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*** Weigh-in for WEEK 318 ***
06/16/2007
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| Week Completed: | ___318___ |
| Weigh-In Weight: | 200.5 |
| Body Mass Index: | 25.06 |
| Average Weight for week: | 201.79 |
| Miles Walked for week: | 8.00 |
| Miles Walked in 2007: | 104.69 |
| Week’s Average Points/Day: | 39.86 |
| Pounds +/- for this week: | -1.0 |
| Pounds lost total: | 39 |
| Made GOAL: 9/22/2001 † | |
* Made 10% at 215.5 pounds on 7/14/01
† Goal is 200 pounds.
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Week’s Data
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Day |
Date |
Weight |
Points |
Water |
Miles
Walked |
| Saturday |
06/09/2007
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201.5
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34.0
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6 cups (48 oz)
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0.00
|
| Sunday |
06/10/2007
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201.0
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36.0
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6 cups (48 oz)
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0.00
|
| Monday |
06/11/2007
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200.5
|
34.0
|
7 cups (56 oz)
|
2.00
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| Tuesday |
06/12/2007
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204.0
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44.5
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6 cups (48 oz)
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2.00
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| Wednesday |
06/13/2007
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202.5
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48.0
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6 cups (48 oz)
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2.00
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| Thursday |
06/14/2007
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202.5
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33.5
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7 cups (56 oz)
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2.00
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| Friday |
06/15/2007
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201.5
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49.0
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6 cups (48 oz)
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0.00
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Week 318 Update
I stepped up on Mr. Scale this morning at 06:28 and he said, "200.5 pounds!" Well, I seem to be getting closer. ☺ I must have really been off the beam before I started journaling again. I am keeping track pretty well now, and it is taking some time to work my way back down to where I was before cutting loose.
Since I started my new journaling regime, today's weigh-in is the best weekly weigh-in I have had, and it even matches the best daily weigh-in so far. My average weight for the week was 201.79, which was the lowest for any 7 consecutive days for the same period. I seem to be on the right track!
A few thoughts about our little getaway trip and "being away"...
Dotti had I had a nice weekend coast visit this week, and this morning I got to thinking about it, and I decided to look up what our travel schedule has been over 2007 so far. (As age has increased, written records are becoming more and more useful. ☺)
In January and February Dotti and I were not gone at all; we didn't do any traveling outside of the local area. I was focused on getting the Alaska Cruise page up and Dotti was working on keeping things going on the page and message board. Our dear friends Jim and Tammy came down for a weekend visit in February, catching a ride with our son LeRoy, who shared the President's Day weekend with us.
In March, Dotti and I took a "weekend" run to the coast. It fell over Wednesday and Thursday, rather than Saturday and Sunday, but that is often how our weeks run these days. The flexible hours come in handy sometimes like that. Later LeRoy dropped in for a more traditional weekend visit on the 24th and 25th.
So, for the first 3 months of the year, other than weekends, we never left the area. In April Tammy's Mom became very ill, and we scrambled up to Spokane on a Friday the 13th. We spent the week checking on Tammy's Mom and waiting to see how things were going to go. She seemed to be improving and so we headed back home on Sunday the 22nd. As a result we later skipped our normal visit to Spokane for Bloomsday this year.
In May, we took a 3-day weekend trip to visit my Mom, and the following Friday we made a mad dash up to Spokane to try and get there before Tammy's Mom passed away. We missed her by an hour, and we stayed for the funeral which was 6 days later. We came home that weekend. (We have canceled our scheduled 4th of July trip because of this. We hope that Jim and Tammy might make it down for a visit in July but we don't know yet.)
In June, we have taken one long weekend trip to the coast, which frankly we needed very badly. It was a 3-day weekend in the middle of the week.
Because of illness and death in what we consider to be our family, we have made two unscheduled one-week trips. Besides that this year, we have had three weekend outings in 6 months time, and only two of those outings were with Dotti and I alone together. In every case when we were away, we had our computers with us, and were working part of the time, even on the coast trips. The last time that we were completely out of touch with our work was for a few days on the Alaska Cruise in September.
A part, and usually a big part, of every day of our lives now is taken up by DWLZ. Since last September, we have never completely been away. Whenever we have attempted it, something has come up that has needed our attention.
