Week 334 Update I stepped up on Mr. Scale at 6:35 a.m. and he promptly said, "198.0 pounds!" Well, that's more like it!

I am really enjoying the Weight Commander as it puts my weigh-ins in perspective. As you can see on the graph, my daily weigh-ins (the hollow squares) have jumped around quite a bit, but my running average (the solid black squares) has held pretty steady between 200 and 203. While that is not horrible, it is not what I want. I want to remain under 25 BMI, which is 200 pounds. I may want to move down a bit lower than that, but I certainly don't want to be above 200.

In the Navy, when I was at Fleet Training Center at Norfolk, Virginia, and teaching electronics there, they wanted their staff sailors to be within the Navy guidelines for weight and for physical fitness testing. The old height/weight tables for the Navy said that I was just right for my height, but that wasn't good enough. They measured my neck and my waist and put it into a formula, and said my percent of body fat was too high, unless I got down to 190 pounds. (The neck size was supposed to indicate body build type, and while I was tall, I was supposed to be thin as well.) With all of the racquetball I was playing, I had no trouble getting below 200, but it was a constant struggle to get below 190.

Anyway, I think that I should at least remain below 200 pounds for the sake of health. Beyond that I need to study up a bit more to see what I need to do. At least when I am below 200 I am in the normal range and that has to be better than being in the overweight category!

So, here I am back below 200. I feel good about that. At 32.29 points-per-day, I have been eating well down from where I was eating before. The past two weeks I have averaged 33.29 points-per-day, and I have dropped 4 pounds. On my current course, Weight Commander predicts that I will be back at my old target weight of 185 around Christmas.

Assuming that I wanted to do that, you can see that the milestones are given as to where I would be on November 4 (190.69), December 4 (186.08) and January 3, 2008 (183.04), if I continue on my present course. This is like chart and compass for my journey. I like it!

Yesterday was Dotti's birthday, and it took me back in my mind to when I first met her 33 years ago. She turned 18 on that first birthday that we shared together, a young vibrant beauty, who grabbed my heart instantly and has held it firmly and safely ever since. Meeting Dotti was the defining moment in my life, and here we are today, and it still feels like we are just getting started, a couple of newlyweds on life's journey walking hand in hand everywhere we go. Each birthday Dotti has, marks another year together for us, and like the "Turkish Delight" that the White Witch gave to Edmund in Narnia, the more time I have with Dotti, the more I want. It is impossible to get enough of it.

One of the major improvements I made this week was on my lunch choices. I began making some instant potatoes, and supplementing that with a can of vegetables and some protein, usually in the form of legumes. I found that this not only was very filling, but it stayed with me, and I actually was eating fewer total points as well. This helped me remain easily within my points range and to avoid feeling hungry during the day. It helped increase my fiber intake and was healthy food to eat.

Saturday 9/29
Weight: 200.5
Points: 38.5

Dotti and I had just watched the movie Number 23 with Jim Carey as a mentally ill guy whose life is taken over by the number 23. He meets this incredibly beautiful blonde girl who shortly kills herself because she saw the number 23 everywhere, and thought it was taking over her life completely:

When he was attempting to "talk her down" from her destructive intentions, she mentioned in passing that her favorite color was pink and she continued, "What is pink? Red and white! Red is 27 [adding up the position in the alphabet of each letter in the word] and White is 65. Sixty-five and 27 are ninety-two. There are 4 letters in pink. Ninety-two divided by four is 23!"

Soon he too was completely obsessed with finding numerical relationships that added up or divided out to the answer 23. He also would key on 32 as being the equivalent of 23 on occasion because it just had the digits reversed.

It is hard to relate to what he was going through, even with my love of numbers. First off, even if 23 were the basis of everything in the universe, it would simply be a fact and there is no reason not to simply say, "Okay, now we understand that, let's move on to other cool things." The fact that the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter is always PI doesn't mean that we have to worship PI. (I have purchased a book or two on PI however, and I one time memorized it out to 100 places just to see if I could. Alas, I only can rattle off 7 places quickly now, and even with some thought, I can only add a few more.) The relationship that defines PI is simply a fact.

Anyway, even though autumn began on September TWENTY-THREE this year, I only mention this movie because Saturday was day 2332 of my journey and I couldn't help noticing that both 23 and 32 were there.

Okay, moving on from the silly to the hopefully less so, Saturday I was sitting just a tad over my target zone. I was eating below my limit each day and doing well, but it was like there was a membrane between myself and my target range that had to be punctured. However, I was doing well, and not having any difficulty remaining OP. So, it was just a matter of time before the membrane would be torn and I would move back into my target range. I just had to be patient.

One thing I was conscious of was that I had a history of gaining weight on Sundays. This was reinforced by a warning that Weight Commander gave me that day. So, I made a real effort to not overeat on Saturday. It worked!

Sunday 9/30
Weight: 200.5
Points: 33.0

I continued with eating a good lunch on Sunday and I held my points low. I was determined to push down below 200 soon.

Monday 10/01
Weight: 200.5
Points: 33.5

Monday was our first Dreamweaver class at the college. I had a good lunch, but the way the timing went, I didn't get a chance to eat something before we left for school. So, once we arrived at the area and knew for sure where we needed to park, we went looking for some place to grab something quick. It was late enough so a sit-down restaurant was out of the question. All we could find was a Starbucks. I ended up eating a small piece of banana bread and drinking just a bit of coffee. The bread was a whopping 9.0 points, but the coffee was nearly free. So, it totaled 9.5 points, which is pretty close to a normal dinner for me. I didn't do a lot of snacking that day and my total points were held to 33.5.

