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Week’s Data
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Day |
Date |
Weight |
Points |
Water |
Aerobic
Points |
| Saturday |
02/04/2006
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190.0
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40.5
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11 cups (88 oz)
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0.00
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| Sunday |
02/05/2006
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190.0
|
44.5
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7 cups (56 oz)
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0.00
|
| Monday |
02/06/2006
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191.5
|
41.0
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12 cups (96 oz)
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0.00
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| Tuesday |
02/07/2006
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191.5
|
53.0
|
7 cups (56 oz)
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0.00
|
| Wednesday |
02/08/2006
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193.5
|
43.0
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13 cups (104 oz)
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0.00
|
| Thursday |
02/09/2006
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192.5
|
48.0
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7 cups (56 oz)
|
0.00
|
| Friday |
02/10/2006
|
190.0
|
49.5
|
5 cups (40 oz)
|
0.00
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Week 248 Update
It was 45 ° this morning, the skies were clear, and I stepped up on Mr. Scale at 07:49. He immediately responded, “190.0 pounds!”
I feel like I am standing at a crossroads, and I have been fumbling around this intersection for over 3 months. I am sitting right on top of my personal goal of 190 pounds. That is fine, and there is nothing wrong with that, in itself. But, I am doing the same things that used to hold me at 185.0 pounds. I have effectively gained 5 pounds, while eating the same amount of food.
One year ago, for the week ending on Feburary 12, 2005, I averaged eating 46.86 points-per-day. My average weight for the week was 185.29. This week, I averaged 45.64 points-per-day, and my average weight for the week is 191.29.
Is it the lack of exercise? Going back to before I started walking much; during the week ending October 25, 2003, I averaged eating 51.64 points, and my weight averaged 185.93. I am a firm believer in the benefits of exercise, but I know that I was eating around 46 points-per-day on average before I started walking, and maintaining at 185.0 pounds.
So, it comes down to the only new factor that I can see, and that is the meds I am taking for my back. Until they go away, there remain two choices: live with the higher number on the scale, or lower my food intake. The main problem with the latter is that I know the extra 5 pounds has to be in the form of water. If I lower my food intake, I will be lowering my effective body weight (without the extra water) to 180.0 pounds. Do I want to do that? I am not sure.
I certainly don't like bouncing around at the very top of my working range, walking on egg shells, worrying about whether I will have a blip on the scale sending me completely out of bounds. I guess time will tell, as it always does.
Dotti is still enjoying living in “One-derland”! She held stead with a maintain this week, but we had a challenging week on the road. She once again did very well!
As always, you can follow her impressive progress at her Dotti's Return to Goal page.
Here is how my 248th week on program went:
Saturday - I weighed in at 190.0 pounds. It was Charles Lindbergh's 104th birthday today. He was born the same year as my maternal grandmother, and two years after my maternal grandfather. I always admired the courage of Charles Lindbergh.
This was a day of preparation. We had a trip to Pocatello, Idaho ahead of us, and we had to get things in order for the trip. I was worried about the trip this time around, because I had hurt my back on Friday, when I had picked something up before work. It was hurting so bad that I had missed work on Friday. So, the trip was potentially going to be a problem. But I was set on trying to get it in anyway.
In the afternoon, we were out running a few errands, and we had a late lunch at Sweet Tomatoes, that sort of filled in for lunch and dinner. I ate 17.0 points but that only pushed my total up for the day to 40.5 points.
Sunday - I weighed in at 190.0 pounds.
Sunday was a long day in the car, but it was a fun one. The eleven-hour trip was shortened some by Dotti's reading to me. She had bought a book that had looked like it would be an interesting weight-loss story, but it turned out to be less than we had hoped for. After getting nearly half way through it, we decided that it was not going to be something we wanted to invest the time on finishing. D Still, it helped pass the time as we went along.
The sun was shining very brightly all along the way. It was a blessing and curse. The blessing was that our roads were completely dry for most of the trip. (The one exception was in the Blue Mountains, where there were a few miles of road where the fast lane had large sections of ice patches. The left lane was wet but the sun kept it from freezing. I had to go over onto the ice a couple of times to get around trucks that were slowly trying to make their way up the steep grade, but we had studs on the tires and I never lost traction.)
The curse was that I had a splitting headache from the bright sunlight by the time it finally went down. I was so happy to see the last of it as it dipped below the horizon. Even my sunglasses didn't help too much. (I bought another—much darker—pair in Pocatello, for the drive home. I am very glad that I did too, because it was just as bright on the return trip!) I sometimes forget how much I enjoy the nice cloud cover that we have most of the winter long. When we have a bright day, it is blinding. During the summer I get used to the continually sunny days. (Don't tell anyone, but the Pacific Northwest is extremely dry during the summer months, with plenty of sunshine.)
