2023: Finding My Way Back

  Today is day 182 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and I've resolved to get myself back on track starting tomorrow.  Breakfast was 150 calorie pancakes with sugar free syrup and an 80 calorie yogurt. I didn't have a morning snack. Lunch was potato salad and a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. I didn't have an afternoon snack. Dinner was 2 hotdogs and the rest of the potato salad. Evening snack was a piece of cake I brought home yesterday. Yesterday was the 4th of July and I did indulge a little bit. Dinner was steak, potato salad and macaroni & cheese. Dessert was apple pie, a strawberry cake and a strawberry jello dessert. I also had a few margaritas. The day is over and done and that is that. I brought some of the jello dessert home and had that last night and this afternoon. I also had some leftover potato salad, but that is also gone. The plan now is to return to 100% compliance with Nutrisystem on Friday. I have 2 hotdogs left and I will eat those tomorrow. I don't have any...

  Today is day 181 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and yesterday was the 6 month mark. I didn't write much yesterday as I wasn't feeling very energetic. I've been living on Benadryl because of the mosquito bites I had, and that makes me sluggish. It seems I am very sensitive to mosquitos now. I never used to develop gigantic welts like I do now. I've added bug spray to my shopping list and plan to use that whenever I am out in the yard. Today I feel much better and I'm going to try and get through the day without Benadryl. I didn't wake up with any itching, so that is a good sign.  Breakfast was waffles with sugar free syrup and a yogurt. After that I was out for the day. So yet again I've been on a bit of bender when it comes to food. I'm not going to wring my hands over it now, as it's water over the bridge. Starting tomorrow I will be back on the treadmill and the Total Gym. In 2 months I have to start going to the office once a month and I'm ashamed that ...

  Today is day 180 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and that's the official 6 month mark. I've made very little progress and I'm really disappointed in myself. Breakfast was pancakes with sugar free syrup and a yogurt. Today was off to a super early start as I woke up at 3 am to the lovely scent of a skunk and remembered that I didn't close & lock the back door ! I went downstairs and closed the door and then went back to bed, hoping to be able to sleep again. I finally gave up at 4 am and got up. I only got about 6 hours of sleep in spite of the Benadryl. My mosquito bites are still itchy so I'm continuing to take it. Abby was happy to eat breakfast early, that is for sure ! I waited until 8 am to feed the strays. My 2 little mama's were out there waiting but there was no sign of the male. The little house I bought for them is supposed to be delivered Wednesday. They'll be homeless when the workshop comes down, so I hope they take to the new house. I'm going to p...

  Today is day 179 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and I celebrated day 2 of vacation by sleeping until almost 10 am ! I went to bed just after 9 pm so I slept for almost 12 hours. Benadryl had something to do with that as I got a bunch of mosquito bites after an evening round of weed trimming ! I really need to buy some insect repellant and start using it. Breakfast was strawberry shortcake. I bought 2 quarts of strawberries and 4 biscuits yesterday. Home grown strawberries are only here for a short time so I decided to treat myself. Morning snack was a yogurt. Lunch was a chef salad & pepperoni pizza melt. I was off the Nutrisystem trail after that .. with vanilla ice cream topped with strawberries, chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Dinner was 2 hotdogs. Evening snack was strawberry shortcake. I mentioned mosquito bites. Last night about 7:15 I decided to go out and cut down some of the weeds growing on the driveway side of the house. Technically they're on the neighbors property but the...

  Today is day 178 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and I was wide awake at 5 am ! Not exactly the way I planned on starting my vacation ! I gave up trying to go back to sleep around 5:30 and headed downstairs to start my day. Breakfast was waffles with sugar free syrup and a yogurt. Lunch was a pepperoni pizza melt. After that I was off the Nutrisystem trail ! I had strawberry shortcake with ice cream while I was out. Later I had pork dumplings and a chicken quesadilla with salsa, followed by fresh strawberry shortcake. Today is July 1st and I think it's a good day to recommit myself to losing this weight I've packed on. I spent the past 2 months stressing about my job and now that worry is gone. However, I did learn that the skills I have are not much good outside the telcom industry. I applied for project manager jobs and quickly found that I don't really qualify as I have no experience with "real" project management and the associated tools. I looked into Data Analyst jobs ...

