My Nutrisystem Journey

  “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time  more  intelligently. " ~ Henry Ford ~ I talk about failure a lot because I feel like my life has been full of it. The reality is I feel that way because I spend more time obsessing on the failures, instead of being proud of the successes. I know I'm not alone in that. Saying you lost over 150 pounds makes gaining 10-15 not so bad. Make no mistake - I'm not happy about the gain because I swore I'd never do that. I've learned a lot about myself over the past 3 years and there is still more to be discovered and plenty to be worked on ! I really haven't done that bad. I have a great job that is now 100% work from home, I own my own home, I addressed my credit card debt, my weight & my physical fitness. What more can you ask for ? I can't think of a thing I "need" right now ! Today is Day 1118 of Nutrisystem. 186 days since I reached my goal weight. I maintained it for a while but as y...

    “Success at anything will always   come down to this: focus and  effort.  And we control bot h . " Focus and effort. When I read this quote my first thought was that effort is the easier of the 2. But then I circled back to focus and realized that it takes EFFORT to FOCUS !! So the two go hand in hand. Focus has been hard for me at times, whether on a personal level or a professional level. I've always found that I have a hard time focusing when I have a lot going on. In reality you need focus, effort, commitment, determination .. to name a few .. if you want to achieve anything. In the weight loss and fitness groups that I'm in people are always asking how you motivate yourself or how you get the weight off. Well, there is no one size fits all answer. I've said this before: what works for me may not work for you. Some people love Nutrisystem, some people hate it. Some people love the treadmill, some like the bike or the elliptical or a good old fashioned jo...

  “Stay committed to your decisions,  but stay flexible in your approach . " Flexibility. This has always been a trouble spot for me. I can't tell you you how times I locked myself into a decision and then gave up the minute I didn't abide by it 100%. Everything in my life was pass/fail ... or just another way to justify giving up. Part of my problem was I never really had a plan to back up any goal I wanted to achieve. Sure, I wanted to lose weight but I didn't have a plan. 150+ pounds is not just going to disappear. Sure, I wanted to be in better physical and financial shape but again, I didn't have a plan and nothing was going to change without one. Having a plan was just the first step. Looking back over the past three years I can honestly say that the "plan" was the easy part ! Implementing the plan took a whole lot of hard work and it's a never-ending learning experience. That's where flexibility comes in. The plan I set on Day 1 was great b...

  “Perseverance is the hard work you  do after you get tired of doing the  hard work you already did . " Perseverance. You need a lot of that if you want anything out of life. It's not something you can buy. It's not something you can conjure up overnight either. You have to work at it every day and you have to find it deep within yourself. If the spark is faint you have to fan the flame and turn it into an inferno. Then you have to tend the fire you created. We all know what happens if you don't tend the flame: it goes out. You can stand there and cry over the ashes or you can do what it takes to rekindle the flame. None of it is easy. Making the spark ? Fanning the flame ? Not too difficult. Keeping it going ? This is the hard part ! How do you keep the fire burning ? This is where I am. I'll be honest. I'm tired of being "on a diet". I'm tired of having to think about the calories that are in every little thing that goes into my mouth. I'm ...

  “A positive attitude can lead to a  chain reaction of positive thoughts,  outcomes and events. " Attitude really is everything. I see that every day with the people I deal with. If someone is nasty to me I'm not very motivated to go out of my way for them. Approach me with kindness and I will bend over backwards to help you. I try to have a positive attitude every day but sometimes it's impossible. On those days I tell myself it's just one day or one person and it will pass ... and it always does ! I also work really hard not to let others rain on my parade ! Negative Nellie is not going to ruin my day ! I tell myself they're miserable because they have a miserable life and it's not my issue to solve. We're all in charge of our own attitude. I let someone else control mine for too many years and I can guarantee you that will never happen again. I might have seemed miserable at times and that is because my life really was miserable. At the time I felt it w...

  “What's your why ? When you know  why you do what you do, even the  toughest days become easier ! " You can look at this quote 2 ways. When things aren't going my way I wonder why that is. Sometimes it is due to circumstances outside of my control but what about the things that ARE ? Back in August I made the decision to forego exercise and devote all the time I could to my job. That was a good decision that I don't regret but I DO regret all the extra calories I took in during that time. I ask myself why I did that and I don't really have a solid answer. It's something I really have to give a bit more thought to if I want to ensure it doesn't happen again. When you turn the quote around to the positive, I often think about what my "why" is for losing weight and getting fit. I don't really have a solid answer for that one either. It was just time, I guess. By the time Christmas 2018 rolled around I already had an inkling that my job was not ...

  “I like to challenge myself. I like  to  learn - so I like to try new  things  and try to keep growing . " I was thinking about self-care today because that was the topic in my lunchtime workout, but in the end I opted to write about challenges because I challenged myself with my evening workout. It was nothing earth shattering but it was a definite challenge for me. It's a workout I've done before but as you know I slacked off for a few months and I'm working on regaining my endurance. I had intended to modify the settings on the workout to a more comfortable pace but ultimately decided to just go for it and do the programmed speed, which included 30 second intervals at 5 mph .. 13 of them to be exact .. with 1 minute walks in between. I did this one "as programmed" once before but I think that was back in 2019 ! My jog/run form is not good and I know I'll never be a jogger or runner but I made it through the entire workout. This was the little confide...

