Day 31: Follow Your Vision

“If you are working on something that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.”

Wise words from Steve Jobs. People laughed at his vision but he persevered and look what he accomplished. It’s sad that his life was taken from him at such a young age.

Losing weight and staying healthy is something I really care about. I don’t need anyone to push me on this journey, perhaps for the first time in my life. This is something I have to do for myself. I write these notes so that I have something to look back on and to keep me accountable, not for praise or encouragement. However, I do appreciate every one of you who reads these notes, whether you “like”, comment or just read and move on.

I love Sundays spent at home, especially when there are good movies on tv. I may not actively watch but a good movie makes for great background noise. Breakfast this morning was a 1.5 ounce 160 calorie apple strudel bar. I tend to eat the bars and cold cereal on weekends and save the heartier breakfast items for the work week. My PowerFuel with breakfast was 2 string cheese. Add 2 cups of coffee, hazelnut and french vanilla, and it was a perfect morning ! Morning snack was a chocolate shake and something new .. a veggie cake that I found at Costco yesterday ! This counted as a Smart Carb and only has 90 calories. You can oven bake or microwave - I microwaved for 80 seconds and it was perfect. The aroma coming from the microwave was mouth watering and I absolutely loved it ! I will definitely be buying more of these and they will likely be my go-to for the morning and/or afternoon Smart Carb ! Lunch today was a 1.7 ounce 190 calorie cup of Spicy Kung Pao Noodles. OMG ... this was absolutely the best meal in a cup I’ve had from Nutrisystem !!! You do add water to this so the cooked weight was likely in the 6-7 ounce range. I will make sure several of these are included in my next shipment. I also had a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese for my PowerFuel. I bought a large bag of fresh brussel sprouts and 2 bags of baby carrots at Costco yesterday so today I cleaned all of the sprouts, added most of 1 bag of carrots, tossed them in olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and a salt free onion and herb seasoning mix then dumped them on a large cookie sheet. Baked in the oven until tender and now I have veggies for the week ! If I still have a lot of them left after a couple of days I will package them for the freezer. I snacked on the rest of the first bag of carrots and my “official” afternoon snack was a small piece of the homemade bread from my niece, toasted and spread with peanut butter. Dinner tonight was my leftover steak from Longhorn with its accompanying onions and mushrooms, along with a large serving of my freshly roasted veggies. OMG ... what a delicious meal ! Roasting is definitely the way to go with brussel sprouts as it eliminates their bitterness. They were just delicious. As for the carrots, roasting brings out a sweetness that microwaving or boiling cannot. All in all this was one fabulous meal that I thoroughly enjoyed. Tomorrow I’ll be back to Nutrisystem entrees and I’m ok with that. Restaurant meals are going to be a once a while treat rather than a way of life. The sirloin accounts for about 150 calories since it’s pretty lean. I don’t have to worry about the veggie calories as Nutrisystem has no limits on non-starchy vegetables. The oil I used and the oil they likely used to saute the 0nions and mushrooms adds some calories but I am still well within the Nutrisystem guidelines. I’m pretty close to meeting the 64 ounce water goal today too - first time in forever !

I’m so glad to have the extreme cold and the threat of snow behind us for a little while. My heat certainly struggled to keep the house warm this past week so I’m enjoying the return to warmer temps. Snow crashing off the roof had me hopping off the couch all day since it sounded like the house was falling down ! While I was preparing my lunch I was treated to an avalanche off the kitchen roof ! MZMAYHEM is in desperate need of a bath so I hope to be able to do that this week. She probably won’t stay clean for long but at least the inch of salt and sand will be gone !

Back to work tomorrow. I’m glad to be feeling better and I’m looking forward to getting back to normal or maybe I should say my “new normal”. Every day is hard. It’s hard to look around and know that soon the desks will be empty. Some will move on to new roles and new offices in the company here in New York or in Florida, others will move on to a well deserved retirement and some will move on to new careers with other companies. I’m sad to see this long established family breaking up but in my heart I believe that we will all survive. There are worse challenges life can throw at you - trust me on that !