My Nutrisystem Journey

  🖤   Get well so on Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤 "This is your Sunday evening reminder  that you can handle whatever this  week throws at you ! " Today is day 787 of Nutrisystem. I'm continuing my "do your best" theme and this quote fits into that. No matter what the week, day, hour or minute throws at me all I can do is my best. Nothing more, nothing less. So if at the end of the day I can say "yes" when I ask myself if I did my best, that is all that matters. The days of expecting so much more from myself are over. I spent so many years unhappy with myself and once life started to get better I continued putting the same unrealistic expectations on myself. So much was wrong in my life and I didn't even know where to start ... so I didn't. I wallowed in misery instead of rolling up my sleeves and doing my best to change my situation. I have always had trouble with working on one thing at a time. If a bunch of things are a problem I want to ta...

🖤   Get well soon Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤 "Don't wait for everything to be perfect  before you decide to enjoy your life. "   ~ Joyce Meyer ~ Today is day 786 of Nutrisystem. This quotes fits well with my "do your best" theme. Doing your best doesn't mean perfection and everything doesn't have to be perfect in order for you to enjoy your life. I occasionally watch Joyce Meyers on tv and she talks about real life issues with a little bit of religion mixed in. I don't consider myself to be a religious person but you don't have to be in order to enjoy the topics she discusses, because they relate to everyday lives of everyday people. She throws in some humor as well ! I waited years for my life to be perfect and I've only recently come to accept the fact that it never will be. Expecting perfection is unrealistic and I wasted so many years chasing it. I think right now today my life is pretty darn near close to perfect. I've also realiz...

  🖤  Get well soon Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤 "The ultimate goal should be doing your best ... and enjoying it ! "   Today is day 785 of Nutrisystem. This quote was perfect to continue my theme of doing your best and it's a great way to end the week. I feel like I turned an important corner in this journey over the past couple of days. I haven't lowered my expectations and I haven't given up but I'm determined to take this last leg of the journey one day at a time. I'm determined to acknowledge my achievements instead of obsessing over my perceived failures. I'm determined to start each day with "do your best" and end each day with a resounding yes when I ask myself "did you do your best today?". This is no longer about the number on the scale. It's no longer about how many pounds I've lost. It's no longer about how many pounds are left to lose. The reality is I'm at a healthy weight and I'm fitter than I have...

🖤  Get well soon Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤 "We hurt ourselves because w e obsess  about the end of our journeys. Focus  on staying in the moment, on being  grateful for where you are today . "   ~ S. McNutt ~ Today is day 784 of Nutrisystem. I stumbled across this quote and it goes right along with yesterday's topic. I have been obsessing about the end of this journey, perhaps because I had hoped to be at my goal weight by now. I have been so hard on myself about this. I can't even put it into words. It's been that bad. I'm the suffer in silence type so I haven't shared much about it here. The good news is I did refocus myself yesterday and at this point I'm taking things day by day and reminding myself of a few key points. I'm at a healthy weight. I've lost over 140 pounds. I'm exercising 5-6 days a week. I'm still following the Nutrisystem guidelines. All good stuff. So the number on the scale isn't what I want it to be. So w...

    🖤  Get well soon Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤 "Do your best and let the rest go.  You can't be perfect, no matter  how hard you try, so give yourself  credit for making an effort, and try  to stop stressing about the outcome . "   ~ Lori Deschene ~ Today is day 783 of Nutrisystem. Love, love, love this quote ! I need to read this one every single day. I need to tell myself "do your best" when I get up in the morning and I need to ask myself "did you do your best?" when I go to bed at night. Doing your best isn't about perfection. Some days I can do more than others and I need to stop using my best days as the measure for all of my days. Maybe on the day I "only" exercised 60 minutes it was the best I could do that particular day, and I need to give myself credit for that. I am still putting too much pressure on myself and it's having a negative effect. It really kills my motivation and makes me feel like I will never reach my goa...

  🖤  Get well soon Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤 "Whatever you decide to do,  make sure it makes you happy . "  Today is day 782 of Nutrisystem. Where has this quote been all my life ? I guess it was hanging around waiting for me to get done with all the things that DIDN'T make me happy ! Being on the Nutrisystem program makes me happy. Having my credit card debt paid off makes me even happier. Getting physically fit makes me happy too ! Life is so much better when you're not carrying 304 pounds around. I don't miss the aches and pains and everything else that went along with being that heavy. I've been at a bit of a crossroads lately because I went off track over the holidays and it's been hard to get back on. I'm getting there but the progress is slow and frustrating. There's no one to blame but me so it's up to me to work it out. I've given serious thought to just stopping at my current weight and working on maintenance, but I just can...

