Week 191 Update

I stepped up on Mr. Scale at 05:10 this morning, and he said, "184.0 pounds!"

The first week of 2005 was a pretty good one overall. I am hopeful that is a hint of good things to come. Last year we were buried in snow and ice for 3 days on the sixth, seventh and eighth of January, and on the ninth, even though I was able to get to work, it took me 4.5 hours of commuting time to make the round trip. The first week of this year we had some cold temperatures, but we missed the accompanying moisture, which we all appreciated.

My weight control journey continued on track, and I am finding that more and more it is taking care of itself. On most days, I just end up eating enough to be satisfied, and it all works out to about the right number of points to maintain where I am. If the scale starts to drop I will have something extra, or a high point day, with a special treat or a large meal at a restaurant. If the scale starts drifting upwards, I pay closer attention to what I am eating and avoid going high on my points. I also factor in what my trend has been. If I have eaten low several days in a row and I eat higher on one day, if the scale moves up, I am less likely to have a very low point day than I would be if I had been eating fairly high for several days. The average for points per day is really what matters for maintenance.

A lot of this process is going on almost unconsciously now. I don't have to think much about it, unless the scale goes up or down against a limit (183 or 187 pounds). I can tell when I need to eat a bit more, because I start feeling a little tired, or less energetic. I do not often have a driving urge to eat more than I am eating, so I don't have a "feeling" that makes me eat less, like I do for when I am depleted and need more. Instead, I let the scale tell me when I need to hold it down, and eat some lower point foods for the day.

Here is how the week went...

Saturday, New Year's Day – I weighed in at 185.5 pounds. It was 38º about 9:00 AM when I set out on a 3.05-mile walk. The rain was coming down fairly hard, and so I put on my raingear over my coat, along with my knit cap, and gloves. By pulling the rain hood over the cap, it kept the cap dry, and I was very comfortable. As I was leaving the little back road where our house is located, I passed a lady who was walking with her umbrella in hand. It was the only other walker that I passed. The streets were quiet, with few cars. Most people were apparently sleeping in after, or sleeping off the results of, the activities associated with bringing in the new year. It felt good to get back to walking, and I completed the loop in 43:51.

Dotti and I visited with her twin sister and Sis' husband. It was a lot of fun. I saw a fair amount of the movie "Titanic" for the first time, including the ship-sinking scene. The effects were good, but I don't think that will ever be one of my favorite movies. I only made it through about half of it the first time I tried to watch it. J We had a very nice meal that she had cooked up for us. It was 36 points, but I didn't eat a third meal that day. I consumed a total of 50 points for the day.

Sunday – I weighed 184.0 pounds. I walked about the same time as I did on Saturday, but the weather was significantly different for this one. The sky was blue, and the sun was very bright. (I wore my sunglasses, and they were not enough. I had to hold my hand up to block the sun while I walked in the easterly direction.) Even with the sun, the temperature was down to 33º, and in spots there was ice. It had rained Saturday night, and then the clouds had suddenly disappeared, allowing the heat to radiate out into space, dropping the temperature. If I had gone out an hour or two earlier, the walk would have been treacherous because of the ice. As it was, I slipped a bit a few times, in shaded areas of the route. Most of those occurred during the first three-quarters of a mile. On my walk, just like on the previous day, I only passed a single walker, but this time it was just past the halfway point. I don't think he was an exerciser. He was an older gentleman, who was carrying a cane, but not leaning on it. He was walking in the same dirction as I was, and I passed him by as he was approaching an intersection. He seemed to be looking around as if waiting for someone. I continued on around and finished the 3.05-mile walk in 44:58.

Once again we went over to Dotti's twin's house and we helped them set up their new computer. It is fun getting all the stuff set up on a new computer, and they were moving up from Windows 98 to XP, so we got to go through some of the new features with them. After an enjoyable evening we headed back home, and I faced the disagreeable fact that I would have to return to work the next day. I had consumed 41.5 points during the day.

