My Nutrisystem Journey

"There will be obstacles. There will be  doubters. There will be mistakes. But  with hard work, with belief, with  confidence and trust in yourself and  those around you, there are no limits.”  ~Michael Phelps~ I faced plenty of obstacles when I first started with Nutrisystem. Hearing I might lose my job 3 days after I started could have led to a far different outcome. January of 2019 was no fun. Between the job news, issues with my heating system, issues with my water and being sick much of the month could have sent me right back to food for comfort. I don't know that I had any doubters to worry about. If I did, they didn't make themselves known to me and the goods news is they'd have had to eat their words ! Yes, I made mistakes along the way. For a time I wasn't eating enough and it slowed my weight loss. I also struggled to drink the recommended amount of water every day. I also took advantage of every possible excuse not to exercis...

“Nobody cares for your excuses. Nobody  pities you for procrastinating. Nobody is going to cuddle you because you are  lazy. It's your ass. You move it.” Now that's the motivational quote I needed for this lazy Sunday ! A side effect of working out late in the evening is not being able to sleep. I finally got to sleep sometime after 3 am and was wide awake before 9:30, so the motivation to do anything other than sit on the couch was in short supply this morning ! I did try to go back to sleep but failed, which is probably a good thing. The difference between the old me and the new me is the new me wasn't willing to let today be another wasted day. I procrastinated about my weight for so many years. I can't tell you how many times I told myself I'd start eating better 'next week'. I'd start using the treadmill 'tomorrow'. I'd start addressing my financial situation 'next month'. When next week, tomorrow or next...

"Allow yourself to be proud of yourself  and all the progress you've made.  Especially the progress that no one else  has seen." Today I was definitely proud of myself. Even though I was out most of the day I still came home and got on the treadmill and then used the Total Gym. It would have been pretty easy to just skip it but exercise has really become a part of my life and it was something I needed to do. That is huge progress for me, considering I used to avoid exercise. This quote fit me today because I was feeling pretty proud of my progress with my weight & fitness, and also thinking about progress I've made in other areas of my life. It may seem like I share everything here, but in reality I don't. I've pretty much spent the past 13 months piecing myself back together and it hasn't all been easy. My life really was a complete disaster for many years and it damaged me more than anyone will ever know. There was no Fairy God...

"Standing alone doesn't mean I am  alone. It means I'm strong enough to  handle things all by myself." Today was just another day for me but you can't really ignore the fact that it's Valentine's Day, because you see so many people posting about it on social media. Some days I wish I had someone special in my life to bring me flowers and chocolate, but then I worry I would end up making another poor choice. The one time I tried to let someone else take care of me it didn't work out so well. I also wonder if I'm a little too independent and set in my ways now. I kind of like doing my own thing and do I really want to take any focus off myself right now ? I'm going to continue to go with "things happen for a reason", and if it's meant to be it will happen when the time is right. In the meantime I'm going to continue working hard to reach my goal weight and get more fit. I've proven to myself that I am st...

"You will never always be motivated  and  You have to learn to be disciplined." When it comes to my own health and well-being I wouldn't say I ever had much motivation. Self-discipline was sorely lacking too. Back in 1996 I did make an effort to lose weight and had some success but I never got to a point where I was considered thin. I didn't really have a set goal and I wasn't following any particular diet. My exercise consisted of just walking on the treadmill for up to 90 minutes a night. I abandoned those efforts in 1997 and never really looked back. Today I've surpassed where I was back then and it's allowed me to put a lot of the baggage I was carrying to rest. I've discarded 95% of the clothing I had held onto all these years, hoping to fit back into, because it's too big ! That makes me happy and keeps me motivated ! It's also kind of fun to shop for clothes now ! Self-discipline has always been a challenge for me a...

"No matter what, once in your  life,  someone will hurt you. That  someone will take all that you are,  and rip it into pieces and they won't  even watch where the pieces land. But  through the breakdown, you'll learn  something about yourself. You'll learn  that you're strong. And no matter how  hard they destroy you, that you can  conquer anything." I changed the last word of this quote from "anyone" to "anything" because I'm not out to conquer anyone. I've definitely learned that I am strong and I'm proving to myself I can conquer anything as long as I try hard enough. When the going gets tough or I wonder why I'm bothering to even try, I think back to where I've come from, where I am now, and where I want to be. I came from a place of true darkness and I never want to go back there. There had been a repeating pattern in my life for years: every time things started going well the bot...

