Mr. Scale said 223.0 when I got up this morning at 8:00 AM.

Yesterday, Barbara, (Librarylady) spent the afternoon and evening with us and we had a lot of fun! Dot and I did not make it to bed until after midnight. When I sleep in all the way to 8 I know I needed some extra sleep.

We had planned to take Barb up to Multnomah Falls, so we could all take the hike to the top of the falls. Unfortunately, there were no parking places available in either of the parking lots. There was some sort of celebration going on at the falls, and it was jammed.So, we drove up the Columbia Gorge Highway and took in some of the scenery. We stopped at Crown point which overlooks the Columbia Gorge. Here is a view of The Columbia Gorge looking east. Here are Dot and Barb with the Gorge behind them. Here they are heading for the Crown Point Visitor’s Center.

We then drove down by the Columbia River, and past several falls, including Multnomah Falls, even though we were unable to stop there. We did stop at the Horse Tail Falls, named for its resemblance, from certain angles, to a horse’s tail in a breeze. Here are the two of them at the base of the falls.

After our scenic drive we headed for Trader Joes, to pick up a few treats for Barb to take back home with her. We next stopped by QFC to get a few other items before heading home. It had been days since Barb had been online so naturally she and Dot ended up on the Internet.Here is a picture of the two of them at Dotti’s computer work station, which is command central for “the Zone.” Here is a shot of Barb Posting on the message board.

I even played a few songs on the guitar, and we all sat and visited. Dot and I really enjoyed the time we had with Barb!

My water drinking yesterday was pretty light. I only have 8 eight ounce glasses marked down in my journal. I was expecting to spend some time in the car and out hiking, so I didn’t want to load up on too much water.

For breakfast, I had my normal 5.0 point meal. For lunch I had two peanut butter sandwiches for 6 points, and a Mr. Cookieface ice cream sandwich for 3.0 points. That brought me up to 14.0 points for the day. Dot and Barb were having Heaven’s Bistro pizza, but the one other time I had it, I did not really enjoy it much. I fried up two egg sandwiches (2.5 pts.), and had some instant potatoes (3.5pts). Dotti then, gave me a taste of the pizza. Wow! It was really good! The last time I obviously had some pizza that was not prepared well. This is really good pizza. I checked my points, and I had some to spare. I had Dot cook me up half of one of the pizzas (4.5 pts) and really enjoyed eating it.With all of that, my dinner was only 10.5 points. So, for my day to that point, I had eaten 24.5 points. We ended up staying up a bit late, and as we approached midnight I had three espresso beans (.5 pts) to perk me up a bit. So, my total points for yesterday was 25.0 points.

Well, I am off to enjoy Father’s day, and my last day of vacation. Tomorrow is back to the old grindstone. My two weigh-ins for the vacation showed an overall drop of 5.5 pounds. I find that on vacation it is a bit easier for me to stay right on top of things, because I don’t have any pressures forcing me to make hard choices. I do okay on work days, but my days off are easier.

36 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/222.0/200/BMI:27.8/WK-5/Weight Loss Graph

Up at 6:00 AM and Mr. Scale said 222.5. Today I am heading back to work. Wonderful.

Yesterday was a nice father’s day. Dot and I watched some old movies on DVD that we had purchased during our vacation. I love watching old 1950s movies. The special effects are not so hot, but a lot of the garbage in the new movies is missing and I like that. I love seeing the old cars and the billboards, the way things were when I was growing up.

For eating yesterday, my breakfast was my normal 5 points. For lunch I had 2 turkey hot dogs (2.0 pts), sour kraut (0 pts), 4 ounces of instant potatoes (3.0 pts), and a Mr. Cookieface ice cream sandwich (3 pts). My lunch total was 8.0 points. At Dinner I had one half of a Heaven’s Bistro Pizza (4.5 pts), another Mr. Cookieface (3.0), and then during the movies I had 2 chocolate Meringues (1 pt) and a bag of low point popcorn (2 pts). My evening eating totaled 10.5 points. Altogether, I ended up eating 23.5 points for the day.

For water, I drank 26 of the eight ounce glasses, for a total of 208 ounces (13 pounds). Where’s the bathroom?

