Week 119 Update

It was 04:30, 53° and dark as I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, "185.0 pounds!"

Here it is my birthday in 2003. When I was born Harry S. Truman was president, and Elvis Presley, an unknown, was getting set to start his junior year in high school. The Beatles were years away yet. Things that were not in my household at that time included a television set, record player, and a telephone, all of which existed but were not as commonly owned as they are today. Of course computers or even handheld calculators were not available then. (I can still remember a high school friend of mine, over a decade and a half later, telling me that the slide rule that I was using for my math and physics classes would be obsolete someday, because the company in Texas where his father worked was developing an "electronic slide rule" that would replace it. Imagine that.) CDs were way off in the future, and cars were large, while gas prices were small (well under 30 cents per gallon). The crime rate was well below what it is today, and the schools in America were as good as or better than any in the world. The Internet, or anything like it, was not even dreamed of, except by a few science fiction writers. The moon was untouched by man, and all of the existing satellites had been placed by nature, and none by man. There had never been a Playboy magazine, nor a major motion picture made that could have been rated R by today's standards. It was a different (dare I say better?) world then. We have certainly made some great progress in the technological and medical fields, however…

Today I am 52 and it is hard to believe so many years have gotten behind me already.

On my birthday in 1990, I weighed about 198 pounds. In 1991, after hitting 230 three months earlier, by my birthday I had dropped down to 212. In 1992, my birthday found me sitting at 198 again, after having yo-yoed up to 224 during the previous Christmas, and then losing fairly consistently all the way until May, where I hit 192. I then proceeded to gain just as consistently all the way back up to 227, by March of 1993. My birthday in 1993 found me sitting at 227. August 23, 1994 I was 230. In 1995 I was 231, after having fought my weight back down from 240 a few months before. In 1996 I went on a diet and an exercise program that pulled my weight down into the 190s for a very brief time, only to have it move right back up into the 230s. My birthdays for 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000 all found me banging around between 230 and 240. But, thanks to the journey I am now on, on my birthday in 2001, I was down to 207.0 pounds, and by 2002, just like today, I was at 185.0.

I remember the frustration with myself during those earlier years. I would start counting my calories and exercising. My weight would fall. I would sometimes reach my goal weight and sometimes not, but it didn't matter either way, because my weight would climb right back up after I grew tired of the diet. Today I am not tired, because I am not on a diet. Today my lifestyle sustains my weight at my target weight, without straining or paining me. For years this is what I wanted for myself. I just never thought I would have it.

Eating and weight – My average points per day this week increased from 50.43 to 53.64, up over 3 points per day. My weight increased by one pound for my weigh-in but my average weight for the week fell from 184.71 to 184.14. It seems that I am now maintaining at 185 by eating in the +50 points per day area.

Saturday I weighed in at 184.0. I spent the day doing nothing physical and it seemed like I was eating something all day long. At day's end I had consumed 62.0 points. Sunday morning I weighed 185.0. I ate 45.0 points, including a large (27.0 points) lunch at the Zonie get-together at Sweet Tomatoes. Monday the scale was up to 186.0 but I wasn't too worried. It seems that things stay with me longer on the weekend but once I get into the workweek I usually drop a bit. I ate 49.5 points and Tuesday the scale dropped to 183.5. I kicked up my points to 54.5, and on Wednesday I was up to 184.0. As it turned out, I wasn't too hungry that evening and I ended the day with only 41.0 points. The scale dropped to 182.5 on Thursday. So, I picked up my points and ate 59.0 of them. On Friday the scale moved up to 183.0, back inside my target range. I ate 64.5 points to compensate for the low reading on the scale, which led to my weigh in weight of 185.0 this morning.

Physical Therapy – On Monday the PT added more weights on the machines I was using, and I was sore on Tuesday and Wednesday as a result. My back was hanging in there and holding the pain down to a dull roar. After my walks on Tuesday my back was hurting in the evening but other than that it felt pretty good.

Oh Wednesday I had another session and he added more weight to my exercises. When I hit the electrical shock therapy, er... I mean electrical stimulation therapy, he had my back taking 18 mA of current right at the start, and had those muscles dancing around pretty good. I was tired at the end of the session.

