Day 83: No More Free Passes !

 

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 do the longest on my schedule during lunch, so 23m44s in Italy it was ! Since this was a short workout I opted to go for endurance and challenged myself to 3 mph for the duration. At the 22 minute mark I hit the ground running (well, walking fast) and wondered if I could do it. Well, I did ! The only hiccup was an extended period of 6% incline. I had to hold onto the bars for 2-3 minutes but I maintained 3 mph for the full 22 minutes, which is a big accomplishment. I could have dropped the incline but I opted to just go with it and compromise by holding on. After work was 22m28s in Spain. For this one I warmed up at 2.5 mph until the 18 minute mark. Here I bumped it up to 2.6 mph and then added 0.1 mph every 3 minutes. With 3 minutes to go I did a minute at 3.1, one at 3.2 and one at 3.3 mph. They threw in some incline but most of it was brief and I was able to keep up. Per my schedule I managed to get a third workout in too, finishing the Spain series ! I ended the day with 19m50s and a pace of mostly 2.2 mph. My total time is on the treadmill today is 66m2s plus 18 minutes of warm ups and cool downs. Not too shabby !

In positive news, it looks like the apartment dwellers across the street might be moving out ! This makes me happy as her kids are the ones that I've yelled at to stay out of my yard. I do hope she's going to someplace better and I won't miss her idiot boyfriend who works on his piece of crap car at all hours and revs the engine all the time, like he's driving a Ferrari ! Sometimes I wonder if he is just flexing because of my car. I feel a little sorry for her because it seems like she's just trying to survive. It doesn't appear that she has a job so she is probably on welfare and/or getting child support. There may be some drug use there too - hard to say. Social Services has around several times regarding the younger kid, so she's got a bit to deal with. Last summer the kid asked if I wanted help washing my car and I'm glad I said no. The last thing I need is to get entangled in that family drama. I was nearly done when he asked and I figured he was looking to make some money. Can't hate him for that but in this day and age you have to be wary because people are sue happy.

I had a relatively productive work day. I was able to submit everything for one of my April projects and I have another that I plan to tackle tomorrow. I also have a simple item to finish up. I ran out of time today and I didn't want to rush through it at 5. It'll keep ! It seems like new work coming in has slowed down and that concerns me a little. It could just be the fact that March 31 is the end of the fiscal year for the clients we work with. For now I'm going to use the little bit of a lull to catch up on things like optional training classes and organizing my email and my project files. My email is full of thousands of items that can be deleted, so I need to start working on that. Spring cleaning for the computer !

Today was a really good day. I gave myself a pass on my new schedule yesterday, but I was determined to keep to it today - and I did ! That might not happen every day and I have to accept this. It's a bit of a first step towards not setting unrealistic goals. Although I have specific times on the schedule I'm not forcing that. It was after 6:30 when I did my third workout, it was after 8 when I had my shower and it was after 9 when I went to bed. No big deal ! What is important is that I was able to check off every single item today. I really feel like the change in seasons is helping lift my mood. Last year I said I was going to get a light therapy unit and I never did it. I'm definitely going to buy one soon because I am not going through another winter like this. 

On that note, I'm heading to brush my teeth and go to bed. It's just after 9:30 and with everything checked off the schedule, I am ready to call it a day !