Day 168: Time

"Time passes by so quickly. Change happens all around us every day, whether we like it or not. Enjoy the moment while you can, because one day it will just be another memory."

The older I get the faster time seems to go. Only 6 more working days and most of the folks in my office will be gone. I'm glad I'm on vacation the week after closure because it'll give me more time to adjust to this major change. I can only imagine how difficult it will be for many of them. Going on to new jobs, moving to a new state, beginning the search for a new job and even retiring can be traumatic after doing the same thing for so many years. I can only hope that whatever comes next turns out to be a blessing for each and every one of them. The impact to my life is minimal so I'm not worried about myself at all. Time will march on for all of us, whether we like it or not, and it becomes more precious every day. When you wasted as many years as I did, time is infinitely precious. I try not to think about what could have been and instead focus on what WILL be !

Nutrisystem and losing weight has given me a focus in life and it's helped with this transition. Having too much time on your hands is not a good thing when life is changing. I celebrate the positives, give the negatives the attention they need and keep pushing forward. I've worked hard to develop a good routine during the week but I tend to lose focus a bit on weekends and my eating becomes erratic. I also lose focus on the water goal on the weekend. So that is something I need to put a little more effort into. You'd think I'd have this down to a science after almost 6 months but it's still a one day at a time kind of life. The difference is today I have to think about everything I eat, where before I just ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Calories didn't matter, nutrition didn't matter, all that mattered was satisfying my hunger. Eating the Nutrisystem entrees and snacks makes the plan pretty easy but I still have to plan my morning and afternoon snacks and make sure I eat enough veggies and drink enough water. Once I reach my goal weight it will get harder because at that point I'll need to start transitioning off the Nutrisystem products. I plan to do that slowly so I can monitor the impact to my weight. Portion control is going to require more effort than just throwing a frozen entrée in the microwave. My current plan is to cook my own entrees, package in individual portions and freeze. So I'll have a healthy meal with the convenience of a frozen entrée.

Breakfast was a 2.1 ounce 160 calorie cherry cheese roll with caramel vanilla cream coffee. Second cup was toasted marshmallow mocha. Morning snack was a 155 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 4 ounce 220 calorie chicken fajita melt with salsa and raw carrots. Afternoon snack was 3/4 cup greek yogurt (90 calories) and a 0.65 ounce 100 calorie bag of Skinny Pop popcorn. This left me 475 calories for dinner and an evening snack. Dinner was 10 ounce 280 calorie salisbury steak with mac & cheese and a big bowl of roasted veggies. Evening snack was a 3.4 ounce 100 calorie frozen fudge bar. Calories for the day are 1105 and I got all 64 ounces of water in.

Weather today was gray and rainy as expected. The only good thing about all this rain is it's helping the grass grow in my yard. Last fall the majority of the yard was reduced to nothing but dirt but now it's filling in nicely with grass. However, the weather has been so crappy I haven't really had an opportunity to be outside and actually enjoy it ! There was some localized flooding because of the heavy rain - lots of flooded basements. I spent the afternoon at work wondering about my basement, hoping and praying the sump pump was doing it's job. Fortunately it did and although my basement floor is wet there was no standing water. This is normal and it's why I don't store anything in the basement.

By the time I left work the rain had moved out of the area and since I had to stop for gas I went ahead and had the car washed. It was a great day for that - I had the car wash to myself ! No jockeying for position in the triple line at Delta Sonic ! Since I got home later than usual I had less time to relax but I pushed myself off the couch and got my workout done. It's a struggle every single day. Every day I think I can't do it and every day I do. My current workout is still challenging me so I'm not ready to move up to something more difficult. I'm glad tomorrow is Friday ! It's been a long week.

Today I was thinking about what Nutrisystem calls "NSV's" ... or non-scale victories. I've had quite a few over the past 168 days. My thighs don't rub together anymore so I don't hear "swish swish" when I'm walking. I no longer see my stomach when I'm walking and look down, so it's flattened quite a bit ! My ankles aren't swollen at the end of the day anymore. I no longer worry about my tops being long enough to cover my abdomen and my butt. I can touch my toes and still breathe ! I no longer bulge out of both sides of my chair at work. My stomach doesn't touch the desk when I pull my chair in - the arm rests hit the desk before I do ! There's a couple of funny "negatives" too. Toilet seats are a lot less comfortable without all the extra padding I used to have !!! I used to lean up against the counter while waiting for things in the microwave or for my coffee to brew. Now if I try to do that the counter digs into my hip bones and that's painful ! All of these things combine to give me even more motivation to continue on this journey. 

It's about time for a hot shower and my comfy bed. TGIF !