I was up and down all night and finally decided to get up at 5:00 AM. I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, "190.5 pounds." As I usually do, I also checked my weight on Dotti's new scale and it said 187.5 pounds. In fact, it has shown my weight to be in the 180s the entire time we have had it, even on my heaviest day last week. It is a bit of struggle, which will go on for some time I am sure, trying to decide whether or not I am going to make the switch to the new scale for my official scale. Of course, sooner or later Mr. Scale will have to be replaced, and that would be a natural time to swap over.

However, I am left with the thought that Dotti has checked her scale against 3 different Weight Watchers scales and it is right on with all of them. That means it is probably showing my real weight, while Mr. Scale is reading high. On the other hand, I have used Mr. Scale for my entire journey so far, and all my weight loss data, and even deciding upon my goal range was at least partly based upon the readings he gave. It is clear that my real goal range is going to be 182 to 187 by using Mr. Scale's readings of 185 to 190. That is not necessarily a bad thing, and so I continue on as before.

I was debating last evening whether I was going to hold my points low, since I had only eaten 25.5 points by 8:00 PM. I decided to go ahead and have something else and move the points up a bit. Instead of having a candy bar type of treat, I went with some pita bread and cheese. I think that may have stayed with me this morning, and had something to do with why I moved back up a pound this morning. Also, I had a fair amount of salt on my fried egg sandwiches for breakfast yesterday, which could be helping me to hang on to some water. Anyway, I know that the point level that I am eating at will not add fat to my body, and that is what I am most concerned with at the moment.

Dotti and I made it out of the house yesterday, but we did not make it to the gym. We went to the mall and had an All American Ice Cream cone, and then walked around some. We have gone to the Vancouver Mall around Christmas time before and it was never as crowded as it was yesterday. I am not sure if it is a matter of a population increase, which is definitely going on, or merely the nasty weather drawing people inside. The store clerks commented on the fact that it was busier than usual which leads me to accept the weather theory.

The rain was coming down hard, and the wind was whipping it against us as we walked from our car, which I had to park farther away than I normally do, due to the large number of people visiting the mall. We both had the hoods of our coats on, and that kept us fairly protected until we got inside. I always love to walk with Dotti, and we had fun moving from store to store, and finally we ended up in the Thomas Kincade painting store. We both love to look at his paintings, even though the large ones are very pricey. The warm feeling I get when I look at the yellowish light pouring through a window as the sun is going down, is something that draws me back over and over again to admire his work.

We stopped by an AT&T stand in the walkway of the mall, and discussed the problems with their cable access with the guy manning it. He said that he had heard from some folks in Vancouver who had already had their cable access restored. Naturally Dotti and I were hopeful that sometime yesterday, we would have ours restored as well. It was not to be. Still this morning the "Cable" light on our modem is dark, and there is no cable access. The "Activity" light is flickering on and off regularly as our computer continues to try to make contact but so far, no luck.

Yesterday evening I spent getting reacquainted with Snood. I had been playing a game here and there the last few weeks, but I had not seriously attempted to stay with it and see where my score would end up. I played several games in a row that went over 120,000 and one that went up to 148,000, but I didn't break my personal best of a 154,000. I thought I just might do it last night, because my shooting felt "on" but I fumbled at a critical moment on my best game, and that was that. Snood is a fun game and there are days when I need to relax, that it really helps me do just that.

This week I have been wrestling with the feelings that were generated with the passing of George Harrison. When I was a teenager, the Beatles were the top dogs of the recording industry. They ran the spectrum of rock musical style, riding the crest of change for a number of years. They started out as fairly standard rock and rollers, but with a sparkle that made them stand out. They were sharply dressed in suits, and other than their hair, looked fairly conservative. Over the years they moved through the hippie era, leading the way at times, losing the conservative image, and sliding into drugs and eastern philosophy. In my youth I was carried along with the music, and was a fan of the Beatles right up until they broke up. I played a lot of their songs on the guitar, and was completely captivated by their music.

Looking back today, I feel that what happened during the Beatles era was terribly destructive to America. I think the seeds of our decline, on many levels were sowed at that time, and I am skeptical that there is any turning back now. So, from that perspective, I have some very unhappy feelings about the Beatles. The two sets of feelings are mixed together in a very strange brew, leading me first to nostalgia, then to anger, and then back again.

