Week 204 Update

It is growing harder to remember what life was like before The Journey. What was it like to go through a day and not worry about how much I was eating, just drifting along, at the mercy of my appetite? It is easier to remember what it was like to be a smoker, surprisingly enough, even though it has been nearly 7 years since I have had a cigarette. But then, perhaps it is not so surprising, since I was always far more attached to my cigarettes than I was to unlimited food.

Yet still, for most of my life, food and excess weight were always with me, either in the background waiting for an opportunity to move in, or no longer content with waiting, settling right into my life and taking over. I know that if I relaxed right now, and stopped writing down what I ate, and started to drift along, it would be just a matter of time before I was back up to 240 pounds or beyond. Like with freedom, as Thomas Jefferson pointed out, and Americans unfortunately are apparently going to find out that the hard way, internal vigilance is required to maintain.

I have the choice of journaling or physically expanding, and I have to make that choice each day. Even when I choose correctly--as I have on that point for the last 1428 days--it is not always an easy road. Each week brings with it, its own challenges that must be met. Even when I do everything that I think is correct, results may negatively surprise me. It is a permanent hands-on operation, if I wish to have permanent and acceptable results.

There follows a summary of what happened during my 204th week of my journey. The days, the weeks, the years are passing, and still there is always more to learn by living through them. Whether I have to yank on the reins crying, “Whoa,” let them hang slackly with little concern, or I have to dig in the spurs, it is a continual effort.

What is it like to be normally, and naturally thin? I will never know. The next best thing to having never smoked is to be an ex-smoker. And the next best thing to being naturally thin is being on a successful journey. While they are not the same thing, they have a great many points of overlap, and that is good enough for me.

Saturday - Weighed in at 185.5 pounds.

In the morning I got my numbers up for my update, and continued working with setting up my new computer. As lunchtime began to approach, Dotti and I headed out on a walk (1.5 miles each way) to Jamba Juice. On the way my pager went off by a call from another office. We drank our (7.0-point) Jamba Juices on the way back home, and we then drove over to the office. I dropped Dotti off so she could shop at the Burlington Coat Factory, while I was busy at the office.

The parts run turned out to be a wild goose chase, as the caller had confused our office with the Eugene office, and we didn’t even have the part that he wanted. He was very apologetic when he found out what he had done. J

As it turned out, all was not lost. Dotti was still shopping when I had finished, and so I went over to Powell Books, right next to Burlington Coat Factory, and found a used book on an old logic game that looks very promising for a possible computer game that I may write in the future.

On the way home we stopped at the Newport Bay restaurant, and had a very nice lunch/dinner. I had an excellent turkey and avocado sandwich meal (altogether I ate 20.0 points), which was nice since it is seafood restaurant, and I don’t care for seafood.

When I got back home, the pager went off again, a little after 7PM just as Dotti and I were sitting down to watch an old movie. It turned out to be the customer that I had worked with on Friday, and as I had expected, they needed a part to help with the problem we had discussed before.

First I had to find the part number for them, and then find out where one might be, and how much it would cost them. Then they had to get clearance to pay for it. The last part took quite a while and it was 10:30PM before they finally let me know that they wanted it for sure.

Before bed, Dotti and I set the clocks forward an hour, due to Daylight Savings Time going into effect, and crawled into bed around 12:30AM by the new time.

I had walked 3.0 miles, and I had eaten 47.0 points for the day.

Sunday - I got up at 06:30, and weighed 187.0 pounds. I followed up on the late part order from Saturday night. Around 09:00 I finally got the “flight information” about the part, and found out that it would be arriving in the evening.

I sat down to write up a post for the message board before tackling my text write-up for week 203, when we got an unexpected call from LeRoy saying that he was just down the road and would be arriving shortly for a visit. That is always good news!

We went to Shari’s for lunch, and then Dotti and LeRoy ran some errands together, while I practiced my new song for the upcoming conference. Afterwards, I also went through a number of old Beatle songs just for fun.

When Dotti and LeRoy got back, it wasn’t too much longer before he had to hit the road for his apartment. Dotti and I relaxed for the evening watched what remained of the weekend evaporate before our eyes. At least the pager didn’t go off again.

By day’s end I had eaten 48.0 points, and hadn’t walked at all.

