Day 33: Recovery
Day 33 of Nutrisystem 2.0 started at a balmy 26 degrees. I was never so happy to see a temp in the 20's ! Yesterday was an absolute nightmare of a day, but I survived - again. Abby woke me about 7 because she was hungry, so I headed downstairs to check the house temp and the status of my kitchen cold water while I prepared her food. I got a drip from the faucet, so I knew it would be running very soon ! It was 65 in the house so I knew I'd be able to let the cats (and me!) come back downstairs. I fed them breakfast in my room and then released them once I had fed the outdoor cats. After a bunch of trips up and down the stairs my bedroom returned to something less than a bunker and I was able to relax downstairs with a hot cup of coffee and my breakfast.
Breakfast was 160 calorie buttermilk waffles. Light and crispy with sugar free syrup and I was in Heaven ! I also had an 80 calorie yogurt. Morning snack was a 120 calorie chocolate shake. Lunch was a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was 180 calorie cheese & crackers. Dinner was a 250 calorie chicken enchilada with freshly roasted carrots. Evening snack was a 130 calorie vanilla ice cream sandwich. Total calories for the day are 1140.
By 7:30 am my kitchen faucet was unfrozen and all was back to normal in the house, other than the temperature. With a high in the 40's today I knew it was only a matter of time before the thermostat hit the magic 70 number. I was fine on the couch with a blanket over my legs. The crisis was over and we made it through. I thought it was going to take a long time to decompress and recover mentally but by 9 am I was like, it's over - you're fine - the cats are fine - the house is fine. Move on. This is new - being able to bounce back so quickly after what, in the past, had felt like major trauma. That may sound dramatic, but I've always had trouble with recovery after a bump in the road. Doesn't matter the size of the bump - any little thing would just throw me into panic mode and it always took a long time to shake that off.
There was no treadmill yesterday, for obvious reasons, but there were no excuses today. I gave myself until noon to relax, since noon was my usual exercise time. At noon my fat ass was on the treadmill and 33 minutes in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco was in the books. Just after 3:30 I decided to get workout #2 done. This one was 29.5 minutes at Lake Bled, Slovenia with iFit trainer John Peel. Tommy Rivs and John Peel were the first 2 trainers I experienced with iFit and they remain my favorites. I first completed this workout on 11-12-19 and I weighed about 195 pounds - so a good bit less than I weigh today ! This was 2 minute intervals at 3 mph with 1 minute rests at 2.6 mph in between. On the last interval he bumped the speed up to 3.2 for 30 seconds. I easily completed this workout today, so I am pleased with the progress I am making. Did I sweat ? You bet I did ! Did I get a little breathless - maybe slightly. This is a good one to put on repeat because you don't want to always do endurance. It's good to mix it up. I feel like my endurance gets better every day and I will leave the Atlas Mountains behind for the Safari Endurance walk at Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania on March 1. I think it would be a good way to start off a new month. I was doing to do a third workout but as 6 pm rolled around I decided to just go and take a shower instead. I wanted to enjoy the rest of my weekend.
I thought about going to the casino today, just to get out and have some fun, but I ended up just staying home. Throwing away a bunch of money is no longer "fun" and even though it was much warmer I really had no desire to go outside. By noon it was 68 in the house and just before 1 it was up to 69. I was comfortable - finally - for the first time since Friday evening. Eventually seeing 70 on the thermostat made my day !
I forgot that yesterday was 2/4 and progress pics needed to be taken. I took them today and I don't see much of a difference.
Maybe my gut looks a little smaller ?
I would expect to see more of a change when March 4 rolls around. For now I am encouraged by what I see. I actually bought a tripod to hold my phone and it has a remote, which means I don't have to stand in front of the mirror for photos anymore. I didn't feel like trying to figure it out today, but I'm going to use it for my next progress photos !
After my first workout I sat on the couch and felt such relief. The temp in the house was back to normal, the water was restored and everything was fine. There was no longer anything to worry about. It was like this immense weight was lifted off my shoulders. Yesterday I was just so frantic and so distraught and so alone. This is why I let myself resort to comfort food. If I don't lose any weight this week, I know why and I'm okay with that. The key is that I'm back on track today and not using yesterday's trauma as an excuse to continue. After my second workout I made another cup of coffee and sat on the couch to enjoy my afternoon snack.
When February started I wanted it to be a "perfect" month. I wanted to exercise x2 every day. I wanted to stick to Nutrisystem 100%. Friday night and yesterday blew my plan to stick to Nutrisystem. Yesterday blew my plan to exercise twice a day. I chose to overeat and I chose not to exercise. The cold weather was an excuse but my mental health factored in and for that period of time my mental health took precedence. So ok, February won't be perfect. You know what ? In reality, it's unlikely that ANY month will be "perfect". March brings Saint Patrick's Day and I plan to enjoy some Irish Soda bread. April brings Easter, and I plan to enjoy Easter dinner with my family. May brings Memorial Day and if someone hosts a gathering, I'll be there to enjoy it. The bottom line is there will always be something and that's ok. Wanting a "perfect" month is yet another example of the unrealistic and unattainable goals I set for myself. How about striving for a perfect day or a perfect week ? Those are attainable. I keep disappointing myself over and over and it's no wonder I get discouraged. I really need to stop making goals I know I can't reach. I call them stretch goals but a stretch goal should still be attainable. This is where I go wrong. So it's something I need to keep working on.
After my shower I felt so refreshed and relaxed and I think I'll sleep better tonight. I slept Friday night and Saturday night, but I was restless and worried so I don't feel like I slept well. It doesn't help that I spent all day yesterday in my bed, in between trips up and down the stairs. I guess I was tired of being in bed ! I'm kind of glad the work week is starting up again as I have a bunch of things on my worklist that are ready to be addressed and I'm looking forward to finishing them up. I told my boss that 2022 was going to be a tough act to follow, as I had an amazing year, but she told me I'm already well on my way to another great year ! It helps so much that I love what I do and I love learning new things. On that note, I'm going to give Abby her dinner and then go to bed.
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