I am still not sure if I will ever be pain-free with my back, but the pain has definately decreased, which is a good thing!

Exercise – I started off the week doing terrible. On Saturday and Sunday I did nothing that would qualify as exercise. On Monday I started to crawl out of the potato stage and walked a mile before work. I just didn't get on the road to work early enough to have time to do any more. The air was cool but not cold, and I took a nice easy pace of 14:27 per mile (4.15 mph), for 2.14 aerobic points. By lunch time the temperature was up and I didn't feel at all like tackling it.

On Tuesday it felt like someone threw the switch for me. I got an early start in the morning, and was able to walk 2 miles before work, in 26:59 (13:30 per mile, or 4.44mph). That gave me 5.88 aerobic points. Then at lunch, I walked 3 miles! When I started out the air actually felt cool, but that didn't last long. I felt warm after only doing about a half mile, and so I kept my pace down. The first mile I did in 14:04, the second in 14:10 and the third in 14:33. Overall it averaged out as 14:15 per mile (4.20 mph), for another 8.62 aerobic points. For the day that gave me 14.50 aerobic points and brought my total for the week up to 16.64; over halfway to my goal of 30.0.

On Wednesday I only walked a single mile in the morning in 14:20 (4.18 mph) for 2.18 aerobic points, which brought my week's total up to 18.82. That put me in a position where a couple of 2-mile walks would push me to my goal.

Thursday I went over the top on my aerobic points. In the morning, it was nice and cool (somewhere in the upper 50s), and I arrived at work about 35 minutes early. So, I had time to walk a couple of miles, which I did. The first mile took me 13:07 (4.57 mph) and the second took 12:44 (4.71 mph). Cool air is great for walking! (I could just see my breath when I started out.) So, for the two miles I averaged 12:58 per mile (4.62 mph). That was good for 6.24 aerobic points. At lunch the air temperature had really warmed up. It was somewhere between 75° and 80°. But I decided to take a walk anyway. I had to hold my speed down because of the heat, but I still was able to get 3 miles in. I only averaged 14:59 per mile, which comes out about 4.0 mph. The heat really tired me out. I earned 8.01 aerobic points for those three miles. That brought my total for the day up to 14.25, and for the week I had 33.07. That gave me more than I needed to reach my goal of 30.

My knees were hurting a bit after my walk on Thursday, and since we were planning a hike for Saturday, I gave it rest on Friday.

I haven't counted my exercise for Physical Therapy, even though there is a 10-minute cardio exercise at the beginning. The machine my PT has me using even gives a distance readout, but it is like pushing the pedals on a bicycle with my hands. I am not sure how to count that. It is a good workout, and gets my arms quite tired, and I work up a good sweat. The other exercises that I do are all with weights, and not really aerobic exercise. They are certainly good exercise, but do not build aerobic points.

After completing 833 days of my journey, averaging all my days together, I have eaten 39.6 points per day. (I didn't break out of averaging eating in the 20's until April 21, 2002, four months after reaching goal. On January 1 this year, I had moved the average up to 36.4 points per day.)

By averaging all of my daily weigh-ins over those 833 days, it comes to 190.3 pounds. (It only fell below 191.0 pounds on June 13 this year, but it fell below 200.0 on March 30, 2002.)

So, my average points have slowly increased and my total average weight has slowly decreased. If I figured it correctly, and I continue to weigh-in at 185.0 per day, I will not reach an average weight for my journey that falls to 187, and into my target range, for another 1,374 days. That is another 3 years and 9 months to go, or 6 years into my journey. I am working on my 6th year of nonsmoking right now, so a six year target is something that is not out of the question.

Now if you average my daily weigh-ins since Christmas day in 2001 (day 228 of my journey), it comes out to 184.3. I have been fairly consistent since reaching my target weight goal. Only time will tell if I can continue that for another 1,374 days until my average overall weight falls to 187. That is entirely too long a period of time to focus on. I will just continue to focus on each day as it comes along.

2 years, 103 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/185.0/180±2/BMI:23.12/WK-119
Weight Loss Graph/Year 1 Maint. Graph/Year 2 Maint. Graph/Success Story