Week 335 Update

At 05:49 I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, "197.5 pounds!" I think he was wondering whether or not I had found a stand in to weigh for me, because I was 211 a while back.

It is something really when you think about it. I am down 13.5 pounds from my weigh-in on March 24, and I have been in the maintenance phase the entire time. What was I thinking in March to let myself get that far up on the scale? It just goes to show that we are never done with this journey.

I am still really enjoying the Weight Commander and am eager to put my daily weigh-in into the program on most days. Of course when I am up it is not quite as much fun, but even then the Weight Commander mitigates the bump in the road by averaging it in with the previous weigh ins. This week I had three days where I weighed more than the running average line, and four where I was below. And the average continued to drop as a result. Four steps forward and 3 back, add up to a full step forward!

Also, my trend is still downward and the prediction graph shows me on a downward path for the future. I think more than anything else about the program, this one feature has been a big motivation for me. When I started using Weight Commander I was not focused like I should have been. And the prediction showed me heading back up to 210 again. Like a slap in the face that woke me right up. Suddenly, I started paying attention much closer. Soon the prediction graph did a turn around and started to point down instead of up. Once again that was and is motivational.

Time is passing by so quickly. I went past my 6th anniversary of hitting my goal weight on September 22nd, without notice. An even bigger anniversary is coming up and it is a little frightening in a way. In November, we will come upon the 10th anniversary of what set all of this in motion. In November of 1997, Dotti made a mental decision, after clearing out her closet of all her skinny clothes, to make a new start at losing her excess 100 pounds. That decision set her feet upon a course that caused her to reach out and touch thousands of people, and make their lives better to one degree or another.

When reading Dotti's story, my mind flashes back to that time. I remember her being in tears over her weight, and how much she wanted to get back to a normal weight. But she had been completely helpless to do anything about it. How could she ever find her way down to where she wanted to be? Ten years ago from right now, I had no real expectation of Dotti ever being thin again. I hated seeing her unhappiness, but what could I do?

There was nothing that I could do, except to be supportive, but Dotti found out what she could do. With all that we have been through during the last 10 years, at no point has Dotti ever been as without hope as she was in October of 1997. She crossed her Rubicon, and has not looked back. Even when she quit smoking and it took her feet out from under her, she still knew that there was a way to get back to goal, and she knew that one day she would be there again.

She struggled against things temporarily too big for her to control, but she never quit, and she knew that this situation was temporary. She is stronger today than she was a year ago, and I believe that she will be stronger a year from now than she is today. I honestly believe that 2008 will be even more impressive than 1998 was in the continuing story of Dotti's Journey. She is an incredible woman and there is no one that I admire more than I do her.

Dotti's Weight Loss Zone was born in September of 1998, but it was conceived in November of 1997, though no one knew it at the time. It is amazing the way one event can affect so many others; one choice can set the winds of Fate into a new pattern that could never be predicted beforehand.

Bravo Dotti! I am so proud of you and all that you have done, not only in helping yourself, but then reaching out to help others. And you have only just begun!

Moving fast forward, and bringing the focus forward to this past week, it has been a busy one for me. There has been very little free time for non-computer related activities but I have learned a lot the past 7 days. Dreamweaver is a lot closer to being my friend today than it was a week ago. Things are starting to make more sense, and even my knowledge of how CSS works has been increased this week. Attending class with Dotti has been fun too!

Dotti has been getting to the gym more and so we have done a bit less walking, but we did get a couple of walks in this week. I have to make sure that I get some walking in each week because it is the best protection I have against serious back pain. If I don't walk or exercise at all, I have a lot more trouble than if I do walk. So, I will have to take that as a personal challenge to make sure that I get more walking in this week.

My eating has been well under control this week; I averaged eating only 30.93 points-per-day.

Saturday 10/06
Weight: 198.0
Points: 35.0

Dotti cooked up some lasagna for dinner. It was one of those dishes that is not way high in points, but that seems to stay with you the next morning when you weigh. It didn't hit me on Sunday, but on Monday things bounced up on the scale, even though I ate fewer than 40 points on both days of the weekend.

Sunday 10/07
Weight: 198.5
Points: 39.5

I have really enjoyed having good healthy lunches to eat lately. Sunday I had instant potatoes, lima beans, and "Beanie Weenies", and 9.0 points later I was full and satisfied.

These larger and healthier lunches have helped to keep me from munching on snacks as much, and even lower my need for more food at dinner.

