Mr. Scale was enjoying the weekend it appears, because he very kindly said, “212.0 pounds,” this morning at 6:15. My thought was, “Where was that attitude yesterday?” Well, hopefully what this means is that next Saturday’s weigh-in will be a good one. But with Mr. Scale, you just never know.

Yesterday was a great day. Dotti and I spent it doing things together all day, and it was fun. We started out by going to the gym and playing racquetball for a bit over an hour. It was good exercise, and I felt better afterwards. We then got ready for a Zonie get together lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and we met some great ladies. The lunch was good, and the conversation made it delightful. Every time we get together with the people who visit Dotti’s web page, we are struck with how nice they all are.

After lunch we dropped by Trader Joe’s and Dot ran in to see if they had received any Heaven Bistro pizza. They hadn’t. We then ran a few errands. At the end we dropped by the mall for one of those really great cones. As we came up to the counter Dotti groaned. The only low-point flavor that they had was Peanut Butter. As it turns out, peanut butter is one of my favorite foods. They could not have chosen a better flavor for my person choice. However, Dotti cannot get peanut butter down to save her life. She is completely disgusted by it. So, we had a situation where I could have a cone but she couldn’t. She even offered to wait in line and get one for me, but I just couldn’t do that to her. I knew how much she wanted that cone, and it would be cruel for me to eat one in front of her, and I could not enjoy it knowing she was sad. So, I told her no cone, and we went to Barnes and Noble and had a mocha instead. It was delicious and we could both fully enjoy it together. The evening we spent at home on the computers. I scanned some pictures, some of which I think are going to end up on the web page.

For eating yesterday, I had my Standard Breakfast (5pts), but for lunch we went to Sweet Tomatoes and I had a salad ,which was nearly all free, except for the cheese (2.0pts). I had a cup of dressing ready to dip my fork into in case I needed some dressing, but as it turned out I didn’t. There were jalepino pepper slices, and onions, and a hot green pepper, which gave it a very spicy flavor that didn’t require any additional dressing up. I did have a tiny little yogurt cone (1pt). I think Dotti is going to put a picture up of the unbelievably small cone size they had there. It was kind of cute. So, that brought my lunch total up to 4 points. For dinner we stopped at Subway for a 6 inch turkey breast sub (6pts), which we took home and ate while watching another old Bonanza show off a DVD. So, for my meals I had 15 points. For snacks I had two delicious peaches (2pts) during the day, a White Chocolate Mocha (4pts), 4 lemon meringues (2pts), a Mr. Cookie Face (3pts) and final cup of coffee in the evening (1pt). That gave me 12 snack points and brought my total points for the day up to 27.0.

For my water, I drank 10 cups, or 80 ounces.

I took my normal vitamins (High Energy Pak) and 1000 mg of vitamin C. This morning my cold seems to be receding, which is a good thing. Last evening I was coughing some, but not really badly.

Well, my weight this morning is something I am not sure how to react to. I have not seen 212.0 pounds reading on a scale under my feet for a very long time. It makes me want to jump up and down and shout. On the other hand, I know that tomorrow it may move back up again temporarily. So, I will hold the shouting for a couple of days, and my neighbors will appreciate that I am sure. ( I mean who wants to hear a neighbor yelling at the top of his lungs, at 5:30 or 6:00 AM, “OH THANK YOU MR. SCALE!!!” They would think I had lost my tiny little mind, and call out the men with the white “I love me” jacket. )

And now for Sunday...

78 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/214.0/200/BMI:26.8/WK-11/Weight Loss Graph

Dotti and I did not feel well enough to go play racquetball yesterday. I was on call also, but fortunately nobody bothered me, so I was able to relax. Hopefully I will be able to shake this cold soon.

Our weather has been great this summer. Yesterday the temp stayed in the 60s and it was nice. Today the high is supposed to be around 70. Still nice. For the next 10 days they are predicting temps in the 70s. Of course for them to correctly predict tomorrow’s weather is a stretch sometimes, so I am only cautiously optimistic that those predicted temps will come to pass.

