Day 166: Motivation

"Success in life comes when you simply refuse to give up, with goals so strong that obstacles, failure and loss only act as motivation."

To me, motivation is the most important tool needed to achieve any goal you set. Unless you are continually motivating yourself it's easy to get bored or stray away from your goal. Giving up is all too easy, I know that from personal experience. It's easy to just say "I can't do it" or "It's not worth it" or "It's too hard" and then go back to your old habits. I know, because I've done it so many times. It's hard to stick with a diet, especially when you are bombarded with food everywhere you look. Whether you're watching tv or browsing social media, food is everywhere. You're also bombarded with food at social gatherings, sometimes in massive quantities. Before I started Nutrisystem I purged my social media accounts of food related pages. I was shocked at how many I had "liked" ! The other night I was watching tv and one right after the other there were commercials for some of the foods that contributed to my ballooning weight. Oh yes, I would still like to indulge in those foods ! I can still taste those greasy fried chicken tenders dripping in ranch dressing. I can still taste that pint of Haagen Dazs ice cream or that pizza smothered in cheese and pepperoni. But then I look in the mirror and see where I am today without them .. and those wistful memories pass. Weight loss is a never-ending battle so motivation has to be never-ending as well. Motivation to exercise is a tough one for me. I'll be honest, I do not like exercising. That said, I know it's necessary in order to achieve my goal so I push myself every day. Since I'm in weight loss mode my goal is to exercise every day. I don't always achieve that, but this ambitious goal motivates me to keep trying. Once I reach my goal weight exercising every single day won't be quite so important but regular exercise will be a necessary component of maintenance. You would think I'd be more motivated by exercise because I feel so good after a workout. I know one thing that bothers me is I browse the available workouts and I pass so many of them by because I know they're way out of my league right now. I'll never be able to jog or run on the treadmill (or off it) so that eliminates a lot of them. Then there are quite a few with massive amounts of incline or speeds exceeding 3 mph. Right now 3 mph is pretty much my walking limit and I still consider myself a beginner when it comes to incline. Ifit is always adding new workouts so I browse frequently to find new ones. I may be expecting too much from myself, because I still have a good deal of weight to lose and I'm still building stamina. All things considered I think I'm doing pretty good. Maybe I'm just still in too much of a hurry !

Breakfast was a 2.1 ounce 180 calorie cinnamon roll with Green Mountain Breakfast Blend coffee. Second cup was triple chocolate. Morning snack was a 155 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 4 ounce 220 calorie spinach and cheese melt with raw carrots. Afternoon snack was 3/4 cup of yogurt (90 calories) and a 100 calorie bag of Skinny Pop popcorn. This left me 455 calories for dinner and an evening snack. Dinner was a 10 ounce 280 calorie salisbury steak with mac & cheese. I also had a bowl of roasted veggies. My evening snack was a 3.5 ounce 130 calorie ice cream sandwich. My calories for the day are 1155 and I got all 64 ounces of water in.

Today's weather was so-so. It was about 60 when I got up but skies were cloudy and gray. We had a little bit of sun but it didn't last and more clouds rolled in. We did make it up to the low 80's so that is definitely an improvement !

Got my workout done even though sitting on the couch was looking pretty good. Next up is a hot shower and my comfy bed. The only problem with that is it means getting up from this comfortable spot on the couch !