I got up a little later this morning, because I was up a little later last night. (I actually got to bed a little after midnight which is a couple of hours later than usual.) Mr. Scale, being his normal self, just sat there until I stepped on him at 7:00 AM and then he said, “205.0 pounds.”

I can tell that I am getting closer to goal, because I have a lot of days that are coming up with the same weight. It reminds of the way a vacuum chamber pumps down to high vacuum. At first the gauges show the pressure falling from 760 Torr (14.7 PSI or 1 Atmosphere), down to 700, 600, 500, etc. rapidly. The pressure is being yanked downward in a hurry. Then as it gets down towards 5 or 10 Torr, the speed of decrease is significantly less. When it falls into the milliTorr range again the decrease seems to go fast falling from 999 mTorr down to 900, 800, etc, but as it approaches its lower limit (usually about 50 mTorr for the first set of pumps) the speed of decrease in pressure slows way down. Then we go through the whole process again when we switch over to the high vacuum pumps which take it down from there to 1 or 2 times 10 to the negative 7th power Torr (1E-7 or 2E-7 Torr). Now, 50 mTorr = 5.0E-3 Torr. The hivac pump, when it kicks in, drops the pressure almost instantly to 1E-4 Torr and then pulls it down into the E-5 range. Here the speed that it drops the pressure is based upon what is inside the chamber we are pumping on. If the vacuum chamber has been cleaned with alcohol, it takes a bit of time for all of that to evaporate out of the pours of the metal. If we put in some new pieces of graphite (and there is graphite everywhere inside this machine) it takes time to pull all the trapped gasses out of the graphite pours. If, on the other hand, the vacuum chamber was vented up, with nitrogen, but not opened up to atmosphere, and no parts were put in, it will fall into the E-6 range quickly and then on down into the E-7 range. Anyway, the point is that as the limit is reached the rate of change decreases significantly, until the limit is reached and it stops altogether.

In weight loss, it is similar. There is a limit that is approached, and that limit is based upon the rate of burn for your metabolism, and the number of calories you are eating. For any given number of calories per day taken in, for one particular metabolic rate, there is one set weight that the body will approach, and finally settle on. As it approaches that weight, the rate of decrease (or increase depending upon which direction you are going) will slow down to a lower and lower level, finally stopping at the specified weight. I don’t think that I am actually approaching too closely to the weight dictated by my caloric intake yet, but the difference between where I am from that specified weight (specified by the number of calories I am eating and the rate of my metabolism) is much less than where it was when I started my journey. I am still seeing a change each week but it is a smaller change, and I stay at the new weight longer before moving down to the next one. I am five pounds from goal, which I am looking forward to reaching! However, I think that the number of calories I am eating today could pull me well below that weight, if I continued to eat the same number of points that I am eating today, for the rest of my life. Dotti has eaten very close to where I averaged last week for points, for most of the three years she has been maintaining. She is down in the lower 140s. So, I know I will not be staying at 200 if I continue eating at this level of points. Since my personal goal right now is to get below 190, which is where I had to be when I was in the Navy to meet its physical standards, I am confident that I will be right on track to reach it, sooner or later, continuing to eat just like I am right now. The weigh loss will probably continue to be slower (unless I shake it loose with some exercise, and unbalance the equation by speeding up my metabolism) but it will be sure as well.

I am still amazed with what I am seeing in the mirror these days. Yesterday, Dotti’s twin sister was saying that she thought I looked a lot more like I did when I first met Dot and her back in 1974 and I was showing off singing for them. :) (Back then she had liked the song “Operator,” by Jim Croche.) I have caught myself doing a double take a few times looking in the mirror because I am still surprised at the change in my face, and the rest of my body. If I stayed right here for the rest of my life, I would not feel like I was doing too badly. I am not quite where I want to be, but I feel light-years away from where I was, and closer to where I want to be. I don’t know why I waited so long to tackle this. But I am not going to beat myself up for past mistakes.

