Day 406: Things To Remember

"You will never always be motivated 

and 

You have to learn to be disciplined."

When it comes to my own health and well-being I wouldn't say I ever had much motivation. Self-discipline was sorely lacking too. Back in 1996 I did make an effort to lose weight and had some success but I never got to a point where I was considered thin. I didn't really have a set goal and I wasn't following any particular diet. My exercise consisted of just walking on the treadmill for up to 90 minutes a night. I abandoned those efforts in 1997 and never really looked back. Today I've surpassed where I was back then and it's allowed me to put a lot of the baggage I was carrying to rest. I've discarded 95% of the clothing I had held onto all these years, hoping to fit back into, because it's too big ! That makes me happy and keeps me motivated ! It's also kind of fun to shop for clothes now ! Self-discipline has always been a challenge for me and that made it especially hard for me to settle into exercise over the past 13 months. In the first few months I had a lot of starts and stops and I used every excuse I could possibly think of to NOT exercise. I hated exercise. I loathed exercise. I resented having to exercise. Somewhere along the way that started to change. Somewhere along the way it started to feel good. Somewhere along the way I started looking forward to exercise. I'm not killing myself in the gym like some people but I'm doing more exercise than I ever have and I'm enjoying it more than I ever have - and that is what matters. I may still have a day here and there where I don't exercise but they are few and far between. I know exercise was hard at first because I was so much heavier and although I stumbled a lot I never gave up. As it got easier I didn't sit back and relax, I challenged myself more instead. I've continued to up my game by even trying the brief jog here and there. I've said I'll never be a jogger but who knows - I may try jogging a bit more on the treadmill some day. My only real concern with that is the impact on my hips and knees but I think I could handle brief intervals. I hemmed and hawed about strength training too. It took me a long time to finally make a decision on a home gym but I think I made the best choice for me. I absolutely love the Total Gym ! Liking what I see in the mirror helps motivate me and it contributes to the discipline needed to exercise consistently. I might be a little addicted to those feel good endorphins that exercise generates too ! 

Breakfast was a 2.1 ounce 160 calorie cherry cheese roll with nutty caramel coffee. Power fuel was a 5.3 ounce 80 calorie Light & Fit tiramisu yogurt. Morning snack was a 155 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 4 ounce 220 calorie spinach & cheese pretzel melt with a chef salad. Dressing added 30 calories. Afternoon snack was a 1.58 almond, blueberry & oat bar. Only 5 of these left ! Dinner was a new item, an 8 ounce 230 calorie chicken with apricot glaze that I served with brussel sprouts. I would rate this new entree "ok" but I could barely stomach the brussel sprouts and didn't finish them. Saturday I'm going to Wegman's for fresh veggies and then making a huge pan of roasted veggies. I still like brussel sprouts but they taste so much better roasted in the oven. I added some raw carrots to my dinner just to fill me up. Evening snack was a 2.1 ounce 130 calorie strawberry shortcake cupcake with butter toffee coffee. Total calories for the day are 1185 and I got 64 ounces of water in.

Today was a work at home day because of the weather. It was snowing like crazy when I got up at 5:45 so I went back to sleep for a while. In the end we only got a couple of inches so this storm was another bust .. not that I'm complaining !! Since I was home I got a workout in during lunch. It was a 20 minute walk in Bora Bora with John Peel. It consisted of five 2 minute intervals with 1 minute recoveries. The first 4 intervals were at 3.2 mph and the last one was at 3.3 mph. The recoveries were at 2.4 mph. It was a good quick burst of cardio ! They call this a beginner workout but in the beginning of my fitness journey I actually skipped this workout because it was "too hard" ! After work I completed #13 of 23 in the Mount Kilimanjaro series with Jake Norton. This workout lasted 37 minutes and hit max incline at the 8 minute mark, staying there until about the 22 minute mark. The speed ranged from 1.3 mph to 2.4 mph because this was intended to be a bit of a recovery hike for us. I logged 2.2 miles, 57 minutes and 289 calories. After dinner I hopped on the Total Gym for about 45 minutes. I was done by 7 and retired to the couch for the evening !

I'm glad I don't have to go out tomorrow as the low temp for tonight is 1 ! It'll probably dip below zero and the high for tomorrow is only 10 ! Friday night is going to be another single digit night but the weekend is supposed to be warmer so I guess I'll survive ! On that note I'm heading up for a shower and bed !