Day 635: Never Give Up
It's day 635 of Nutrisystem. There's a lot of truth in this quote. Until I started working on losing weight I never really thought about being "thin". It was something I wanted but I never put solid effort towards attaining it and quite honestly I never really believed I could lose the weight. Even when I started Nutrisystem I don't think I really believed I could do it. I had 100 excuses and for years I was always going to do something different tomorrow .. or next week .. or next month. Now that I'm doing it I am impatient. I want to be able to proclaim I've reached my goal weight. I want to be able to say I lost 154+ pounds. I want to be able to say I finally achieved a goal. I want to be able to say I didn't fail, for once in my life. Right now I don't know what is more difficult - waiting to reach my goal weight or regretting all the years I wasted being fat and unhappy.
No news is good news (I hope) when it comes to Tommy Rivs. His dad indicates he is alert and participating in the planning of his care. After all Tommy has been through this is pretty amazing. He does still drift away at times and I imagine that's a side effect of the weeks and weeks of sedation, a little bit of oxygen deprivation and the overall isolation of the ICU. Spending time off the ventilator takes a toll too because he has to work harder to breathe and that is tiring. The road is long and the destination is unknown so we just keep hoping and praying for his recovery. Rage on Tommy !
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 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 honey crisp apple and a 1 ounce 110 calorie chunk of maple bacon cheddar cheese. Dinner was an 8.2 ounce 240 calorie chicken fajita bowl that I served over riced cauliflower. I've had this entree before but I don't think I put it over cauliflower and that was a game changer. I'd have sworn I was eating rice ! Evening snack was a 2 ounce 140 calorie pumpkin cupcake. Total calories for the day are 1180 and I got 64 ounces of water in.
I woke up before 6 today so it was much easier to get up and have plenty of time for breakfast and a workout before work. I started the day with a 30 minute walk on the Freedom Trail in Boston, MA with iFit guide David Coviello. The programmed pace was 2.5 mph but I overrode that and went with 3.1 mph for the first 10 minutes, then 3.3 for 10 minutes and then 3.5 mph for the last 10 minutes. My lunchtime workout was a 20 minute TED talk titled "Sleep Is Your Superpower" hosted by sleep scientist Matt Walker. The message here was that sleep deprivation is bad for you ... no surprise there. After a brief warmup I set the pace at 3.2 mph for 9 minutes and then 3.4 mph for 9 minutes. I also set the incline at 3% for the duration. After work it was time for a 32 minute HIIT interval workout with iFit trainer Gideon Akande. After a short warm up I set the pace at 3.1 mph for 10 minutes, then increased to 3.3 for 10 minutes and finished with 10 minutes at 3.5 mph. This workout had 3 sets of incline starting at 30 second intervals, then increasing to 45 seconds, then 1 minute. The incline increased from 0 to 8% (1% at a time, 30 seconds at each level) and then dropped back down at the end of each set, with a few minutes in between each set to recover. I did pretty good with that but 7 and 8% at 3.5 mph was tough. Still, I'm impressed that I was able to walk for 30 minutes non-stop. The last 5 minutes were hard but these longer intervals are giving me the endurance I was lacking and making me work harder. For a while there I felt like no matter how long I was on the treadmill I wasn't exerting myself enough to make a difference, so I knew I wasn't challenging myself enough. I figure if you're not sweating by the time you get done you're not working hard enough ! I'm going to hold with a maximum speed of 3.5 mph for a while because it feels like it's the top of my ability right now. I logged 82 minutes, 4.4 miles and 472 calories. Fitbit says I did almost 15,000 steps. After dinner I decided to give Level 3 another try on the Total Gym. I had to reduce the # of upper body reps from 25 to 15 but I struggled through 2 sets and feel like it was slightly easier than the last time I tried. My goal is to increase upper body strength so I'm going to stay at 3 and see how I do. I already do the lower body on the highest setting so all I can do there is look for more challenging exercises or do more reps/sets. I have a leg pulley assembly that I've never used so one of these days I need to figure out how that works and try to have one of those famous "leg days". I have a couple other accessories I don't really use so there is still a lot to be learned about the Total Gym and it's potential. Needless to say I was glad to call it a day at 7:30 !!
Today was a cool rainy day but I spent the entire day working out on the front porch anyways. I enjoy the sound of the rain hitting the metal roof and the porch temp was comfortable. After dinner I sat out there and enjoyed a glass of wine before tackling the Total Gym. After the Total Gym I sat out there with a hot cup of coffee. After tomorrow I'll have a 4 day break to enjoy my brother's wedding on Friday. Very happy for him and looking forward to dressing up for a change ! On that note it's about time for a shower and bed.
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