I always felt that George was an introspective searcher for something. He was looking for answers, which I don't think he ever found, but he kept looking. His songs showed a mind that was thinking all the time. Whether it was the social commentary of Piggies, Isn't It a Pity, or the so accurate slam on taxation of the song Taxman, he strove to identify what he thought was social and political truth. In songs like Within You Without You, and My Sweet Lord, he was looking for spiritual truth. The introspective While My Guitar Gently Weeps, seems to meander, like a daydream of contemplation, but it was one of my favorite Beatles songs of my youth. Rightly or wrongly, George always struck me as a sad, or at least very serious man. Perhaps, his search is now complete.

On the food frontier, I tried a couple of different things yesterday. I was thinking in the morning that I could get more for 4.0 points than I am getting with a small bowl of cereal and milk. So, I cooked up 3 fried egg sandwiches instead, and they really filled me up. Another innovation was in the area of a hot and tasty beverage on a cold and wet day. When we were in Spokane, Dotti and Tammy found a source of Davinci zero point syrups for about half price what we normally pay. So, she picked up a number of different types for us. One of them was called Toasted Marshmallow, and so Dotti put some of that, along with some zero point chocolate syrup, into a cup of 1.0-point hot cocoa mix and water. After just coming out of the cold, rainy weather, returning from the mall, that tasted really good!

The temperature this morning has fallen to 38 degrees, and the rain has ended for the time being. The wind speed has dropped close to zero, and off on the eastern horizon where just a touch of light is becoming visible, I can see a break in the overcast sky. Perhaps our weather will end up being a bit better overall today.

We have a Zonie lunch scheduled this afternoon for the Portland/Vancouver area. I am not sure how many others will show up this time, but I know that Dotti and I will be there. The previous 2 lunches have been a lot of fun, and so I am looking forward to this one as well.

For eating yesterday, for breakfast I had a cup of coffee (1.0 pt.), and 3 fried egg sandwiches (3.0 pt.), for a total of 4.0 points. For lunch, Dotti made 2 turkey sandwiches for me (3.0 pt.) and I had 5 meringues (2.0 pt.). For dinner, I had 3 tostados (6.0 pt.). So, for meals I ate a total of 14.5 points. For snacks I had 7 cough drops (2.0 pt.), a cup of decaf (1.0 pt.), an All American Ice Cream cone (2.0 pt.), a nice hot cup of chocolate (1.0 pt.), a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich (2.5 pt.), a WW Just 2 Points bar (2.0 pt.) and a pita bread pocket (2.5 pt.) with Laughing Cow cheese (1.5 pt.). That came to 14.5 snack points, and brought my total for the day to 29.5 points.

For water I drank 9 cups, or 72 ounces.

Just 23 days until Christmas!

204 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/189.5/200/BMI:23.6/WK-29/Maintenance Graph/Weight Loss Graph

I woke up early this morning, and stepped up on Mr. Scale about 4:40 AM. He said, "189.0 pounds." (Our new scale said 185.5 pounds.) Okay, I am back in the 180s today. I hope that I can stay there this time.

The cold I am fighting doesn't seem to be any better today. In fact it is worse. I woke up this morning with an aching head, full and draining sinuses and even my neck ached. I took some aspirin, and my vitamins, and I am working on my cup of coffee, in hopes that things will settled down, and I can start feeling a bit better soon.

Yesterday, Dotti spent hours and hours on the phone with AT&T. Nearly the entire time was taken up on hold, and after waiting nearly a half hour each time to get through, listening to the same obnoxious on hold message over and over again, she would reach a low level "technician" who then would have to forward her call to a more advanced technician, and the call would be fumbled, dropping her offline, making her go through the whole disgusting process again. (Now remember, this is AT&T, American Telephone and Telegraph Company. You would think they would have an operational phone system.) The third time that happened she was fit to be tied. But try as she might to avoid it, they had to transfer her a fourth time. This one got to the next level but he was no more help than the new hire they had fumbling the calls for them. After 3.5 hours of this misery, they told her that she would have to call back after the Zonie lunch (because we had to leave at this time) and schedule a technician to come out to the house, because things were not working as they were supposed to. On the modem is a "Cable" light and it has not come on at all since they did the change over. Well, it was very fortunate that the guy on the other end of the line was not within reach when we got back and Dotti had waited another couple of hours to finally get through, and he told her that the office she needed to talk to was not scheduling technician visits at this time. She was much nicer than I would have been at that time, but she let him know in no uncertain terms that she was outraged by the treatment she had received. We would have expected much better treatment from a company like AT&T. It was like we were dealing with a fly-by-night rip off organization. Even this morning, we are still without cable access, and there is no hope in sight at this time. It still could be weeks before we are back online.