Monday I weighed 185.0 pounds. I drove into work early, and found that I was getting to enjoy that earlier drive. It is so much lighter for traffic! I arrived in time to do my 3.17-mile loop. The skies were clear, and when I started out, the sky was black except for a small strip of color on the eastern horizon. The moon appeared to be illuminated on exactly half of its face. The thermometer said 28º, and my breath was easy to see, in spite of the fact the sun had not risen yet. By the time I finished, the whole sky was bright and turning blue, although the sun had not yet stuck his head over the horizon. Every blade of grass, and every branch of every weed along the path had on a fine white coat of frost. The walking path was dry, with a few obvious exceptions, like a puddle of water freezing in the gutter at an intersection. I couldn't have asked for better walking conditions. I completed the walk in 43:37. I didn't get a chance to walk at lunch as I had planned, because we were having some machine problems and I wanted to take a short lunch to get back to work on them.

In the evening Dotti was working on putting away our Christmas tree and other interior decorations, and I helped a bit by putting away our "Santa Train" set. I ate 40.5 points for the day.

Tuesday I weighed 186.0 pounds. I woke up feeling a bit stiff and sore all over, almost flu-like. However, as the day wore on, I felt better.

My brother-in-law had loaned me a CD that has a classical guitarist playing popular songs, mostly from the sixties easy-listening era, backed by an orchestra. I listened to that on the drive in, and it made the drive very pleasant and relaxed! Once again an early start allowed me to walk my 3.17-mile loop before work. It was not quite as cold (37º), but there was a stiff breeze. So, it felt about the same for chill as it had on Monday morning. The moon was bright, but it was definitely into the waning crescent phase. With the sky still black when I started, off on the eastern horizon the mountains created a black silhouette against an orange strip of color. Mt. Hood was easily identified looming up over all the other peaks. There was no frost at all, and the walk was very pleasant. I reached the end of the route in 45:16.

In the afternoon I walked 2.0 miles in 27:46, on my old out-and-back path across the park. I used to walk that one really often, but it had been a while, because I was going for the longer walks to increase my total miles in order to reach my goal for 2004. It was still windy, and the geese were all over the little ponds. There was a photographer taking pictures of their activities. One of them lifted off from the water, and flew over my head. It was 42º and still bright and sunny.

I ended up eating 40.5 points again.

Wednesday, I weighed 184.5 pounds. The temperature had dropped again, and it was 25º when I set off on my 3.17-mile walk in the morning. I put on my neck scarf and I was glad that I did. Walking at 4.4 mph put a wind chill for me on the otherwise still air that made the temperature feel closer to 19º. The brisk pace, and heavy clothing, kept me feeling nice and warm during the walk. With three days in a row of cold, clear air, a lot of the moisture has been taken away. The frost this morning was very thin, and the blades of grass just sort of winked at me as I passed, like one of those cartoons where someone is shown as having a dazzling smile that has a bright flash of light that jumps right off of his teeth. On Monday everything was covered with white, easy to see, frost. It was much more subtle today. I finished my walk in 43:15.

At lunch I took a loop around the block that I had not used in at least a year, and a half. They were doing construction a while back on that stretch of road, and they tore up the sidewalk and closed it to walkers. I found alternate paths to walk and hadn’t made it back, until today. I knew that the construction had been finished for months, so I set out to see in what condition they had left the sidewalks when they were done. As it turned out, they were in excellent condition. The loop is just 1.08 miles long, so I continued on after completing it, and did my 1.5-mile out-and-back route, to give me a total for my walk of 2.58 miles, in 37:50, and for the day, my total was 5.75 miles.

We had been scheduled to receive our new treadmill that afternoon, but Dotti called me at work to let me know that it had arrived damaged, and it had to be returned to Sears.

I ate 43.5 points.

Thursday I weighed 183.5 pounds. It was Dotti's bowling day, and since the ground was looking frosty white (as were the windows on our van), I pulled her van into the garage so it would be a little easier for her when it came time to leave.

