Day 161: Patience

"Patience is not passive waiting. Patience is active acceptance of the process required to attain your goals and dreams."      ~Ray Davis~

Patience is an apt topic for today, considering last nights treadmill fiasco. The more tired I am, the less patience I have and by the time I resolved the treadmill issue I was too tired to even consider getting back on it. I'm usually pretty patient but we all have our breaking point. I've had to exercise a lot of patience over the past 5 months as I acclimated to the Nutrisystem way of eating. In the beginning I was confused by what I should or shouldn't eat. It took some time to understand Power Fuels and Smart Carbs and to find multiple options for these items. I knew I couldn't eat the same thing day after day and be successful because I would get bored. I also had to try lots of the foods and then decide what I did or didn't like and then customize my shipments. That took a few months ! Once I ironed that out the plan became pretty effortless. I also struggled with veggie choices and I still need to expand that category. Right now I'm eating riced cauliflower and broccoli along with green beans, brussel sprouts, carrots and broccoli florets. I like spinach, radishes, peppers, onions and mushrooms so I need to incorporate those into my meals a bit more often. I'm also working on cucumbers, which are not my favorite but I can tolerate them. Drinking enough water was a major struggle for a long time but I'm doing much better with that and most days I meet or exceed the 64 ounce goal. So at 161 days in I'm pretty comfortable with the plan. The transition from 1400 calories to 1200 was a bit of a shock but I recovered from that pretty quickly and these days my daily calories hover around the 1100 mark. Patience has been key to my success because I gave myself the time needed to work things out and settle into a routine that worked for me. I worked hard to follow the program as outlined instead of expecting it to conform to what I wanted. Too often I see people complaining in the FB group that the plan is "too hard" or "too confusing" or that the food is bad. It really isn't and I feel if you're not willing to put in the effort to make it work for you, then you're really not ready to commit to a healthier you. December 29, 2018 is the day I decided I was ready to make that commitment and I haven't looked back. Before that I would think about changing my eating habits and I always started by examining my morning choices, which always started with coffee loaded with cream and sugar. I'd stop right there and say I can't give that up. So I guess I wasn't ready. It took that Christmas wake up call to make me realize I could, I would and I must. I've been drinking black coffee for 161 days now ! ONCE during this time I had a coffee beverage that is sweetened (without realizing it) and it was awful. I also tried adding a little skim milk to my coffee on days I was having cereal for breakfast and it did nothing for the coffee. I was determined not to default to sugar substitutes or fat free creamers because I ultimately want to eliminate most processed or "artificial" foods from my diet. So today I actually enjoy the black coffee, whether flavored or not. I also keep my finger on the pulse of "clean eating" because I want to incorporate as much of that style of eating as possible once I'm ready to transition from Nutrisystem meals, which are highly processed. I'm amassing a collection of resources so that I'm ready when the time comes. For now I am staying with Nutrisystem entrees and snacks because that is working for me. I also had to exercise patience on those weeks the scale didn't show much of a weight loss. I've been fortunate to lose something every week but I think it's only natural to want to lose the weight faster. I have to keep telling myself it took a long time to put this weight on and it's going to take even longer to get it off. I can't complain about losing 66+ pounds in less than 6 months. I know I look better and I certainly feel better so I am motivated every day to keep going. I also had to exercise patience this past January when I was sick so much. My body was telling me to stop and rest and recover and I was trying to force it to do things it could not. So I had to be patient and give myself that recovery time. I started taking a multivitamin every day (double dose) and I think that has helped too, as I'm feeling much healthier. I started a fresh bottle of vitamins today and I'm back to taking a single dose. I love the One A Day gummy vitamins because it's like having candy every night ! 

Breakfast was a 2.1 ounce 160 calorie cherry cheese roll with toasted marshmallow mocha coffee. Second cup was triple chocolate. Morning snack was a 155 calorie chocolate shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 4 ounce 230 calorie meatball parmesan melt with raw carrots. Afternoon snack was 1/2 cup of cottage cheese (80 calories) with a snack cup of mandarin oranges (80 calories). This left me with 495 calories for dinner and an evening snack. Dinner was an 8 ounce 180 calorie creamy chicken broccoli pasta with the leftover riced cauliflower. I didn't realize this entree is so low calorie ! I will be ordering a few more because I really like it. Evening snack was a rare 3.4 ounce 190 calorie chocolate brownie sundae. This is the highest calorie dessert and I don't often have enough calories left to have it. Calories for the day are at 1075 even with the decadent dessert !

As predicted it was cool and cloudy today. Seems like our winter weather pattern is continuing but instead of snow we're getting rain. I'll take rain over snow any day but enough already ! The sun was actually shining in Mexico when I got home tonight but it didn't last. It was nice to have that little break in the clouds anyway ! The guy who mows my lawn is freaking out because all the rain has thrown off his mowing schedule. I told him not to worry about it .. whatever my lawn looks like today is an improvement over the days when I used to mow it myself !

One of my favorite John Wayne movies was on TCM when I sat down to have dinner. Operation Pacific with Patricia Neal. If he were here I know my dad would have been watching it too ! Boy I miss him. I only got to see part of the movie because it ran into treadmill time. The treadmill behaved itself tonight and I was able to successfully complete my workout. It felt good to be back on track !

Next up is a hot shower and my cozy bed. I'm glad it's Friday tomorrow !