Week 237 Update

It was a cold 29°, and the sky was gray at 06:00 when I stepped on Mr. Scale. He said, "188.5 pounds!"

I might of worked it down, by waiting to weigh, but I am not sure if I could have gotten it down to 187.0, even if tried my best to do so. Probably not. Anyway, we were getting ready to get on the road very soon, and I didn't have time to waste. So, it stands at 1.5 pounds over the top of my target range. It was the first weekly weigh-in of mine that was over that limit since December 22, 2001. Nearly 4 years have passed by since then, and I am very proud of all those consecutive weigh-ins under my target limit. So, it is time to regroup and see if I can't get started on another streak, and hopefully this time it will be longer!

In spite of my tough week, Dotti has once again had a stellar performance in her journey back to goal! She went through all of the activities of the week and came out weighing a half pound less than she did last week! Very impressive: especially so, when you consider the fact that she was not able to walk on the treadmill at all during the week. She had not missed a day of walking for weeks, and that was a big change for her. But, if you will forgive the pun, she took it all in stride. Great job Dotti!!!J

After that, it hardly needs commenting on the fact that Dotti is doing great on her journey, and I am so proud of her!

You can continue to follow her progress at her Dotti's Return to Goal page.

Here is my week in review:

Saturday - I weighed in at 188.0 pounds. You may have noticed that my chart shows 186.0 for my weigh-in last week. That is because I took my Friday's weigh-in as my official weigh-in, because I knew I would be on the road, and it would throw everything off.

I worked a full day on Friday, and then I drove home. We not only had to pack up the car for the trip, but we had a couple of tasks to complete for the web page before we could leave. We then finally were able to get on the road for our 6-hour drive to Spokane. We didn't get there until about 02:00 on Saturday morning, and we visited for a while after that, before finally getting to bed. I had eaten 49.5 points for the day on Friday, and when I got up in the morning I was up to 188.0 pounds.

However, judging from the way the week went, it wasn't just the trip that pushed the scale up like that. In fact, in looking back over the week before, I was out of my target range for nearly the whole week that week too! I was mentally "in denial" I guess, because I kept doing the same things, and expected to see different (better) results.

Saturday I was very ill. I felt as if I had consumed a tremendously large quantity of alcohol the previous day, and was suffering from a very bad hangover. However, I hadn't had a drink of alcohol in months. (At least with a hangover, you get to have fun first. Not this time.) My head ached, and my stomach was doing loop-dee-loops. Light hurt my eyes, and I just felt horrible. We had hurried up to get to Spokane just in case our niece Jamie went into labor. (Dotti and I wanted to be there for the birth, and so we pushed it to get up there as soon as we could.)

I believe the cause of the problem was my neck. If I don't support it properly when I am sleeping, I will wake up feeling just like that. It has happened a number of times before. This time, it just wouldn't go away. So, finally, I went back to bed and took a nap for a couple of hours. It worked wonders for me. When I woke up, my stomach was back to normal and my head only hurt a bit. Jim let me borrow his vibrating neck pillow and that relaxed my neck to the point where my headache disappeared too, just about dinner time. I finally felt human again.

I didn't do too bad on my eating until dinner. I ate a bit high for lunch (15.5 points) but not too bad. I only had one point for snacks all day, and that would have made up for my lunch easily, except for one thing: dessert. I had a piece of cheesecake for 11.0 points. That combined with the sauerkraut that I had for dinner to make sure that I would not go down on the scale on Sunday. Unfortunately, I attributed the scale on Sunday to the sauerkraut rather than the cheesecake. That left me open to have more cheesecake later in the week. I am sure that had something to do with my weight today.

By the end of the day I had eaten 43.5 points.

Sunday - I weighed 189.0 pounds. That should have been a wakeup call! I didn't go absolutely crazy on my eating for the day. In fact, I was very close to my normal 46-point target value for maintenance. But I ate some things that are problematical for me. That always seems to lead to trouble.

For lunch Jim and I went to a restaurant called Hooters. (My nephews are always calling me Uncle Owl, so it seemed appropriate. J) I had most of a burger, some of the fries and a few bites of chili. It all came to 21.0 points. After that we got a little bit of exercise walking around a sporting goods store, and the Valley Mall.

Jamie & Dotti at the shower

While we were at the "men's day care center" (a term for Hooters that I picked up from a guide on the little river cruise in San Antonio, Texas) Dotti, Tammy, Jamie, Claudette, and several other ladies were busy with a baby shower for our dear Jamie, and her soon-to-arrive son.