I am just taking one problem area at a time and working towards fixing it. Cigarettes are gone. The excess weight is mostly gone. I still have to work on rounding out my eating a bit more, though I am not actually doing too badly there. I get a lot of fresh vegetables in the car when I am driving home in traffic, and get milk and grains everyday. I think I am eating better than I have for years. Not perfect, but getting better. My next major project is to tackle the exercise deficit in my life. I love sports, and I love walking. There is no excuse for me not to be exercising, at least no legitimate excuse. It is yet one more area in my life that I have allowed to “go to seed,” with neglect. Well, I will be training my sights on that one next.

Yesterday was a tough one for me. First off, I usually eat light on Friday night, and that leaves me hungry on Saturday mornings after weigh-in. I tend to want to eat everything in sight. Next, after my weigh-in, and after Dotti and I took our 1.33 mile walk (we took 26 minutes to do it, and though it was a slow pace, it was romantic with Dotti holding my arm all the way!) I drove her to her Weight Watchers meeting where she weighed-in too. (It was the first time, since I started my journey that we both had a weigh-in on the same day.) The meeting started at 9:30 AM and I sat in the car starving. I read some in my History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, that I keep in the car for lunch hours, and times just like this. (It was the chapter on Pythagorus and it was very good!) At the same time, I ate a Luna bar, 10 Kedems cookies and several cough drops. When Dotti got out, we walked around a used book store, that is located right beside the WW meeting room, and that opened finally at 10:00 AM. We then dropped by the mall for an All American ice cream. I got the medium ice cream (8 ounces), in a waffle cone. By the time we got back home for lunch, I had already eaten 11.5 points in snacks alone. I drank some water, and Dotti fixed me some tomato sandwiches, which I ate with two peaches. Finally things had settle down for me. It was about 1:30 PM, and I finally felt in control again. However, I had eaten 20 points already, and Dotti’s twin sister and her fiancé were coming over to generously take us out to dinner for my 50th birthday, belatedly. That put me in the situation of going to a regular restaurant for only the second time since I started my journey (going to Sweet Tomatoes for the Zonie get together was the first), and only having 11 points maximum to work with for that, and the 10.5 hours left in the rest of the day.

As it turned out, the rest of the day was anticlimactic. We had a great visit with our relatives, dinner was a very tasty “Greek” salad (onions, peppercinos, spinach and artichoke hearts - no dressing, no cheese) that I took a point for, which probably was more than it actually was. After a fun visit, and we took some pictures, they headed for home, and low and behold I was sitting at only 21 points for the day. I ended up having a Mr. Cookie face to keep my points from being too low! Go figure.

While we were waiting for Dotti’s sister, I played a game of Snood, and when I made an misguided shot which ended the game, rather than having the difficulty of a level overwhelm me (I don’t mind losing the game when the level is just too much for me, but I hate doing something dumb to end the game. C’est la vie.) I was sitting at 141, 664 points. I was on level 23 (Hexagon City) and, even though it was the first time I had seen that level, it looked like I had figured it out, and was on the way to clearing it, when I miss fired, and suddenly the game was over. This game is addictive and I still have 27 more levels to clear. :)

For eating yesterday I had my standard breakfast (5.0 pt.). For lunch I had 2 peaches (2 pt.), and 2 tomato sandwiches (2.5 pt.). For dinner I had the Greek Salad at Newport Bay (1 pt.). [Dotti says that her salmon was really good! Dotti and her sister had a few drinks - 0 points :) - during dinner and when the check came Dotti was helping to calculate the tip and while looking at the receipt, ended up signing the credit card slip for her sister’s card. We all had a good laugh over that, and had to have another one printed up to be signed by the other twin. :^) ] That brought my meal points to only 9.5. For snacks I had a Luna bar (3.5 pt.), 10 Kedems cookies (2 pt.), an 8-ounce All American ice cream in a waffle cone (4 pt.), 7 cough drops (2 pt.), and a Mr. Cookie Face (3 pt.). That was heavy on the sweets and totaled 14.5 snack points. Added to my meal points that brought me to 24.0 points for the day. It wasn’t perfect, but it was well within my points, and after getting through how much I was struggling in the morning, I will take it!