But please don't misunderstand what I am saying; DWLZ is very important, and I am proud to be part of what Dotti has done in creating an incredible support resource for others. The time I spend on DWLZ is all time that is well spent, and I do not begrudge a moment of it. DWLZ has taken over our lives almost completely, but I consider myself lucky for many reasons: the cause is worthy; my coworker is beautiful, kind, and loving; and where else could I have the chance to help people with my humble talents? There have been few times in my life when I felt that what I was doing was so important, as well as being challenging. I have a platter that is overflowing with things to do, and never enough hours in the day to get them done, but they are not merely urgent things clambering for attention; they are important things that have the potential to actually do some good in this world, for people who are some of the nicest people I have ever met.
So, while we don't really get away much, and when we do "get away," we carry the web page with us, I don't really mind. This isn't like anything I have ever done before really, although much of what I have done before helps with this. My experience with teaching helps me to convey ideas here. My experience with troubleshooting helps me to analyze things and sometimes to find answers that might otherwise be elusive. When I used to fix CAT scanners I felt that was significant work as well. It could perhaps even help to save a life. I don't know if I could ever match that here, but it could happen. And it would be very, very special to me if I could help a friend to live a longer and happier life by something I did on DWLZ. At least, I feel good trying to do that. (This provides much of my motivation when my old self wants to exert itself and make me stray off course on my journey. How many others might I be hurting if I just threw in the towel?)
So, even with the interruptions we had this week, the coast trip with Dotti was truly wonderful, and it was very much needed. (Thank you Dotti!!!)
Back to my week, and my weight loss journey...
Saturday and Sunday were busy days for Dotti and me as we got things in order for our upcoming trip. I weighed in at 201.5 on Saturday and ate 34.0 points.
I wanted to mention here that my good friend Tom Kreider started up a video journal for his journey and he is off to a great start! You can check it out at: http://toms-journey.blogspot.com/.
Sunday, I weighed 201.0 pounds and I ate light again at 36.0 points. However, I had some popcorn, and that could have bumped up the scale, but it didn't. (See Monday below.)
Sunday was Dotti and my 31st anniversary! How can it be that 31 years have gone by already? When I met Dotti she was only 17 years old, and when we got married, she was still only 19. And talk about beautiful! When she was on the diving board at the pool, she turned guys' heads around. But I was the lucky one she fell for.
I did I fall for her? I sure did! And how! I was a long ways away when I set off for our wedding, but on the way I ran up against more than distance, on my way to Dotti; I had my first brush with terrorism.
As I left the terminal at Manila Airport, on May 25th, 1976, to board my plane back to the States, I was shocked to find a soldier in fatigues and helmet, who was holding a rifle that was nearly as big as he was, standing behind the door, and then stretching out in line on either side of the path I was to walk there were more soldiers, dressed and armed the same way.
The alarms were not going off just yet in my head, because Manila Airport was very odd compared with any other airport I had been to before. I just thought this was one more thing—that is until I got onboard and found a newspaper on the seat next to me when I sat down with this picture on the front cover. A Philippine Air Lines plane had been blown up on a Philippines runway the day before and that was why all of the extra security. That certainly didn't give me a warm and toasty feeling in my stomach. But I was soon in the air and headed home and to my Dotti.
Back to the distance I had to travel: I flew from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, to Manila, Philippines and on to Portland, Oregon, via Honolulu and San Francisco to get back to Dotti for our wedding. The total trip was 11,920 miles one way. (I did have to fly back and that made the entire trip a whopping 23,840 miles!)
If you could go straight through the earth you could reach any point in 8,000 miles or less from any other point. But that is was not an option for me. If you flew around the world at 45° latitude (which is where Portland is located) all of the way, you would only have to travel 12,449 miles to completely circle the earth. And so I nearly flew that far. Even at the equator (or on any great circle route around the globe) you can go half way around the world in about 12,450 miles. (Or put another way, no matter where you are, you cannot ever be any farther away than 12,450 miles from any other point on earth, as the crow flies.) So, as you see, if you took a straight route, you couldn't travel much farther than I did to reach Dotti for our Wedding 31 years ago today. And it was worth every bit of it and a lot more!
There are billboards in Portland that claim the distance is twice that as you drive out of town heading east (they proclaim, Last Burgerville for 24,946 miles), but you would have turn south and take the great circle route around the planet to go that far. Heading due east in a plane the earth is only half as far around at 45° latitude as it is at the equator.
After all of that, all I can say is that there has never been anything so precious to me that has been so easy to reach before or since; because Dotti is worth any effort it would take for me to be with her, for she is priceless, truly priceless.
Remember the popcorn on Sunday? Monday my weight dropped to 200.5 pounds. The following pictures give an overview of our trip to the coast. After the pictures, my narrative for the week will continue.
