Week 160 Update

It was 05:30 and the temperature was 58º when I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, "185.0 pounds!"

This week was much better than last week. First of all, I was able to decrease the "frazzle factor," as my stress level dropped, and I was able to relax again. That was very much assisted by the fact that our dear friends, Jim and Tammy came down for the weekend. We didn't do too many things, and since I had the pager, we couldn't leave the area, but it was just a great comforting and enjoyably time with friends that made us feel so much better. Dotti and I feel so blessed to have such great friends!

This week was short week, since we had the Memorial Day holiday on Monday, and the pager didn't go off once on the holiday. (I did have to deal with the pager on Saturday, and it cost me about 4 hours of time, but fortunately, that was it for the weekend.) Tuesday through Friday went by in such a hurry, I can't imagine where they got off to.

Eating and weight – Saturday I weighed in at 186.0 pounds. We took Jim and Tammy to two of our favorite restaurants. For lunch we went to Sweet Tomatoes. For dinner we went to the Stardust Diner. At day's end, I had consumed 50.5 points.

Sunday, it was like I was "on the road" again, as the scale dropped to 184.0 pounds. Jim and Tammy liked Sweet Tomatoes as much as we do, and so we went there again for lunch. Then in the evening we took them to one of Dotti's favorite restaurants: Newport Bay. I splurged and had a piece of cheesecake for dessert, and that moved my points for the meal up to 30.0. I was up to 59.0 points by the time I went to bed.

Monday I still weighed 184.0 pounds. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to Jim and Tammy as they headed back to Spokane. I dropped my points to 44.0 for the day.

Tuesday the scale fell to 183.0 pounds. I didn't respond by eating more. It was back to work that day, but I only consumed 37.0 points total.

Wednesday I weighed 185.5. I ate 39.5 points for the day.

Thursday I weighed 185.0 pounds, right on my target weight. I ate 42.0 points for the day.

Friday I weighed 185.0 again. For the second day in a row, Dotti spent the entire day working on organizing different parts of the house and garage, and so I rewarded her by taking her out to Sweet Tomatoes. (This week has been very good for Dotti on the scale too!) I ate 15.5 points during the meal and all my meals together totaled 36.0 points. After adding in my snacks, I consumed 47.5 points on Friday. That brought me to my weigh-in this morning of 185.0.

Exercise – I was very happy with how my exercise went this week! I got in over 30 miles, and pushed my walking for 2004 to up over 420 miles so far!

Saturday we took it easy. I was tied up with the pager for most of the afternoon. Dotti and Tammy were at the mall during that time, and Jim came home with me where I could work on my computer and use the phone to get a customer problem straightened out. Walking around the mall a bit before the pager went off was about it for me and exercise that day.

Sunday, we all went up and visited the Pittock Mansion and did some walking around the grounds and up and down the stairs inside the mansion. When we got home after dinner, Tammy and I took a walk around the 3.1-mile loop. It was late and dark out, but the temperature was down, and we both wore coats. Most of the route is pretty well lighted, so it is a safe walk, even at night. We took 48:52 to complete the course, and that was good for 7.69 aerobic points.

Memorial day, Dotti and I did the 3.1-mile loop in 52:38. The temperature was up a bit, and we definitely didn't need coats. We earned 6.85 aerobic points.

Tuesday I did 2.4 miles with my walking partner at lunchtime in 44:10. I earned 4.42 aerobic points. In the evening Dotti and I did our 3.1 mile loop in 54:29, earning another 6.48 aerobic points.

Wednesday I got to work early and I walked 1 mile before work. It took 14:05 to walk it, and I earned 2.26 aerobic points. At lunch I walked alone, and I used my GPS to monitor a 3.2 mile walk that took me 46:07. That earned 9.12 aerobic points. In the evening, Dotti and did our 3.1 mile walk in 50:03. That was good for another 7.42 aerobic points.

Thursday I arrived at work early enough to do a longer walk. I walked 2.0 miles in 26:35 (13:18 per mile and 4.5 mph), earning 6.02 aerobic points. At lunch I walked by myself, and did 3.0 miles in 41:30. That earned 9.01 aerobic points. In the evening, Dotti and I did our 3.1-mile walk in 52:05, which was good for another 6.97 aerobic points.

Friday I got an early start for work, and the traffic was light all the way in. So, I arrived in time to do the 2.4 mile loop. I completed it in 32:26, averaging 13:31 per mile (4.4 mph). That was good for 7.25 aerobic points. The cool morning air the last two days this week made it great for walking, and I cut my fastest times for each mile on those walks. At lunch it was warmer, and I only walked 2.0 miles. It took me 27:49, and earned 5.62 aerobic points. In the evening Dotti and I walked 3.1 miles in 52:32, earning 6.87 aerobic points. The last few days we had to walk late because it was too hot in the early evening. We didn't get back home until about 10 PM. But at that time of day the temperature was in the low 70s to upper 60s, and the watching the stars come out, was romantic. I look forward to my evening walk with Dotti every day!