About halfway to our destination, there is a little town called Baker City. With a population under 10,000, it is a nice stopping point, which just happens to have a Subway, where we usually grab our lunch. Baker City once, during the gold rush days, had the largest population of any in Oregon. It is tucked away in the Blue Mountains at an elevation of 3,443 feet.
I remember, on our drive out from Massachusetts in 1995, we stopped at a rest area not far from Baker City. It was very refreshing to me, because we had to put on our coats when we got out of the car, and it was during the hottest part of the summer. J Since that was before I lost my weight, the heat was even more oppressive to me then than it is now.
As it turned out, this time the temperature was above freezing, and we enjoyed the clear cool air. After we ate, before heading out, we dropped in on McDonalds, situtated across the street, for a nice ice cream cone.
Normally, the cones are 3.0 points, if they don't stack them up. But mine turned out to be a bit larger than most, so I counted it as 4.0 points. (I have received a 5.0 point cone before, when the lady must have felt generous, and overloaded the cone. It definitely requires paying attention when you eat at restaurants, so that you can adjust your point count to match what you are actually receiving. Dotti is awesome at doing that, and I am always happy when she is with me when I am figuring points 'on the fly.' Okay, I have to admit it; I am always happy to have Dotti with me, no matter what we are doing!!! J)
So, after the 6.0 point sub, the 2.0 point bag of chips that came with it, and the ice cream cone, I have put away 12.0 Baker City points, and we are back on the freeway again, for another 5+ hours of driving.
A ways from the border, we pass through the line of demarcation between Pacific Time and Mountain Time. So, we set our watches and the car clock forward an hour and continue on our way.
We always love to hit the Idaho border, because the speed limit goes from the restrictive 65 miles-per-hour to the more reasonable 75 miles-per-hour. Before long we have driven through Boise (205 miles from Pocatello), and past Twin Falls (104 miles from Pocatello). Finally, with the sun safely set behind us, and the worn paint lines nearly invisible in our headlights glow, we approached Pocatello, Idaho. The hotel sign was very nice to see just as we turned onto I-15, heading south.
Soon, we were checked in, and we unloaded the car. We headed to a WinCo supermarket and got our groceries for our stay. Then, back in our room, before long we were connected up to the Internet. J (We picked this hotel because it has hardwire access to the Internet, and we don't have to fight with a weak wireless signal.)
I ate 44.5 points for the day.
Monday - I weighed in at 191.5 pounds.
Today is my Sunday. J I travel on Sunday, so I don't have to on Monday. And then I have Monday as a day off to go shopping with Dotti. It is our one day to get to see Pocatello each trip. Admittedly, it is not the most exciting place that we have ever been, but it is still a nice little town.
Pocatello's population is just over 46,000. The elevation here is 4,365 feet. Of course that varies quiet a bit, since it is built in and up the sides of the Portneuf valley. Normally, the temperature in February bounces between a high of 39 and a low of 19. The average snowfall for February is 6.3 inches, and there are normally 10 days in February where there is some snowfall. We always consider ourselves lucky when we don't get snow when we visit in February!
The land is quite desert-like. There is squat dry-looking shrubbery covering the hills, and everything looks brown. The one exception at this time of year is the white covering on the hills. If they got as much precipitation as Portland does, with the temperatures they have in Pocatello, they would be up to their noses in snow all winter long!
It was 19º when I got up, but by the time we went out to do some shopping, it was already up near freezing and continuing to rise.
 We stopped by Applebees for lunch, and then headed off to the Pine Ridge Mall. It was a fun time, and we stopped by a few of our favorite stores. In the mall Dotti snapped a picture of me buying some gum.
We finally ended back at the hotel and went over by the pool to play ping pong for an hour. It was fun playing, but my back was complaining loudly by the end of the session. Not a good sign for the next day's activities.
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Dotti standing ready to receive a serve. This picture really shows how much weight she has lost. She couldn't have even fit into those pants before she started her Comeback, and now they are getting loose on her. You Rock Dotti!!!
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Here I am getting ready to serve the ball.
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Dotti caught the ball in mid air. With a digital camera, that often has a delay when you push the shutter release, this was a happy bit of luck. Or was it pure skill? J
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Getting ready to return the serve.
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We ate in the room, and then just relaxed for the evening.
I ate 41.0 points for the day.
Tuesday - I weighed 191.5 pounds.