Monday - I weighed 189.0 pounds in the morning. My sodium was up on Sunday, and I did some late eating. My points were not high enough to cause this kind of bump. So, while it was unpleasant to see, I knew it wasn’t fat weight, and would pass.

I got to work early and it was a cool 40° when I did my 3.17-mile walk. Since there was no threat of rain, and with the cool temperature, I wore my heavy blue coat. It is not waterproof, but it is nice and warm. That kept me very comfortable.

I had a fairly quiet morning, and did some work on my computer.

At lunch it was 49° and the weather looked very chancy. This time of year I have to make a guess, whenever I take a walk, as to whether or not it is going to rain. This time the sky directly overhead was blue and the sun was shining, but there were some very dark clouds all around me along the horizon. Would they move over me and rain, or remain aloof? I decided to play it safe and wore my raincoat, but considering the odds on heavy rain to be low, I left the rain pants in my car.

I headed off on my normal 3.17-mile loop, but when I got to the first tunnel, there was a sign saying the path was closed. I couldn’t go that way. On the other side, I could see some heavy machinery working on the pond area. I assumed they wanted to keep people out of the way to avoid a chance of injury.

I ended up continuing on along the same side of the street until I got past the blocked off area, and then cut across, when the speeding cars were doing their speeding on some other part of the road. (I have set up my normal route in such a way so that I use pedestrian tunnels to avoid having to cross any really busy roads, while dodging traffic. I also walk in a counterclockwise direction around the loop, so that I am always walking against traffic. That is especially important on the one area where there is no sidewalk.)

After about a mile into the walk, the clouds moved over and blocked the sun. Still it wasn’t raining, and I wasn’t sure that it was going to. However, with about one mile left to go, I felt the first rain drop hit my hand. I looked down at the sleeve of my raincoat, and there was a spot where a single drop had splattered as well. A few steps more and there were several drops. I still wasn’t sure if it was going to cut loose and rain or not, but I didn’t have too long to wait to find out the answer was, yes!

The drops increased in number dramatically and soon I was beginning to worry about how wet my pants were getting. Then I forgot about that as the rain turned into hail. Little white balls were falling everywhere as I continued to walk the last half-mile.

The hail only lasted a few minutes and before long it was back to heavy rain again, which continued for the rest of my walk. When I got to my car and got in, I found that the front of my pants, at thigh level, was fairly damp, but not soaked. After I finished eating my lunch, with the heater blowing on them, my pants were nearly completely dry.

When I got home, we had some hot dogs, sauerkraut and french-fries. Very good! After working on my computer for a while, I went to bed and did some reading. I was just about finished with the Harry Potter series of books for the second time. (Book five right now is the last in the series and is called Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. There is another one due out this summer.) I didn’t quite finish the book before going to sleep, but it was close.

For Monday, I walked 6.34 miles, and I ate 41.0 points.

Tuesday - Got up at 05:15, and weighed 188.0 pounds. I was actually down a pound in spite of the sauerkraut and salted french-fries. J However, 188 is too much as well.

I finished the Harry Potter book while reading breakfast. J. K. Rowling’s has a very Politically Correct political agenda, and for any child who is a reader, these books are going to make extremely good propaganda tools to shape their minds into Politically Correct lines of thought. They are very well written, exciting, interesting on many levels; and the main characters are very human and likable. However, the lines of good and evil are not drawn along what traditionalists like myself would find reasonable, especially for children’s entertainment. For one example of many: truth and lies do not lie on either side of that line…for lying is not a problem if the situation suits the hero and his friends. But I digress.

I had Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian waiting in the wings, and so I put it in my car for lunchtime reading. I expected that it would be quite a change from Hogwarts. J

I got on the road early for work, and I arrived a few minutes before 07:00. It had rained quite a bit on my drive, but when I arrived, the clouds overhead didn’t look threatening at all, and the cloud cover was moving to the east, meaning that all the rain that I had come through was heading the other way. So, I decided to just wear my raincoat for a wind breaker and I headed out into the 47° air. I had some extra time, and used it by walking my 1-mile route to the 3/4-Mile Corner (instead of taking the 0.75-mile direct route). I then walked the rest of the 3.17-mile loop route, thereby covering a distance of 3.17 + 0.25 miles, or 3.42 miles. No rain fell at any time during my walk.