For water yesterday, I drank 9 cups for 72 ounces. I wish I could have done more with water in the morning. But being stuck in the car, and in stores, it is hard to put away a lot of water. I did drink my 24 ounces from my coffee mug in the car but it wasn’t enough to stave off the hunger pangs I was having. Hopefully today will be better!

It is Sunday, and I don’t have to go to work tomorrow. Yes!

113 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/205.0/200/BMI:25.7/WK-16/Weight Loss Graph

On this Labor Day morning, at about 6:00 AM, Mr. Scale said, “204.5 pounds.” That is 35 pounds down from where I started my journey. Every time I think about carrying the equivalent 4 and one third water-filled one-gallon jugs with me all the time, it makes me tired just contemplating it.

It is pretty exciting for me to be so close to 200 again. It has been a while since my weight was here, and I don’t remember anytime when I felt so comfortable with my eating when I was at this weight. I am very interested in how easily my weight is going to stabilize, and maintain, once I reach where I want to be with it. I will have to move my points up just a bit at some point, to hold my position.

Yesterday I wasted more time, than I care to think about, playing Snood. I highly recommend that anyone who does not want to get hooked on an addictive game, stay far, far away from Snood. I ran the list of high scores for the Puzzle level up to where all of them are 90,000 or above and most of them are over 100,000. My high score is 153,523 (Hexagon City was the level that was the stopper for me) and I am going to try and kick that habit (sooner or later :) ). What an incredible waste of time! It is fun, but afterwards, I feel like I flushed my time down the toilet. (It is not as bad as watching television - which is a lot worse than just wasting time - but it is a waste of time!) I haven’t been that obsessed with a game since Jim, Tammy, Dot and I were playing Pac Man on the old Atari 2600 video game player in 1982. (I won’t go into all the sad details here, but I played one single game that lasted 6 hours. I earned new men faster than I would lose them, and the game didn’t get any harder after a while. I rolled the counter all the way over back to zero.)

I did break myself away long enough from Snood to watch an early 1970s movie on DVD with Dot (“Airport” with Dean Martin, Burt Lancaster, and many more). I wasn’t feeling too well at the time. I am not sure if something I ate at the restaurant was causing problems, or if I got a bit of a bug, but it passed a little later in the day.

For eating yesterday, I had my standard breakfast (5.0 pt.). For lunch I had the last 2 of our fresh peaches (2 pt. --white peaches, like the ones we used to grow in our back yard when I was a young boy - every time I bite one I do a flash back to the 1950s) and two fried egg sandwiches (3.0 pt.) that Dotti made. For dinner I split a Heaven’s Bistro Pizza (4.5 points) with Dotti, and had a WW Smoothie Shake (3.0 pt.). That made 17.5 points for meals. For snacks I had a bag of Jolly Time Healthy Pop popcorn (2.0 pt.), during the movie. I had a Mr. Cookie Face ice cream sandwich, and in the evening when points were still a bit low, I had a pita bread with Laughing Cow cheese spread on it (3.5 pt.). So, for snacks I ate 8.5 points, and for the day I had 26.0 points.

For water yesterday I drank 15 cups, or 120 ounces (or pick your favorite unit: 7.5 pounds, 0.94 gallons, 3.75 quarts, 7.5 pints, 3.5 liters, 3549 cc.)

