Day 70: Stay the Course

“Be a Wolf. Be a Lion. Set goals. Smash them. Be stronger. Be better. Show people who you are. Never apologize for being awesome. Stay Positive. Stay the course.”

There was no author given for this quote, which is a shame because I just love it and would have liked to give credit where credit is due. I’m 70 days in to Nutrisystem, feeling great and completely motivated to continue. Thanks to incredible sales on Nutrisystem gift cards at Costco I’m saving a ton of money too ! I fully intend to “stay the course” until I reach my goal weight, however long that may take. I’ve said previously that I expect to be on Nutrisystem for at least a year and that has not changed.

Breakfast this morning was a 2 ounce 160 calorie banana nut muffin with Paul Newman’s Organics coffee and a 2nd cup of vanilla caramel crème. Now that I’m completely used to black coffee I really enjoy those 2 cups in the morning ! My breakfast Power Fuel was the usual 100 calorie string cheese. I never got around to my morning snack but I squeezed in a 155 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder just before lunch. Lunch was a 4.3 ounce 240 calorie southwest fiesta melt. I’m a little tired of this one so you won’t see it mentioned much over the next month. That is my favorite part of Nutrisystem – being able to change up the food selection every month. You can also order additional food whenever you want plus they run sales all the time. Being able to change it up keeps me from getting bored. My diet prior to Nutrisystem was such a mess mostly because I’m not into cooking. The day will come when I step away from Nutrisystem’s prepared foods so at some point I’m going to have to start working on my aversion to cooking. Meal prep is going to be the key to that and since I’m not eating huge portions I won’t need to cook huge quantities of food. I certainly can’t stay on Nutrisystem food forever nor can I go back to prepared foods from the supermarket or fast food places. If I want to maintain I’m going to have to cook. So that will be a challenge I pick up a little further down the road. Today I will continue to focus on what I need to do right now to be successful. I still have a long way to go ! I had some fat free yogurt (60 calories) with granola at lunchtime. My afternoon snack was 2 wedges of Laughing Cow cheese (100 calories) and low fat wheat thins (90 calories). Dinner was a 220 calorie 7.5 ounce chicken fettuccine alfredo. I had a big bowl of roasted brussel sprouts and mushrooms with it. My evening snack was a 3.5 ounce 130 calorie ice cream sandwich. It was a yummy treat after my workout ! My calories are at about 1300 for the day so that is good ! Got my workout in so my week is on target !

It was a glorious 37 degrees when I left for work today ! That is BALMY compared to what we’ve been dealing with for the past couple of months. We actually made it up into the 50’s and that gives me hope that Spring will be here very soon. It has been a long winter and although it seems like we had a lot of snow, I’ve actually been through much snowier winters. I’ll be glad to see my utility bills go down ! I’m not willing to freeze all winter so I keep the house as warm as I possibly can. With this nice weather I’m itching to get the car washed but rain is predicted the next 2 days so I’m going to hold off for a little bit. Tomorrow we might see 60 degrees so that will accelerate the snow melt. Got what is hopefully the last bill from my plow guy – I told him I hope the next bill is for mowing ! I can’t wait to see green grass and be able to have the windows open ! With the fence and jungle gone from my yard I think it’s going to be a pleasure to be out there. I might actually use my lawn furniture for the first time in 14 years ! I remember when we first looked at the house … I just fell in love with the yard because it had a park like feeling to me. I was never able to really enjoy it because the excavation for the pool changed the landscape drastically, as did the fence. With that all gone and the landscape restored I have hope the yard will return to it’s former peaceful state.

I’m glad tomorrow is Friday ! The time change has wreaked havoc with my sleep. Last night I woke up at 12:45 am feeling like I had slept all night ! In reality I had been asleep less than 2 hours. I went back to sleep but it was NOT easy to drag myself out of bed when the alarm went off.