We went to the coast in the afternoon. I made goof in taking the I-5 route to Highway 26 to the coast. When we came off Washington State Road 14, I-5 was starting to back up. (We had just come across the overpass where the semi is "parked" in the picture, before traffic came to a halt.) The bridge hadn't even started to rise when we arrived, and so we got to watch them raise the bridge, wait for the boats to clear, and then lower the bridge. It took about 15 minutes, so it wasn't really too bad.
I got a really good workout carrying our luggage up to the 3rd floor of our motel. (There was no elevator.) The route to the room actually led downwards at first to the floor level of the first deck, and then there were 4 short stairways set into a switchback configuration leading to the 2nd and 3rd deck. Dotti helped some. In fact she did far more than she should have; at one point I was very upset to find that she had grabbed one of the heaviest bags and took it part way up to the room.
My son Glenn, who is a chief petty officer in the Navy, pointed out that the way I unload a car is just like a Navy working party. I will take everything out of the car that is going to be taken to the room. I will stack the items up within view of the car as I am unloading. I next take the items to another location that is closer to the room but in view of the first location. I leapfrog the stuff all the way in that fashion until I get the stuff into the room. Well, Dotti will come down into the middle of this and start grabbing things to carry up to the room. When I am watching, she grabs only light stuff, like she is supposed to with her cast. But when I am not watching closely enough, she sneaks off with one or more heavy items. I love her industrious nature, but I don't want her to hurt herself again!
By the way, isn't Dotti looking good?!
I have grouped these pictures by the way they would fit into our walks, and later I included Seaside pictures. Our motel was in Cannon Beach and walking from our room to the end of town and back was two miles. We did that walk 3 times during our stay. Dotti took this picture of me standing on the 3rd floor landing.
I took this picture of Dotti looking down from the 3rd floor landing, as she was standing behind our car. It was still morning, because Dotti's shadow was falling towards the building, which was to the west of her. But her shadow was short, meaning that midday was just about here. (It was 11:15 a.m.)
Notice the two surfaces in the parking lot. They extended the parking area out over the edge of the hill with wooden pylons supporting the wooden deck. It was solid but it felt funny driving the car out onto that surface.
Here Dotti had walked over onto the wooden deck area and behind her you can see the Pacific Ocean. Directly over her head you can just make out the lighthouse that we could see from our room.
Now we have moved back over behind our car, and you can see our license plate holder. (The license plate itself I have customized just for this picture. ☺
Here we are looking down from the third floor. After we got down to the first floor, we had to walk around the building which included another loss of elevation of about the distance of one story, to reach the top of the stairs you can see in this picture. They took us down about another three floors worth of elevation in order to reach the street. (Later, walking into Cannon Beach proper, there was another hill to go down. So, when we finished shopping, and headed back, the walk to the room included quite a bit of elevation increase.)
Across the street you can see Dooger's Restaurant where we ate on Monday evening.
We had already started down the stairs when Dotti stopped and took this picture. You can see that there was a little landing, followed by two steps and then another landing. It made the climb or descent easier than it would have been if there were just a long string of stairs. We saw a number of pedestrians who just took the road, because they decided it would be easier for them than hiking the stairs.
The statue of the sailor at the bottom of the stairs was pretty tall but the stairs still went a long ways up over him at his back. (In the previous picture we were looking down on him and his parrot.)
Our room was the very top window on the right of the building right behind the sailor. You can see our balcony as well.
At the sailor's feet there was a garden with a stone pathway through it. I took the pathway and got behind the garden, and Dotti took this picture.
Monday evening we stopped at Dooger's Restaurant, before continuing our walk into town. It unsurprisingly had a nautical theme, and served many types of seafood. When we were seated inside, our table was under the white draped windows on the right. On a sunny day, those drapes would come in very handy.
Now we are inside, and as you can see those windows are now overhead. Dotti is checking over the menu, while her pick cast is standing up and saying, "Look at me! Look at me!"
I ordered iced tea, and I thought the glass was well done enough to merit a picture. The ice tea was good too.
I normally take my hat off at the table and in this case my hair is acting like the hat is still on. But I was having a good time, and who cares? ☺
Dotti and I split a burger and fries, which gave us plenty to eat; the meal tasted great, and we didn't go over points for the day.
Next we headed on down the road to downtown Cannon Beach. Here is Dotti showing off her lovely smile.
As Barb (DWLZ Message Board Admin) and her daughter discovered during one of their visits to Cannon Beach, this town is at risk for a Tsunami, especially the part we got to after going down that last hill into downtown.
In one of the little store clusters this fountain is located. I took this picture on Monday, and sun was starting to dip into the west a bit, illuminating the back of the statue and shining through the water falling from the shell.
