Week 263 Update

While I was struggling on the scale this week, Dotti once again held steady and remained OP. She had a maintain this week! Neither one of us has been getting in the exercise that we should have. For Dotti to do this well without exercise is a powerful statement on the way she is remaining right on program with her eating.

As we have seen in the past, if she were out of control at all on eating, especially when she isn't exercising, the scale would take off on her. But that has not been the case for 37 straight weeks! Way to go Dotti!

As always, you can follow Dotti's consistent progress at her Dotti's Return to Goal page.

Busy week: and here I am up out of my target range again. I weighed in at 188.5, four pounds up from last week.

First off this has been a very sedentary week for me. I have done no walking, and I have been working long hours, but all of them have been at the computer. I am hoping to change that for the upcoming week.

Secondly, I have been eating off schedule. Odd times, and odd foods have added up to bad results.

Lastly, I haven't been drinking my water as well as I should. I have been getting some in each day, but it just seems to come up short each day of where it should be.

Dotti and I spent last weekend trying to catch up on the stuff that we had put off during our week away from home, on the visit with my Mom the week before.

One thing we were working on is getting things in place for the new Dotti's Newsletter, that will carry no subscription fee.

This will entail a course change on the old E-Letter, as we put that one to bed, after we finish out the commitment on that—making sure that everyone who signed up for it will receive 12 issues. However, we are taking no more new subscriptions to it.

After only having the Dotti's Newsletter signup available for 4 days, we already have nearly as many people onboard for it as we had after several months for our E-Letter. I think it will be great. Dotti has a lot of good things to say on weight loss, and is great at providing support to others. It will be a good place to update people on her progress on her comeback journey as well. Right now it looks like it will come out more often than the old E-Letter did, and may be a bit less formal. All the details are not formulated yet, but we are excited about the possibilities.

Saturday - I didn't do too badly, eating only 36.5 points for the day, and even drank 6 cups of water. But then along came…

Sunday - First off, I was up 2.5 pounds, even with the low-point total on the day before. Popcorn often has that effect on me, and I had some of that on Saturday.

LeRoy came down, because he is looking at a job opportunity in the area, and we are hopeful that he will get it. It would be great to have him a bit closer! We ended up going to a Mexican restaurant; and 34.5 points later I was well on my way to my 56.5-point total for the day.

Monday - I was up to 188.0 pounds. LeRoy spent the entire day interviewing for a potential new job, and Dotti and I kept our fingers crossed for him. (It will be a couple of weeks before they let him know one way or the other.) I held my points down to 32.0 for the day. (It helped that when we stopped at Costco, they said that they were discontinuing the Very Berry Sundae, which is going to save me 6.0 points every time we go there. However, we will miss those great desserts.).

Tuesday - I was still sitting at 188.0 pounds. The morning was taken up with a conference call for work, and then we said goodbye to LeRoy as he headed back home. I skipped lunch, but had a substantial dinner, and some snacks during the day. I ended up eating 39.0 points.

Wednesday - Dotti and I went on a date and went to see "The Da Vinci Code." Having gone through the book twice beforehand, I was interested in how they would do the movie version, and how badly they would butcher the story line. (I think it was probably as good as I could have expected, given the limitations of the movie medium to convey ideas that require some thought.)

Spending time with my Dotti is priceless, and we had fun. There weren't very many people in the theater at that time of day. That is the way I like to see movies; I hate going to a jammed theater. After watching the movie in theater #10, as we returned to the main lobby from the dark hallway where the many theater doors had been lit with individual small spot lights, and their numbers indicated on slightly illuminated ceiling clinging signs, Dotti said, "Look at that!" Her finger pointed to the glass front doors and through them we could see that the rain was pouring down in buckets. (Okay, no buckets, but lots and lots of water.) It was the kind of rain we used to see in Georgia in the summer of '75. But it was a lot cooler.

The parking lot had been nearly empty when we arrived, and so our car was close. Also, the rain had started to back off some when we hurried across the road to our vehicle. So, we were still fairly dry by the time we slammed the doors and were comfortably situated in our seats.

On the eating front, I did not plan as well as I normally would have for the movie, and I ended up getting a bag of M&Ms, and naturally, consumed them all. Fourteen points later I was just getting started on the movie and was left to get by the rest of the way on a couple of cough drops. As it turned out, at the end of the day I was 14.5 points over my target of 40 points. A little planning can go a long ways towards making this a successful journey, and the lack of planning can lead the other way.

Thursday - Once again I weighed 188.0 pounds. It was a quiet day, working at my computer, and I only ate 34.5 points. But I did eat a bag of popcorn late in the evening.

Friday - I weighed 189.5 pounds. Popcorn often will do that to me, and I have been eating a bag nearly every day this week. It may move the scale up, but at least it is water weight and not fat.

I only had 37.5 points for the day, and I had some hope that the scale would drop a bit for this morning's weigh-in but here I am at 188.5.

This week I averaged eating 41.5 points-per-day. That is okay really. I was shooting for 40.0 but I know that is low. Eating 41.5 points should actually cause me to lose, not gain. Still, the scale moved up this week and I averaged weighing 188.14 pounds over the week. So, it's back to the old drawing board, and back to holding my points below 40 per day.

For water 45.71 ounces (5.7 cups) per day is really not too bad. It is just a little short of the 6 cups per day that I am shooting for. Hopefully this week I will do better.

5 years, 16 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3"/239.5/188.5/180±2/BMI:23.56/WK-263