On Thursday and Friday, the days before my weigh-in, I found that I was very hesitant to eat anything too heavy. On Friday, I didn’t eat anything too late as well. During the rest of the week I feel like I can ease up a bit and if I eat a little later, and kick the morning weigh-in up a bit, it is no big deal. Saturday is my weigh-in day, and that is the one that really counts. Today, I am only a half pound up from Saturday’s weigh-in and I ate late, and weighed earlier. When I drink a lot of water, when I weigh is very important. When I went to bed last night, I weighed 227. This morning it was 222.5. If I had slept a couple of more hours, I would have weighed even less, as I got rid of more of the water. I go through this large swing in weight from morning to night every day. Water is heavy, but it is easily lost. (As long as you can find a bathroom it is easy anyway.)

I have to load up on some zero point food for the road today. It’s back to work and I will be driving a lot. I need something to munch on that is OP. We were going to go out yesterday to pick some up but we never made it. So, I will be making a run to the store at lunch time to pick up some high fiber, low calorie food.

Off to face my Monday.

37 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/222.0/200/BMI:27.8/WK-5/Weight Loss Graph

Mr. Scale said, “222.0 pounds” this morning at 5:30 AM.

Yesterday was my first day back to work. It was a fairly quiet day as far as work was concerned. However, after I stopped at lunch and picked up some Romaine lettuce (their rhubarb was in terrible shape, so I did not get any) at Safeway, I found that something on the lettuce did not set well with my system. The next thing I know, I have to ask Dotti to stop and pick up some Kaopectate. That made things all better in a couple of hours. There may have been some chemicals on the lettuce leaves that did not settle well with me, since I did not have any way to wash them in the car. Lesson learned.

Other than that I was feeling pretty good, and ended up reorganizing my study a bit, so I could fit another chair in that I could use for reading. (My computer chair is not one that is comfortable for lounging in while reading a book.) I moved in an old chair that had been in our living room for 12 years, and it is comfy.

For breakfast, I had my normal 5.0 points. For lunch I had a turkey sandwich (3.5pts) that Dot made for me, a Jell-O yogurt desert (1 pt) that she also made, and 2 chocolate meringues (1 pt), a cup of coffee with non-dairy creamer (1 pt), and a bunch of Velamints (3.0 pts). (Now Dotti tells me that there have been some complaints from those who have eaten a whole can of the Velamint Chocolates with what they do to the digestive system. So, this may have been the problem as well as, or instead of, the lettuce. I will make sure that I avoid both activities in the future. Lettuce will be washed, and Velamints will be taken in moderation only. I don’t want to go through that again.) For dinner we went to Subway and I had a 6 inch sub (6 pts) and then we stopped by the mall where I had a bowl of the low point Angel Food Cake ice cream (2 pts). That brought me up to total of 22.5 points.

My stomach was not really up to much more after my fun earlier, so I settled for drinking water the rest of the way. I ended up drinking 13 glasses of water (104 ounces or 6.5 pounds).

Dotti picked up some Romaine lettuce for me yesterday, and it is all nicely washed.So, today I will hopefully avoid the problems of yesterday.

37 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

PS as a health related issue, not connected to eating, my life was saved for a second time since we move to Portland, by assuming that there are idiots on the road and red lights are going to be run by them. Once in 1995 Dotti and I were going to a drive-in movie and a this guy in a large car, went sailing through a red light as if it were not even there. He was so busy talking with his passenger that he didn't realize that he had run it even after he was through. If I had just gone through the intersection as was my right with the green light, we would have been broad-sided for sure, killing me, and maybe killing Dotti who was on the other side from the approaching car.

Today it was a large dump truck, tall as an 18 wheeler. My light turned green, but as usual, as I took my foot off the brake, I looked both ways to see if everyone was going to stop. Well this truck was still coming, so I put the brake back on to watch him. All at once he realized that he had a red light, he slammed on his brakes, but it was way too late. He lit up his tires, the smoke just pouring into the air behind him, but he was through the intersection by 20 feet before he was going slow enough to where he could have stopped. As he passed by me, he looked at me with this forlorn look on his face, like he had just missed killing me and was so relieved that I had enough sense to watch out for him since he wasn't doing it himself. (How appropriate.) He stuck his hand out as if to say, "I am so sorry," as he went by. I couldn't decide if I wanted to kill him or feel sorry for him, so waited for the light to change to green again and drove on.

239.5/222.0/200/BMI:27.8/WK-5/Weight Loss Graph

At 5:15 AM, Mr. Scale said that I weighed 222.0 pounds.

