The Journey Back: Day 13/14

 “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 "one day at a time" experience. If you're exercising every day and watching your calories "most of the time", a few hundred extra calories now and then isn't going to hurt. It's when that becomes a daily occurrence that you get in trouble. That's where I struggle and that's where I need to work a little harder. I guess half the battle is knowing what the problem is and formulating a plan to deal with it.

Today is Day 1102 of Nutrisystem. 170 days since I reached my goal weight. I maintained it for a while but as you know I've gained some weight and I'm working to get it back off and it's Day 14 of that effort. I'm pleased with the progress I'm making and have no doubt I'll settle back in at my goal weight soon.

Yesterday was my usual casino outing with mom so I didn't follow the Nutrisystem plan all day. Breakfast was waffles with sugar free syrup and an 80 calorie yogurt. We had dinner at Upstate Tavern in Turning Stone casino. I had the meatloaf dinner, which comes with mashed potatoes and green beans. It was delicious and as much as I hated to .... I turned down our usual dessert, which our waitress remembered we always get ! I did get the usual Dunkin coffee for the drive to the casino and I had another at Opal's before we left the casino. So, calories were well over 1200 but I was back in the saddle today. It was super cold yesterday (only in the teens) but blue skies and sunshine made it a beautiful day ! My heat has remained stable but it was not heating at a high enough temperature yesterday morning. I ended up traipsing out into the snow to install the cover over the outdoor sensor and that helped. The good news is the house was toasty warm when I came home, so that pesky error that was shutting the boiler down has not recurred. Fingers crossed ! I updated my heating guy and he said he can move the sensor if it continues to be an issue. We'll see how it goes on the next sunny day ! All in all Saturday was a great day. I spent it with my best friend, had a great dinner and only lost $50 !

Today we were back to gray skies and weather advisories. I woke up early this morning to rain and I could see the coating of ice on the roads, so I thought I'd skip the grocery store since I wasn't really desperate for anything. However, about 11:30 I realized the temp was up to nearly 40 and there was no sign of snow coming anytime soon, so I ended up going to get gas and groceries. I'm glad I did because the weather was fine, the gas tank is full and my veggies are restocked ! I also bought a big container of cut up fruit. Sometimes I just want a little something sweet and a few pieces of fruit works great ! When I got home I spent probably 45 minutes cleaning up the driveway. The plow never gets to the bare pavement and since it was rainy it was a slushy mess. I didn't want that to end up freezing so I shoveled it all away. Nice to look out there now and see nothing but bare pavement ! I made the mistake of going to Wegmans hungry and boy was the pizza and prepared foods counter tempting ! I really wanted a piece of pizza but I stayed strong and left there with just the things on my list. By the time I came inside I was starving ! I made my shake and hopped on the treadmill. That was tough. I could easily have sat on the couch and watched tv for the rest of the day but that wasn't going to get me to my fitness goals. I could have tried to justify it by using the snow shoveling as an excuse, but if I want 2022 to be different I have to stop with the excuses. 

So breakfast today was 150 calorie pancakes with sugar free syrup and an 80 calorie yogurt. Morning snack was a 120 calorie chocolate shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt with a chef salad. Afternoon snack was 80 calorie cottage cheese and 90 calorie oatmeal cookies. Dinner was 250 cheesy chicken casserole over riced cauliflower. Evening snack was 140 calorie lemon zest cake. Total calories for the day are 1130 and I got 80 ounces of water in.

I managed to get 2 treadmill workouts in for a total of 59 minutes. I had a 3rd one scheduled but I opted to hold that for another day. It's only 15 minutes and I figure my driveway shoveling was enough extra cardio today ! My upper back is a little sore tonight so I guess I worked some different muscles ! I just looked outside and there is some light snow falling. The wind has also come up - fun times ahead ! We have a lake effect snow advisory until 1 am Tuesday and some parts of my area could see up to 2 feet of snow ! Yikes .. I hope that doesn't include me ! On that note I'm heading for a shower and bed.