Day 3: So far, So Good

The first 2 days of Nutrisystem weren’t awful ! I’m cautiously optimistic I will finally be successful. Breakfast this morning was a 160 calorie 1.4 ounce packet of granola cereal with a bit of milk. That seems like an awful lot of calories for such a tiny amount of food. The packet indicates it has 30 grams of carbs, with sugar being 11 of them. So Nutrisystem doesn’t seem to be “low carb” and I’m ok with that. I don’t want to be on a faddish plan like Keto or Atkins etc. I’ve read that Keto can cause your “bad” cholesterol to shoot up because you eat so much fat. That can’t be good for you and how does that teach you good balanced eating habits ? Right now my cholesterol levels are perfect and I want to keep it that way. Nutrisystem does have a separate plan for those with Type II diabetes and that probably limits carbs more. Having cereal with milk led to my first Nutrisystem hack - I put the leftover milk in my coffee ! It didn’t do a whole lot for me since there wasn’t much milk left, considering the cereal allowed for 1/4 cup .. lol ! What it did do was make the Dunkin k-cup coffee more palatable. I’m trying to use up my Dunkin k-cups as they are the oldest ones I have but I find the coffee to be very bitter. Fortunately I only have a couple of them left. Believe it or not, the French Vanilla Great Value brand from Walmart tastes better ! I bought a box of the GV Hazelnut to try since I liked the French Vanilla. For unflavored coffee, Green Mountain Breakfast Blend is my favorite. I also like their Vanilla Caramel Creme.

One task I had to spend a good deal of time on was clearing my Facebook feed of recipe and food content. I had “liked” an astonishing number of pages associated with food ! I had also saved a ton of recipes - none of which I ever made. I still have to “hide” pages whenever my friends share posts from food pages - this will be a never-ending task and I’m ok with that. I firmly believe everyone has the right to post whatever they want and *I* have the right to block whatever I want. However, I do unfriend almost anyone who posts content relating to animal abuse. We all know this goes on so I don’t need to see it on a daily basis. I also hide much of the political content since most of it is hate directed at our current President. I don’t care what your personal opinion of Trump is, no President should be subjected to what is being hurled at him and his family. It’s pretty disgraceful.

Today is the last day of my vacation, sadly, but I’ll be glad to get back to work. I do miss the social aspect of being in the office ! Today will be spent finishing up laundry and cleaning. I still have to finish cleaning up the downstairs bedroom since my treadmill mat, chair and chair mat should be ready for pickup late this week. I have a contractor bag in there that is already half full and I expect it will be full before the day is out. Believe it or not I’m STILL throwing away clothing that I had prior to the fire. Every time I go through my clothes I find more to discard. I also need to get everything together that I’ll need for breakfast and lunch tomorrow.

Weather is pretty mild and windy today. Most of our snow is gone but the forecast is calling for the temp to drop and a bit of snow this evening. We’re not expecting any major snow events for the week ahead so that makes me happy !

32 ounces of water is sitting here waiting for me. It hasn’t been as hard to get through that as I thought it would be. I guess it was just a matter of putting my mind to it. Time to get off this couch and get some things done !

SNACK AND LUNCH UPDATE: morning snack was a Nutrisystem shake - that’s going to be a daily occurrence. It’s definitely a great pick me up ! Lunch today was brussel sprouts and a 180 calorie Double Chocolate Caramel bar. I think I only have one bar lunch left for the week. So far I’ve liked all of the bars I’ve had. A lot of protein bars have a lot of seeds or a chalky taste and I’m not getting that with the Nutrisystem bars. I’ve already had 4 servings of veggies and my first 32 ounces of water is about gone, so I’ll be refilling the bottle soon.

Laundry is close to being done and the downstairs bedroom is looking much neater ! I still have to address a bunch of stuff I’ve piled all over the desk. I also have some Christmas gifts to put away. It’s all kitchen stuff - cutting boards, a crock pot, an electric mixer, a small food processor, muffin tins, glass mixing bowls and glass baking dishes. I’m so blessed to have the cabinet space for all this stuff now, although the crock pot will be stored in the pantry since I won’t be using it just yet. I definitely plan to make some chili before winter is over though !

Wind is still blowing out there and I saw a few snow flurries but otherwise it’s been an uneventful weather day. Looking at the radar it appears most of the snow or rain is south of me so I’m hoping for a quiet commute tomorrow morning.

I’ve really enjoyed the past 2 weeks. It was a much needed break for me. I think being able to relax, do some things around the house and spend time with family really helped me get into a better frame of mind.

SNACK AND DINNER UPDATE: my afternoon snack was a 140 calorie bag of butter flavored popcorn. The popcorn itself was fresh and crunchy but I’m not a fan of the powdered butter coating used. At first it coated my teeth and ultimately ended up all over my fingers, so I had to go and scrub the orangy yellow mess off. I’ll make sure not to take this particular snack to work should it pop up in my meal plan again. I’d have been fine with a lightly salted plain popcorn. I imagine the 7 grams of fat in the package are intended to help you feel full and the dry coating is likely necessary to keep the popcorn from being soggy. Next time I will shake the bag good so the excess coating falls to the bottom of the bag. Dinner tonight was spaghetti and meatballs ! It was pretty good and had lots of little meatballs. I added a pinch of romano cheese for flavor. I would definitely be happy to have this entree again. If I’m hungry later I’m going to microwave some carrots.

I’m hoping I remember to take everything I need to work in the morning. I already have my breakfast, lunch and snack items in a bag along with the shaker. I also have what I need to make coffee. So I need to make sure to fill and pack my water bottle and a bag of frozen vegetables. I guess I need to make a list to check each morning !