The Zonie lunch was fun. There were only six of us total, because several of the Zonies couldn't make it, but it was a very nice visit even so. We had some very nice conversation, and some great food. We took some pictures that Dotti will be putting up later.

It is a lot different without the cable access in our house, because now only one of us can be online at a time. It is quite inconvenient, but we are working around it. I find myself playing more Snood when in the waiting mode. Yesterday, I ran my high score up to 160,752, and was upset with myself for flubbing a couple of shots that would have allowed me to finish off the level I was on. Anyway, I am moving up still so that keeps it interesting.

Last night, Dotti and I settled down to watching [i] A Christmas Carole[/i] with George C. Scott, and we were just about to the end of the Ghost of Christmas Present, when a phone call came through and we put it on hold. By the time the call was over it was time for bed, so we will have to finish the movie later.

I ran my points right up near the top yesterday, ending the day with 32.5 points. I even skipped dinner, because we didn't finish lunch until late. But I was munching on things right up until bedtime. At one point in the day, I went through over half of a bunch of celery, while playing a game on the computer.

For eating yesterday, for breakfast I had a cup of coffee (1.0 pt.), and a cup and a half of Life cereal (4.0 pt.) with a cup of skim milk (2.0 pt.), giving me 7.0 points for breakfast. For lunch, I had large salad at Sweet Tomatoes, that was all free food with the exception of a point's worth of cheese. Dotti grabbed some bread for me, that was five points, and then I had a small bowl of no fat ice cream, with a small amount of "colorful sprinkles" on top (3.0 pt.). So, I had 9.0 points for lunch. Since I skipped dinner, I had a total of 16 points for meals yesterday. For snacks, "let the games begin." :) I had 6 cough drops (2.0 pt.), 20 Body Smart Chews (4.0 pt.), three quarters of an ounce of chocolate (3.0 pt.), a WW Just 2 Points bar (2.0 pt.), 1/4 cup (unpopped) popcorn for the movie, that once popped, Dotti fixed up like kettle corn with ICBINB spray and Slenda (2.0 pt.), half of a Kashi bar (2.5 pt.) and 3 Dum Dum suckers (1.0 pt.). That came to 16.5 snack points, and brought my total for the day to 32.5 points.

For water I drank 9 cups, or 72 ounces.

Just 22 days until Christmas!

205 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/189.5/200/BMI:23.6/WK-29/Maintenance Graph/Weight Loss Graph

I woke Mr. Scale up early again this morning, and at 4:35 I stepped up and he said, "188.5 pounds." It looks like I am finally back where I was on Thanksgiving week for my weight. Yes!

Yesterday I ended up staying home from work. I felt horrible when I woke up and it just didn't get any better by the time I had to leave for work. My head was aching, and my stomach felt like it was about to return my breakfast to me. It wasn't until the afternoon before I started to feel any better. This morning, fortunately, I am feeling a lot better. My nose does not feel like it is as stuffy, and my head is feeling a great deal less pained. I am not 100% yet, but I feel very much better than yesterday.

Dotti was gone most of the day yesterday, between her Weight Watchers meeting, and her lunch with the girls from Weight Watchers after the meeting, and a few errands she needed to run, it was late in the afternoon when she got back. In the morning I just didn't feel up to doing much of anything. But in the afternoon I played a couple of games of Snood, and on my best game ran my score up to 157,277. Not quite as good as the day before, but it was close. I ended on the same level anyway: #23 Hexagon City. I came closer to getting past it the day before yesterday. I guess I will have to call that screen up directly and practice it a couple of times to figure a better angle on it.

