Day 23: It Takes A Village

Day 23. Losing weight doesn’t just depend on your own self control. You also need the support of those around you. If someone you know or love is trying to lose weight or eat healthier, don’t push them to cheat “just once”. Cheating “just once” can easily lead to the end of everything they’ve been working toward. It’s happened to me and I’ve seen it happen to other people. Instead, encourage them to stay on track. Commend them for staying the course. Try not to put temptation in front of them. Tomorrow will be a test for me as I’m having lunch out with the girls in my family. I haven’t eaten out since late December. The good news is I’ve already looked at the restaurant menu and decided what I will order - sausage & onion pizza and a salad. 75% of the pizza will be set aside to bring home unless someone wants to share it with me or it’s exceptionally tiny. My plan is to eat a portion equal to a Nutrisystem pizza. I will likely indulge in a glass of wine as well, which is allowed. Unfortunately snow is predicted tomorrow so if the weather is bad I’ll be sitting here at home !

Thanks to my brother I was able to pick up a bunch of discounted Nutrisystem gift cards from Costco, which basically means I am getting a full month of the program for free ! This is a huge savings ! I found out about this from a Nutrisystem support group I joined on Facebook. This is what I mean about a village. Family and friends and even a bunch of strangers are rallying around to help me towards my goal. I appreciate the contribution each and every one is making to keep me moving in the right direction. For the first time in my life I really believe I can do this ! I think it helps that all of the other obstacles in my life were cleared away so all that was left was to improve ME ! I also think there was divine intervention to make this decision BEFORE I found out my office was closing, because I wouldn’t have done it after the news came.

Breakfast today was a 1 ounce 110 calorie packet of sweetened o’s cereal. This also calls for 1/2 cup of milk which adds 51 calories and counts as a PowerFuel. The cereal held up well in the milk and I enjoyed it. I had a cup of Green Mountain breakfast blend coffee with it. Later I had a cup of vanilla caramel creme coffee with my morning snack of 1 slice whole wheat toast with Brummel & Brown spread. The bread is 80 calories and the B&B is 45 calories per tablespoon, so that didn’t add many calories. I also had a 120 calorie vanilla shake. Lunch today was a 1.8 ounce 200 calorie trail mix bar. I also had some raw carrots, 1/2 cup of 1% fat cottage cheese and a Vlasic Tabasco hot and spicy pickle for a treat ! The carrots are about 50 calories per cup, the cottage cheese is about 81 calories and the pickle has zero calories ! The pickle will be an occasional treat due to the sodium content but I like the fact that they have no calories ! Dinner tonight was a large bowl of broccoli and a 7.5 ounce 240 calorie cup of chili with beans. The chili is good but one of these days I’m going to make a batch of my own in the brand new crockpot I got for Christmas ! I didn’t have an afternoon snack so I still have nearly 500 calories to play with. I have plenty of Nutrisystem snacks to choose from, along with some lower calorie cups of yogurt so I’ll make sure I have an evening snack. All of the Chobani Flip’s are gone, which is a good thing as they had a lot of calories. Those were one of the few pre-Nutrisystem items I opted not to throw away.

I received my 2nd order of non-frozen (they call it shelf stable) foods today. It was much of the same items but there were a few new selections. I will share those as I consume them. I’m going to start photographing some of the food so that anyone who is curious can see what it actually looks like outside of the package. It’s so much fun to receive the boxes ! It won’t be easy but I’m forcing myself to eat the rest of the food I already have before I touch any of the new selections. I threw away a ton of outdated food before I started this program and I’m never going to repeat that ! Such a waste !

Today has been an amazing day. I woke up to blue skies and sunshine and that always lifts my spirits. I watched a favorite movie, High Society, on TCM and enjoyed a peaceful morning. I love the 1955 version with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly and Louis Armstrong ! After lunch I ran the dishwasher and started the laundry. I figured I had better get all my chores done today since I’m (hopefully) going out tomorrow. I’ll be making a Walmart run tomorrow too as I’m getting low on veggies and cat food. Found a Star Wars marathon on TNT so that’s where the tv has been much of the day !

Today I reset my goal weight, putting it 20 pounds lower. When I started the program I was afraid to set an unreachable goal, for fear of being disappointed or discouraged. There was also my fear of failure. Thinking about it I realized that for most of my life I’ve gone the “safe” route, instead of going for a stretch goal. I changed my mindset on every other aspect of my life so I needed to change it here too. So what if I never reach my goal weight. Every pound I lose is a step towards better health. I know there will be plateaus and some weeks I might not lose anything but I also know that as the weight comes off I’ll be able to exercise more easily and that will help. So we’ll see. For now I am happy and motivated.