It was clearly still winter outside, as the temperature was sitting at 28ºF at 6:15 AM and I stepped up on Mr. Scale. He said, “184.0 pounds!”

Yesterday I was stuffed. I was to the point where I just couldn’t eat any more after dinner. I haven’t been that full in a long time. In fact I was overfull and didn’t like the feeling. This had come about from a great deal of free food. I ate a large sandwich bag full of cut celery, a romaine lettuce heart, a red bell pepper, and a large cucumber on the drive home from work. When I got home, I had some instant potatoes, fried mushrooms, a garden burger with cheese, and half of plate of broccoli. The potatoes, burger and cheese added up to 8.0 points but everything else was free. I was drinking water for a few hours before I finally was just barely hungry enough for a Mr. Cookie Face ice cream sandwich.

After feeling like that, I was half expecting the scale to jump up a bit this morning, but it didn’t. I ate 41.5 points yesterday, including an 11-point banana split at lunch. But my weight is staying steady. I have been splurging this week: I had 3 banana splits (11 points each); a McDonalds Butterfinger Mcflurry (14.5 points); a berry-berry sundae at Costco (5.0 points); and 3 times I had 3 chocolate rice cakes with regular peanut butter (10.5 points). On the day that I had the Mcflurry, I also had rice cakes for a total of 25 points of snacks for just those two items. That day I ate 49.5 points.

For the week I averaged 41.5 points per day. I moved back up one pound to 184.0 from 183.0. The feeling I am getting, rightly or wrongly, is that my body was fighting it at first, when I reached 185. It wanted to add pounds to move be back where I had been, and eating 30 points would send my weight upwards. I had to eat in the 20’s somewhere to lose weight. I sat balanced on the edge for a few weeks and then it was like my body said, “Ok, you win. I’ll sit at 184 now. Just try to move me!” Well, it will drop from 184.0 if I don’t eat enough, but it hasn’t been going up and over 185.0, even when I eat close to 50 points in a day. I am sure that if I ate 50 points every day, it would go up over 185, but a couple of times a week, it is no problem.

To avoid getting too wrapped up in banana splits and such, I am working on getting in some higher point dinners, including substantial carbohydrates, and protein. That will give me the points that I need, and that will fill me up (like it did last night). I have been getting plenty of fiber and water all through my journey, and something from all the food groups each day. I really haven’t done too badly in hitting the high points of what I should be eating. The journal is the key to finding exactly what I can eat, while maintaining my weight where I want it.

When I step on the scale in the morning and it says less than 185.0 I smile because I know that what I have been eating so far for the week has not been excessive, and that I can have a fairly high point day again today.

I was thinking this morning how different my weigh-in days are today from when I was in my “losing mode.” I used to not eat anything after 7:00 PM on Friday nights, and stop drinking water by 9:00 PM so I could get the lowest weigh-in possible on Saturday morning. I always ate light on Friday night. I would sometimes wait to weigh-in until 7:00 or 8:00 AM to make sure I was at my lowest weight for the morning.

All of that is gone now. I eat normally, or even heavily on Fridays, and I get up and weigh myself with no ritual or waiting around. I am confident that my weight will be where it has been all week long. This morning, after being as full as I was last night, I was curious as to what the scale would say, but I was not worried. I knew that the worst it could be would only be a pound or two up for my weigh-in, which would not be a problem. The stress from weigh-in each week is gone, and I think that is a good thing.

This week and books…

I finished the audio book for The Two Towers, the second in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It was an entertaining book, but it was clearly a transitional work, not a beginning or an ending but a continuation from the first book, leading to a third book. The story flowed, and it branched out, tracking two separate traveling groups, one in the first half, and another in the second. It is very interesting how much work Tolkien put into mapping out Middle Earth, and all the languages and people who lived there present and past, and the depth he went into creating their distant histories. It is no wonder that decades went into creating these books. I have also begun The Return of the King, which continues the story and will finally conclude it, I hope. I am over a third of the way through it, and should have it finished by this time next week.

My other two books, are getting closer to the end but neither one is completed yet. I have been reading some in A Case of Conscience by James Blish, each day at lunch. I am having a bit of trouble with accepting some of his basic premises but it is well written nonetheless. I have gotten to bed late a couple of times this week, and I have been a bit more tired than usual as well, which means that late reading has been out for me. I did read some in Have Space Suit, Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein but I did not finish it yet. I hope that I will finish all three of the books I am working on at the moment by next week.

294 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/184.0/200/BMI:23.0/WK-42
Weight Loss Graph/Maintenance Graph/Success Story