Week 192 Update

It was 06:15, we were sitting in the middle of a "Winter Storm Warning" with the thermometer sitting at 30°, and freezing rain falling, when I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, "185 pounds!"

I spent most of this week recovering from a splurge last weekend, where I had a couple of high points days, mainly as a result of a run-in I had with a Costco cheesecake. Things worked out in the end, but for a few days I could feel "the tires losing traction" and my weight-control vehicle start to slide towards the weight-gain ditch.

Dotti on the other hand has been rolling along on track all week, eating right on program, exercising regularly (She has been putting our new treadmill to good use!), and she has dropped about 3 pounds.

Here is how the week went...

Saturday – I weighed-in at 184.0 pounds. LeRoy was down visiting us, and we had a great time. When everyone was up in the morning, we all piled into LeRoy's car and went around to do some errands. We stopped at Red Robin for lunch and this is where I hit my first "patch of ice." It wasn't really bad by itself. I ate 20.5 points, but I have eaten more there many times. I had a burger and fries, and iced tea. (No Monster Shake M this time!)

Afterwards we visited Border Books and a couple of other stores before we headed home to wait for our new treadmill to arrive. (Yes, the one that was to replace the one that was damaged in shipment and we had to reject on Wednesday of the previous week, after having to wait for nearly a week before that after ordering it. We were ready for a working treadmill to arrive by this time! If Sears had of flubbed this one too, we would have cancelled the order and gone somewhere else.)

When it was delivered the guys hauled it in and started assembling it. After they were well into the process, their supervisor showed up to check on how things were going. Perhaps Dotti had made an impression on them when she had conveyed our displeasure at the way things went on the first treadmill. J

After they left, and Dotti had tried it out, I had to walk a mile on it. As it turned out, it was the only walking that I did for exercise that day.

We next headed out to Costco, thinking we had several hours before it was to close. However, we made it inside with less than an hour left of normal store hours. So, we were up and down the aisles a bit faster than normal. Somehow (can you hear the music change in the soundtrack to that strain of melody that tells you danger is rapidly approaching?) we ended up in the bakery section . Since "here there be dragons," I do not tread those cursed grounds as a general rule. But LeRoy was looking for something particular there, and the next thing you know, my feet were treading on dangerous soil. Before finding my way out of the labyrinth, I had somehow ended up with a giant strawberry cheesecake in our basket.

Ah, Cheesecake, that perfectly irresistible, delightful, confection straight from...well that depends upon whether you are speaking of the taste or the results of eating it. Since I had to flick the good angel off my shoulder with a quick snap of my fingers, so I could clearly listen to the bad one, I guess it was not sent from heaven, but it sure tasted heavenly.

Well, that night, I had a 40-point piece of that sinfully, delicious delight, straight from the devil's kitchen. When that was added to my otherwise, slightly high subtotal for meals and snacks, I was looking at a record setting 92.5-point day. Ruh-roh.N

We watched a couple of movies that LeRoy thought I might like (Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy), and then it was time for bed. Although I had written all my points down for the day, I hadn't totaled them yet, and I didn't do so for a few more days. In fact it was when I was putting in my data for the week to write this update that I finally added all the numbers together. Perhaps it was forgetfulness, or perhaps it was DENIAL!

Sunday – I started my 3.05-mile walk, just about the time that Dotti and LeRoy were waking up. It was 42° and sunny, but not blindingly so. Afterwards, we all went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch.

LeRoy took down the final Christmas lights outside at our house, and we all went over to CompUSA to pick up a couple of items. Soon, we were back home working on computer items, right up until it was sadly time for LeRoy to head back home. When he left he took half of the cheesecake with him, but I didn't have the heart to say goodbye to the tempting little delight, without having another large piece. Can you say, "RED-LIGHT FOOD?" Forty points later, I was smiling like the Cheshire Cat. It wasn't "forbidden fruit," but it tasted sinfully delicious. This is something that could easily get out of hand, and at least part of me (the strong part) was happy to see the remaining half walk out the door under LeRoy's arm.

