Day 530: Motivate and Inspire

"People make a big mistake when they

 say 'I need to be motivated'. You

 motivate yourself. I might inspire

 somebody, but that person has to be

 motivated within themselves first. Look

 inside yourself, believe in yourself, 

put in the hard work, and your dreams

 will unfold."

~Billy Mills~

It's Day 530 of Nutrisystem. I've been at this for nearly 18 months and I still have so much to learn. I also have a lot of work to do when it comes to changing behaviors. Inspiring and motivating myself was on my mind this morning and ironically enough iFit trainer John Peel talked about this very subject during my first workout of the day. His bottom line was you have to inspire and motivate yourself, so this was the perfect quote for today. The events of the past 3 days have shown me just how easily you can undo months of hard work. I indulged myself in calorie laden food Saturday and Sunday instead of opting for healthier choices. One day of indulgence is fine but I can't justify 2 days in a row. So that's a lesson learned that I've tucked away for the next time I'm in that situation. No matter what restaurant you go to there are always going to be healthy choices. Making those healthy choices is part of changing my relationship with food and I clearly still have some work to do. I'm not beating myself up about it. I'm trying to take the negative and make it a positive insight into myself. It's important that I see these little cracks in the foundation because I can patch them when they're small. If I let them continue to expand they'll just overtake me and that's not an option. It's not like I gained any weight, I didn't, but this has shown me how easily I can veer off the tracks and if I do that long enough or frequently, the weight will come back. These changes have to be lifelong and I can't veer off the tracks whenever I feel like indulging myself. Did I enjoy the food ? Sure, the bacon cheeseburger and fries was amazing. So was the first half of the buffalo chicken wrap and accompanying fries. It was the 2nd half of the wrap that tipped me over the edge and I'm glad it did. It showed me that my body has changed and that type of food is not what my body wants or needs. I had no veggies either day and I felt the difference. Yesterday was just an off day because of the long dental visit and grocery shopping but I suspect I was also feeling the effects of the crap I ate all weekend ! Today it was important to get back to basics and back to working hard.

Breakfast was a 2 ounce 180 calorie cinnamon roll. I got a yogurt out to have with it but I never ate it. Morning snack was a 155 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 4 ounce 230 calorie four cheese melt with a chef salad. Dressing added 30 calories. Afternoon snack was a 1.42 ounce 200 calorie Nature Valley salted caramel nut protein bar. Dinner was a 5 ounce 210 calorie broccoli & cheese stuffed chicken breast with roasted veggies. Evening snack was a 2.2 ounce 140 calorie lemon zest cake. Total calories for the day are 1145 and I got 64 ounces of water in.

I managed to get out of bed before 7 am today .. 6:59 to be exact .. lol ! Even so, I had enough time to make the bed, feed the cats and log on to work before I prepared my water and turned on the treadmill. I started a John Peel trifecta today so all workouts were with him. I started on the beach in Costa Rica with intervals at a 1:2 ratio, in this case 2 minute pushes at 3.2 mph followed by 4 minute recoveries at 2.4 mph. There was no incline and this was an easy 29 minutes to start the day. My lunchtime workout was 31 minutes of intervals in Lake Tahoe. Again it was a 1:2 ratio but it was 1 minute at 3.1 mph and 2 minutes at 2.8 mph. This one had some incline but for me it was pretty easy. After work was the Grand Canyon and it was a steady pace of 2.6 mph with no incline. I logged 92 minutes, 4.1 miles and 436 calories. After dinner I put in the usual 40 minutes on the Total Gym. After 3 days off it felt so good to be back in my groove !  My Fitbit says I did over 15,000 steps so that is amazing ! The first workout of each of the series I started today were relatively easy but that was perfect because I've been lazy for the past 3 days. I'm not ashamed to be easing back into it. Believe me, all 3 series get harder ! Life happened for a couple of days but the important thing is getting back on track. I can beat myself up over what I didn't do or I can focus on what I did today and what I will do tomorrow. What's going to inspire and motivate me ? I think back to the "old me" and after a 3 day break I'd have been unlikely to go back. Laziness would take over and I'd give up. That's no longer an option. I might have allowed it for a couple of days but there are limits now. If I don't put limits on myself the weight will pile right back on and all of my hard work and the expense will have been for nothing. So, if I find myself in a restaurant 2 days in a row again I will be sure to select much healthier options.

Today was such a beautiful day ! It started off a little cool but I spent the entire day working on the front porch enjoying the fresh air, blue skies and the sunshine. I sat out there after I finished my Total Gym workout to enjoy a cup of coffee and my evening snack. I came back inside shortly after 8 to close up the house and get ready for a shower and bed. Looks like the warmer weather is back tomorrow but I still have my heat on in the downstairs at night. It may not be necessary but I spent too many years freezing in this house. It really is a luxury to have a reliable heating system so I'm taking full advantage of it. On that note I'm heading up for that shower and then it's off to bed !