In the afternoon, my stomach had turned around and decided it was hungry, very hungry. By the time dinner rolled around, I wanted something substantial with low points, because I had been shoveling in everything I could think of, between celery sticks and popcorn, to stem my appetite. I was hungry in a big way. So, I fried up some egg sandwiches and that finally did the trick. They were only 3 points, but they "stuck to my ribs" and finally gave me that full feeling that I was looking for. The rest of the evening I held my snacks down to 4.5 additional points, and ended the day 3 points below my upper limit.

Dotti got word from her new server that DWLZ.com is using up too much bandwidth already. So, she is streamlining the page and getting as many of the graphics off the page as possible, to cut down on how many bytes each visitor is going to download each visit. Hopefully it will help. Between the server problems, and the cable access, etc., during the last few weeks the Internet and the web page have been giving Dot a lot of grief. I hope things settle down soon, so everything will get back to normal.

Three weeks from today, it will be Christmas. I love seeing all the decorations, and the trimmings of the season. Holly, and mistletoe (you have to love mistletoe!), evergreen trees, and all the yuletide trappings, join together with the Christmas music to make things very special for these few weeks.

The temperature has been dropping (it was 37 degrees outside this morning) and we have been getting winter storm alerts on our "Weatherbug" program. For example, today there is supposed to be snow mixed with rain down to 500 feet elevation, meaning that I will probably see some flakes when I cross the Sylvan hill during my morning commute. Yes, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas and I like it!

For eating yesterday, I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.). For lunch, I had 2 turkey sandwiches (3.0 pt.), and 5 Trader Joe's Meringues (2.0 pt.), giving me 5.0 lunch points. For dinner I had 3 fried egg sandwiches (3.0 pt.), and that gave me a total of 13 points for meals yesterday. For snacks, I had 14 cough drops (4.0 pt.), 10 Body Smart Chews (2.0 pt.), a WW Just 2 Points bar (2.0 pt.), several sticks of celery (0.0 pt.), 1/4 cup (unpopped) popcorn -- and since Dotti wasn't here at the time, I did the kettle corn thing -- with ICBINB spray and Slenda (2.0 pt.), a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich (2.5 pt.), a WW Just 2 Points bar (2.0 pt.), and half of a Kashi bar (2.5 pt.). That came to 17.0 snack points, and brought my total for the day to 30.0 points.

For water I drank 12 cups, or 96 ounces.

Just 21 days (3 weeks) until Christmas!

206 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/189.5/200/BMI:23.6/WK-29/Maintenance Graph/Weight Loss Graph

I let Mr. Scale sleep in all the way to 6:00 AM this morning. I stepped up on him and he said, "190.0 pounds." Our new scale said 186.5. The new scale says that I am up one half of a pound today and Mr. Scale says that I am up a pound and a half. Either way, I am still in my goal range and that is a good thing!

I made it to work yesterday, and felt a lot better than I had the day before. This morning I feel even better, so maybe this cold is going bye-bye for good. I sure hope so!

At lunch I went to a supermarket and bought a bunch of celery and a head of romaine lettuce. I consumed the entire bunch of celery on the drive home. I did not get to the romaine lettuce before I made it to our apartment. At lunch Dot gave me a huge pickle in with my other goodies, and it was tasty. I am not sure if it contributed to some water weight buildup or if something else was involved with my jump up today, but I will see what happens tomorrow.

We still are without cable and have no "light at the end of the tunnel" as to when it will be restored. The dialup would not be so bad, if it were not for the fact we no longer have two phone lines and only one of us can be on at a time when I am home. (At work fortunately I have other ways online so during that time I can be on at the same time as Dotti; if I have some free time.)

For eating yesterday, I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.) and Standard Lunch (7.0 pt.) For dinner, I had 8 pieces of French toast (3.5 pt.) with some good syrup over the top (2.0 pt.). That added up to 17.0 points for meals. For snacks, I had 16 cough drops (5.0 pt.), an entire bunch of celery (0.0 pt.), a cup of decaf (1.0 pt.), a WW Just 2 Points bar (2.0 pt.), a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich (2.5 pt.), half of a Kashi bar (2.5 pt.) and 3 Dum Dum suckers (1.0 pt.). That came to 14.0 snack points, and brought my total for the day to 31.0 points.

