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Showing posts from December, 2021

The Journey Back: Day 5

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Don't be afraid to start over. This  time you're not starting from scratch,  you're starting from experience.  Starting over is no fun and it's hard not to look at my situation as a failure. To keep things positive I'm looking at that as a good thing and I'm hoping I don't find myself here again anytime soon. This journey has been all about "breaking up with food" and that isn't as easy as you might think. Food is associated with so many things in our lives, such as the holidays. Today was a prime example. Since I had the day off I headed out this morning to pay my water bill, pick up my mail, pick up my new glasses and do some grocery shopping. All was well until I hit Wegman's. If you go there .. you know. I dutifully started my shopping in the produce section and filled my cart with carrots, broccoli, brussels sprouts, green beans, lettuce, cucumber, red peppers, celery and radishes. Then I headed to the dairy for cottage cheese and yogu...

The Journey Back: Day 4

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  There are no secrets to success. It is  the result of preparation, hard work,  and learning from failure.  ~ Colin Powell ~ As today's quote points out, there really is no "secret" to success. I'm no stranger to hard work but I would be lying if I said I don't struggle with learning from failure. I guess maybe learning is a continuous process. I also think I have a hard time accepting failure. I have learned a lot a lot but recent events have reminded me there is still room for improvement. Maybe we are always a work in progress and I'm just expecting too much. Maybe we all fail at times and it's more important how you react and move forward. Too often I let failure be the excuse to give up. I was overweight most of my life so being "thin", as some characterize me, is new and different. Once I reached my goal weight I needed to transition from losing to maintaining and in a stroke of bad timing new challenges at work came up during that critica...

The Journey Back: Day 3

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From this day on, when I look back on the past,  I will  smile and say to myself  " I never thought I could do it, but I did." Three years ago today I look the biggest Leap of Faith of my life and hit submit on the Nutrisystem website. $300 a month for 24 breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks sounded like a lot until I broke it down to $12.50 per day. I typically spent that for lunch every day and I could easily spend that much for dinner if I went to McDonalds or KFC. Not to mention I spent $3 most mornings for coffee. Add in the cost of breakfast and all the other junk I was eating and Nutrisystem was going to save me money. That's how I justified the expense, even though I was deep in debt at the time. Thanks to a lot of hard work and sacrifice I reached my goal weight and paid off all my debt. Much has happened over the past 3 years ! I started Nutrisystem on January 4, 2019 and on January 7, 2019 I learned the office I worked in for 34 years was going to close. To ...

Time For A Reset

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You got a little crazy and distracted for a while. That's ok. Now come back to  center. Re-align with your best self. Every day is a second chance.  - Brendon Burchard - Three years ago I embarked on the excess of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day without a care in the world. Thanksgiving was the lead up to another 2 days of eating delicious food without guilt and I couldn't wait to stuff myself ! At 300+ pounds, eating was my happy place ! That Thanksgiving feast of turkey and all the fixings was just a preview of the turkey, lasagna and sweet treats that Christmas would bring. Little did I know that Christmas Day 2018 was going to be the turning point in my mostly lifelong struggle with obesity. Little did I know that a couple of candid photos would lead to the horrifying realization that my weight had ballooned completely out of control. It had been that way for many years, but I had been able to ignore it. Something clicked that fateful day and I could no longer ignore it. ...

Day 133 (AG): Having Faith

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  It's day 133 AG (after goal) and day 1065 of Nutrisystem. I've sat down to write many times over the past couple of weeks, but I typically wander off and get sidetracked and then it gets too late and I'm tired. I've had a lot of time to think about how blessed I am over the past couple of weeks. I spent Thanksgiving with my family and if my dad was still here, that is the only thing that could have made the day better. I made a decision that day to live my life while I still can and I'm starting with a trip to Disney in February ! Booked my flight and bought my tickets so there is no going back ! I'm also going on an Alaskan cruise in May 2023. I will be the proverbial "5th wheel" with my brother & his wife and my sister and her husband (and possibly another couple), but I decided to just go and have fun ! The Disney trip will really be the first true "vacation" I've taken in 25 years. I did go to Italy for my honeymoon but the trip...