Work days are a lot different from vacation days, besides in the obvious ways. First of all, I have to do the rush hour driving thing, morning and night. That is a time when I am most likely to stuff my face unthinkingly. Secondly, drinking water is limited, because I can end up in a restroom-free environment for hours. If it is a busy it day, I may end up skipping lunch altogether, but on a quiet day, I can be faced with boredom and all the eating challenges that can present, including the fact that there are candy machines, and other red light food outlets close at hand, which are not available at home. So, when I stay OP on a work day, I find it more satisfying, because it is more difficult for me.

Yesterday, morning I ate my normal breakfast, (5.0 pts) and then didn’t eat anything at all until lunch, at 11:30. But I did drink another cup of coffee. (1 pt). I took a little drive for lunch, listening to my audio tape, and started working on the stuff Dotti had packed for me in my lunch. I had two turkey sandwiches (3.5 pts), an orange (1.0 pt), a Jell-O-yogurt dessert that Dotti makes (1.0 pt), 2 chocolate meringues (1 pt), and 6 esspresso beans (1.0 pt). I also started munching on a head of Romaine lettuce. After all of that I was filled to the brim, and I had only eaten 8.5 points (including the morning coffee).

In the afternoon I drank 16 ounces of water slowly. When I got back on the road for home, traffic was worse than usual. It took me well over an hour to drive the 25 miles home, and I had to take a back road alternate to get around the halted freeway. I ate two cucumbers, and the rest of the lettuce on the drive. It cured my need to munch for zero points!

For dinner, I had 2 fried egg sandwiches (with the fat free mayonnaise only 2.0 pts), 14 asparagus spears (0 pts) and this new shake that Dotti made up from yogurt, ice, and who knows what else, that was very good. (3 pts). My dinner was only 5.0 points, and it brought my total for the day up to 18.5 points. So, when Dotti mentioned a Mr. Cookieface, I had one.(3.0 pts). Total for the day: 21.5 points.

My water was down, as it usually is on a work day. I only drank 11 glasses of water for a total of 88 ounces.

As the week is progressing, it looks like I am not moving on the scale, but that is not really true. This morning I weighed at just a bit after 5:00 AM. No waiting around for weigh-in. I did nothing special to prepare for weigh-in, I just hopped on the scale. On weigh-in days, I am very careful the night before how much I eat late. I wait until weigh-in time, which can make a big difference in what the scale says. With no frills or special efforts, I weighed the same this morning as I did on Saturday with the special weigh-in activities. That tells me that I have lost some weight, even if the scale is not sharing my secret just yet.Of course my weigh-in outfit is always the same, since I am weighing at home, and it weighs 14 ounces less than Dotti’s 14 ounce outfit.

I do miss my rhubarb, now that we can’t get any that is fresh and crisp. The cucumbers are good, and the lettuce is pretty good. But they don’t have the same “kick” as the rhubarb does. I will have to keep searching for a replacement.

According to the Bible if it had been raining as hard as it did for Noah, and for as long as I have been OP, we would all be swimming.This is my 40th day since starting the journey. I am very happy that I have not gone over my points even once during that time. My biggest failure during the journey so far, is my inability to get my points up to the level of the bottom of my range. I usually get close, but I have a very hard time forcing myself to eat something when I am not hungry. During the middle of the day, it would be much easier for me to go crazy on eating way over points than it would be for me in the evenings. Years ago, when I used to watch a lot of television in the evening, I would have trouble with over-eating, or smoking a whole lot of cigarettes. Now, I have not watched a new regular entertainment program created for television in over a decade. (I am even prouder of that than I am for quitting smoking, because I treasure my mind even more than my health, but I am not going to get into a long discussion on that topic.) So, since I am not trapped in front of the TV anymore, I am not tempted to sit and munch all evening long. That is a big plus. When I do watch something with Dotti, (usually old and prerecorded), I have low point popcorn for a snack, which is good for fiber, and not a problem for staying OP.

Well, I am off to face day 40. We are at midweek already. I am feeling really good about myself staying on track. The only thing that I am kind of in a hurry for is to drop below 220. That is a weight that has always been a bit of a challenge for me to get past. So, when I get down into the 210’s I will feel really good about being there.

39 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/222.0/200/BMI:27.8/WK-5/Weight Loss Graph

I am bit short on time this morning so this will have to be quick.

Mr. Scale said 221.5 when I got up and weighed at 5:40. I had not drunk my water until just before going to bed, when I put down 6 of the 8 glasses that I drank for the day. So, I was happy that I could get rid of all that and end up down a half pound this morning.

