Week 45 Update

It was 6:00 AM and 41 degrees outside when I stepped up on Mr. Scale and He said, “185.5 pounds!” That is one-half pound over my target weight, but well within the 185 plus or minus 2 pounds that I have set for my personal goal this month.

I have come to the conclusion that maintenance is a roller coaster ride. One week I can eat over 46 points per day and maintain 183.5 and another week I can eat 38.0 points and gain a half-pound up to 185.5. Is it any wonder that people who are naturally disposed to compulsive eating, and who are not tracking what they are eating, find their weight slowly creeping up, or even running out of control? If I was just judging my weight loss journey upon how I felt I was doing, rather than writing it down, I would be putting on the pounds; maybe slowly, but I would be putting them on. Also, if I just picked a certain point level and ate at it, I would find my weight fluctuating around drastically – as it started to happen anyway briefly on February 6, when my weight suddenly fell down to 179. Either I would be eating too much for some weeks or too little for others.

The way I am doing it now, since I had that surprise in February, and I corrected for it, my daily weigh-ins have remained within two pounds of 185. My lowest weight on any morning has been 183.0 and my highest has been 186. In order to accomplish this, I have altered my points on any given day from 27.0 to 51.5 depending upon where my weight was. As I fall down towards 183.0 my points go up towards 51.5. As I approach 186.0 my points fall down towards 27.0. It has worked fairly well since February 16. However, I am still expecting the unexpected.

My exercise for this week has been better:

Last Saturday, I took a two mile walk ( time: 34:08 ) on the track near our house with Joan (JSche123). Dotti did not come along because she was still not up to walking for exercise on her injured knee. (It has healed up a lot and she is in far less pain now, but she is afraid to push it.) It was not raining, and not too cold. After getting warmed up it was quite comfortable. It was nice having someone to visit with on the walk.

On Wednesday I walked 2 miles in the park next to my customer's site ( time: 31:28 ) . I pushed it just a bit harder than I have been doing lately, and my left calf was cramping slightly at certain points during the walk, so I would breathe deeper and slow down just enough to stop the cramping. Later on I would reach that point again, and once more have to slow down. The wind was whipping along really strong that day, and I was reminded of the Mojave Desert, where we had winds that were near hurricane strength sometimes, and there was nothing but flat unvegetated lands to try vainly to slow them down. There is nothing unvegetated about that park, but I was catching a good stiff breeze nonetheless. I loved it! At the end my legs were feeling a bit weak but I felt pretty good overall.

On Thursday I was afraid I would be too sore to walk, but there was no rain once again, and I was not all that sore. So, I headed out on my two mile hike again. This time I pushed it even harder. (I don’t what gets into me sometimes. :) ). My time was not awesome – 30 minutes, 30 seconds – but it was faster than what I have been doing lately. Once again my legs felt weak at the end but otherwise I felt good.

On Friday, I was sore, and I felt tired. "No walk today," I told myself. Then at lunch I walk out of the door and there was sunshine, beautiful sunshine. That was it. I was off on another walk. This time I was sore, and so I did not push it, either with pace or distance. I walked 1.1 miles in 20:02, which only gave me 1.6 aerobic points, but it was something. And I felt very good after the walk.

So, when all was said and done, I earned 15.15 aerobic points for the week, which is almost half of what my ultimate goal is. Even more importantly, I have finally gotten myself out; and am doing something for exercise for a change. As long as I do that, I will work my way up to getting the right amount of exercise, but I have to start somewhere.

My weight at the beginning of the week was down to 183.0. So, I hit McDonalds at lunch on Monday, and had a Butterfinger McFlurry (14.5 pt.). On Tuesday, I weighed 183.5, and so I hit Dairy Queen for a banana split (11.0 pt.). But after that, party time was over. My weight jumped up to 185.5 the next day, and has not fallen below that since. So, no more goodies at lunch. I am back to my standard lunch only, and have been holding my points per day below 40 since Wednesday. Thursday and Friday I went back to my old range of 31 or less points. The cool thing is that it is no big deal either way. I am perfectly comfortable eating 31 points or less, and the splurges are just that, not something that I am expecting. If I never have another one, I will be quite content. Seeing my weight stay right where I want it, really makes me feel good.

And there is one other thing going on. When we went to the Zonie Lunch on Sunday, I was wearing a pair of 34-inch waist pants for the first time in I don't know how many years, or perhaps decades. My waist is continuing to slowly shrink, even though my weight is stable. (My stomach is the one area where I still have a small layer of fat, and so I am happy to see that slowly melting away.) My belt that I could not comfortably put on when we bought it last summer at the Oregon State Fair, I find myself pulling in to the third notch on occasion. When I hit goal I was not able to wear it comfortably on the second notch, and when I was sitting I had to loosen it up even off the first notch.

So, my body is still continuing to rearrange itself as time goes on. I am hopeful that I will move down to 34-inch pants entirely in the end. As I exercise more and build more muscle mass, while holding my weight constant, it should strip away the remaining fat from my stomach and shrink my waist even more. Striving for improvement.

[b] This week in books

Since I started walking at lunch more, I did not make much progress with Winds of Darkover . On Monday I had to buy gas during my lunch hour, and it left no time for reading, and that left Tuesday as my only reading day.

Even my evening reading has been disrupted. I have been working late on getting the new DWLZ server up and running and by the time I hit the sack, I am ready for sleep. So, The Delta Factor is not moving along much either.

I am moving along nicely through (The Fellowship of the Ring) on my second listen and it is has been great hearing it from the perspective of knowing what the ending is and what many of the references brought up along the way are talking about. It is a totally different experience. I am enjoying it yet once again.

315 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/185.5/200/BMI:23.1/WK-45
Weight Loss Graph/Maintenance Graph/Success Story