This is another cluster of stores. There are lots of art stores and novelty stores around Cannon Beach.
I thought that this clock was just perfect for a weekend getaway! When you are relaxing and having fun, who cares what time it is anyway?
Yes, Cannon Beach is a real town, because it meets the criteria: it has a library. ☺ And if they had a librarian as pretty as this, I would be down here checking out books every day!
Dotti found another troll, and she is just about to dispatch him.
This shop specialized in Dutch and Nordic art. We stop here every time we come to Cannon Beach.
Down one of the alleyways there is a little shop with incense and other things. It was pretty full when we got there, so we didn't browse through it this time. There was a bicycle shop behind where the proprietor offered the information that it was high tide and so bicycles would not be available for rent for a few hours. Since we were not looking to rent bikes for riding on the beach at that time we were not put off by the news. ☺
It was clear that the birds of Cannon Beach were used to being fed by humans. They would hang around near people much longer than normal wild birds would. They were always looking for a handout.
This bird actually has a piece of Dotti's cone in its mouth. Dotti didn't give it to the bird either! We were sitting on a bench outside, and a piece of her cone broke off and hit the ground. This bird hopped over, as brazen as you please, grabbed the cone chip, and hopped away a few feet and commenced eating it.
At the end of town, where the main drag took a 90 degree turn to the east, we found a sculpture of a whale and a view an ocean inlet.
On the way back to the room we passed by this tree, which has caught our attention on several occasions. It is interesting how the braches shoot out at odd angles from the vertical.
Back at the room, Dotti is showing off a knickknack that she picked up, which joins our two collections together. I collect mermaids, and I have a number of nice mermaid statues. Dotti collects little mice figures, usually with girl and boy mouse to represent Dotti and Al. This time, she found mermaid mice. ☺ They are kind of cute.
Monday evening, when we got back to the room, the sun was hanging low over the water. We had to pull the drapes across the sliding glass doors to keep the sun out of our eyes. The window looks out over the own, and it is the one you saw earlier over the sailor's shoulder.
My backpack is on the floor, and my journal and "journal lite" are resting on top of my laptop computer.
Out on the deck, one of the first things that Dotti found was that some spiders had been busy at work on the railings. My first task was to get rid of them all, because Dotti doesn't care for bugs of any kind. However, before taking the webs down a picture was in order.
Looking south we could see Haystack Rock. The sun was really getting low in this shot. The light was orange and the shadows were long. Soon, it would be dark out.
We had cool temperatures most of the time we were there, and Dotti has her sweatshirt on to keep warm in the evening chill.
The sun was on the way down, and the seagulls were out in force, looking almost like bats heading out of a cave.
Inside Dotti had lit a candle that we had purchased on our walk. It had a fresh ocean-like smell and was pretty as well.
This picture was taken the next morning, and you can see the shadows are falling towards the ocean in the west. The morning mist is still hanging over the rocks in the distance, and the tide is out quite a ways.
The seagulls were covering the sand that morning. There must have been good eating going on.
This gives you an idea of what the day's activities were normally like at the beach. I don't see any kites flying and there are no swimmers in this picture. Of course we didn't see many swimmers, only a couple and they normally didn't stay in too long. We did see kites several times though.
There are guys riding tricycles just to the right of mid picture, and they were moving along at a good clip. There were walkers, with and without dogs. There were picnickers and sunbathers and kids playing in the sand. The beach here is not like a Southern California beach, where the water is jammed with people and you can't find a free bit of sand to spread your towel out. Going to the beach is a completely different thing in Oregon.
One of the days we were out on the balcony reading together, and Dotti looked down to spot a wedding party on the sand! It was cold (we both were bundled up pretty well) and the wind was blowing. But here were these people walking out on the sand to take pictures. The girls had to be freezing in those gowns, and even the guys with their coats on looked cold. At least they will remember this wedding day!
Remember the lighthouse I mentioned earlier when it was located in a picture just above Dotti's head? Here it is again, but with a zoom lens on it. Another seagull was flying between us and the lighthouse.
This picture shows that same lighthouse off in the distance, with no zoom. It looks like a little rock standing off by itself in the water on the left. This was our view to the north from our balcony.
Rotating a bit towards the west, and once again shooting from our balcony, this picture shows the lighthouse once more.
This picture, looking north, was taken right after the previous ones. They showed blue sky and sunshine. But what you couldn't see was that clouds were pouring in from the east over the mountains.
Here we are looking to the east, and the blue that was over the water wasn't even hinted at in this direction.
