Day 539: It's Possible

"The only thing that stands between

 you and what you want out of life is

 the will to try and faith to believe it's

 possible." 

It's Day 539 of Nutrisystem. Every day that goes by I have more faith in my ability to achieve the goals I set 539 days ago. I started out just wanting to lose the weight. I knew exercise was going to be necessary but in the very beginning my idea of exercise was a short daily session on the treadmill. I've never liked "exercise" and I can't really say I like it now, but I do like how it makes me feel. Most of the time I really enjoy the time I spend working out. As with anything else in life there are days that I don't really want to do it but I know that if I give in to that I will eventually give up completely - and that is NOT an option. It took a lot of "trying" to get where I am now. Exercise was the toughest part of this journey but once I was working from home 3 days a week I had no excuse not to use all that extra time doing something constructive. Still, it was hard to develop a consistent routine. I still found excuses not to exercise. Going to working at home full time in mid-March gave me even more time and I don't regret devoting much of it to more exercise. If nothing else it kept me sane ! I'm finding now that I don't accept most of the old excuses not to exercise anymore. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were 90 degree days and not exercising wasn't an option. Sure it was hot and uncomfortable but it's not like I was out there running 5k's ! So I'm seeing the difference in my will to try and in my faith in myself. I'm pushing myself more than I ever have. Did I believe any of this was possible back on that dark day in December 2018 ? No .. I can honestly say I didn't. 

Breakfast was a 2.8 ounce package of pancakes with sugar free syrup and a 5.3 ounce 80 calorie Light & Fit strawberry cheesecake yogurt. Morning snack was a 155 calorie chocolate 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 1.3 ounce 180 calorie Jif Powers Up chewy granola bar. Dinner was a 8 ounce 220 calorie vegetarian chili with roasted veggies. This entree was lacking in flavor so I won't be ordering it again. Salt might have helped but I try to keep away from the salt shaker. Evening snack was a 1.8 ounce 140 calorie chocolate cupcake. Total calories for the day are 1195 and I got 64 ounces of water in.

First workout of the day was a 41 minute interval hike in Lake Tahoe. There was a lot of incline but mostly 6% or below. These intervals were 1:1 so it was 30 second pushes at 3.1 mph with 30 second recoveries at 2.8 mph. My lunchtime workout was 21 minutes in the Grand Canyon and the incline here was 6% or less as well. It was a steady state walk with a pace of 3 mph. After work was a 33 minute Costa Rica workout that had been my nemesis. I avoided this one for a long time because it is 1:1 intervals of 1 minute at 3.4 mph with 1 minute recoveries at 2.6 mph. About 13 minutes in they "forgot" a recovery so you're at 3.4 mph for almost 3 minutes and they throw in a 6% incline for good measure ! I first did this workout on October 20, 2019 and when I wrote about it back then I commented that I felt like I was going to fly off the back of the treadmill. At the time, 3.4 mph was pretty fast for me. It still is but I can definitely keep up better ! I logged 96 minutes, 4.4 miles and 546 calories with my main man, iFit trainer John Peel ! After dinner I put in the usual 45-50 minutes on the Total Gym. Fitbit says I did over 16,000 steps and it sat on the charger for an hour or more today !

One more day to get through and then it's vacation time ! I managed to get out of bed at 6:40 this morning and get that long workout out of the way first ! It helped that I was already awake when the alarm went off, but I still hit that 10 minute snooze ! Work was crazy busy today but that made the day fly by. Tomorrow will be busy too, the last day before vacation is always hectic because I don't like to leave any loose ends for my colleagues (or my boss!) to deal with. Some people can just throw down the pen and say "whatever" but I've never been able to do that. I managed to throw in some laundry during lunch so I'm glad to have that out of the way too. 

Once I was "done" for the day I grabbed a hot cup of hazelnut coffee and settled back out on the front porch, this time to relax ! It was a nice way to unwind. My iFit schedule for tomorrow has a 20 minute, 30 minute and a 40 minute workout so the goal is to get up early enough to knock out the 40 minute one first. If I want that to happen I had best hustle off to the shower and bed now !