My day was quiet again at work and those are my toughest days. Still things worked out OK. I had my normal breakfast (5pts) and my lunch included 2 sandwiches (4 pts), an orange (1 pt), 2 cucumbers (0 pts), a Romaine heart (0 pts), 6 espresso beans (1 pt), and 2 chocolate meringues (1 pt). I also had 2 cups of coffee at work (2 pts), and a bag of Jolly Time Healthy Pop popcorn (2.0 pts). For the work day that was 11.0 points, and with breakfast that brought me up to 16 points. For dinner I had a bowl of Cream of Wheat (2.0 pts) and 6 pieces of French toast for 3.5 points. That was a 5.5 points dinner, and brought me up to 21.5 points for the day.

I ended up on the computer answering some email, and the next thing I knew, it was time for bed. I had not drunk the water that I wanted to yet so I put six more glasses down on the spot. I hate drinking water that late in the evening, but that is one of my goals, to get my water in.

Well, I am off to face Thursday. (Where has the week gone?)

40 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/222.0/200/BMI:27.8/WK-5/Weight Loss Graph

A bit later in the day...

I couldn’t believe it when, in reorganizing my study the other day, I stumbled across an old graph (please see the Al on a Diet Graph) that I had made of my weight each month, over a five and one half year period of time. I transferred the information on it from the graph paper over to a graph I drew up in MS Paint on the computer and then put it up for all to see. It really gives a window into how my weight situation has been in the past. (It is nice to finally have the tools to get off that roller coaster!)

The graph starts on the first day of October, 1990, which is the month that I quit smoking. It covers the entire time that I was off cigarettes for my 5 year quit, right up until I started smoking again.

Just before I quit smoking I had been running a couple of miles a day, and was feeling like I was in pretty good shape. I was under my goal weight of 200 pounds, and things were looking pretty good, except for the fact that I was smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day. So, I quit smoking.

I tried to keep running but as my weight exploded on me, my knees began to hurt and swell up when I ran. I had to give it up. When my weight broke 220 on its way up, I attempted to rein it in. I bounced up to 226, but pulled it back down to just under 220. In June of 1991, my weigh bounded up to 229 pounds. I worked hard to get it back down to 220 in July, and even fought it down 212 for 3 months. Thanksgiving pushed it back up to 224 again and that was when I decided to bite the bullet and "go on a diet."

When I am in that frame of mind, it seems like nothing can stop me, except success. I dropped from 224 all the way down to 192. I stayed below 200 for a total of 5 months, and then I just gave up. My will power could not be used to maintain, what it had no trouble reaching. In 4 months I had climbed to 225 pounds, and in another 11 months, my weight had climbed up to 237. After another year went by, I was up to 239 pounds. As usual, when I bump up against 240 pounds something always pulls me back, and my weight held in the mid to upper 230s for several months, until once again I went on a diet. You can see the traditional relatively quick loss of weight from 236 down to 207 in 5 months. I was playing racquetball at least 3 times a week, during this time, and I was counting my calories religiously. The chart ends here, but I know my weight continued to drop into the 190s again, but all at once my racquetball opportunities dried up and I was left floundering. Yet once again my weight crept up, and by the time that I got around to quitting smoking again, my weight climbed all the way back up toward 240.

After using the last three years for stabilizing my life as a non-smoker, I finally reached the point where I was ready to start my journey. This time, I am not on a diet. This time I am changing my lifestyle, and establishing a way of eating that is not based upon deprivation, but upon healthy, and correct eating. I am now looking at a way of life that will not be a struggle, and will not be painful to continue for the rest of my life. It is great to be getting the benefits of being "on a diet," without having all of its negative consequences adding up day after day until they overwhelm me.

I have organized my journey into different phases or compartments. I am totally focused upon keeping the number of points that I eat each day below my upper number of my range. All else is subordinate to that at this time. So, far this one goal is being met every day.

Areas that need work and I am attempting to improve on, include:

1. Drinking plenty of water each day. (I am doing pretty well on this one too.)

2. Getting a larger quantiy of healthy food into my eating regime.

3. Getting more exercise into my life, as a routine.

4. Keeping my points also above the lower limit of my range.

This is the way my mind works. I focus on one thing until I am comfortable with it, and then move to the next item. I am of course attempting to do all of these items right now, but my priorities are such that my upper limit is number one, and drinking my water is the next important to me.