On the first leg of my walk, I noticed that the eastern upper pond was still drained. There was a 3-foot tall pile of large stone gravel located right in the middle of the walking path, blocking the entire walking surface. I had to go off onto the grass to get around it. It was obviously to be used in the future in the pond for some purpose.

I had a few issues to deal with at work in the morning, and soon it was time for lunch, at which time I walked my 3.17-mile route. However, once again the path through the first tunnel was blocked by a sign that said, “Path Closed Do Not Enter.” I once again had to continue on past the tunnel and then cross the road in-between traffic bunches to reach the other side.

I even got to share part of the walk with Dotti on the phone, which was nice. J

The sun was out and the temperature got up to 64°. I had on my Columbia jacket (with no liner, cap, or gloves) but it was feeling a little warm by the end of the walk.

When I got home in the evening, Dotti and I took two very pleasant walks: to Red Robins; and back, with a nice dinner placed between (mine came to 5.0 points J). It was 54° and overcast. It rained a bit on the way there.

There was something that happened at the restaurant that is so typical of Dotti. The place was really crowded, and when we finished our meal, Dotti noticed that behind me about 20 feet away, there were two older ladies who were stuck sitting at a little counter-like table on a couple of tall stools. They had just arrived and been seated, and looked very uncomfortable. Dotti got their attention and asked them if they wanted our table, since we were just about to leave. They did, and were soon happily seated in our just vacated places, while we were waiting for the paid check to return. Dotti is such a thoughtful lady!

On the way back we were so intent on each other, while standing at the corner waiting for the light, that we almost missed the green light (well actually these days it’s white) for walking. We had on our raincoats (I also had on my Columbia jacket underneath) but it was not raining too much, especially on the walk home.

I ended up walking 9.79 miles on Tuesday, and ate 38.0 points.

Wednesday - I woke up at 05:03 and I weighed 187, moving back into my target range after a two day vacation away.

I didn’t realize that Dotti had gotten up during the night and made my lunch. So, I woke her up at around 5:30, but she didn’t mind. Soon, she was back to sleep. I got out the door well before 06:15.

I got to work early enough to start walking around 06:50. It was 46° and I set off hoping to do my normal 3.17-mile loop. There was no rain, and the clouds were thin and very high. It was very pleasant weather for a walk. At the first tunnel the path was still closed, and so I had to cut across the road once I was up the hill on the other side. Traffic was light at that time of day and there was no problem finding a clear spot to cross.

I had a busy morning at work, and it passed very quickly. I wasn’t feeling very well however, and I decided to skip my lunchtime walk. I just continued to read Master and Commander in the car while eating my lunch.

After dinner at home, I ran up Linux on my old computer and set up the mail program to pick up email. It worked fine!

I walked 3.17 miles and ate 48.0 points by the end of Wednesday.

Thursday - I woke up and weighed 186.0 pounds, making it the third straight day that I had dropped a pound. Water weight is sometimes “easy come, easy go.”

I like Thursdays, because Dotti is often up with me in the morning and remains up, because she has her bowling league. She is president of the league and even her arthritis doesn’t stop her from having a lot of fun with it. I usually call her during her first game and wish her luck, and I can tell by her voice that she is really having a good time.

I had to put on my raingear for my walk, with it being 49° and raining fairly hard. I walked my one-mile path through the park. I noticed that they were starting work on the eastern upper pond finally, placing rock around its outer shoreline, to avoid erosion. I was concerned that this path might be closed later in the day, like my other path was earlier in the week. Now there were two large piles of stone gravel in middle of the path beside the pond. I decided that at lunch I should seek another route.

When I was passing the full lower pond, I noticed that the water was being struck continuously, with the rain drops appearing on average, to be falling about 4 to 6 inches apart from each other. It was a great morning for a walk!

After leaving the park, and when I reached The 3/4-mile Corner, I then turned left and walked out the remainder of the 3.17-mile loop, and when completed, I had walked 3.42 miles.

Things were quiet at work and soon it was lunchtime where I found that my old route was finally open, so that I could walk my normal 3.17-mile loop with an added loop around the western ponds (where they had been working the previous days putting rock around the shoreline), to make a 3.73-mile walk.

The rain was pouring down fairly hard, and the temperature was a relatively warm 53°. I just put my raingear on over my shirt and pants, without any other coats. I did wear my gloves and hat. I did feel a bit chilled for much of the walk, but I was finally warm by the end.