  Today is day 177 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and I was wide awake around 6:30 am. Thanks to a visit from a hungry Abby I was able to get up and get going before the alarm went off at 7. Breakfast was pancakes with sugar free syrup and a yogurt. I didn't have a morning snack. Lunch was a pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was cottage cheese & pineapple. Dinner was a frozen 440 calorie meal followed by a bowl of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and whipped cream. I also had a Nutrisystem ice cream sandwich because I was hungry. Then I had a second bowl of ice cream. This is NOT the restart I was looking for ! I was hungry this evening because I took a break from salad today. My teeth are bothering me. I think I irritated a tooth a couple days ago and it's slowly getting better. Work was not what I would call busy today. I spent the majority of the day just tidying up all my work so that nothing blows up while I'm on vacation. I will have a TON of work "ready to go...

  Today is day 176 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and I was wide awake at shortly before 6 am. Maybe this is an indication that I'm sleeping better, since I was having trouble getting up at 7 ! It was cool last night and I didn't need the air conditioning, so that made for a quieter atmosphere to sleep in. I don't mind getting up earlier because I'd rather have a little time to relax before the work day starts. Breakfast was waffles with sugar free syrup and a yogurt. Morning snack was a 120 calorie vanilla shake. Lunch was a chef salad & pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was cottage cheese & pineapple. Dinner was roasted turkey medallions. Evening snack .. well, it was 2 vanilla ice cream sandwiches and a lemon zest cake. Keep reading to understand why. Yesterday I mentioned that I'm sick of the Kardashians and celebs in general. I forgot to mention that I'm also sick of the buzz around "influencers". I've never been one to follow trends or make d...

  Today is day 175 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and I was wide awake at 5 am. I tried to go back to sleep but gave up shortly after 5:30. I ended up sleeping with the air conditioning on as it was 82 in my bedroom and I knew the fan alone was not going to cut it. Air quality seemed to be fine and according to the forecast this morning the smoke was supposed to be worse in the afternoon and evening today. I didn't notice any difference in the air, so the showers we had today might have helped. Breakfast was pancakes with sugar free syrup and a yogurt. Morning snack was a 120 calorie chocolate shake. Lunch was a chef salad & pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was cottage cheese & peaches. Dinner was chicken fettuccine over riced cauliflower. Evening snack was a chocolate cupcake. I managed to get my fat ass on the treadmill during lunch today ! It might have only been 21m58s but it's a start ! There was no evening workout as I worked until 7 pm. Even though I haven't been on...

  Today is day 174 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and yet again I did not want to get up. I was awake briefly around 3:30 am as I needed to pee. I discovered that the power was out when I realized the air conditioner, fan and tv were off. A quick check of my phone found a notification from National Grid at 2:21 am. I went back to sleep pretty quickly, so I can't say the outage had anything to do with not wanting to get up. The power came back on at 4:30 am but I was asleep so I don't think I even noticed. I'm assuming there was a storm that I must have slept through ! Breakfast was waffles with sugar free syrup and a yogurt. I didn't have a morning snack. Lunch was the usual chef salad and pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack (at 6 pm !) was cottage cheese & peaches. So far I'm not missing the oatmeal cookies ! Dinner was green beans and a meatloaf sandwich and evening snack was a lemon zest cake. Today I stuck with Nutrisystem 100% and I'm not starving ! I think it he...

  Today is day 173 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and it's Monday. Four more days and I'll be off on vacation for 9 days ! After a restless night I had a tough time getting out of bed. During the night I woke to the smell of a skunk and had to turn off the air conditioning in my bedroom. The fan kept me cool enough but the skunk smell lingered. Seems like there was an altercation on the back step, probably over the cat food as the smell is strong out there AND in my pantry ! Ugh - so gross. I did see a skunk on the Ring camera at the garage around 10:45 pm last night. Haven't seen one around my house in years. Breakfast was pancakes with sugar free syrup and a yogurt. I didn't have a morning snack. Lunch was a chef salad and pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was cottage cheese & peaches. Since I worked OT and was having dinner late I ended up having a yogurt, which counts as the morning snack. Dinner was the leftover pasta & meatballs with broccoli. Evening snack was a ...

  Today is day 172 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and it's Sunday ! I woke up around 8:30 am and had almost 2,000 steps in before 10:30. I moved all the scrap metal out to the driveway, including the grill and dryer, and the scrapper came shortly after noon and took everything ! I went outside to spread out and fold up the solar cover and noticed that the pool cover was gone. I thought the person that wanted the covers had decide to leave it, so I took it back into the workshop. Then I checked my phone and saw on my security camera that the scrapper took it ! Turns out the lady that wanted the covers was on the way, so I dragged it back out to the driveway just as she was pulling in. I helped her cram it into her small SUV and then put the 2 bags of trash into my bin ! Mission accomplished ! All the junk is gone or in the bin for trash day ! During my vacation I plan to pull the car and lawn mower out of the garage and sweep the floor good to remove all debris. I'm going to ask the siding...

