Day 123: New Beginnings

“Every day is a new beginning. Treat it that way. Stay away from what might have been and move on. Don’t let negative words or actions of others affect your smile. Decide that today is going to be a good day.”

I think we all have a tendency to analyze the past and some of us, myself included, spent too much time lamenting the past. I try not to do that anymore and I don’t find myself saying “I should have …” quite so often. Living in the present isn’t always easy. What IS easy is allowing yourself to be dragged back into the past. It can happen in the blink of an eye so I really have to focus on today and what I’m going to accomplish today. I can learn from yesterday, but it’s more important to think about what I can do to make today a good day. You might have noticed I’ve gone back to the “self-improvement” theme. I decided these are my notes and I need to write what I feel. People have the choice to read them or ignore them. I will say I’m going to keep the themes positive. I’ve put the past firmly behind me and I no longer feel the need to re-examine that. Life isn’t perfect but it’s pretty darn good right now !

Breakfast was a 2.1 ounce 160 calorie cherry cheese roll with Green Mountain Breakfast Blend coffee. Every time I have this roll I wonder why it has 20 fewer calories than the cinnamon roll. They’re the same size and both have icing so it puzzles me. Second cup of coffee was toasted coconut. Morning snack was a 155 calorie chocolate shake with peanut butter powder. The shakes were feeling a little heavy so I started adding more water to lighten them up. This worked perfectly and I like them much better ! Lunch was a 4 ounce 220 calorie chicken fajita melt with some of the broccoli I made yesterday. I keep forgetting to buy salsa to go with this melt ! I’m a little tired of raw carrots so I’m trying some other veggie options. I’ll be going right by Wegman’s when I drop my car off tomorrow night so I’m going to stop and pick up a bunch of fresh veggies. I’m looking forward to home grown veggies this summer ! Summer will be an adjustment, because there will be no frozen coolatta’s from Dunkin. There will be no soft serve ice cream sundaes. There will be no desserts at the Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day barbecues. I might actually eat the chef salad and veggies for the first time ! There will be no fried dough, sugar waffles, candy coated pecans or fudge at the State Fair. I usually go with my slim and trim older sister so it’ll be easy to keep to healthier choices .. although I will likely indulge in a wine slushie ! I finished my first 32 ounces of water by 1 pm and most of the second 32 ounces before I left work. I’ve read you should consume half your body weight in water but that seems like way too much for me. The water will wash away excess sodium but I worry about washing away all of the electrolytes that keep your body in balance. As it is I’m drinking a lot more water than I ever have, so I’m ok with 64 ounces. If I can get more in, within reason, I will - but I’m not going to overdo it. If I end up working from home once my office closes I may increase my intake, mostly because the bathroom will be closer ! To combat the afternoon hungries I had my breakfast Power Fuel (100 calorie string cheese) and my afternoon snack was a Sargento Balanced Breaks (180 calories). This left me 383 calories for dinner and an evening snack. Dinner was a 7.5 ounce 220 calorie chicken fettucine alfredo with the rest of the broccoli I made yesterday. My evening snack was a 2.2 ounce 140 calorie lemon zest cake. If Nutrisystem ever discontinues this item I might just cry ! This puts my calories at 1177.

Yesterday I washed my size 4X hoodie and hung it in the closet. I figure it’ll be good to wear around the house or if I’m doing something outside and it’s chilly. This way my new one will stay nice longer. I also pulled some of my baggy jeans out of the closet to make room for the new ones. I put those baggy jeans in a drawer and today I’m asking myself why I did that. I’m not going to wear them again ! I also tried on a pair of the old jeans I’ve held on to for 20+ years. They don’t fit yet, which is no surprise because I’m nowhere near the weight I was when I was wearing them. This was a good exercise because it reminded me that despite my current success I still have a LONG way to go to reach a healthy weight. I can’t sit back and think the weight is just going to fall off, because it won’t. I still have a lot of hard work ahead of me. That being said, this morning I read a comment someone made about wearing correct size clothing in order to see your weight loss. I never really thought about it that way, but it is so true ! When I wear my “old” 2 sizes larger jeans I don’t see much of a difference in the mirror. I feel just as fat as the day I started Nutrisystem ! The day I slipped on those new ones it truly shocked me. It was only then that I could really see it. I had never had to ask for a smaller size when trying on clothes in a store but I did that day ! I only had the one pair of new jeans until this past weekend so 4 out of 5 days I was wearing the old ones and I did not like it ! Now that I have 5 new pairs you won’t be seeing the old baggy ones again ! It’s nice to be finally be able to look in the mirror and be happy with what I see. Until you start making the changes in your life you don’t realize just how bad you were feeling. The fire and its aftermath may have started me on the right path but making the commitment to Nutrisystem and being successful has been the turning point. I still have some old things hanging around that I need to discard, so that will be a task for vacation if I don’t get it done before then. Another vacation task will be clearing off my front porch. I think I can safely discard the boxes my tv’s came in. It’s been a year ! Same goes for the treadmill and desk boxes. Once the porch is cleared off I’m going to hang curtains or blinds and put down a rug of some sort so I can enjoy sitting out there this summer.

It was hard to get up today .. I could have stayed in my nice warm bed a few more hours ! It was a bit rainy on the way to work but the skies brightened and the sun came out ! It turned out to be a beautiful warm day. I’m looking forward to vacation, even though I’m not going anywhere, and I hope the days are full of sunshine and blue skies !

Got my first workout of the week in, although I was a little tired tonight. I will not be exercising tomorrow as I’m dropping my car off, getting a rental and making a stop at Wegman’s, so it will be late when I get home. I may not exercise Wednesday as I hope to be picking my car up and dropping off the rental. I’m not going to stress about it - 2 days without exercise is not the end of the world. Next up is a hot shower and my bed !