Week 01 - July 1, 2009

Week 1 will be an immediate challenge, with an out of town funeral on my weigh in day and the Independence Day holiday.

Wednesday, July 1

We lost a longtime family friend this past weekend to cancer at age 71. The funeral was today in northern Minnesota, with plenty of good food, even an open bar. As always, I could have done better than 54 Flex Points, but trust me, I could have done far worse!

Thus, since my Daily Goal is 37 points, I used 17 of my 35 Weekly Points. That's what they're for, but I also have the Fourth of July to consider.

Thursday, July 2

Today was one of those "half day off" days at the office you see ahead of long holiday weekends, what with Friday being observed as the Independence Day holiday. I also had to get to Weight Watchers tonight, unable to go yesterday or this morning.

So, while I took the bus to work as planned, I walked home in the afternoon. Actually, my route took me past my pharmacy where I got refills, past Target to get a bottle of water, then on to Weight Watchers, then home. All told, I earned 16 Activity points. I didn't spend any as I hit my 37 point Daily Goal exactly.

Friday, July 3

Having the day off, I headed to the Linden Hills neighborhood near Lake Harriet for another installment of my quest to walk every street in Minneapolis. I'm perhaps 35-40% done already. It was hot enough to indulge in a homemade ice cream cone and I brought home some great bread from the Great Harvest bread store there. That and mowing the yard later earned me 19 Activity points.

Ah, but the bread was good and I overdid it, ending at 55 points, spending my last 18 Weekly Points. So now, I'm pretty much even, having 35 Activity Points to spend instead of 35 Weekly Points.

The Journey Resumes

A bit over three years ago I joined Weight Watchers. A year later I was down over 75 pounds. Since then I've wandered, between 50 and 75 pounds down, lately a little below that. But throughout, I never missed a meeting. That's what kept those pounds off.

A few months ago, the meeting topic of "Anchoring" really struck home. I had new life, but apparently at the wrong time, going into the holidays, then a two week vacation, then perhaps the most intense two months at work I can remember. But those projects are done and the weather is waiting for me to enjoy.

Anchoring said to remember what worked and do it again. That's what anchors are, reminders of past success. In my case, it was clearly this blog, my daily journal. I had slowly allowed it to get boring, even an annoyance, especially when once the results leveled off.

I archived and cleared the blog of the history, still a rich treasure trove of information and experience. I am making one change, however, making weekly posts that I'll update multiple times a week. I think this will help me make this more about my personal journey, rather than a newsletter. It's easy to preach before the goal is reached, so that has to stop. Instead, the "newsletter" portion needs a different home, more of an A to Z reference from Activity Points to Zucchini. So, I will be setting up a separate web site for these topics that will be linked on this blog.

I'm also making another change, to track whole pounds only. Oh, I'll report the official Weight Watcher results, which are to the nearest 0.2 pound, but after that I'll round down to the just the integer.

Thus, while I start anew at 270.4 pounds, down 47.8 pounds from my starting weight of 318.2 pounds, I am now down 48 pounds from 318 pounds at 270 pounds even. I like the sound of that, and the fact I am restarting on the first day of a month, July 1, 2009.