As I grow more comfortable with each item, I can continue to accomplish that item, with less effort on my part, as I am doing with smoking right now. (I do not smoke, and I do not think about smoking. If it comes up at all, it is quickly and easily pushed aside. The effort required not to smoke is very small indeed, freeing up my resources to focus on other things.)

Here is my plan. I hope to work down the list, and improve each item to the point where I will consider it to be in the good category, and hopefully have it so ingrained in my daily routine that I will no longer have to even think about it. My non-smoking is there already. My total daily points eaten, are getting there. It is still taking an effort to organize my eating so as to keep it below the upper limit. I am not straining, or in pain, but I must be ever alert to what I am doing. When I am comfortable with that, then I will swing my focus on to the next item on the list.

Of course it will be a lifelong task to maintain my nonsmoking status, and my correct eating habits, but I am striving to make it a task that I can feel confident of completing each day. I feel more and more sure that the day will come when I will be just as comfortable with eating right, as I am with being smoke free today.

-Al-

Mr. Scale said, “221.5” when I stepped up on him today. After all the late night water I drank yesterday I was happy to see that I was able to get rid of it by morning.

Yesterday, I ate a total of 24.0 points, and I drank a total of 96 ounces of water. The only thing new that I added, that I hadn’t eaten the last few days, was a banana (2 pts).

My day was quiet, and things were slow at work. So, I spent some time looking around the message boards. It may be the last time I do that for a while. Staying within the guidelines of the message board, precluded my responding to two different things, from two people that I saw there. I started debating on dial-up messages boards in the early 1980s, before the Internet became readily available. I continued that tradition for years by mixing it up on Internet political debating message boards, and writing articles on many controversial topics. So, it is tough for me to keep my opinions to myself. But for Dot’s sake, and the sake of the others here I will “play nice.”I do plan to continue to post my daily journal, as long as it continues to be a positive experience for me, as it is now. If it comes to where it isn’t, I will move my daily journal offline and continue it there. I have found that writing in the morning about what I did the day before, is very helpful in keeping me on track. I don’t want to have to write something negative down.

In the car when I am driving to work, etc., I am now listening to the audio book Atlas Shrugged (38 - 90 minute- tapes long), and have about 8 tapes left before I reach the end. I have found it to be an interesting piece of fiction. The author is verbose, and repetitious, but she has some interesting points to make.

The only thing I hate about a good book, that I really enjoy listening to, is when it comes to the end and I have to find another book, to match its entertainment or content value. On some books, I just turn around and start them over, immediately listening to them again. (The C.S. Lewis trilogy - Out of the Silent Planet, Paralandra, and The Hideous Strength, is one such example.)

Back to eating. I have been saving some of my lunch for the drive home. The last couple of days, I have had some lettuce and two cucumbers to eat on the drive. That has made the drive much easier to get through for me. Years ago, I used to go through cigarette after cigarette when I was stuck in stop-and-go traffic. Then, before I started my journey, I was using Hall’s Cherry cough drops, eating them like candy. I think what I am doing now is much healthier.

Tomorrow is weigh-in. As long as something doesn’t upset my eating, and water drinking routine today, it should show at least some loss. It may or may not be as good as the previous weeks (I have gotten very little exercise this week) but it should at least show a loss. Tomorrow will tell.

41 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/222.0/200/BMI:27.8/WK-5/Weight Loss Graph

Some additional thoughts...

When I look at my journey, I think the biggest danger is for me to try and look at the whole thing all at once. Sort of like they tell you when you are walking along a shaky footbridge over a deep canyon, “Don’t look down!” Well, on weight loss, it is “Don’t look at the whole thing!” It is wise to just look at the next bite size piece (no pun intended ). If at the beginning, I had looked at a 40 pound loss, I would have said, “Wow! That is an awful lot to lose. “ I could have easily got caught up in the size of the entire task rather than what I am going to do today. The thing is really, either I am going to stay on this journey for the rest of my life, or I am not. If I do stay on it, I know that I will get my weight down to a healthy level and keep it there for the rest of my life. If I do not stay on it, then when I go off of it, I will increase my weight back up to at least 240 pounds again. Those are the only two choices I have. Now, what difference does it make in the long run, whether I lose 40 pounds quickly or slowly? In reality, it does not matter one little bit. There is no real hurry. The ONLY important thing is, whether or not I remain OP today. I can do that. It is within my power to make that happen. Short of amputation, I can’t possibly lose 40 pounds today. For me it is counter productive to worry about what I have no control over, rather than focusing upon what I do have control over.

