Exhaustion Besets My Choices (Evaluation: Week 19)

Last Weigh In: Saturday, 4 January 2014

Weight Information -

• Weight: 394.6 lbs
• Weight Change This Week: -3.2 lbs
• Weight Change To Date: -58.6 lbs
• Weight Gauge: Chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-Woo-Hoo!
• BMI: 61.8 (down from 62.3 last week)
• Daily PPV: 71 (unchanged - changes at approximately 370 lbs)
• PPV Used this Week: 133 out of 497
• PPV Not Used this Week: 364 (73.2%)

Current Goals -

• Number Goals
• Weight: 15% Weight Loss at 385.2 lbs (9.4 lbs away)
• BMI: Reach a value below 40.0 (21.8 away)
• PPV Not Used this Week: 364 (Beat goal by 147)
• Waist Goal: Lost another available hole in the belt. Currently at 5
• Feel Good Goal: Set up the house. Get in the water with the kids
• Physical Goal: Walk upright up the stairs of my house every time
• The Y: Go to three aquatics classes and work on the bicycle machine once next week
• Axiom: Visit nearest Axiom. Determine if switching to Axiom is a good idea. Considerations:
• Reduced distance (9 miles vs 17 miles one way)
• Price ($20 / month according to billboard. How long?)
• Pool access (Do they have pools? Which locations?)
• Family friendly
• Alternatives? Nampa Rec Center, Meridian's pools dates, subdivision pools (any indoors?)
• Weight Watchers:
• Make a meal plan with the PPV's worked out for one day to serve as a fall back
• Use the paper tracker to record calculated points every day this week
• Change available PPV from 41 to 26 for my daily points instead of 71
• Range of PPV in past has varied between 6 and 18 points. Keep range to 4 points except while fasting.
• Avoid using 49 weekly points. Daily points leave 45 available every day. That's 315 left over points available per week
• Attend at two meetings this week. Scheduled for Wednesday and Saturday
• Overeaters Anonymous: 
• Attend two meetings this week. Scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday
• Read Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of the AA Big Book.
• Perform moral inventory for Step 4.
• Never Ceases to Amuse Me Blog
• Journal 300 out of 365 days
• Write a weekly Expansionist Knowledge article
• Sticky Notes
• Be active for 5 minutes out of every sedentary hour
• Put down the fork and sip water between bites
• Get to Bed!

Additional Goals -

• Lifetime Goal: I am losing weight so I can live, laugh, learn, and love longer while at my wife's side.
• Long-term goals: I am losing weight and maintaining it over the course of years so that I can...
• Attend every kid's sealing: Horse (coming up in April), Asian Red Fox, Jaguar, Iguana, Lemur, and Quail
• Bike, swim, walk, play, and otherwise be active with my kids and my future grand kids
• Comfortably fit into a pair of pants that can be purchased at Wal-Mart, Shopko, JC Penney’s, etc.
• Wrap my largest belt around me twice to be able to use it.
• Intermediate goals: I am losing weight over the course of the next several months so I can...
• Stand comfortably during lectures, seminars, etc and not feel extreme pain in my ankles, knees, hips, and arches.
• Recover from long day of work in one good night’s sleep
• Handle stresses better
• Be more attractive to MBWM
• Short-term goals: I am losing weight today so that I can...
• Take charge of this part of my life today
• Abstain from compulsive eating behaviors today
• Have the warm fuzzies of today's successes available for tomorrow stresses and strains

Evaluation:

• Weight Watcher's Awards this week -
• Bravo - For being the first one to attend on the traditionally busiest week for Weight Watchers
• Number Goals: Direction feels wonderful. Quantity feels great. I have found that passing 2 ponds in a week is the demarcation for me between weight loss and exciting weight loss.
• Waist Goal: Belt is comfortable and effective at 5 available holes. 6 is ineffective. 4 is uncomfortable.
• Feel Good Goal: Making progress here and there. The Christmas tree is down, which made rearranging furniture and boxes easier. I simply have to make the Y for the family happen: Schedule It! Do It!
• Physical Goal: Still need to pull myself up the stairs but I am getting better at it.
• The Y Goal: To borrow from Nike: Just Do It!
• Axiom Goal: Starts Monday
• WW Goal: Still need to make a meal plan for one single day. Excited to have a short numeric range to hit for a target.
• OA Goal: Reading has increased but not making much progress. Inventory goal starts on Tuesday.
• Blogging Goal: Posted for 4 out of 4 days this year. Article 1 posted. Articles 2 through 4 are in various stages of progress. Article 2 and Article 3 needs quite a bit of attention ahead of posting.

