This morning it was 7:15, the temperature was 35º, and Mr. Scale once again said, “185.0 pounds.” (NS: 181.5 lbs.) I must be doing something right. :)

Dotti was deep into typing in numbers for tax purposes yesterday. She finally finished up for the day, just as I was lying down for bed.

After doing my journal and answering posts on the message board yesterday, it was almost noon. I spent the afternoon doing some research on the Internet, and then broke out my guitar for a while. In the evening I attempted to get my network going on my computer in my study. I think a program that I installed may have done something to it. I am not sure. Anyway, it is still not functioning yet.

For eating yesterday, I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.). For lunch I had two turkey sandwiches (3.0 pt.), an applesauce cup (1.0 pt.), one large pealed cucumber (0.0 pt.), and 2 chocolate meringues (1.0 pt.), giving me 5.0 lunch points. For dinner I had 2 fried egg sandwiches (2.5 pt.), and a bowlful of mixed and stir fried vegetables (0.5 pt.), bringing my dinner points to 3.0. That gave me a total of 13.0 meal points. For snacks I had a cup of decaf (1.0 pt.), 10 Body Smarts Chews (2.0 pt.), 3 cough drops (1.0 pt.), a bag of Jolly Time Healthy Pop popcorn (2.0 pt.), a Kashi bar (5.0 pt.), a cup of hot cocoa (1.0 pt.), and a Mister Cookie Face ice cream sandwich (3.0 pt.). That added up to 17.0 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 30.0.

For water I drank 9 cups, or 72 ounces.

I stepped up on Mr. Scale at 6:45 AM and he said, “186.0 pounds.” (NS: 182.5 lbs.) Both scales agree that I am up a pound today.

Looking back over yesterday, the only thing that seems significantly different was that I drank 24 ounces of water shortly before going to bed, a bit later than usual (after 11:00 PM), and I had one half of a Kashi bar fairly late in the evening to bring my points up to 30.0 for the day. Other than that, my body may have just decided to hold on to some water due to some extra sodium in something I ate, or for some other reason. There is not much data that you can glean from a single day’s weigh-in, and so I will have to wait until tomorrow to see what happens.

My average points per day for the last week is nearly 31 (30.93), which is possibly a point, to a point and a half too high. For today I am going to target 29 or less points, and will base tomorrow’s target on what it takes to average 29.5 points for a while. At 30 points per day, I did not seem to be losing (which is good!) but with the bump up today, 30.0 may just be a bit too high for my long-term daily average. Swapping between 29 and 30 each day may give a better result. Only trial and error practice will tell me for sure.

I spent some time getting my computer in my study back up on the network. I discovered a virus on it, and McAfee cleaned that up. Finally the network came back on line. I transferred some pictures over that Dotti had taken of me at Mom’s house and put one of them up on my success story (the bottom of the second page Click Here). I liked that one because it was taken in the same place, and wearing the same pants that I had worn back in 1990 for a short while when I “dieted” down into the 190s. I quit smoking just a few months after the 1990 picture was taken and my weight skyrocketed, pushing me well out of those pants. Well, I am back, and this time it is to stay!

Yesterday I screwed up the courage to try the whipped peanut butter again. I will watch closely to make sure that I don’t end up in PBAA (Peanut Butter Abusers Anonymous). However, as I was preparing my chocolate rice cakes (yes I had two this time :eek ), I found those yummy sounds coming out of my mouth before I had even eaten any. Just the smell was enough. It’s a scary business. My hands were shaking as I scraped the peanut butter out of the measuring spoons, and spread it over the cakes. I sat down, and enjoyed the rice cakes as if they were a steak dinner with all of the trimmings. They were divine! My name is Al, and I am a peanut butter addict. >8^) On a positive note, it was a bit easier putting the remaining peanut butter and rice cakes away afterwards this time, so maybe there is hope for me after all.

This is the last day of my holiday/vacation period. Tomorrow is technically a holiday, but I am on call, so I may end up working. Today, I am off for sure. I have grown accustomed to a life of leisure the last few days, and it is going to be hard dragging myself back down into the salt mines. :( Well, until then, I am going to enjoy today!

For eating yesterday, I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.). For lunch I had 3 turkey sandwiches (4.5 pt.), and one large pealed cucumber (0.0 pt.), for 4.5 lunch points. For dinner I had a 6” Subway turkey breast sub sandwich (6.0 pt.). That gave me a total of 15.5 meal points. For snacks I had a Mister Cookie Face ice cream sandwich (3.0 pt.), 10 cough drops (3.0 pt.), 2 cups of hot cocoa (2.0 pt.), 2 rice cakes with 4 teaspoonfuls of the forbidden Peter Pan Whipped Peanut Butter (4.0 pt.), and one half of a Kashi bar (2.5 pt.). That added up to 14.5 snack points, and for the third day in a row, brought my total points to 30.0.