114 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/205.0/200/BMI:25.7/WK-16/Weight Loss Graph

At 5:35 AM, I stepped up to be counted and Mr. Scale said, “205.0 pounds.” It seems to be a regular habit for him these days. However, I like this habit much better than the old 240 one he had 116 days ago. :)

Since it was Labor Day and the stores often have Labor Day sales, Dotti and I dropped by the Vancouver mall and walked around a bit. We found a video store that we had never been in before and found some old movies for a reasonable price. (The Bishop’s Wife, with Cary Grant, was one I had been looking for, for quite some time. Finally we found Walt Disney’s The Happiest Millionaire, which is one of our old favorites that we had a pretty bad copy of, which we had recorded from a Beta copy – does anyone remember Beta vcrs? – we had taken off a cable station when LeRoy was just a small boy. We also picked up an old 1957 John Wayne movie called Jet Pilot. Oh yes, we also picked up ET, which we had not seen available elsewhere for quite a while.)

We did a bit more shopping, and then headed home. We actually watched one of the movies we bought, Jet Pilot – I love John Wayne movies – and relaxed for the rest of the day, to finish off the long weekend. It went by way too fast, but we did enjoy it. One of the nice things about having a Monday off is that the next week is only 4 days long. It is sort of a double bonus.

Labor day marks the point where we are lining up for our approach to my very favorite time of year. In under 3 weeks it will be the start of autumn. I absolutely love autumn. The cold mornings, with a snap in the air, and the leaves changing color and falling all over the place, all make me glad to be alive. (Since we live in an apartment, I don’t even have to rake the leaves. :) ) The other day I saw a store that is getting ready to open that is about a third of the size of a regular Safeway grocery store, dedicated to selling Halloween paraphernalia. Oh yes, we are almost there. Soon, no more hot weather, and the holidays will not be far behind the arrival of the cooler temperatures. If I had to choose a time of the year that it would remain all of the time, I would have to choose the month of October – which is less than 4 weeks away. Of course, one of the reasons that I love October so much, is that I am completely tired of the hot summer days. (I do enjoy a change of seasons, but summer I tire of very quickly.) Also, my allergies tend to lessen greatly when all the plant life goes into hibernation. So, beginning in October I usually begin to feel better physically. So, I am thinner and I am getting set to enjoy the upcoming weather, and the holidays with their old world European mix of Christian and pagan trappings, and the New World celebration of Thanksgiving for the taming of a wild new land. From here on, the year just keeps getting better and better!

Yesterday I ate my standard breakfast (5.0 pt.). I had a 6 inch turkey sandwich at Subway (6 pt.) for lunch. For dinner I had 5 ounces of baked French fries, 2 turkey hot dogs (2 pt.) and some sour kraut (0 pt.) with some mustard on top (0 pt.). That made 6 points for dinner too. My meal points added up to 17.0. For snacks, I had a WW Smoothie shake (2 pt.), a 6 ounce All American ice cream cone (2 pt. - in a regular cone ), a plum (1 pt.), a Boston Cream Pie flavored yogurt (2 pt.), and a Kashi bar (5 pt.). That added up to 12.0 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 29.0.

For water yesterday I drank 18 cups or 144 ounces, which adds up to 9 pounds (1.125 gallons). When you include the WW Smoothie shake and the cup of coffee, I definitely got my fluids in! In my journal there are 35 boxes available to check off cups of water as I drink them. I actually filled up over half of them yesterday.

Well, its off to work. :(

115 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/205.0/200/BMI:25.7/WK-16/Weight Loss Graph

The garbage trucks were out this morning. I heard one early on, probably about 4:30 AM. Then another came along a bit after 5:00 AM. (There are several different types of dumpsters in the parking lot and so apparently different trucks have to come to empty them.) That was enough for me, I was up. So, I didn’t see any reason to let Mr. Scale sleep in. At 5:20 AM, I woke him up and he said, “205.0 pounds.” Well, they say that there is something positive about consistency.