When we finally got back, I had dinner: a piece of cake and a small cup of punch left over from the baby shower. (Once again, the cake was excellent in taste and a traditionally "red light" food for me. I ran the light.)

It wasn't that I ate a lot of food, but just the wrong kinds of food. I was laying the groundwork for a bad scale ending to the week.

I ended up eating 46.5 points on Sunday.

Monday - I weighed 188.5 pounds at 04:30. Hey, I was down a half-pound. I must be doing okay! (Such silly thoughts lead to disaster.)

This was it! Today our little grandson was due to be born, and the entire day was centered around that. We had a detour or two along the way, but all roads, and detours were ultimately heading in that direction.

The ladies all headed to the hospital early, around 06:00. I drove Jim out to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho to visit his hand doctor. He had his stitches removed from his two fingers. He had lost the tips of two fingers on a saw a few days earlier, and this was the day to pull out the thread. We showed up before the hand center opened, and dropped by an espresso stand to buy some coffee. (Being old sailors, neither of us is really excited over the fancy coffee offerings of such places, and it hard to get just a good plain cup of coffee.) The girl mixed hot water with cappuccino brew, and came up with a pretty good simulation of a cup of coffee.

We visited for a few minutes, sipping our coffee, until the hand center opened up, and they took him in. I stepped outside and took a few pictures around the area while he was having his stitches pulled. I was glad I did, because I found that they put him through some pain as they cut the stitches, and he said that let them know about it. In any case, we were soon on the road and headed for the hospital where Jamie was all settled into her room when we arrived a little after 09:00. The contractions were already underway, and the monitor was noting baby's heartbeat, as well as mommy's contractions. The vigil was underway.

I did some snacking during the day, and then Dotti and I were able to go down to the cafeteria and get some turkey sandwiches. We brought them up and shared. J I ended up eating 19.0 points at the hospital that day. In fact, especially since I skipped dinner altogether, I really ate very light on Monday overall.

Grandson Hunter only minutes old

As 17:00 approached, things started jumping in Jamie's room. She was in heavy labor and about ready to bring our little guy into this world. The guys were in the hallway outside, and the girls were in the room helping Jamie as best as they could. Then at 17:15 according to my watch, we heard little Hunter James Jernigan's first cry. We were all smiling and celebrating in the hall, and soon they presented the newly arrived guest at the door of the room to Jim to look at, but not yet touch. The wall was still up between us and Jamie. However, within just a few minutes, we all poured into the room and Jamie, and Hunter were smothered in love from all of us. What a joyous time it was!

Grammy Tammy and grandson Hunter

The rest of the time at the hospital is pretty much a blur. Hunter had his eyes filled with a paste, the nurse took his temperature (he did't like that any more than I would have), he was weighed (7 pounds 9.6 ounces) and measured (20.5 inches), he received his first shot L, and then he was held by everybody there. The most wonderful sight to me was Jamie holding her new son, and looking at him the way that only a new mother can look at a child.

Granpy Al, Grammy Dot & Grandson Hunter

Soon they moved Jamie and Hunter down to her overnight room and after some more visiting, Jim and I took the kids home for the night. I couldn't believe how tired I was. I had gotten up at 04:30, but that is not that uncommon for me. Still, I was completely out of gas. I stayed awake long enough to watch the kids while Jim went to the store to get them something to eat, and then I went straight to bed. I was nearly asleep when Dotti called from the hospital to say goodnight just before 21:00. (She was planning to stay with Tammy to keep Jamie and Hunter company overnight. However, those plans were changed when one of Jamie's girl friends decided to stay with her instead.) By the time the ladies got home, I was deep in sleep.

My points totaled 29.0 points when I went to bed.

Tuesday - I weighed 187.5 pounds. That was as close as I was going to get to my target range this week.

Tuesday was the day that Hunter was scheduled to come home with is mother! We were all excited about that. My breakfast was normal, but that was about it for anything that would pass as ordinary eating for the day.

Before Jamie came home, Jim, Tammy, Dotti and I went to Costco to look around. I had 5.0 points of "samples" while there. When we got home, I had cheesecake (11.0 points). That was much lunch.

For dinner, I had some chicken pop pie, that was very good, and then added another piece of cake. For snacks during the day, I had more cheesecake and another piece of cake. (It was delicious with rich icing just the way I love it!)

We had a great time when Jamie brought Hunter home, and the little guy spent all his time in someone's arms.

Mother Jamie and Grandson Hunter

Grampy and Grandson Jim had a fire going in the fireplace too!

