A Lifetime to Follow  
 AL'S JOURNEY! 
by AL COON
Before
Now
Version 1.0 - Copyright by Dotti's Weight Loss Zone, all rights reserved







  One man's journey to lose 50 pounds and keep it off.  






The Journey

-- WEEK 215 UPDATE --

*** Weigh-in for WEEK 215 ***
06/25/2005
Week Completed:___215___
Weigh-In Weight:186.5
Body Mass Index:23.31
Average Weight for week:185.29
Aerobic Points for week:53.05
Miles Walked for week:20.48
Miles Walked this month:66.51
Miles Walked in 2005:681.98
Final Total Miles Walked for 2004:1200.1
Week’s Average Points/Day: 45.71
Pounds +/- for this week:+2.0
Pounds lost total:53
Pounds to go to 10%:0.0*  
Pounds to go to goal:0.0**
Pounds to go to 20%:0.0***
Made PERSONAL GOAL: 11/23/2001

* Made 10% at 215.5 pounds on 7/14/01
** Made Goal at 200.0 pounds on 9/22/01
*** Made 20% at 191.5 pounds on 11/3/01
Personal Goal is 190 pounds.


Week’s Data
Day
Date
Weight
Points
Water
Aerobic
Points
Saturday
06/18/2005
184.5
60.5
2 cups (16 oz)
7.80
Sunday
06/19/2005
185.0
57.5
9 cups (72 oz)
0.00
Monday
06/20/2005
185.0
36.0
6 cups (48 oz)
14.58
Tuesday
06/21/2005
184.0
41.0
7 cups (56 oz)
15.41
Wednesday
06/22/2005
185.5
40.5
12 cups (96 oz)
7.79
Thursday
06/23/2005
185.5
36.0
8 cups (64 oz)
0.00
Friday
06/24/2005
185.5
48.5
6 cups (48 oz)
7.47


Week 215 Update

It was 06:55 at Lincoln City, Oregon, when I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, “186.5 pounds!”

This was one of those weeks, where when I think of its events, it is hard to remember that I am focusing on weight control. I didn’t forget it entirely, but Dotti and I were very much focused on our “niece” Jamie, one of Jim and Tammy’s lovely daughters. What a joy she is to have around, and it has been a truly enjoyable week!

As for my journey, it did continue, and it was a pretty good week. My weight was up a bit this morning from yesterday, because we drove out to the coast last night, and I ate more, and later, than I normally do on the day before my weigh-in. However, I was only a half-pound over my target weight yesterday, so I knew my situation was not too bad, as long as I didn’t get crazy on what I ate.

Here is how the week went. . .

Saturday - I weighed 184.5 pounds. I am always happy to see a number below 185.0 on the scale, as long as it still is within my target range. It takes the pressure off me to be extra careful. I especially like it when we have something special coming up, like we did this Saturday.

After I did my weekly write-up I headed out on a 3.05 mile walk around our neighborhood. I didn’t have a lot of spare time, since we had plans for the day, but I wanted to see if I could get a walk in for a change on the weekend, to take some of the walking pressure off the workweek. I wasn’t sure what to do with the weather outside. I hate being too cold, but I didn’t want to be too hot. The temperature was close to 70°, but I wasn’t sure how windy it would be. I ended up not wearing a coat, but I did wear a flannel shirt. As it turned out, even that was too much. The first half of my walk I did at a pretty good pace, but the last half I had to slow down because I was feeling overheated.

When I got back home, LeRoy had showed up, and we soon headed off for lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. I ate about 11.0 points there, but I did not do so well when we got to Costco. After walking around and shopping for a while, we found that there were no berries available for our Very Berry Sundaes. L Dotti was good, but LeRoy and I had a Costco ice cream bar. The bar itself was vanilla ice cream, about the size of a large double-wide popsicle, but mounted on a single stick. Then they dipped it into chocolate, creating a delicious coating around the ice cream. But they were not finished yet. They next rolled the chocolate coated bar in chopped nuts, which stuck in a thick coating all over the bar. Oh my! After working through all the ingredients later, I estimated the points at 18.0. That sort of thing could really get me in trouble if we had it around the house all the time. Fortunately we don’t, and so I now carry around a happy memory of a glorious treat. J

LeRoy dropped us off back at home, and headed over to visit with his cousin (Dotti’s Twin sister’s son), while Dotti and I got ready to leave for the airport to await Jamie's arrival. We were at the airport before her plane even took off actually. But it is only an hour flight, and we had to park, find her gate, and be ready to meet her. Also, it is fun to walk around the Portland airport, because they have a Powell’s Books branch store there, as well as many other little shops to browse through. We ended up speaking with Tammy (whatever did we do before cell phones?), who told us when Jamie got on the plane in Spokane. (There was some concern that Jammie might decide to abandon the trip. She had never flown before, and she was nervous. Fortunately, she got on the plane. J) Later, Tammy called us to tell us that Jamie had landed (Jamie has a cell phone tooJ). We also spoke on the phone with Jamie’s sister, Claudette, who was surprised at how early we got to the airport. Finally, we talked with Jamie herself, as she was finding her way to the waiting area, that has now been pushed back a long ways from where it used to be, because of the added security measures in place.

