Day 34: No Room For Hate

“ I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr. -

It seems like every day I am removing someone from my friends list because of the hateful content they post. Most of the time it is political and directed at our current President. If you have nothing better to do than post endless links to garbage, then I don’t need you on my friends list. I don’t automatically believe every piece of “news” that is churned out on the internet nor do I care to see it on my news feed. For me Facebook is a place to keep up on the lives of my friends and family and have fun. So bring on the cat videos, goofy selfies, dog videos and MOPAR burnouts ! Seriously .. I have NO room in my life for hate of any kind. We’re all entitled to our beliefs and opinions but some things are best kept to yourself. You can’t justify your hate by saying it’s in response to someone else’s … because if you’re both pushing hate then you’re both wrong !

It’s Day 34 on Nutrisystem ! I’ve come to the realization that women may have a tougher time with weight loss because of the yoyo effects of water retention ! I am also beginning to see the reason I need to stay away from the salt shaker. Yesterday I felt “thinner” than I do today … and I suspect the difference is the salt I shook onto my veggies at dinner last night. Veggies that I salted before roasting ! I know we need a certain amount of sodium in our diet but I’m sure the foods I’m eating are providing more than enough. So, as much as I hate to do it I am going to put the salt shaker away. I’m going to try lemon juice or some low sodium fat free dressing to jazz up the veggies. Wherever I can I will also try to mix the veggies with whatever entrée I am having for dinner. I have salt free seasoning blends too but they fall flat without salt. Breakfast today was a 1.5 ounce 150 calorie blueberry lemon baked bar with triple chocolate coffee. My PF for breakfast was 2 string cheese (100 calories). My morning snack was a chocolate shake (PF) and a veggie cake (SC). Lunch today was a 3.8 ounce 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt with raw carrots and cottage cheese (PF). My afternoon snack was a peanut butter sandwich (2 slices 45 calorie whole wheat bread with a tablespoon of peanut butter) which is equal to a PF and a SC. Tonight’s dinner was a 4.7 ounce 290 calorie meatloaf sandwich with a little barbecue sauce and a big bowl of roasted veggies. The salt shaker was nearby but I didn’t use it !

I need to work on adding some variety to PF and SC. Eggs and yogurt are allowed in the PF category and fruit is allowed in the SC category and although I have these items in the house I haven’t incorporated them into my meals. I’ve never been one to plan my meals but I’m thinking it might be a good idea to start doing that. I’m going to put a chart together for the rest of this month and see how that goes. If I plan ahead I can shop appropriately and have everything I need on hand. This will have 2 benefits: I won’t be eating the same things day after day AND I won’t be standing there every night trying to decide what NS entrée to have for dinner !

One thing I’ve noticed since I started Nutrisystem is I’m hungrier earlier in the morning. Prior to NS I used to start the day with a gigantic cup of Dunkin coffee with cream and sugar. All that fat and sugar kept me satisfied until about 9:30 during the work week. At that point I’d have a 240 calorie cup of Powerful Oatmeal (maple & brown sugar). That usually held me until lunch and that’s when the car would go off the tracks. My typical lunch was a trek across the street to return with a giant sandwich and a large fresh baked cookie. I can’t even imagine the calories I was consuming. I didn’t usually have any snacks during the day so I didn’t eat again until dinner. Dinner was often the same items .. 2 or 3 large chicken tenders with ranch dressing, ½ a pizza or 2-3 Johnsonville cheddarwurst. Then there were trips to KFC or McDonalds. The sad thing is I’d eat the McDonald’s food and not like it … but then go back. WTH !!! I can’t say that about KFC – I always enjoyed their food ! They never seem as busy as McDonald’s which is odd because their food is so good ! Anyhow, my point was I am now hungry by 8 am so I’m eating breakfast earlier. I don’t get hungry for my morning snack until about 11, which is a problem since I go to lunch at noon. I seem to be encountering the “hungries” in the afternoon, even with my snack. So today I waited until almost 1 pm to actually eat my melt and a few carrots. I wasn’t hungry again until about 2:45 so I had my sandwich. I had my cottage cheese around 3:30 and the rest of the carrots around 4. So today I made it through the hungries ! I tried something new with water today too. My water bottle is marked in 8 ounce increments so I drank 8 ounces at a time. By 1:30 it was time for a refill and by 4:30 I had 64 ounces in !! My kidneys must be in heaven while my bladder is saying WTF !