Week 114 Update

It was 04:30, an hour and 10 minutes before sunrise, with the temperature sitting at 60°, on its way up to a predicted high of 90°, as I stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said, "184.5 pounds!" Well that was an improvement over most of the week.

This was an interesting week on the scale. (It seems every week is interesting in one area or another.) My average weight for the week was only 182.64, which is low, and down from 185.07 last week. This was in spite of the fact that my average points per day was up from 50.71 to 55.86. I think the killer hike we took on Saturday may have had a little something to do with this.

For eating this week, I started off low on Saturday, after weighing-in at 184.5. We had a very strenuous hike that day, and it killed any serious appetite that I might have had. I went to bed fairly early, after only eating 35.5 points. Sunday morning I woke up weighing down at 183.0, including the sore and swollen muscles. I beefed up my points for the day and ate 59.5. Monday, I had dropped again to 181.5. So, I hit it hard with 68.5 points. Tuesday I weighed 182.0. That was moving in the right direction, so I ate 59.5. Wednesday I held steady at 182.0. I hit it again with 67.5 points. That moved me up to 183.0 on Thursday, so I ate 51.5, figuring to fine tune it close to my target weight of 185. Friday I was back down to 182.5. I was going to really hit it, and so I had 35.5 points for lunch, and was ready to have a really big point day, but then my back gave me some problems in the afternoon and I had to take some meds in the evening. This, coupled with the fact that I did not have much of an appetite after the big lunch, had me holding my points down for dinner and snacks. My final tally for the day was 49.0 points. My increase on the scale was probably a holdover from the heavy lunch, and the meds. This week definitely left me scratching my head over the way the scale stayed down when I was boosting my points. We'll see what next week brings.

For exercise this week, I earned plenty of aerobic points! On Saturday Dotti and I tackled Larch Mountain and hiked 11 miles, with a change of 2800 feet in elevation, in 6 hours and 48 minutes. Going downhill for 5 miles, with a decrease of altitude of 2800 feet, was "a good stretch of the legs," and some pretty good exercise. If that was all we had done for the day, it would have been a nice hike. However, the return trip of 5 miles, while increasing our vertical position by more than 2800 feet, was a grueling test of our wills. Someday, when we are in better shape than we are today, that hike may be less of a challenge for us, but this time it took about all we had to complete it. I think this hike may have had some sort of impact on my body's processing of calories for the week. I probably figured aerobic points for this hike a bit low, because I multiplied the time of the hike in minutes by 0.1, which is only two-thirds the points I would have gotten for playing basketball for the same amount of time. But even so, I feel like 40.78 points is not bad, since my goal for the entire week is only 30.0. Sunday, I was doing well to get out of bed, let alone do any exercise. Monday, I went to work, and was not doing too badly, but I didn't feel up to doing any walking. Tuesday morning I took a one mile walk in the morning while it was still cool. It took me 14:18 to walk it, and earned 2.19 points. On Wednesday, we had a meeting at our office at work, and I arrived early. So, I headed off on a walk that I had wanted to do for years. There is a stream that wanders by our office, with a path that runs along side of it. There is no way to get to the path directly from the office, but I noticed that if I walked out to the main road and across a bridge, there was an access point for the path. I walked to the access point, and down onto the path. I used my pedometer to measure the distance, and I used my watch to set the turn around point, so I would be back in time for the meeting. It turned out to be a fairly nice walk, which took me through 1.44 miles, and 19:54 minutes. I earned 3.81 aerobic points for that walk. Thursday I took it easy, but on Friday, I walked 2 miles in the morning, along my normal walking path at work in 26:17. That was good for another 6.13 aerobic points, and brought my total up to 52.91 for the week.

For water this week, I got in at least 6 cups for six of the days, and averaged 69.71 ounces (8.7 cups) per day overall, which I am happy with.

I think it is interesting that the average of all my 798 daily weigh-ins since I began my journey is now 190.6. When I first hit 190 on the scale, the overall average of all my weigh-ins was 209.3. That was one year and 8 months ago. It has taken all that time to bring my overall average weight down 18.7 pounds. Of course since I hit goal, my average weight has remained below 190, but it is pretty cool that even with my heaviest weigh-ins averaged in with the rest, the average has nearly fallen to my personal goal weight of 190.

2 years, 68 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/184.5/180±2/BMI:23.06/WK-114
Weight Loss Graph/Year 1 Maint. Graph/Year 2 Maint. Graph/Success Story