Day 102: Continue The Climb

“Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it.” ~Ella Wheeler Wilcox~

This morning I did something a little different and logged my food for the day all at once. It’s a good thing I did .. because I discovered that 1200 calories per day is NOT going to be as easy as I thought ! With my breakfast, morning snack, lunch and afternoon snack I was already at 847 calories, leaving only 353 calories for dinner and an evening snack ! This is barely enough, considering some dinner entrees have more than 250 calories, so I’m definitely going to have to go through my freezer and put a plan together. I’ll need to pair the higher calorie lunch items with lower calorie dinner items. It can be done but it will take some planning. I’m not willing to give up the peanut butter powder in my morning shake, which is only 35 calories, so I will look at shaving some calories off the morning or afternoon snacks if necessary. I can’t give up the evening snack since I have dinner around 6:30 and no snack would mean eating nothing (or just eating veggies) for 13.5 hours – which is way too long. For today I skipped my breakfast Power Fuel so I have 453 calories left for dinner and my evening snack. Since I have delayed my next auto shipment I have plenty of time to look at what I have and change my selections if necessary. Some of the evening snacks have less than 100 calories so with a little effort I know I can make this work. They say Nutrisystem is not about counting calories but here we are ! I’m thinking of making “flash cards” with the names of the food items I have along with the calories. I think that would make it easy to put a meal plan together and avoid eating the same things every day. Sort of like my own “deal a meal”. Anybody besides me remember Richard Simmons Deal A Meal diet plan ? I tried it back in the late 80’s and used to walk in my neighborhood with his exercise cassette in my Walkman. Yep, totally dating myself here ! LOL !

Breakfast was a 2.1 ounce 180 calorie cinnamon roll with hazelnut coffee. My 2nd cup was French vanilla. Morning snack was a 155 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 4 ounce 230 calorie meatball parmesan melt with raw carrots. Afternoon snack was a 180 calorie Sargento Balanced Breaks. Dinner was a 4 ounce 180 calorie artichoke and spinach stuffed chicken breast. I served it with leftover green beans and riced cauliflower. My evening snack was a 1.8 ounce 150 calorie chocolate cupcake. I ended up using only 1077 calories because I skipped the breakfast power fuel.

It took me some time get the hang of Nutrisystem so it will take me some time to acclimate to only eating 1200 calories. I will just have to put in the time and effort to plan ahead and make it work. I will continue the climb. The good news is they don’t drop your calories below 1200 so once I’m used to it I’ll have no problem. I’ll be interested to see if the calorie reduction has any impact on the amount I lose each week, considering I’m burning off another 200 calories with exercise. I’ve been slacking on my veggies for a while so that needs to stop. Those veggies are going to be the difference between feeling like I’m starving and being content. There’s no reason I can’t throw a bowl of veggies or salad in my lunch bag each day. I can also change up my breakfast power fuel instead of sticking with the 100 calorie string cheese. I have some Sargento cheese sticks that are only 80 calories, as is cottage cheese or yogurt. I do have a lot of the string cheese so I won’t need to buy those for a long time ! There is also a “free” veggie soup that I can make, using low sodium chicken broth and all of the unlimited veggies like carrots, broccoli, green beans, zucchini, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, cabbage, tomatoes, spinach, peppers and onions. Looks like I’ll be whipping up a batch of that this weekend ! I’m not a big fan of some of these veggies and I like my soup on the thick side, so I may just puree it. That way I can just sip it and not worry about splattering all over myself at work. So I guess I’m adding a thermos to my shopping list !

To be successful with anything you have to plan ahead and expect the unexpected. It’s a good thing I knew the calorie drop was coming but I have to be honest … I didn’t expect it to happen so soon. Today I had to scramble a little and not panic about being hungry. As it turns out I didn’t feel hungry at all. I’ve been slacking on my water intake so I forced myself to drink today and had 24 ounces in by noon. Water helps you feel full and sometimes you think you are hungry but you’re actually thirsty. For the first time in a while I got the whole 64 ounces in ! I also got my workout in tonight so I feel like the week has started off well !

Today’s weather provided no motivation to get out of bed, so it was not easy. It was another dreary gray day .. the kind I like to spend on the couch watching old movies ! It was chilly in the office so I spent the day bundled up in a sweater. It was about 45 degrees when I got to work but by the time I came home it had dipped below 40. One thing I can guarantee: you will never hear me complain about the heat this summer !