Day 596: Your Success

 

                                                                                             🖤  Get well soon Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤

“Your ability to discipline yourself to

 

set clear goals, and then to work toward

 them every day, will do more to

 guarantee your success than any 

other single factor.” 

~Brian Tracy~ 

                        

It's Day 596 of Nutrisystem. I've never been good at disciplining myself and I still struggle with it today. I did really well with changing my eating habits since the foundation of the Nutrisystem program is eating their foods. For whatever reason I found it easy to transition from the junk I was eating to the Nutrisystem food. Exercise was and still is my biggest challenge. Some days I approach it with enthusiasm and endless energy and other days it's a chore. I probably don't allow myself enough "rest" days - there is no rule that says you have to workout as often as I do - and right now I'm doing a lot of incline workouts and those are tiring. When iFit announced these incline workouts as the August challenge I wasn't going to do them because most of the workouts were well beyond my abilities. I finally decided to give it a try and just adjust them to my abilities but I'll be glad when they're done ! I'd be lying if I said I love working out - I don't. I'd rather spend my time doing anything but ! Nutrisystem recommends 30 minutes of "activity" each day and in the beginning that was quite a challenge for me. When you weigh 304 pounds every step is a major exertion and it's exhausting. Right now I don't have specific goals when it comes to exercise, other than trying to exercise as much as I can. I put more emphasis on the weight loss goal and the financial goal and that seems to be working for me. I have clear goals and I'm working toward them every day .. and I'm definitely seeing the success. 140 pounds gone, I exercise several hours a day at least 4-5 days a week and my credit card debt is nearly gone. What more can I ask for ? 

Update on Tommy Rivs indicates he is starting to wake up for brief periods. He can't really communicate because he's on a ventilator and ECMO and he is very weak. Some days the updates are heart wrenching because I can feel the sense of desperation his family is feeling. They want him back the way he was before he got sick and the doctors are telling them that may not happen. He's been pumped full of narcotics for weeks and he was starving for oxygen for a long time and there's no way to know what damage has been done. Add chemo and the cancer itself on top of that and you have quite a mountain to overcome. The road ahead remains long and uncertain but still we hope and pray for that miracle. One foot in front of the other.

Breakfast was a 2 ounce 180 calorie cinnamon roll and a 5.3 ounce 80 calorie Light & Fit key lime yogurt. Morning snack was a 120 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 3.8 ounce 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt with a chef salad. Afternoon snack was a 1.42 ounce 190 calorie Nature Valley peanut butter dark chocolate protein bar. Dinner was a 4 ounce artichoke & spinach stuffed chicken breast with roasted veggies. Evening snack was a 2.2 ounce 140 calorie lemon zest cake. Total calories for the day are 1120 and I got 64 ounces of water in.

Since today was my day off the Total Gym AND I will be out tomorrow, I loaded up my treadmill schedule with some tough workouts. I started the day with a 37 minute hike in Hallstadt, Austria with iFit trainer Evan Dollard. About 2/3 of the workout was at max incline and the programmed pace was too fast for me, so I had to slow it down. My pace ranged from 2 to 3.2 mph. I increased the speed during the lower inclines or flat areas so I wasn't exactly taking a morning stroll ! My lunchtime workout was 33 minutes of studio incline intervals with iFit trainer John Peel. I typically don't enjoy studio workouts but there was no annoying hooting and hollering during his. The entire workout was at max incline and the intervals were 2 minutes at 2.6 mph with 1 minute recoveries at 2.2 mph. This was completely within my abilities so I didn't have to change any of the programmed settings. After work I took on the most challenging incline workout I've ever done. It was a 59 minute run/hike in Canberra, Australia. I don't run so and it was a long workout so I had to reduce the speed frequently. I let the machine control the incline. My pace ranged from 1.8 to 2.9 mph. It was tough and I wanted to quit many times but I stuck it out. I might have gone slower than I'd like but I did it. There was a lot of steep incline and that is tiring. Today I logged 129 minutes, 5.3 miles and 835 calories. I think that is a new all time record ! Fitbit says I did over 17,000 steps but that is not a record. Regardless, I think I will sleep good tonight !

Today was another nice day. The morning started out cool but it warmed up enough by lunchtime that I didn't need a hoodie. I worked out on the front porch all day and I had my dinner out there. Once it started to get dark it got chilly and I had to come in. Looks like it's going to be warmer the next couple of days but we'll be back to temps in the 70's by mid-week. It'll be a sad day when I have to close all the windows on the front porch and it'll be even sadder when it's too cold to work out there ! 

On that note it's time for a shower and bed. I want to get a good workout in before I go out tomorrow so I can't lounge in bed all morning. My brother and his fiance invited everyone to a cookout where they camp every summer so I'm glad it's going to be a nice day !