A FEW MORE THINGS
YOU MIGHT ENJOY
|
 |  |
|
WEEK 440
Week Ending October 21, 2009
Weight Watchers Goal
(the top of my normal weight range)
200.0 pounds
|
Week 440 Update
|
|
| Weigh-In Date: | 10/21/2009 |
| Weight: | 203.5 |
| Body Mass Index: | 25.44 |
| Average Daily Points: | 28.07 |
| Average Weight for week: | 205.86 |
| Miles Walked for week: | 00.00 |
| Miles Walked in 2009: | 162.25 |
| Pounds +/- for this week: | -2.0 |
| Pounds lost total: | 36.0 |
| Pounds From Personal Goal (185 lbs) | +18.5 |
Week's Data
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
Monday |
Tuesday |
10/14/09 |
10/15/09 |
10/16/09 |
10/17/09 |
10/18/09 |
10/19/09 |
10/20/09 |
|
205.5 lbs
|
206.5 lbs
|
207.0 lbs
|
206.5 lbs
|
206.5 lbs
|
205.0 lbs
|
206.0 lbs
|
|
32.0 pts
|
28.0 pts
|
24.0 pts
|
30.5 pts
|
20.5 pts
|
34.5 pts
|
27.0 pts
|
|
CONTROL PANEL
GRAPH
|
|
|
|
|
FUTURE
GRAPH |
60-DAY
GRAPH |
90-DAY
GRAPH |
1-YEAR
GRAPH |
|
|
|
|
2-YEAR
GRAPH |
40 WEEKS
GRAPH |
12 WEEKS
GRAPH |
TODAY
BUTTON |
|
|
It was 5:49 a.m. when I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, "203.5 pounds!"
Usually, when I have a poor showing on the scale, after being On Program for the week, I try to simply look forward to the next week, and assume it will catch up for me with a better showing. I wasn't sure, even yesterday, that was going to happen. But this morning I had a nice 2-pound drop and I feel better. 
I felt like I needed a "handicapped sticker" this week, as I was hobbling around with a limp and I even used a cane on one day when I had to go up and down some real stairs, on the day that our niece Jamie moved into her new apartment.
The foul tip into my shin at the batting cage really did a number on my right leg, and it still isn't all the way back yet, but it no longer sends stabbing pains up my leg when I get up in the morning, like it did a few days ago. A good healthy scream would have felt really good on a few of those mornings, but poor Dotti would probably jumped out of her skin from a deep sleep, so I just grimaced and dealt with it.
However, not being overly bright, I went to the batting cage again this Monday with Jim once more. This time I did have enough sense to remain in the slow-pitch softball cage, so I didn't foul another ball into my injured leg before it completely heals up.
On the brighter side of my medical situation, I got my bloodwork tests back and found that cholesterol was at a good level for the most part!
Value
Tested For
|
Desired
Value
|
Actual
Value
|
Cholesterol
LDL
HDL
Triglycerides
|
<200
<100
>39
<150
|
138
82
36
98
|
Before I started taking medication to control my cholesterol level it was never way high, but it was just over the top of the desired level. My triglycerides were too high a bit as well. If you have a high LDL number and a high triglyceride number, you increase your risk for heart attack and stroke, because they work together to cause problems. So, I was very happy to see that both of those numbers were low, as well as my overall cholesterol level being low.
I did a search on "cholesterol calculator" and came up with one where I could put in my numbers and it came back with a risk number of 6%.
I found online that the average guy my age has a 13% chance of having a heart attack over the next 10 years. That is around 1 out of every 8 people. These numbers it would seem would cut my risk in half from the average risk. That sounds promising!
The only fly in the ointment it would seem is the HDL number not being high enough. They want that number to be up to 40 or higher. Unfortunately, the "statin" medications do not do much with HDL. It looks like what I need to do is get more exercise and lower my weight. Those are two things you can control that will impact the HDL number. Since that is right in line with my current self-improvement project, that is good news. I'll see what I can do. 
While the hollow squares, representing my daily weigh-ins on my Weight Commander Control Panel Graph look more like they are tracing out a bed of nails, the solid square line looks almost straight, with a fairly consistent slope. If you draw a line from the starting point through the ending point of those solid squares it will pass right through the heart of the solid squares—some will be above it and some below, but it will split the group fairly evenly.
What I like about the average weights shown on this graph is that they bear out what my gut feeling is about how my Journey is going. I am staying under my points on average, week after week. Daily weigh-ins are all over the place, up and down, but the average plods along, moving downward, a bit at a time.
