Day 142: Hope

"Hope is activated when we can say to ourselves: I am willing to trust, to wait without demanding answers, and to contribute myself to the most positive use of the present."

Hope is what I had the day I decided to start the Nutrisystem program. A lot of hope. This was the biggest leap of faith I had ever taken. At the time I didn't know if I'd be able to stick to the program, because I'd failed so many times in the past. I'm almost 5 months into this journey now and this is longer than I've ever stuck to anything. So I'm cautiously optimistic that I will reach and perhaps exceed my goal. I'm not arrogant enough (or confidant enough) to say I will maintain the loss, because I'm not there yet. What I will say is I fully intend to take every ounce of effort I put into losing the weight and transfer that to maintaining the loss ! I trusted in myself, I trusted in the program and I worked hard to be positive, despite all the bumps in the road. I didn't give in to temptation, I didn't let the bumps drive me back to food for comfort and I got back every time life knocked me down. An achievement is more meaningful when you've worked hard for it. Living in the present and looking forward to the future helps too !

BIG NEWS this morning .. finally took an official reading on the scale and I lost 5.6 pounds this week ! That's a total of 61.4 pounds ! 😁 I know I won't have a loss like that every week, so I'm going to celebrate this one !

Breakfast was a 2.1 ounce 160 calorie cherry cheese roll with Green Mountain Breakfast Blend coffee. 2nd cup was french vanilla. Morning snack was a 155 calorie chocolate shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 4 ounce 220 calorie bbq chicken melt with raw carrots. Afternoon snack was 3/4 cup of plain yogurt (90 calories) and a snack cup of mandarin oranges (80 calories). I drained the oranges so that probably eliminated some of the calories and sugar. This was a much more satisfying snack than the Sargento Balanced Breaks !! I was never a big fruit eater but it's a nice treat now ! This left me 493 calories for dinner and an evening snack, which was plenty ! Dinner was a 9.5 ounce 260 calorie roasted turkey medallions with mashed potatoes and gravy. My evening snack was a 1.9 ounce 120 calorie tiramisu. Total calories for the day are at 1087. A little low but not drastically so. 

I'm pretty good at sticking to a schedule of eating during the week, but on the weekends I tend to go off the rails and eat pretty erratically. Very often I will suddenly realize I'm starving and then go eat something, hours after I should have. I'm going to spend the next 9 days trying to stick to the weekday schedule. Once my office closes I will likely be working from home most of the time so I won't be packing a lunch. Nutrisystem wants you to eat every 2 hours or so and that's pretty easy during the week because all of my foods are prepped and at my fingertips. I'm also going to try and drink even more water, since the bathroom will be closer ! Yesterday I took in 96 ounces of water pretty effortlessly, thanks to all that sodium in my dinner ! I thought I'd be thirsty and drinking all night but I wasn't and I only had to get up once, so that was a good thing ! The nice thing about working from home is I may be able to get a workout in during my lunch hour ! Then there is the parking savings ($90 a month), the fuel savings, plus hours a day back .. so I hope it all works out ! I will definitely miss the social aspect of working in a large office but most of all I'll miss all of the people who are losing their job at the end of June. I'm glad to have connected with a few on Facebook and look forward to seeing what is next for them in their lives.

I got in bed around 10:15 last night and slept amazingly well. Got up around 8:30 and felt so rested. After breakfast I went and picked up my mail and then started my laundry. In the past, a trip to the post office would be followed by a trip to McDonald's for 2 sausage, egg & cheese mcmuffin's - along with a trip to Dunkin' for an XL coffee with 5 cream and 5 sugar. That is a 1060 calorie breakfast !! For comparison, that is almost my total calories on an average day now ! I've only been to a fast food restaurant once since I started Nutrisystem. I was out shopping with my mom and my older sister and we stopped at a Wendy's for a quick lunch. I was able to eat relatively healthy by having a small cup of chili without cheese and a side salad. Wendy's had the calorie info posted with each item, so it was easy to figure out a good choice !

Weather today was so-so. Temps in the mid 60's and it started raining around noon. I had turned the heat off but ended up turning it back on so the house wouldn't get damp. I got my first workout of the day done in between morning snack and lunch. I tried a new one - Safari Endurance Hike at Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania ! I wasn't sure I would be able to do it because the pace was a little faster (2.7 - 2.8 mph) and it had some 10% inclines, which is the max on my machine. I surprised myself and was able to complete it ! 33 minutes and 240 calories burned ! This also had the usual 3 minute warm up and 3 minute cool down, so it was a total of 39 minutes on the treadmill. I enjoyed the trainer and the scenery. Since he was in a national park there were no other people, just a few giraffes and waterbucks, which are just a large antelope. I really like this program so it's what I'll be doing for a while. Weather turned around about 3 pm and the sun came out, so I turned the heat back off and went out on the front porch to start checking items off my "to do" list. I had a stockpile of cardboard boxes that accumulated over the winter to take care of. I don't put stuff like that out during the winter because it's too difficult with the snow and it gets wet. So I broke down most of the boxes and stacked it all up to put out Monday night with the trash ! I also started breaking down the styrofoam coolers that my frozen Nutrisystem stuff has been coming in. I have a ton of those so I'll get rid of a couple every week. I also washed the glass on the porch door inside and out. Got a couple of loads of laundry done too, so it was a productive but still relaxing day. Tomorrow I'll be out at a Memorial Day party with my brother-in-law's family. It's always a fun day with tons of food but I'm sure I will find enough healthy choices. I plan to have breakfast and my morning snack at home and use my lunch and dinner calories for the party. There is always chef salad and raw veggies so I'll be fine. 

Thunderstorms are rolling in now .. it's suddenly pitch dark and thundering and lightning. Yikes !