I decided that I was going to start doing some walking at lunch. So, Yesterday I took a walk through the park across the street from the customer’s site. I walked what I estimated to be one and a third miles. I didn’t feel too well the last time I had pushed it walking in that park, and so I took it easier this time, and it took me 24.5 minutes to walk it. When I got back to my car, I was feeling bad again. My legs were weak and I was a light headed. That is not good. I have not been getting much exercise, but I did not use to get that tired from a walk of that length and intensity. My first guess is that I have not been eating enough to sustain any sort of exercise. To test my theory out, I am starting today to eat my maximum points for a few days and see what the results are. I was feeling pretty bad on Sunday, and it is possible that I picked up a virus or something that is making me weak, but I am skeptical that is the problem. I don’t feel ill, other than my allergies. So, I will try a little more food for a few days, and see what that does.

I have several books by Doctor Kenneth Cooper, the creator of the Aerobics Point system of exercise monitoring that the US Navy adopted years ago. The most recent one that I have is called, THE AEROBICS PROGRAM FOR TOTAL WELL BEING. In this book Dr. Cooper recommends calculating the number of calories that you will require to maintain your ideal body weight, by multiplying your ideal weight by 12 if you are under 40 and by 10 if you are over. If I assume that my ideal body weight is 190, then I will need 1900 calories to maintain that weight. If you want additional energy without gaining weight, he goes on to say, you can multiply your weight by 13, which would bring my daily calories to 2470. He also says that if you are running 5 or more miles a day, you should multiply your weight by 20. (For me that would be 3800 calories.) If you calculate the exact points, and you ate zero fat, and zero fiber, the times 10 value would be 38 points, the times 13 value would be 49.4 points, and the times 20 value would be 76 points. 31 points, at the very top of my range, again assuming zero fat and fiber, would only be 1550 calories. If I ate a lot of fat, it would be significantly less than that, and if I ate a lot of fiber, it would be more. On average, I am not sure what my fiber and fat are contributing to the points I am eating (I use the nutritional label to calculate the points, but I after I write down the point value in my journal, I then forget about what those other values were), but it might be worthwhile to average them out and see how many calories I am actually taking in. (I know my fat intake is very low compared with what I used to eat.) At 25 points a day, my calories would be somewhere around 1250. Dotti can maintain her weight at around 25 points a day, so I know it is far less than what I need to maintain 190. I am going to have to hunt around for the right level of eating to be able to maintain my weight and still be able to exercise. I know that exercise is important for many reasons, and one of them is that you will lose muscle along with your fat if you don’t get some exercise when you are losing. So, I need to get started on getting in some exercise regularly right now, and not wait until after I am already finished with my weight loss.

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day physically other than the walk. Of course I have to carry my computer bag with me, up the equivalent of 3 stories worth of stairs, and then I went up and down those stairs at lunch without the computer, but for the most part it was a sit down day, with only a quick run into the clean room. In the evening I did some work on the computer, and then laid down early to read. Before I knew it, I was getting very sleepy and I put the book down and fell asleep around 9:30 PM. I guess I needed the extra sleep. Not that you could tell it from the way I woke up early this morning.

For eating yesterday, I had my standard breakfast (5.0 pt.) and my standard lunch (7.0 pt.). For dinner Dotti cooked a garden burger (4.5 pt.) with a slice of cheese (0.5 pt.), and some mixed vegetables (1.0 pt.). She also made a WW Smoothie Shake for me (2.0 pt.) to bring my dinner points to 8.0, and my total meal points to 20.0. For snacks, I had 6 cough drops (2.0 pt.), a Mr. Cookie Face (3.0 pt.), a Banana Cream Pie flavored yogurt (2.0 pt.), one half of a Kashi bar (2.5 pt.) and 7.5 Keedems Cookies (1.5 pt.). That made a total of 11 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 31.0, right at the top of my points range.

For water yesterday, I drank 3 twelve-ounce cups of water at my desk at work (36 ounces), my 3 cup mug of water in my car driving to and from work (24 ounces) and my 3 cup glass of water at home (24 ounces). That brought my total water consumption to 9.5 cups, or 84 ounces for the day.

For exercise, I walked about a mile and a third in 24.5 minutes.

