Day 22: The End of Week 3 - Getting Back To Where I Was

 

Day 22 of Nutrisystem 2.0 .. the end of week 3 and time for the "real" weigh in. I woke up dreading getting on the scale and I avoided it as long as possible. Well, the end result was a big fat 238. However, it was "exactly" 238, where yesterday it was 238 point something. I don't count the "point somethings" but that slight dip is encouraging. I still know that I have to avoid the "extras" and exercise a bit harder and more frequently. I'm still disappointed that I didn't lose any weight this week, but I'm using this to motivate me to do better this week. 

Breakfast was 150 calorie pancakes with sugar free syrup. Morning snack was a 120 calorie chocolate shake. Lunch was the usual 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt and a chef salad. Afternoon snack was 190 calorie cheese & crackers. Dinner was broccoli and a 260 calorie lasagna with meat sauce. Evening snack was a 130 calorie mint ice cream sandwich. Total calories for the day are 1150.

This morning I checked on the outdoor light to make sure it had gone off when it got light .. and sure enough it did ! I've noticed that the days are getting longer, because it's no longer dark at 5 pm. It's always great to get past that part of winter ! I'm really happy with this light bulb purchase and will definitely buy a couple more. 

The weather forecast had us under a winter storm warning and by noon we just had a very fine snow falling. It snowed on and off all day and I'd say we got a couple inches. The storm warning goes until 7 pm tomorrow, so who knows what we will end up with !

Work today was much more productive than yesterday, so I was in a better frame of mind to put in a couple hours of overtime. I got a lot done in the 10 hours I worked today. I'm working late tomorrow night too. Every project that I complete gives me so much satisfaction !

Since I was working late tonight I did my "long" workout during lunch. I used to do this before and I'm going back to that pattern. I repeated the Atlas Mountains, as I mentioned in my last blog. This workout is by no means easy but I have to say that today I felt really good afterward ! I wasn't exhausted and I felt recovered after only a couple minutes. This is very encouraging ! This is how a workout should make you feel, so I feel like this is an indication that my endurance is improving. The next step up is a 33 minute endurance hike to Mount Kilimanjaro with some 10% incline towards the end of the workout. The difference is the Atlas Mountains walk is at 2.4 mph while Kilimanjaro is at 2.8 mph. That's a big step and I'm not quite ready for that. It's part of a series that I actually completed later in my journey and plan to repeat the series again. iFit has an amazing library of workouts, many of which I haven't done yet, but going back to the stuff I already did is part of my quest to "get back to where I was". It's a mental thing and I've realized (and said before) that losing the weight and getting fit requires cooperation from the mind just as much as the body. The mind has to be willing and I just haven't been in the right frame of mind for a long time. I did manage to have enough discipline to get on the treadmill after work too ! It was only a 21 minute workout so I bumped the speed up to 2.5 mph, instead of going with the programmed speed of 2.2 mph. So today, with warm ups and cool downs, I spent 66 minutes on the treadmill ! I'm proving to myself that I *can* do this ! Yes, it's going to take time but it's going to get a little bit easier every day. Yes, I have a long way to go but I'm in this for the duration.

On that note, it's time to wrap up the day and head for bed. The weekend is nearly here !