At last we saw her at a distance, her long blonde hair standing out against her red sweater, and the visit was about to officially begin. And the visit has turned out to be everything that we had hoped it would be and more.

On the way home we stopped by Sharis, so we could all grab a bite to eat, and 16 points later, I was up to 37.5 points for meals alone during the day. I was finished with snacking as well by this time, and with the Costco excursion added in, I was up to 60.5 points for the day.

Sunday - I was 185.0 pounds when I got up, and all set for another interesting day. We had batted a few ideas back and forth as to what we were going to do, and we settled on visiting OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). Jamie was not terribly excited about wondering through the science exhibits but she did want to check out the OMNIMAX theater with its 79-foot domed, 180-degree screen, and the retired Navy sub permanently tied up there.

So, off we went. We got a later start than we originally planned, and so we didn’t eat lunch first. This put us in a bit of bind, as we were going to be sitting through a fairly long movie, and we needed a little something to tide us over. We made a quick dash to the café and I had a ice cream drumstick, and the nutritional label told me that I was eating 11.0 points. I guess that was better than the Costco Ice Cream Bar. J

Soon we were seated in the OMNIMAX Theater and watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. This theater has a number of outstanding features, including: a huge sound system, most of which is actually mounted behind the screen on the ceiling; a 180-degree, semi-sphere receiving screen for the; fish-eyed projection lens on the; 70mm projector; and a one-way ticket out of the place if you have to use the restroom (if you leave, you can’t come back). The film is stored on huge reels that you can examine through a glass wall as you wait to get into the theater. Each frame of the film has 10 times the surface area of a frame used in the film in a normal movie theater. So, it has tens times better resolution when projected on the screen than a normal movie, at a normal theater. The only drawback about watching a movie like Harry Potter in the OMNIMAX is that it was not filmed with that sort of screen in mind. There was some distortion, and the image did not fill up the entire screen top to bottom. However, there were some great advantages of that format as well, with some of the panoramic scenery just taking our breath away.

We all 3 made it through the long movie without having to leave, and we were soon heading over to sub. Jamie, who is a dedicated patron of the hygienic arts, was not very happy to hear about the conditions that the men lived in who had served aboard this sub. There were more men than there were racks (bunks/beds). So, the Navy custom of “hot racking” was in place, where one guy would crawl out of his rack to stand watch, and the off going watch would crawl into the rack to sleep. The rack was still warm, hence the name. They did not have much water, and sometimes had to go weeks without taking a shower. They only had about 4 sets of uniforms, and no laundry onboard. The guide mentioned that since about 85% of the crew smoked, the air was filled with cigarette smoke, as well as diesel fumes, extreme body odor and very stale air. These subs thusly earned the nickname: “pig boats.” As the picture was made clearer and clearer, the entire situation because quite disgusting to our niece’s ears. She later said that there was no way that she would live under those conditions. Fortunately no women ever were forced to on that boat.

There were a lot of interesting things about the sub that did not bring up thoughts of retching. J The torpedo room was interesting, and the communications compartment sported a T-827 transmitter, which was part of the system that I used to teach in the Navy. The mess decks were cramped but added a touch of humanity, and when we crawled out of the boat, it was nice to realize that we didn’t have to spend months at sea in such a crazy little boat that was actually designed to sink. J

We did make it up to an exhibit in the Science Museum area, but it was not long before it was closing time and we headed back home. We stopped at Subway for dinner, where I had a 6-inch sub and two of those very tempting white chocolate cookies. Seventeen points later I was back in the car and we were heading home. At the end of the day I had eaten 57.5 points.

Monday - I weighed 185.0 pounds. With the way the weekend had gone, I was very happy to see that number on the scale.

I made it to work in time to do a 3.0-mile walk, and then had a quiet morning. At lunch I walked another 2.56 miles.

Dotti and Jamie had a fun day together, running errands, and visiting.

I held my eating down to a more reasonable 36.0 points for the day, to get myself back in line for total points for the week.

Tuesday - I weighed 184.0 pounds. That was a welcome number to see on the scale.

I once again walked in the morning, this time 3.31 miles, and then did 2.56 miles at lunch.

The first two days this week were pretty quiet at work and gave me some time to catch upon paperwork and other odds and ends.

In the evening we had fun visiting once again. I ended up eating 41.0 points for the day.

Wednesday - I weighed 185.5 pounds. It seems every time that I have rice at night, the next day the scale takes a temporary jump up. I am not sure if there is too much sodium, or if it just takes time to work the high fiber through my system. In any case it was not anything to be concerned with.

I walked 3.0 miles in the morning before work, and then things got busy at work. In the afternoon I was scrambling to get one machine back up and running after a few issues suddenly popped up.

In the evening, I was able to relax and at the end of the day, I had eaten 40.5 points.

Thursday - I weighed 185.5 pounds again. The salt that I had with my fries the evening before didn't make things any worse anyway.