116 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/205.0/200/BMI:25.7/WK-16/Weight Loss Graph

At 5:45 AM, with the outside temperature 49 degrees, I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, “205.0 pounds.” I am not sure but it seems like I have seen that before somewhere.

I felt a bit better yesterday, although I did not take a walk at lunchtime. I did end up going up and down the 3-story stairs a couple of extra times yesterday, but that was the extent of my exercise for the day.

I started working on figuring my calories out for a normal day, and got as far as breakfast and lunch. The 5 points that I take for breakfast works out to 4.75 points exactly and it takes 250 calories to do it. For my 2 sandwiches at lunch, which I take 3 points for, add up to 270 calories. The Jell-o dessert that Dotti makes has 47 calories per serving. The 5 meringues are 100 calories more. An average peach or plum has about 45 calories. For my car snacks, which are included in my standard lunch, the cucumber has about 40 calories, the broccoli is about 50 calories, and the Romaine lettuce has about 20 calories. So, for lunch it looks like I am getting 572 calories. That is 822 calories for the day up to that point, for the standard 12 points I take for breakfast and lunch. 822 / 12 = 68.5 calories per point. Extrapolating that out to 31 points, my upper limit of my range, I will be eating around 2123 calories per day, which is quite reasonable. I will have to figure out some of my evening foods to see if the ratio of calories to points remains the same for what I am eating at night.

For eating yesterday, for my meals I had my standard breakfast (5.0 pt.) and my standard lunch (6 pt. - minus the fresh fruit), and for dinner, I ate 2 fried egg sandwiches (3.0 pt.), instant potatoes (3.0 pt.), and a diet soda (0.0 pt.). My meal points came to a total of 17.0. For snacks, I went through a pile of cough drops – 18 of them – for 5.5 points, (but they sure made my throat feel better!), a Kashi Bar (5.0 pt.) and a Mr. Cookieface ice cream sandwich (3.0 pt.). That brought my snack total up to 13.5 points, and my total points for the day to 30.5, one-half point under my limit.

For water, I drank 9 cups, or 72 ounces.

117 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/205.0/200/BMI:25.7/WK-16/Weight Loss Graph

At 5:30 AM I got up, and stepped up on Mr. Scale. My blurry eyes thought they saw him saying, “203.0 pounds.” Having grown so accustomed to his repetitive nature, I did not believe my eyes. I tried it again, and sure enough, Mr. Scale said, “203.0 pounds.” I wish he would have saved that surprise for tomorrow when it really counts. I hope he doesn’t change his mind by then. He has a funny sense of humor that way sometimes. At least he didn’t play the joke the other direction this time. I guess I will consider myself lucky. :)

Yesterday, I got the results back from my annual work physical that I took a couple of weeks ago, and I had some positive changes. Here are a few examples:

Triglycerides	Last year 316	This Year 135	Normal <200
Cholesterol	Last year 183	This year 153	Normal <200
HDL Cholesterol	Last year 38	This year 36	Normal > 35
Chol/HDL ratio	Last year 4.82	This year 4.25	Average health risk is 4.97 (lower is better)

And of course being down by over 30 pounds was a positive thing also! (I did not use to care much what the scale said at the doctor’s office. I would weigh with my heavy coat on, and not give it a second thought.) The doctor put a note on the sheet that said my blood pressure was very good, but unfortunately he did not give the actual numbers.

I normally take another physical with my personal doctor every year as well, but we haven’t scheduled that one yet.

I took a walk again yesterday afternoon. I walked the same distance (~1.3 miles) as I did the day before yesterday but I took even a slower pace. It took me 27:11 minutes to walk it. This time I felt a little tired at the end, but much better than I had two days before. Either I am shaking off the bug that grabbed me, or the extra calories that I am taking in are helping. I will keep at it, and hopefully build up my endurance back to what it was before I started my journey, and then beyond that level to what would be considered a “good” or “fit” level.

Here it is Friday, the 7th day of September already. In two weeks autumn will officially begin, and the length of our days will drop rapidly. The temperatures will descend, and the leaves will start to fall. This workweek is nearly over, and this is only the 4th day of work. That is always a plus.