Grumpy and Grandson Jim's fingers are still tender

When all the damage was assessed, I found that I had eaten 77.0 points on Tuesday.

Wednesday - I weighed 189.0 pounds.

My body responded as it should have after what I ate on Tuesday. I did start to pull back at this point, but not enough. I took Claudette to lunch at a restaurant called "Prospectors." If you want to overeat, it is probably as good a place as you can find. All of their portion sizes are outrageously large. However, I was good. I ordered a chef's salad that came to 5.0 points. I also had a cup of coffee for 1.0 point. I was proud of myself. J

In the evening we had a nice meal of spaghetti and meatballs, with some garlic bread. It all came to 17.0 points.

When all my points were totaled for the day, I had eaten 36.0 points. (That was good for the day, but when the previous day was figured in, I had still averaged over 50 points for the two days.)

Thursday - I weighed 190.0 pounds. Now that is a great way to start Thanksgiving Day. I was sitting right at the top of my upper limit. I was at my goal weight. I had never weighed more than that since I first fell below 190. And the most important meal of the year awaited me: Tammy's Thanksgiving Feast! If I overate, then I would be certain to go over my limit. But I couldn't just skip this meal!

As if I was trying to blow myself out of the water, I had another piece of cheesecake at lunch, along with a banana and an apple. It was like I had given up. I ended up having a Veinte (that is the big one) white chocolate mocha that Dotti picked up for me at Starbucks (10.5 points). And all of this was before Thanksgiving dinner.

Al carving, Jim supervising

The dinner itself turned out to be fabulous. It included turkey with all the trimmings. (Since Jim had hurt his fingers, I was designated the official turkey carver, and Jim helped direct me to how the job is correctly done. J) Dotti dished me up a plate that was delicious but with conservative portions. (She is a real expert at doing that!) The meal was only 13.5 points. There was one remaining thing however: pumpkin pie! The pie was 7.0 points, and the Cool Whip on top was another 3.0 points.

After all the visiting was done, and the tally was run at day's end, I had consumed 58.0 points. Was that going to push me over the top?

Friday - I weighed 189.5 pounds. Wow! I dropped half a pound. I didn't blow my string. J I knew that I was looking at a very large hurdle trying to pull my weekly weigh-in down to 187.0, but I felt pretty good about dodging a bullet on the 190.0 threshold.

LeRoy felt left out when he heard that I had taken Claudette over to Prospectors. The two of them are like brother and sister, since they have known each other since they were less than a year old. So, it was a bit of sibling rivalry I guess. J Anyway, I took LeRoy to lunch there on Friday, and once again I had a salad. It wasn't as well put together as the one on Thursday, but I enjoyed visiting with LeRoy. Afterwards we stopped by the place where Jim works, and had a tour of the place.

At home, Tammy and Dotti had brought some fast food home for Jamie, and so I thought we were skipping dinner. That would have been great for my weigh-in on the next day. I grabbed a couple of snacks to tide me over, but dinner was not to be skipped this evening. Instead, the snacks only added to my point total, and dinner put up into the 40s for my points. Since I was already high on the scale, I knew that there was little chance of my getting back down for my weekly weigh-in. I had made up my mind that I would just have to bite the bullet and start over again after blowing it this week.

I ate 44.5 points on Friday, and that of course led to me to my weigh-in of 188.5 this morning. L

How do I rate this week? Pretty bad. I was a bit out of control before I even got to this week, and I didn't do any better once I got here. The problem is on the scale more than in the points that I was eating. Last week I averaged 44.71 points-per-day. This week I averaged 47.79 points-per-day. That is less than 2 points-per-day over my normal maintenance points level of 46 points. Last week I was below 46 points-per-day. However, both last week and this week the scale said I was overeating. (My average weight last week was 187.79 and this week it was 188.86 pounds.) As always, maintenance is a dynamic process. Change is the only constant.

Eating – I averaged 47.79 points-per-day, just over my traditional maintenance level. Perhaps the maintenance number of 46 points-per-day will have to change.

Weight – My average weight was 188.86, and that is definitely too high. I will have to focus this week, if I am going get back on the maintenance trail.

Water – I drank at least 6 cups every day except Wednesday. I averaged 46.86 ounces (5.9 cups) per day, just slightly under my goal of drinking 6 to 8 cups per day. This was at least close, but it too was a miss.

Exercise – I didn't get any walking in at all. This week was off all the way around. I have left myself a great deal of room for improvement.

4 years, 199 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/188.5/180±2/BMI:23.56/WK-237

GRAPHS:

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

2004 Walking Data