Day 544: Let's Be Honest

"Patience. Let's be honest here. You

 won't drop 2 jean sizes in one day. You

 won't lose 50 pounds in one month. You

 will miss occasional workouts. You will

 have a few setbacks. You are human,

 you will fail sometimes. 

Just Keep Going !"

It's Day 544 of Nutrisystem. I wish I had this quote handy on the day I started this journey ! I'm going to print it out and post it where I can see it now because it's such a perfect reminder. You can't undo years and years of bad habits overnight. You can't just "flip a switch" and be healthy and fit. It all takes hard work and you will have setbacks and you will fail. The key is not letting them stop you. This quotes end with "just keep going" and that is what you have to do. Picking myself up is nothing new but now I'm picking myself up with purpose. Most of the trouble I've had over the past 544 days pertains to exercise. I had no real issues with the change in what I was eating. I really like most of the Nutrisystem food. One day of missed exercise often turned into 2 or 3 and that still happens occasionally. It happened this month ! June 13 & 14 I was out enjoying the casino and shopping with my mom and sister. June 15 I spent 3 hours at the dentist and then a couple hours shopping and could not muster the energy to exercise. June 27 was another day of no exercise due to casino & shopping with my mom and sister. Those two are bad influences .. lol ! In all seriousness, exercising 26 days out of 30 is pretty good. Going forward I'm going to take a snapshot at the end of each month to document my efforts to find consistency. This month's snapshot is at the bottom of the post.

Breakfast was a 2 ounce 180 calorie cinnamon roll and 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 3.8 ounce 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt with a chef salad. Dressing added 30 calories. I never got around to my afternoon snack. Dinner was an 8 ounce 230 calorie chicken with apricot glaze that I served over riced cauliflower. Evening snack was a 2.2 ounce 140 calorie lemon zest cake. Total calories for the day are 1035 and I got 64 ounces of water in.

Although I didn't get to sleep until after 3 am I was awake before 9 and up before 10. That's a big accomplishment for me because I could have easily laid in bed a few more hours. After my cinnamon roll and first cup of coffee it was time to get the first workout of the day done. All I had on my schedule for today was Grand Canyon and they're all 20 minutes at max incline. I wanted something a little longer with some speed so I rescheduled the GC hikes for next week. On work days I need 20 minute workouts to do during lunch. So today I completed a 33 minute walk in Salt Lake City, Utah with iFit trainer Ashley Paulson. This workout had the length, speed and little bit of incline that I was looking for. The pace was 3.2 mph but she threw in a couple of 2 minute intervals at 3.5 mph. There was some incline but mostly 4% or below, other than a quick slog up a hill at 10% with a starting speed of 3.5 that she dropped to 3 mph at the top. I got my sweat on and afterwards I enjoyed a well deserved second cup of coffee and my yogurt. She talked about fueling your body after a workout, which is something I've been doing for no other reason than I found the workout felt better when I didn't have a full stomach ! Little did I know fueling your body within 30 minutes afterward helps you recover better for the next workout. I just found that having a little something before and then something after worked best. After my cup of coffee disappeared it was time to head out for errands and grocery shopping. After I got home and put everything away I had my shake and then hit the treadmill for workout #2. It was another walk with iFit trainer Ashley Paulson, this time in American Fork, Utah. This 32 minute walk had 4 loosely organized intervals at 3.2 mph with recoveries at 2.8 mph. The pushes lasted 2-2.5 minutes and the recoveries were 2-3 minutes. There was some incline but it was nothing I couldn't handle. After lunch I relaxed for a while and then it was time to hit the treadmill for the last time today. I ended the day with a 23 minute walk in St George, Utah with iFit trainer Zac Marion. This was more intervals of 30 seconds at 2.8 mph with 1 minute recoveries at 2.4 mph. This was very much a beginner workout but it fit my energy level at nearly 7 pm ! He packed a good bit of incline into it so it was no "walk in the park". I logged 88 minutes, 4 miles and 484 calories today. After dinner I put in the usual 45-50 minutes on the Total Gym. The best part of every day is being "done" when it comes to exercise. I don't dread working out anymore and I feel amazing after a workout, but it's still nice to be finished !

Today was a busy day between running errands, grocery shopping and working out but I still found time to sit out on the front porch and enjoy the weather. Tomorrow I'm not going anywhere so I'm going to work on tidying up the house. I bought a set of plastic drawers on wheels at Walmart for the closet in my office/workout room and I'm going to put my shoes and exercise gear in them. I have things to do in every room downstairs so I'll just start in one room and get it done ! My eyes are drooping so it's clearly time to head for bed if I hope to accomplish anything tomorrow ! 

Here's my June stats from iFit. I'm going to pay more attention to how many days I workout each month.