  Today is day 171 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and since it's Saturday I was able to sleep in until almost 9 am ! Got up to some much needed rain ! I love listening to the rain. It moved out before 11 am and I took a walk to the post office to grab my mail. Breakfast was pancakes with sugar free syrup and a yogurt. Lunch was the remains of last nights General Tso's chicken. I discovered that most of the "sauce" was in the bottom of the container, but I still won't ever go to that place again. Afternoon snack was cottage cheese & the last 2 oatmeal cookies. I am no longer going to spend $6.50 for 8 cookies. Going forward I will have fruit with my cottage cheese. Dinner was green beans and a meatloaf sandwich. Evening snack was a lemon zest cake. Much later I had some wheat thins & peanut butter. Since the 4th of July is only a week or so away I put my decorations out on the front porch today. They're jars with red, white and blue pom poms, hats and stars on pick...

  Today is day 170 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and I slept so much better last night ! I still didn't want to get up at 7 but that is probably because I was awake at 5:45 and opted to go back to sleep ! Breakfast was waffles with sugar free syrup. I didn't have a morning snack. Lunch was a chef salad & pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was cottage cheese & oatmeal cookies. Dinner was a bad decision and a waste of $23. I have been craving chinese food, so I walked to the local chinese place. Well, the food was crappy. I wanted won ton soup and they were out of won ton's ! What the heck kind of chinese restaurant "runs out" of won ton's on a Friday, no less ! I ended up ordering sweet & sour chicken AND General Tso's chicken. The sweet & sour chicken pieces were overcooked to the point there was zero moisture left. The General Tso's had NO sauce and was mostly breading with 4 pieces of broccoli ! The problem here is I absolutely loved the chin...

  Today is day 169 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and after a crappy nights sleep I woke up to an email indicating I am not moving on in the interview process at US Bank. Although I am sad about that, I'm not surprised because I really wasn't qualified for the job. Clearly the hiring manager saw that and I'm sure that is why my interview only lasted 15 minutes. I did learn some things from the process and my hope is that it will help me do better the next time ! So far I have failed to display leadership skills and I feel like a lot of employers are looking for that. I applied tonight for a couple of jobs with Cardinal Health. We'll see how that goes ! One position is entry level data analysis and I think I would be amazing at that ! I woke up last night around 3 am and could not get comfortable or get back to sleep. I felt like I was hungry so I came downstairs, grabbed the Wheat Thins and sat on the couch with the tv on. I ended up falling asleep and that's where I stayed unt...

  Today is day 168 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and thanks to the air conditioning I slept pretty well ! Too well maybe, it was tough to get out of bed ! Breakfast was waffles, lunch was 1/2 pepperoni pizza. Afternoon snack was cottage cheese & oatmeal cookies. Dinner was 2 hotdogs. Evening snack was vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and whipped cream. I didn't get on the treadmill today BUT I did exercise ! I mowed the larger part of the yard during my lunch hour and finished the rest after work. I'm planning to do the weed trimming during lunch tomorrow. Work was steady today and I have some new projects from my boss so I worked until 7 tonight to get those started. I'm going to work all the OT I can so that I can continue to add to my savings. My siding guy came by just after 5 with the contract, so that is now signed. He hopes to start the job on July 10 and I don't have to pay him anything until 7 days before he starts. It's scary to spend $43k when you may be l...

  Today is day 167 of Nutrisystem 2.0 and I woke up about 10 minutes before the alarm today, thanks to an incredibly loud garbage truck out on the main drag. I love sleeping with the windows open but occasionally traffic noise intrudes ! Breakfast was 150 calorie pancakes with sugar free syrup and an 80 calorie yogurt. Lunch was 1/2 a pepperoni pizza. Afternoon snack was 80 calorie cottage cheese & 90 calorie oatmeal cookies. Dinner was 2 hotdogs. Evening snack was vanilla ice cream with Hershey syrup and whipped cream. I published yesterday's blog just as it was written .. and there was not much. I'm letting the stress of job hunting get to me. It really sucks that AT&T is doing this to people that have been with the company for decades and continued to work hard even during the lean times. I just feel so hurt and betrayed. It never fails though, once life seems to be good the bottom always falls out. I guess that is my lot in life. Today was my interview with US Bank....