Day 36: Follow Your Heart

“Follow your passions, follow your heart, and the things you need will come” ~ Elizabeth Taylor ~

Following your heart can be a good thing … as long as you check with your brain and make sure the two agree it’s the right thing for you ! Speaking only for myself, following my heart sent me in the wrong direction and led to many years of anguish because I didn’t listen to my brain (or my family) ! The smartest people can be SO stupid ! I guess I didn’t have a plan to extricate myself after my heart made that bad decision ! Going forward I won’t follow my heart in every direction it leads me and I will always consult my brain. The decision to join Nutrisystem and finally focus on losing weight is a sound one so my heart and brain are in agreement on this one !

>>> UPDATE: I lost 3 pounds this week ! That’s a total of 24 down ! <<<

*** I forgot to weigh myself before I had dinner so I’ll do that in the morning ! ***

Breakfast today was a decadent 2.1 ounce 180 calorie Nutrisystem cinnamon roll with hazelnut coffee. I continue to be amazed that I now actually enjoy black coffee ! For YEARS I drank that XL Dunkin coffee with 5 cream and 5 sugar. 320 calories I could easily have lived without ! It shows me that small changes in your diet can really make a difference. 320 calories a day Monday thru Friday is 1600 calories – more than I eat in ONE day now ! I had my coffee and roll around 8 am and 2 string cheese (100 calories) around 9:15. Morning snack today was a 120 calorie vanilla shake with the last dash of the chocolate shake mix. I finally finished a canister ! Some of the folks in my NS group on Facebook have complained the shake mix doesn’t last 14 days, as the program claims, so I’m going to date the canisters when I open them to check that. I get a canister of vanilla and a canister of chocolate each month and they’re supposed to last you 28 days. I received 7 days of shakes plus the 2 canisters with my first shipment, so that is 35 days worth. I’m on day 36 ! The chocolate is gone and the vanilla doesn’t have enough in it for tomorrow (day 37) so I’m not seeing a problem. I use a level scoop of the mix although the package says a “rounded” scoop. I suppose if you interpret that as a “heaping” scoop it won’t last 28 days. Lunch today was a 4.3 ounce 240 calorie southwest fiesta melt. I do love the melts ! I was out of cottage cheese so today I had plain low fat yogurt with a couple strawberry slices to go with my raw carrots. I think a little bit of granola (or fresh fruit vs frozen) would be better in the yogurt so I’ll try that next time. Afternoon snack today was the 90 calorie veggie cake and 1 string cheese. In order to consume fewer calories I’ve eliminated the peanut butter and bread in the afternoon and moved the veggie cake from morning snack to afternoon snack. Dinner tonight was a 10 ounce 260 calorie dish of chicken alfredo. I had the last of my roasted veggies with it.

I’ve decided to scale my calories back to 1200 as I feel like 1400 is too much. Vegetables don’t count in my calories so if I’m hungry I have plenty of vegetable choices to address that. Right now I feel like I’m eating to reach the calorie count instead of eating because I’m hungry. If I go over 1200 I’m not going to worry about it but I’m not going to push myself to reach 1400. I’m doing very well with the water consumption – I’ve exceeded the 64 ounce goal 3 days in a row. They key is going to be continuing that over the weekend. It seems like the weekend always throws me off.

Driving was fun today with the winds ! It was a 2 hands on the wheel kind of day. I’m just glad I got home before any snow arrived. It’s just starting to snow now (7:40 pm) but it looks like the heaviest snow is north of me. Weather is going to be nasty tomorrow so it’ll be a perfect day to force myself to try on my new exercise wear and actually turn on the treadmill again ! I absolutely have to get my exercise program started. I have 5 pound weights that I need to start using too.

I’m a little sad tonight. I lost a bracelet that I wear almost every day. I’m hoping I lost it in the office and someone turns it in. It’s nothing expensive, just costume jewelry, but my mom gave it to me so I’d hate to lose it.