Later in the evening, Dotti walked on the treadmill for a half hour. Afterwards, I jumped on for a walk. Since I didn't walk much on Saturday, I wanted to get a good number count on Sunday. I wasn't sure how warm it was going to be in the room at first. I was only wearing shorts and my walking shoes, but it was not long before I realized that it was too warm. I had to hold my pace down to compensate. I should have stopped and opened the window, but I kept on going until I reached 4 miles. I was sweating like crazy by the end. But I had gotten my miles for the week up to 8.05, and I was all set for the rest of the week.

I really am not fond of treadmills. I much prefer walking outdoors. It is nearly sacrilegious for me to watch television while walking, because one of the primary joys that I get from walking is having that quiet time with my thoughts. Having the banal, useless (or worse) television material invading my quiet time is something that I really wish to avoid. At the same time, walking for long periods of time, staring at the same unchanging walls, is a bit of a challenge to deal with.

One solution, when I am forced to use the treadmill, is to work in "equivalent hikes" into the routine. Walking the same amount of elevation increase, over the same distance, can simulate the actual "Multnomah Falls hike," or the "Larch Mountain hike." This will create slower, and longer hikes but, since they will be changing in incline during the walk, they will be more interesting than a constant flat walk.

The treadmills at the gym would go up to 15% incline, but ours only goes up to 10% (a problem that I discussed with Tom K. previously concerning his treadmill). So, I will have to make some work-arounds, in order to come as close as possible to the actual hikes.

The Multnomah Falls hike is 1.2 miles from the bottom to the top. The trail goes up to about 800 feet in elevation before dropping back down to 611 feet, at the upper viewing platform. So, to simulate this hike, I need to cover an elevation increase of 800 feet, over a walking distance of 1.2 miles. (I cannot simulate the negative incline of the return trip, but I can do a flat return segment.) Since 1.2 miles contain 6336 feet that will be my "run" value. My "rise" value is 800 feet. The percent of incline is the RISE divided by the RUN, or 800/6336, which equals 12.6%. That is too much for our treadmill. So, what I will have to do is increase the distance, borrowing some of the return segment, to achieve the desired elevation increase. If I go 1.5 miles at 10% elevation incline, I will simulate an elevation increase of 792 feet. That is close enough. That leaves .9 miles to walk on the return trip at 0.0% incline. Using this approach, here are a few walks that I can do:

At the end of the day, at 70 points, I had done 22 points better than I had on Saturday, but I was still at least 20 points higher than I should have been. That cheesecake had given me 80 extra points, or a whole extra pound to deal with for the week. To a degree, it set the boundaries for me, for the rest of the week.

Monday – I weighed 185.0 pounds. However, I wasn't buying that. I know that eating outside my normal bounds will often come back 48 or 72 hours later to jump my scale up. So, I was careful to eat reasonably all day. I finished the day with having eaten 42 points. That was not terribly low, but it was a number that would not cause an increase on the scale. If the scale jumped up on Tuesday, I would know it was from the cheesecake extravaganza, and I could take appropriate action to recover.

In the morning before work, Dotti, after making my lunch for me, read an email to me that she had received that was very positive, and it made us both feel very good. It is nice to hear that Dotti's work is appreciated, and that her web page is doing good for others!

On my drive in to work, I had this nagging feeling that I was forgetting something, and sure enough, about halfway there, I realized that I had forgotten to take my laptop computer. Dotti very kindly offered to bring it out to me after her doctor's appointment that morning. She is an angel!

As I was approaching my customer's site, to the east there was a view that belonged in a painting. The clouds stretched across the sky from the western horizon, clear to just before reaching the eastern horizon. Mt. Hood stood out starkly in silhouette in front of a pastel sky, just starting to be lit by a sun that was going to be rising in just a while. The very peak of the mountain was buried into the cloud cover, and it looked for all the world like an upside down tornado that was "touching up" into the sky.

I started my walk, and I realized that I did not have time to do my 3-mile loop, so I settled for the 2.4-mile route. The temperature was 36°, and it was a very pleasant walk. As the day progressed the clouds were pushed back, as if the sun were demanding an uninterrupted view of the Earth today, and he just shoved the cloud curtain aside. We had a very nice sunny day.

