My Nutrisystem Journey

"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 ...

  “Hit the reset button. Whatever happened yesterday, forget about it . Get a new perspective. Today is a new day. Fresh start, begins now.” There's a lot of truth in today's quote. Too often in life I let my mistakes drag me down. They followed me for weeks, months, even years. It wasn't easy to let go of all the negativity and honestly, I haven't let it all go yet. I don't know that I ever will. Some things are just burned into your soul and no matter what you do, you just can't shake them. Forget about it ? Well, maybe you can temporarily but too often something will trigger one of those memories. As time has gone on they're less likely to stop my forward progress, so that's a good thing. I remind myself that I can't change the past but I'm in charge of the present and the future and that is where my energy and focus goes. If that means hitting the reset button 100 times a day, so be it. There is no limit. Reset and keep going. That's what...

  Things always seem a lot more difficult than they actually are.  Thankfully, we can always  change  our mind .  When I went out the door today I wasn't sure I'd be happy with myself when I came home. The day started off great. I slept in and woke refreshed. I did all the usual things to get ready for a day out with mom .. breakfast, shower, feed the cats etc. Then it came time to get dressed. Well, the jeans have been pretty tight lately and I was hoping and praying I'd be able to breathe in them today. My prayers were answered and they went on pretty easily ! I did take a photo and I'm a little "hippier" than I had been, so it's clear that any weight I gain goes directly to my hips and thighs ! In spite of that I feel like I started the new year off on a good note and my goal is to keep the positive vibes flowing all year long ! I tend to agree with today's quotes as I've often found that things are not as difficult as I imagine. Sometimes you j...

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...

  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...

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 ...

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. ...

  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...

  It's day 118 AG (after goal) and day 1050 of Nutrisystem. It's been a long time ! Life has changed just as the seasons change and I've turned introspective. I've felt pretty adrift over the past couple of months. I took my focus off Nutrisystem and exercise to devote my every waking moment to work. I don't regret that - it was a good decision for me. For many years change would result in nothing but fear in my mind. I always doubted my ability to learn and adapt. It didn't matter that I rose to every challenge - the next one still brought the same level of fear. This new challenge was no different. In the beginning I seriously doubted my ability to learn new and complex processes. You would think after nearly 37 years I could roll up to a new challenge with an "I got this" state of mind ! Nope. Still don't have that level of confidence in myself or my abilities. I might SAY "I got this" but it's nothing but false bravado. The good n...

It's day 62 AG (after goal) and day 994 of Nutrisystem. Life has changed and I've come to the realization that it's never going to go back to "normal". I've been incredibly busy with work and I gave up trying to write this blog every day. I'm still working long hours but the good news is I'm catching on to the new work and it gets a little easier each day. I still feel like I have a long way to go but I'm making forward progress and that is all that matters. On a personal level things are happening around me but my life remains the same. I work until 9 most nights but tonight I was wiped out by 8 pm and gave up, so I decided to check in here. Weekends are spent with my mom. Last Saturday we did our usual Turning Stone Casino run and Sunday we both wanted to be out of the house so we did some grocery shopping, visited Cracker Barrel again and hit up Point Place Casino too ! All in all it was a fun weekend and a break that I really needed ! I've ...

                                                                                          🖤  Get well soon Tommy ! #teamrivs #RageOn 🖤 “Monday is a state of mind. Put on your positive pants and get stuff done ! "   It's day 52 AG (after goal) and day 984 of Nutrisystem. Wow .. I am creeping ever closer to 1000 days on Nutrisystem ! I've never stuck with anything for this long. I love today's quote because it's how I started my day and this week. That mountain of work I was facing before vacation was still there and it grew while I was gone. I had a choice - dive in and just do what I could or let myself be paralyzed by everything I couldn't do. I opted to dive in and get done what I could get done. I'm one per...