Day 48 (AG): Just Start Walking
It's day 48 AG (after goal) and day 980 of Nutrisystem. I'm on vacation and today was a quiet day at home. I haven't been very motivated to work out lately so I spent some time thinking about getting my "mojo" back, because I know exercise is key to keeping the weight off. Over the past 10 days my workouts have been sporadic. No - that's not true - they've been practically non-existent ! Nothing on 8/31 and 9/1 and once on 9/2. Then nothing 9/3, 9/4 and 9/5 and once on 9/6. Nothing on 9/7 and 9/8 either. I've also eaten out a few times and over-indulged. I haven't checked the scale but I can feel the difference and I see the warning signs. Danger ! Trouble ahead ! Tilt ! Go back ! It's all there - red lights flashing frantically to get my attention. So today was all about heeding the warning signs, resetting and getting back on track. Sounds familiar, doesn't it ? Yep, this is not the first time I've had to do a hard reset. Foregoing my evening workouts in favor of work was a temporary sacrifice and I don't plan to continue that after vacation, since it's shown me how easily I can get off track. My plan is at least 2 workouts Monday thru Thursday and 3 on Friday. I am also going to put more effort in on weekends. Just because I go out for the day on Saturday doesn't mean I can't squeeze in a quick workout on the treadmill or the Total Gym. I've also been slacking on Sundays even though I am typically home most of the day. I'm seeing (again) how easy it is to get off track and realizing that I have not yet developed the level of discipline needed to maintain long term success. You would think after over 2.5 years it would sink in ! It just goes to show you that nothing in life is easy and this is going to require constant work. If nothing else it guarantees that I will never be bored because I have to continue thinking about what I eat and how much exercise I get. One habit I do not want to adopt is thinking I can overeat and then "exercise it off". While that may be ok once in a while it is too easy to let that become habit and before you know it you've gone beyond what you can realistically work off. Once that happens you are in real trouble. I'm pretty close to that point, just too comfortable with overeating and not exercising. So as the quote goes, I'm going back to what's good .. for me !
So what have I done on my vacation ? Saturday was my usual casino day with mom and we had a nice dinner at Emerald's in Turning Stone Casino. Sunday we spent the day in Cross Lake where my brother and his wife camp all summer. We did get a brief downpour of rain but it held off until after dinner and then cleared right up. Sadly my brand new car is now dirty .. lol ! I do plan to give it a good wash before vacation is over so it's all good. Monday I stayed home and was lazy most of the day. Tuesday I went to Walmart and Christmas Tree Shops for a little retail therapy. Funny story - the car needed gas and I had to break out the owners manual to figure out how to open the gas door ! My old car had a button in the drivers door to release it and the new one you just push the cover in and it pops open. Yesterday was another casino day for mom & I. We had breakfast at Flo's Diner beforehand and then had dinner at Upstate Tavern. It was a fun day but wow, I totally ate too much ! More on that later ! Today I stayed home to clean my house, catch up on laundry and get my exercise back on track ! I started the day with fresh sheets on the bed and then a shower to wake me up and a set of new workout clothes to motivate me ! After breakfast I started the laundry and headed for the treadmill.
I'm going back to documenting what I eat and including calories. Breakfast was a 160 calorie cherry cheese roll and an 80 calorie Light & Fit tiramisu yogurt. Morning snack was a 155 calorie chocolate shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt with a chef salad. Afternoon snack was 1/2 cup cottage cheese (80 calories) and 2 Alyssa's oatmeal cookies (90 calories). Dinner was a 250 calorie chicken enchilada and roasted veggies. Evening snack was a 140 calorie lemon zest cake. Total calories for the day are 1175.
