Day 351: Pause and Reflect
"Christmas gives us the opportunity to pause and reflect on the important things around us - a time when we can look back on the year that has passed and prepare for the year ahead." ~David Cameron~
I'm spending the rest of December reflecting on the year I've
had. It's hard to believe Christmas is only 5 days away and that in 2 weeks I'll celebrate 1 year of Nutrisystem ! This time last year I was getting ready to celebrate the first Christmas back in my house. I had a nice tree for the first time in years. I didn't have to worry about having enough money to purchase gifts. I thought I was happy and maybe in the moment I was. That all came crashing down when I saw those horrendous photos from Christmas day. For really the first time I realized just how heavy I had gotten. The photos were taken innocently - with shared with absolutely no malice - but when I look back at them I still feel awful. It's just another example of the way I was going through my life. I was so blind to what was right in front of my eyes every day. Oh, I knew something needed to change but it was always pushed to "tomorrow" or next week ... which never seemed to come. I was eating my way to diabetes and heart disease and who knows what else. Those photos truly saved my life. I'm glad I made the decision to join Nutrisystem before the devastating news of our office closure came on January 7. I'm not sure I would have been able to make the same commitment once that day arrived, but since I was already committed I decided to keep going with it and in the end it worked out. In all honesty, the thought of looking for a new job is less frightening now because I've lost a significant amount of weight. We are still judged by our looks and at 304 pounds I'm not sure potential employers would look past that. When I started this journey on January 4 I was diving into uncharted waters. I had never followed a structured diet plan where the food is provided to you. I had tried eating what I thought was healthy food at times but I was never really committed so I was easily detoured. I'd have a bag of broccoli for dinner and then eat a quart of ice cream before bed ! Same goes for exercise. I'm not really sure where the commitment came from this time around. Maybe I was just sick and tired of being fat. I know it feels a lot better to be the size I am today. I have endless energy most of the time and I just feel so much better. Nutrisystem has been eye opening when it comes to portion size. An entree with 290 calories is off the menu for me today but less than a year ago I would eat 1000 calories without batting an eye. I guess I just finally woke up and realized I was slowly killing myself with food. It was not really my friend. 2019 has also seen me embrace exercise but that relationship is still very new and very fragile. I am easily detoured but I keep coming back to it, so there is progress. It helps that I can see the improvement in my fitness level. Workouts that nearly killed me a few months ago aren't quite so intimidating. In the new year I'll be working some strength training into my routine. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to do that. If I try to do endurance and strength every day (ie: treadmill & home gym) I'm not sure I'll stay motivated. At the same time, I don't want to give up the daily treadmill workout. Most of my treadmill workouts are 30 minutes or less so I don't think devoting 15 or 20 minutes more to strength training, even a few days a week, is asking too much. Now I just have to make a decision about the home gym and place an order ! I have to keep talking about this so that it sinks in and I don't lose sight of the goals that need to follow me into 2020 !
Breakfast was a 2.1 ounce 160 calorie cherry cheese roll with peppermint bark coffee. I am truly loving the holiday flavors ! Power fuel was a 100 calorie string cheese with a cup of macadamia cookie coffee. Morning snack was a 155 calorie chocolate shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 4 ounce 220 calorie barbecue chicken melt with raw carrots. Afternoon snack was a 5.3 ounce 80 calorie Light & Fit tiramisu yogurt and 2.5 cups of Skinny Pop popcorn (100 calories). This left 385 calories for dinner and an evening snack. Dinner was an 8 ounce 210 calorie homestyle beef and vegetables that I served over broccoli. Evening snack was a 2.2 ounce 140 calorie lemon zest cake. Total calories for the day are 1165 and I only got 32 ounces of water in. I filled my bottle for the second 32 ounces but all I wanted tonight was hot coffee ! It's not even 9 pm and it's already 7 degrees outside ! I'm glad my porch lights are finally on a timer so I don't have to go out there at bedtime to turn off the lights !
Today was an office day and it was -3 when I left for work ! It's a little early in the season for sub-zero temps !!! Still, I was grateful for 3 things this morning: 1 - heat 2 - running water 3 - remote start on the car. After the problems I had with the heat and frozen pipes last winter I was very happy to wake up to heat and running water. I've never been one to use the remote start on my car because I felt like it wasted fuel ... but after 2 days of getting into a warm car I think I'm hooked ! I just have to remember to put the heat at full blast before I turn the car off at night. The drive in was perfect because we had no more snow overnight, so the roads were clean and dry. I left a little earlier than usual so traffic was light as well. Vacation started at 5 pm today and it couldn't get here soon enough ! Tomorrow I'm going over to my mom's to bake Christmas cookies so I'll be sure to weigh in before I head over there ! It'll be the last official weigh in until January 4th. As I mentioned before I plan to enjoy Christmas just a little bit but that doesn't mean the sky is the limit. I will allow myself certain things for 2 days - Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - and then it's right back to the Nutrisystem plan. I see a few glasses of wine, some shrimp, a few cookies and (hopefully) a piece of ricotta pie in my future. Christmas dinner will also feature my version of my dad's turkey stuffing. My dad has been gone since 2012 and I've missed his stuffing. I used to help him make it so I learned his recipe and I made it myself a few times. He never wrote down the recipe so I'm glad I can still remember the ingredients. I decided to make it this year so we'll see how that goes. It has all your standard ingredients: celery, onion, sausage, fresh bread, egg, milk and spices. I also add turkey or chicken stock for a deeper flavor. I'm looking forward to it and plan to make enough so there are leftovers for anyone who wants it. Who knows, maybe it will become an annual tradition !
