Week 89 Update

I started out early this morning; probably wondering what the scale would say today. It was warm outside at 48° when I stepped up on Mr. Scale at 04:30 and he said, "185.5 pounds!" Just like last week.

My exercise fell off considerably this week, as I was ill at the start of the week. I managed to get started back on track the last couple of days, by walking at lunch. On Thursday I only walked 1.3 miles at a reduced pace, and took 22:38 (17:25 min/mile or 3.45 mph). At the end I felt a bit tired and was glad that I had held it down to the shorter distance. On Friday, I felt a bit more energetic and I walked the full 2 miles, but I still held the pace back a bit and took 32:58 to walk it. (16:29 min/mile or 3.6 mph) As it was I felt like I had had a good workout and would not have felt good going any faster. Today Dotti and I plan to go to the gym, and get the new week off to a good start.

Last Saturday, Dotti and I went to the coast. I did not feel well and was not up to doing much once we got over there. We stopped at one shop on the way to the motel, but that was the extent of our shopping or "site seeing" around the area. We moved into our room, and I spent the rest of the time right in front of the fireplace, soaking up the heat, watching the waves,

out the window, and listening to their soothing sound. (I took this picture originally to see if I could catch a view of the little birds that were scurrying near the water. It looks like I did. :^) )

As you can see from the picture (click on the thumbnail for a larger view), the tide was in when we arrived, which tends to cut off any long path for walking in the direction that we most like to go (towards the shops) and so we would have not been able to get going right away anyway. (One time, a couple of years ago, we took a fairly long walk up that beach, when the tide was out a bit, and it suddenly came in on us. We were nearly cut off from having a route back to our motel along the beach in a couple of places before we finally made it back, just ahead of the tide.) But since I was under the weather we just settled in for a rest.

We did a lot of reading while we were there. Dotti read 2 and half books about a guy who was abused as a child by his mother, who had no maternal feelings towards him, or even human feelings for that matter. Dotti related portions of the book to me when she came across something that was particularly outrageous that happened to him. It is a pity that things like that have to go on in this world.

I ended up reading in 3 different books too, but I did not finish any of them. :^) I read the last 3 chapters in The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins, and then I read some in Darwin's Black Box by Michael J. Behe. Dawkins book is ten years older and Behe's book is an attempt at refutation. I love reading the arguments that go back and forth on the science of origins. The ground has shifted seriously in the discussion over the last 30+ years that I have been following the debate, but I don't see it going away any time soon.

The third book I read from at the coast, I spent all of Sunday morning on. This is a book that I first discovered several years ago when I was at a customer's site and I found myself waiting in the technician's common area. On one of the desks I found this book and I started reading it. I was captivated immediately. Unfortunately it appeared to be a school text, and I didn't get the publisher before I had to leave off reading. Then one day, not too long ago, I stumbled across the book in a used book store and snapped it up immediately. The name of the book is Philosophy of Religion; An Anthology and was edited by Louis P. Pojman. It is filled with writing from some of the great minds of the past and present on the topic of religion, with many essays where the case is made for the assertion of the existence or non-existence of a deity. The chains of reasoning that they used are fascinating to me. The morning was over before I knew it, and it was time to check out of the motel and head for home.

I took my computer to the coast, "just in case" but I never even turned it on. Dotti didn't even take hers. It turned out to be a very pleasant and relaxing weekend, which both of us really needed.

For my eating this week...

On Saturday, I had 9.0 points for breakfast, 8.0 points in the car while driving the two hours to the coast, 20.0 points for lunch (at Subway too!), and 9.0 points for dinner. I also had 6.5 points for additional snacks in the motel room. That all added up to 53.0 points for the day. On Sunday, my weight stayed the same at 185.5, so I ate 53.5 points. Monday, my weight dropped a pound to 184.5. I thought to myself, "This is pretty cool!" So, I ate 53.5 points on Monday, and then reality set in. :( My weight jumped up to 187.5 on Tuesday. I squealed my tires on that day and only ate 39.0 points. Wednesday my weight dropped to 186.0. So, I was going to target around 47.0 points and overshot a bit eating 50.0 points. (My biggest mistake that day was when I was going to grab a snack from a vending machine, and the product was arranged a bit willy-nilly, and the labels are not directly under the product as with most machines. In any case, I pushed the wrong button and got a 5.0 point pack of Starburst, the wrong product, which I didn't want. I then pushed the correct button and got what I wanted, a 6.5 point Snicker's bar. Here is where I started going wrong. My first thought was to just leave the Starburst and let someone else have it. That would have been the smartest thing. I thought about throwing it away but that seemed wasteful. I then thought I would give to someone else... and you can see where this was leading. The next thing you know, I had eaten the planned for snack as well as the unplanned for snack. I don't do things like that often, and I was not happy with myself after I had done it. Hopefully it will be a good lesson for me.) Anyway, on Thursday, my weight was back up to 187.0. I was not a happy camper at this point. I ate 43.0 points and then on Friday my weight dropped to 186.0. I held my points to 39.0 and my weight dropped to 185.5 for my weigh-in.

The sudden change in my exercise level did so funny things to my appetite during the week. I drank a lot of water this week, averaging 106.29 ounces per day. On Tuesday, when I was eating only 39.0 points, I drank 21 cups (168 ounces; 1.3 gallons). That helped me keep my points down with no suffering at all. (I think that water is the nearly perfect food "patch.") I didn't drink as much water on Friday when I held my points down to 39.0 because I was very focused that day and was far more interested in getting my weight back on track than I was in eating. Some days are like that, where it is just easier than others.

My points-per-day average, moved down from 48.07 last week to 47.43 this week. My average weight moved up from 185.29 to 186.0.

My water consumption, as mentioned above moved up from 84.57 ounces last week to 106.29 ounces per day this week. Glub, glub. :^)

Since December 1, 2002 all of my daily weigh-ins averaged together come out to: 185.0 pounds. :D All of my daily points averaged together comes out to 46.6 points. That looks like my target point value is close to 46 or 47 points. Now we will see if the exercise drives that number up or down, or keeps it steady as she goes.

1 year, 258 days OP, a lifetime to follow

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/185.5/185±2/BMI:23.19/WK-89
Weight Loss Graph/Year 1 Maint. Graph/Year 2 Maint. Graph/Success Story