For eating yesterday, I had my Standard Breakfast (5pts). For lunch Dotti made up two and a half tomato sandwiches (1.5pts) for me, and gave me a small can of peaches (1.0). That gave me 2.5 points for lunch. For dinner we had “breakfast.” Two strips of turkey bacon (1.0pt), 6 ounces of hash brown potatoes (2.0pts), an egg beater cheese omelet (1pt), and 2 pieces of toast (1pt). That gave me a 5 point dinner, and a happily filled stomach. So, for meals, I had 12.5 points. For snacks during the day I had 2 excellent peaches (2pts), a WW smoothie shake (3pts), 4 lemon meringues (2pts), 1 peanut butter Kashi Bar (5pts), and a Mr. Cookie Face (3pts) to finish off the day about 7PM. That gave me 15 points in snacks, which brought my point total for the day up to 27.5.

For water, I drank 14 cups or 112 ounces (7 pounds). I also took my vitamins and the extra vitamin C again.

There is something about potatoes that has always caught my eating fancy. I have always liked hash browns. What is really nice about the way Dotti fixes them now is that they have no grease or oil, just that great potato flavor. I am eating better today than I was before I started this journey, and enjoying more. I don’t feel over full, or guilty about what I am eating. I can actually enjoy every bite because I know every bite is an OP bite and therefore something that I not only can have, but that I should have. I am eating to live, and eating to meet the obligations of the program. The fact that I just happen to enjoy what I am eating is a great plus.

I remember wandering around the kitchen nosing around for something to shove in my face. I would grab something quick and usually sweet, and high in points. Then I would go back a while later and do it again. Pudding cups, ice cream, yogurts or whatever I could find would be consumed. Fortunately, I never was much of a potato chip lover, or a cookie lover so they were seldom attacked during my raids. (Since Dot lost her weight, they have mostly been out of the house anyway, because they were “red light” foods for her.) When you added all that up together with my large helping of cereal in the morning, my high point peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and my large dinner, it is no wonder that my weight stayed up around 240 for so long.

Now I sometimes wander around looking for something, but I have a pretty good idea what it is, and I know exactly how many points I can afford before I eat it. So, if I grab some meringues or a Mr. Cookie Face, it is because I can, and still remain OP. That is so cool. As a child I was taught to never eat between meals. That does not mean that I always avoided eating between meals, but it did mean that I would feel guilty for anything that I ate between meals. (And honestly, as a child, I usually did not eat between meals, but when I got to the meals I was starving, and I chowed down in a big way.) Now I feel great being able to have something that is OP anytime that I want to. It is a mentally freeing approach to eating. I still have a long ways to go on organizing my nutritional agenda as far as the types of foods I eat each day. I try to get some vegetables and fruits in each day, and I always have some milk, and grain cereal. But I am sure I can dial that in a little better in the future. For right now I am focused on that point total each day, and hoping for the best from Mr. Scale in the mornings.

Here is it Monday again, but I always look forward to Monday when I have had the “on-call pager” all week. We get to turn the thing off on Monday morning, after our week of being on-call, and I like doing that. I still have my personal pager and cell phone (each an electronic ball and chain) but I don’t have to answer them except during normal working hours. That is a significant difference.

Well, I am off to face a new workweek, and my 80th day OP. Summer is already more than a third over, and it is only 148 days to Christmas. Don’t laugh, it will be here before you know it.

79 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/214.0/200/BMI:26.8/WK-11/Weight Loss Graph

That is 3 pounds down from what he said on Saturday. Now we’ll have to wait and see if he is going to retain this frame of mind on Saturday, unlike last week where I was down to 213 for a couple of days, and then Friday it jumped up to 215.5 pounds and Saturday it was 214.0 pounds. The scale can been an evil master if you give it control, that is why I always try and focus on being OP and use the scale only as a general indicator of direction. But is always fun to see a loss.

Yesterday I took a two mile walk during the day. It was at a leisurely 32:24 minute pace. The air temperature was in the low 60s and I had to wear a coat at the beginning. In fact I kept it on for over half of the walk before I finally warmed up enough to need to take it off.