For eating yesterday, I had my standard breakfast (5.0 pt.) and my standard lunch (8.0 pt. -- with a yogurt put in place of the Jell-o, adding the extra point.). For dinner I had half of a Heaven’s Bistro pizza (4.5 pt.) and a diet Dr. Pepper (0.0 pt.). That brought my meal points to 17.5. For snacks I had 12 cough drops (3.5 pt.), a cup of decaf (1.0 pt), a Kashi bar (5.0 pt.), and finally I cut a a Mr. Cookie Face ice cream sandwich in half (1.5 pt.), giving Dotti one half, and eating the other. That gave me 11.0 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 28.5.

For water, I drank 3 cups before going to work, and then 3 more at work. I hardly made a dent at all in my water in the car. The outside temperature was so cool yesterday, that I was not terrible thirsty while driving. I drank 4 more at home, to bring my total to 10 cups, or 80 ounces.

For exercise, I walked 1.3 miles (I am merely estimating the distance. One of these days I will have to bring Dotti over with her pedometer, which has been proven to be calibrated very precisely, and have her walk it with me to figure out exactly how far I am really walking.) in 27:11 minutes.

118 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/205.0/200/BMI:25.7/WK-16/Weight Loss Graph

*** Weigh-in for WEEK 17 ***

Week Completed:	__17__
Weigh-In Weight:	203.0
Body Mass Index:	25.4
Week’s Average Points/Day:	26.9
Pounds lost this week:	2.0
Pounds lost total:	36.5
Pounds to go to 10%:	0.0*
Pounds to go to goal:	3.0
* Made 10% at 215.5 pounds on 7/14/01

___________________________

After yesterday’s visit with Mr. Scale, I was interested in what he was going to say today. First off, I did not go through any rituals or pain this week before weigh in. I did eat low on points but that was mainly because my dinner was only one point that Dotti made for me. I did not go to bed hungry, and this morning I did not wait around for a later time to weigh, to get a lower reading. I just took what he said right away, and here’s why: Mr. Scale said, “203.0 pounds.” YES!

Two days ago, I had felt that a groove had been cut in his circuits where all he could say was, “205.0 pounds.” I thought I might end up with 204.5 or something like that for my weigh-in this week. And then yesterday he just dropped two pounds, and surprisingly he didn’t take it back today. Now I am only 3 pounds from goal, and it feels kind of funny to be getting so close.

Maintenance is just around the corner! That is the acid test of how well I will do on this journey. All that has gone before is either validated or violated by the way maintenance goes. Either my journey will receive the stamp of success, by my maintaining what I have achieved, or it will all go in the dumpster as a waste of time. In actuality, the latter is not a possibility. For even if I stumbled and fell, gaining all my weight back and even more, I know what I have learned on this journey so far. It is acquired knowledge that cannot be taken from me. I know I can do it, and I know that the only thing that can make me fail, is me. What a sense of power that brings! In reality, there can be no failure, only quitting, and right now I don’t see quitting as an option anywhere on the horizon of my future. I feel good about things right now. The cigarettes are gone, the weight is mostly gone, and just in time for my fifties. Hopefully these improvements will make this upcoming decade a much better one for me than it would have been otherwise.

As I was adding this week's data to my weight loss graph, Dotti asked me, “Why did you make it so wide?” Bless her heart! I had no idea when I made the chart that I was going to average 2.15 pounds lost per week for 17 weeks. I thought a pound per week would be good. My goal was to lose my 40 pounds by the DWLZ Conference in April. Now it looks like I may make it before Dotti’s birthday in early October, or at least before Halloween. (If I have two more weeks like this one I will be there!)

