Yes, this is one of my home-cooked meals.
I spent most of the last three weeks bouncing against a weight plateau, with my weight going up and down over a 3- to 4-lb range; checking around on the ‘net indicated that this isn’t unusual. Complicating things was that I spent eight days on the road (with my wife), visiting family in Utah and staying in hotels. This made keeping to the diet a bit trickier, though I think I did a decent job; still, my cheat day last Saturday spilled over a bit into Sunday as we tried to make it across Wyoming and were stopped by an accident that shut down I-80 eastbound for several hours. We ran into a similar problem on Monday (having spent the night in Wyoming), but finally made it home about 20 hours later than planned. Another complication is that I broke the index toe on my left foot a few days after my last 4HBD post, which — combined with my still-healing high ankle sprain on my right leg — left me shuffling for a few weeks.
That said, the weight loss has started up again, and as of this morning I’ve now lost 16.6 lbs since I started, with 13.4 lbs to go to hit my goal in another 9 weeks or so. Both feet/legs are doing well enough for me to add a new physical activity, which I started yesterday: walking up and down my driveway five (5) times. That may not sound like much, but we live on several acres of land, and our driveway is about 0.1 miles long — hence, the five round-trips makes a mile. Furthermore, the driveway drops a good 30′ or more over that length, so I’m walking downhill and then uphill each time.
I’ve also purchased a Withings blood pressure cuff that works with my iPad (and iPhone); it arrived a few days ago. The iPad app controls the cuff and tracks your blood pressure history; I am now taking my blood pressure each morning, after sitting quietly on the couch and reading for five minutes. The app has a mode that takes your blood pressure three times, with a minute wait between each reading, then posts the average of the three readings. Withings also makes a wifi-enabled weight scale, which I currently have on back-order from Amazon. I’ve been very happy with the blood pressure cuff so far; I’ll write about the scale when it finally arrives (the Withings web site itself shows a 3-week delay in scale deliveries, so it’ll probably be a while).
[UPDATE 02/21/12]: My friend, Kevin Mickey, who told me about the Withings scale in the first place, sent me a note over the weekend telling me that it was in stock at Apple.com. I ordered it with overnight shipping and got it today (02/21). It was easy to set up and use, and both my wife and I have it linked to our separate Withings accounts. [END UPDATE]
Perhaps the most interesting things about the weight loss and fluctuations is how readily I can tell how I’m doing by gripping my abdomen around my navel. I can usually tell each morning — before I step on the scale — whether I’ve lost or gained weight by simply feeling my lower abdomen; it appears to be the part of my body that’s most sensitive to my weight changes.
More next week. ..bruce w..