Day 603: Stepping Stones

 

                                                                                             🖤  Get well soon Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤

 " Mistakes are a stepping stone to

 success. They are the path I must

 

tread to achieve my dreams." 

                        

It's Day 603 of Nutrisystem. Mistakes. Boy, I've made plenty of those in my life. I guess that's why it took me so long to start turning things around - I have a long path of stepping stones to walk. The closer I get to reaching all of my goals, the more I think about what to strive for next. Maintaining my weight will be task #1 and I will continue working on my financial fitness in preparation for a comfortable retirement. Fitness will also be very important and I don't plan on easing back on that anytime soon. I guess my goals will never change. I've said before that I never really had "dreams" and that is still true. Once I reach my goal weight I will still be the same person. I can't say I ever dreamed of being thin. I wished I was but I never visualized myself that way nor did I ever think about how different my life would be. I still marvel at what I see in the mirror and it's odd to put my hands on my hips and actually feel my hip bones ! I wished for a lot over the years but I never really dared to dream. Maybe I'm just too practical for that. You can dream about something or you can get out there and work for it. For years I didn't dream and I didn't work towards anything I wished for either. Guess what ? Wishing didn't work but working hard did. 136 pounds didn't magically fall off by wishing. It took a lot of hard work to make that happen. I couldn't wave a magic wand and make that mountain of credit card debt go away either. That took some discipline to drive every extra penny towards it. Fitness doesn't happen by magic either. That has been the hardest part of this whole journey and I still struggle with it. Writing this blog does wonders to hold me accountable because I hate coming here and admitting I missed a workout or didn't exercise because of some lame excuse. I made plenty of mistakes in my pre-Nutrisystem life and I've made some over the past 603 days too. I've given in to evening snack attacks too many times since our lives were turned upside down in March. I can see the old habits trying to creep back in so I've spent the past week reigning myself back in. I only have 18 pounds to go and now is not the time to blow it. Exercise alone is not going to keep the weight off and it's not going to get the remaining 18 pounds off either. It's going to take a mix of diet and exercise to reach my goal, exceed my goal and maintain my goal. Same goes for the financial goal. The cash life is working well and although I do use my credit cards I now pay the full balance every month. I've found that I have a better appreciation for what I spend when I see that bill each month. When I had a rolling balance that increased all the time I lost track of what I was spending and eventually lost control. I've learned a lot over the past 603 days but there is still much more for me to work on.

Not much new to report for Tommy Rivs. His wife indicates he is kind of in and out of it and considering the fight he is waging I'm not surprised. Just having him awake at times is a huge improvement and I imagine it makes you that much more impatient to see more. He's still quite ill and the outcome remains uncertain so you have no choice but to take it day by day or even hour by hour still. This marathon has only just begun and the finish line is nowhere in sight. Rage on Tommy !

Breakfast was a 2 ounce 180 calorie cinnamon roll and a 5.3 ounce 80 calorie Light & Fit lemon meringue yogurt. Morning snack was a 120 calorie chocolate shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 3.8 ounce 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt with a chef salad. Afternoon snack was a 1.24 ounce 190 calorie Nature Valley roasted nut crunch protein bar. Dinner was a 4 ounce 190 calorie artichoke & spinach stuffed chicken breast with roasted veggies. Evening snack was a 2.1 ounce 130 calorie carrot cupcake. Total calories for the day are 1110 and I got 64 ounces of water in.

After the usual struggle to get out of bed early I started the day with an 18 minute studio workout with iFit trainer Betina Gozo. Three minutes in, the workout goes off machine for stretching and mobility but I opted to keep walking instead. I set my speed at 3 mph with a 3% incline. About 5 minutes in I increased the incline to 4% and kept the 3 mph pace. My lunch workout was a 25 minute hike in St. Lucia with iFit trainer Stacie Clark. The first 15 minutes had a lot of max incline and the pace ranged from 1.9 to 3 mph. After work it was time for the big workout of the day. It was a 42 minute hike in Victoria, Australia with iFit trainer Lucy Bartholomew. This workout had some jogging and I don't jog. It also had a programmed pace of 3 mph with 10% incline. Sadly, that is too fast for me. My compromise today was to let the machine control the incline and I reduced the speed as needed. The majority of the workout was at max incline but there were several breaks from that where the incline dropped significantly. It's the only reason I was able to make it to the end without dropping the incline. My pace ranged from 2.2 to 3 mph so I worked hard ! I logged 85 minutes, 3.7 miles and 549 calories. Since I had Wednesday off from the Total Gym I didn't take my usual Friday break from it. It felt good to stretch everything after that long treadmill session. Fitbit says I did almost 17,000 steps today.

It was cloudy and gray all day but I worked on the front porch anyway. The skies actually cleared and the sun came out shortly after 4 pm and it got a little warmer. Tomorrow looks to be a rainy day so it'll be a good day to grocery shop and clean the house. I'm not planning any casino time since I was just there Wednesday. A week from now I'll be on vacation and mom and I will have a casino day the week I'm off.

On that note, it's time for a shower and bed - otherwise I'll be wandering into the kitchen for some of that late night boredom snacking !