Week 270 Update

This week I did some soul searching, and after a talk with Dotti, I have decided to move my whole target system up 8 pounds. This transposition makes the following changes:

1. My personal goal weight is now 198.0, up from 190.0.
   
   
2. The top of my target range is now 195.0, up from 187.0.
   
   
3. My target weight is now 193.0, up from 185.0.
   
   
4. The bottom of my target range is now 191.0, up from 183.0.

It has been a tough decision on where to put my target. Based upon BMI, the top of the "Normal Range" for me is 200 pounds. (It is also the top of the of WW range for my height of 6'3".) That means I can be as high as 200 pounds and not be overweight. But the optimum BMI is said to be 22. I played around with the idea of getting down to that, but the weight required for me to have a BMI of 22 is 176.0 pounds, which would make me as thin as a rail. (Dotti said that she would have to kill me if I got down that low. I think she was kidding, but then again... J)

I originally set my goal at 190, and my target at 185, in order to try and keep my weight below 190 pounds at all times. I have had my goal there for quite some time, and Dotti has always felt that I was too thin. So, when I recently brought up the idea of maybe raising my personal goal weight, she was very happy to hear it. That convinced me that I was going to do it. I have looked at myself in the mirror for some time, and I just feel like I looked too thin. So, I am adding 8 pounds and see how I feel. If it seems like a good thing, I will stay with it. If not, I will try something different. But for now, the change is made!

I have modified my maintenance graph to correspond with this change in targets.

I was busy all week working, and the days seemed to run together, at least until Friday when the DWLZ server lost its DNS connection. We could still access the page using the IP number address, but neither www.dwlz.com, nor www.dottiesweightlosszone.com would work. It was down for 16 hours before our host provider was able to get his site back up. (His email was down, as well as his web site. I knew we were doomed to stay down as long has his main site was down.) Then all at once his web page came back up, and I was finally able to get my email to go through to him. He wrote back and said they were fighting a problem that was introduced when his bandwidth provider was doing some maintenance and inadvertently deleted some very import IP addresses, including ours. Several hours later the site was back up and everyone breathed a little easier.

These things happen on the Internet, but you never like them when they do!

Dotti and I have been using our new exercise equipment. This week I walked 15.4 miles, including a great hike on Sunday with Dotti and her brother Rip. The hike was to the "Falls Creek Falls," and you can tell that they spent a lot of time coming up with the name of that one. J However, the falls themselves were absolutely breathtaking! We were delighted and quite surprised to find that this 200-foot triple section falls was at the end of our 1.7 mile trail. The hike pictures are at: Falls Creek Hike and there is a separate page dedicated to just the falls pictures: Falls Creek Falls Pictures.

We also spent the evening with Rip and went out to McGrath's Fish House for a great dinner.

Okay, we had a splurge for dessert, I admit it. J Dotti and I split the Mud Pie and took 20.0 points each for our share. We both feel that if you can't do something like that on occasion, it takes the fun out of it. Naturally, we can't do that routinely, or we will be back up where we were in 1997. But on occasion it is a nice treat, and you can compensate by eating less on other days.

Back to the treadmill: Dotti and I have been working out together this week by having the treadmill and elliptical trainer located side by side. We have found a good way to overcome the drawbacks of the normal TV induced physical attrition of our muscles while watching some old TV shows. We put in a DVD and start the show, and walk until it is over. I get in at least 3 miles each session.

This week we watched the first episode of the first season of the Wild Wild West show, with Robert Conrad as James West, and the first two episodes of the Perry Mason show's first season. I have read a great many of the Perry Mason books, and most of the shows are based upon one of the books. They do a pretty good job covering a book in a one-hour show, considering the short time frame they have to work with.

The one exercise session that I did alone this week, I watched the final episode of the original Star Trek's first season. Unfortunately Gene Roddenberry used his shows to promote a political point of view rather than just let is considerable imagination bring possible worlds and creatures to life. I think that lowered it from a truly great show to a merely good show, but since I am not easily pushed in any political direction any longer by movies and television, I just ignore that part of it, and enjoy the part that he should have focused on entirely. The budget was low, and the effects were corny at times, but there were some very fascinating scientific ideas that were brought into the shows.

Back on topic.

The exercise was nice to get back into. I have not been doing as much walking I have wanted to do. I feel better when I am exercising regularly. Not only that; but having that time together with Dotti is nice too!

Eating this week was higher than it should have been for me. I had one day over 60 points, and two over 50. The rest of the days were in the 40s and were actually okay. But when you are over on points on 3 of 7 days that is not a good sign. I have been struggling with my work schedule and my eating, and it has been knocking me off course a bit. I will have to return to routine and scheduled eating. I think that is solution.

For water I didn't do too badly this week. I averaged drinking 50.29 ounces (6.3 cups) per day. I try to get in at least 6, and so I did okay for the week.

This week had more eating at restaurants than usual. On Friday we drove up to visit our son LeRoy, which is always a treat for us. On the drive up we stopped at Shari's for lunch and I had 24.0-point meal. Then, in the evening, LeRoy cooked us up some hamburgers (and they were good!), baked some fries, and 12 points later I was sitting at 65.0 points for the day. This was on Friday, the day before weigh-in.

Next weekend, we are scheduled to see my older son, whom I have not seen in 10 years, because he has been living in Japan. He is coming back to the states for a short trip, and we are hoping to visit with him, his wife, and our grandson, who is 8. We have never seen our grandson, and we have only met our daughter-in-law once. So, we are looking forward with great anticipation to this visit.

5 years, 65 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3"/239.5/193.5/193±2/BMI:24.19/WK-270