It was 42º at 6:00 AM when I stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said, “186.0 pounds.” (NS: 182.0 lbs.) It is certainly a pleasure to step on the scale these days. :)

When I finished my journal entry yesterday, it was time for the Zonie Walk. So, Dotti and I headed over to the track near our home. Dotti got on her rain slicker, and I broke out an umbrella, and we proceeded to walk around the track three times for a mile. It took us just over 16 minutes and was a very pleasant walk, dodging water puddles in the path, and sharing each other’s company.

I spent yesterday in my study, catching up on old email, and doing some reading. I also listened to some old Real Audio Internet lectures while playing some games of Snood. Before long it was once again time for bed. After crawling into bed, I read until late again, because the book was good, it was the weekend, and because I could. :)

For eating yesterday... for breakfast, I had a cup of coffee (1.0 pt.), 3 fried egg sandwiches (3.5 pt.), a V8 Juice (0.5 pt.), and an orange WW Smoothie Shake (2.0 pt.). For lunch I had 3 tomato sandwiches (2.0 pt.) and a Shasta diet cream soda (0.0 pt.). For dinner I had one half of a Heaven’s Bistro pizza (4.5 pt.), and a corn on the cob (1.0 pt.). That brought my meal points to 14.5. For snacks I had, a Body Smarts peanut butter bar right before our walk (2.0 pt.), one half of a crustless pumpkin pie (2.0 pt.), 2 oranges (2.0 pt.), a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich (2.5 pt.), a cup of fresh broccoli (0.0 pt.), 10 Body Smarts Chews (2.0 pt.),7 cough drops (2.0 pt.), and one half of a Kashi bar (2.5 pt.) That added up to 15.0 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 27.5.

For water I drank 9 cups, or 72 ounces.

For exercise I walked one mile in 16:15 minutes for 1.69 Aerobic Points.

For water I drank 9 cups, or 72 ounces.

Average points per day for the last:
   7 days - 29.14
  14 days - 29.89

Weight change during last:
   7 days - +1.0
  14 days - -1.5 pounds.

239 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

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

It was 60º at 6:00 AM when I stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said, “188.0 pounds.” (NS: 184.5 lbs.) Wow, that was a quick jump up. It is probably from too much sedentary living, and slowing down my digestive track. I know I didn’t suddenly put on two pounds of fat, since I am eating in my points range. And the nice thing about being where I am, a two pound jump upwards, only puts me at about midrange in my target weigh range. :)

It was another physically quiet day yesterday. We couldn’t leave the area, because I was on call all weekend, and both Dotti and I got involved in computer projects, which took up most of the day. Towards the end of the day we watched the movie [I]Star Wars[/I], during which I had some popcorn with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spray and some Splenda sprinkled over the top. (That coupled with the sauerkraut for dinner probably helped me retain some water this morning.)

It is the start of a new workweek, and as always, I wonder what lies in store. For the last few weeks, things have been really quiet, thanks to the fact that the entire semiconductor industry is in a slowdown at the moment, and so not as many chips are being created as were being created before. We are all hopeful that the situation will turn around soon. Electronics is just too big a part of American life for it to just dry up permanently, and at the chip production level, it has always been a cyclical industry. Just before the current downturn hit, many of the chip fabrication plants had expansion plans in the works. They nearly all put those plans on hold until things pick up.

For eating yesterday I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.). For lunch I ate 2 turkey sandwiches (3.0 pt.). For dinner I had 2 turkey hot dogs (2.0 pt.), one half cup sauerkraut with mustard (0.0 pt.), and instant potatoes (3.0 pt.). That added up to 13.0 meal points. For snacks I had, 2 oranges (2.0 pt.), a Kashi bar (5.0 pt.), 13 cough drops (4.0 pt.), a bag of Jolly Time Healthy Pop popcorn (2.0 pt.), a cup of hot chocolate (1.0 pt.), and a Skinny Cow (2.5 pt.). That added up to 16.5 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 29.5.

For water I drank 15 cups, or 120 ounces.

Average points per day for the last:
   7 days - 29.07
  14 days - 30.00

Weight change during last:
   7 days - +2.0
  14 days - +1.0 pounds.

Off to face another Monday.

240 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

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

At 6:20 AM, it was 51º as I stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said, “187.0 pounds.” (NS: 183.0 lbs.) That puts me back down a pound from yesterday. I feel a bit like a cork floating on water: up and down, up and down. However the overall (average) “water level” is at a level that I am very happy with. :)

I think that I am very close to where I want to be for points, between 29 and 30. By remaining there, I am pretty much staying in the bottom half of my goal weight range. I will continue to monitor the results, and fine tune as required but I feel fairly confident that I am just about there.