I arrived at work early enough to walk, but I just didn't feel motivated to do so. Instead I went inside early and checked up on the machine that I had worked on the day before. It was running okay, but there were some issues with another machine. I was working on problems all day long. I just relaxed at lunch and didn't walk.

This was the last evening before we were going to head off to the coast, and so I got some things together to make sure I would be ready. (I always have to move some computer files from my main computer to my laptop when we are going to be out of town on for my Saturday morning weigh-in.)

I ended up eating 36.0 points for the day.

Friday - I weighed 185.5. That made 3 days in a row. I guess there is something to be said for consistency. J

I got to work early enough to do a 3.0-mile walk. It was a pleasant day for a walk, and the temperature wasn't bad at all. I didn't need a coat, and it was dry. I didn't do a walk at lunch, and the morning walk finished off my week for walking.

We were all set to drive to Lincoln City when I got home from work. So, I wanted to make sure that I didn't have anything slowing me down when the workday ended. Fortunately I was not tied up with anything when the time came for me to drive home.

I got home, just about the same time as Dotti and Jamie did, after they had gotten some last minute errands run, including picking up a Subway sandwich for me to eat on the road as we drove (they ate theirs at Subway). Dotti was sweet and drove us all the way to the coast, to give me a break from driving, and to let me enjoy my sandwich. I also snapped a lot of pictures as we went along on the highway.

I did a little snacking on the trip, but not too much. After all my meals and snacking were added up, I only had 48.5 points. That is more than I normally would like to eat on the day before weigh-in, but it wasn't too bad for a road trip, and it led to my weigh-in this morning of 186.5 pounds.

We arrived at our motel with enough time left before dark to head down to the shore, and walk on the beach. Dotti, Jamie, and I walked down the long stairs to reach the sand, and then across the sand to walk on the rocks out into the surf a ways. It was fun, and soon we were back in the room, with the sun all the way down.

I worked until after midnight (actually it was 1:30AM before I got to bed), catching my files up to date on my laptop for my weekly update, and then went to bed, with great expectations for the morrow.


How did this week go?

All things considered, I am quite happy with this week.

My weight, which has always been the primary focus of my journey, averaged 185.29 pounds. That is less than a third of a pound over my target weight, and it is the lowest average weight that I have had since the week of May 28, when I hit my target weight, with a seven-day average weight of 185.0 pounds exactly.

My highest weight for the week was this morning’s weigh-in, and other than that little jump, my weight stayed between 184.0 and 185.5 all week long. No complaints with that!

Using 46.0 points as my target value, I was over points 3 days this week, and well under points on 4 days. The average for the week was 45.71 points, and that is only 0.29 points short of being right at 46 points. I think that is just fine.

I am always concerned about getting in my water, but I don’t seem to be as focused on it as I am with my points and the scale. It is one of those things that I know is good for me, but you can’t take the results and measure them with a meter, ruler, or digital readout. For my journal, it is basically just a number, at least it falls out that way in my approach to it. So, while I normally do pretty well from day to day with my water, some days I just don’t get the job done.

Saturday I drank only a couple of cups. However, the rest of the week, I got in at least 6 cups, and I averaged 57.14 ounces (7.2 cups) per day. That is right in the middle of my target for water, and so I am happy with that. I think that if I continue to have one or two off days on water, but have some really wet days to make up for it, keeping my average between 6 and 8 cups per day, I will be fine.

For exercise, I kept moving at a reduced pace, but got in a fair amount of walking anyway. I walked 20.48 miles, and though I missed Sunday and Thursday, I got some walking in on all the other days. My left foot is not 100% yet, but it is vastly improved, and not giving me any serious problem. I have recommitted myself to my goal of 1,300 miles for the year, and will try to avoid getting ahead of myself too far in the future.

In the meantime, I have walked 682 miles this year, and still have over 6 months to go before the end of the year, with only 618 miles to go to reach my goal. I feel like my exercise program is right on track, and I will attempt to keep it fined tuned to the point where I will hit 1,300 miles without too much difficulty. However. . .

I have been finding that lately my enthusiasm for walking has somewhat lagged. I am still doing it, but it seems like I am doing an awful lot of it alone and it is just not the same as it was. In the hot months it is harder to get others motivated to walk, and I don't enjoy fighting the heat myself. I do enjoy doing some of my walking alone, because it gives me a chance to gather my thoughts, but it is far more motivating to have someone to share some of the walking with. I am hopeful that we will be able to get the Coon Family Hiking Club going this summer and get things back on track.

We have another fun week with Jamie coming up, and then we will be heading up to Spokane for next weekend’s start of our summer week with Jim and Tammy! Although I don’t care for the summer months’ weather, I love visiting with our dear friends each summer!!!

4 years, 45 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/1506/180±2/BMI:23.31/WK-215




GRAPHS:
Weight Loss

Maintenance Year 1

Maintenance Year 2

Maintenance Year 3

Maintenance Year 4

2005 Walking


2005 Walking Data


2004

Walking Data


Al's Weight Loss Success Story

AL'S LITTLE CORNER OF DWLZ

UNHOOKED|||   -   -   -   Al's Journey to Quit Smoking




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