The first day of a PM (Preventive Maintenance action) is always the worst. We have to take the machine apart, and then scrub everything. Then we put it all back together, and start pumping the system down, hopefully all the way to high vacuum, with no leaks. It takes all day plus a couple of hours of overtime usually.
I was faced with a double whammy on the starting time. Because it is always a long day, they start at 07:00, which is an hour earlier than my normal starting time. In addition, I was used to Pacific Time, and this was Mountain Time. So, that made it an additional hour early to my system.
To help me out in waking up, the temperature outside dropped to 14º overnight, and so when I crawled into the car, I was wide awake and shivering a bit. It had been very dry overnight, and so I didn't really need to scrape my windows, but I did let the car warm up a bit before going onto the freeway. Since the drive was only a few minutes, the car wasn't all that warm when I arrived for work.
The day was indeed a long one. I was turning wrenches, lifting heavy modules, and scrubbing away at baked on phosphorous and arsenic.
An interesting property of phosphorous is that if you scratch it with a screwdriver, or even scrub on it with Scotchbrite, it will go "flame on." When you get close to the ignition point the smoke starts to come off from it, or you might see a spark. Then you know you have to add water onto the surface you are scrubbing to keep it from catching fire.
At lunch, we were a little behind, and so we ate at the company cafeteria where we were working, rather than going out to lunch. I had a salad from their salad bar, and a cup of chili. It all came to 6.0 points.
We were soon back to work, and instead of being done by 6 PM, as we had hoped to be, it was closer to 7 PM when we finally got out the door.
I was tired, sore, and aching by this point in the day. I was also very hungry. I called up Dotti and told her that I was on my way, and asked her if Mexican food sounded good. She said it certainly did, and we headed off to a little restaurant that we found the last time we were in town called Puerto Vallarta. (I believe it is named for town in Mexico of the same name, which in 1918 was named for the former governor of the State of Jalisco in Mexico, Ignacio Vallarta.) I was barely able to move by this time, but that dinner tasted great! I had rice, refried beans, 2 cheese enchiladas, and Dotti and I split a "fried ice cream" dessert. Yes, I ate 37.5 points. But they were points well spent. J
When we got back to the hotel we sat down with a laptop placed on a little table between us, as we sat on the couch in the room. We proceeded to watch "The House of Wax," with Vincent Price as the mad artist murderer, and Charles Bronson as his mute assistant. One of the coolest things in the movie was a master of the paddle and rubber ball toy. He got several rubber balls "in play" at once as he walked around in front of the wax museum "hawking" customers in. He smacked the ball around and a couple of times it came right at the camera, looking like it was going to hit us on the nose.
It was a nice relaxing ending to a very busy day.
I ate 53.0 points for the day.
Wednesday - I weighed 193.5 pounds.
I was not surprised to see the scale jump up this morning. I had taken two Advil Tuesday morning before going to work, knowing that I was going to be having a hard day. I also had a big meal Tuesday night. My hope was that it would be just a temporary blip on the scale.
I took two more Advil on Wednesday morning before heading to work. I was in some pain and I had no idea what kind of day it would be.
When I went outside, it was 16º, two degrees warmer than the day before. J This time, I had to scrape the windows. I am not sure if it was because I had to park so far away from the building after coming home from the restaurant, and it left my car more out in the air than it had been the night previous, or if there was just more moisture in the night air this time. In any case, I started up the car and started scraping the windows. Fortunately, I had come out a little early and so the added time I had to invest in getting going was not a problem.
On day two, we normally come in at 08:00, which made things a little easier. Also, I was one more day closer to being acclimated to the new time zone.
When I got to work, things were in really good shape. The machine had pumped down with no leaks, and we were almost finished. After getting a few things knocked off the list, we were ready for lunch. I came back to the hotel and Dotti and I went to the hotel restaurant to eat. We had "breakfast for lunch," it came to 16.0 points for me. Best of all, I got to have my meal with my very best friend.
We were in a holding pattern of sorts at work. The machine was ready to go and the customer needed to run a couple of tests before we knew where we stood. So, Dotti and I had some additional time while we were waiting. When the final results came back from the tests, the machine was A-OK. I had to wait until Thursday morning, because they wanted the machine to run overnight before I left for home.
In the evening, Dotti and ate in the room and we watched another movie on the laptop: Cinderella Man. It wasn't too bad.
I ate 43.0 points for the day.
Thursday I weighed 192.5 pounds.
