Day 235: A New Day

"It's a new day, fresh start, fresh energy, new opportunities. Get your mind right, be thankful, be positive and start your day right."

This is exactly how I felt when I woke up this morning. Saturday was a necessary day of rest. Truth is, I enjoyed the trip to the Fair, I enjoyed relaxing all day Saturday and I enjoyed being out with my mom yesterday. I've said before that my goal to exercise every single day is unrealistic, but I guess I still aspire to do that and it bothers me when I don't. That's an example of pressure I put on myself. Last night the thought of not using the treadmill while I wait for my heel to get better made me a little panicky. I know myself too well and I didn't want to lose the momentum I have, so I improvised by cutting the back off one sneaker. That may seem a bit drastic and perhaps wasteful but the shoes are old and were a very cheap Walmart buy. I have a brand new pair with more support so I'll start wearing those when my foot is better. I really needed to get back on the treadmill and I'm glad I did. I still think back to when I broke my wrist in October 2017 - that incident derailed my exercise program and I gained back the weight I had lost and more. It was just the excuse I needed ! I could have continued, even with a cast, but in all honesty, I didn't want to. Eating whatever you want and not exercising was more enjoyable at the time. Through the years I've always been able to find ways to get around obstacles and the foot issue was no different but I had to make a conscious decision to not use it as an excuse to be lazy this time around. It would be different if I had an injury to the bottom of my foot. Athletes deal with injury all the time and while it's not always wise to push through the pain, something as minor as a raw heel wouldn't stop them, so why should I let it stop me ? Although I've been pretty faithful to Nutrisystem these 235 days it would be all too easy to go right back to my old habits. Sure, I'd love to eat pizza and ice cream and candy and chicken tenders and all the other junk I used to eat ... but I want to be thin more. I want to be healthy more. Some people splurge and have "cheat days" but I can't do that because I don't trust myself. Would one taste of pizza be enough ? One scoop of ice cream ? One candy bar ? One piece of cake ? I feel like I could easily lose control and undo all that I've achieved, so for now I'm staying away from all those temptations.

Breakfast was a 2.1 ounce 180 calorie cinnamon roll with butter toffee coffee. Second cup was caramel vanilla cream. Morning snack was a 155 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 4 ounce 230 calorie meatball parmesan melt with raw carrots. Afternoon snack was a 5.3 ounce Light & Fit Strawberry Cheesecake yogurt and 1/2 cup pineapple (70 calories). This left 485 calories for dinner and an evening snack. I couldn't wait to get home and dig into the veggies I roasted last night ! Dinner was an 8.5 ounce 250 calorie chicken & vegetable stir-fry with a big bowl of roasted veggies. Evening snack was a 1.9 ounce 120 calorie tiramisu. Total calories for the day are 1085 and I got about 80 ounces of water in.

Although it was chilly this morning, the blue skies and sunshine we had all day more than made up for it. I will miss these summer days ! I went out at lunch to take another work manual to my car and it was just beautiful out. I'm down to only one bulky item plus my Keurig machine, which I'm keeping in my office until Friday. Tomorrow I'll take that last bulky item to my car, along with any miscellaneous items I don't really need for the next couple of days. 

I forgot to mention in last night's blog that I ran into a former colleague at the casino last night. I haven't seen him in probably 5 months and the look on his face was priceless. I guess I've lost a couple pounds since I last saw him ! Needless to say, his reaction was a good feeling for me and we chatted for a little bit while we were waiting for our dinners. Little things like this help keep me motivated !

Got my workout in with no trouble tonight thanks to my modified shoe ! Now it's time for a warm shower and my comfy bed. It's a typical Monday - I'm tired !