Yesterday started out much warmer than normal for January at 60º when I woke up, but by lunchtime it had dropped to nearly 50º, and was raining fairly heavily. By 5:00 PM, when I headed home, it was raining very hard. So, I decided to stay with the freeway, rather than going the back forest road, where water sometimes gets to running across the pavement during hard rains. As it turned out, it was a good choice. Everything moved along fairly well, and I was in Washington in about 40 minutes with visions of getting home early. Then, just as the rain started falling in heavy sheets, the highway traffic came nearly to a halt because of an accident up ahead. So, instead of being home in 45 minutes, it took nearly an hour, but had I taken the back way, it would have been well over an hour at best.

Yesterday at work I was asked by my customer to modify a printed circuit board on an implanter, as soon as I walked in the door. So, in a few minutes I was in my clean room suit and busy pulling the board out of the machine and heating up my soldiering iron. It was nice having something constructive to do for a change. Between that task, and dealing with some additional problems with the machine, other than an hour or so around lunch time when I got online, the entire day was dedicated to working on that machine, and the day seemed to be gone in no time. It was a nice change of pace.

Since I finished my audio book Candide, I decided to listen to a music tape for today on my drive to and from work. The tape is all instrumental (I think it was mostly done by 101 Strings), and included selections from My Fair Lady, and a number of Stephen Foster tunes. It was quite relaxing!

In the evening I answered some email, and played two games of Snood. I then did some research related surfing on the Internet, and suddenly it was time for bed, and more reading in the last book of the Lensmen series of E. E. “Doc” Smith. Every time I read that series of books, when I get into the final book, I can’t lay it down. :)

For eating yesterday I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.) and Standard Lunch (7.0 pt.). For dinner I had 8 pieced of French toast (4.0 pt.). That gave me a total of 16.0 meal points. For snacks I had, 13 cough drops (4.0 pt.), a cucumber, a red bell pepper, romaine lettuce heart, and a bunch of celery -- all on the drive home (0.0 pt.), a cup of hot chocolate (1.0 pt.), a Kashi bar (5.0 pt.), and a Skinny Cow (2.5 pt.). That added up to 12.5 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 28.5.

For water I drank 10 cups, or 80 ounces.

Average points per day for the last:
   7 days - 29.50
  14 days - 30.14

Weight change during last:
   7 days - +1.0
  14 days - +2.5 pounds.

241 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

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

At 5:30 AM, it was 43º as I stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said, “186.0 pounds.” (NS: 183.0 lbs.) That is one pound above the bottom of my desired goal range.

At work I had to go into the clean room once for a short while, but it was otherwise a quiet day at work. I spent a little time reading from a CD I have of “Classic Books.” I decided to tackle a book on the CD that I had never read before, but that I should have read a long time ago: Robinson Caruso. Reading on a computer screen is a bit slower than reading from a real book (about 30% slower studies have shown), but you can still make progress. There are 320 pages or so in the book, and I made it to page 48. There were naturally a lot of distractions going on around, and it was hard to stay with it for any length of contiguous time, but I made some progress. I was surprised to see that the book was written in the early 1700s, about 1719 I believe. It is set in the mid 1600s, about the same era as The Scarlet Letter was. Reading, as I can catch a free moment here and there, it will probably take a long time to finish the book, but it is something that I can work on as opportunity presents itself.

At lunch, in my van, I read some more from an old Arthur C. Clarke novel that I have been working on. I got through a couple of chapters before it was time to go back inside.

On the drive home yesterday, there were huge areas of blue sky showing where the clouds had opened up, and the sun was brightly shining through. The roads were dry and since the long freeway onramp was backed up with a “metering light” I didn’t even consider going that way. Instead I took the back way home, and it moved along very well. I got home in less than an hour.

When I got home, Dotti and I headed off to Subway for dinner. We then stopped by the mall to pick up one last picture from the people who have done little right in producing happy customers from Dotti and I. We finally have all the pictures that we had taken and that were paid for before Christmas, and it took until the 8th of January to finally get all our pictures to us. Something tells me that we will not be using them again real soon. We also had an ice cream cone at All American Ice Cream.

When we got home, I spent the remainder of the evening answering email. It was surprising how quickly that it got to be after 10:00 PM. When I lay down to read for a few minutes, I ended up finishing the book I was on, even though it kept me up close to midnight. I am glad that I finished that one. Now I can get back to reading just a few pages each night and dropping off to sleep at a reasonable hour.

