Day 1: A Mountain To Climb

 

Here we go ! It's a new year. Time to get back on track with diet and exercise. The goal is 100 pounds by 12-31-25. Can I do it ? Well, I won't know unless I try. My original Day 1 blog can be found here. Today is day 1 with a tiny caveat: I ate the rest of the potato skins for lunch today. I'm counting them as my morning snack, lunch and afternoon snack. There will be no further deviations from the plan other than bingo night.

It's 1:04 pm and Doug is plowing my driveway. He has his work cut out for him as the bottom half of the snow pile is the wet heavy stuff that sticks to the plow blade. I'm so grateful to have him back, as I wasn't happy with the other guy. He was reliable but he drove on the lawn and just tore it up.

Breakfast today was 180 calorie Nutrisystem waffles with sugar free syrup. I had an 80 calorie yogurt a couple of hours later. I never thought about having a protein shake, so I went ahead with the potato skins. As I mentioned above, this stands in for morning snack, lunch and afternoon snack. Next meal will be dinner !

It's cold out there today ! It's 25 right now and the low for tonight is 25, so I guess we're there ! Snow is supposed to start up again soon and we could see another 1-2 feet. We also still have a high wind warning until 4 am. I woke up early this morning and thought my bedroom feeling colder than it should be. I wanted to get up and check the register to ensure the heat was on, but the thought of getting out from under the warm covers was too much. I went back to sleep and when I woke later I could tell the room was warmer. When I woke earlier the temp had probably dropped and the heat hadn't caught up yet. All is well today, though the laundry room isn't able to reach 68. This is nothing new and there's nothing I can do about it, other than ripping the walls out and insulating.

I spent the morning watching YouTube and playing Cookie Jam. There are no current challenges so I'm just enjoying the play in a stress free environment ! Minnie snoozed on my lap all morning but when I got up to get my lunch she took over my spot, which is fine. I had my lunch and started this blog. 

I weighed myself this morning and I'm at 287. I have 122 pounds to lose and I'm so mad at myself. Deep down inside I'm ok with the recent weight gain as I feel it's an indication that I don't have some serious medical issue going on in my gut. Truthfully, once I started wearing a bra all day things seemed to feel even better. I think a combination of my poor posture and the weight of my boobs was causing a lot of my abdominal issues. The fat I've gained is competing for space with my abdominal organs and being slouched on the couch with 20 pounds of boobs pressing on it was just too much. I started my original Nutrisystem journey at 299 after losing 5 pounds between the time I decided to start and my start date of 01-04-19. A lot has changed during these 6 years ! I added the ticker back to the bottom of my posts, in hopes it will help keep me moving in the right direction !

I am so angry at myself for gaining all this weight back. I have to work out a way to channel this anger into action, instead of despair. If I'm not able to lose at least 2 pounds a week I know I'm going to feel discouraged. I have to do the same with that: take action instead of falling into despair.

It's 2 pm now and the snow has started falling again. It's the light fluffy stuff that is easy to shovel, but it's coming down heavy. This is going to pile up fast ! I'm just glad the weather was kind enough to let us get through the holidays ! Monday I plan to go to the grocery store and get some fresh veggies. I'm going to try some different roasted veggie combos, like carrots with onions and peppers. My plan is to boil the carrots for a bit and then roast with the peppers and onions. The goal is to have firm peppers and onions instead of a mushy mess because of the long roasting time a raw carrot needs. I'm also going to get some red cabbage to add to salads, along with green cabbage to boil, saute or roast and eat as a side. The green cabbage comes in gigantic heavy dense heads and is typically cheap. I'm not sure about the cost of red cabbage. Basically my goal is to change up my veggie selections and eat more of them ! I'm a little tired of green beans and broccoli. Since I don't work, I have the time to plan meals better and try some new things.

It's almost 2:30 and I think I'm going to soak my feet. It is long overdue and my feet need to be in shape when I step back onto the treadmill. Plus, the corn on my big toe is a little painful because it's getting so big. I haven't showered in a couple days so I'm going to do that a little later. I can't wait until bedtime as I'll get lazy and not do it !

Ok, feet have been soaked and the corn is gone for now. It will grow back but I'm going to try and soak my feet every 2 weeks. If I can manage once a week, that would be better. My weight makes it so much harder to bend and reach my feet to scrape them, but I did the best I could. I have a loofah scrubber with handles that I am doing to try in the shower. It I can give my feet a little scrub in the shower each day that will help a lot ! It was 4 pm once I was done and I was hungry. Since it's too early for dinner, I had a can of mandarin oranges (about 120 calories) and 10 crackers. They crackers are 100 calories for 10 and when you only eat 10 a day the bag lasts forever !

Now that the holidays are over it feels like time has slowed down. I was so stressed but the ONLY reason for that was the fact that I procrastinated on everything. Perhaps next year I'll have lost a significant amount of weight and be better able to get things done early or on time. Since I only have to shop for Kim's family, there is no reason I can't ask for lists in early November. There is also no reason I can't send out Christmas cards. I had them out this year and never did them. Pure laziness ! There is also no reason I can't get my house clean and decorated long before the annual pasta dinner. If I keep the house clean, there won't be 1000 things to do ! So even though time has slowed down, I need to get to work. Lose the weight. Get some exercise. Clean up after myself. Don't wait until the last second for everything. It's not rocket science !

Snow is continuing to fall and alternates from light to heavy. Right now it's snowing hard and the wind is blowing, so I can imagine the roads are horrible right now. It sounds like ice hitting the windows, so it might be more graupel coming down. All I know is I'm glad I am warm and cozy at home and don't need to go anywhere ! I'm sure Doug plowed today because he saw the forecast and didn't want another foot or two on top of what was already out there. When I look at the radar you can see the band of lake effect streaming off Lake Ontario. The weather app on my phone shows nothing but snow until 9 am tomorrow. Yikes !

I'm more than 2/3 through my first day back on Nutrisystem and I'm doing fine. Tomorrow will be a little different as there will no treats like potato skins, but I think I'll be fine. I do enjoy all of the Nutrisystem foods I eat.

Dinner was a 250 calorie enchilada with a little low fat sour cream and a bag of green beans. First real veggies I've had in weeks ! Evening snack was a 140 calorie chocolate cupcake with whipped cream. I'm not adding up calories right now. I'm just focusing on eating what I should. 

So it's 9 pm and the kitchen is closed ! It's about 27 degrees outside and snow is continuing to fall. Tomorrow's low is 11, so I'll have to make sure I leave the kitchen cabinets open in hopes that the cold water doesn't freeze. Maybe the snow piled against the house will prevent drafts ? We'll see !

I've been watching a live stream on YouTube with the kid who was here live streaming yesterday. He's in St Joseph, MO because a big winter storm is expected in that area tomorrow. I'll tune in to that live stream too, which starts at 8 am. It's nice to enjoy the snow and ice from the couch .. lol ! Tonight's stream is going to end soon and I'll probably go to bed once it does. The storm he's chasing will not effect me as it's well south of most of NY. However, I think the storm track is what is drawing in the cold temps from Canada. I'd rather have more snow and less cold, but we don't get a choice ! We're not going to see 30 degrees over the next 2 weeks, so the snow we have isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I guess winter might be here to stay !

I'm going to finish this blog here. It's 9:30 and the rest of the evening will be tv and then sleep. I feel like this was a good start to this journey. I have a plan and now I just need to execute it. One thing I did not do today was today a "before" picture, so I will do that tomorrow. I'm going to shower after breakfast and then get dressed, so I'll do it then. I might even try the treadmill tomorrow. We shall see !