Day 65: Focus On The Journey

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” ~Greg Anderson~

This is so true ! I avoid putting too much focus on my destination because it is still so far off. Meeting my weight loss goal is not a sprint and if I spend all of my time searching for the finish line I’m afraid I will lose momentum. So I focus on the day to day journey and celebrate small victories along the way. I’m happy that I’ve found a sensible “diet” I can enjoy and stick to. I’m also happy I’ve found an exercise program I can enjoy and actually look forward to. It also helps that my family has been very supportive. I saw the container of cookies on the kitchen table last night at my mom’s but no one suggested I have one. No one pushed me to eat more pizza. Too often people will say “oh, just have one” but that one cookie could become two or three ... and the next thing you know you’re out of control and undoing all of your hard work. I see it over and over in the Nutrisystem group on FB. I see people posting about “cheat days” and I have to wonder why they feel the need to have a cheat day. You’re on this program to lose weight so why take one step forward and two back ? It makes no sense to me. I can honestly say I do not feel deprived on this program, so I don’t feel the need to cheat. I also see people posting about going out and “stuffing” themselves for a special occasion, such as a birthday. Again, why do that to yourself ? Reward yourself or celebrate that special occasion some other way. Although I get a lot of great ideas from the group I also see many examples of things NOT to do. I wrote about this before .. I’m not a dog so I’m not going to reward myself with food. I just shake my head and keep scrolling when I see these types of posts. One other thing I haven’t done is try to replace all of the things I might have liked before with “diet” versions. I could have switched to fat free creamer and a sugar substitute for my coffee but I chose to just switch to black. I could have bought fat free whipped cream to jazz up some of the Nutrisystem desserts, but I opt to eat them as they are. There are also plenty of fat free or sugar free ice creams and other sweets but I’m sticking with Nutrisystem products only. If you read labels you will find that many “fat free” products compensate for the lack of fat by adding sugar. I’ve tried some fat free products and sugar free products in the past and always found them to be too sweet. Most also have an unpleasant aftertaste. So for me loading up on fat free or sugar free products is not an option. Besides that, my plan is to switch to as much clean eating as I can once I reach my goal so I don’t want to become reliant on a bunch of processed products. I realize Nutrisystem products are considered “processed” and some contain sugar substitutes, but they are a necessary AND temporary evil right now. I firmly believe this plan is designed to teach you the right things to eat and the correct portions and it’s going to take time to change years of poor choices. This is why I personally don’t trust myself to deviate very often. Even that half slice of pizza last night worried me. I logged it as 200 calories because I really had no way to know what the calories were. I’m more aware of the calories going in my mouth these days where before I never gave it a thought. This is a good thing !

Tiny drum roll ... I lost 2.6 pounds this week ! That’s a total of 37.4 pounds. So happy !

Breakfast today was a 3.8 ounce 90 calorie turkey ham and cheese omelet. Since there is no Smart Carb in the omelet you add that in with a serving of fruit, so I had some pineapple. Next time I’m at the grocery store I need to pick up some different fruits so I don’t get bored. Had a delicious cup of hazelnut coffee with it followed by a cup of french vanilla. Morning snack was a 155 calorie chocolate shake with peanut butter powder. My Smart Carb was a 90 calorie veggie cake. I really like the Garden Lites veggie cakes but I’ve decided I don’t particularly care for their spinach egg white frittata, so I won’t be buying them again. Lunch today was one of the “meal in a cup” selections - 1.7 ounce 200 calorie three cheese chicken. You just add water and microwave. I added a little extra water and let it sit longer than recommended and it was delicious ! I’ve had it before and wasn’t impressed so the extra water and letting it sit so the noodles could get super tender made all the difference ! I added about 6 ounces of water so the cooked weight was probably closer to 8 or 9 ounces. I had some cottage cheese (80 calories) and raw carrots with it. My afternoon snack was pretzels (110 calories) and string cheese (100 calories). Dinner tonight was a new frozen entree - 7.9 ounce 270 calorie black bean and polenta enchilada with white meat chicken. It was pretty good but a touch spicy. I really need to get some fat free sour cream to have with the spicy entrees. I had some broccoli with it since I’ve been slacking on my veggies. I put a little bit of butter on the broccoli so that probably added 20-30 calories. My evening snack was a 3.4 ounce 100 calorie frozen fudge bar so my calories are at about 1260 with the butter.

In addition to feeling better I’ve noticed that my skin has improved. My face used to be very oily and yesterday I realized that is no longer the case. I can’t attribute it to the season because the oiliness has been a year round issue for many years. I think all of the water I drink each day is what’s helping because I haven’t changed anything in my skincare routine.

It was so nice to wake up to blue skies and sunshine even though it was only 3 degrees ! Hopefully this is the last of the single digits for this winter. As much as I didn’t want to climb out of that nice warm bed nature was insistent and although I climbed back in I couldn’t go back to sleep so I was up at 7:30. I guess you could call that “sleeping in”. Tonight we turn the clocks ahead an hour so I’ll probably be up at the crack of dawn. Tomorrow we should see temps in the 40’s but they’re also predicting rain. I will take rain over snow any day, considering the equivalent of an inch of rain could be 13 or more inches of snow !

TCM was showing westerns today so I was a little disappointed in my movie selections. Thanks to my smart tv I was able to switch over to Pandora and just listen to music. I’ve become a big fan of Wisin & Yandel, Daddy Yankee, Nicky Jam and CNCO. The music turned out to be a good backdrop for my workouts and motivated me to get OFF the couch and do some things around the house. First on the list was an afternoon workout ! I tried a new one today, 30 second intervals alternating between 2.7 and 3.0 mph for 20 minutes. This was a little bit of a challenge (the workout I’ve been doing is 1 minute intervals alternating between 2.4 and 2.8 mph) but I made it through. 3 mph is totally the max speed for me right now. I had to stop halfway through because my shoe came untied (again!) so I’m glad the workout has a “pause” feature. I got workout #2 in around 8:30 and I made sure to knot the laces on my shoes ! Workoout #2 was the same one I did earlier today. I’m pretty proud of myself ! My intent is to get 2 workouts in each day on weekends if I’m home all day. During the week I’ll stick with one round and I’m going to make every effort to work out every day. I truly enjoyed that ice cream bar after my workout ! I definitely needed something cold and refreshing !

Most nights I would be in bed by now or falling asleep on the couch. That’s pretty pathetic considering it’s not even 10 pm. Tonight I feel energized and I know it’s a result of the exercise. Once I have a hot shower and sink into my heavenly bed I will probably go right to sleep.