To the south, Haystack Rock is dotted with seagulls. They seem to love that rock. Many are resting on it, and many more are circling above, either getting ready to land on it, or taking off from it.
Looking a little closer at Haystack Rock, the seagulls are very much visible. They seem to be staking squatter's claims to the ground.
Here is where we got our ice cream cones in Seaside. It was a different company from the one in Cannon Beach but the ice cream was still Tillamook brand and it was just as good.
In the Carousel In The Mall at Seaside, I took this picture through the window at Dotti, who was shopping inside this shop.
This is another through the window shots, at another store in the same mall.
In 2001 Dotti and I were standing outside this very mall and I took this picture of Dotti. I remember that she wasn't feeling very well that day, but she was nice enough to pose for this picture anyway.
Here we are at the same location in 2007, and Dotti was looking a lot happier! We had a very good day at Seaside!
When it came time for lunch, we headed over to Subway. Here is Dotti, keeping her cast protected and dry, and giving me a big smile!
Dotti took this picture of me with the Neconicum River in the background.
Here is much better picture of the most beautiful woman in the world. Even the river looks better with Dotti in front of it!
Here we are on the other side of the river, and I had the river at my back as I was shooting this picture.
Dotti spotted the sign in the window above for "Oxygen Bar," and I had to take a picture of that.
Before leaving town we stopped at a Safeway to load up on some goodies for the room. I waited in the car while Dotti shopped. (She says she likes it that way sometimes, because I tend to hurry her along when she would rather take her time picking through the shelves.) The weather all at once got a lot wetter, but fortunately we were done walking around in it for the day.
On Monday, after dinner and on our way back from the end of the main road in Cannon Beach, we stopped at one store that was open late and browsed around some. Most of the other stores were already closed by the time we took our walk. But we were mostly just getting some exercise and doing a little sightseeing. We also picked up some milk for the room. (During our stay on the coast, whenever we bought anything it was just more "activity points" for me as I normally had my backpack on where we stashed it, or I carried the bags.)
Back in the room we enjoyed the fireplace and watched the sun go down. The sound of the waves put us to sleep and we slept sound indeed!
I had eaten 34.0 points for the day, including the burger dinner that Dotti and I split at Dooger's.
Tuesday, the scale jumped up to 204.0 pounds. Those fries were really salty and the burger must have stayed with me. But I knew I was okay because I hadn't eaten too much. We walked to town once more, and this time it was more "for real," because most of the stores were open. We walked our 2 miles plus more inside the stores. We did our eating in the room, because we brought some food with us, and I ended up eating 44.5 points for the day. (We found some ice cream that we just couldn't resist. We had a cone every day we were in town, and even had one on Friday as we were leaving. But we ate light the rest of the day and it all balanced out. You have to have fun on this journey!)
There followed another night of fireplace and ocean waves, and it was great!
Wednesday, I weighed 202.5 pounds. We headed over to Seaside a few miles to the north, and walked the main road there. We've been there many times and it is really fun to browse the stores. At lunch we stopped at Subway and had a good OP meal. In addition to that, the ice cream cone we picked up at a shop down the road a bit, moved our points for the day up, but we had planned for it. At the end of the day I was a bit high at 48.5 points, but that wasn't too bad, especially since I had been doing well on the other days for the week so far.
Thursday, I weighed 202.5. We originally planned a day "in the room," but after a bit we decided that another walk was in order, and we were off on the two-mile Cannon Beach hike once more. I have to admit that the ice cream cone on the other end of town had something to do with getting me going on that walk. ☺ We did a little shopping too and it was a very pleasant visit for us, before we returned to the room for the last night of this trip. By the end of the day I had eaten 33.5 points. (When you average my two worst days—Wednesday and Friday—with Thursday in between them, you get less than 44 points-per-day for the average. That is okay!)
Friday I weighed 201.5. We packed up and loaded the car (At least the stairs were going down this time with the luggage!), hit the ice cream place one last time on the way out of town and drove the hour and a half home. When we got home, I unloaded the car, helped Dotti unpack and then did some rearranging on my office to give me some additional space. I was pretty tired by the end of the day but I like the way it turned out.
This morning I was down to 200.5, and all in all I am happy with the week. I got a fair amount of walking in, a lot of work on the stairs, and basically was more active than usual. It felt good!
6 years, 36 days on my journey; a lifetime to follow.
-Al-
6 '3" 239.5/200.5/197.5±2.5/BMI:25.06/WK- 318
Starting weight: 239.5
Target Weight Range: 195 lbs to 200 lbs
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