The commute home was just as easy as the drive in, so that was a good way to end the week and start my vacation. However, my evening was all downhill after that. As soon as I got home I turned on the treadmill, fed the cats, changed into my workout gear and turned on my tablet. Debated about what workout to do, because #2 with Hannah Eden scares me. Finally decided to just go for it and nothing. App just sat there and then I realized the treadmill was not on. Apparently I tripped the breaker so down to the basement I went and reset that. Put my workout sneaks back on and now the iFit app won't load. I gave up after about 10 minutes and since I was starving I went ahead and started my dinner. While my veggies were cooking I rebooted my router and modem to see if that was the problem. It didn't help .. and while I was eating I checked my email and found one from Twitter stating they had recently fixed an issue that "could have compromised my account" and that I should update the app. Well, for some reason Google Play wouldn't load my app updates. I ended up having to force stop and uninstall Twitter before I could get anything to work. Once I dumped Twitter I was able to get iFit working but by then I had eaten and needed to address the security of my devices. So I spent the evening changing passwords and updating the apps on my tablet and my phone. I don't use Twitter so I didn't bother to reinstall it on my phone. This was not exactly the type of Friday night I had in mind !
On that note, even though it's early, I am tired and heading for a shower and bed ! Tomorrow, we bake !
Breakfast was a 2.1 ounce 160 calorie cherry cheese roll with peppermint bark coffee. I am truly loving the holiday flavors ! Power fuel was a 100 calorie string cheese with a cup of macadamia cookie coffee. Morning snack was a 155 calorie chocolate shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 4 ounce 220 calorie barbecue chicken melt with raw carrots. Afternoon snack was a 5.3 ounce 80 calorie Light & Fit tiramisu yogurt and 2.5 cups of Skinny Pop popcorn (100 calories). This left 385 calories for dinner and an evening snack. Dinner was an 8 ounce 210 calorie homestyle beef and vegetables that I served over broccoli. Evening snack was a 2.2 ounce 140 calorie lemon zest cake. Total calories for the day are 1165 and I only got 32 ounces of water in. I filled my bottle for the second 32 ounces but all I wanted tonight was hot coffee ! It's not even 9 pm and it's already 7 degrees outside ! I'm glad my porch lights are finally on a timer so I don't have to go out there at bedtime to turn off the lights !
Today was an office day and it was -3 when I left for work ! It's a little early in the season for sub-zero temps !!! Still, I was grateful for 3 things this morning: 1 - heat 2 - running water 3 - remote start on the car. After the problems I had with the heat and frozen pipes last winter I was very happy to wake up to heat and running water. I've never been one to use the remote start on my car because I felt like it wasted fuel ... but after 2 days of getting into a warm car I think I'm hooked ! I just have to remember to put the heat at full blast before I turn the car off at night. The drive in was perfect because we had no more snow overnight, so the roads were clean and dry. I left a little earlier than usual so traffic was light as well. Vacation started at 5 pm today and it couldn't get here soon enough ! Tomorrow I'm going over to my mom's to bake Christmas cookies so I'll be sure to weigh in before I head over there ! It'll be the last official weigh in until January 4th. As I mentioned before I plan to enjoy Christmas just a little bit but that doesn't mean the sky is the limit. I will allow myself certain things for 2 days - Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - and then it's right back to the Nutrisystem plan. I see a few glasses of wine, some shrimp, a few cookies and (hopefully) a piece of ricotta pie in my future. Christmas dinner will also feature my version of my dad's turkey stuffing. My dad has been gone since 2012 and I've missed his stuffing. I used to help him make it so I learned his recipe and I made it myself a few times. He never wrote down the recipe so I'm glad I can still remember the ingredients. I decided to make it this year so we'll see how that goes. It has all your standard ingredients: celery, onion, sausage, fresh bread, egg, milk and spices. I also add turkey or chicken stock for a deeper flavor. I'm looking forward to it and plan to make enough so there are leftovers for anyone who wants it. Who knows, maybe it will become an annual tradition !
The commute home was just as easy as the drive in, so that was a good way to end the week and start my vacation. However, my evening was all downhill after that. As soon as I got home I turned on the treadmill, fed the cats, changed into my workout gear and turned on my tablet. Debated about what workout to do, because #2 with Hannah Eden scares me. Finally decided to just go for it and nothing. App just sat there and then I realized the treadmill was not on. Apparently I tripped the breaker so down to the basement I went and reset that. Put my workout sneaks back on and now the iFit app won't load. I gave up after about 10 minutes and since I was starving I went ahead and started my dinner. While my veggies were cooking I rebooted my router and modem to see if that was the problem. It didn't help .. and while I was eating I checked my email and found one from Twitter stating they had recently fixed an issue that "could have compromised my account" and that I should update the app. Well, for some reason Google Play wouldn't load my app updates. I ended up having to force stop and uninstall Twitter before I could get anything to work. Once I dumped Twitter I was able to get iFit working but by then I had eaten and needed to address the security of my devices. So I spent the evening changing passwords and updating the apps on my tablet and my phone. I don't use Twitter so I didn't bother to reinstall it on my phone. This was not exactly the type of Friday night I had in mind !
On that note, even though it's early, I am tired and heading for a shower and bed ! Tomorrow, we bake !
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