Week 356 Update

I woke up just before 4:45 AM and I was feeling very bad. From time to time, but always at night, my neck flares up with a great deal of pain. Usually it seems to follow a strain that I put on it through some overly aggressive lifting, holding my head for too long at an awkward angle, or merely sleeping on it wrong, which I think was the case this time. In any case, there is nothing for it but to get up (just lying there will increase the pain over time, sometimes drastically) take some aspirin and wait it out. Usually by noon I am feeling human again, and by the evening I am back to normal. Fortunately I don't have these events hit too often.

Of course, being in a lot of pain when I stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said "203.0 pounds!" I said something not nice at all in return. Fortunately his feelings are tough, and it is not the first time his ears have been blistered in the heat of the moment.

And what was the scale doing up there at 203 pounds anyway? Well that is what this week's story is about.

Looking at the Weight Commander Graph this week makes me think of a carnival ride, with its ups and downs. Overall, Mae West is working her way off to the left and who knows what is going to come on the right? I am not spending much time below 200 these days and I find that troubling. Why am I having so much trouble focusing on what I am doing?

The Weight Commander Future Graph shows me heading up to 215 by June. That is the track I am currently on. It just goes to show that you can never let down your guard!

Last week I had my back tweaked by a door closing on my shoulder unexpectedly and I was taking some Ibuprofen for the first few days this week as a result. The jump on Sunday from 199.5 to 203.0 was in part due to the several Ibuprofen pills I had taken. But it was only partly that, because I also ate 63.0 points on Saturday. I had a bit larger than normal lunch (I shoot for around 10 points and I had 17 points) but at dinner I ate at Taco Bell. That costs me 21.0 points every time I eat there.

One of the things I need to set as my goal is to just stay away from Taco Bell. Every time I go there my weight goes up the next day and sometimes doesn't come right back down if I have a good day afterwards. Clearly it is a problem area and yet, I find myself eating there every week at least once it seems, and sometimes, more than once. And there is a Subway right beside Taco Bell too. What am I thinking? This needs fixing.

Sunday I had a good day for points, only eating 33.5 of them. But Monday I was still up at 202.5 pounds. I held my points to 40.0 on Monday, my weight fell to 202.0 on Tuesday morning. Now, I was riding the Ibuprofen gain I was sure.

Tuesday I wrote my article for the latest Dotti's Newsletter, and Dotti worked on her part of the newsletter. Wednesday morning, after completing the proofreading, I hit the send button at 9:48 AM to the 63,269 subscribers eagerly waiting for the latest issue. (Okay, they may not have been all that eager in their waiting, but I can dream can't I? ) In the afternoon we took a walk to Red Robin and then spent some time working in the Borders Books Coffee Shop. It was our one walk for the week and it was nice to get away from the office for a bit. We really enjoy our Borders time.



The day was bright and sunny and it was a great day for a walk. Dotti and I both shunned our coats and, with her in her short sleeves and I in my long, we headed off to lunch at Red Robin. The sun was bright but Dotti's smile was brighter, and even the street sign was calling out to try and catch her eye.

Off to our left Mount St. Helens looked very beautiful in her snowy mantle, even though she has been beheaded. The now flat top once stood tall and pointed and looked so much like Mt. Hood that I didn't realize there were actually two volcanoes sitting so close by when I first came to visit Portland in the 1970's. I would see a volcano and I assumed it was Mt. Hood, and really didn't give this one a thought. But after May 18, 1980 that was never going to happen again.

And there is the lovely and majestic Mt. Hood, in full dress, covered with white all the way down. Even the remains of the volcanic eruptions that built her, rough and penetrating ridges, like a dinosaurs backbone rising up from the surface, yes even they are soft and white in the brilliant winter sun.

Across the street there were a few items for sale, just in time to handle all your spring earth moving needs around the house. In case you would like dig up a little of the power companies cable there is the trusty backhoe. If you want scrape up some of your driveway or perhaps modify the side of your house to let in a bit of air, there is the bulldozer scoop. And just in time for your kid's summer construction project there is the baby scoop proudly holding up the sign. To get inside that one you have to be under 6 years old. (Yeah I know you stand up on the back but where's the fun in that? )

Now, if this were summertime, or if there were a stiff breeze out, we would no doubt have had at least our light coats on, but we have been conditioned to slightly lower temperatures, and gray rainy skies. The sun came out to play and it was too warm for a coat, 64° or not.

We made it to Red Robin safely and had placed our orders. My water was pushing up its straw into the picture—the showoff—and Dotti caught me on the phone. It is not true that I was smiling because the cute waitress had said I look a lot like her boyfriend. (Of course even if it were true, I would have been looking much less happy a couple of minutes later after the waitress explained that it was because her 36 year old boyfriend is prematurely gray. And she was so close to getting an awesome tip too. )

This is easily my favorite picture that we took that day. My Dotti is so incredibly beautiful and when she smiles like that there can't be anything wrong in the entire universe for me. She has an ID card in her purse that has a picture where she is smiling like that, and I always loved that picture. Now I here is another one to love!