As for the course itself, Dotti has been using Dreamweaver for years while I have very little experience with it. So, she could do a lot more "loafing along" while I had to pay attention.

After grabbing our Starbucks, as we were pulling into the parking lot, we noticed a guy wearing a yellow vest, and he seemed to be writing down license numbers of cars. I didn't know what was going on for sure, but I walked over and asked him. He was writing tickets for people who hadn't paid for parking. It was news to me, but the college charges $3 a night to park in its parking lot.

He suggested to me that I buy a pass from the Business Office for $24 for "the entire term." That is the night classes discount rate.

Let's see, $3 x 6 classes comes to $18. I guess they don't get many math majors parking there.

We have got to get our next class over on our side of the Columbia River where the drive is easier and parking is free! Unfortunately, they just didn't offer this course here. We will track down something good to take that doesn't include a visit to Portland several nights a week.

I got to thinking about it, and maybe it was one of their math professors that we ran into in the parking lot and this was our first math test.

Once we were inside the building, and we found our assigned classroom, we immediately were told that we had to change classrooms. However, when we got over there, the computers didn't seem to have Dreamweaver installed. Later one of the students rebooted his computer and Dreamweaver magically appeared in the Program Files directory. They had installed Dreamweaver okay, but they left the computers booted up to a partition where it was not visible. When it rebooted it went to the right partition and all was well.

We knew it was going to be a pretty simple course when the teacher asked the class, "Do you know what a jump drive is?"

She found the textbooks after about two hours of class time had passed, but it was worth the wait. They are very good, and I have enjoyed studying mine.

It is tough teaching a class where you have a wide range of experience in the students. Dotti has used Dreamweaver for years and most of the class had never even installed and/or run Dreamweaver at all. For many, the idea of a root directory, or a directory tree was a completely new concept. Many have no knowledge of HTML or CSS. So, the class will move slowly for us I am sure. But that is okay. When we are done we will have a very solid understanding of the basics, either gained from the class itself, or from our study of the textbook. This is definitely going to be worth our time. And with a beautiful lady like Dotti sitting right beside me, it is going to be a fun use of my time as well!

Dotti has been doing really well on her sleep this week, but coming home after the late class has made hitting her scheduled bedtime a bit tougher. Still she has done very well!

Tuesday 10/02
Weight: 201.0
Points: 26.5

Once again, eating well was not rewarded immediately on the scale. I actually went up a half pound on Tuesday. You just have to love it. But since I was eating well, I knew it was only temporary.

Then at lunch, I tried to eat too much! It only came to 10 points, which is not all that crazy, but with instant potatoes and black eyed peas, 10 points can add up to a lot of food! It actually made me ill. It was a lesson well learned. I didn't try to eat that much again this week. On Tuesday, my total points were low because I couldn't eat another bite after lunch. Live and learn...

Wednesday 10/03
Weight: 201.0
Points: 22.5

The scale still wasn't hearing what I was saying. But it was about to give up its fight!

Dotti and I ganged up on the resistance by doing some walking. After her Weight Watchers meeting, Dotti and I had just enough time to get ready and walk to the dentist for our teeth cleaning we had scheduled. After that, we walked to Red Robin for lunch/dinner before our class. I had my normal bowl of chili and some fries for 9.5 points. As always, I really enjoyed it! It was late enough in the afternoon so it took the place of both lunch and dinner, holding my points down to a paltry 22.5.

After our meal we walked home, and the total distance we had walked came to 5.26 miles.

We then drove over to Portland for our class once again.

The Dreamweaver course is basic, and most of what we have covered so far has been pretty simple. Still there have been a number of good tips on how to make thing easier. And the text book is quite good. The time spent studying that has been very valuable for me anyway. (There are 21 chapters in the book and I need to get through chapter 6 by the end of this weekend-I'm working on chapter 4 still.) The HTML and CSS part shouldn't be too much of a challenge, since I have been writing my own code for years in a text editor. But the Dreamweaver interface and all of the cool functions are completely new to me. So, I move back and forth between "Yawn, yes, yes, yes, I know that," to "Wow, I had no idea it would do that!" It has been fun.

Thursday 10/04
Weight: 199.5
Points: 34.0

Thursday I stepped on the scale and said, "Finally!" It dropped a pound and a half and skipped right over 200.0 and landed on 199.5.

I had another great lunch with lima beans, potatoes, and stew. I was filled up and it only cost 8.0 points.

Then in the evening Dotti and I walked to Red Robin again. Dotti loves Red Robin because she can get a really OP meal there that tastes great. Since I discovered the chili, and could avoid getting a burger, I can eat OP there as well; and since we have found a table that is positioned such that the music is fairly low in volume, my last objection to Red Robin has been overcome.

After eating we dropped by Borders Books for a study period and then walked home. A couple of miles of walking with my lady's hand in mine is always a real joy for me!

Friday 10/05
Weight: 198.5
Points: 38.0

Once the scale finally woke up it seemed to be paying attention again, as it dropped another pound on Friday.

I really enjoyed my lunch on Thursday so I did the same on Friday. In the evening Dotti made some lasagna and with the corn, celery, and Laughing Cow cheese, the meal came to 8.0 points. We even had a treat at Costco when we ate a Very Berry Sundae for another 8 points. My total points for the day came to 38.0, and that led to my weigh-in of 198.0 pounds this morning.

Overall I feel I had a really good week and am looking forward to this next week with a lot of optimism.



6 years, 148 days on my journey; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-
6 '3" 239.5/198.0/197.5±2.5/BMI:24.75/WK- 334

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