Monday 10/08
Weight: 200.0
Points: 42.0

Monday was our Dreamweaver class in the evening and Dotti's gym with water aerobics in the morning. That sometimes throws my eating off a bit, and I had a few more points than usual on Monday, despite the fact that I was up on the scale to 200.0.

I spent the morning doing my homework and was almost sorry that I did in class, because we covered only part of the same material in the evening. So, it was really easy keeping up. Seriously, I am glad that I got to cover the material twice because it really helped to set it more firmly in place in my mind. I am working with Dreamweaver 8 at home for my homework and Dreamweaver CS3 at school, and the differences are fortunately not all that great. Some terminology ("layers" vs. AP Divs for example) and a feature or two (like exporting CSS information from an HTML page to a separate document automatically, rather than manually having to do a cut and paste) that CS3 has that DW-8 doesn't. It has been very minor making the adjustment as I move back and forth between them.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are very powerful tools for web design, and I have been using them for some time on my own, but this course has taught me a number of things I didn't know before about CSS. Learning is always fun, but in this area it should make my life a lot easier in the future, once I implement the things I have been learning. (And of course the more you learn the more you learn that you need to learn.)

It is fun taking the class with Dotti too! Getting ready to go, the drive over to class, working through tasks in class side by side where we can share notes and so on (it's okay, we're not cheating; there are no tests in this class because it is not for credit, only for knowledge), and then the drive home where we can discuss what we have learned has been a really enjoyable experience for us. I really want to do this again soon! (But if at all possible we want to be north of the Columbia next time.)

Tuesday 10/09
Weight: 198.5
Points: 25.0

My weight bounced around a bit this week. (If you look at the Weight Commander graph above, or my weights listed in the table at the top, you'll see what I mean.) Part of it was the lasagna, and part was ibuprofen, and part was the whim of the gods it appeared.

What it was not, was my overeating. Beginning on Tuesday, I shifted my lunch later in the afternoon. That allowed me to have a large (high volume low calorie) lunch and not even want a dinner in the evening. I don't know how someone else might view it, but for me, having a large helping of potatoes, vegetarian baked beans, mixed vegetables, and some milk makes for a good meal. My points for the day sagged as a result to 25.0. And I never went out of the 20's for points the rest of the week.

Wednesday 10/10
Weight: 200.5
Points: 29.0

Jumping up 2.0 pounds wasn't too surprising. I had to take more than a little ibuprofen on Tuesday, and a two-pound jump was not entirely unexpected. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled on Wednesday and things were pretty much the same, with no shockers. My blood pressure was 117/78 which is pretty standard for me. (The only time that I have had a high reading for BP at the doctor's office, I went home and used my own BP cuff to check it and it was 115/80 just like it always was. I think the nurse just had a bad day that time.)

The doc's appointment was in the late afternoon, so Dotti and I walked over to Red Robin (2.2 miles round trip) before that, after she finished with her Weight Watchers meeting and a few errands that she had to run. It was a late lunch, and so I didn't eat another meal, although Dotti brought along a few things to snack on before our Dreamweaver class.

It worked out pretty well, because our doctor has his office not terribly far from where our class is. So, going to the doctor was almost on the way. It was early enough when the appointment was over to allow us a visit to Borders bookstore, which was fairly nearby. I really like the way Borders lets you feel at home in their stores. You have comfortable overstuffed chairs to sit and read while enjoying coffee from their coffee shop. You can browse books you haven't purchased yet to see if you want to buy them, or you can bring your own books in and read them, or purchase something to read first and then take it back and read that. I like it even better than Starbucks, with all of those books available.

Dreamweaver class was once again interesting and doing my homework made it easy once more. But the advantage of that is that I can both refresh what I have already learned, and explore areas that I would not have had time for if I was bogged down learning new material. I think that the money we invested in the course was very well spent.

Thursday 10/11
Weight: 200.5
Points: 24.0

Once again I worked my lunch into the later afternoon and was very comfortable with eating only 24.0 points for the day. The scale was still stuck in the 200s but that was not worrying me with the way I was eating.

Friday 10/12
Weight: 198.5
Points: 22.0

The scale did a correction finally and dropped back down into the 190s where it belongs. Once again Dotti and I walked to Red Robin for lunch/dinner. I had some chili and fries for 9.5 points. The chili was hotter than usual and my stomach objected just a bit later on, but it sure tasted good when I was eating it. Along with the 2.2 miles of walking, I only ate 22.0 points for the day, and that led to my weigh-in this morning of 197.5, right at my target weight.

Another week is completed, and I am off to start a new week.



6 years, 155 days on my journey; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-
6 '3" 239.5/197.5/197.5±2.5/BMI:24.69/WK- 335

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