Day 106: A Good Day

 

Today is day 106 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and it was 34 degrees when the alarm went off ! I really miss that little taste of summer we had last week ! I woke up feeling rested and I attribute a lot of that to having the estimate phase of my siding project out of the way. I've accepted that it's going to cost more than I expected and I feel blessed to be able to afford what is needed to give the exterior of my home the facelift it has needed for years. I'm starting to get excited about it !

Breakfast was my favorite 160 calorie waffles with sugar free syrup. Morning snack was a 120 calorie chocolate shake. Lunch was a chef salad and a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was 80 calorie cottage cheese and 90 calorie oatmeal cookies. Dinner was roasted carrots and 220 calorie chicken fettuccine alfredo over riced cauliflower. Evening snack was a 130 calorie strawberry shortcake cupcake. Total calories are 1020. 

I was able to get a solid 3 workouts in today and I'm happy with my effort. I logged 69m21s and with 18 minutes of warm up/cool down the grand total is 87m21s. For my first workout during lunch I put in 28 minutes at 3 mph. After work was an intervals workout and I did my own 1:1 intervals. I started with 6 rounds of 30s at 2.7 then 30s at 3.2 mph until 12m to go. Here I switched to 45s at 2.7 then 45s at 3.2 mph for 4 rounds. Last up was 3 rounds of 1m at 2.7 then 1m at 3.2 mph. Last workout of the day I didn't work quite so hard. For this one I started at 2.5 mph and with 15m to go I increased to 2.6 mph. At 12m, 9m and 6m I added another 0.1 mph. For the final 3 minutes my pace was 3 mph for 1m, then 3.1 for a minute and finally 3.2 mph to end the day. I'm doing workouts in a running/sprinting series and since I don't run, jog or sprint I play around with speeds and intervals. I'm pushing myself a little to get more comfortable at 3.2 mph since 3 mph has gotten a bit easier. I mentioned yesterday that I swore the treadmill was going faster than the display read and I was right about that. When I started the warm up for my lunchtime workout I could tell I was going faster than 2 mph so I stopped the workout and shut off the treadmill. I let it sit while I fed the cats their lunch and then went back to it. Sure enough, when I turned it back on and loaded my workout the speed felt right. It's done this before and I probably need to turn it off more often. I pretty much leave it on all the time. I've been using it about 4 years now and I'm hoping to get a few more out of it !

I was a little worried about being hungry when I went to bed last night, since I was light on my calories, but having the Metamucil before bed filled me up and there was no thought of food. I'm glad I'm working harder to get that in, along with my vitamins and magnesium. Today I managed to spread my vitamins out during breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is the best way to avoid stomach upset.

I've talked previously about the stages of grief as it pertains to my weight loss and fitness journey. The first stage is denial and I spent years in denial about a lot of things in my life besides my weight. Really I just tried to ignore anything and everything that was uncomfortable. I made so many mistakes, but I've been lucky enough to come through it all to a better life. I ignored my ballooning weight until I started to suspect my job was not going to last but the real catalyst was the photo my mom took on 12-25-18. I was horrified at how huge I was. I was sitting down in the photo and when you stand and look in the mirror you look completely different, so it's easy to fool yourself into thinking you don't look "that bad". This was the end of the denial. It really came crashing down on me and I was deeply depressed until 12-29-18 when I decided to sign up for Nutrisystem. I started the plan on 01-04-19 and little did I know that 3 days later I would be facing the loss of my job ! The thought of going to job interviews at 304 pounds was horrifying ! Luckily for me, I retained my job and I'm still here over 4 years later ! I didn't expect Denial to visit me again, but it did. I fooled myself for months as I gained back 87 of the 150 pounds I lost. I was right back to thinking I didn't look "that bad". Well, I did and 247 pounds is a far cry from 154 ! Again I was horrified and sad and angry - you name it, I went through all the negative emotions. Tomorrow I will talk about the anger I felt.

Today was a good day ! I slept well and was able to get up a few minutes after 7 without much effort. I fed the cats, got dressed, made my bed and started my first cup of coffee (and this blog) before work. I had a productive work day for a change, in spite of some new items hitting my project list. With the siding saga nearing an end I'm able to focus better on every aspect of my life. I feel like my fitness is improving and I've settled back in to being a little more strict when it comes to what I eat. I will allow myself the occasional splurge but I won't be bringing anything into the house that is more than 1 or 2 servings. I think that is the key for me. Yes, I had 2 delicious burgers Sunday and Monday and I had a pint of Ben & Jerry's but that was it. The other pint of ice cream is safe in the freezer for now. Having the magnesium and Metamucil at bedtime has really been helping but some nights I am getting up 3 or 4 times to pee. I drink about 24 ounces of water to get the mag and Meta down, so that is likely the cause. The benefits outweigh the inconvenience !

On that note, it's time to check off the last few boxes on my schedule, which would be shower - skincare - brush teeth - bed ! I don't have a perfect week (yet!) but I'm having a good week, so I'm happy with that.