health note June 1

I weighed in this morning and was back down to 216.9. The Wii says that for me the top of the "normal" range is 194, and "ideal" is 171. I'm forgetting about ideal for now and aiming for normal. My Wii weight ranges are based on a height of 6'2". I don't know if my age, 53, is a factor.

I need to lose another 23 pounds to get to normal. There is a family event the last week of July that involves a swimming pool, and I would like to think it is possible to get from 217 to 194 in 53 days. I'm going to subtract the seven Sundays that I'm not likely to lose weight, and the seven Mondays it takes to get back to the previous Saturday weight, and I will still have 39 days to lose the 23 pounds. That's 0.59 pounds I need to lose each of the days I'm counting.

I'll spare you the daily targets. The weekly Saturday weight targets are: 6/5 214.5; 6/12 211.6; 6/19 208.6; 6/26 205.7; 7/3 202.7; 7/10 199.8; 7/17 196.8; 7/24 193.9. This seems doable.

I said yesterday I need to add to my walking routine some exercise for torso and upper body strength. I wondered how many honest push-ups I could do. Six was tough. The seventh was very shaky. Eight didn't happen. (Maybe I needed Bob or Jill yelling at me to get to ten.) Let's just say the word "guns" is not likely to be applied to my physique any time soon.

I dug out the Wii Biggest Loser game my wife used for quite a while before she moved on to even tougher routines. I have no concept of calorie counting so I can't do the whole Biggest Loser program, but there are exercise routines I can access. I did a 19-minute light workout it offered plus the warm-up and cool-down. After eating a salad I decided to test the knee. I jogged 2.5 miles in about 30 minutes then walked home from the park. I am sweating profusely and the knee feels great; we'll see after it cools off.

Until next time.