I ended up working on a wafer handling issue again yesterday, which gave me some getting up and down exercise, but it was a fairly quick fix and I did not spend too much time on it, and so I didn’t get a lot of exercise from it.

For eating yesterday, I had my Standard Breakfast (5pts), Standard Lunch (7.0pt.), and for dinner I had 2 cups of Pasta Italiano (5.0pts) that Dot picked up from Trader Joe’s, and a Vanilla-Orange Smoothie (2.0pts). That made 7.0 points for dinner and brought my meal total for the day to 19.0 points. For snacks I had a cup of coffee at work (1pt) and then a Mr. Cookie Face (3pts) with Dot in the evening, for a total of 4.0 snack points. For the day I ate 23.0 points.

I drank 14 cups or 112 ounces of water yesterday, a mere 7 pounds.

I woke up a bit later than usual today, and so I need to head out the door to work. On to face Tuesday.

80 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/214.0/200/BMI:26.8/WK-11/Weight Loss Graph

Yesterday I still was not feeling well. I am not sure if it is allergies running crazy or a lingering cold. Whatever it is, Dotti and I both are affected by it. I took a 2 mile walk again (a very leisurely pace - 37:33 minutes for the same distance that I was doing in about 32 minutes last week) yesterday and felt worse after it was finished. I am beginning to wonder if there is something in that park (which is loaded with all sorts of vegetation, standing water, and some fowl) that is getting to me. I walked in a different location, on the other side of town, on Monday, and I did not feel bad afterwards. Last Thursday when this whole cold thing hit me, it was right after a vigorous walk in that same park. I may be reaching but I am just trying to identify a cause. It may just be a cold virus after all, making me cough and feel bad. And if it is allergies, it really must be something in the air generally, since Dotti is affected too. It is yet another reason that I prefer the wintertime when pollen is at a minimum. Whatever it is, hopefully it will pass soon.

For eating yesterday I had 26 total points. I had my Standard Breakfast (5pts), Standard Lunch (6.0pts - I did not eat the espresso beans yesterday), and for dinner I had half of a Heaven Bistro Pizza (4.5pts), a 2 cup bowl of cereal with skim milk (6.0pts) for a total of (10.5pts). That brought my meal total to 21.5 points. For snacks, I had a cup of coffee at work (1.5pts) , and a Mr. Cookie Face last (3pts) night. Because of my coughing, I took two cough drops (0.5pts). That came to 5.0 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 26.5.

For water, I drank 12 cups, or 96 ounces (6 pounds).

I am off to face Wednesday.

81 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/214.0/200/BMI:26.8/WK-11/Weight Loss Graph

212 pounds sits in my memory as one of my “normal” weights. I remember struggling with 212 in the past, both trying to hold on to it, and not increase any more, and also trying to get below it. It is a stepping off point in either direction. I remember struggling to hold on to it one time, and we ended up having some visitors for a couple of weeks, who were very fond of Dairy Queen, and the next thing I knew I had lost my grip on 212 and was heading up the line. It was just like someone else, who was holding on to some object in a fairly fast current of water, and then seeing him lose his grip on the object. Without any effort I was carried along out of control into the 220s. This time, as I have reached 212 it is more like paddling a canoe on a clear and calm lake, with no current whatsoever. It is absolutely astounding the difference it makes having a program to work, rather than just struggling and trying to use willpower alone.

I am still fighting a cough, but I definitely felt better yesterday than I had felt the day before. I used some cough drops to hold the coughing down, and it worked pretty well. I did not take a walk, just to give myself a break. Driving home last night, I could really tell the difference in how much better I felt. That 1 hour rush hour drive really beats me up when I am feeling bad.

Yesterday I went through our vacation pictures that we took in Spokane and selected a number of them that I liked, and sent them over to Dotti, who was working on her photo pages. She grabbed the ones she especially liked of the group and put them up (click here). She also put up our 25th anniversary pictures on the same page.

