Week 87 Update

As I started my 610th day of my journey, I stepped on Mr. Scale at 04:45 and he said, "185.0 pounds!" The thermometer outside had water on it, which means our string of dry sunny days is over, but the temperature was above freezing at 36°, which is always a plus when precipitation is coming down.

This week passed through a sad day for me, as the 9th of January marked the 30th anniversary of my father's death. I was 21, married, with a son who had just turned one a few days before, but on the dark and rainy day of the funeral I stood by his grave with tears running down my cheeks, my hand on his coffin, saying goodbye, and I remember it like it was yesterday. A couple of weeks ago I stopped by my father's grave to pay my respects and the thought that it had been 30 years was heavy on my heart. You have to take what life dishes out, but some things are harder than others.

This has been a "hands on" week for my maintenance journey, as I got out and did some exercise. While my knees have not been completely quiet about it, they have been more cooperative this week. I have been wrapping my left knee every day, and on Thursday I wrapped them both before going to the gym. It has helped quite a bit.

We made it to the gym twice this week and I got in some walking on 4 other days. Getting in 6 exercise periods is a lot for me these days. I even boosted my aerobic points up to 28, just 2 points short of my weekly goal of 30. That is pretty close to where I want to be. If I can just maintain it for an extended length of time it will be great.

Dotti and I had a great walk last Saturday, to Subway, then Starbucks and back home. It was a comfortable pace, but it was 4 miles long, so it still added up a few points. On Sunday we went to the gym and I got in an hour of volleyball. It was the most jumping that I had done in many years, and when I was done, my clothes were soaked with sweat, letting me know that I had had a good workout. Monday was a day off from exercise, but Tuesday I walked two miles at lunch. I didn't push it too hard, at 33:50 for my time. On Wednesday, I did it a bit faster at 30:38. Thursday we went to the gym and since the gymnasium part was all tied up, I got on the treadmill for 30 minutes. Even after the time I wasted getting the thing up to speed at first, I still got in 2.07 miles in 30:00 minutes. My top speed was 4.8 mph, and my slowest was 4.3 once I got it up to speed. I didn't try to push it as fast as I could go, because I wanted to last for 30 minutes. On Friday, I was debating whether or not I should take a rest day, but I just couldn't resist the sunny weather we have been having, and at lunch I walked 2 miles in 31:55.

There is a shady strip of sidewalk that runs up a hill right up to my turn around spot, at the one-mile point in my walk, where the temperature always drops sharply. I am glad to get out of that area and into the sun as I head back. Even though the sun has been out this week, there has been ice in the shady areas on some days, and yesterday there was a stiff breeze which had me putting on my knit hat and my gloves for the entire walk.

This morning my knees are aching some, but I think they will be okay for our trip to the gym today.

For eating, I had a couple of issues to deal with this week. First off was all of the exercise. It has disrupted my normal flow for how much to eat to maintain close to 185 pounds. I have had some swelling in my hands as I have retained water. The second issue was early in the week my back was acting up from something I did on Friday. I am not even sure what it was, but on Saturday morning it was hurting, and by Monday it was really unpleasant. So, I took so Advil for the pain for several days. By Wednesday it was feeling better and I so I didn't have to take anymore meds for it.

Saturday I weighed in at 184.5. As I said last week, I was going to see what 47 points did, so I ate 47.0 points. On Sunday, my weight was up to 185.0 pounds. I ate 46.5 points. Monday morning, my weight jumped up to 187.0, so I ate 38.0 points. Tuesday I fell back to 186.0 pounds, so I tried eating 46.0 points. Wednesday I was at 185.0 pounds. I ate 42.5 points, and it put me back up to 185.5 on Thursday. I held it to 44.0 points and Friday morning I held steady at 185.5. I felt like I could eat up to 43.0 points with no problem on Friday, but I had had enough at 38.5 points. Dotti was making some of her tea and offered to make me a cup of cocoa, and that sounded good. So, I added the extra point for that, and ended up with 39.5 points for the day. This morning it brought me back to 185.0.

One other good thing about this week was that I only had one day where I ate anything in the car on my drive either to or from work, and that one day was only 2.5 points total. That is a big improvement!

My hope is that with all the exercise, I will be reshaping my body, so that even though I will not lose any more weight, I will be able to move down to 34-inch waist pants entirely, and comfortably. I can wear them now but they are not really comfortable when I am sitting. The 36's are comfortable, but they are baggy everywhere else but my waist. So, I need to pull in the waist while not losing any weight. I think the exercise should be able to do that for me. Time will tell.

The exercise, and the Advil impacted my points-per-day average, knocking it down from 49.64 last week to 43.43 this week. My average weight moved up slightly at the same time from 185.29 to 185.50. Still, I was able to get the exercise in while holding fairly steady on my weight, which I was happy to see.

My water consumption shot up this week! Last week I averaged 59.43 fl oz each day, but this week, I averaged 109.71. It nearly doubled!

1 year, 244 days OP, a lifetime to follow

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/185.0/185±2/BMI:23.12/WK-87
Weight Loss Graph/Year 1 Maint. Graph/Year 2 Maint. Graph/Success Story