2023: Finding My Way Back

  Today is day 86 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and even though it wasn't quite so cold, I had a tough time getting out of bed. That is only because I went to bed late and was awake much too late last night ! Breakfast was pancakes with sugar free syrup and a yogurt. Morning snack was a chocolate shake. Lunch was a chef salad and pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was cottage cheese & oatmeal cookies. Dinner was roasted carrots and a meatloaf sandwich. Evening snack was a chocolate cupcake. All 3 workouts today were the Italy series. I started with a 21m52s walk that had a fair amount of incline. At the 21 minute mark I set the speed to 3 mph until I hit a patch of 8% incline. For that I reduced speed to 2.5 for about a minute, then went back to 3 mph for the remainder of the workout. I will take 20 minutes at 3 mph all day long ! After work was 21m46s with some 2 and 4% inclines. At 20 minutes to go I increased my speed to 2.6 mph and then added another 0.1 mph every 4 minutes, ending...

  Today is day 85 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and it was COLD this morning, to the point that I did not want to get out of my nice warm bed. It was 24 at 7 am and only 30 by 1 pm. It was a mostly sunny day, so there is that ! It was only 33 at 6 pm and the low tonight is 24 again. The high for Saturday is 63 but the low is 22 .. figure that one out ! Breakfast was waffles and a yogurt. Morning snack was a vanilla shake. Lunch was a chef salad and pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was cottage cheese & oatmeal cookies. Dinner was roasted carrots and rotini with meatballs. Evening snack was a strawberry shortcake cupcake.  First workout of the day was 21m51s in Italy. For this one I set the speed to 3 mph for 21 minutes. This speed is getting easier ! I huff and puff some when I first get going but I settle into it and by the end I am breathing normally. My starting speed used to be 3.2 mph and I'd work up to 3.7 by the end of each workout, so I still have a long way to go to get ...

  Today is day 84 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and we had a chilly start ! It was 32 degrees when I got up but by lunch time we were close to 50 .. but the high for tomorrow is only 35. A little bit of a roller coaster ride with the weather right now !  Breakfast was pancakes and a yogurt. Morning snack was a chocolate shake. Lunch was a chef salad and pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was cottage cheese and oatmeal cookies. Dinner was roasted carrots and roasted turkey medallions. Evening snack was a chocolate cupcake. First workout of the day was 19m28s in Venice. I'm working on endurance this week so at 18 minutes to go I bumped the speed up to 3 mph for the duration. A little 5% incline tried to trip me up but I conquered that one today ! All of the workouts in this series are short so it makes sense to work on my endurance. After work was another 18m53s in Venice. For this workout I went with 2.5 mph at 18 minutes to go and then added 0.1 mph every 3 minutes. When I got to 3 mp...

  Today is day 83 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and it was a chilly one ! Temps in the 30's and it seems like we'll be bouncing back and forth between 30's and 50's this week. 30 today - 50 tomorrow ! Spring in upstate NY at its finest ! Shortly before lunch I saw the tiniest little snow flurries trying to fall but it didn't last long. The sun came out and warmed things up into the 40's for a while. Spring is coming and I'm feeling more hopeful about losing this weight and being in good shape for Disney ! Breakfast was waffles and yogurt. Morning snack was a vanilla shake. Lunch was a salad and pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was cottage cheese & oatmeal cookies. Dinner was freshly roasted carrots and a chicken enchilada. Evening snack was a chocolate cupcake. Today I managed to get through the day with no extras and I'm happy about that. First workout of the day was #1 in the Italy series. I wanted to do the remaining Spain workouts but I always try to d...

  Today is day 82 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and although the day started out with some sun, it soon turned gray and rainy. Perfect for a Monday, I guess !  Breakfast was pancakes, morning snack was a chocolate shake, lunch was a salad & pepperoni pizza melt (with an unusually large amount of actual pepperoni!), afternoon snack was cottage cheese & oatmeal cookies, dinner was the leftover dumplings from Cracker Barrel and evening snack was a bunch of Irish soda bread and the caramels left in container #2. I have one container left and I will not be ordering any more. I think the caramels I got at Wegman's are the exact same brand and they're slightly cheaper ... and I can buy them in SMALL quantities ! First workout of the day was 25m26s in India. This jogging series was all intervals so even though I can't jog, I did my own intervals. After a short warmup I broke the workout into six 4 minute segments and did 3 mph for 3 minutes and then 1 minute at 2.8 mph. After work was...

