Week 199 Update

I woke Mr. Scale up early this morning when I stepped on him at 03:41 and he said, "185.5 pounds!"

One hundred and ninety-nine weeks completed. Wow! If each week counted as a single day of a year, and I had started on January 1, it would be July 18th. This is the 1394th day of my journey, and it is getting harder to remember how things were before. What was it like to just wander through the day, eating with little thought, and grabbing snacks just because they caught my fancy, and not thinking about how many points, or about writing down what I was eating?

What was it like looking at myself in a mirror and thinking, "That is a fat man I am looking at"? I remember the event, but it seems like it was in another life. I have new problems, and there are still plenty of areas where I very much need to improve things, but in this one thing, a real, and positive, change has been made.

Yesterday the security guard at work asked me about how much walking I was doing. He naturally had noticed that I was parking my car in the lot about an hour before coming into the building and could see that I was walking. I told him, and he seemed impressed. Later in the day, he and his supervisor asked me how much weight I had lost since I started walking. Both of their eyes opened up a bit when I said I hadn't lost a pound since I started walking. They seemed to remember a fatter Al wondering around a few years ago, and the picture on my badge and computer property pass show someone who had much fatter cheeks. J

I explained to them that I had lost 55 pounds before I started my walking program, and am on my 4th year of keeping it off right now. They immediately asked me how I lost it without walking, and I told them it was Weight Watchers, and of course mentioned Dotti's success and her web page. I also added a very quick word about the fact that the reason it worked for me so well was because I was never "on a diet" and never felt deprived. "I get plenty of food and feel satisfied. That makes it easy."

While I don't think anyone within earshot of what I was saying was especially overweight, I would bet money that they know someone who is, and I always feel good when I can put in a good word about Weight Watchers to people. I think the points system is a great calorie counting method that simplifies tracking what you are eating, and it motivates you to eat more fiber and less fat at the same time. It makes weight loss relatively painless, and maintenance a matter of routine if you continue doing the same things during maintenance that you did during weight loss.

When you can demonstrate success by your example, and then let others know about the method you used, it will sometimes help others to do the same. And that is helping to make the world at least a little better than it was before. I can't hold a candle to Dotti's success in that area, but I try to do my part.

While the habits are in place, and things are usually fairly routine, I had to focus this week to hold things on track.

Saturday - We were at my mom's house, and I was a bit worried about weighing-in. I was concerned that I would not be inside my target range because my weight had been up a bit the previous days, and I had to make a 4 hour drive on Friday night, after a full day of work, and a long drive home in rush-hour traffic. My points had crept up to 55.0 before I was finished. Then I was up late visiting with Mom before finally getting to bed. When I registered 187.0 pounds I breathed a sigh of relief and set out to have a better week this week.

Dotti and I spent a great deal of time on the computers all day long. Dotti logged onto McAfee's site and set up a scan on Mom's old computer where a virus was suspected of residing. Since it was dialup, and a very slow process, it was scanning nearly all day. In the meantime, we had a wireless network set up, where our two laptops, and both of Mom's desktops were all connected. It allowed us to move files and get things set up much easier than it would have been otherwise. In spite of the time spent working on the computer all day, and well into the evening, I only ended up eating 36.0 points for the day.

McAfee picked up a couple viruses on Mom's computer and I deleted them. There was one file that was needed and couldn't be deleted. I copied it onto a floppy and took it to her new computer that has an updated virus package installed, and I used that to clean the file. Then I took the clean file back and replaced the infected copy with the clean copy. That took care of it. Now, Mom is going to avoid ever going onto the Internet with her old computer and only use the protected one for the Internet, and for email. Soon she will be able to move everything over to her new computer and get rid of the old one. In the meantime it should remain virus free now.

I didn't get in any walking, even though Dotti and I both had planned to. The computers ended up taking up our whole day. We had one little break when a group of high school kids from Mom's church came by to sing some songs and visit. I broke out my guitar and played a few songs with them. J

Once again it was late when I got to bed.

Sunday - When I woke up, just before 8AM, I weighed 187.5. I did a quick update for my online journal, which I had not had time to do on Saturday. We still had a few computer tasks to finish up before we left, and it was after noon before we got on the road. Mom looked like she was doing well and we said our goodbyes.

On the drive home Dotti typed in a lot of restaurant updates for her web page. We have an inverter that generates 110VAC from the 12VDC from the cigarette lighter socket. So, she just plugs her computer into the inverter like she would into the wall socket at home. When we got close to Portland, she checked her wireless connection opportunities out right from the freeway, and though she didn't actually connect up, found 8 or 10 available networks all along the way. The day is coming when you will have the opportunity to be connected to the Internet almost everywhere.

When we got home it was time for dinner. Dotti and I walked to Red Robin. We had a light dinner (5.0 points for a salad) and then continued our walk, adding in a detour up to Shari's, turned around without stopping, and then headed back home. We ended up walking 4.69 miles.

I got my graphs done for my update, and it was time for bed. I had eaten 37.0 points by the end of the day. Since my weight had been bumping up around 187 pounds for several days, I wanted to pull things back into line again.

Monday - I was happy to see that I was back down to 185.0 pounds. I got to work early each day this workweek and walked 3.17 miles. On Monday it was drizzling and 49°, but that was nice. We need the rain, and the temperature was warming up. I actually like it when we have some "weather" when I am walking: wind; rain; fog; etc. It makes it interesting. I didn't walk at lunch or in the evening that day.