For eating yesterday I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.) and Standard Lunch (7.0 pt.). For dinner I had a 6” turkey breast sandwich at Subway (6.0 pt.). That gave me a total of 18.0 meal points. For snacks I had, 22 cough drops (6.5 pt.), a cucumber, a red bell pepper, and a bunch of celery -- on the drive home (0.0 pt.), an All American Ice Cream cone (2.0 pt.), and a Skinny Cow (2.5 pt.). That added up to 11.0 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 29.0.

For water I drank 9 cups, or 72 ounces.

Average points per day for the last:
   7 days - 29.43
  14 days - 29.96

Weight change during last:
   7 days - -1.0
  14 days - +1.5 pounds.

242 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

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

It was 5:00 AM, and 38º outside, as I stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said, “187.0 pounds.” (NS: 183.0 lbs.) It is funny on some days how the one scale shows a change when the other doesn’t. In any case, I am in the lower half of my target weight range and that is good thing. :)

In reading Robinson Caruso, I have been noticing that he spends a great deal of time beating himself up for not following his father’s advice and taking the safe road, remaining at home where he had it pretty good, but rather headed off to sea in search of his adventure. After being captured and spending some time as a slave, and then later after escaping, being shipwrecked by himself, he had good reason to have that point of view. I am only a bit less than a fourth of the way through the book, but it has been entertaining so far.

The drive home from work was not too bad yesterday, even though I took the freeway. As I head for home, I always have to make the choice as to which way I am going to go. Towards the end of the week, I tend to take the back way, because traffic is heavier on the freeways as it approaches Friday for whatever reason. On Wednesday traffic can go either way, depending on how early I can get on the road. The roads were dry yesterday, but still there were accidents. I saw a one on the westbound lanes as I was heading east, where the traffic was down to a single lane, and behind the bottleneck traffic was backed up for miles.

I was reading on the Internet that Portland has the 10th worst commute of any America city. (Considering its size that is a real shame.) I have seen what it is like in the Bay Area of California, and all of those cities have a worse commute. Los Angeles has become a nightmare for commuting. I did not see the list of other cities but I know that Portland can be pretty bad sometimes.

Of course there was some happy news in that same article: it said that people in Portland watch less television than all other US cities except one. I think there are few choices that people can make that are more positive than that.

I spent some hours answering email last night, and before I knew it my eyes were drooping. And once I hit my bed, and did just a very little bit of reading, I laid the book down and turned out the light, going right to sleep.

Since I finished my “night stand book” the day before yesterday, which was the last of the Lensmen series of books, I started a new book last night. It is the original novel that the first Planet of the Apes movie was loosely based upon. (I have not seen the newer Planet of the Apes movie and have no idea what it is based on.) I was impressed to find that the author, Pierre Boulle, was also the author of “Bridge over the River Kwai.” So, I expect this book to be at least entertaining. However, since I was very tired from being up too late the previous two nights reading, I just barely got started with it before I was ready for sleep. I was only on page 16. (And the publishers of the book did some padding on this one too. The spacing is nearly double, and the text is fairly large. All the chapter breaks take up at least half a page, and often a full page or more of blank space. The section breaks take three blank pages. So, even though there are 268 pages in the book, it is a much smaller novel than that. The $6.99 price tag is steep in my opinion for the amount of text, which they spread out to look like more. It is yet another reason why I frequent used bookstores so often. (I unfortunately remember paying 45¢ for a double novel, and a time when the thickest, wordiest novels were just about a dollar -- like Valley of the Dolls.)

Part of the problem, beyond the expectation of higher profits by a publisher, is that the consumer is inclined to pay more money for a fancier package. If there is a fancy cover with a steamy, suggestive picture on the front, the book is far more likely to sell, even with a higher price tag. The consumer, who supposedly purchases the book for the content, often ends up with a poorly written book with a fancy cover that cost at least twice as much as it would have if it had a plain cover.

It was back in high school when I found out that for a box of Corn Flakes, the packaging was three quarters of the price. At the time the idea floored me. Now it is commonplace to see. Software that could fit into a package the size of a Christmas card, at only a cost of a few pennies to the manufacturer, comes in a package that is the size of a cereal box, loaded with full color art, and a cover that opens up like a book, etc. and costs a great deal to produce. Often this packaging ends up in the trash right beside the Corn Flakes box, and has provided little of consequence to its purchaser. However, the expensive trick works, making large profits for the manufacturers... and so it continues.

