Week 203 Update

I woke up this morning at 05:15 and stepped up on Mr. Scale. He promptly said, “185.5 pounds!” Since this week has been a more or less a walk on the high side, as far as the scale is concerned, I am perfectly satisfied with that number.

I am not happy with the number for my average weight this week (187.14) but I am not too upset by it either. It is very close to the top of my target range, and the Ibuprofen that I have been taking this week has certainly added on some water weight.

I didn’t walk as much as I would have liked for the week, but my numbers for the month and the year are still pretty good. So, I can’t complain.

Here’s how the week went…

Saturday - It felt like old times when I woke up in the morning with Dotti and LeRoy sleeping quietly, while I tried to be as silent as possible getting my breakfast and then working on my write-up for the week.

I weighed in at 185.5 once again, and, looking at my maintenance graph, I seem to be setting a trend with that number.

I had a “power breakfast” of 11.0 points, which was about 5 more points than my normal breakfast. However, I was feeling hungry.

After I finished my write-up, Dotti and LeRoy woke up and Dotti and I continued to enjoy our quality time with our son.

Normally when he comes down for a visit, he chauffeurs us around in his nice leased car. This time, he was driving a very small rental car because his new car was incapacitated. He had hit a coyote going at freeway speeds. He hadn’t even had time to hit his brakes before striking the coyote, since the poor animal had jumped off the side of the road at the last instant, running at top speed, and managed to just get centered squarely between the car’s front two wheels when contact was achieved. The coyote is now chasing slow roadrunners in coyote heaven, and the car was in the shop, where the radiator, front grill and bumper, and other assorted parts were being replaced. Fortunately LeRoy was fine, the airbags didn’t deploy, and it was just a question of time before his car would be returned in good working order.

So, we did the chauffeuring this time around. J We had lunch at Red Robin (Mine was 22.5 points for a burger and fries), and then headed over to Costco to have a Very Berry Sundae (6.0 points) and wander around aimlessly for a few hours looking at all the consumer goods crying out to be purchased. (I am inexplicably reminded here of an old Paul McCartney song called JUNK where there is the line: “’Buy, buy,’ calls the stuff in the shop window. ‘Why? Why?’ asks the junk in the yard.”) As is usual, I found myself perusing the non-fiction area of the books, and it was nice having my son joining me there.

We stopped at CompUSA, and found a Gateway computer that looked like it might be a good one to replace my old one, but I didn’t want to spend the money just yet.

Back at home we had a nice dinner that Dotti cooked up (I had 7.0 points), and we visited for the evening.

I ended the day having done no walking for exercise, though I did spend quite a bit of time on my feet strolling around. I ate a total of 57.0 points, which was a bit high for me.

Sunday -(EASTER)– I weighed 187.5 pounds in the morning, which was no surprise after how I had eaten the day before.

LeRoy accompanied Dotti as she ran some errands in the morning, while I worked on my computer. They found that nearly every placed they stopped was closed for Easter.

I took a walk while they were gone, but I only went 2.69 miles. I was not feeling really well while I was walking. I was overheated, and just not feeling right at all. I just decided to cut it short.

I whipped my lunch together while I was waiting. (19.0 points.) Unfortunately, when Dotti and LeRoy returned, it was about time for LeRoy to be heading back home. The weekend had really gone by fast.

I had a snack for dinner (4.5 points) and finished the day off eating 42.0 points. That was much better than on Saturday.

Monday - I weighed 188.0 pounds. Ouch!

I got to work early enough to do a 3.00-mile walk in the 44° air. I noticed that, while the upper ponds in the park were still drained, the lower ones were well on the way towards being filled up. The geese and other aquatic fowl seemed to be very pleased. I didn’t see any water being added to the upper ponds on any of my walks this week. They apparently were still working on de-sludging the system.

At lunch I walked 2.06 miles by walking my normal path for 0.75 miles out to the corner, but I added in the 0.56-mile loop around the pond, and then returned along the 0.75-mile route to my customer site. It was 51°.