Just after Dotti arrived with my computer, things got very busy at work, and I had to go into the clean room. I never even got to fire the computer up. I felt really bad that Dotti had to make that trip for nothing. Well, it wasn't entirely for nothing. I got a nice kiss before she left. J

There was some good news from her doctor too. He said that they were going to see how Dotti would do without taking her rheumatoid arthritis medications for a while. The pills are pretty potent, and she only took them once a week, but the day she took them was always a tough one. It will be nice if she doesn't need them any longer!

As I said, things were busy at work, and I didn't have time to walk at lunch. I needed to get back inside as soon as possible after eating to continue working on the problems.

In the evening, when I got home, Dotti discovered that one of our kitchen shelves had lost its end support and had fallen down. No real harm done, but we had to do something about the shelf. I am not a carpenter like my friend Jim in Spokane (I am so jealous of what he can do with wood!) but I did build a couple of supports for the shelf and got it back into operation.

Tuesday – I weighed 187.5. That was no surprise to me. I had a feeling it was coming. I built on what I had done on Monday, and even ate lower on Tuesday. I finished the day eating 36.5 points. I still had some "catching up" to do, but this was a step in the right direction.

I got out the door early. I was motivated to get an extra early start because I had only walked a short distance on Monday. I arrived more than 1 hour ahead of time for work. I was just a few minutes short of being able to try to get 5 miles in, but I knew I could get close. I have a lot of walking options around my customer's site that I have measured out with my GPS. I was not certain of exactly what I was going to do when I started walking, as to distance or route. I set off on my 3.17-mile loop. There are two different jumping off points on this loop where I can do a 1-mile out-and-back, returning to the same point. By walking either one of those, in conjunction with the 3.17-mile loop, I would get in 4.17 miles. I picked the one that starts at the 0.75 point of the loop. There just happens to be a 0.5 mile out and back that starts from the same point. I had time for both. J I walked the half-mile addition, and then the 1-mile route. I then continued on around and finished the 3.17-mile loop. So, I ended the walk with having walked 4.67 miles, which used the available time fairly well, using up all but 7 minutes of it.

The temperature was 29º and there was a lot of frost on all the plants around my path. At first it was dark, and I couldn't see much beyond the sidewalk. But things lightened up a lot as time went by. Towards the end, it looked like I was walking through a winter wonderland, with white grass and bushes everywhere. It was beautiful! The eastern horizon showed a clear strip from the cloud cover, nearly identical with the one on Monday, and Mt. Hood once again stood out clearly as a silhouette.

I was busy again at work, and even had some assistance from a friend of mine, another technician from my company. As it turned out, we found time at lunch to walk 2.4 miles together. It was 41°, and he wasn't prepared for a cold walk. He didn't have a cap or gloves, but at first it looked like it wouldn't matter. The sun was shining brightly and it felt warm. But at several points along the way some clouds blocked the sun, and I could see his ears and face starting to turn red. Fortunately, before long, the sun would come back out and warm things up again. By the end of the walk he seemed to be warm enough. It was nice to have someone to visit with during the walk, and I hope that I can talk him into walking again sometime. He has belonged to a hiking club in the past, and he is a jogger, so he enjoys exercise.

At the end of the day, I got out a bit late, but not as late as I had on Monday. I was fortunate on both days, because the traffic was not very bad. I got home in just over an hour each day. When I arrived home, I heard the treadmill going in Dotti's study. I just worked on a couple of things and waited for her to finish. I had been feeling pretty good about walking 7.07 miles during the day, and I was very happily surprised to find out that Dotti had walked nearly the same number of miles as I had!!! She is doing so good on everything these days...go Dotti!!!

Wednesday – I weighed 186.0 pounds, which was a nice improvement over Tuesday. I felt like the worst of the "cheesecake storm" was over, and I ended up eating 49.0 points.