So, when I reach goal what I am going to do is chop this graph down (making it tall and narrow, getting rid of all the unused weeks at the end) and make it permanent as my "weight loss graph." Then I am going to start a new one that will be my "maintenance graph" that will cover the range of weights that I should be able to stay within for good. It will be a new era. For years I used to keep a weight graph on the wall in my study. I would graph my weight each week and watch it ebb and flow. It was such a different feeling then. It was like I was under the whims of the god of Fate, and hopes and wishes were all I had to go on. Will power was not going take me where I wanted to be. The graph looked like the cross section of a few yards of sea water, rising and falling, out of control.

This is going to be different. I don’t just wish for it, or hope for it, but I know it. I am in control for the first time in my life. My decision point has been moved from that which I cannot directly control (my weight) to what I can directly control (what I eat). By doing what is in my power, I indirectly control that which is outside my direct control. It is like turning the steering wheel in my car. The steering wheel does not touch the road. It does not directly change the direction that the car travels. It’s control is tied to the wheels, which do touch the road. The control that the steering wheel gives to your hands, is as sure as if you could grab the wheels directly and move them yourself. Similarly, the control that I have over what I eat, is as effective as if I could directly tell my body to change its weight.

I could beat myself up for not having done this before. I could have gone out and researched the calorie levels and the other nutritional data to set up a weigh loss system for myself. I could have found the foods that would fill me up without expanding me. But I didn’t do it. However, the past is a source of information about what works and what doesn’t. Humanity is never perfect, and to expect perfection in ourselves is not only absurd, it is destructive. So, I will celebrate the fact that I have finally taken the right steps today, and use the past to remind me of what will happen if I should ever think that I am “well” from my eating problem. As long as I continue to journal, and eat in my range, I will continue to weigh what I want to weigh. End of story.

Yesterday, I took a walk again. As I have said before, I think it is about 1.3 miles long. I am sure it is not any less than that, and it might be a bit longer. I walk from the customer’s parking lot, onto a walking path that runs into a park, past a series of duck ponds and streams, across, and underneath bridges, alongside grassy fields and finally into a stand of tall, beautiful pines, at which point I turn around and head back. I took it slowly, because I felt so very bad the other day after my walk and I did not want a repeat performance of that. So, I took about 29 minutes for the walk. When I got back, I felt pretty good. I felt completely back to normal in just a matter of minutes, which was a very welcome thing. I am now sure that I picked up some contagion last weekend, that has been hard at work on my digestive track. Yesterday afternoon, I actually felt almost back to normal again. It was that feeling of health that strongly contrasted with what I was going through the rest of the week. I think it may have been the restaurant that we went to last Saturday where I picked up whatever it was, because on Sunday, I thought I was going to pass out a couple of times, and I had felt pretty good before. Anyway, I am feeling better now and that is a good thing!

For eating yesterday I had my standard breakfast (5.0 pt.) and my standard lunch (7.0 pt.). For dinner, I had 2 tomato sandwiches (1 pt.) and a Diet Cream Soda (0.0 pt.). For snacks, I had 10 cough drops (3 pt.), 2 slices (0.5 pt.) of a new bread we were trying (courtesy of Joan Jsche123 who has come to the Pacific Northwest for a visit, bearing gifts!), and a Mr. Cookie Face (3.0 pt.). That brought my snack points up to 6.5, and my total points for the day to 19.5. I did not intend to eat so low yesterday. If I had my normal number of points for dinner I would have been in the mid twenties, and if I had a Kashi bar, I would have been up to normal. As it was, I just was not hungry, and we had run out of Kashi bars. So, I went to bed without eating as many points as usual. (The way I felt this week, I was more interested in eating enough to feel good than I was in what the scale was going to say this morning.) As it turned out, things ended up working out okay.

For my water, I drank 9 cups, or 72 ounces.

All and all, I consider this week a success. I rode out an illness, (well it's mostly gone) and I lost some weight, while remaining OP. I even got in several walks, in spite of how I felt. Hopefully, I will feel better this next week, and things will be even better than they were during this last week.

119 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/203.0/200/BMI:25.4/WK-17/Weight Loss Graph