This was the last day of the month, and I ended up with having walked 99.53 miles for February. Rounding that to the nearest whole mile that is 100 miles, which was my goal for February. (February has exactly 4 weeks, and my standing goal is 25 miles per week.) Technically I was 0.47 miles short of my goal, but since I was ahead by more than that at the end of January, I was still in good shape for the year. With 306 days left in the year, to be on track for reaching 1300 miles, I needed to have 210.1 miles completed by this day. I had actually walked 244.7 miles. J

I spent the workday "chasing particles," and trying to locate where they were coming from in the machine. This problem lingered, and really did not look like it was completely fixed until Friday.

When I got home, after dinner, I caught up on my email, and modified a program that I had previously written for Dotti, to add a new feature. Before long it was bedtime.

I ate 38.5 points for the day.

Tuesday - I weighed 185.5. My first walk for the month was my morning walk before work. It was 41°, and quite pleasant. I have been noticing more and more flowers popping up all over. Bushes and trees alike are either presenting open flowers, or developing numerous buds that are about to open. Spring is getting an early start this year it seems.

In the evening Dotti and I walked to Red Robin (1.9 miles). I was feeling a bit hungry, and so I had their new turkey burger for 15.0 points, and some fries for another 5.5 points. With the heavier evening meal, I ended up with 44.0 points total. We walked back home, completing our loop (1.3 miles). I got in 6.37 miles for the day.

When I got home I finally finished up my weekly write up and got it up on the web page. It was after 11PM when I finally got to bed.

Wednesday - I weighed 185.0 pounds. It was 49° for my morning walk. It is already getting light before I leave home now. The sun is actually rising about 15 minutes before 7AM. Since I start my walk around 07:00, there is no more walking in the dark. We are only a couple of weeks away from the vernal equinox, which not only marks the beginning of spring, but there will be daylight present for 12 hours all over the Earth. From then until the autumnal equinox in late September, the daylight hours will be longer than 12 hours for the northern hemisphere, and the farther north you go, the longer the days.

At lunch I walked another 3.17 miles. The temperature was up to 57°, and it didn't feel like winter at all.

In the evening I had a heavy meal, with a large volume, but only 13.0 points. I had butter beans, brown rice, green beans and juice. I had a few snacks and I was up to 44.5 points by day's end.

Thursday - I weighed 187.5 pounds. I thought, "Here I go again!" I knew that it was the amount of food that I had eaten, and that it was high fiber stuff and would be gone soon, without creating fat, but I am just about tired of seeing numbers at or above 187.0.

It was 39° and quite foggy when I walked in the morning. (I had been worried that the foggy drive in would lead to slow traffic, but surprisingly it did not.) With the sun already up, the fog did not appear as spooky as it had a few weeks ago. There wasn't the "edge of the world" feeling to the foggy wall surrounding me. Still, the nice cool air made for an enjoyable walk.

At lunch the temperature was back up to 55°, and there was plenty of sunshine. I had some time, so I headed off in a new direction for my walk. For some time I had wanted to try out one particular road, and so I did. It took me on an unexpected turn, and by the time I had made it back to my normal route, I had added an extra 1.3 miles. I finished up having walked 4.47 miles! Fortunately it was only just over an hour when I was finished.

In the evening, I worked on another programming project and it was bedtime before I knew it. I had eaten 39.0 points for the day.

Friday - I weighed 187.0 pounds. I did my 3.17-mile morning walk with the temperature at 41°. At lunch I walked another 2.4 miles, on my old route that I walked a lot of times last year. The lunchtime temperature was a warm 57°, and it is getting close to the time when I won't be wearing a coat for my walks at lunch.

The particle problem that I had been working on seems to have been resolved, which took a load off me by the end of the week.

On the drive home last night, I was getting very close to the end of the unabridged audio book 1984 by George Orwell. It is at least the 3rd time that I have gone through the book (this is the first time I have listened to it in audio book form), and while I have always considered it the most important piece of fiction that I have ever read, this time it was far more enlightening than the previous times. Its ending is black, and its warning is clear. It's 21 years after the year 1984, but the world of Big Brother is not as far fetched as it once appeared. People do not look for a telescreen before speaking, but they do look over their shoulder more than they used to. The television, with its propaganda stream is nearly omnipresent, and the idea of thought police is not as vaporous as it was in 1948 when the book was originally written. The number of people who languish in jail today for merely speaking their opinion is growing in many countries of the West, where freedom of speech was once believed to be a basic civil right. Big Brother would be pleased by our "progress."

In the evening, Dotti and I walked to Red Robins once more for dinner. That "fajita salad" is very filling, and it is low in points. Borders Books is right next door to Red Robin, and so we wandered over there for some enjoyable perusing before making the 1.3-mile walk back home.

By the end of the day, I had walked a total of 8.77 miles.

I ate 36.5 points for the day, which led to my 185.5 weigh-in this morning.

Overall the week was a success, though not perfect.

I certainly didn't overeat, consuming only an average of 39.36 points per day, at least 5 points-per-day under my normal maintenance level.

My water consumption was not excellent. Saturday I didn't drink any. Sunday I only drank 3 cups. However, by the end of the week, I had pulled my average up to 44.56 ounces (5.6 cups) per day, which is only 0.4 cups below my target of 6 to 8 cups per day.

I was very happy with how my exercise went this week. I didn't walk on Saturday, but I did walk each of the other days this week. I got in 36.98 miles, nearly 12 miles over my goal. To be on track for my goal of 1300 miles for the year, I should have walked 224.4 miles by now. I have instead walked 273.8 miles, putting me well ahead of schedule. In fact if I continued the rest of the year at the same rate that I have been on so far, I would reach 1586 miles by year's end. So far I have averaged 4.35 miles-per-day for the first 63 days of 2005. If I can average 3.40 miles-per-day (23.8 miles-per-week) for the rest of the way, I will reach 1300 miles.

3 years, 298 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/185.5/180±2/BMI:23.19/WK-199

GRAPHS:

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

2004 Walking Data