All of today's workouts were the Jordan series with iFit guide Fadi Abu Jaber. I started the day with 5 on my schedule since scheduled workouts roll to the next day if you don't do them and I've been slacking ! Instead of rescheduling some I decided to challenge myself and do all 5 today. Did I do it ? I started with a 32 minute jaunt through the desert of Wadi Rum. It was not easy but about 20 minutes in I hit my stride and felt like I could go all day ! After a cup of coffee and my morning shake it was time for a quick 19 minute jaunt in Wadi Rum to see some petroglyph's. 2 down, 3 to go ! After a very late lunch I hit the treadmill for a 34 minute walk to Petra, which happens to be where some of Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade was filmed ! With 3 done I was looking at a 37 minute tour of Petra and then the finale of the series, a 33 minute walk to Shobak Castle in Shobak, Jordan. By this time it was 6 pm but I wasn't ready to admit defeat. I had the whole rest of the evening to get it done ! After a break to eat part of my dinner (the veggies) and to fold laundry and reload the washer/dryer I headed off for that tour of Petra at about 7:30. At 8:15 I sat down with a cup of coffee and my afternoon snack, which I had forgotten about ! 4 down, 1 to go. I promised myself I would get back on the treadmill by 9 pm and finish off this personal challenge ... and I did !!! I logged 157 minutes, 8.6 miles and 1040 calories. Fitbit says I did over 23,000 steps ! There's a little motivation to keep me moving forward !
Today was a good day to do little things that I never seem to have time for. I had a tabletop fountain that had been sitting in the garage, unopened, for over 10 years. I finally opened it up and assembled it, not sure it would work, and to my amazement it did !
The front porch is a little more Zen now .. lol ! I also tackled the fabric softener dispenser in my washer. This is another little task I avoid and clearly something I need to address more often, because it was just caked with crud. The goal now is to clean it out every time I'm done on laundry day. New air & water filters are also on the way for my fridge. These are also long overdue ! This time of year I start getting my house in order for winter - must be hibernation mode kicking in ! The pantry will be overflowing soon with enough non-perishable stuff for the winter. Who wants to lug cat litter or bundles of paper products when it's 10 degrees ?
So let's talk about food and what brought me to another "come to Jesus" meeting with myself. Well. Let's talk about yesterday first. As I mentioned, mom and I stopped at Flo's for breakfast yesterday. What did I order ? Flo's Big Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 pancakes, home fries, 2 sausage links, 2 strips of bacon and 2 slices of whole wheat toast. Full disclosure: I ordered the same darn thing on my birthday ! Both times I polished off the entire plate, right down to the jelly on the toast. My justification ? "It's my breakfast, morning snack, lunch and afternoon snack". No it isn't. That's just me being an idiot. I wish I could say it ended there. Nope. For dinner yesterday I ordered meatloaf at Upstate Tavern. This wasn't the worst thing in the world but it was a hefty portion of meatloaf with a big pile of mashed potatoes, brown gravy and green beans. I ate every bit and also had a beer with my meal. We also shared our favorite dessert. Later I had a caramel macchiato coffee and bought a scone to bring home, intending to have that today. Nope - ate that bad boy before bed and took a bowl of pretzel nuggets to bed with me ! I'll excuse my dinner on my birthday. It was chicken parm at Pino Bianco with a relatively small portion of pasta but I ate every bite, along with 2 pieces of bread with butter. I had a lemon drop martini with my dinner and tiramisu and cappuccino for dessert. I couldn't even finish the tiramisu because I was too full. This whole narrative is absolutely full of red flags and it's just another example of me not being able to say no to myself and being over-confident and just plain stupid. Those huge breakfasts ? Before I started Nutrisystem I NEVER ordered a breakfast that huge ! So why now ? Honestly, I don't know. Temporary insanity ? What's ironic is that yesterday all I really wanted was the pancakes. I could have done less damage by just ordering a short stack (2) of pancakes. The moral of this story: 980 days into this journey and I still have a lot to learn. I suppose the good thing is I'm able to catch myself and get back on track. I just wish I didn't have to do it so often.
I didn't get as much done around the house as I'd have liked so the plan is to continue working on that tomorrow. I have deliveries coming from Nutrisystem and Amazon but once those arrive I plan to head out to the grocery store to restock my fresh produce and a couple other things. I need cat litter as Walmart had none of the brand I like the last time I was there, so I'll be on the lookout for that. Hard to believe vacation is almost over ! On that note it's long past time for bed !
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