As for eating yesterday, I had my Standard Breakfast (5pts), Standard Lunch (7.0pt.). (My “standard” lunch is beginning to alter slightly. I am trying to cut back on my caffeine, and so I am not eating espresso beans with my lunch. Instead I am having enough additional meringues to make up for the point I would have had, if I had eaten the beans. The points remain the same, but the caffeine goes down. ) For dinner, Dot fixed up some stir fried mixed vegetables (1pt), one half cup rice (3.0 pts), and a Smoothie Shake (2pts) for a total of 6 points. That added up to 18.0 meal points for the day. For snacks, I had 5 cough drops (1.5 points), four chocolate meringues (2pts), 2 pudding cups (4pts), and a cup of coffee (1pt) to ease a caffeine headache I was getting from backing off the caffeine a little too quickly. That added up to 8.5 snack points, and made my total points for the day: 26.5 points.

All and all I felt better, more regular, and closer to normal yesterday than I had the day before. Hopefully I will improve again today.

Thursday is calling to me, I have go and see what it wants.

82 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/214.0/200/BMI:26.8/WK-11/Weight Loss Graph

Yesterday started out normal enough. I had my Standard Breakfast (5pts) in the morning, but my cough was beginning to bug me, so I had a cough drop before I left and then during the day I had 6 more of them. It really helped both my cough, and my breathing. I felt better yesterday than I had in several days. When it came time for lunch I had to go out and buy something. For reasons beyond our control, I could not take a lunch with me from home yesterday, and so I set out in search of a Subway. I found several listed on the Internet in the West Portland area, and one was pretty close by.

When I pulled into the parking lot, it was a zoo going on. There were no parking spots, and there were cars in line trying to find one. It was a back ally, overcrowded area, and as I went by Subway itself, I could see in the window that the line inside was as bad as the parking lot outside. No thanks. Ever since I went through boot camp back in 1973, I have had no desire whatsoever to stand in a line. It is one of my least favorite things to do, especially when I am trying to hurry up, and get something to eat before lunchtime is over. So, what was left was the dreaded McDonalds. I knew I had eaten there once early in my journey and I could get by with a cheeseburger and small fries, even though the points would be very high for what I was getting. I went through the drive-thru and had the cheeseburger, small fries and a diet drink. I somehow felt like I had been robbed. 12 points! Yuk! It seemed to skew my eating just a bit for the rest of the day.

It is not like I don’t have the points to eat. 12 points is only 5 points more than my standard lunch, and looking back over the my journey, there were very few days that I could not have added 5 points and still been OP, but I hate giving up my reserve points so early in the day. C'est la vie.

When I got home Dotti fixed us some Heaven’s Bistro pizza and a smoothie shake, for 6.5 points. That brought me up to 23.5 points for meals, leaving some room for snacks. The cough drops added up to 2 points, and I had a plum (1pt). I finished off my snacks with 5 meringues (2pts) and that brought my snack points to 5.0. For the day, I ate 28.5 points.

I finished all my points fairly early on (7 PM or so), and ended up drinking a lot of water to keep myself feeling full the rest of the evening. By the end of the day I had drunk 15 cups (120 ounces or 7.5 pounds). And by the end of my night’s sleep I had made a number of trips to the bathroom. No more McDonalds for lunch!

I was digging around in my papers and books, and I found my old exercise journal. In it I had 3 “before” pictures from October, 1989, taped to a page, showing me at 213 pounds, dressed in my swimming suits, in various “Atlas” poses. (Dot says there is no way those pictures are making it onto the Internet. She has very good sense!) The journal has my running times and distances listed for some of my workout attempts of the past from 1989 to 1994, with even a couple of entries for 1999. It also has my body measurements at three different points over 4 years. (The last entry in that area was for 7/1/93 when I weighed 227.) I could tell that for a couple of years, around that time, I was struggling to keep my weight below 213, and to work my way back down into the 190s, with no success. Well, here I am again, only this time I am armed with some heavy artillery where before I was using my bare hands. This time I feel confident that I am going to win the battle.

I will keep digging around in my old journal and see if there is anything else of interest for future entries here.