So much of life is like this: urgent things come along, flooding your consciousness with details and demands, but these are carried along upon a deeper current, the average results of all our actions summed together and creating the mosaic that is our lives. We accomplish this or that, or we don't, based not so much on how we handle the Urgent, but rather how we make time to focus upon the Important.
On the left of the Control Panel the results for past weeks look pretty good. This week I dropped 2.0 pounds. After last week's gain of a half pound, that was welcome! The two weeks before that are each showing a loss of 1.5 pounds. Overall there were 5 pounds of loss versus one-half pound of gain, or a net change of 4.5 pounds down, just over a pound a week. I am very happy with that!
On the right of the Control Panel I am still trying to catch up with that number for "1 year ago." This week I am 4 pounds over where I was a year ago. I am also only 3.5 pounds over the top of my Normal Range, and that is good news. If I can hold the 1-pound-per-week pace I am at right now, I could be there in a month.
When I pull my view in to closer times, I see that I weigh 8 pounds less than I did 90 days ago! So, for that past 3 months I have averaged losing 1 pound every 11.25 days. That is a little slower than my current pace, but still in the same ballpark.
Looking at my weight 60 days ago shows why my 90-day loss average is not as good as it could have been; I weighed 12 pounds more 60 days ago than I do today. The rate of loss since my weigh-in 60 days ago is 1 pound every 5 days. The important thing is that I am showing a loss, not so much what the rate of loss is.
Thirty days ago I weighed 4 pounds more than I do today and that means for the past 30 days I have lost 1 pound every 7.5 days. Sounds good to me.
Moving on to the
Weight Commander Future Graph, the numbers are looking much better! Before Thanksgiving, it projects my weight as being down into the Normal Range, and by Christmas I will be approaching 196, and a couple of weeks after New Years I will be under 195, with less than 10 pounds to go to my personal goal of 185.
The jagged line that forms my Weight Commander 60-Day Graph, traces a path, much as a river might take, and with the same determination to reach its destination. The river seeks the sea, and my graph is aimed at Goal!
Despite the ups and downs of the points along the way, the consistency of loss is shown by the fact that just like happened with the Control Panel Graph, a line drawn from the first point through the last point, will cut the data points into two groups, and will lie pretty closely along the same path that an average "trend line" would take. In other words, for the past 60 days, I have been losing at a fairly steady rate.
The Weight Commander 90-Day Graph shows a different feature, in that if you draw a line from the beginning point to the ending point, the line will lie on or below every point of the graph.
If we drew a line from the point for my weight at about August 8 or so, through the point for today's weight, the line would run right down the middle of the points of the graph. In other words, after a detour that covered the time from late July through early August, I have been on a steady losing course. If I can keep up this same rate of loss for a couple more weeks, the entire 90-day graph will show a consistent rate of loss of about 1 pound-per-week, like the 60-day graph does now.
It has been fun watching these graphs slowly work their way into these forms as the weeks go by. I really like the way Weight Commander tracks things, and gives a very clear picture of how my weight loss is going.
I may only be a couple of weeks away from getting the 90 day graph into shape, but the Weight Commander 1-Year Graph is going to be a mess for some time yet. 
On November 14, I weighed 194.5 pounds, which is the lowest number shown on this graph. So, once I get down to that point (the Future Graph says that should be in January) my weight will then be the lowest on the entire 1-year graph.
It will possibly come before then, because on January 9, I weighed 200.5 pounds, which is the lowest I have weighed the entire year of 2009 so far. Remember the Future Graph had me below 200 before Thanksgiving! Since Christmas Eve was the last time I weighed under 200 pounds, the crossover point could come by Christmas, which would give my favorite time of year an added boost for 2009.
In 2008, from Thanksgiving Day through New Year's Eve, I bounced around between 198.0 and 203.5 pounds. (Hmmm, that last number sounds familiar. ) So, the low point on my future one-year graphs could be hit in November, if things continue to go well. That would be great, but my primary focus is on just continuing on the path I am currently walking.
The Weight Commander 2-Year Graph looks like an alligator came along and took a bite out of the middle of it. On October 21, 2007, I weighed 197.0 pounds. So, I am 6 pounds up from where I was two years ago. The lowest weight I hit in on that end of the graph was 196.0. So, once I fall below 196.0 pounds, I will be showing a net loss for two years, even though I was a bit lower about one year ago.
If we go back to August 2, 2008 I weighed 214.0 pounds, and so I have already shown a net loss of 10.5 pounds for the past 445 days. But man did I go into a dive after that in 2008! I dropped nearly 20 pounds when I went from 214.0 pounds all the way down to my low point of 194.5 in just over 3 months. Sadly, it was like a ball bouncing as my weight took off for the sky again, and even went higher than I was before.