For water I drank 10 cups, or 80 ounces.

Just 20 days until Christmas!

207 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/189.5/200/BMI:23.6/WK-29/Maintenance Graph/Weight Loss Graph

I stepped up on Mr. Scale at 5:30 AM and he said, "190.0 pounds." (Once again our new scale said 186.5.) That puts me right at the same weight as I was yesterday.

It was a very quiet day at work yesterday and although the temperature was down a bit, it was still above freezing. The roads were fairly dry and the cars were moving very well on the way in to work. On the drive home there was some light rain and things slowed down to normal, but it wasn't too bad.

We are still dealing with dial up Internet access, and last night while Dot was online (and I wasn't), I was practicing the Hexagon City level of Snood -- which has been the stopper on my games with my highest scores -- and was able to clear it once, and just missed clearing it a second time. It is still very much of a challenge. I have not cleared it during a regular game yet, but at least now I can visualize it happening, which hopefully will open up some higher scores in the future.

I am hopeful that things will start to work out with the web page soon. It is growing old having to deal with the many problems facing us right now: dial up access, the domain name that we purchased, of dottisweightlosszone.com, pointing to nowhere, the server provider complaining about bandwidth usage and threatening to shut off the server, and various other administrative log jams blocking smooth operation of the site. It is far more difficult keeping it going today than it was a few months ago.

I hope that is just temporary. I don't think we could keep it going indefinitely if things didn't settle down soon to some sort of normalcy. But I am confident that all of the things that are out of place right now will settle back down again, and our rattled nerves will be allowed to calm themselves. All the supportive comments from the Zonies have been of more help than most realize.

Tomorrow night the weekend starts and I am looking forward to it. I am feeling much better, and hopefully we can make it over for some racquetball; maybe Friday night and Sunday, since Dotti has a tournament she is bowling in on Saturday along with her twin sister.

For eating yesterday, I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.) and Standard Lunch (7.0 pt.). For dinner last evening, I had 3 tostados (6.0 pt.), with a diet cream soda (0.0 pt.). That added up to 18.0 meal points. For snacks, I had 18 cough drops (5.5 pt.), about 10 cut sticks of celery and a cucumber (0.0 pt.), a cup of decaf (1.0 pt.), a WW Just 2 Points bar (2.0 pt.), a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich (2.5 pt.), 10 Body Smart Chews (2.5 pt.) and 3 Dum Dum suckers (1.0 pt.). That came to 14.0 snack points, and brought my total for the day to 32.0 points.

For water I drank 9 cups, or 72 ounces.

Just 19 days until Christmas!

208 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/189.5/200/BMI:23.6/WK-29/Maintenance Graph/Weight Loss Graph

Once again I stepped up on Mr. Scale at 5:30 AM, and this time he said, "189.5 pounds."

This morning when I was taking my vitamins I was thinking that before I had my recent dental problems, I used to chew any pill that I was taking, because it always felt like it was sticking in the back my throat. When I had some of my teeth pulled, it was impossible to chew tablets during the time the gums were healing up, and so I started swallowing the large pain pills whole. Now I have a pack of vitamin pills that I take every morning with six tablets in it, plus a 7th tablet that I add to it that is an additional large elongated vitamin C tablet, and I swallow the whole bunch of them at once. I don't know if it is an improvement, but it certainly is a change!

The temperature was 48 degrees yesterday morning when I got up, and only went up about 2 degrees all day. This morning it is 37 degrees. I thought I was all done with the sniffles, but when I got out in the cold living room this morning, I had to run for some tissues, as I was turning up the heater. Now its warmed up again my nose seems to have settled down and stopped sniffling.