I was happy to see the number on the scale drop. I didn't expect it to but it was welcome. I had to wait for a phone call so that we could go home. As it turned out, that call didn't come until after 09:00. (I had played a couple games of Sudoku while waiting, and I completed a "Beginners Level Puzzle in 6:39, a new personal best time. J) Then, since we didn't know if we would be leaving or staying, we had to pack and get on the road.
The weather was nearly a carbon copy of what we saw on the drive up. The sun was bright and the temperatures were quite nice for February. When we left Pocatello, the temperature was 31º and soon it was up over freezing. It remained above 32º until we hit a pass cutting through the Blue Mountains in Oregon.
Because of the late start, we ended up eating lunch at a Denny's in Boise. It would have been far too late in the day to eat lunch if we had waited for Baker City. As it was, it was late enough in the day where we didn't eat another meal. That was well, since between the snacks and Denny's meal, I had plenty of points in for the day.
As it turned out, we had a 12 hour day on the road, and Dotti spent all of our driving hours with her laptop on her lap, typing in restaurant data. She is amazing!
We pulled into home, after making a quick stop at a mini-mart for some milk, about 10:30 PM, dead tired and very happy that the drive was over. My back had not enjoyed the drive home, after all the fun it had been through, so the end to the trip was very welcome to me.
One interesting thing was what Dotti's plant did. Just before we left for Pocatello, the plant had grown several feet tall over just a few days. We were amazed at the rapid growth. Then a few buds had appeared on Sunday morning before we left. Dotti was sad because she thought that she would miss out on the flowers when they appeared.
When we go home, Dotti came running out to the car as I was starting to unload it, and she was very excited about something. I found out that it was her plant. It had produced some monstrous flowers and they were beautiful! She hadn't missed them after all. J
It wasn't long after the car was unloaded before I was in bed and heading for dreamland.
I ate 48.0 points for the day.
Friday - I weighed in at 190.0 pounds.
My back was still complaining, and I was exhausted from the trip, so this was another off day. I was hoping that a few days of rest would get my back in shape enough to where I could return to my normal level of activity by Monday. We will see.
Dotti had a few errands to run during the day and I spent some time typing on the computer. The article for the E-Letter is pretty close to being finished.
In the evening Dotti and I had a nice quiet visit and we watched an old movie. It is good to be back home.
I ate 49.5 points leading to my weekly weigh-in today of 190.0 pounds.
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How do I rate this week?
While I am certainly faced with a real challenge to my maintenance program as I have been running it so far, I am not going to get down over it. I have a great deal to be happy about! Even on my worst days (193.5 pounds one day this week) I am still below where I was before on my best days. Even in my old "dieting days," I seldom went down below 195, or even 200 for long.
During these last few months, when my weight has been higher than I would have liked it to be, it is in an area that I have always viewed in the past as being my best weight.
Also, even though the scale moved up, my eating didn't! In other words, I am not having a crisis of control. I have not wandered off program, and lost my direction. (I have not "backslid" to use a religious term I heard a lot as a child. J) Conditions have changed, but my attitude towards my journey has not.
When you rate something you must use a standard. So, in rating this week, if I choose the standard of my past performance on the scale, this has been a bad week. If I choose the standard of how many points I have eaten, this has been a fairly average week. If I choose the standard of my average performance on the scale before I started my journey, I am doing fabulously. J
When I take all of the factors together, my gut feeling (no pun intended) is that I am doing okay. I may find that I will just have to live with things in this area for awhile. On the other hand, I may adjust my eating downward a bit and see what happens over time. In either case, I know that I am still on program, and I am still enthusiastic about my journey. The rewards are too great to bail out now!
Eating – Tuesday was a tough day, and I ate a few extra points (53.0 total). That was 7 or 8 points over my traditional maintenance level, but not extremely high. I had some lower days to help out, and my average points-per-day came to 45.64, which I am quite satisfied with.
Weight – I averaged 191.29 pounds this week. That is up over a pound from the previous week, even though my average points-per-day was down from that week. This is obviously not where I wanted to be, but it is still well inside my Normal Range (the top of which is at 200 pounds), and it close to my personal goal of 190.0.
Water – This is one are where I did very well this week! Friday I only got in 5 cups, but the rest of the week I drank at least 7 every day. I averaged 8.8 cups (70.86 oz.) per day, and that is excellent.
Exercise – Once again I didn’t do any formal exercise. I had a very hard day of work on Tuesday, but that was pretty much it.
4 years, 276 days OP; a lifetime to follow.
-Al-
6 '3"/239.5/190.0/180±2/BMI:23.75/WK-248
Al's Weight Loss Success Story
AL'S LITTLE CORNER OF DWLZ
UNHOOKED||| - - - Al's Journey to Quit Smoking
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