Day 41: Just Believe

“Just believe in yourself; even if you don’t pretend that you do and, at some point, you will.” ~ Venus Williams ~

I love this quote because I have long been my own worst enemy and my biggest critic. I very rarely believed in myself or gave myself credit for anything, but I’m working on turning that around.

I’ve thought a lot about my goals when it comes to exercise and I’ve realized I can’t really commit to exercising every single day. It’s just not going to happen right now and I’m putting all this pressure on myself about it. So I’m going to try for 3 to 5 days a week. I’m thinking Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday or Sunday and Friday if I feel like it. I might feel different when the snow and cold weather are gone so I’ll reassess the goal then. Weekends will be no problem as I can exercise at any time of the day. Friday nights will be iffy because sometimes I am very tired by Friday. I will be happy if I can stick to 3 days a week so anything more than that will be a bonus.

The morning commute was slow but uneventful today in spite of yesterday’s snow and ice. My plow guy came a few minutes before I left so the driveway was in great shape. Roads between Mexico and Parish were snow covered and it’s still dark when I leave so I just went slow. There wasn’t much traffic so I didn’t have to worry about some bozo tailgating me. The highway was in better shape but I kept my speed around 65 because I really couldn’t tell if the road was shiny because it was wet or shiny because it was icy. The temp was only 28 degrees so I decided I’d rather get to work later than usual but safely. Around Central Square the traffic was forced to slow down by some snow plows acting as pace cars ! It used to bug the heck out of me when the plows would take all 3 lanes and force the traffic to slow but I can see it makes a difference and in reality they’re saving the speed freaks from themselves ! I didn’t see any accidents this morning so they were doing something right ! The ride home was relatively uneventful - the roads were pretty much snow free and dry but when I got to Brewerton the sign boards were all flashing “heavy snow ahead - reduce speed” .... so the further North I went the more I dreaded it. Turns out there was NO snow ahead and the roads were clean and dry all the way home. Fortunately for me the heavy snow is further north but I may wake up to snow. Ugh .. Spring cannot get here fast enough !

Tonight I’m tired partly because I was awake later than normal. Not long after I went to bed I was hearing all kinds of strange noises in the house. I couldn’t really tell what it was or where it was coming from so I had to get up and investigate. I was worried about the roof because of the heavy wet snow and the layer of ice on top of it. The roof is not quite 10 years old and it’s metal, so I probably worry for no reason. Anyhow, I looked outside and all was quiet but I was still uneasy. I was standing in the upstairs hall trying to decide if I wanted to go downstairs when I heard a thundering noise. Snow was pouring past the window like Niagara Falls ! Turns out the noises I’d been hearing was that snow starting to break free and move. My personal avalanche was the end of the strange noises and although I was able to settle right back into bed I was wide awake. To top it off the plow woke me up at 4 am. It really threw my whole day off - I guess I should have just got up and did some morning exercise !

My eating was all over the place today too. Breakfast was a 4.4 ounce 180 calorie turkey sausage and egg muffin. I really like this breakfast sandwich ! My breakfast PF was 2 string cheese (100 calories). I never had breakfast until about 10 am but I had 2 cups of coffee early so maybe that just dulled my appetite. Lunch was a 4 ounce 220 calorie chicken fajita melt. I really like this one and today I actually remembered to bring some salsa to have with it. I found these cute little bottles at Walmart that are the perfect size for a couple tablespoons of salsa. I had some raw carrots with it. After lunch I had my 120 calorie vanilla shake with a tablespoon of peanut butter powder, which adds 35 calories and a ton of flavor. My official afternoon snack (PF) was a hard boiled egg. I had some plain yogurt and a veggie cake with me but I didn’t end up eating them. So I’m only at 975 calories for the day, which is much too low and could be part of the reason I’m tired.

UPDATE: well, clearly I was very tired as I didn’t note what I had for dinner. It was a 7.5 ounce 240 calorie tub of chili with beans. I had a big bowl of broccoli with it. Since I was low on calories today I added a couple tablespoons of Brummel & Brown spread to the broccoli. That adds maybe 90 calories. I also had a snack - a 140 calorie peanut butter brownie. I don’t recall the weight of the brownie. It had a nice flavor but it was a little dry for my taste.