  🖤  Get well soon Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤 "Sometimes the best solution is to  rest,  relax and recharge. It's hard  to be  your best on empty . "  ~ Sam Glenn ~ Today is day 781 of Nutrisystem. This quote hit the nail right on the head. This past weekend I did rest, relax and recharge and I felt the difference today. I had much more energy for my workouts and never felt like it was too much. There are some days that I do feel like I'm running on empty and that takes the pleasure out of working out. Today I can honestly say I enjoyed every single workout. Exercise wasn't a chore because I was rested. I don't plan to take every weekend off but going forward I'm not going to worry if I don't get a workout in every single day. I push myself hard Monday through Friday simply because I am at home all day and have no excuse not to. Weekends are different because I do enjoy getting out of the house and spending time with my family. At some point the wei...

  🖤  Get well soon Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤 "Sometimes all you need is to break  the routine and have some fun . " Today is day 780 of Nutrisystem and I did break the routine and have some fun. I was sitting at the kitchen table this morning thinking about going grocery shopping. Once I tried to put a list together I realized I didn't need anything. I wanted to go to Christmas Tree Shop and since it was a nice sunny day I decided to call mom and see if she wanted to go with me. She did, so we browsed through there and then went to Point Place Casino for dinner and a couple hours at the slots. I didn't worry about exercising today. I didn't worry about what I was going to eat. I'm stuck in the house all week (so is mom for the most part) so the weekends are my only opportunity to be out and about. We had a fun day and I won and lost at the slots all day, in the end departing with a loss of $40. That's a far cry from the days I'd lose $300-$400 and ...

  🖤  Get well soon Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤 "Life is good because I decided  to  make it that way . " Today is day 779 of Nutrisystem. Some days a short and sweet quote says the most. Deciding to address my weight and my financial and physical fitness ended up being the biggest turning point in my life. Being freed of debt is such a huge weight off my shoulders. Losing nearly 150 pounds and getting physically fit has taken a huge weight off my body ! Before I lost the weight I'd have said that my weight didn't really affect my mobility. Maury Povich would have characterized that as a LIE ! LOL. My feet no longer hurt. My back no longer aches. My hip doesn't bother me. Turning over in bed is not a major effort. I don't have to go up and down the stairs one step at a time because my knees are stronger. I can tie my shoes without getting out of breath. Really I can do anything without pain or discomfort now. I never realized how much my weight was affecting ...

  🖤  Get well soon Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤 "It is difficult to live in and enjoy the  moment when you are thinking about  the past or worrying about the future . "  ~ Roy Bennett ~ Today is day 778 of Nutrisystem. I may have used this quote before but it bears repeating and was mentioned in my first workout today. I am so guilty of spending too much time thinking about the past and worrying about the future instead of just living in the moment. Today started at 6:30 am when I managed to get out of bed with enough time for a morning workout ! The alarm went off at 5:30 but the workout was the goal, not the time I actually got up ! So it's a start. I didn't think about yesterday and I wasn't worrying about tomorrow. Of course, it helps that I got up early yesterday and tomorrow is Saturday .. lol ! Monday will be the true test but I'm not going to worry about that now. I'm going to enjoy my weekend. Breakfast was a 2.1 ounce 160 calorie cherry cheese r...

  🖤  Get well soon Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤 "Give yourself another day, another  chance . You will find your courage  eventually. Don't give up on yourself  just yet. "  Today is day 777 of Nutrisystem. Not exactly my lucky day. I was rudely awakened just after 5 am by the Village of Mexico clearing the snow banks from Main Street and my end of my street. They do this every winter when the snow piles up too high. It's necessary to keep the sidewalks clear, to ensure visibility from the side streets and to keep the limited public parking accessible. It also has to be done while traffic is light .... but I still grumble when I hear the scraping and beeping of the front end loader at that hour ! It goes with the territory when you live steps from the main drag. I was thinking about it after I got up and remembered what I said yesterday: things happen for a reason. I've been wanting to get a morning workout in and it's been a losing battle. However, I've ...

  🖤  Get well soon Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤 "The most important time in the world  is the time you make for yourself . "  Today is day 776 of Nutrisystem. The past 776 days have been all about making time for myself. I'm not ashamed to admit that. I'm making up for many, many years of neglect. I neglected my mind & body most of my adult life and putting myself first was not as easy as it sounds. As my life got better I had to work through some guilty feelings because there were so many others who are not as fortunate as I have been. I had a lot of tough years but the last couple have been pretty amazing. One thing that helped me get through the tough times was telling myself that no matter how hard my life was there is always someone else having a harder time. That is still true today and it took a long time to accept that I deserve to be happy. I will never cease being grateful for the blessings I've received because they've allowed me to get to a po...