For the week I got in 34.6 miles. I am very happy with that! Since this week overlapped two months, it brought my miles total for May up to 63.4, and it started off June by adding 28.4 miles to that total. Since I am striving to get in at least 100 miles each month, I am not happy with how May turned out, but at this point all I can do is try and do some extra walking to make up for it. Fortunately I did do some walking in May, and in March and April, I got 20 extra miles in to help out. So, with a little extra effort this month (walking 117 miles or more), I can bring my overall average for the last 4 months to over 100 miles-per-month.

However, that still leaves January (45.2 miles) and February (68.0 miles) to make up for by year's end. My goal for the year is to get at least 1200 miles in. Today I have 425.6 miles completed for the year. I still have 6.75 months left this year, and if I can average 115 miles per month over that time I will bring my total to 1200 miles (100 miles per month) for the entire year of 2004. This is certainly a realistic goal, provided I remain health. To reach it, I really only have to do my 3.1 mile walk with Dotti each night (giving us 21.7 miles each week) to bring me to within 145 miles of my goal. Then if I add in 2 miles a day either at lunch or in the morning during the workweek (good for another 10 miles each week), it would give me another 290 miles over the remaining 29 weeks of 2004. So, simply walking my basic routine for the rest of the year will add 919.3 to my total, and raise it from 425.6 up to 1344.9, well over my goal for the year. Let's see if I can do it!

Water – Water was good this week. I got in at least 7 cups every day, and I averaged 93.7 ounces (11.7 cups) each day, which is well above my minimum goal of 6-8 cups per day.

Week's evaluation – I consider this week a success! Every weigh-in during the week was in my target range. I averaged 184.5 pounds for the week, only a half-pound off from my target weight. For exercise I surpassed all of my goals, more than doubling my lower limit goals for aerobic points (35.0 points per week) and for miles (15.0 miles). On the miles, I have been targeting 26.2 as separate goal, and I went well past that as well. The extra miles that I got in this week helps to make my goal of 1200 miles for the year more realistic too. For water I had one of the wettest weeks in a very long time.

June is well started. I hope to be able to continue in that vein for the rest of the month.

A Few Thoughts – I have just gone through a very trying time, and found that the habits that I have developed over the past 3 years, and the even for the past 6 years, worked for me to keep me on track. Through all the stress and trouble, I never was tempted to have a cigarette. At one I could not have even been able to imagine that, let alone do it.

May marked my sixth anniversary of not smoking (it also marked Dotti's second anniversary of being smoke free!) and today it is actually difficult imagining myself lighting up a cigarette. Seeing others light up today strikes me as something alien, and that has only recently happened. I no longer view myself as a smoker who is abstaining, but rather as a non-smoker who is still alert to never becoming a smoker. As each year passes, my mental attitude is subtly adjusted to where it feels more and more normal to not smoke and less and less attractive to even try a cigarette. Inside I definitely know that I am only 1 cigarette away from a 3 pack a day habit. But today I can finally see that I am not giving up anything by not smoking. It was a crutch, and a master over my will, but it was not a friend or a helper. My mind only viewed it that way. Standing 6 years away from my last cigarette has given me a perspective that I have never had before, and I like it.

Quitting smoking was by far the hardest thing that I have ever done. But weight control was not something that came naturally to me either. And this past few months have tested my new status as, and my resolve to remain, a thin person. I was thrown in to high stress, emotionally volatile, and chaotic days. Organizing my eating, or even caring whether it was organized was out of the question. Yet still, I carried my little notebook (Journal Lite) with me wherever I went, and I somehow managed to write down what I ate. I made choices that somehow worked out in a way that kept my weight inside my target range, even though for the first time in my journey, I didn't seem to care. Perhaps it was all working on a subconscious level, but somehow I held the course through the storm. The string of consecutive weigh-in within my target range perhaps, at some internal level, applied a pressure on me to not blow it.

Whatever internal force that held the wheel for me, charted the course, and read the compass, I am glad to report that I am now back, at least for the time being, into calm and gentle waters, with skies that are clearing and showing some blue. Who knows when the next storm will hit: today, tomorrow, far off, or immediate? But in the meantime, it is interesting to look back and try and figure out how my ship held together through the storm. I honestly do not know. Perhaps one day, when more time has passed by, I may have a clearer picture of what happened.

3 years, 25 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/185.0/180±2/BMI:23.12/WK-160
GRAPHS: Weight Loss/Year 1 Maint./Year 2 Maint./Year 3 Maint.
                Success Story