Day 6: Holding Steady

 

Day 6 of Nutrisystem and it's Monday. The start of the work week is a lot more peaceful now that I work from home. There is no mad rush to get up and get ready for the the 40 minute commute to the office. I used to leave super early so that I could get the prime end space on the first level of the parking garage. That space made it so much easier to back out and leave, so I tried to get downtown by 7 am to make sure no one grabbed it. I liked getting to the office early so I could enjoy my coffee and have my breakfast in peace. I stopped having to make that commute in late summer of 2019, only having to commute to the Bridge St. office 2 days a week. I didn't mind that commute as parking was free and it was easy to reach via 481. Once COVID came along in March 2020 I started working from home and that is now permanent. So "going to work" now means rolling out of bed and logging in. I try to get up by 7 but my body doesn't always cooperate, especially on cold winter mornings. While I miss the social aspect of going to the office, I don't miss the stress winter weather put on me. When I had to commute 5 days a week I used a lot of vacation on January and also called in sick a few times, when I wasn't really ill. I'm not proud of that but I did what I had to do at the time. I put in many extra hours outside the normal 8-5 so, in the end, I think I gave more hours than they paid me for. I still do and I'm ok with that. I love the job and I get a great deal of satisfaction from resolving customer billing problems.

Breakfast was 160 calorie buttermilk waffles with sugar free syrup and an 80 calorie yogurt. Morning snack was a 120 calorie chocolate shake. Lunch was a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt with a chef salad. Afternoon snack was 80 calorie cottage cheese and the last 90 calorie oatmeal cookies. Dinner was a 250 calorie chicken enchilada with a bowl of green beans. Evening snack was a 140 calorie chocolate cupcake. Total calories for the day are 1140.

Considering I haven't been feeling super hungry I was kind of worried, as this is not normal for me. However, this morning I was hungry for breakfast before 8:30. I guess I really just had a whole lot of stored energy from all the crap I ate for the past 1+ year. The first time I started Nutrisystem I remember being hungry all the time, but I weighed over 50 pounds more at the time and was detoxing from years of excess. This time around I don't weigh quite as much and I'm "only" detoxing from a little over a year of excess. Does it make a difference ? I'm guessing it does. About 11:30 I was starving and I realized I hadn't had my yogurt. I had that before my workout and then had my shake during my workout. I had a 90 minute work conference call so that pushed my lunch out to nearly 4 pm, though I managed to eat some of my salad before the call and finished it during. I had my afternoon snack before 5, dinner about 7 and my evening snack about 9. I don't mind days like this where I'm eating super late because it keeps the temptation to snack in the evening away.

My lunchtime workout was not quite 21 minutes but it was a faster pace (2.8 mph). I got through it without having to change anything but I worked up a sweat and huffed and puffed a bit, so it made me work. That is the goal ! According to my Fitbit, my heart rate got up to 137, which is almost 86% of my max heart rate for my age (220 - 60 = 160 x .86 = 137.6). That's a bit more than the trainer wanted - he said 60-70% was the target for this workout. This illustrates how much harder the heart has to work when you're overweight. As I lose the weight and gain some endurance, my heart rate should start coming down. After work I completed a quick nearly 12 minute walk. My heart rate popped up to 123, which is pretty high for a 2.2 mph walking pace, but it didn't stay there long and I felt fine. As I said, over time this will come down.

Today was another chilly and gray day. There's no sun in the forecast for the entire week and that sucks. Even though I don't have to commute or go anywhere all week I'm still glad there is no real snow in the forecast either. 

I've come to the realization that I need to step away from reading the news so much. I am so sick of reading about people killing their spouses or their entire families. I don't know why this is happening so much, but it is just horrifying and so very sad. I'm also sick of reading Prince Harry's whining about the Royal Family. He lived a life of privilege in the UK and now he's living one in the US, based entirely on that former UK life. He's a momma's boy who searched for someone to take Princess Diana's place in his life and his narcissist wife was the perfect candidate. She's nothing but a B-list actress who trades on her mixed race background and her husband's Royal title to squeeze as much cash and attention as she can out of anyone who is willing to pay. He's 38 years old and has never in his life stood on his own 2 feet. He went from Daddy taking care of him to Meghan taking care of him. At some point she will tire of him and he'll just be another divorced dad with a huge child support bill. Considering he has burned every bridge with the Royal Family, they will be unlikely to take him back. So then what ? Oh well - his problem, not mine. Rant over !

I'm pretty pleased with my progress so far. I've stayed off the scale the past couple of days but I'm hoping to see a great number on 1/11 when I do my 1 week weight in. I feel that recording my weight on Day 8 gives a more accurate measure of the progress made over 7 complete days. I could have designated the first day as "Day Zero" but I'm not worried about being precise. I already know I've lost a couple pounds and since I have been sticking to the program and exercising I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a couple more pounds to drop off. I know this won't be the case every week, and I need to keep reminding myself of this so I don't get discouraged. I was at 247 on 1/2, 245 on January 4 and 243 on 1/5 and 241 on 1/7. That means I've already lost 6 pounds in 2023.

I have to be honest though .. it was fun eating whatever I wanted. I'd be lying if I said I don't miss all those yummy foods I've now given up, but I'm not happy about all the work ahead of me to take off these 87 pounds of yummy foods ! Was it worth it ? No, not really. I will take this as another learning opportunity and try harder to maintain the loss once I get back to a more reasonable weight.

Today was a good day and I'm looking forward to many more good days ahead.