For water I drank 12 cups, or 96 ounces.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It was 6:00 AM, and the wind was howling by with sustained winds of 25 miles per hour and gusts to 35, causing the roof to creek and groan, when I stepped up on Mr. Scale, who said, “186.0 pounds.” (NS: 182.0 lbs.) Mr. Scale still says that I am up a pound from 185, but the new scale says that I am only half a pound up from the 181.5 that it reads when I am at 185.0 on Mr. Scale. In other words, Mr. Scale says I held constant this morning, and the other says I dropped half a pound since yesterday.

I think we may be losing some shingles today from the sounds that they are making in the wind. On days like this I am always reminded of a Winnie the Pooh movie I saw 30 years ago at Disneyland, called, if I remember correctly, “A Blustery Day.” There was a scene where Piglet and Pooh were picked up by the breeze, and then both were sent flying towards the Owl’s house in a tree, and he looked up as Piglet hit his window. He said, “Someone’s pasted Piglet to my window.” As he spoke, Pooh hit the window too, surprisingly not breaking it, and with both of the other cartoon characters stuck firmly in place by the wind, the Owl continued, “Pooh too!” Don’t ask me why I remember that but it stuck for some reason or other. :)

Yesterday was Dotti’s Weight Watchers meeting. Since I was off, and the meeting is located right next to a used bookstore, I went along with her. We showed up early and I got to say hi to Dotti’s leader again, and meet some of the members of her group, before I had to leave. They were all very nice and friendly, as Weight Watchers usually are.

I found a number of books at the bookstore, including a large hardcover biography, which all came to less than one good hardcover new book would run.

After her meeting, Dotti and I went to the mall to see if we could pick up the pictures that had to be touched up from our Anniversary sitting. Alas, they had not even been looked at yet. We then dropped by the All American ice cream stand and had some cones. Once again the lowest calorie ice cream was Peanut Butter flavor. That was surprising, because it was Peanut Butter for almost a month just before Christmas, and finally changed over to Angel Food Cake, which only lasted about a week before it changed back. Dotti will not touch peanut butter anything, so she had to settle for another flavor, which added a point to the cone. I, being a member in good standing of PBAA, of course just love Peanut Butter flavored ice cream. So, it was with mixed feelings that I savored and relished my cone, while Dotti suffered with hers. >8)

In the evening, we watched an old movie, “Life With Father” which was made in 1947. Dotti and I had a lot of fun watching it. I hate to think what they would do that movie if they “remade” it today, but fortunately the original is still available.

We laid down about 9:30 PM, and Dotti went right to sleep, but, as I usually do, I did some reading. The book got moving along pretty well, and the next thing I knew, the book was finished it was nearly midnight. I turned on a local channel where they were showing the festivities at the Space Needle in Seattle, and then I woke Dotti up, so we could bring in the New Year together. It was fun seeing the place, where we had had our DWLZ Conference closing dinner, all lit up like a Christmas tree, and at midnight, the fire works went off in a big way. They had firing stations at the base of the Space Needle, and at several positions ascending along the tower. They also had them on the roof of the revolving restaurant up at the top, and all along the observation deck surrounding the outer rim. As the fireworks were shooting up, and out at an angle from the Space Needle, I was reminded of a giant flower stalk standing up out of its surrounding large leaves. The show was coordinated beautifully and it was quite entertaining.

For eating yesterday, I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.). For lunch I had a 6 inch Subway turkey breast sandwich (6.0 pt.), and an All American ice cream cone in a waffle cone at the mall (4.0 pt.). That made 10.0 points for lunch. For dinner I had 3 tomato sandwiches (2.0 pt.). That gave me a total of 17.0 meal points. For snacks I had 20 cough drops (6.0 pt.), a bag of Jolly Time Healthy Pop popcorn (2.0 pt.), and a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich (2.5 pt.). That added up to 10.5 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 27.5.

For water I drank 12 cups, or 96 ounces.

It was 5:40 AM when I stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said, “187.0 pounds.” (NS: 183.0 lbs.) That is up another pound. Today I should be more active, and that will add yet another variable to the mix.