  Today is day 81 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and it was a beautiful day. I got up shortly after 8 and relaxed on the couch with a couple cups of coffee before heading out to grocery shop around 11:30. I stopped at Delta Sonic for gas first. I haven't bought gas in a while and I see it's back over $3 a gallon again. I'm glad I work from home and that I don't trek out to the casino every weekend ! After I got gas I headed to Wegman's and restocked coffee and the other usuals: cottage cheese, oatmeal cookies, whipped cream, salad veggies, feta cheese. I also grabbed another loaf of Irish soda bread. I have one in the freezer but I just couldn't pass it up. Next time I shop I know it won't be available. I also needed coffee pods and I recently started buying Wegman's brand boxes of 72 for $23. They have my flavors: vanilla, salted caramel, chocolate cream and hazelnut; and the coffee is good ! I used to buy Victor's coffee at Christmas Tree Shops but the last ti...

  Today is day 80 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and it's been a while since I've published anything. I've written plenty but then abandoned what I wrote and wrote something else, only to again abandon it. This sort of parallels what is going on with my diet and exercise. I tend to be really compliant during the day all week. Evenings can trip me up and so do weekends. I still haven't figured out how to overcome that. I made it through Saint Patrick's Day but that involved consuming 3 loaves of Irish soda bread and stashing a 4th in the freezer. I also had corned beef & cabbage for 3 days. The carrots and cabbage part of that are completely allowed on Nutrisystem, so the meat and potatoes are what you have to watch. I ate it for 3 days so I don't feel I overdid it. The bread was my Achille's Heel.  I've been doing a lot better with my exercise. I exercise at least twice a day all week and I did do better last weekend. I also finally got out and got my hair cut l...

  Today is day 72 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and day 70 and 71 ended up being a bit of a necessary pause. Work stressed me out a little and I was adding all sorts of extra stress over my diet and exercise. I just had to let it all go until things calmed down. Something fun to look forward to came my way today and completely and totally changed my outlook. I now have something to look forward to and to really motivate me to get the weight off fast ! More on that later. So what's been up the past 2 days? Today is Thursday, so I'll start with Tuesday 3-14. I got up early (5:30) and looked out to see how much snow we had. At that time we hadn't had much but the winter storm warning was in effect until Wednesday morning. Since I was up so early I was able to clean litter boxes and get the laundry room clean again. It was trash day but I didn't even have a full bag, so I didn't bother putting trash out. Heavy snow started falling and by evening we had a significant amount out the...

  Day 69 of Nutrisystem 2.0 got off to a sluggish start. I haven't acclimated to the time change yet and I've been staying awake too late.  Breakfast was 150 calorie pancakes with sugar free syrup. Morning snack was a 120 calorie vanilla shake. Lunch was a chef salad and a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. Dinner was broccoli and a 250 calorie meatloaf sandwich. I didn't have a yogurt with my breakfast and I didn't have an afternoon snack. This was to compensate for the Irish soda bread I ate instead ! Evening snack was a 130 calorie ice cream sandwich. Total calories for the day are likely more than 1200. First workout of the day was 32m20s in India. It's a jogging series and today was intervals so I did ten sets of intervals, 2 minutes at 3 mph and then 1 minute at 2.8 mph for each set. I worked up a sweat so I know I was working hard ! After work was 19m25s in Spain. I played around with speed, going up to 2.8 and then dropping back into the programmed 2.2 mph pa...