During our meal, we had a discussion about hair length and I grabbed my pen and a napkin and did a quick doodle on it to demonstrate my point about how Dotti would look in long hair. (I took a picture of it and threw the napkin away.) The conversation about the merits of long hair couldn't get much traction though when I took another look at her with her beautiful smile sitting across from me, and it is hard to imagine how you could ever improve on that image. It is perfect!

Spring is only a couple of weeks away and the buds on this tree, which stands between Red Robin and Borders Books, are bunching up like an army about to break through the city gates for a sack. The flowers are about to start busting out all over!

Our home away from home. It was getting on in the afternoon, and by the time we left the front of the building was no longer bathed in sunlight, even though it faces due west. By that time the temperature had fallen and Dotti and I had both pulled our coats from my backpack and put them on, and they were none to heavy for the chill. But that was a couple of hours away, and right now the sun was bright, and painting everything in its best light. The trees which are still bare, but for a few buds, will shortly be covered in leaves and winter will then be only a memory, at least for a few months. (How many days 'till Christmas? )

Inside the cafe awaited us, with stuffed chairs, tables, and great coffee. My coat lies behind, patiently waiting for when it will be needed, and the shiny black comfy chair is conveniently close. What I wonder is why we don't do this even more often than we do?

Since I started an open ended list where I can catalog my weak points that need work, here is something else to add to it: walking and exercise in general. I very much need to do more of it. So, what we have so far on the list is: no Taco Bell; and more walking.

I neglected to mention that on Wednesday I was up to 203.0 pounds again. Now, part of that was my early weigh-in, because on Newsletter days I have trouble sleeping. I woke up at 4:20 AM, weighed in and got to work. When I know I have something pending I tend to do that. But my back was feeling better, and I even carried a backpack to Borders with no harm done.

Thursday the Ibuprofen had cleared out of my system and I dropped back down to 198.5 pounds. But it was not to be that I would stay there.

I only ate 38.5 points but in the evening Dotti cooked us a very nice meal. It was a steak dinner with some nice trimmings. If I had eaten the steak, it would have been a bit high in points but not really bad. However, my gums would not allow me to chew the steak. My dentures were pushing too hard on the tender gums, which are not completely back to normal after the implants were placed. Believe me, I gave it a good college try, because I wanted that steak! But no luck this time around. Still, I must have gotten enough of the meal down, with some sodium in it to move the scale up, even though I only had 38.5 points for the day. Friday I was back up to 201.0 pounds.

Looking back over the Fridays in 2008, and these are the days before my weigh-in, I found a very bad trend:

January 4 - Skipped dinner after a late lunch a low point day
January 11 - Taco Bell
January 18 - Taco Bell
January 25 - Light dinner
February 1 - Taco Bell
February 8 - Taco Bell
February 15 - Ate light after dental procedure
February 22 - Taco Bell
February 29 - Cheesecake Factory


Of the 9 Fridays in January and February I only had 3 of them where I was paying attention to my weigh-in, and one of those was primarily because my gums were sore after having a dental procedure. This is a radical departure from what used to be my attitude on Fridays and towards my weigh-ins on Saturday morning.

This Friday was no exception. If anything it was worse. I had a big bowl of ice cream for dinner. It was only 15 points, but I didn't eat all that well for lunch either and I had a 51.0-point day. What bothers me most is that ice cream is not a good "meal," even if you only eat enough to remain within your program. I have got to rethink what I am doing here.

So, we now have: No Taco Bell; more exercise; and pay attention to Friday's meals.

I certainly deserve to weigh 203.0 pounds today, and if I don't start to pay closer attention to what I am doing, that Future graph may turn out to be right after all!

Another thing to add to the list is to maintain my journal throughout the day and not catch up later on. I normally have a pretty good memory, but even so, it is far safer to write it down at the time I eat it rather than later when I might forget something that I have eaten. (There have been a number of times when I have caught errors later, where I had forgotten to write something down at the time. Then when I review what I did in my mind it will suddenly come to me, "Hey, I ate a Very Berry Sundae at Costco! And I forgot to write it down." I don't think that this has inserted any great errors into my journal, but it is an indication of an attitude problem that seems to be creeping in. Add prompt journaling to the list.

So, for this week, I will aim to improve on these items:

• No Eating at Taco Bell.
• Get more exercise. (At least 3 times per week.)
• Pay attention to Friday's meals/take weigh-in more seriously.
• Journal Promptly—right at the time that I eat the items to be written down.