Week 92 Update

It was 47° at 06:45 when I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, "186.0!" I was happy to see that, because I went to bed 3.5 pounds heavier than that, and I wasn't up and down using the restroom all night. So, I was a little concerned that I would have some water weight or something holding the scale up out of my target range. As it turned out, I was only one pound over my target weight, and well within my target range, so I am quite happy with that!

It was an interesting week. Exercise played a big part in that I injured my calf muscles last week Friday. So, on Saturday I took a day off from the gym, thinking that the rest would give me a chance to heal up. However, I then made a big mistake on Sunday.

I started the day off at the gym by trying to loosen up the sore calves. I showed up early for my trainer's session and walked 1.5 miles in 21:42 on the treadmill. During the walk, my calf muscles started off sore, but came around fairly quickly and felt pretty good during the walk. That was what I was shooting for, so I was happy. Then I did my workout with my trainer. It was an "upper body" workout, and so there was no strain on my calves. However, after I had sat at a machine and did a couple of sets of exercises, the calf muscles tightened up, and it hurt to walk to the next machine. This went on throughout the entire workout. Originally we had scheduled another round of basketball for some cardio exercise after the workout but we agreed that would not be a good idea with my calve muscles being so tight.

I headed off to the treadmill again after my workout to see if I could work some of that soreness out. Once again the muscles responded well to the walking. They loosened right up and I walked 2 miles in 27:11 minutes (for a rate of 4.4 mph). As I was walking along on the treadmill, and I had my speed up to 4.7 for a while, my trainer walked by with his next customer, and said, "You are doing great, stretching those muscles out!" That was exactly what I was thinking at the time. My legs felt great during the walk.

When I got home, Dotti said that her training session had been moved up to 1:00 PM and so, I had about hour or so to rest before we headed back to the gym. My calves were really tightening up whenever I sat down for a few minutes. (I really should have stayed home!) In spite of the warning signals, I went anyway. I told myself that I was going to walk at a slow pace while Dotti went through her weight training session. Unfortunately, I tend to drift up to a not-so-slow pace whenever I walk and the next thing you know I am over 4.0 mph again. In 56:24 I covered 4 miles. (That came out to 4.26 mph, even with the slow warm up that I went through on the front end of the walk.)

When I got home, I realized that I had made a mistake. My calf muscles really hurt anytime that I stood up. Putting my heel all the way to the floor was extremely painful. I was walking around on my tiptoes to keep the stress off of the calf muscles. I tried taking some Advil, and had Dotti rub some Sportscream onto the rebelling muscles. All to no avail. Each time that I had to get up all evening and well into the night, my legs were crying out in anger against what I had done to them. I was seriously concerned that I would have to call in sick to work on Monday morning, because I would not be able to walk.

However, Monday morning, Dotti rubbed in more of the heating rub into my muscles, and I took some more Advil. It was looking like I might be able to make it in to work, and then I put on my walking shoes, rather than my safety shoes. That was the final touch that did the trick for me. All at once I could walk again. (The shoes have just a bit of a incline to them, where the heal is higher than the toe, which put just a bit less stress on the calves.) It was painful walking up the long flights of stairs at work, but I made it through the day.

Each day after that things got better. I did no exercising on Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday I was feeling good enough in the morning to where I was going to try a walk at lunch, but when lunchtime came around, my calves were aching again enough to convince me to give it one more day of rest.

Thursday I was still wearing my walking shoes into work, and I put them to good use at lunch. I walked 2 miles in 27:53, or 13:56 per mile (4.3 mph). My legs felt good the rest of the day, but in the morning on Friday, the calves were aching some. However, after my shower they felt much better. At lunch I walked another 2 miles and this time it took 28:16 (14:08 per mile or 4.25 mph). I started out a bit slower because my legs felt just a bit tight at first, but by the end I was feeling pretty good.

This morning my calves felt pretty good, but my left knee was feeling a bit sore. Not too bad though.

For aerobic points, it was very lopsided the way they were added up because of the injury to my calves. On Sunday I earned over 21 and a half points. Then I didn't earn any until Thursday, and Friday when I earned about 5 and half each day. I was happy to reach my goal for the week of 30 aerobic points, but I would have like to have done it in a less unbalanced manner. Hopefully I can have a more balance approach this week.

Weight and Eating

Although my actual weigh-in weight this week did not change, my average weight did increase from 185.21 to 185.93. That is a bit higher than I want, but it is well within my target range. My average points per day increased from 45.79 to 47.00. It would seem that I need to bring that down just a shade in order to pull my average weight down a bit. However, I don't think that I am too far off the mark of where I need to be for my daily points.

Last Saturday, I weighed 186.0 pounds. I ate 49.5 points, and held steady on Sunday's weigh-in at 186.0. So, I ate 50.0 points on Sunday. I dropped a half pound to 185.5 pounds. :) I think the exercise I was getting last week, and what I got on Sunday had my metabolism working pretty well. However, after Sunday, for 3 days I did no exercise. Monday I ate 47.0 points, and my weight jumped on Tuesday to 186.5. Of course I took Advil on Sunday and Monday, which had something to do with the jump I am sure (and that also impacted my overall average weight for the week). Since I have set my target point value at 47.0, I ate 47.5 with little concern that I would gain any more on Wednesday, especially since I had stopped taking the Advil. However, on Wednesday, I held steady at 186.5. That shook my confidence just a bit, and I cut my points back to 46.0. On Thursday my weight dropped to 185.5. That was more like it. On Thursday my eating routine was modified by the way the day went. I ended up eating fewer points during the day, and by the time things had settled out, I had only eaten 42.0 points. On Friday, my weight held steady at 185.5. Based on how the week had gone, and the fact that I had taken a walk on both Thursday and Friday, I was feeling very confident that I was safe for my weigh-in today when I ate 47.0 points yesterday. As it turned out, the scale did bump up a half pound but fortunately I had some wiggle room above where I was at yesterday. :)

For my water intake, I did okay on every day but Sunday. I am skeptical that I only drank 3 cups on a day that earned 21.56 aerobic points. :lol I probably just forgot to write it down. However at this point there is no way to know for sure. In any case, even counting only 3 cups for Sunday, I still averaged over 7 cups a day.

On the book front, I am over halfway through The Hobbit and it is has been a lot more fun to read this time than the last I read it years ago. Being familiar with the LOTR series, fills in a lot of the background for this story, and brings it to life in a new way.

1 year, 279 days OP, a lifetime to follow

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/186.0/185±2/BMI:23.25/WK-92
Weight Loss Graph/Year 1 Maint. Graph/Year 2 Maint. Graph/Success Story