Week 320 Update

I weighed in at 6:12 a.m. and Mr. Scale said, "201.0 pounds!" I replied, "You are repeating yourself."

A few years ago I was knocking on 240's door regularly. If things hadn't of changed in my life, I would have been knocking on 250 sooner or later, and so on. So, scratching around 200 is a much better thing than that. And it is just a matter of time before I slip past that block and back into the 190s.

This week I didn’t get any walking in. Dotti's sleeping schedule has been in total chaos and things have been difficult to schedule this week.

Sunday we went to visit Dotti's older brother and his wife. They were married only a few days after we were in 1976, so they have been together for 31 years too. We had a nice visit and did some catching up on family news.

Saturday and Sunday I did really well on points, as I only consumed 24.0 and 31.5 respectively. These were the lowest point days of the week for me. The scale followed suit, as it dropped from 201.0 on Saturday to 200.5 on Sunday, and then 200.0 on Monday. But I bounced off the door rather than walking through it. I only ate 39.5 points on Monday, but the scale jumped up to 202.0 pounds, because I had a late and heavy dinner as well as taking some Ibuprofen for the pain I was feeling from the heavy lifting. Anti-inflammatory medications like ibuprofen always make me retain water, and the workout probably would have caused some of that anyway. Speaking of the Monday workout...we had a new refrigerator scheduled for delivery on Tuesday, because our old one was giving us some problems. On Monday, while Dotti was out shopping, I started getting everything ready for the new fridge. That meant making room in the garage for the old one, and then moving the old one out into the garage. A few things were going to have to go to our storage shed, and other things relocated in the garage. I did a lot of heavy lifting and moving, and got a very good workout. When Dotti got home she helped me with the actual moving of the refrigerator. Once I got it on our dolly we were able to maneuver it through the garage door, and from there I could position it and level it. We then had to load up the van with the stuff to go to the shed, and some of that was pretty heavy too. I slept well on Monday night. ☺

Tuesday there was a bit of a scramble when we got a call from the delivery guys saying that they needed a 36-inch wide doorway to get the new fridge into the house. I had my tape measure out and checked all the doors. The garage door was just over 30-inches, and the sliding glass door clearance was even less. The front door was built around a 36-inch frame, but with the wooden framing and the security door, that clearance had shrunk to just over 35 inches. However, we found out that when they actually arrived that they had lied. They could have moved it through an even smaller door than our front door, and were even eyeing the sliding glass door as a possible entry point. By opening the refrigerator doors up they could slide it through the front door, and they did, using a shoulder harness and two men to hoist it. They didn't use a dolly and wheels at all. It was manual labor in the strictest sense of the word.

Tuesday night we watched the movie Love Story. "Where do I begin..." I hadn't watched that movie since I saw it in the theater in 1970 when it first came out. I had remembered two things: the Ali McGraw character (Jennifer Cavalleri) died, and the line, "Love means never having to say you're sorry." These were not points to recommend the movie to me, since I hate sad endings, and the line is utterly wrong; because saying you're sorry is critical to a healthy relationship, since we are all human and do things that we need to say we are sorry for, and such things hurt the ones we love far more than anyone else.

So, the decades have gone by and I have avoided a return visit to this movie, until now. I was amazed at how much Jennifer Cavalleri reminds me of Dotti when I first met her. Dotti's outgoing perky spirit forcing its way past my serious nature was something that won my heart very quickly. I was sympathetically struck at first by some of the superficial things about the movie, like Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O'Neal) and Jennifer Cavalleri having similar hair color with the two of us (in some of our old pictures Dotti has a striking similarity to Ali McGraw, and her friends used to comment on that similarity when she was in school); and there were a number of things less superficial that just hammered at my memory about when Dotti and I were just starting out, and about how tremendously lucky this lonely, serious minded piece of driftwood was to be rescued by a free spirited angel like Dotti.

For nearly 33 years my life has been on a completely different course, filled with joy, and meaning because of the chance meeting with this wonderful girl. By the time we got to the point in the movie where Oliver learned that Jennifer was going to die, I was too connected to just say, "This is just a movie." I may never watch that movie again, because such sadness is not something I care to repeat very often, or worse, become jaded to.

But I am glad that I watched it this second time, because it makes me appreciate my dark haired, and still perky, and effervescent lady even more. And even with its glaring philosophical flaw (while love means you will always be forgiven; it does not mean that you never have to say you're sorry), I was reminded by this movie that sharing the difficult parts of life, in your youth, makes sharing all of the various parts of your senior years more wonderful (and that was the real tragedy of the movie, because Jennifer and Oliver missed out on that). The fantastic enthusiasm and energy of a new romance can't hold a candle to the deep feelings of a healthy relationship that has grown its roots deep and entangled through time, and through the facing of adversity and joy together. The whole purpose of that bright intense flash in a new romance is to kindle that far more precious fire that burns in the heart for the rest of your life. Thank you Dotti for that, and for making our own Love Story so wonderful to be living!!!

Tuesday I was up to 202.0 pounds, as I have said. I ate 44.0 points, and even had some fairly high sodium food for dinner, but the scale dropped back down to 200.5 pounds on Wednesday. I ate 40.0 points on for the day, and on Thursday the scale moved up a half pound. My evening meal was the biggest meal of the day, and it probably stayed with me on Thursday morning. Thursday I once again ate 40.0 points. That included some late night popcorn and some other snacks in the evening. Friday I bounced up a pound to 202.0. I ate light (33.5 points) on Friday, and the scale dropped back down to 201.0 today.

So, what I think has happened this week is that I have a false bubble holding me up—a bubble constructive of water retention primarily. If that is so, then I can expect a good drop on the scale one of these days, as I continue to eat in a reasonable range for me. If that turns out to not be the case, then I will have to redefine what is "a reasonable range for me." This upcoming week should tell me a lot about that.

I am slowly zeroing in on Onderland. ☺ Although I didn't show a drop on my weekly weigh-in this week, I did show a 0.21 drop for my average weight for the week. My average points-per-day dropped by almost a whole point (0.93 points) this week, and so things are moving in the right direction.

6 years, 50 days on my journey; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-
6 '3" 239.5/201.0/197.5±2.5/BMI:25.12/WK- 320

Starting weight: 239.5       Target Weight Range: 195 lbs to 200 lbs