When I take a physical journey across country, I know that I will be driving over 3,000 miles, but all I can focus on is the stretch of road I am on right now. I can deal with the cars around me, and the road conditions right here. I would never dream of trying deal with all the road conditions on all 3,000 miles of the trip all at once. I know that if I proceed down the road, and continue for all 3,000 miles I will reach my destination. My job is do what I can do today, to move along on my journey, one day’s worth. If it gets tough, I can chop it down to my job for one hour, or one minute. How much time do you have really? It comes an instant at a time and no more.

I look over my 5 year struggle shown on that weight loss chart, and it was like trying to keep my head above water without knowing how to swim. I would get my weight down, and it would go right back up. I am only doing a dog paddle now, but I am swimming. I will develop more sophisticated strokes as the years go by, but dog gone it I can finally swim!

-Al-

*** Weigh-in for WEEK 6 ***

Week Completed:	__6__
Weigh-In Weight:	220.0
Body Mass Index:	27.5
Week’s Average Points/Day:	22.4
Pounds lost this week:	2.0
Pounds lost total:	19.5
Pounds to go to 10%:	4.5
Pounds to go to goal:	20.0

Another week down, and 2 more pounds are gone. I am sitting right at the halfway point between where I started and where I am going. I have averaged just over 3.5 pounds per week lost, but the first week makes that look high. If we just look at the last 5 weeks I have averaged 2.4 pounds per week. I am standing on the threshold of the 2-teens and I hope that next week I will be there.

Now that I am halfway home, I am beginning to think about what the future holds. What about maintenance? And what weight will I finally settle on as the right weight? 190? 185? What will my body settle in at and be comfortable with? What will be the burning inspiration that I will need to be excited about staying where I am? These are all questions that remain to be answered.

According to the West Virginia Dietic Association web site my ideal weight is about 196 pounds. That seems about right. However, I know that the Navy always required me to be 190 pounds or less in order to meet its percent of body fat requirements. I also know that when I have gotten my weight down into the 170s I look unhealthy. Of course what I went through that drove my weight down that low might have had something to do with it. So, I expect that the future days, that find me under my goal weight, will be days of exploration, and experimentation, searching for what is the right weight for me, and what is the right way to remain excited about being there. First things first. I have another 20 pounds to drop just to get to goal.

Yesterday found me busy at work for a change. However, I did get to eat my lunch as I drove all the way from the Eastern Portland suburbs (Gresham), to the Western Portland suburbs (Hillsboro), because a customer had a problem I had to look at. I was on my feet and doing things, including some lifting, and that was nice for a change. It had been mostly a non-physical week before that.

My total points yesterday were 19.0. I felt filled and comfortable. And the day before weigh-in I always like to take it easy. I have been hanging out near the bottom of my range, usually just below it. I should bring it up just a few points, but when I am not hungry, I have a hard time forcing myself to eat. I have always kept in the back of my mind the lower limit of 18 points. I have that as a lower threshold that I will not go below. Even if I am not hungry, I will eat something to push it up over that level. So far, I have been consistently at or above 19.0 points per day, but I think that I will attempt to move my lower threshold to 22.0 points. That is the lower end of the range for where I want to end up (175-199 pounds) and so it should be a fairly safe and realistic bottom (absolutely don’t go below) number.

My breakfast and lunch were pretty much the same as I have been eating, but for dinner Dotti made three tomato sandwiches for only 2 points, and an awesome 32 fluid ounce fake blizzard (blend 2tbsp sugar free pudding dry mix, 1 cup skim milk, with enough ice and water for desired consistency and to make it a full 32 ounces) and for only 3 points. It was a great 5.0 point meal!

For water yesterday, I drank 104 ounces (6.5 pounds). I stopped drinking completely at 9:00 PM, because of weigh-in today. If I drink water late at night, I have to wait later in the morning before I get rid of it. This morning I weighed-in at 5:45 AM and was still down 2.0 pounds. On other days I don’t care so much about what my morning weight is. Also, I may be up in the middle of the night some if I am drinking right up until bedtime, but I can go right back to sleep, and it doesn’t bother me at all.

Next weekend we get to visit our friends Jim and Tammy. In fact I will be weighing in just before we hit the road. Hopefully I will be in the 2-teens when I get up there.

Well, Dot and I are off to play racquetball.

42 days OP, a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

239.5/220.0/200/BMI:27.5/WK-6/Weight Loss Graph