Day 260: A Little More

"A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed like hopeless failure may turn to glorious success."

Losing weight is a daily struggle. I have days where I'm right on point: eating only what I'm supposed to, drinking at least 64 ounces of water and getting at least 30 minutes of exercise. For the most part I've got the eating part down. It's the water and exercise that I continue to struggle with. I can't really pin it down to anything in particular, there is nothing stopping me from drinking the water and there is nothing stopping me from exercising. I've been letting the water slip, typically not even starting to drink it until noon. Today I got about 10 ounces in before lunch, which is better but this is an easy goal to reach and I just need to put more effort in to get it done. Since it was a chilly morning I didn't put any ice in the bottle - room temperature was fine. I finished the first 32 ounces by 1 pm and refilled for round 2. I should be able to easily drink 96 ounces most days so I'm upping my effort and upping my goal. I also have to challenge myself when it comes to my workouts. I've passed by so many Ifit workouts with the "I can't do that" mentality, instead of just trying and doing the best I can. I really just need to put that little bit bit of effort in and the rewards will be tenfold. I've had my share of failures in life so this weight loss journey really needs to be a glorious success !

Breakfast was a 1.5 ounce 150 calorie blueberry lemon baked bar with hazelnut coffee. The bars are not a favorite but this one had a "best by" date of August so I figured I'd best get it eaten ! Second cup of coffee was french vanilla. Morning snack was a 155 calorie chocolate shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 3.7 ounce 200 calorie grilled chicken sandwich dressed with buffalo wing sauce. I also had a chef salad with Kraft Fat Free Zesty Italian dressing, which adds 30 calories. This dressing has been a life saver for me, because I had trouble finding a "diet" dressing I liked. As a result, I wasn't eating many salads. With a good dressing I actually look forward to a nice big salad now. Today's consisted of iceberg lettuce, fresh orange and yellow sweet peppers, celery and cucumber. I forgot the hot banana pepper rings even though the jar was sitting right there on the counter ! I've finally embraced cucumbers and actually missed them in my last few salads. I buy the english ones as they have very few seeds. It was mostly the seeds that kept me away from them. Afternoon snack was low fat wheat thins (12 are 90 calories) and 3 wedges of Laughing Cow light cheese (90 calories). I also had some raw carrots to hold off the afternoon hungries. Dinner was a 9.5 ounce 260 calorie roasted turkey medallions with mashed potatoes and gravy. I also had a bowl of brussel sprouts. I had 64 ounces of water in before 6:30 rolled around ! Evening snack was a 2.2 ounce 140 calorie lemon zest cake with a cup of cinnamon roll coffee. Total calories for the day are 1115 and I got 96 ounces of water in !

While I was eating my lunch today I browsed the Ifit library and picked out a few more workouts to add to my personal library. Since it was a "work at home" day I made a commitment to be on the treadmill, giving a new workout a try, no later than 6:30 pm. Part of my problem in the evening is I sit too long on the couch after dinner and then I am L-A-Z-Y !! One thing I am good at is coming up with 1,001 excuses not to exercise !

For once I did everything I said I would today. A new workout is in the books and it definitely challenged me ! I did not think I'd be able to finish, but I did ! This workout had some bursts of higher speeds (fastest was 3.2 mph), along with a lot more incline, so I did have to hold on to the handrails at times. The workout lasted close to 37 minutes, so it was less than a minute longer than my previous workout, but burns about 50 more calories. The goal with this one will be getting through it without the handrails.

This is the workout I've been doing:

This is tonight's workout:

As you can see, the new workout isn't drastically harder but when you've never been physically fit even the slightest increase in effort is a challenge. It's amazing how much harder you have to work when there is even a slight increase in incline ! So this workout is going to be my new challenge going forward. My hope is that each day it will get a little bit easier and require a little less time holding on. I'm not going to stress over using the handrails because it's for my safety and nothing to be ashamed of. The 37 minutes went by surprisingly fast and I think that's because I didn't know what to expect and this workout had me scrambling to keep up. I didn't drink as much water during the workout because of that, only 16 ounces instead of the entire 32 that was in the bottle.

I had such a great day today. I got a few things done around the house this morning before work and during my lunch hour. I bagged up some clothes that are too large for me and finally tried on the winter coat I've worn the past 2 winters. It's huge on me now and there is no way I can wear it anymore. It's kind of bitter sweet because I really like the coat ! But I also tried on my stylish new size XL coat. When I bought it a couple weeks ago it "just" fit me. Today I have a little room in it so I'm pleased about that. I think it's the first coat I've ever bought that doesn't cover my butt .. and I'm okay with that ! This morning I cleaned out the closet in my office. I have an empty spare bedroom upstairs so a lot of the stuff I was storing in the closet has been moved upstairs. There is still more work to be done there but I got a good start ! Also fixed the knob on one of the closet doors, finally ! I also cleaned off the dining room table, which tends to become a catch all. Amazing how neat your home can be when you actually put things away !

Now I'm tired so it's time for a shower and my comfy bed.