  Day 68 of Nutrisystem 2.0 started later than usual because our clocks "sprung ahead" overnight. I woke up at 9 and it was a chilly 14 degrees. I didn't realize the temp was dropping so low so even my bedroom was chilly at 69 degrees. Downstairs was 68 but the day warmed up to nearly 40 and the house warmed right up too.  Breakfast was 160 calorie buttermilk waffles with sugar free syrup and an 80 calorie yogurt. I didn't have a morning snack. Lunch was a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. After that I went off the tracks. Total calories for the day far exceeded 1200. When I got up this morning I knew I had to grocery shop and the plan was to do shower and get out early to do that. Well, it was so cold I just curled up on the couch with my coffee and a blanket. I finally forced myself off the couch around 1 pm and took a shower. I headed out to the grocery store just after 2 pm. It had warmed up and it was a beautiful sunny day. I headed to Wegman's first because ...

  Day 67 of Nutrisystem 2.0 started earlier than I'd have liked, since it's Saturday ! I woke up right after 7 and was up before 7:30. I made my bed, fed the indoor & outdoor cats and settled down with my first cup of coffee. It had snowed overnight and a very light snow continued to fall. It was a bit windy as well, so I didn't think it was a good day for heading out to the grocery store. By late afternoon the sun was out and the snow was melting. Temps were in the 20's when I got up but the house was comfortable. Tomorrow looks to be snow free and with temps closer to 40 it'll be a nicer day to venture out. Breakfast was 150 calorie pancakes with sugar free syrup and an 80 calorie yogurt. Morning snack was a 120 calorie chocolate shake. Lunch was green beans and a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was 80 calorie cottage cheese (1/2 cup) and 90 calorie oatmeal cookies. Dinner was green beans and a 190 calorie spinach & artichoke stuffed chic...

  Day 66 of Nutrisystem 2.0 was another slow and chilly start. It was in the teens when I got up and I didn't want to get out of my warm bed. By 7:30 I had no choice. I had just enough time to make the bed, feed the indoor & outdoor cats, get dressed and brew my first cup of coffee before the work day started. Breakfast was a 270 calorie Jimmy Dean Delights breakfast sandwich. Morning snack was a 120 calorie vanilla shake. Lunch was green beans and a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was 80 calorie cottage cheese and 90 calorie oatmeal cookies. Dinner was broccoli and a 260 calorie Italian sausage & turkey pepperoni pizza. Evening snack was a 140 calorie lemon zest cake. Total calories for the day are 1180. First workout of the day was the start of a new series, filmed in India. It's a jogging series and since I don't jog I decided to do some intervals today. The workout was 35m21s so I started at 2.5 mph until 30 minutes to go, when I increased to 3...

  Day 65 of Nutrisystem 2.0 got off to a slow start as I did not want to climb out of my warm comfy bed ! I finally dragged myself out shortly after 7 and got the day started. By 7:45 I was dressed, the indoor & outdoor cats were fed and I was enjoying my first cup of coffee. It was 25 degrees outside and the house was a comfortable 70. We have a chance of snow tomorrow but the forecast high is 39 degrees, so we'll see how that works out ! The weekend looks to be good. I do need a few things at the store and I need to pick up my mail, so I'll probably go out Saturday morning. Next Friday is Saint Patrick' s Day and I want to pick up a corned beef dinner to prepare. Wegman's usually packages up ready for the oven pan of corned beef, cabbage, carrots and potatoes. If I buy it Saturday I'll need to freeze it. You just take off the plastic wrap and throw it in the oven ! I also need to get my Irish Soda Bread. These were 2 of my mom's favorite things too. I'...

  Day 64 of Nutrisystem 2.0 got off to an early start. I woke up around 5:45 and couldn't go back to sleep. I don't remember what time I finally got up but I had plenty of time to take a shower and feed the indoor & outdoor cats before it was time to get to work.  Breakfast was 150 calorie pancakes with sugar free syrup and an 80 calorie yogurt. Morning snack was a 120 calorie vanilla shake. Lunch was a chef salad and 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was the 200 calorie remains of the maple & bacon cheese (yay!) with crackers. I still have a few crackers in the open bag but I don't plan on opening the second bag anytime soon. Dinner was green beans and the last 250 calorie chicken enchilada. Evening snack was a 140 calorie chocolate cupcake. Total calories for the day are 1160. A Reese's peanut butter egg will put me at 1245, which is fine. First workout of the day was 35m13s in Namibia. I wasn't sure I could do this one because it was an en...