Week 111 Update

At 04:55 I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, "185.0 pounds!" I'm back!

The temperature was 61° and the forecast said 95° for later in the day. Summer is definitely here!

This week was not what I would call a normal week. I spent most of the week trying to coax the scale up to 185.0 pounds. As a result I averaged eating 60.0 points per day. That was about 15 points high each day, which gave me a total of 105 points extra for the week. That should be good for adding 1.5 pounds. Since the scale went up 2.5 pounds, the extra pound may be something else. I will be keeping an eye on it to see if it falls back off again once I get my points back down to normal this week.

For eating this week, my goal was to gain 2.5 pounds. So, starting from my 182.5 weigh-in on Saturday, I ate 75.0 points. On Sunday I weighed 183.5 pounds. When I eat high, and the scale moves up, I like to do a consolidation day to sort of check the waters and see what is really going on. I ate 44.0 points. On Monday the scale dropped to 181.0. Oops! So, I really hit it on Monday. I ate what is a new record for OP eating for me of 82.5 points. On Tuesday I was back up to 183.0 pounds, not quite where I was on Sunday. I ate 50.0 points, as a sort of consolidation and gentile nudge upwards at the same time. (It was about 5 points higher than maintenance would call for.) On Wednesday I weighed 184.0. I ate 56.5, for slightly harder nudge upwards, and was rewarded with 184.5 on the scale on Thursday. Unfortunately I had to take some muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory meds on Wednesday, so I was not sure if the scale reading was being artificially elevated. On Thursday and Friday I didn't require any medications, so I was able to see what the real results of my efforts were. I ate 49.0 points on Thursday, and on Friday the scale dropped to 182.0. Now that was depressing. I decided to have a nice large lunch at a Mexican restaurant near my office. When the day was ended, I had eaten 63.0 points. This morning the scale moved up to 185.0 pounds. Now I have to settle in to the "hunting" phase, where the scale will probably move back and forth across my target, as I get things dialed back in for the long haul of maintaining at 185.0 pounds again. It is nice to have my weight maintenance graph showing my target zone where it belongs this week.

For exercise this week, Dotti and I did two hikes, the second of which we were joined by Tracy and Dotti's brother Rip. The first one was at the Silver Falls State Park south of Portland. We walked 7.5 miles around the long loop of waterfalls. We saw 9 of the 10 falls on the loop and had a great time, even though we had some very heavy rain at times. The sun came out a number of times as well, so it all balanced out. It took us 4 hours and 36 minutes to complete the walk, and I was nearly exhausted. It felt really good to finally sit down in the van when we finished. I counted that hike as 27.7 aerobic points. On Sunday we all walked up to Punchbowl Falls in the Columbia Gorge, east of Portland. This walk was 5.0 miles long, round trip, and it took us 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete. There was not a lot of climbing, although the path to and from the base of the falls is quite steep, and on the return trip it felt a lot longer than it had on the way down. The company was great and the walk was refreshing, and I gave it 15.0 aerobic points at the end. The rest of the week I didn't do any outside walking. My back was giving me some trouble early in the week, and I just took it easy for the rest of the week.

For water, I did okay. I got in at least 6 cups each day, and averaged 56 ounces (7 cups) each day.

This week my goals are to try and stabilize my weight at 185.0 and to get some walking in during the week. Since Dotti and I will be on vacation this week, we hope to get in some nice walks.

I have now completed 79 weeks (18+ months) of maintenance, having never gone above 187.0 pounds, which is my upper limit of my target range. While I did go over my temporarily lowered target limit of 182.0 pounds in May, which was because of medications, and I don't consider that to have been a real out of range excursion. Never in my life before have I been so consistent in my weight. Not only that, I am consistently where I want to be.

As with any change of this sort, it will only continue to be on track as long as I am vigilant about keeping it there. Attention is required for a lifetime, or the good results will evaporate into abandonment. The nice part is that the attention is so easy to apply now. The habits are in place to assist me and it is nearly on autopilot on most days. But I must remember that I am not "over it" or "well" from the overeating problem. It is under control and nothing more. Control requires attention, always.

2 years, 47 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/185.0/180±2/BMI:23.12/WK-111
Weight Loss Graph/Year 1 Maint. Graph/Year 2 Maint. Graph/Success Story