I was trying to make some connection between points and total calories taken in yesterday. First off, I found a link to a Calorie Calculator for Males online. It said that as a man at my age with my height and weight I should be eating at least 2289 calories per day, to increase with additional activity. I next dug out various cans and containers from our shelves and compared the total calories verses total points for each item. Unfortunately, it led to such a variety of results ranging from 40 calories per point to 190 calories per point that I could not make any useful correlation. The number of calories that one eats for any given point range will vary drastically depending upon the amount of fiber and fat in the foods eaten. This may make it impossible to come to a final conclusion on x number of points equaling y number of pounds. By altering the type of food eaten each day, the calorie value of the points can also alternate drastically.

One thing that definitely came out of the research was that I could see the results of the 4-gram fiber limit. It brought the wide swings between foods down considerably (though by no means eliminating them) in the calories per point value for some foods, sometimes cutting a very large value in half.

Today it is back to the daily drive, and I can now finally finish the Scarlet Letter, for the second time. I am reminded of when Dotti and I lived in Massachusetts, and I thought it was interesting that the city of Salem, had totally embraced the witch. Even their police cars had little silhouettes of witches on brooms. They have the “Witch Museum” where you can see tableaus depicting various aspects and scenes of the Salem Witch Trials that led to 19 hangings, and there is even a scene showing the one man who was crushed to death by adding rocks one at a time on his chest. (Beyond the 20 innocent deaths this hysteria caused, there were also 150 people sent to prison. All were later cleared, but to the 20 who had lost their lives I don’t think it mattered much.) The narration is very well done, and is worth the visit if you are ever in that area.

However, this is the part that I find funny; the Salem Witch trials and executions did not happen in what is today known as Salem, Massachusetts at all! There were two Salems at the time: Salem Town; and Salem Village. Salem Town grew up to become Salem, Massachusetts. But the actual location of the infamous trials, has today become a town that lies right next to our old home in Peabody, and it is called Danvers. Danvers has no witches on any of its official materials, or structures. Danvers doesn’t have a tourist trade built around the Witch Trials, nor does it have any display or hint that it is the real home of where it all happened. (The Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers is pretty nice, but the only time you see witches there is during Halloween!)

Also in Salem, we visited the House of Seven Gables, low ceilings and all, and they showed us a desk where Nathaniel Hawthorne used to write. I found the time we spent in both Massachusetts and Virginia, the two places first settled by our English founders, quite inspirational. At the time we visited one house in Virginia, we were told that there was research going on into whether it was the oldest standing building in the United States, or if one in Massachusetts had that honor. (In Jamestown, we also saw wooden ships, built to scale, like those that were sailed in the times of the original settling. Being a Navy man, my first thought was that it took mighty brave souls to tackle the same Atlantic I had crossed on an aircraft carrier a couple of times, in little boats like that!)

Yesterday, I enjoyed a quiet day, reading some interesting books and working on a few items for the web page. Being New Years Day there were not very many things open, so we spent the day at home.

For eating yesterday, I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.). For lunch I had 3 tomato sandwiches (2.0 pt.), and a WW Just 2 Points bar (2.0 pt.). That came to 4.0 points for lunch. For dinner I had 6 pieces of French toast (3.5 pt.). That gave me a total of 15.0 meal points. For snacks I had a cup of decaf (1.0 pt.), 2 chocolate meringues (1.0 pt.), a yogurt (2.0 pt.), laughing cow cheese spread over two pieces of bread (2.5 pt.), 3 Dum Dum suckers (1.0 pt.), a Mr. Cookie Face ice cream sandwich (3.0 pt.), a bag of Jolly Time Healthy Pop popcorn (2.0 pt.), a full bunch of celery (0.0 pt.), and a Kashi bar (5.0 pt.). That added up to 17.0 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 29.5.

For water I drank 12 cups, or 96 ounces.

At 5:45 I stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said, “186.0 pounds.” (NS: 182.0 lbs.) It appears that the extra pound I acquired yesterday has departed for now. Sometimes parting is best. :)

The temperature is 35º and it appears that our skies will be clouded but it will be light on the rain. Tomorrow it looks like we may get some sunshine. Last evening as I was heading for my car after work there was some sun breaking through the clouds, which was a welcome sight.

I was back onsite with my customer yesterday, but they were in the process of starting back up after a shutdown and the product line had not moved along enough to even hit the implanters yet, so there was nothing much going on. They have been started up and tested and are waiting.