My eating has pretty well settled in to a pattern, and I don’t vary it a great deal. I still get a feeling of accomplishment each day seeing that my points are under my limit and I have drunk all the water that I need to. The days OP are accumulating to the point where I am now over two-thirds of a year on my journey. For that time I have averaged eating 26.4 points, about 3 points below where I am eating right now. The nice thing is that I am not worried about getting enough to eat to keep myself satisfied, while remaining confident that I will be continuing in my desired weight range. It does take a certain investment of time each day writing things down, however it is a small price to pay to remain in the 180s!

Here it is Thursday already. The week is over half gone, and the weekend is coming fast.

For eating yesterday I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.) and my Standard Lunch (7.0 pt.). For dinner I had mixed vegetables (1.5 pt.) over half a cup (uncooked) of Minute Rice (3.0 pt.), with mushrooms over the top ( 0.0 pt.), followed by half of a crustless pumpkin pie (2.0 pt.). That gave me a total of 18.5 meal points. For snacks I had, 9 cough drops (3.0 pt.), a cucumber, a red bell pepper, romaine lettuce, and a bunch of celery -- on the drive home (0.0 pt.), a cup of hot chocolate (1.0 pt.), a Mr. Cookie Face ice cream sandwich (3.0 pt.), and a WW Just 2 Points bar (2.0 pt.). That added up to 11.0 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 29.5.

For water yesterday, I drank 14 cups, or 112 ounces.

Average points per day for the last:
   7 days - 29.29
  14 days - 29.64

Weight change during last:
   7 days - +1.0
  14 days - +3.5 pounds.

243 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

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

A follow up on the traffic...

Researchers at Texas A&M University's Texas Transportation Institute studied traffic congestion in America's 68 largest cities. The top 13 are:

1. Los Angeles
2. San Francisco
3. Washington
4. Chicago
5. Seattle
6. Boston
7. Atlanta
8. San Diego
9-10. (tie) Portland, Ore.
9-10. (tie) San Bernardino, Calif.
11. Miami
12. Phoenix
13. (tie) Detroit

From http://www.freep.com/news/metro/study8_20010508.htm

It was 5:30 AM, and 43º outside, as I stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said, “189.0 pounds.” (NS: 185.0 lbs.) I think that I am still holding on to some of the water that I drank last night.

When I got home from work yesterday, I found myself feeling hungry, even after dinner. So, I started drinking water, which helped a lot. I find that water is very effective in killing hunger urges. When I am hungry and I rapidly drink 24 ounces of water, it really does the trick. If hunger starts to creep up on me again, I drink another 24 ounces. It sure worked last night. I only wish that I could do that when I am driving. Unfortunately, it would generate problems that I would not be able to easily deal with, so I fear that will not happen.

The downside of drinking all of that water is that it definitely interrupts my sleeping pattern; getting me up and down all night long. This morning I still have not finished unloading all the excess water. But even so, it is a lot easier to unload the excess water than the excess fat, that I would have been creating if I had eaten instead. :)

I am over a third of the way done with Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Caruso, and so far I can definitely see what all the fuss was about. It has so far been an excellent story, both entertaining and thought provoking. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started the book, but it has more than met my expectations to this point. It is hard to believe that it was written 13 years before George Washington was born. The language is obviously archaic, but it adds a certain flavor to it that I like.

The weekend is nearly here! It will be nice to be able to avoid the drive into work for a couple of days.

For eating yesterday I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.) and my Standard Lunch (7.0 pt.). For dinner I had Cream o’ Wheat with some skim milk (4.5 pt.), and 4 pieces of toast (1.0 pt.); adding up 5.5 dinner points, and giving me a total of 17.5 meal points. For snacks I had, 22 cough drops (3.0 pt.), a cucumber, a red bell pepper, and a bunch of celery -- on the drive home (0.0 pt.), a cup of hot chocolate (1.0 pt.), and a Mr. Cookie Face ice cream sandwich (3.0 pt.) That added up to 10.5 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 28.0.

For water yesterday, I drank 20 cups, or 160 ounces.

Average points per day for the last:
   7 days - 29.07
  14 days - 29.32

Weight change during last:
   7 days - +1.5
  14 days - +4.0 pounds.

244 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

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

*** Weigh-in for WEEK 35 ***

Week Completed:	___35___
Weigh-In Weight:	185.0
Body Mass Index:	23.1
Aerobic Points for week:	1.69
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.

