Day 96: Transcending Limitations

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all of your thoughts break their bonds: your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” ~Indian Philosopher Patanjali~

My great purpose is losing weight and getting more fit and I do feel like I’m in a wonderful place right now. Each little victory inspires me to continue and shows me there are no limitations, other than the ones I impose on myself. I don’t know that I’m a “greater person” but I feel better. Putting the past behind me has allowed me to appreciate everything that is in front of me. The possibilities really are endless. I couldn’t tell you what led me to this decision back on December 29. I know the photos from Christmas were weighing on my mind. It was the dead of winter and I was on vacation. I spent most of my time alone, by choice, and I wasn’t happy with myself. I knew I had to do something and Nutrisystem seemed like a pretty easy program. At the time I needed something easy. I’d seen commercials on tv but I really didn’t know anything about the program, other than their tag line “just eat the food and you’ll lose the weight”. That sounded easy and although it took me a couple of months to acclimate I feel like it’s pretty effortless now. They encourage being active but they don’t push you to exercise. I think they realize your primary focus needs to be changing your eating habits first and since the calorie reduction is pretty drastic most people add exercise on their own timeline, because we all know diet and exercise are the key to good health, regardless of your weight. The past 2 days I’ve completed a challenging incline workout on the treadmill and it’s a little confidence boost I needed. 32 minutes doesn’t sound like a lot but when you’re so out of shape and still pretty heavy, it’s a big deal. I have many other incline workouts in queue and I thought maybe I was being a little too ambitious. Did I really think I’d be able to do them ? Well, getting through the first one tells me that with time I can start working through the others. That’s what it is all about: time. I have to keep telling myself there is no rush and I need to work at my own pace. There is no deadline looming and I’m not out to impress anyone by dropping the weight overnight. I know there are many people out there killing it at the gym and you guys rock, but I’m killing it at home at my pace ! I see people in the Nutrisystem group bragging that they run 5 miles a day and I have to wonder WHY they are on Nutrisystem ? How do you run 5 miles every day if you’re so overweight you need Nutrisystem ? If I ran 5 miles a day I wouldn’t need Nutrisystem … and I’d probably be dead .. lol ! All I can think is that when they’re not running they’re eating ? Needless to say I will never be a runner. It just doesn’t appeal to me. I like the treadmill and one day I’ll branch out to strength training as well. I saw an infomercial for Total Gym over the weekend and although it intrigued me I didn’t like the price and I’m not Christie Brinkley ! So I’m considering this alternative ( Home Gym ) which is only $207 and has good reviews. It’s your basic setup and I think it would work for a beginner. I have an empty room upstairs I could put it in, so space is not an issue. It’s just something I’m thinking about at this point.

Breakfast today was a 2.1 ounce 160 calorie cherry cheese roll with French vanilla coffee. My 2nd cup of coffee was a new flavor: toasted coconut. Loved it ! I didn’t have my breakfast power fuel nor did I have my morning snack as the morning got away from me. Lunch was a 4.3 ounce 240 calorie southwest fiesta melt with some salsa and raw carrots. Nutrisystem has introduced 3 new melts so I’ll have more variety once my next order is shipped ! I needed something sweet after lunch so I had my usual morning snack - a 155 calorie chocolate shake with peanut butter powder. The hungries caught up with me in the afternoon so I had my morning power fuel (80 calorie greek yogurt) and my morning snack smart carb (90 calorie mixed berries). Before I left work I had my 180 calorie Sargento Balanced Breaks so I was caught up on what I’m supposed to eat ! Dinner tonight was a new entree for me, 8 ounce 180 calorie creamy chicken broccoli pasta. I had been avoiding this frozen entree because I wasn’t sure I would like it, but it was pretty darn good ! I also had a salad with it, just romaine lettuce with Simply 60 red wine vinaigrette (60 calories). My evening snack is going to be a 2.3 ounce 130 calorie stuffed chocolate pie. It’s good but it’s stuffed with mostly air .. lol !! Calories will top out at about 1300 today. I received my latest “a la carte” frozen order from Nutrisystem today . There isn’t room for anything else in the freezer so I hope they don’t run another sale ! I have nearly 2 months worth of food in there right now but with 50% savings and the discounted Nutrisystem gift cards I got at Costco I saved a ton of money !

The morning started off a little chilly at 41 degrees so it was back to the winter coat today. I’m just over that cold so I’m not taking any chances. I did wear short sleeves today because it’s been hot in our office. Hopefully they plan to turn the heat down soon ! Temps were up to 60 by lunch time and a quick snow/rain storm blew through downtown fast and furious around noon. By 1 pm we had blue skies and sunshine .. then it clouded up again and the temps dropped into the 50’s and the wind came up. Talk about a crazy weather day !

I conquered the incline workout for the 3rd day in a row and although it didn’t seem so long tonight, it was still butt kicking hard ! About 14 minutes in I really wanted to stop. That’s an improvement ! At 28 minutes I was praying for the last 4 minutes to fly by. At 30 minutes I knew the steep incline was coming and I wanted to drape myself over the rails. I didn’t - I finished strong ! Now for that snack, a hot shower and that warm cozy bed of mine !