I arrived at work a little later and only had time to do 2.4 miles. It had been raining part way on the drive in, but there was no rain during my walk. The temperature was 33º and it was overcast. The path near the start was frosty and slick in spots. However the bulk of the walk was on dry sidewalks. I completed the walk in 33:11.

At lunch I did my 2-mile out-and-back across the park. It was a warm 40º but there were a few puddles in the path that had broken chunks of ice floating in them. On the way back I came across a cute little baby just learning to run. He ran towards me as I was walking up, laughed joyously; turned around and headed back to the group of adults who were obviously enjoying his antics. They rubbed his cute blond head and told him what a big boy he was. It made me very glad I chose to take that walk, and that particular route. The 2.0 miles took me 27:58 to walk.

At this point, I had walked 24.59 miles for the week. My goal was 25 miles, so I was really getting close. I ended up eating 48.5 points for the day.

Friday I weighed 185.0 pounds. I arrived early to work this morning, and I walked 2.4 miles in 33:53. It was dark and rainy, but I had my raincoat and pants over my jeans, flannel shirt, coat, knit cap, scarf, and gloves. It was about 42º, but it felt colder for some reason. The rain was not terribly heavy. It created puddles on the asphalt and concrete that I was walking on, but when a drop hit a puddle, the energy was absorbed into ripples, not splashes. There were hundreds of little puddles along the way, some of which had joined up to create miniature lakes and seas, all of which were surrounded by thoroughly wet paved surfaces. I felt very warm and comfortable throughout the walk, and my total for the week, the month, and the year was 26.99 miles. (If I did that every week, I would get over 1400 miles by year’s end. J )

On the drive home the rain that was falling heavily looked like it was on the verge of turning to snow. As I climbed the hill that I drive each day there were some flakes mixed in with the rain. Near the summit, it was nearly all snow. Fortunately it faded as I went down the other side and it was pure rain at the bottom. The temperature had fallen from the high 30s down to 36º, but there was never a threat of the snow actually sticking to the road. As I got to the bottom of the hill it was 39º once more and the rest of the drive was snow free.

LeRoy came to visit us Friday night. He had some snow on the road up to about 9 miles north of Vancouver, where it turned to rain. Other than that, his drive was uneventful. We spent the evening visiting and it was a lot of fun! I ended up eating 45.5 points for the day, which led to my weigh-in of 184.0 pounds this morning.

After 1337 days of counting my points, I have averaged 42.0 points-per-day. This week I averaged 44.29 points-per-day, so the two numbers are getting really close to each other. My average for all of my daily weigh-ins for my entire journey, including the weigh loss phase, is 188.5 pounds. My average weight for this week was 184.57 pounds. Those numbers are also getting closer as time goes by.

I can tell that I was drinking a lot more water during my losing phase, and early days of maintenance, than I am drinking now. My average for water consumed per day for 1337 days is 73.0 ounces (9 cups), while my average water consumed per day for this week was 48 ounces (6 cups). I think that is a function of my body acclimating to the amount of food that I need to eat in order to maintain my target weight. Early on, I was used to eating a lot more food. The water drowned my feelings of hunger, making me feel full and contented. Now, I don't have as many of those urges, but water continues to be a major component of the weight control solution for me. Drinking water helps avoid "hunger runaway" urges, and it keeps my whole system running better. Water is almost magical in what it can do for someone who has to work to maintain his weight.

I am happy with how this week went on my journey. I got in my exercise, as well as meeting my weight goal. I have started my fourth year of maintenance, and I am hopeful that I will continue on the track that I have been walking for 191 weeks. Dotti showed me the way to run a successful journey, and she made it so easy for me right from the start. She is quite a lady, and I am very lucky to have her!!! Thank you Dotti!!!

3 years, 242 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/184.0/180±2/BMI:23.00/WK-191

GRAPHS:

Weight Loss Maintenance Year 1 Maintenance Year 2 Maintenance Year 3 Maintenance Year 4 2005 Walking 2005 Walking Data

2004 Walking Data