I did not walk yesterday, but I may today, since I am feeling better. I certainly will be walking tomorrow, come rain or shine, because it is the day for the DWLZ walk.

It is Friday, and we are almost to the weekend, and of course my weigh-in day. It has been a good week so far, and I hope that tomorrow will reflect it on the scale.

83 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/214.0/200/BMI:26.8/WK-11/Weight Loss Graph

*** Weigh-in for WEEK 12 ***

Week Completed:	__12__
Weigh-In Weight:	211.0
Body Mass Index:	26.4
Week’s Average Points/Day:	26.1
Pounds lost this week:	3.0
Pounds lost total:	28.5
Pounds to go to 10%:	0.0*
Pounds to go to goal:	11.0
* Made 10% at 215.5 pounds on 7/14/01

___________________________

I stepped up on Mr. Scale this morning when I woke up a bit after 7:00 AM, and he said, “211.0 pounds.” I smiled.

That makes 3 pounds lost for this week and makes up a bit for the last two weeks of half a pound loss each. It also brings my graph nearly back to the 2 pounds per week line (referenced to the second week’s weigh in). Using my projected Date of Goal equation, it says that I should be making goal on September 2, 2001, but that is assuming I don’t slow down as I approach goal. (Not a good assumption.) However, reaching goal by Halloween is not looking out of the question. The future is not in reach and so I will leave that for tomorrow, but today I am happy for where I am: 11 pounds to goal, and OP.

We are going to do the DWLZ walk today, and that will be fun. It is always fun to walk with Dotti! And speaking of exercise, I did a bit better the last week or so in getting out and doing some walking. I had to slow down for a few days because I was feeling under the weather, but I am feeling better now and I hope to get some additional exercise during the next week. I wouldn’t be surprised if my starting to walk again, hasn't been responsible for finally shaking loose a few pounds that had been slow in leaving the last couple of weeks.

Yesterday, I had my Standard Breakfast (5pts), Standard Lunch (7.0pt.). For dinner I had a 6 inch Subway sub. For snacks, during the day I had 7 cough drops (2pts and have they been helping my cough!) and 2 pudding cups (4pts). That made 18 meal points, and 6 snack points for a total of 24 points for the day.

I found that I made a mistake in measuring my large cup of water that I drink from most of the time. It is a 24 ounce cup and not a 32 ounce cup. (I was using a 32 ounce cup on our Anniversary vacation and sometime after we got back, around mid June, Dotti bought some nice hard plastic cups, that left no plastic under-taste in the water, like the 32 ounce cup did. They are great cups but they are only 24 ounces, and I for some reason assumed they were 32 ounces.) So, the result of that is that many days my water values, listed since mid June in my journal, have been slightly inflated over what they should have been. I think that the most I was off for any given day was 4 or 5 cups, and on most days it would have been 3 or less. Since I have been hitting the water pretty good all along, I don’t think the error hurt me in any way. I was still getting in all of the water that I needed, and well over my 8 cups a day! If I thought I was drinking 160 ounces, I may have only had 120 ounces, but probably more. I normally drink water from three separate sources, which I just measure this morning to verify their sizes:

1. My "big cup" that I drink most of my water from - 24 ounces. 2. A 12 ounce glass 3. A 24 ounce coffee mug I keep in the car

I drink two glasses of water from the 12 ounce glass each day. I have been counting that as 16 ounces all along. So, that is an additional 8 ounces of water that I have not been counting. I never count the smoothie shakes, which are at least 75% water, or my coffee which is mostly water, as drinking water. That would add an addition 16 to 24 ounces of water on most days. So, I doubt that the numbers for my water intake that I show in my journal, were thrown off all that much by the error. On some days they may have still have shown less than I actually drank. But I discovered an error in what I was doing, and that means I needed to put the correction here in the journal. From now on I will be counting that cup correctly. :)

It was fun marking my weight on my chart this morning for a change. The last two weeks were not very exciting to document, but this week made up for it.

Well, it’s Saturday and I am not on call. That is a good thing. I think I will get started on enjoying my day off.

84 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/211.0/200/BMI:26.4/WK-12/Weight Loss Graph