Day 30: Staying The Course

 

Day 30 of Nutrisystem 2.0 started at a balmy 23 degrees. I actually got up earlier than usual. Made my bed, brushed my teeth, got dressed, fed the indoor and outdoor cats and had my first cup of coffee by 7:40. That's an accomplishment for me ! I think it helps that I was asleep before midnight. Some nights I just stay awake too long and then it's really hard to get up. My alarm goes off at 7, which is a reasonable time, but I often struggle. Once I'm up I'm fine .. it's getting up that is the challenge !

Breakfast was a 270 calorie Jimmy Dean Delights breakfast sandwich. Morning snack was a 120 calorie chocolate shake. Lunch was a chef salad and 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was 180 calorie cheese & crackers. Dinner was green beans and a 250 calorie chicken enchilada. Evening snack was a 140 calorie chocolate cupcake. Total calories for the day are 1180.

I look at February as a clean slate. I started Nutrisystem January 4 and I struggled a little bit in the beginning, so January is not what I would call a "perfect" month. I feel like I'm settled into what I need to do to be successful now, so my goal is for February to be perfect. Exercise twice a day and follow Nutrisystem 100%. This is an easily attainable goal. I've spent a lot of time being frustrated with myself but today was a good day. 

My lunchtime workout was 33 minutes in the Atlas Mountains and after work was 15 minutes in Mexico. For the short workout I again started at 2.4 mph and at 12 minutes increased to 2.6, then added 0.2 mph every 3 minutes. It is still a challenge to maintain 3.2 mph, even for only 3 minutes, but I'm going to keep working at it. That is pretty much my top speed right now. I put in 60 minutes total today and I'm happy with that !

The day might have started at 23 degrees but it was 35 by 7 pm. The temp is supposed to drop like a rock and be about 7 degrees by 7 am. It's going to keep dropping during the day and bottom out at -2 Friday night. We're heading back to more reasonable temps on Saturday, which is a relief ! I can survive 24 hours of single digit temps ! Once I have the house sided I think it will be warmer and I'm looking forward to that !

Tonight I actually did something smart and brought my "new" laptop into the living room, leaving my old one in my office. I bought the new machine in 2021 because it seemed like my old one was dying. I didn't want to have it suddenly die and be left with nothing. Much to my surprise, the old one is still going strong, so I've continued to use it every day for both work and personal use. Tonight I finally decided to just leave the old one in my office and start using my new one when I'm not working. I do have a brand new machine from my employer, but it's a much smaller display so I don't use it. My new machine is basically the same as the old but I do not like the mouse that came with it. I need to buy a new one that's not quite so flat. I really like the display as it is much brighter than my old machine. I also invested in Microsoft 365 and with Onedrive all of my files are accessible via either laptop, my tablet and my cell phone. Everything syncs so it doesn't matter which device I'm using. It's worth the $76 cost of the annual subscription. 

I had a hugely productive work day today and actually worked until past 6 pm. I was in the middle of a project and wanted to get it finished. A lot of old and complicated issues are on the brink of being resolved and I can't wait to start closing these projects out ! I briefly considered skipping my evening workout since it was nearly 6:30 by the time I was done, but instead opted to do the 15 minute one instead of the 30 minute one I planned on. I'm working on compromise instead of just bailing when things don't go as planned. I think 15 minutes is better than no minutes ! 

Last night I took myself to bed with a small bowl of mixed nuts. I scooped up a lot more than I should have and was proud of myself for dumping some out. I had a more than reasonable portion and it was enough. Outside of Nutrisystem portion control has always been a problem for me, which is why I love the program. When I got sick with the flu between Thanksgiving and Christmas I really went off the rails once I was able to eat. I was eating 20 ounce trays of mac & cheese in one sitting ! That is 790 calories and 2,140 mg of sodium ! Unreal. I wrote about this before, so I won't go back into it. Suffice to say I probably gained 5 pounds in 2 weeks. The flu was no joke and it was scary to be alone. For days the most I could do was get up twice a day to feed the cats and that was a huge effort. It took me weeks to feel 100% again, so I plan to get my flu vaccine next year ! I had the flu in 2018 but I don't think I was quite so sick. 

On that note, I'm heading for bed. I'm glad to have the electric heater for my bedroom as it's going to be freezing when I get up !