Day 599: Your Way

                                                                                             🖤  Get well soon Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤

“Who said you have to accept the world

 the way it is ? Do things your way.

 Figure out what works for you. Make

 your own mistakes. That's the only

 way to live an authentic, satisfying

 life.” 

                        

It's Day 599 of Nutrisystem. I've pretty much always done things my way and I have to tell you, it wasn't always the right way. I made plenty of mistakes and I'm still figuring out what works for me. My half-ass attempts at losing weight never lasted long and I never really had a plan, which is why Nutrisystem drew me in. I didn't have to think about what to eat at every meal and I didn't have to cook. I have a Nutrisystem entree for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I have a Nutrisystem protein shake for my morning snack. I have a Nutrisystem snack in the evening. Most of what I eat is microwaved or air fried. I roast veggies once a week. I buy snack items for the afternoon snack but I could easily purchase additional snack items from Nutrisystem to cover that. The program really is easy if you're willing to put in the time and effort to try the foods and customize your order to meet your own tastes. You also have to be willing to sacrifice, since the portions are small and the food is not going to be as delicious as all the junk that made you fat. I have many favorites and those are the items you see in my posts. They're in tiny portions and sometimes I scarf down a cinnamon roll or a cupcake and wish I could have 2 or 3 more .. but I've never done that. Sometimes it's hard not to eat as much I want. There are also some items I don't care for, like the "add an egg" breakfast items and the plant based entrees. I also don't care for their frozen mac & cheese and non-frozen pizza. I've probably tried 85% of the items they offer and will usually order 1 of any new item just to try it. It doesn't bother me to eat the same items over and over again and I don't feel the need to add anything to most entrees. Some people feel the need to add a bunch of stuff to an entree so they have a larger portion. Even if it's just veggies I don't get that mentality , because large portions made us fat. So I'm trying to be satisfied with smaller portions. I still have work to do in that area because I tend to overeat when I go to a restaurant. I had hoped to be at my goal weight by now but I am happy to have lost 136 pounds to date. I will keep setting goals and if I fail I will set a new one. Giving up is not an option.

Update on Tommy Rivs indicates he's had a couple of rough days due to some fluid buildup around one of his lungs. Once that was resolved his breathing became much easier. He's also more alert and responsive and even tried to get out of his bed last night ! I guess the lighter sedation is a bit of a double edged sword. He's fighting so hard and it seems like no matter what the crisis is he overcomes it every time. Not surprising for this guy. Still a long way to go on this journey but today you could feel the hope in the update his wife posted. One foot in front of the other and we rage on.

Breakfast was a 2.1 ounce 160 calorie cherry cheese roll and a 5.3 ounce 80 calorie Light & Fit toasted coconut vanilla yogurt. Morning snack was a 120 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 4 ounce 230 calorie spinach & cheese pretzel melt with a chef salad. Afternoon snack was a 1.4 ounce 190 calorie Great Value peanut almond and dark chocolate protein bar. Dinner was an 8 ounce 240 calorie chicken alfredo with roasted veggies. Evening snack was a 2.1 ounce 130 calorie strawberry shortcake cupcake. Total calories for the day are 1150 and I got 64 ounces of water in.

In spite of the heat I powered through today's workouts. First up was a 32 minute interval hike in Kanab, Utah with iFit trainer Jonnie Gale. This hike was programmed for 40% incline so the speed was too slow for my 10% incline. The treadmill stayed at max incline for the entire workout and I did one minute pushes at 2.6 mph with 1 minute recoveries at 2.2 mph. The programmed speed was push at 2.2 and recover at 1. I could have done that and skated right through the workout but I felt like that was wasting my time and being lazy. Second workout of the day was a 31 minute hike in Chiang Mai, Thailand with iFit trainer Gideon Akande. Most of this workout was at max incline as well and it was a jog so I had to slow the speed. I went with a steady 2.4 mph. Oddly enough my pace seemed to match the trainer stride for stride ... so he was not jogging up that incline at 5+ mph. The terrain was pretty treacherous so I can see why he was going slow, but it irks me when a workout has me going faster than the trainer. It didn't bother me so much on this one since I don't jog and I wasn't going any faster than the trainer. When he did break into a sprint here and there I said "you go on, I'll catch up!" .. lol ! After work (and dinner) was a 37 minute hike in Waipio, Hawaii with iFit trainer Chris Clark. Incline hit 10% about 8 minutes in an pretty much stayed there for the rest of the workout. This one was also programmed for a much steeper incline so the pace was too slow for me. My pace ranged from 1.8 to 3.5 mph. I logged 99 minutes, 3.9 miles and 683 calories. It should be noted that the calorie count is based on the incline and speed of my personal workout, along with my weight. Today I finished the second of this month's iFit challenges and I'm working on the third one now. The workouts in the last challenge are 40-50 minutes each so I am only doing one per day until the weekend, when I'll do 2 per day. I should be done by September 1st and then I'm taking a break from incline ! I've been wanting to repeat the Mount Kilimanjaro series but that's a lot of incline so it'll have to wait ! I took a break after the 3rd workout and then hit the Total Gym. I was too tired and overheated to push myself on Level 3 tonight so I went back to Level 2. Still put in the same amount of time so I'm happy with the effort. Fitbit says I did over 16,000 steps.

Today was another beautiful day to work on the front porch but rain is headed our way and tomorrow is going to be much cooler. Fall is coming fast and I'm going to miss these hot summer days ! The day it is too cold to work on the front porch will be a sad day but it will give me something to look forward to .. the day it is warm enough to get back out there !

On that note it's long past time for a shower and bed. I don't think I'll have any trouble sleeping !