Day 563: Hope For Tomorrow

                                                                        A little snow and ice isn't so bad when it's 95 degrees !

"Looking after my health today gives

 me a better hope for tomorrow." 

~Anne Wilson Schaef~

                        

It's Day 563 of Nutrisystem. Prior to starting the program my health wasn't really a priority. I ignored all the distress signals my body was sending. Sore hip, swollen feet & ankles, fatigue, aching back. Blood sugar highs and lows. I'm sure my blood pressure was high or headed in that direction. I was constantly exhausted. No matter the symptom, I just kept eating and gaining weight. The bag of chips and large tub of onion dip were always the "last time". Eating the whole pint of Haagen Dazs was always the "last time". Buying pounds of chocolates in the bulk foods was always the "last time". I cannot tell you how many times the "last time" came and went. I was always going to do something about it "tomorrow", but tomorrow never came either. Sometimes I feel physically ill when I think about what I used to eat. Weekends were the worst because I was at home with all of that food at my fingertips all day long. Evenings were bad too because I'd go to bed and stuff myself with chocolate before I fell asleep. It wasn't uncommon to have a stack of giant Hershey bars on hand, along with a big bag of Hershey kisses and a bag of bulk chocolates. Peanut clusters and chocolate covered peanuts were my favorite ! I guess you could say chocolate was my drug. I used to try and eat "healthy". I gave up breakfast cereal and started eating Eggo waffles. In reality, I only gave up the cereal (Honeycomb, Raisin Bran Crunch and Lucky Charms were my favorites) because of the sugar crashes I kept having. So instead of addressing the problem I just changed what I was eating to get around it. Problem with the Eggo waffles was I'd eat 4 or 6 of them slathered in syrup in one sitting. I think about that when I sit down with 2 Nutrisystem waffles with sugar free syrup or a drizzle of the real stuff I have now. Many weekends I'd have cheese danish with my coffee .. but I ate about 1/3 of the package, instead of a Nutrisystem sized portion. It's a good thing I was a lazy cook because as much as I'd have liked sausage or bacon with my breakfast I never had the patience to cook it ! I guess I didn't want it that badly because I could have cooked a bunch and threw it in the freezer. I was just a major sugar and carb addict and I think being away from much of that for so long is the reason I sometimes react badly to too many simple sugars or carbs. The good thing about that is I'm less inclined to overdo them. I hope the changes I've made will result in a longer and healthier life, especially since I wasted so many years. 

Breakfast was a 2 ounce 180 calorie cinnamon roll and a 5.3 ounce 80 calorie Light & Fit creme brulee yogurt. Morning snack was a 155 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 4 ounce 230 calorie spinach & cheese pretzel melt with a chef salad. Dressing added 30 calories. Afternoon snack was a 1.42 ounce 190 calorie Nature Valley peanut butter dark chocolate protein bar. Dinner was an 8 ounce 180 calorie creamy chicken broccoli pasta with the last of my roasted veggies. Evening snack was a 2.2 ounce 140 calorie lemon zest cake. Total calories for the day are 1185 and I got 64 ounces of water in.

After being on Nutrisystem for 18 months it is clear my body chemistry has changed. Last night I finished my chicken sandwich when I got home. It was nothing more than a grilled chicken breast and the other half of the focaccia bread it was served on. Not long after I got very, very tired, could not finish my blog post and fell asleep on the couch. I swear it was the effects of the carbs in the bread. Before I started Nutrisystem I used to fall asleep right after eating a carb heavy meal all the time. It was an overwhelming kind of sleepiness that you can't fight off and that is exactly what I encountered last night. Considering the relatively small amount of bread and the fact that the chicken is all protein, I was surprised at my reaction to it. I eventually stumbled upstairs and fell right back to sleep without a shower or even taking down the ponytail in my hair. I didn't even turn on the tv. If you google that symptom you get 1000 causes and many of them are tied to diabetes. I have no reason to believe I'm diabetic so I chalk it up to the fact that I abused my body with carbs & sugar for years, I've been on an extremely low carb diet for 18 months and maybe I didn't eat enough of the right things yesterday to balance things out. Basically my body is just not used to getting bread ! I felt fine after eating the first half of the sandwich but the difference is I was walking around the casino after I ate, so I was burning off those carbs. When I got so sleepy I should have got up and moved around. Lesson learned ! I woke up around 8 am today feeling just fine.

It was getting pretty hot by 11 am (88 degrees!) so I decided to hit the treadmill for the first workout of the day. It was a 32 minute walk in Split, Croatia. The pace was 2.7 mph and there was no incline, so it was perfect for a hot steamy day. After lunch I completed a 33 minute walk in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. The pace was 2.4 mph and there was some brief incline here and there. My pre-dinner workout was a 28 minute walk in Dubrovnik, Croatic. The pace was 2.7 mph and there were some brief inclines here and there. All of today's workouts were with iFit trainer Tommy Rivs, who is currently fighting for his life in an Arizona ICU. He never tested positive for COVID but his lungs are severely compromised and doctors have yet to figure out why. The iFit community has raised almost $70k in less than a day to help with the medical expenses, which will be astronomical. This was a GFM I was happy to donate to. Today I logged 93 minutes, 4 miles and 422 calories for me .. and for Tommy ! I also spent the usual 45-50 minutes on the Total Gym. I'm glad it cooled down ! Fitbit says I got about 12,700 steps in today !

Since I crashed last night I started today with a nice long shower. Then I sat out on the front porch to enjoy my breakfast and the coolness of the morning. That didn't last long .. the thermometer started climbing and I had to bring the fan out on the porch. It was definitely cooler in the house but I am determined to enjoy the fresh air until the snow flies, so I toughed it out. It got cloudy and dark in the late afternoon and I thought I'd see a thunderstorm ... but all I got was a few gusts of wind and a 10 degree drop in the temp. The storm was just south of me. Oh well. 

On that note I'm heading to bed. I have tomorrow off to go to the dentist but my appointment is at 9 so I have to be up and out early. After the dentist I'm picking up my mom to take her grocery shopping and we'll probably stop in to Point Place Casino to eat. I am craving their veggie burger !