Week 360 Update It was 7:00 AM when I woke up and stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, "203.0 pounds!" It has been week since Hunter last rattled my doorknob and said, "Grampy! Open for me! But I still miss hearing that voice in the morning. My office chair had returned to being just a chair rather than a merry go round where we could play "Round and round the mulberry bush" and the piano keyboard has lost the magic it had when Hunter was playing chopsticks with Grampy Al. I sure miss that little guy!

This week I rather fell on my face in the area of eating. Three of the seven days this week I ate more than 50 points and on one day I ate over sixty points. So, it isn't too surprising that I averaged eating 50.29 per day. And going up two pounds is hardly surprising.

The graphs created by the Weight Commander program are once again very helpful in putting things in perspective. The main graph shows that I am not far off from where I was 60 days ago. According to my journal, one year ago I weighed 205.0 pounds, and the numbers all seem to say that I am maintaining within a range from 200 to 205, or about 5 pounds higher than I am trying to aim at. Focus is not what it should be for me right now, and if I don't change what I am doing I may find that I have trouble even maintaining 5 pounds too high.

And what does the future hold? The Weight Commander future graph tells me that my current trend will drive my weight up to 215 pounds just in time for our country's 232nd birthday, and by the time Dotti's and my 32nd wedding anniversary rolls around (we were married in our nations bicentennial year which keeps our number of anniversaries two hundred short of America's age ) I will be 212 pounds or higher than I was last year when I was shocked into getting back on track with a reading of 211 pounds on the scale.

I suppose the most important thing to remember at this point is that this journey is never over. This is what happens if you don't keep your nose to the grindstone and do what you have to do. Relaxation of "the rules" brings the same old results I got before I started following those rules.

Saturday and Sunday I was within my limits for eating. But on Monday, I just threw in the towel for a bit, after doing something positive. Dotti and I walked to Red Robin, and the round trip distance is 2.2 miles. I was carrying a backpack with some books on the walk, so that added some addition work on my muscles for the exercise I was doing. Then, after doing okay at Red Robin, we went to Borders Books and I had not one, but two desserts, that added up to nearly 20 extra points. I ate 57.5 points, when I could have easily kept it below 40.

On Tuesday, I squeaked in under 46 points, but my lunch was a Very Berry Sundae and a churro at Costco—not the best choice of food for a meal.

Wednesday, I again coupled exercise with food, as we walked around the Portland Zoo for two miles of exercise (again carrying a backpack). Then I had an "elephant ear"for lunch, after having had a breakfast cookie from Starbucks on the drive over. I ended up eating 55.5 points.

Thursday, we had our first class of a college course Dotti and I are taking on QuickBooks, and we had no idea where the building was where our class was to take place. We parked up near the admin building and walked over to it to ask. As one might expect, who is an adherent to the principle behind "Murphy's Law," our building was on the other end of the campus. We walked over a quarter of a mile, with our computers in our backpacks, and located the correct classroom. The door was locked and I decided to walk back to the car and then drive it back nearer to the room so Dotti and I wouldn't have to make that long walk later on after class. I left my computer with her, and then set off at a rapid pace. I was quite tired when I finally reached the car and was thinking to myself that I wouldn't be able to hold that pace much longer if the car had been farther away. It was a good walk. And after the walking, which was at least a half mile, and probably more, I still held my points down below my limit, for a nice change of pace.

A fun thing that happened while we were waiting for the classroom to open (we realized after all of this that we had arrived an hour early ). We were sitting at a table in the cafeteria area, and the lady who runs the concession stand was visiting with us and we were sharing this and that about ourselves and all at once it clicked for here who Dotti was. The lady said in surprise, "You're Dotti?"

She was familiar with Dotti's web page and was very happy to meet the webmistress who created DWLZ.com. I always like it when Dotti gets the recognition she deserves for all her hard work, but she is always very self-conscious about it, and blushes when strangers come up to her and treat her special. She likes being "just Dotti" but she does appreciate the fact that people like to meet her. It doesn't happen too often, but from time to time out of nowhere someone will just appear and say, "I love your web page!" or "I am so glad I got to meet you!" People can be so nice.

But then along came Friday, the day before my weigh-in and the day I was supposed to take extra special care this time around. I ended up eating 36.5 points for lunch, including 10 points for dessert. By the end of the day I had eaten 64.0 points and hadn't gotten any exercise at all.

Have I finally reached bottom and am I ready to start turning things around yet? Only time will tell.

6 years, 330 days on my journey; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-
6 '3" 239.5/203.0/197.5±2.5/BMI:25.37/WK- 360

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