Day 7: I Can Do Hard Things

 

Day 7 of Nutrisystem ! When I restarted this journey I wasn't sure if I could stick to the plan, since I'd been out of control for a long while. I'm pleasantly surprised that getting back on track was relatively easy. The challenge is going to be staying on track. That's the hard part. It helps that I am home all week and that my weekend casino trips have ended. If I don't have tempting foods in the house and I stay away from restaurants, that is half the battle. Staying away from temptation in the grocery store is also key to my success. I've learned that I can't bring anything in the house with the intent of having one "once in a while" or in moderation. I'm not good at moderation. If one tastes delicious, then I want 2 or 3 or 4 and before you know it the package is empty. Then I'll go out and buy 2 packages so I don't "run out". I have a bit of food insecurity and I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe because for so many years money was tight and I couldn't stock up or buy things in quantities of more than one. 

Breakfast was a 260 calorie Jimmy Dean Delights sausage, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich. These things are so good I could eat 2 or 3 ! Morning snack was a vanilla shake during my workout. Lunch was a chef salad and a 230 calorie beef, bean & cheese burrito. Plop some salsa on these bad boys and they're awesome ! Afternoon snack was 80 calorie cottage cheese and about 80 calories worth of mandarin oranges. Dinner was roasted turkey medallions with carrots I roasted this afternoon. Evening snack was a 140 calorie chocolate cupcake. Total calories for the day are 1170.

My lunchtime workout was 24 minutes and pushed my speed up to 3 mph for 1 minute intervals. This was completely manageable as there were 4 minute rests at 2.8 mph in between. Still, I break a sweat at 2.8 mph, which is fine because it means I'm working hard ! I feel like the workouts are getting "easier" each day as I'm starting to get a tiny bit of endurance built up. The trainer made a comment that was a bit of an "aha" moment for me. He said you don't stop when you reach a goal. I started thinking that is exactly what I did when I declared my goal weight reached ! This was a huge realization and I know it will help me when I reach my optimum weight again. I never really transitioned to maintaining my weight and to be honest, I'm still not really sure how to do that. I tried to stay in the 1200 calorie weight loss range but I let carbs sneak in and before I knew it I had completely lost control. The great thing about iFit and their trainers is that each one brings a different perspective when it comes to fitness and weight loss, so you're able to get a variety of tips to help you reach your goals, whatever they may be. After work I completed a 13 minute walk at 2.2 mph. In total, I spent 49 minutes walking on the treadmill, which is a great start ! I've already set a goal to get 3 workouts per day this weekend and on Monday, since it's a day off.

I was thinking the other day about my recent trip to Costco. I circled that store so many times looking for these big buckets of salted caramel chocolates they used to have. These were a favorite treat of my mom's and I got hooked on them too. I've always been a chocolate lover, so that is no surprise. Anyhow, even though I was unhappy with my weight and had already declared my intention to restart Nutrisystem, here I was circling the store for this bucket of fat and calories ! Oh yeah, I was going to have "1 or 2 once in a while". Talk about fooling yourself ! I guess the good thing is I put in a lot of extra "steps" circling the store looking for those things ! Lucky for me they don't seem to have that item any more. However, I bought 2 bags of s'mores snack mix. I ate one bag before I restarted Nutrisytem and the other bag is stashed away in the cupboard. The only other "bad" thing I bought that day was apple cinnamon muffins and I "only" ate 4 of the 6. The remaining 2 are in the freezer for another day. I also bought mixed nuts and I've had a few here and there just as a quick snack. I bought one bag of salted and one bag of unsalted and mixed them. It's not an every day snack and I limit myself to 1/4 cup or less. It's still something I need to watch because I don't want it to become a habit, where I'm dipping into them every day or a few times a day just because they're there and "a few won't hurt". That is how I gained 87 pounds ! I've been reading a lot lately about the diabetes drugs that many people who don't have diabetes are now using as a weight loss aid. Just as I never considered weight loss surgery, I would never take pharmaceuticals to lose weight. Surgery and drugs don't help you change your relationship with food. For me, food has been my comfort as long as I can remember. Taking some drug to make me think I'm not hungry is nothing but a short term solution. You either take it the rest of your life or you'll gain the weight back the second you stop using it. Weight loss surgery is not always the answer either. I know several people who had it and lost weight, but then started gaining again. The surgery might have changed their body but it didn't change the reasons they overate or failed to exercise. So this illustrates to me that I need to work more on changing my relationship with food while I'm working on getting these 87 pounds gone. 

Last night I was thinking I don't know when I'll see anyone from my family again, as there are no holidays until Easter, which is April 9. We don't tend to "hang out" unless it's a special occasion. I'm really hoping to have lost a visible amount of weight by then. I actually set a stretch goal to be at 199 or less by March 31st, so we'll see ! That would put my weight loss near 50 pounds since they last saw me and that would definitely be a visible amount. It's a very ambitious goal, so I'm not going to be upset if I'm not at 199 or less. The key here is steady weight loss. As long as I'm losing a couple pounds a week I'll be happy. 

My internet went out at about 8:45 this morning and I happened to look outside and there was a Spectrum bucket truck with a guy up on the pole ! I don't know what they were doing but I was back online about 10 minutes later. For me, no internet means no work, so I panicked a little ! Once that drama was over I threw some carrots in the oven to roast. I roasted the poor things half to death. I didn't think about the fact that when I used to roast a mix of veggies I always put the carrots on the bottom and they stayed moist underneath everything else. I need to cover the pan next time !

Today's rant: humble braggers ! Just read a comment in an iFit forum, some broad moaning about being diagnosed with "sciatica pain" and following with "I guess I shouldn't have run for 1.5 hours this morning". So like when were you "diagnosed" ? Nobody runs for 90 minutes with the pain of sciatica, I don't care who you are. Did you run to the doctor after that 90 minutes run ? If you want to brag about running for 90 minutes, just do it. What a moron. Part of the reason I spend little time on social media platforms is people like this.

All in all I had a good day. I got a lot of work done, stuck to Nutrisystem and got some exercise. I took a shower about 7 pm so I'm all ready for bed. It's going down to about 19 tonight so it's going to be a cold one. I can't wait to crawl in to my nice warm bed !