Things were quiet at work again yesterday. I had to research a couple of things but not much else. At home the evening was pretty much wasted playing Snood. Dotti and I were trying to clear the EVIL level and Dotti got it just before we went to bed. I ended up 5 Snoods short of clearing once, but no cigar. I am sure looking forward to getting our cable Internet access back…

Dotti found out from the cable company, not because they contacted us but because she called them once more, that the cable modem that we have is incompatible with their new cable system. Do you suppose they could have put that information out, at least on their web page so we would not have been knocking ourselves out trying to get the stupid thing to work? No way. I have been really impressed with their whole service thing. Either your system came back up on its own, or it didn't, pretty much. A few people had to be told to cycle power on their modems, but that was the extent of "service" provided. Now they want us to wait until Wednesday to have someone come out and install a new modem. When I heard that I asked Dotti to call up and see if they will let us pick up our own modem and install it, but she had trouble getting through to them. She will try again today. There is no reason, other than intentional harassment that they would not let me install the modem myself. So, I expect that they will refuse and keep us waiting until next week.

The www.dottisweight loss zone.com DNS problems continue. Dotti contacted the Network Solutions company to find out why they had not pointed it to the page yet, and they said that our new server provider had given us the wrong numbers to put in for our request. (Since we are paying our server provider for the service of having a second pointer to the web page, it would have been so much simpler if they had directly handled it, but good service seems to have evaporated during the last year for Internet companies.) Now Dotti has to contact them to get the right numbers and see if sometime this century we can reestablish contact with the domain name we paid for long ago. Thanks to the abysmal service provided by the two companies involved, by the time we do finally get it back up, many people will have lost contact with www.dottisweightlosszone.com thinking it is a dead link. No extra charge for that "feature." >:

Tonight the weekend starts, and I am not on call. I am looking forward to that.

For eating yesterday, I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.) and Standard Lunch (7.0 pt.). For dinner last evening, I had hashbrown potatoes (3.0 pt.), a cheese omelet (2.0 pt.) and some green beans (0.0 pt.). That was 5 points for dinner and added up to 17.0 meal points. For snacks, I had 20 cough drops (6.0 pt.), two WW Just 2 Points bars (4.0 pt.), a Mr. Cookie Face ice cream sandwich (3.0 pt.), and 3 Dum Dum suckers (1.0 pt.). That came to 14.0 snack points, and brought my total for the day to 31.0 points.

For water I drank 14 cups, or 112 ounces.

Just 18 days until Christmas!

209 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/189.5/200/BMI:23.6/WK-29/Maintenance Graph/Weight Loss Graph

*** Weigh-in for WEEK 30 ***

Week Completed:	___30___
Weigh-In Weight:	190.0
Body Mass Index:	23.7
Aerobic Points for week:	0.0
Week’s Average Points/Day:	30.6
Pounds +/- for this week:	+0.5
Pounds lost total:	49.5
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.

___________________________

At 6:45 AM I woke up and stepped on Mr. Scale, and he said, "190.0 pounds."

Our new scale said 186.5 pounds, which is exactly the same thing that it has said for 4 days in a row. Both scales have agreed that my weight has been fairly stable over the last week. I have averaged my points per day for the last 7 days, and I ate on average 30.64 points per day. It appears that 30.6 points per day will yield a weight of 190 pounds for me, if I am not doing any exercise. That says to me that my top number of my points range should be 31 points (or maybe 30.5 points) when I am not exercising. For now, I am changing my points range down 2 points starting today, to 24 to 31, and I will be aiming to have an average points per day lower than 30 for the upcoming week. I will then check the results, and adjust accordingly. If I do get some exercise this week, as I plan to, then I will have to figure that into the mix on next Saturday, depending on the results. It is great finally getting to this part of the journey, and being able to collect the data on how points correspond to my absolute weight during maintenance.

I have been looking at Body Mass Index for various weights for me. The data appears to show that a BMI of 22 is optimum, while a BMI of less than 25 is in the normal range. Any BMI over 25 is an added health risk. For someone like me who is 6'3" (190.5 cm) a weight of 176 pounds (80 kg) would equal a BMI of 22. That is getting down close to where I was in high school and where I was when I graduated from boot camp in the Navy. At 180 pounds (81.5 kg), I would have a BMI of 22.5, which is very good. At 186.5 pounds (84.5 kg), which is what our new scale says I weigh today (and I believe that is my real weight right now) my BMI is 23.3, well within the normal range. At 190 pounds (86 kg), which is what Mr. Scale says I weigh, my BMI would be 23.7, which is still not too bad. My BMI was up around 30 most of the time before I started my journey. That is hovering around moving out of the "Overweight" category and slipping into the "Obese" category, where health risk takes another jump up. (The highest category of risk is over 40 BMI, which is "Very Obese," and I would have been there if I had weighed more than 320 pounds. Dotti's BMI before she started her journey was 42. And she has dropped hers to where it is currently 24.4. That is an amazing decrease in health risk!)

