A FEW MORE THINGS
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WEEK 378
Week Ending August 9, 2008
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*** Weigh-in for WEEK 378 ***
08/09/2008
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| Week Completed: | ___378___ |
| Weigh-In Weight: | 210.5 |
| Body Mass Index: | 26.31 |
| Average Weight for week: | 210.36 |
| Miles Walked for week: | 5.16 |
| Miles Walked in 2008: | 155.18 |
| Pounds +/- for this week: | -3.5 |
| Pounds lost total: | 29.0 |
| Made GOAL: 9/22/2001 † | |
* Made 10% at 215.5 pounds on 7/14/01
† Goal is 200 pounds.
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Week 378 Update
Today I have started writing everything down again. I have a great many changes that I need to implement in order to get to where I want to be, and I think it is time to get started.
Lets take a look at where I was back in 2005. I had been "cruising along" right on track from the time that I reach goal back in 2001, with hardly a hiccup to mar my journey. There were several reasons for this:
- Dotti was the main reason. She lost over 100 pounds between November of 1997 to August of 1998 and then she proceeded to keep it off for year after year. By 2001, when I began my journey, I was a believer. Dotti could lose the weight that she could never lose before, and she could keep the weight off! I thought that she had the problem licked, and that she would remain at or at least close to goal for the rest of her life. She wasn't even struggling. Each day she was on program, and was making all the right choices to stay where she was. This was incredibly motivational for me.
- The message board gave me a lot of very positive feedback on what I was doing. I was hearing very positive things about my journey and it made me want to continue doing well. Even when Dotti started having serious trouble with her journey because of her quitting smoking and her knee injury, I thought that I could maybe keep the positive thoughts going until Dotti got her feet back under her.
- I had a regular routine set up, and I was doing the same things day after day and it made it easy to repeat the success of one day on the following day.
- My head was in the game, and I really wanted to remain OP each day. I was highly motivated to write everything down, and do whatever it took.
Things started "going south" about the week of November 12 to 19 of 2005. In 2004, I had walked 1200 miles and I was aiming to do even better in 2005. I was actually doing pretty well, for half the year but I let my competitive spirit knock me off course. I know exactly what did it but it won't help to go into that right now. But that was something I should have not let happen. By November I had completely given up my goal on walking, and didn't walk a single mile in December, 2005.
Dotti was doing pretty well on her attempt to return to goal at the time I started slipping. I lost my footing and never fully got it back. By May of 2006 I was back in my target range, but it wasn't easy and I didn't stay there long. Dotti finally got down below me on the graph and that was wonderful to see! You would have thought that would have been enough to get me fully back on track. Instead, I sort of gave up.
I raised my target weight and my whole target range to the very top of my official Weight Watchers range.
When we went on the cruise in 2006 I ate too much, and used exercise to hold the scale down. I have always felt that was a bad approach to weight loss, because what are you going to do if you have to stop exercising for whatever reason? You are going to gain weight, that is what you will do! While I actually lost weight the week of the cruise, I developed some bad eating habits that came back to haunt me in only a few weeks.
And about one year after I started having trouble, once again just about Thanksgiving time, I lost my grip and my weight went up out of even my new target range, mainly because I was unable to maintain my old one. My eating was no longer as controlled as it had been and I wasn't exercising much at all. Instead of paying attention to each thing I ate, I just ate and hoped it would be okay, because it seemed like it was pretty close to what I was doing before. The wheels were coming off my weight control wagon, even though I was thinking things were not too bad.
I was not in control the first half of 2007, and I fought to get back down to my new target range, and finally made it in July. I couldn't completely hold my weight in my target range but I was there most of the time for the rest of 2007.
The last time I actually hit my new and higher target weight was January 5, 2008. It is now in August of 2008 and that is a pretty sad commentary on what I have been doing.
But it gets worse than that. Since the 22nd of March, 2008 I have been overweight. Since May, I have been at least 5 pounds overweight. For nearly a month I have been 10 pounds over weight and last week I was nearly 15 pounds overweight. After nearly 4 years of not having a single weekly weigh-in that was outside of my target range, I have completely gone astray, and have been wandering aimlessly for nearly 3 years. Sure you can put the shiny side up and look at the fact that I am not as heavy as I was at the start of 2001, but that doesn't cut it right now. It is time to face the reality and see that I have been way off track for nearly 3 years. It is time to look at the compass and set a new course.
As of today, I am on a weight loss journey once more, and maintenance will have to wait until I reach goal again. Starting now, my goal has returned to 185 pounds, and I am going to focus on holding my points within a 24 to 31 range, as I did the last time I was at this weight. Once again eating will control my weight loss and exercise will be a separate issue.
It is critical that I have a set goal in mind and a well defined limits in place if I am to be successful. Now I have them!
It is an interesting coincidence that, since today is August 9, the last time I was where I am right now (mentally and physically), was August 4, 2001, all the way back at the end of Week 12. It is amazing that here at the end of week 378, I am retracing the ground of week 12 and 13. In 2001, I reached 185 about Christmas time. That gives me something to shoot for. Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells... If things go right, I might get the whole correction phase completed on this year's "Maintenance Graph" and have a nice graph for 2009 that looks more like the first couple of maintenance graphs.
My Weight Commander graph this morning was not looking too good. I was already five pounds above my upper limit, and then it just proceeded to climb on up, as if it were the back of a cat, and moving towards its head.
You can compare this actual graph, with the graph that Weight Commander created from my weight entry this morning, before I entered the rest of the week. (Weight Commander calculates values from your last valid entry to the next current entry. The hollow squares form a straight line on the graph, as opposed to the jagged line the real numbers created on the first graph. The final hollow square is today's weight at 210.5 on both graphs, but the real data caused the solid squares to end up higher than the calculated data did.
The graph that shows theWeight Commander's prediction for the future has me weighing just over 204 by the start of November. At least it is falling, but that is still not so good, leaving me over 4 pounds overweight.
The graph that was produced by the calculated data was much better! It shows me all the way down to 196 in early November. It isn't quite as good as my weight loss graph from 2001 but it at least in the same ballpark. 
During my weight loss phase in 2001, I had to go through 3 months of hard work just to get where I am already at today. So, I am going to smile and move on, starting over from a better position than when I first started and look to the future with optimism. Wish me luck!
7 years, 89 days on my journey; a lifetime to follow.
-Al-
6 '3" 239.5/210.5/197.5±2.5/BMI:26.31/WK-378
Starting weight: 239.5
New (returning to my original) Target Weight Range: 183.0 lbs to 187.0 lbs
BACK TO WEEK THREE HUNDRED SIXTY-FIVE On To WEEK THREE HUNDRED SEVENTY-NINE
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