One of the regular joggers that I often pass was running in his normal tee-shirt and shorts and getting drenched. I yelled out as we passed, “Oregon sunshine.” He just laughed. Later on we passed again (we always seem to do a similar loop but in reverse directions) and he commented on how great the view was in spite of the rain, and he was right. It was surprisingly clear for quite a distance before the rain started to blur the background.

After the day being quiet, about 25 minutes before I was about to head home, my customer said that they needed a part really badly. I had nightmarish visions of an overtime drive to the office and back in heavy traffic, before being able to start my drive home. Fortunately, there was a guy in the office, who works a different shift than I do, who would be headed out later, and he would be able to deliver the part. Very cool! J So, I got to leave at my normal time.

But my workday was not completely over. Just as I was getting on the road, my boss called to say one of our customers on the east side of town, where I had done a very nice one-year stint onsite awhile back, was having some trouble. He felt it was probably going to be a phone fix, and he asked if I would handle it. So, while driving home, I gave them a call, and ended up reaching a tech, with whom I had worked with when I was there. We visited a bit and then I talked him through fixing his problem. Working and driving home at the same time. That is good. If I can just figure out how to work and just stay at home at the same time, I will be all set. J

I spent another evening on the computer, and soon Thursday was over. I had walked 7.15 miles, and eaten 39.5 points.

Friday - I broke my string of consecutive days losing a pound, when I weighed 186.5 pounds in the morning. I got out the door early enough to arrive in time to start walking a few minutes before 7AM. When I got out of the car, I looked up at the sky and the clouds looked high and thin, with no real chance of rain. The temperature was 44° and that felt fairly cold. So, I put on my heavy coat (which is warm but not waterproof), gloves and knit cap before heading out. Along the way I was a bit concerned that I might have misjudged the clouds because it began to feel like it might start raining, but as it turned out the only drops that fell were after I was finished walking, and while I was writing down my time in my “Journal Lite.” A couple of drops hit the paper but they were small and of no concern.

I caught up on all my paperwork for the week in the morning. Otherwise things were fairly quiet.

At lunch there was a bit more rain, and I wore my raingear for the walk, with my Columbia jacket on underneath. (I learned my lesson from the day before about getting a chill.) The temperature was once again 53°, but I was plenty warm this time, even though there was a bit of a breeze. When I walked through the first tunnel, it surprisingly felt almost like there was an arctic breeze hitting me in the face, but for the rest of the walk things felt comfortable.

I spent the evening on the computer, including collecting some data for my brother-in-law (Dotti’s twin sister’s husband) and getting it on CD. As is normally the case, bedtime came around in a hurry. Where does the time go?

Friday walked 6.13 miles and I ate 40.5 points.

How did this week measure up?

At 302.5 total points for the week, I ate 4 fewer points this week, leaving my average points-per-day only slightly diminished at 43.21. That is below my normal maintenance level of 46 points, and so I have been eating the right amount for the week. I am happy with that. (I am sure that Ibuprofen has artificially elevated my reading on the scale but my average weight for the week was right at 187.0 pounds anyway.)

For exercise, I got in 35.58 miles of walking. That is not only much better than last week, it is over 10 miles beyond my standard goal of 25 miles-per-week, and I am quite happy with that. My total for miles for 2005 is just over 420, and to be on track for my 1300-mile goal for the year, I should be at 349 miles. I am creeping up to the point where I will be 100 miles ahead of goal. I will strongly consider increasing my goal if that happens. In other words, if I reach the point where walking 25 miles per week for the rest of the year will reach 1400 miles, I will change my goal to 1400 miles. I feel that 25 miles per week is a very reasonable goal, and so I do not feel like I will be pressing, barring any unforeseen bumps in the road, to continue walking at least that much on average.

In the meantime, I am looking at how many miles I will be getting in before conference comes along. The first official day of the conference is Friday the 22nd of April. I think I will just see how close I can come to having in 500 miles for the year by that time. It would be pressing to actually reach 500 miles, but I should be able to at least approach it. We’ll see.

For water I averaged 62.86 ounces (7.9 cups) each day. I am always striving to get in at least 6 to 8 cups per day, and this is at the upper part of that range. I am very happy with that.

3 years, 333 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/186.0/180±2/BMI:23.25/WK-204

GRAPHS:

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

2004 Walking Data