So, what am I going to do? Right now I am going to continue to focus on remaining in my goal range of 185 to 190 pounds (using Mr. Scale). Later on, if I decide to shoot for a BMI of 22, I will alter that. However, my main concern is stabilizing my weight in the 180s, and establishing a regular exercise routine that I religiously follow. I think that getting the right amount of exercise is more important than moving my BMI down a point. Since I have had some trouble getting my exercise routine in place, I am going to have to focus on that next and make it happen.

Well, I have 30 weeks under my (significantly shorter) belt and I am in my personal goal range. I am very happy with that. I am not spending as much time feeling strange about how thin my face, stomach and legs are. They still feel strange to the touch, but not quite as strange as they did the last few weeks. I am getting more used to being thin. I have been a bit surprised at how few comments I have received from my coworkers about the change in weight, but not terribly surprised. I remember that Dotti had to drop 50 pounds before anyone seemed to notice a change, and 50 pounds on a 5'4" inch frame is a much bigger change than 50 pounds on my frame. So, I never did alter my weight the same relative amount that Dotti did before people took notice of her weight loss.

Many times you are more sensitive to your own condition of being overweight than others are. And that means that when you lose weight, you are going to be more sensitive to the change. In fact you may be the only one who notices the change if it is not too great. And of course, people sometimes don't want to guess whether you have lost weight or not, for fear of offending you. ("If you say I am thin now, what was I before?") So, it could be they really didn't notice a change, or they are just being tactful. That is why I have not gone out expecting a lot of response from others, and so I have not been greatly disappointed by the lack of it. I just look at it like this: I know I have lost weight, and I know that the difference is significant, and that is good enough for me. Also, I have had a great deal of response from Dotti, and our friends Jim and Tammy, and all the wonderful people on the DWLZ message board. I am content with that!

I had a nice quiet day at work yesterday, and in the evening it was the same. (I did tackle the "Evil" level on Snood for the second day, and finally cleared it twice, passing up Dotti's high score both times :) . My scores were: 21922 and 21966. Now I have to move back and forth between the "Puzzle" game and the "Evil" to stay on top of the scores. At least until we get our cable modem going again.)

We did have some progress on the Internet front yesterday. The DNS pointer for www.dottisweightlosszone.com was finally set up correctly by both Network Solutions and our web host. Anyone attempting to go to that URL will finally get the DWLZ web page instead of the "Page Cannot Be Displayed" message. That is a good thing!

We still have to live with dial up, probably clear until Wednesday. The AT&T people apparently took their phones off the hook yesterday, because Dotti couldn't even get into an "on hold waiting loop." Instead she just got a busy signal from them. Oh well, we do have a scheduled appointment for one of the guys to come out and give us a modem on Wednesday. Until then we just have to suffer. And they did promise us 2 additional days of time on the other end of our contract for every day that we are without service. That will save us some money for the pain we are suffering right now.

I don't know how the bandwidth thing is going to pan out, but I think it will be okay, now that Dotti stripped most of the graphics from her web page. We will see.

For eating yesterday, I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.) and Standard Lunch (7.0 pt.). For dinner, I had one half of a Heaven's Bistro Pizza (4.5 pt.). So for meals I had a total of 14.5 points. For snacks, I had 15 cough drops (4.5 pt.), a WW Just 2 Points bars (2.0 pt.), a Mr. Cookie Face ice cream sandwich (3.0 pt.), and 10 Body Smart chews (2.0 pt.) and one half of a Kashi bar (2.5 pt.). That came to 14.0 snack points, and brought my total for the day to 28.5 points.

For water I drank 11 cups, or 88 ounces.

Just 17 days until Christmas!

210 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/190.0/200/BMI:23.7/WK-30/Maintenance Graph/Weight Loss Graph