The temperature was up all day. In the morning it was 39°, and my scarf and coats felt a bit overdone, but it didn't feel too bad. Along the way I passed a glass bottle that was lying beside the path. On Tuesday it had looked like a Christmas tree that had been flocked, with a thick white coating. On Wednesday it just looked wet.

For my lunch walk the temperature had jumped up to 45°, and I was pealing off my scarf, and gloves, as well as unzipping my rain, and Columbia coats as I progress on my way. I was overheating by the end of the walk. However, I completed the 2.4-mile loop, which brought me past the 50-mile barrier for the year, after only 12 days.

Dotti walked on the treadmill again on Wednesday. She is doing very good on her eating and her exercise. Not only that, but it seems like her entire day is more energetic now. There is something very special about when the Dotti magic is turned on. I love being around it. J

Thursday – I weighed 186.0 again. I decided that I needed to work on that a bit harder, and so I held my points down to 39.0.

We have a business trip over into Idaho scheduled early in February. I thought it would be a good idea to have studded snow tires on the car when we made the drive. So, Dotti kept the car to take it in and have the snow tires put on, and I drove the van to work. One of the features the Toyota has that the van does not, is an outside thermometer. I have gotten spoiled, being able to tell how cold it is outside as I drive along. That is especially true these days when the temperature is hanging around the freezing point so much of the time.

(After the fact, I found out on the Internet that) when I arrived at work it was 33°. It was overcast but not raining. The sidewalks were dry as I made my way around the 3.17-mile loop.

At lunch it was threatening to rain, and the temperature was 42°. I did my 2.4 mile loop, and right at the end I noticed some very small droplets hitting my raincoat sleeve, but that was it for precipitation.

After dinner, Dotti was on the treadmill again! J

Friday – I weighed 185.0 finally. I felt like I was over the cheesecake hurtle at last. I ate a normal 45.0 points, which led me to my 185.0 pound weigh-in this morning.

I only did one walk on Friday. Since I had already passed up my goal of 25 miles for the week on Thursday, the main reason that I did walk at all, was because I have gotten into the habit of leaving early for work, and since I was there early, what else was there to do? J In earlier days, I made it a habit of arriving early for work. My Dad had taught me that it is wise to arrive a half-hour early every day, just in case I had a flat tire or other emergency, and I could still arrive to work on time. I would show up early, grab a cup of coffee and smoke several cigarettes while I was waiting. When I quit smoking, I found that the extra time in the morning was rather inconvenient, and I dropped it back to more like 15 minutes or less. Now that I have recently been arriving early in order to walk, I have found that the traffic is very much lighter on the drive in, and I like that.

The temperature was 30°, and it was fortunate that the sidewalks were dry. (I had listened to the metal studs on my tires slap the pavement all the way in to work, but it made me feel good to know if ice should hit--as it has today--I would not be sliding all over the place.) I did my 3.17-mile loop and I enjoyed seeing the occasional leaf lying on the ground, with the frost making it appear to have been sprayed with glitter. On the final long straight stretch, the lawns I passed were coated in white. My breath looked like fog when I exhaled. I love walking in those conditions!

That closed out my exercise for the week, and I ended up walking 31.83 miles. My graph is edging up above the target line marking the pathway to 1300 miles for the year. At no time last year did I get above the target line on my graph, and it feels nice to be there already this year! I am 1241.2 miles away from reaching 1300, with 351 days left to go in 2005. I need to average 3.54 miles-per-day from here on out in order to reach my goal, while I have average 4.20 miles-per-day so far this year. If I continue through 2005 at the same pace, I will end up with a total of 1533.5 miles walked. I am trying to build a reservoir of extra miles that I can call on when I have bad weeks in the future. I know that I will be spending most of a week away next month in a place that normally has a lot of ice on its sidewalks. I may not be able to walk my normal number of miles that week. Also, at anytime during the year I might come down with a cold where I cannot walk. If I am ahead of schedule that will help me through the down time. In 2004 I was behind schedule and I had to deal with those things. I want it to be easier this year. We'll see how it goes.

3 years, 249 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/185.0/180±2/BMI:23.12/WK-192

GRAPHS:

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

2004 Walking Data