Day 87: Spring Is Coming

 

Today is day 87 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and it was 50 degrees when I got up. I woke up very early with a sore neck. I could turn to the left just fine but turning to the right was slow and painful. I was fine when I went to bed so I'm wondering if I fell asleep in an odd position. I took a couple of Tylenol and resolved to keep to my treadmill plans, even if that meant I had to go a little slower. I'm still working on not allowing excuses to get in the way of my goals. That is a daily battle but I'm doing better. Stupid things like making sure I have my shoes on well before noon really helps. I'm also getting dressed first thing. Spring is coming and I definitely feel like my mood has elevated.

Breakfast was a Jimmy Dean Delights breakfast sandwich. I haven't one in a while so it was a nice change ! Morning snack was a vanilla shake. Lunch was a chef salad and a pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was cottage cheese & oatmeal cookies. Dinner was the last of the roasted carrots and roasted turkey medallions. Evening snack was a strawberry shortcake cupcake.

First workout of the day was 36m18s heading toward Mount Kilimanjaro. I last completed this workout on 2-7-20 and I weighed about 179 pounds. The first time I did it was 6-22-19 and ironically, I weighed 234 at the time, almost where I am now. I lingered on the couch, nursing my second cup of coffee, until after 2 pm but I finally faced my fear. Well, lo and behold I finished the workout without having to change anything. The first half had a good amount of incline but the max speed was 2.7 mph, so it was manageable. Second workout of the day was 19m22s in Italy. There were some brief 2 or 3% inclines but I can handle those. At the 18 minute mark I set my speed at 2.5 mph and added 0.1 mph every 3 minutes, ending at 3 mph. Final workout of the day was 20m11s in Italy. I started out at 2.4 mph but with 15 minutes to go I boosted the pace to 2.5 mph. I got 76 minutes plus 18 minutes of warm up/cool down for a grand total of 94 minutes ! 

I didn't get much done today but I did get my taxes filed, so I'm glad to have that crossed off the list ! Sometimes I just have to be in the "zone" for certain things and taxes weren't a priority. I'm getting back about $2300, so that will be a nice addition to my bank account ! e-file says both returns were accepted so hopefully I'll see the money soon. Until I looked at my W2 I had no idea I'd made over $91k last year ! These high earning years will help boost my Social Security payments once I am able to retire. I haven't done any formal financial planning but I think I'll be ok with my pension, my 401k and Social Security. My house will be paid for in 2031 but at some point I may start making some extra payments to pay it off sooner. I'm continuing to bank everything I can and staying away from the casino is pretty much the smartest move I've made in years. 

While doing my taxes today I was looking for one last document and happened to come across my property survey that was done before I bought my house. I discovered that the area behind the gap between my house and the house next door is NOT owned by my neighbor ! I've been wanting to landscape the area and redo the fence that was in place when I moved in but the neighbor is a jerk and I really didn't want to have to consult him. Now that I know I don't have to, I know what I'll be doing when the weather is nicer ! I am so excited ! I own the entire area and it butts up against a commercially owned lot, so I know they won't care about my landscaping. There are lilac trees there but the kids across the street (and others) created a path between them because they keep cutting through there. So today I went and used wire to pull the trees up and closer and then strung some fluorescent orange cord so nobody walks into the wire. On the backside I plan to just put some inexpensive wire fencing or lattice to keep people out (there are remains of the lattice that was there before) and on the front side I will put in landscape fencing and plants. I've always wanted lilies and honeysuckle so I'm going to start with those. The lilacs are in rough shape so once I see how much of it is dead I will consider cutting it back once other plants take hold. I may add some greenery like hostas as well. I measured the gap and it's about 18 feet so I have plenty of space to work with and I own most of the property between our houses. He really only owns a tiny strip along the side of his house. The family that used to own that house was shocked when I bought mine. I think they were trying to wait out the owner and then make a lowball offer just to get the land. When Alex passed away they actually asked me if I intended to sell, so I know they want this property. The family of the former owner also approached me after the fire restoration to ask if I was going to sell because they'd like to have the house back in the family. My thought was why didn't you buy the house from grandma then ?!?!?! They were only interested because of all the interior work that had been done. I guess it's common for people to sell their house after a fire but I'm happy here and saw no reason to sell. I could have bought my brother's house but he had no garage. Same for my mother's house - no garage. Plus where they lived there is nothing. Where I live everything is in walking distance. Grocery store, drug store, gas stations, post office, Village & Town offices, McDonalds, Dunkin, a pizzeria, a Chinese place and a liquor store. My house is bigger than their houses too and I'd have had to get rid of half my furniture. I'd have considered my brothers house if it had a garage but I didn't want to take over my mother's house and live there amongst those memories. So here I am and here I'll stay for the foreseeable future.

About 7 pm tonight a pickup pulled up and loaded up stuff from the apartment across the street, so it looks like they have moved out. I haven't seen any lights on for the past few days so I was pretty sure they were leaving. Glad to have those kids gone because they were trouble. Hopefully she's gone to a better situation and maybe they'll have a chance.

Today was a good day ! I spent some time out on the front porch since it was near 70 degrees. I can't wait until I can spend all my days out there ! I got 3 workouts in, which is fantastic ! I didn't overeat, although I did have a few Hershey Kisses. I had 5 before dinner because I waited too long to eat and I got weak. I had another 5 with my evening snack, just because I wanted them. The nice weather didn't last, by 6 pm the temp was dropping and a cold rain moved in. There was a chance of flurries but I didn't see anything like that.