I am already below the trend line for this graph, and I am on the right track. But, my primary concern is that I do not "bounce" again, but this time I remain in control, and hold my weight down within my target zone.
I took a look at a new graph this week. On the Control Panel, there is a button labeled "Week." When I hit the button, Weight Commander displayed a graph showing my Weekly Gain/Loss for the past 40-Weeks. It gives quite a different look at the period of time near the end of January through today.
Remember, on the 1-year graph, from the beginning of January through the first week of April, I was on a nearly unbroken string of gains. I had obviously cut loose as far as my Journey was concerned. The problems with my mother, and the associated stresses, overwhelmed my desire to be successful. But that is old news.
This graph, covering most of that same period of time, shows how I would have a week showing a loss followed by 4 or 5 weeks with gains. Around March 25th I had a 5-pound gain, but fortunately, it was followed by a 4.5-pound loss. Still, from the start of the graph until April 15, I had 12 weeks with gains, and only 3 weeks with losses. It wouldn't take a genius to see where I was heading over that period of time.
We signed the lease for our house in Spokane on March 31, 2009. On April 14, we completed our drive up to Spokane, and had both trucks unloaded on April 15, and began the moving-in process. Perhaps it isn't surprising that I had 3 weeks in a row with losses after that.
But I was not home free just yet. I had two weeks in a row where I gained, and the total for those two weeks was 6 pounds up! Fortunately, I followed that with 4 weeks in a row with losses. But then for 7 weeks I crept up again, with half-pound and one-pound gains, followed by a week with a maintain.
This graph shows my natural tendencies very well. It also shows why my weight gains tend to sneak up on me; I will lose some and then gain some, and lose some, back and forth—but the net result is a gain over time.
After I did my restart, things have been consistently heading in the right direction. I had two weeks with half pound gains, but they were preceded and followed by weeks with good losses. When I focus on doing things the way I know I should, I get good results. When I coast, I always gain in time: always!
I next tested the Day button on the Control Panel and was presented with the Weight Commander Weight Gain/Loss By Day of Week Graph where 12 weeks of data is compiled to show how each day of the week effects my weight.
Psychologically, I tend to do well the day before my weekly weigh-in. So, Wednesday shows a nice big loss, and then I rebound on Thursday with a gain, but slightly smaller than the loss was on Wednesday.
Friday, I guess I feel bad about the bump up on Thursday, because I show another loss, though a very small one.
Friday night I must let go a bit, because Saturday shows an average gain. But then I get back on track for a small loss on Sunday, followed by a nice loss on Monday. Tuesday shows a small loss, and then back to the big loss on Wednesday.
Part of this data is skewed by the fact that I just will live with pain on Tuesday to avoid taking Ibuprofen that day, because I know that if I take it, it will move me up on the scale. However, on Wednesday or any other day of the week, I will not worry about that. As I get older, I am having more pain, and therefore, this is a factor.
I also change what I eat before my weekly weigh-in. I don't eat popcorn or sauerkraut on Tuesday, because the sodium will move me up on the scale too. Also, I often have a light dinner on the day before weigh-in, so I am not carrying any excess weight that is not related to fat.
Of course the little note on the side of the graph warns me that today is a bad day, and that tomorrow I will go up on the scale if I don't watch it. It is true, but I don't think it is anything to worry about too much. If I were showing a gain or maintain on Wednesdays and then showed a gain on Thursdays like this, I would be very concerned, but fortunately, it all balances out.
The final graph I put up this time came from pushing the Today button on the Control Panel. What happened was that the Weight Commander Control Panel Graph replaced the title at the top with some information. It is actually showing the same data that we just looked at in the last graph concerning Wednesdays: for the past 12 weeks I have lost 13 pounds on Wednesdays.
It also points out that the solid squares, or my average weight, is on the way down. That is good news and so it is displayed in green text. I am sure that if I were gaining it would swap to red text.
I really like the way Weight Commander puts all this information at my fingertips. I can tell by looking at the graphs how I am doing on my Journey.
Another week has come to an end. They seem to be going by faster and faster these days. (I think someone hit the Fast Forward Button on life.) I hope things continue to go well for me this coming week. I will do my best to help that happy outcome along.
8 years, 162 days on my journey; a lifetime to follow.
-Al-
6'3" 239.5/203.5/185.0±2.5/BMI:25.44/WK-440
Starting weight: 239.5
Target Weight Range: 185.0±2.5 pounds
BACK TO WEEK 439 On To WEEK 441
|
|
|
