Week 44 Update

It was 7:00 AM and 36 degrees outside when I stepped up on Mr. Scale and He said, “185.0 pounds!” That is right on my target weight. It has been 8 weeks since I hit my target weight exactly on a weigh-in day.

This week was different than the preceding weeks. Suddenly my weigh took an upturn on Monday when it jumped to 186.0 from 183.5 the day before. I pulled back on my points on Monday and held them to 34.0, and on Tuesday my weight had gone back down to 184.5. So, I moved my points back up to 47.5. The scale responded by going back up to 185.5. So, I tried 41.5 points, and the scale remained at 185.5. I dropped my points to 33.0 and my weight still stayed at 185.5. So, yesterday I dropped them to 28.0 and Mr. Scale finally said 185.0 this morning.

I dropped my average points per day for the week this week by nearly 6 points per day. But that is what a “closed loop” control system is all about. You monitor reality (that would be Mr. Scale) and alter your control variable (points) accordingly. My points have swung from 51.5 down to 28.0 over the last week, however my weight has stayed within 2 pounds of 185 every day for the last 4 weeks. I have not been above 186 since January 12, and my one “big excursion” was downward when my weight fell 6 pounds too low, down to 179.0 on the 6th of February, and I quickly corrected for that.

It looks like it will be a lifelong project to monitor my weight each day, and eat accordingly. Fortunately that is not a big deal. I have been tracking everything that I have eaten for 308 days so far, and it is relatively painless now. I don’t eat anything at all during the day that I don’t track. I have my little pocket notebook (my "Journal Lite") for anytime that I am away from my regular journal. I track eating, water, and exercise in that, and then transfer it over to my main journal when I get home. The whole system is nearly self-running now.

For exercise this week, I started the week off very poorly. In fact it went back all the way to the previous week on Thursday, when Dotti and I decided to push our Thursday gym session to Friday night. When Friday came along suddenly a trip to Seattle came up and we missed both our Friday session and the weekend one too. When we got back, we missed our Tuesday session. Finally, I gave up worrying about reaching the gym at night and took a walk on Thursday (1.3 miles) and Friday (2 miles) during my lunch hour. It is really hard for me to get excited about the gym after getting home from work after that long and grueling drive home. The last thing I want to do is get back on the road again. Fortunately, the days are getting longer, and the weather is having some breaks in the rain. So, I will be able to begin walking at lunch again, and even in the evenings at the park near our house that closes at sundown.

On my Thursday walk, I told myself all morning that if the weather was okay, I would take a walk. When I came out of the building at lunch, the security guard said to me, “Don’t freeze.” I looked out the door and it was raining pretty heavily. I went out to my car and warmed it up, and started eating my lunch. Suddenly, the rain turned to hail and it was coming down like mad. It was small hail and pure white. It covered the ground lightly like snow, and then most of it started melting quickly. All at once, about the time I finished eating, the hail stopped, and then the rain stopped, and a small patch of blue sky broke through the clouds to the north. A few minutes later a huge patch of blue appeared overhead. I said, “That it I am going for my walk.”

It was my first time walking in the park this year. All the trees that had colored leaves in October were standing naked in the cold. The evergreens kept things from looking too dead, and the grass was as green as ever. Visibility is greater in the winter, because the foliage is at a minimum and provides lines of sight that will be gone after spring comes along and works its green magic.

There were ducks and geese still in the ponds, and the water was cheery as it was running through the cold. I walked over to the tall stand of trees where I took pictures last fall, and then back again. It was a nice walk. The only excitement was when a single engine plane, that had taken off from a nearby airport, and that was right overhead, suddenly had a tremendous backfire. I looked up and there was no more engine noise coming from that plane. It appeared to be gliding. As it banked to turn to the right, it lost altitude and it finally went out of view as it was continuing to bank. I think he was trying to get back to the airport. He must have either gotten his engine started again, or coasted into the airport okay, because there was no news of a plane going down. I don’t know how the pilot felt but my heart was racing just watching him.

On Friday, the day was gloomy and cloudy but it was not raining when I came out for lunch. It was cold, but I was determined to take a walk unless the rain was coming down so hard that I could not stay dry with my umbrella. So, I went to my van, grabbed my umbrella, just in case it started to rain, and headed off. The cold was making my fingers numb, and so I put on my gloves. I pulled the hood of my jacket up over my head but it was not enough. I put on my knit cap and then pulled the hood up over that. My ears felt warm, but my hands were still feeling cold in the wind. The temperature was 42 degrees, but the wind was creating quite a wind-chill. I had gone almost half way, approaching the one mile marker, when I notice that some small rain drops were collecting on the sleeve of my jacket. So, I opened up my umbrella and continued on. For the rest of the walk, the rain progressively got harder, and the wind continued to push the cold at me. It even popped my umbrella backwards once, and tried to do it several times before I was finished. Fortunately the rain never got bad enough to soak me, and I was still fairly dry when I got back to my van and had lunch.

Even with all the weather, I like walking now better than in the summer time when all the pollen is in the air and the heat is beating down. I can easily breath now, and I don’t get overheated. Hopefully I will be in a bit better shape this summer, and the heat will not bother me quite as much. I certainly will be lighter. :^)

Since my weight went up this week, I held my splurges down accordingly. I had two small McDonalds Butterfinger McFlurrys (14.5 points each). I didn’t do any of the rice cake or banana split romps this week. I did find something that I like, and I had it a couple of times this week. I took an “Oreo Kashi bar” and put one tablespoon of whipped peanut butter on it. I found it very tasty. Total points for it was 6.5.

This week in books

At lunch I am reading a book called [i] Land of Darkover I believe. It is an old sci-fi/fantasy book, one of those double novel ones, that you read one through, and then flip it over and there is another novel on the other side. With my lunch hour becoming more dedicated to walking, I may be slowing down on my lunchtime reading.

At night I started a Mickey Spillane book called [i] The Delta Factor. It is not what you would call “highbrow” reading at all. It is light and “pulpish.”

For my audio book, when I finished listening to the appendix section of the [i] Lord of the Ring, I just put in the first tape ([i] The Fellowship of the Ring) again, and started it all over. I tend to do that with a good book, like [i] Atlas Shrugged. It is amazing how much more you pick up the second time around.

308 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/185.0/200/BMI:23.1/WK-44
Weight Loss Graph/Maintenance Graph/Success Story