Week 184 Update

It was 35º outside at 05:33 when I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, “185.0 pounds!”

The week started off with me still trying to shake off the flu bug that had grabbed Dotti and me. I didn’t do any walking on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. On Tuesday I decided to take a stab at a short 1-mile walk. When that didn’t make me feel bad, I jumped in with both feet to try and get myself back on track with my walking again.

While I was down with the flu, I missed a total of 3 days of work. My appetite did not suffer at all during the illness, however. In fact my self-control was under attack as much as my health was. Without doing any exercising, I was eating up on the high end of the 40s for points. My weight jumped up to 188.5 on the Friday before my weigh-in last week.

Last Saturday, I was able to fight my weight back down to 186.5. However, I ate 45.0 points. That night I had a very bad time, and woke up at 2:30 AM with a terrific headache, and felt nauseous. My neck is very sensitive to being placed in the wrong position when I am sleeping, and that may have been what happened. Or, the decrease in caffeine that I had on Saturday may have been a contributing factor. Perhaps it was the flu bug. In any case, when I woke up, I drank a cup of coffee, in case it was a lack of caffeine. I also took 2 aspirin, with 16 ounces of water. I changed my pillow out for another style, that would support my neck better, and managed to get back to sleep.

Sunday, when I woke up at 7:15 AM the headache was nearly all gone, though my stomach was still a bit woozy. The scale reading showed that the water that I had consumed earlier was still with me, as I weighed-in at 190.0. In the afternoon, when Dotti wanted to go to Costco, I was not really excited about the prospect. However, I went, and after we got there, and I started walking around a bit, I felt a little better. That was the turning point for me on this illness. From that point on, I started to feel much better. I held my points down to 39.0 for the day.

Monday, I weighed 186.5. I was getting tired of being at the top of my target range. Still I ate 43.0 points. I went to work that day, and was feeling a bit better, but I was not yet up to walking.

Tuesday I woke up weighing 186.0 pounds. I went to work, and I felt like maybe it was time to start walking again. Just to test the waters, I took a 1-mile walk at lunch. It felt a little strange walking again, and I was a bit light headed at the end, but that passed quickly. The rest of the day I felt great. I ate a total of 31.5 points, with a very light dinner and very little snacking for the entire day.

Wednesday I weighed 185.5. For walking, I decided to give it the acid test! I arrived early for work and walked 2.4 miles. I held it to a reasonable pace, around 15 minutes per mile, and I felt pretty good afterwards. At lunch I did a slower 3.17-mile walk, taking 15:33 per mile. Once again I felt fine afterwards. In the evening I did our 3.05-mile loop at a bit of a faster clip, taking 14:17 per mile. It was probably not the smartest thing to do, coming off an illness and walking 8.62 miles. But I got through it okay and felt good. I even held my points down to 40.0. It looked like my self-control had returned as well.

Thursday I weighed 184.0 pounds. I was quite happy to see that. I noticed that I was sitting at 995 miles for the year, and I was ready to bust through the 1,000-mile barrier finally. In the morning I left early, but because it was raining the traffic was slow, and it held me up. When I pulled into the parking lot, I was pressed for time. I did a 2.4-mile walk but I had to hurry. I walked at a 13:39 per mile pace, and I was tired at the end. (After coming off an illness, and then doing over 8 miles the day before, I wasn’t too surprised to find that I was tired.) At lunch my total miles for the year was up to 997.4. I knew that if I did my 3-mile loop, I would go past 1,000 miles. My legs felt very tired, and I had to push myself to finish it, but I did complete the 3.17 miles around the big loop. My pace was 14:39 per mile, and my total miles for the year was moved up to 1000.6. At this point, for two days, I had felt like I was nearly back to where I was before I got sick. My muscles were protesting, because I had sat around for a couple of weeks, but I was hoping to get them back in shape soon. Once again I held my points down; this time to 41.5.

Friday I weighed 184.5 pounds. Once again I got out there and started walking early. It was a cool 40º at 07:14 when I hit the walking trail. I finished up the 2.4-mile loop in 36:00 even. At lunch the temperature had gone up to 52º, and I set out on the 3.17-mile loop. It took me 44:44 to complete it (14:07 per mile). I was very tired on that walk, and I had to push myself to keep going. In the evening, it was 41º, and I did a 3.05-mile walk in 44:11. I had finally got moving again on my walking, and I was able to increase my total miles for the year to 1009.2. Even though I missed the first 3 days completely, I was able to get in 23.81 miles for the week. I only ate 43.0 points on Friday, and that led to my 185.0 pounds weigh-in this morning.

This week, I was able to get back to exercising, and get back to eating under control. It is nice to start feeling good again, and I hope that continues.

My water consumption has been good, and I drank at least 6 cups each day. I averaged 59.43 ounces (7.4 cups) per day, and I am happy with that.

3 years, 193 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/185/180±2/BMI:23.12/WK-184
GRAPHS: Weight Loss/Year 1 Maint./Year 2 Maint./Year 3 Maint./Miles Walked
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