___________________________

It was 5:30 AM, and 46º outside, as I stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said, “185.0 pounds.” (NS: 181.5 lbs.) It is funny what a bit of water will do, either holding on to it or getting rid of it. I stepped on the scale last night and I weighed 188.0 pounds, which was one pound less than I had weighed in the morning. I knew that my weigh-in this morning was going to be just fine right then, because I had consumed plenty of water yesterday and not eaten anything salty or that would otherwise cause water retention or that would stay with me itself.

This week has been interesting, as my weight went through the following steps. Starting on Sunday, after my 185.0 Saturday weigh-in last week, it went 185.0, 186.0, 186.0, 187.0, 186.0, 187.5, 189.0, and back to 185.0 this morning. During the same period of time, I averaged eating less than 29 points per day. It is rather strange how the human body can go from holding several pounds of water one day, to dropping it the next. But that is okay, as long I remember that is what is going on, and therefore never panic at weight changes. As long as I am eating within my points, I am doing fine. When I saw 189 on the scale yesterday I was scratching my head just a bit, because I could not identify what I had eaten to cause the water retention. However, I was not at all concerned about gaining fat, because I knew I was eating in my safe range all week. It is really quite comforting to KNOW that you are safe in what you are doing, and there is no way that you are putting on fat, even if the scale goes up.

Also, by targeting the bottom of my goal weight range, I have myself in a position where I can increase my weight by 4 pounds, like happened yesterday, and still remain within my weight range. That buffer is nice to have.

I have 3 books that I am working on right now. (Well, actually 4 if you count the audio book.) I have gone over halfway through Robinson Caruso, and it has been excellent so far. The description of what the character went through to survive, including his thoughts and emotions along the way is given in great detail. At the point where I am at now, he is in his 24th year of isolation, not speaking to a single other human during that time. He has seen some wild cannibals that landed on his island, but fortunately they did not see him. He also saw a few bodies of drowned sailors from a shipwreck. Other than that, for all of his stay so far he has only seen animals on his island. From hints in the book he has given, I believe that he is rescued somehow in the next couple of years, so he was completely alone for nearly the whole time. Avoiding insanity under such circumstances would seem to be a tough task, however Caruso has managed fairly well to remain mentally balanced throughout, with only a few bouts of serious emotional upheaval. His philosophical point of view has gone through some radical changes, perhaps no more than many men have gone through over a similar period of time, but it has been interesting to watch him go through his changes. I am glad that I started this book!

Last night after lying down for the evening, I read some more in the novel [i] Planet of the Apes[/i] . So far it seems to match up with the original version of the movie far closer than with the newer version. From what I have heard in the past, they lowered the level of technological advance of the ape society in the first movie, in order to hold the budget down. I can also see already that the storyline is definitely different from the first movie in other major respects: the men in the novel landed on a planet of the Betelgeuse star system, and were awake all of the way, so there is no way they could have landed on earth. Their ship did not crash, and they did not land in the Forbidden Zone. (The new movie has had no connection whatsoever with what I have read in the book so far, except for the part where humans were being chased by the apes to be rounded up.) I have noted that both of the movies had their own political agenda to promote as each of the movies went along; I am interested in seeing if the book does the same thing.

After having once again listened to my history tapes on Byzantium, and the Civil War, and the novels [i] The Scarlet Letter[/i] and [i] Candide[/i], I was ready for some new material. I ordered a couple of audio books from Books on Tape this week. (Hopefully I will be able to pick them up at the post office today.) While waiting for them to come in, I started listening to Foundation again, by Asimov, on my drives to and from work. It is a fun story that I never seem to tire of listening to.

I also am approaching the end of [i] Islands in Space[/i] by Arthur C. Clarke, which I have been reading off and on during my lunch hour. I ran out of time yesterday with only 13 pages left to read. Next time I will finish it, and then I will have to hunt around in the box of books in my car to see what will be next.

For eating yesterday I had my Standard Breakfast (5.0 pt.) and my Standard Lunch (7.0 pt.). For dinner I had a 6-inch turkey breast sandwich (6.0 pt.). That gave me a total of 18.0 meal points. For snacks I had, 15 cough drops (4.5 pt.), on my drive home I had a cucumber, some romaine lettuce, and a bunch of celery (0.0 pt.), afterwards I had a cup of hot chocolate (1.0 pt.), a gumball from a machine (0.5 pt.), and crustless pumpkin pie (2.0 pt.). That added up to 8.0 snack points, and brought my total points for the day to 26.0.

For water yesterday, I drank 14 cups, or 112 ounces.

Average points per day for the last:
   7 days - 28.57
  14 days - 29.04

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

245 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/185.0/200/BMI:23.1/WK-35
Weight Loss Graph/Maintenance Graph/Success Story