning, I didn't push it too hard, and only ate 37.5 points, and that brought me in at 180.0 this morning.

For exercise this week…

I was very happy with how it went. We had our hike on Saturday to the triple falls, which kept us moving for 2 hour and 40 minutes. That worked out to 10.67 aerobic points. Sunday we went shopping and took it easy, and I didn't earn any aerobic points. Monday Dotti and I got on our bikes and did 30 minutes of easy to moderate riding. (2.0 aerobic points) We also played 5 games of croquet, which was fun and some exercise, but I didn't count any aerobic points for it. Tuesday, back to work, and I walked a mile in the morning in 14:00.00. (I had to note that even the hundredth seconds count ended at 00 that day.) That was good for 2.28 aerobic points. On Wednesday I got to work early enough where I could walk 3 miles before work, and I did it in 41:19. That gave me 9.07 aerobic points. Then at lunch I walked another mile in 14:08, for another 2.45 aerobic points. That night I tried doing a bit with the dumbbells and felt like I was not pushing it too much. On Thursday, I took a day off from walking. On Friday, I would have liked to walk in the morning, but I had to drive to the office to pick up a part before going to my customer's site. That ate up my free time before work. When lunchtime rolled around I got to adding up the number of aerobic points in my head that I had for the week, and I added a bit low. I was thinking that I needed 8 points to break 30 and thereby reach my goal. I knew that a good 3 mile walk would give me that much, so I headed off to do just that. I kept up the pace fairly well, and finished the first mile in 13:10.64. The second mile ended at 26:18.95 (13:08.31), and the third, which is a different route than the other two, and perhaps just a bit longer, I finished at 40:02. (My stopwatch loses the hundredths read out past 30 minutes for some reason.) So, that gave me a time of 13:43 for the final mile. Anyway, that added up to 9.48 aerobic points for my walk, and put me well over 30 for the week at 35.74 aerobic points. That is in addition to the fact that I was on my feet and active at work nearly all of the time every day for the week. This was one of the best weeks for exercise that I have had in quite a while, and my back still feels good.

On the water front…

It seems like something has to be off each week and this week it was my water. I drank less than my goal on both Saturday (I only wrote down 3 cups) and on Tuesday I only have 4 cups listed in my journal. However, for the week, I averaged 60.57 ounces per day, or 7.6 cups per day, and that is definitely in my goal of 6-8 cups per day. So, it was not a total disaster.

2 years, 19 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/180.0/180±2/BMI:22.5/WK-107
Weight Loss Graph/Year 1 Maint. Graph/Year 2 Maint. Graph/Success Story