"Do it for every time you cried over  your  body. Do it for every time you  hated what you saw in the mirror. Do  it for the fit body and the double-takes.  Do it for yourself. Lose that weight."   Today was another very peaceful day but I'm always looking for things to keep me motivated. When I saw this quote the first thing that came to mind was the day of my younger sister's wedding - July 7, 2017. While getting dressed in my room at the venue I discovered that the stockings I had bought did not fit. I ended up going bare legged, which wouldn't have been so bad if my legs weren't so white and my calves so huge ! I truly wanted to cry, considering I had bought size 7x stockings that were supposed to fit up to 600 pounds. I had a hard time finding a dress I liked and pretty much "settled" for the one I wore. I couldn't buy a dress the day "the girls" went out shopping for dresses. I had to buy one online. Th...

"Believe in yourself. Push your limits.  Experience life. Conquer your goals.  Be happy."   Today was one of those rare days of nothing but peaceful thoughts. I finally do believe in myself. I'm definitely pushing my limits. I'm experiencing life for sure. Totally crushing my goals and absolutely happy. The past is the past and I'm living in the here and now, which is pretty sweet. I'm also getting better at accepting the reality of my body. I do still spend a lot of time scrutinizing myself in the mirror, simply because I still sometimes don't believe what I see. I've been overweight my entire adult life and although I am still considered overweight, I weigh less now than I can ever remember being. So it is still very new and very wondrous for me. It's not about vanity. It's more about continued motivation. When I look in the mirror I'm seeing the results of all the hard work I've put in over the past 13+ month...

"To establish true self-esteem we must  concentrate on our successes and forget  about the failures and the negatives in  our lives."  ~ Denis Waitley ~ As time goes by I find that I focus less and less on the failures in my life, so this quote struck a chord with me today. I've come to accept I can't undo anything that has already happened in my life. All I can do is learn from my mistakes and try my best not to repeat them. Since turning my focus to improving myself I've found that I can do all of the things that seemed impossible before. Every pound that I lost made the next pound seem easier. Every session on the treadmill made the next one seem easier. Success with both gave me the confidence to invest in the Total Gym and start working on strength. Liking what I was seeing in the mirror was key to improving my self-esteem. I've said before I could be happy at the weight I am today, and that hasn't changed. Regardless, I...

"Think big and don't listen to people  who tell you it can't be done. Life's too  short to think small."  ~ Tim Ferriss ~ Today I hit another milestone and I thought back to that medical professional who told me losing weight would be hard "at my age". I'm sure she was trying to be helpful but I don't think she realized how demoralizing her words were. Those words echoed in my head for years and every time I thought about trying to lose weight it was my excuse for not even trying. Why bother ? I'm too old and it won't work. That was me justifying not even trying. When I started Nutrisystem the goal was to lose 154 pounds, which would bring my weight into the range of a "normal" BMI. This meant shedding nearly half of my body weight and I think we can all agree it was a pretty ambitious goal. It was not easy to make the commitment but I had reached a point where I absolutely had to do something. Of course ...

"Self-acceptance comes from meeting  life's challenges vigorously. Don't  numb yourself to your trials and  difficulties, nor build mental walls to  exclude pain from your life. You will  find peace not by trying to escape your  problems, but by confronting them  courageously. You will find peace not  in denial but in victory."   This quote jumped out at me today because it describes exactly what I did when life got rough. I numbed myself with food and I built massive mental walls to help me cope. I also spent a lot of time trying to escape what was going wrong, instead of addressing the problems. None of that worked but as I've said on numerous occasions it's easy to look at this quote today, when life is better, and say oh yeah, you are absolutely right. Sure, maybe things would have changed if I didn't numb myself or build those walls ... but maybe it would also have made life more unbearable. We all...

"Decide that 'good enough' is not good  enough for you. Always aim to be the  best you can be."   I've said a couple of times that I could be happy at the weight I am now. Turns out that is not quite true. I'm happy with the progress I've made but it's not good enough. I set a goal and I will not be truly happy until I reach it, smash through it and exceed it ! Good enough is no longer enough. I fully intend to be the best I can be and that means doing what I said I was going to do. I've settled for "good enough" for most of my life, whether I realized it or not. I may have felt like I deserved more or better than I got, but I never really did anything about it. I guess I expected good fortune to just fall in my lap and although that happens to some people, it never happened to me. So I just accepted it. The fire started the changes in my life but I can't say it inspired me to lose weight. Maybe it just removed...