The drive home yesterday was absolutely perfect. The traffic flowed all of the way, without my having to come to a full stop even once after hitting the main highways, right up until the stop sign on my off ramp a couple of blocks from home. It only took me very close to 30 minutes for the entire drive. I sure wish everyday could be like that!

I finished the Scarlet Letter just as I was getting on the road, and started up Candide by Voltaire. He had a biting wit and I have listened to this book a couple of times before.

As the evening was wearing on yesterday, I made a one point miscalculation in my journal and ended up eating one point more than I thought. I fixed a chocolate rice cake and peanut butter snack, and as I was eating it, I was double-checking my numbers. I thought that was going to bring me to 29.5, but I found that it was going to put me at 30.5. Well, that was still a half point below the range that I set for myself, and so I enjoyed the snack. :) With a bit of luck today I will be able to hold my points down to 29.0.

With all of the playing with the numbers that I have gone through the last few days, I think that it is going to leave me uncertain in the end. So, while I will still have a column in my spread sheet that will show me the projected points that I should eat for any given day, I am going to stop going through the calculations here on a daily basis. It is seems to be taking up space and time, but yielding little worthwhile results. What is yielding results is focusing on what my weight is, and using 30.0 or 29.0 points as my target, depending on what Mr. Scale says. If he shows me above 185.0 pounds, I shoot for 29.0 points or lower. If below, I shoot for 30.0, or slightly above. In electronics it is called a closed loop control system, where the control increases or decreases according to the readback of actual performance. (E.g. a control circuit for an electrical motor, monitors the motor rpm or position using an encoder or a resolver, and then increases or decrease applied current in order to maintain the desired value.) I have been more or less following that process the past few days and it appears to be working fairly well.

For eating yesterday, I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.) and Standard Lunch (7.0 pt.). For dinner I had one piece of corn on the cob (1.0 pt.), and some instant potatoes (3.0). That added up to 4.0 dinner points, and brought my meal points to 16.0. For snacks I had 10 cough drops (3.0 pt.), 2 oranges (2.0 pt.), a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich (2.5 pt.), a bunch of celery and 2 cups of fresh broccoli (0.0 pt.), a Kashi bar (2.0 pt.), and a whipped peanut butter and rice cake (2.0 pt.). That added up to 14.5 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 30.5.

For water I drank 14 cups, or 112 ounces.

Average points per day for the last:
   7 days – 30.00
  14 days – 29.61

Weight change during last:
   7 days – +2.5
  14 days – -1.5 pounds.

Off to face Thursday.

236 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/185.0/200/BMI:23.1/WK-33
Weight Loss Graph/Maintenance Graph/Success Story

Outside it was 35º at 5:40 when I stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said, “187.5 pounds.” (NS: 184.0 lbs.) That is why I have targeted 185 as the weight that I want to be close to. From day to day body weight can jump around a couple of pounds. When I am at the bottom of my goal weight range, jumping up 2.5 pounds leaves me right in the middle of the range.

My hands are a bit swollen this morning, as they usually are after I spend some time turning wrenches after a long time away from doing that. In the afternoon, one of our customers across town had some difficulties and called my office for some assistance. Since things were slow at my regular site, they sent me over to take care of the problem. It turned out to be some grounding brushes on a spindle. After taking things apart enough to change them out, and then reassembling, I was on my way in about 3.5 hours.

The weather yesterday turned very nice in the afternoon, with blue skies and sunshine. Since I had to do some driving during the day it made for a pleasant time on the road. The drive home was very nice because I was starting from the east side of town, much closer to home, and still with a much lighter traffic pattern. This week many of the schools are still out, and that probably has a little something to do with the light traffic all over town, and there are probably many who chose this week to take a few days of vacation to add to the New Year holiday.

With the extra driving I did yesterday, I am well on the way towards finishing my audio book of Candide. I am not sure which book I will be listening to next. It is about time to hit Books on Tape for something new.

I spent the evening yesterday writing, and before I knew it the entire evening was gone. There are few things that I can do that seem to make the time disappear quickly as when I get deep into writing an article or story. (Dotti spent much of the evening sleeping on the couch, because she was very tired, but she was up early this morning.)

For eating yesterday, I had my [link=www.dwlz.com/Al/Journey/standardmeals.html#break]Standard Breakfast[/link] (5.0 pt.) and my [link=www.dwlz.com/Al/Journey/standardmeals.html#lunch]Standard Lunch[/link] (7.0 pt.). For dinner I had two packets of instant Cream of Wheat (4.0 pt.), 2 fried egg sandwiches (2.5 pt.), and an orange (1.0). That added up to 7.5 dinner points, and brought my meal points to 19.5. For snacks I had 13 cough drops (3.0 pt.), 5 Body Smarts Chews (1.0 pt.), a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich (2.5 pt.), a bunch of celery and 2 cups of fresh broccoli, a red bell pepper (0.0 pt.), and one half of a Kashi bar (2.5 pt.) That added up to 10.0 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 29.5.

