2023: Finding My Way Back

  Today is day 104 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and it's been a few days since I've written anything. I've been agonizing over the siding for my house. My first estimate was $16,600. Second estimate was just under $40k, which I balked at and he switched to a lower grade siding to get to just under $30k. Third estimate was over $48k but I feel like it gives the biggest bang for my buck. Estimate #1 was basically just slapping some siding on the walls. Inexperienced kid just starting his business and I feel my project is too much for him. Estimate #2 was pretty much the same but included things like soffits, wrapping the windows and repairing the collapsing workshop. $2500 is built into the estimate to cover replacement wood. Estimate #3 includes insulating wall board, premium siding, wrapping all the windows and bringing them even with the siding. It also includes replacing the columns on my side patio as they are rotting, gutters on the front porch AND demolition of the workshop. The...

  Today is day 98 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and the weather was beautiful. I spent the entire day working out on the front porch. Tomorrow and Friday are expected to be even warmer so I'll be out there again. Sadly, temps are going back to the 40's on Monday so I'll be back working inside. Breakfast was 160 calorie waffles. I never got around to eating my yogurt. Morning snack was a 120 calorie chocolate shake. Lunch was a chef salad and 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. I never got around to my afternoon snack. Dinner was roasted carrots and 220 calorie chicken fettuccine over riced cauliflower. Evening snack was a 140 calorie chocolate cupcake. Total calories for the day are 1020. First and only workout of the day was 28m4s in Iceland. I completed a 27 minute interval at 3 mph and it felt great ! I didn't work out this evening as I worked a little bit late and then had to walk around the house to take photos for my Friday siding appointment.  While I was out there I cleaned ...

  Today is day 93 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and it got off to a LATE start !! I woke up at 8:05 ! Somehow I turned off the alarm in my phone. It's a good thing I don't have far to go to get to work ! The late start should have been a warning that today was going to be another unproductive day ! Breakfast was 160 calorie waffles with sugar free syrup. I love waffle day ! I never got around to having my 80 calorie yogurt, so I had it in the evening. Morning snack was a 120 calorie chocolate shake. Lunch was a chef salad and 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was 80 calorie cottage cheese and 90 calorie oatmeal cookies. Dinner was broccoli and a 180 calorie jalapeno & white cheddar stuffed chicken stick. This is actually a lunch item but I bought a bunch of them thinking it was a dinner item. They're pretty good and easy to cook in the air fryer. Evening snack was a 130 calorie carrot cupcake. Total calories for the day are 1060. I was a little hungry at bedtime so...

  Today is day 92 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and it got off to an early start. I woke up just after 6 and once I got up to pee it was all over. Drinking the magnesium and Metamucil right before bed is making me have to get up several times a night to pee, but the benefits of these 2 products make it worthwhile. I am sleeping so much better and I can't remember the last time I had any leg cramps ! Today I knew I wasn't going back to sleep so I got up shortly after 6:30. Once my mind wakes up and starts thinking about work, it is all over. By 7 the cats were fed and I had my first cup of coffee. I thought about getting a workout in but decided to just enjoy a little quiet morning before the work day launches. It was 55 degrees when I got up but the forecast indicated temps were going to fall into the 40's before the day is out. Oh well, this is Spring in Central NY. The weekend looks to be sunny, dry and mild so I will take that ! I finally took the plunge and requested a quote for s...

  Today is day 91 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and I embarked on the next 90 day leg of this journey with a positive attitude ! On a whim, I hopped on the scale this morning and was surprised to see 232 ! It just goes to show you how quickly your weight can change. I'm thinking about weighing myself every day and keeping track of it on my daily schedule, just to see the fluctuations. With this "unofficial" weigh in I'm at 15 pounds lost, which is encouraging. I have to get to 224 to earn back the 80 pound bear, so that is my short term goal.  Breakfast was 160 calorie waffles with sugar free syrup and an 80 calorie yogurt. Morning snack was a chocolate shake. Lunch was a chef salad and 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was 80 calorie cottage cheese and 90 calorie oatmeal cookies. Dinner was green beans and 220 calorie rotini & meatballs. Evening snack was a 140 calorie lemon zest cake. Total calories for the day are 1110. I also had a Reese's peanut butt...

  Today is day 90 of Nutrisystem 2.0 ! Officially 3 months since I started back towards my goal weight. I haven't made as much progress as I had hoped, but that is because I didn't work as hard as I could have. I started the day off with a weigh in. I had hoped to drop to 233 or less but the scale still says 234, so I've "only" lost 13 pounds. Honestly, I should have lost that in the first month. The good news is I'm only 2 ounces away from 233 and I'm working harder to stay on track. At this milestone I'm torn over weekly weigh ins vs. monthly. Weekly was demotivating because I wasn't losing, but I wasn't losing because I was cheating too much and not exercising enough. Now that I'm buckling down I may try weekly and see how that goes. Below are my comparison photos. My hips don't look quite so wide, so I'm finally starting to see a difference. The side view shows my gut is shrinking. When I was showering last night I noticed that ...

  Today is day 89 of Nutrisystem 2.0. I didn't check the temp when I got up but it was 52 and sunny by 1 pm ! Tomorrow will mark 3 months on this latest effort and if I'm honest, I'm not happy with where my weight is. I should have been able to lose more than 13 pounds in 3 months. I know why this happened and I can't change what I've already done. I have to set my sights forward and focus on the next 90 days. I have to work hard to try and lose more. I would be happy to lose 20 pounds in the next 90 days, so that is the goal. If I stay on my exercise plan and keep away from the sweets and other extras, there is no reason I can't do this. I will admit I am worried about Easter Sunday because there will be no less than 3 desserts and sweets are my weakness. I'm sure there will be candy too. I will eat before I go so that I'm not starving and I will not bring any sweets home. Breakfast was waffles with sugar free syrup. I never got around to eating my yogu...

  Today is day 88 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and it was 25 degrees when I got  up. Quite a change from yesterday's 50+, but not unexpected. Although it was cold we had blue skies and sunshine and I love that ! Although I said I would wait until Tuesday (4-4) to weight myself I ended up on the scale this morning. I'm glad I did because I FINALLY hit 234 ! I am officially back to 70 pounds lost and I now OWN the 70 pound bear again ! Wow, I can barely describe how happy this made me. It took me 88 days to get here and the real hard work starts now, because it's going to take 10 more pounds to get the 80 pound bear back ! I feel like I wasted most of the first 60 days of this but in reality I was working on getting my mind and body in sync with the job ahead. I made a lot of mistakes. I overate, ate a lot of things I shouldn't and I didn't exercise enough. I feel like like I'm in a good place with exercise now. Finally accepting that I couldn't just pick up where I lef...

  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 r...

  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...