Day 57: Fear

 

Day 57 of Nutrisystem 2.0 was another slow start as I could have slept all day ! I got up about 7:20. Once the indoor & outdoor cats were fed I made my bed and got myself dressed and ready for the day ! I sat down with my first cup of coffee at 7:45. It was 25 degrees and there was no sign yet of the forecast rain/snow mix. Temps are going to be in the mid to high 30's for the rest of the week, which means it'll be easier to keep the house at a comfortable temperature. We had a few flurries and that was the extent of today's "wintry mix". It warmed up enough to allow all the snow on my metal roof to slide off. Always glad to have all that weight off the roof !

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 200 calorie cheese & crackers. Dinner was broccoli and 260 calorie roasted turkey medallions. Evening snack was a 130 calorie ice cream sandwich. Calories for the day are over 1200 .. read below.

First workout of the day was 33 minutes at Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Did I make it ? YES - I DID !!!!! I was so happy to finish this workout, which I last completed in April 2020. I didn't change one setting and I made it through the 10% incline. It helps that the speed drops to 2.2 or 2 mph ! I feared this workout all month but I was determined to "try" it today, expecting failure. Since I made it, this will be my lunchtime workout for March. After work I started the March walking challenge that iFit puts out, so I've put the Spain series with Tommy Rivs on hold for a little bit. Completing his Italy series is also a challenge this month, so I've got a lot to get done ! Weekend workouts are going to be crucial to my success because I'd like to get Spain done before I start Italy. Wouldn't you know it .. the first workout in the March challenge was mostly at 10% incline ! There was no way I could do that. The workout was just over 26.5 minutes so I broke it down into four 6.5 minute sections at the 26 minute mark. My starting speed was 2.6 mph and I set the incline at 1% to keep the machine from boosting it up to 10%. After 6 minutes I put the incline at 5% for 30 seconds, then boosted the speed to 2.7 for the next section. With 30 seconds to go I put the incline at 6% for 30 seconds, then boosted the speed to 2.8 mph for round 3. The last 30 seconds of this round was at 7% incline. For the last section I increased the speed to 2.9 and with 4 minutes to go I increased to 3 mph and then 3.1 with 2 minutes to go. I also put the incline to 8% for the last 30 seconds. I didn't do the 10% as programmed but I'm happy with my effort ! I put in 71.5 minutes on the treadmill today and that's the most I think I've done this year !

Yesterday was a good day from a diet and exercise perspective. I didn't give it to bedtime snacking. I think having my vitamins and chugging down the magnesium and Metamucil before bed helped. I managed to get all my vitamins in today but they made me nauseous for a while. I had only eaten my pancakes, so I probably didn't have enough food in my stomach. Once I ate my yogurt I felt better and things settled down. I took half of them after breakfast and the other half after dinner. I actually think the magnesium helped me sleep better and the Metamucil fills me up. That being said, today was a good day until just a little while ago. I gave in to "hunger" and polished off the last muffin that I had in the freezer. Sigh. Then I had my magnesium and Metamucil. It's done and over with and at this point I have nothing left in the house to tempt me. No pretzels, no nuts, no muffins, no snack mixes, no chocolate. I do have a couple packs of 100 calorie "thins" cookies, but that is about it. Everything else is Nutrisystem food or veggies. I do have a couple packages of scone mix along with a big box of Bisquick, but I have nothing that is grab and go. I'm glad all the temptation is gone but I'm feeling really anxious about it. I will likely purchase some chocolate when I grocery shop this weekend. So what's the lesson here ? I need to have the magnesium and Metamucil soon after dinner. They 'say' the magnesium can help with carb cravings and also sleep ... which it did last night ! As for the Metamucil it's sweet and refreshing (orange flavor) even though it's sugar free. I mix it up in a shaker bottle now and that works so much better. The magnesium still tastes horrible but I put that in lukewarm water so it's easy to chug down. When I'm ready for a refill I might look for capsules instead of the powder. I remember during my leukemia treatment they tried to get me to take magnesium all the time and it tasted even worse than what I have. 

My work day was very productive and I got everything out the door that I wanted to. I have a bunch of projects that will be ready to close in a few days and I can't wait ! I just love typing "closed" ! There was a time that our team was getting complaint after complaint from people who wanted their stuff done. They didn't care that we were new to the work and had inherited a huge volume of work that others had failed to handle. Every day I'd come in to an Inbox full of emails demanding status and it was really stressful because they would copy my boss and her boss and all kinds of other people. Those days are mostly gone for me now ! My boss and her boss both know that I am knocking it out of the park, so even if someone were to copy them on a nastygram I wouldn't care. Some people we deal with were truly obnoxious in the beginning. Regardless, I put my head down, dug in, worked crazy long hours and cleared away all the old stuff I inherited. Now I'm taking old stuff from my colleagues, to help my boss, the team and our customers. I'm looking forward to the day my entire worklist is stuff from 2023 ! 

To top off my day I've stayed up too late and now I'm too tired to shower. If I happen to wake up early tomorrow I might catch a morning shower ! Today wasn't the greatest day from a diet perspective but I killed it on the treadmill. I feel like I'm starting to make some progress but I still have a long way to go. I'll get there .. of that I have no doubt !