For water I drank 10 cups, or 80 ounces.

Average points per day for the last:
   7 days - 29.57
  14 days - 29.71

Weight change during last:
   7 days - +2.5
  14 days - -0.0 pounds.

It's F R I D A Y ! ! !

237 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/185.0/200/BMI:23.1/WK-33
Weight Loss Graph/Maintenance Graph/Success Story

*** Weigh-in for WEEK 34 ***

Week Completed:	___34___
Weigh-In Weight:	185.0
Body Mass Index:	23.1
Aerobic Points for week:	0.0
Week’s Average Points/Day:	29.21
Pounds +/- for this week:	0.0
Pounds lost total:	54.5
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.

___________________________

The temperature was up to 41º at 7:10 AM when I stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said, “185.0 pounds.” (NS: 181.5 lbs.) Right on target!

Over the last two weeks things have settled down quite a bit on my weight and points. For the last 14 days my weight has averaged about 186 pounds, and my average points per day have averaged just under 29.5. I think I have found my eating level for my sedentary lifestyle. Now, if I can get my exercise on track, I will see what an active lifestyle will demand by way of points to maintain at about 185.

After a quiet day at work, and an easy drive home, Dotti and I wasted an hour waiting for the AT&T cable guy to show up to look at the television side of the cable signal. There was a mix up a while back where the apartment complex had stopped paying for cable access for most of the tenants, but we signed our lease early with the guarantee of continued cable. They disconnected us anyway. Fortunately Dotti was at home when they did and she got them to hook it back up. But as is so typical today, the guy was incapable of doing it right, and the signal has been inferior to what it was, before they messed with it, ever since. Since I don’t watch it, and our Internet connection was still good, it hasn’t affected me personally. However, Dotti has been very unhappy about the whole thing (which does affect me personally). So, Dotti arranged for an appointment to have AT&T repair the damage that they did before. The time she was given for the appointment was from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. We waited around until after 6:30 PM, starving and finally gave up and headed for Subway. We then went to the mall to finally pick up our last batch of pictures from our anniversary shoot. (I will scan the pose later and put it up.)

We went to the All American Ice Cream booth in the mall but the guy who was working there had wandered off. There were two girls sitting on a bench beside the stand, who said that they had been sitting there for 10 or 15 minutes and they hadn’t seen him. We stood and waited another 10 minutes and decided to head into a store while we were waiting. When we came back out, the guy had finally showed up but he acted like customers were getting in his way of having an easy shift. That is the first time that we have run into that sort of service at that location, and my guess is that he will not be with the company long. :) They were out of the flavor Dotti wanted, and the main flavor was Peanut Butter again. After she got my cone, she decided she was not in the mood for a cone any longer and didn’t order another flavor. Since she doesn’t like peanut butter, I couldn’t even offer her a lick off my cone. :(

When we got home I got on my study computer and dug into a stack of old email that I have been ignoring for a while. I had hardly made a dent in it when I saw it was after 10:00 PM. I lay down to read, and the story got to moving so well that it kept me going until after midnight. I finally got to sleep before 1:00 AM.

For eating yesterday, I had my [link=www.dwlz.com/Al/Journey/standardmeals.html#break]Standard Breakfast[/link] (5.0 pt.) and my [link=www.dwlz.com/Al/Journey/standardmeals.html#lunch]Standard Lunch[/link] (7.0 pt.). For dinner I had a 6” turkey breast Subway sandwich (6.0). That brought my meal points to 18.0. For snacks I had 6 cough drops (2.0 pt.), 5 Body Smarts Chews (1.0 pt.), 2 oranges (2.0 pt.), an All American Ice Cream cone (2.0 pt.), a bunch of celery and a red bell pepper (0.0 pt.), and one half of a Kashi bar (2.5 pt.) That added up to 9.5 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 27.5.

For water I drank 9 cups, or 72 ounces.

Average points per day for the last:
   7 days - 29.21
  14 days - 29.46

Weight change during last:
   7 days - +0.0
  14 days - -2.5 pounds.

238 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/185.0/200/BMI:23.1/WK-34
Weight Loss Graph/Maintenance Graph/Success Story