Day 259: Keep Walking

The road might be long. The terrain might be precarious. You might need to sit and rest awhile. But don't turn away from your dreams and your heart's longing. Your very next step could be a moment of greatness. Your very next step may hold all you desire. Keep walking, warrior !"

The road has certainly been long and the end is nowhere in sight. Some days it's super easy to keep walking and then I have days where I just want to reach my goal weight and be done with it. The terrain has definitely had its twists and turns. In the early days I dealt with being sick several times. I dealt with injuries several times once I added exercise. I deal with lack of motivation frequently. So I've had my share of days where I indeed sat and rested awhile. But I always get back up and keep going, so I haven't turned away from my dreams. I don't think I've quite accepted that I can never go back to my old eating habits. I'd be lying if I said I don't sometimes think about all the delicious food I used to eat. Sure, it was horrible for me but I don't think anyone gets fat because they were eating food they didn't love ! Every day I see people "restarting" Nutrisystem because they went right back to their old habits after they lost weight. Most gained back everything they lost and then some .... and I'm determined not to do that ! I will likely eat via the Nutrisystem principles for the rest of my life but it's going to take more time to fully integrate that into my brain. I take pictures of the new me but I still go back and look at pictures of the old me, to remind me where I've come from and where I'm going. I've made mistakes and I'm human so I can't promise I won't make more. I do try to learn from them and with any luck I won't make the same mistake twice. I've been avoiding it, but at some point soon I need to start working on strength training. My tummy isn't going to disappear on it's own - it's going to take some hard work if I want to flatten it at all.

Breakfast was a 2 ounce 180 calorie cinnamon roll with cinnamon roll coffee. Second cup was hazelnut. Morning snack was a 155 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 4 ounce 220 calorie bbq seasoned chicken melt with raw carrots. Afternoon snack was a 5.3 ounce 80 calorie Light & Fit toasted coconut vanilla yogurt and 2.5 cups of Skinny Pop popcorn (100 calories). This left 465 calories for dinner and an evening snack. Dinner was an 8.5 ounce 250 calorie chicken & vegetable stir fry that I served over spiralized zucchini. Evening snack was a 2.3 ounce 130 calorie stuffed chocolate pie with a cup of cinnamon roll coffee. This snack was hiding in the freezer and had a "best by" date of 7/31. Even so, it was delicious ! Total calories for the day are 1115 and I got about 40 ounces of water in. I did not work out tonight. Quite honestly I was just plain tired. Explanation below.

I need to refocus my water goal before winter because when it's cold out the last thing I'm thinking about is drinking ice water. I often don't even touch my water until noon. Drinking enough has been a problem for years, so this is nothing new, but getting enough water is important for so many reasons. So I'll start working on that again tomorrow.  I also need to change up my exercise routine because I'm bored with the workout I've been doing. I spent quite a bit of time tonight going through the Ifit library and so many of the workouts are well beyond my fitness level. Let's face it - I will never be a jogger and I can't walk 4-5 mph, nor can I do max incline for an extended period of time. In the end I couldn't decide on something new and by the time I came to that realization it was 9 pm and I was tired. Maybe a little frustrated too. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and try a harder workout and if I can't finish it the first time it'll give me something to work towards. I think fear of failure kept me from even trying tonight. I do have the ability to modify the incline and speed if I can't keep up with the program but I think that defeats the purpose. Tomorrow is a new day and I still won't be loving exercise .. but I'm determined to keep trying. So I'll pick a new workout and give it my best shot. Changing my eating habits was the easy part. Working on my fitness has proven to be the biggest hurdle !

Weather today was beautiful, sunny and high 70's ! We had a chilly start - it was in the low 40's when I got up. Looks like tonight is going to be another chilly one ! I finally look my air conditioner out of my bedroom window. It's pretty clear I'm not going to need it again until next year. I'm planning to do some window washing this weekend. I had all new windows put in back in 2009 and they tilt in for easy cleaning. 

Time for a shower and bed. I'm working from home tomorrow so I don't have to be up super early, but I'm super tired !