Day 141: Kicking Back

"Life is all about balance. You don't always need to be getting stuff done. Sometimes it's perfectly okay, and absolutely necessary, to shut down, kick back, and do nothing." ~Lori Deschene~

A perfect sentiment for the Friday before vacation ! I am looking forward to this 9 day break ! There are a lot of things I want to get done around the house but I also intend to spend a lot of time with my mom and anyone else in my family who is available. I finally feel like most every aspect of my life is on a positive track now and with any luck it will stay there. The first 5 months of 2019 have been difficult and I'm so glad I made the decision to address my weight before the announcement regarding my office closure came. I don't know if I could have made the commitment afterwards. I really needed comfort food that day, but having just started Nutrisystem I didn't allow myself to revert to my old habits. I believe that helped set me on the right course and keep me there. I got through one of the worst days of my life without using food as a crutch, so there was no reason to believe I'd ever need food for comfort again. So far I haven't given in to temptation. It did help that I took a lot of vacation time in January. I needed that time to wrap my head around what was happening. It didn't help that I was sick so much or that I had all those plumbing and heating issues, but I made it through ALL of that without using food as a coping mechanism. I've also made sure I don't use food as a reward. There was a meme online that said you're not a dog, so don't use food as a reward ... and I remember that anytime I think about using food as a reward. So all in all I feel like I have a lot more balance in my life now. 

Breakfast was a 2.1 ounce 180 calorie cinnamon roll with caramel vanilla cream coffee. 2nd cup was triple chocolate. Morning snack was a 155 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 4 ounce 220 calorie chicken fajita melt with raw carrots. I remembered to bring some salsa - how can you have a fajita melt without salsa ?!?! Afternoon snack was a 180 calorie Sargento Balanced Breaks. This left me 463 calories for dinner and an evening snack. I'm supposed to have a Power Fuel with breakfast but I've been skipping that in an effort to keep my calories down. I bring it with me every day just in case ... and take it home every day .. lol ! Dinner was a 10.5 ounce 230 calorie tub of pasta fagioli. I jazzed it up by adding roasted garlic riced cauliflower and some romano cheese. It was SO good and I ate every speck of it ! This entree had a lot of sodium (600 mg in the pasta fagioli and 550 in 1 cup of the cauliflower) so even though I've already had my 64 ounces of water I'm about done with another 32. I didn't think to check the label before I combined the 2 items and the extra water is needed to help flush some of that sodium out. This entree is a non-frozen item that has been hanging around and I won't be ordering any more, so I won't make that mistake again ! My evening snack was another 3.5 ounce 130 calorie ice cream sandwich. My official calories are 1097 but the romano cheese added about 60, still well within the 1200 recommended.

I weighed myself again last night after my shower and I'm still showing that surprise 5 pound loss. I keep thinking it's a mistake but I guess it's not. I will take an "official" reading tomorrow morning and then finally record it. More people have taken notice of the change - 4 different people stopped me at work this week to ask what I was doing to lose weight and to comment how great I looked. I don't seek out compliments and sometimes have a hard time just accepting them, but it feels really good when someone is kind enough to say something. It shouldn't surprise me, but I'm amazed at how good I feel. As your weight creeps up you really don't realize just how much it's impacting your quality of life. You make changes here and there to compensate for the effects your weight is having on you until one day you finally realize just how much it is limiting you. My workouts have gotten "easier" because there is 60 pounds less of me to move around ! I walk much faster for the same reason and I don't get out of breath. My back also feels better, since it doesn't have to support quite so much weight. Everything doesn't feel like a huge effort anymore.

After last night's storms I was hoping today was going to be a sunny day but it was cloudy all day instead. At least we didn't get anymore rain ! I have a long list of things I want to get done over the next 9 days and I'm going to make an effort to cross at least one off every day, starting bright and early tomorrow ! 

I'm tired tonight, which is not unusual on a Friday night. I'm a lot more relaxed when Friday rolls around so I don't usually stay up late. I'm looking forward to a hot shower and my comfy bed so I can have a productive day tomorrow !