This has been a good week. It is keeping me going in the right direction. While I didn't hit the Y one day, I still exercise at the Y four days. I am not sure about using the Meridian Y. The standard bicycle machine had me hurting in new ways that I am still feeling. But the distance to the Y I like is daunting. Food selection has moved to be heavier on the vegetables. I have enjoyed that. I am still excited to hit goals that are ahead of me.

Looking Forward:

• Stay on program with Weight Watchers, especially keeping the daily points consumed to 24 - 28 PPV.
• Adjust food selection gradually away from the strict low carb / low fat options to round out the diet a little more. Increasing the veggie consumption would be a great option to commence this transition.
• Keep on track with swimming laps and using the exercise machines.
• Hold onto the joyful feelings of this day to get me through the the times of lesser success.

IVCUFI:
I have found the way (IV) to eat and exercise while stressed out.

I have seized the road (CU) and laid claim to ever marathon mile, uphill, downhill, flat stretches, and all other geographic variations that roads take.

I am enjoying the journey (FI) as I continue to lay claim to success in every meal, every exercise, every hour, and every week.

Post Number: 91

Review of Yesterday's Progress

     Daily Points Left: 59 of 71 (Goal: 31)

     Weekly Points Left: 49 of 49 (Goal: 49)

     Pedometer Reading: 4063

     Meetings Attended: Weight Watchers

     Exercise Completed: None Scheduled

     M-W's Daily Word: Scrutinize

Right now, I am able to diet and exercise amid stresses. But at this stage, diet and exercise add to my stresses, not aid them. I know that time will make things work out. I have the fortitude to make it through the challenges. I know this because I am survived yesterday on four hours of sleep. And while exhaustion did beset my beleaguered body, I managed to pull off good choices. I don't feel these choices are necessarily habit yet. But I do feel that I am gaining the experience necessary to be able to make better decisions in stressful situations.

Amid the stress reducing events of yesterday, Horse and her fiance Squirrel showed up unannounced. This meant rearranging our schedule for Saturday through Tuesday. But we are happy to see them. They have been taking advantage of the opportunity to surge of visits to friends and family in the area.

You may have noticed a surge in postings. The primary purpose behind that surge was to explore the time stamp of the posts. But an ulterior motive is to make my next article post number 100 as Blogger records them. I am still numbering the journaling posts separately and have yet to hit 100, though it is getting close quickly.

And with the exhaustion of yesterday behind me, I have taken to enjoying the time I have with my daughter and her husband-to-be.

Yours in the wonderful experiences family brings made all the more so because they are family, after all,

Eliot

P.S.: If you were to look into my High School Yearbook from when I was a Senior (Go Clippers!), you would read a statement below my picture that I enjoy even now: Live, Laugh, Love, and Learn. If you read my Long-term Goals, you will see this phrase woven into it. Entire vistas in these expressions have opened up to me since writing in my journal daily. May we all -

Live Life Fully, even among the minutiae,

Laugh More Often, through all our smiles and tears,

Love More Deeply, everyone that we meet and greet, and

Learn with Eager Vigor, that we will expand the horizon we are facing.

NOTES
Weight Watchers, 4 January 2014

What was going through your mind as you waited for the meeting to start

• How much did I gain?
• Still lost over the holiday 
• Came in anyway - weigh in, take it, move on
• Simple Start works great
• Excited for the meeting

Simple Start

• Came about from market research because people said, "Just tewll us what to eat."
• Cultural -> year resolution, WW -> Week resolution
• Simple start: can be a big change
• 2 weeks of meals built from good for you power foods
• Because of which foods are available, you don't have to be concerned with how much
• includes occasional indulgences

Power foods - What do you like? (page 6)

• English muffins
• omelets and toast
• all food groups listed

Recipes (page 8) are more meal ideas that are way to throw meals together

Don't have to watch how much. Why?

• more fiber
• lower calories
• lower fat and sugar
• aren't going to kick off hedonic hunger

Should I switch? It's for anyone: Simple Start or Simple Re-Start

Each day, indulge.

• Use 7 PPV each day, only track those 7
• It's easy to remember what you've eaten for indulgences in one day

Shopping list on the back

Why do I like the idea of starting simple?

• Switch it up
• Gets results
• Slack on tracking and won't hurt
• Organized for you, less thinking
• Mix and match
• Something new

What will it take for you to get off to a simple start in January?

• Get on treadmill
• Make my "New Week's Resolution"
• Stick to exercise plan

Commit to simple changes

"The beginning is always today." - Mary Shelley