Dotti surprised me with the new Gateway computer that we had been looking at CompUSA. What a sweetheart! J

By day’s end I had walked 5.06 miles and eaten 37.5 points.

Tuesday - I weighed 186.5 pounds. That is much better! I had a quiet day at work, and I didn’t feel like walking at all, so I didn’t.

I worked on my new computer when I got home. I took it out of the box and hooked it up where I could work on a table in the study. I started transferring files, which turned out to be a long term project.

I ended up eating 41.0 points for the day, and didn’t walk at all.

Wednesday - I weighed 187.0 pounds. I took a 3.0-mile walk in the morning, when it was 42°. I walked at a pretty good pace, but I didn’t feel to well by lunchtime and didn’t walk any more that day.

It was a quiet day at work but in the late afternoon I got a call from the office and was told that I would be going to another customer site in the morning to work on a problem they were having. This was relatively good news for me. This other customer site is very much closer to home, and the traffic pattern there is very, very much better to deal with. The only downside was that I had to swing by the office to pick up some parts on the way home, and that put me into a potential long and ugly drive home. However, I dropped by the office to pick up the parts, and was very happy to find that the traffic was uncustomarily light. I was home in about 45 minutes. Once more I spent the evening working getting files transferred over to my new computer. (I tried using our home network, and then switched over to my external hard drive, but neither one was terribly fast. But I was making good progress nonetheless.

Wednesday I walked 3 miles and ate 48.5 points.

Thursday - I weighed 188.5 points. That Ibuprofen is really doing a number on the scale for me.

I went to my other customer site in the morning, and the drive was so much nicer! I left 55 minutes later than I normally would leave for work, on a day where I was not planning on doing a morning walk, and I still made it on time! After I found their problem, I headed back to the office to drop the parts off that I had picked up the day before, because I hadn’t had to use them. I was back out to my normal customer site just in time for lunch. J

In the evening I continued transferring files for the new computer. Things were looking much better now.

I didn’t walk at all on Thursday, and I ate 41.0 points.

Friday - I weighed 187.0 pounds. Better but no good yet.

I didn’t get in any walking again. I just haven’t been feeling right. My abdominal pain has returned with a vengeance this week, and I have felt “under the weather.”

It was quiet most of the day, but I did get a call late Friday afternoon concerning a customer who wanted assistance over the phone. After the call to the customer was completed, I was concerned that this problem might return to plague me over the upcoming weekend, since I was scheduled to have pager coverage this week.

When I got home, Dotti and I went to Sweet Tomatoes and had a nice romantic dinner together. (I only ate 8.0 points too. J)

In the evening, I continued moving files to my new computer.

I didn’t walk at all on Friday, and I ate 38.5 points for the day.

How did this week measure up?

I ate a total of 306.5 points. That comes to 43.79 points-per-day, or 1 to 2 points-per-day less than my normal maintenance level. I would expect, all things being equal, to hold right at 185.0 pounds eating that many points. If it were not for the medication induced water retention I think that is probably where I would have been. So, I am not unhappy with how the week went for weight and eating.

For exercise, I just didn’t get done what I wanted to. However, fortunately I had already accumulated a reservoir of extra miles for the month and the year, and I was able to meet and exceed my walking goals for March, by walking 140 miles in the month. I am only 15 miles short of having 400 miles in, after only three months of 2005 going by. So, I feel good about my exercise for 2005, if not for how this week went. Hopefully next week will be better.

For water I came up one cup short of reaching my goal of drinking at least 6 cups every day. Short but not too bad. My guess is that I drank enough extra along the way that didn’t get written down to make up for it. But even if I didn’t I will settle for averaging 5.86 cups per day, J at least for this week.

3 years, 326 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/185.5/180±2/BMI:23.19/WK-203

GRAPHS:

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

2004 Walking Data