“Time you enjoy wasting is  not wasted time. " There you go. That's how you justify sitting on the couch watching tv after work, instead of getting on the treadmill ! LOL ! In all honesty I got distracted by the weather outside (it was snowing buckets) and time got away from me. By the time I had dinner it was too late to even consider getting on the treadmill. Ironically I couldn't get the iFit app to load anyway, so maybe it was an omen ! I'm not going to stress over it. It doesn't happen very often but some days I'm just tired and not motivated. Most of the time I ignore it and push on but that seems to lead to feeling a little burned out. How can you be burned out on a Monday ? Well, I'm not really burned out but sometimes it is hard to pivot from weekend mode to work mode. I also didn't sleep as long as I'd have liked last night - it was well after midnight before I was able to settle down and sleep. So just a normal Monday.  Today is Day 1103 ...

  “Appreciate where you are   in  your  journey even if it's   not  where  you  want to be.   Every  season serves  a  purpose ." This is a good description of where I am. I'm definitely not where I want to be on this journey but I'm actively working on getting back there and I definitely appreciate where I am today. Even though I gained a few pounds that doesn't take away the achievements I attained. I'll take losing 10-15 pounds over losing 150+ again ! I look at this as just another learning experience and my hope is that when the holidays roll around next year I'll think back to where I am now and make better choices. It's not really "the holidays" that put the pounds on but it didn't help ! Not exercising was the biggest problem and I was taking in too many calories for too long. I've realized that I'm not going to be perfect. There will be days I eat more than I'd like and that is why I'm trying to make this a "o...

  “The only person you should try  to  be better than, is the person  you  were yesterday ." This is totally me. I've never aspired to be better than anyone else nor have I ever felt I was better than anyone else. I was just me and I still feel that way. I might weigh less but I'm still the same person. I have wanted to be (or not be) like someone else at different points in my life, but it was never for the purpose of being better than anyone. Most of the time the comparisons I made had to do with weight. It's unfortunate that I never took the initiative to do what was necessary to be like that person with the figure I admired. It's kind of like wishing I'd win the lottery but I never bought a ticket ! So today's quote is good advice. I don't compete against others and my focus is on making each day a little better than the previous one. I drew on that philosophy a lot over the past 3 years, especially when the scale wasn't moving. I had to take it...

  “I am not scared I tell myself, but  the fear of starting over again has  consumed me deeper than I have  ever wanted to admit ." This is another spot on quote ! I was definitely terrified of starting over, mostly because I felt like it was admitting failure. It was admitting I had done exactly what I'd said I would never do. When I started Nutrisystem my intention was to work hard, lose the weight and keep it off - for good. Well, as is often the case, I continue to set unrealistic goals and then feel like a failure when I'm either unable to reach them or unable to sustain them. In the past this is where I'd get off the train and give up. But this is a good news post. I no longer give up when things don't go according to plan. For me, that's a big change. So here I am working my way back instead of giving up. I was thinking today about some of the things I did while I was acting like I didn't have a weight problem. I actually visited KFC between Thanksgi...

"It's humbling to start fresh. It   takes  a lot of courage. But it can  be  invigorating. You just have to  put  your ego on a shelf and tell it to be  quiet ." Today's quote is pretty spot on. It definitely is humbling to admit you fell off the wagon and gained some weight back. I wish I could say I was surprised this happened. As hard as I've tried I haven't conquered all of the bad habits that led to being obese for most of my life. I didn't quite accept the fact that I will need to be vigilant about my weight for the rest of my life either. I wish I could say it's "hard" to watch what you eat but it really isn't. My problem is lack of discipline, plain and simple, so that's an area I'm actively working on. You would think I'd be there after 3 years but when I thought about it I realized that I spent 40+ years eating whatever I wanted regardless of the consequences. When I look at it from that perspective I can be a little...

"What you did in the past is how you  got to today. What you do today is  how you will get to the future ." Three years ago today I started the Nutrisystem program ! Little did I know I was embarking on the longest and most successful journey of my life. I needed to lose 154 pounds to reach a "normal" BMI. Was January 4, 2019 going to be the turning point in my life of obesity ? It was .. and on July 23, 2021 I celebrated a total loss of 158 pounds and the attainment of my goal weight ! It look longer than I had hoped but I got there, and that was all that mattered. For once in my life I hadn't given up. There were plenty of bumps along the way but I just kept trying and with a little help in the homestretch from Beachbody I finally made it ! When I decided to address my weight I also decided to address my credit card debt and that goal was a lot easier to reach and maintain. I haven't carried a balance on a credit card for quite a long time. I still use a c...

  “They say don't look back,  but  sometimes it's important to   see  how far you've come .” I try not to look back too often but today's a good day for it. Three years ago today I received my first Nutrisystem delivery. I was so excited, yet pretty nervous. I re-read my FB post from that day and I was very hopeful. Today I also happened to come across a Walmart receipt from 2018 and it showed I purchased 4 pints of Haagen Dazs ice cream. I remember how it broke my heart to throw the ice cream away when I decided to start Nutrisystem. In the days between placing my Nutrisystem order and actually receiving it I was faced with a dilemma. I had all this "bad" food in the house and I either had to eat it all, give it away or throw it away. In the end I threw it all away and despite the massive waste, I've never regretted that decision. It boggles my mind that I actually considered trying to eat it all ! Thousands and thousands of calories ... just more weight ...