Day 2: Winter Wonderland

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 2 blog can be found here. Today is day 2 and I plan to be 100% compliant with the Nutrisystem program. Last night I had some pretzel rods when I went to bed, only because they were there ! They're almost gone but I'm going to bring the container downstairs so I'm not tempted again. I didn't eat them because I was hungry. I ate them because they were there ! Ironically, the first time around I had a 150 calorie yogurt at bedtime to chase away hunger on the first day. I guess history repeats itself sometimes ! Reading through my original day 2, I seemed to be doing pretty good. At the time, I was on vacation and hadn't yet been told the office was closing. Spoiler alert: I kept my job for another 5 years !

It's just about 10 am and light snow is continuing to fall. We got at least another foot overnight, so it's a mess out there. I will be going out to shovel in front of the garage soon, just to keep up with it. The forecast now says we could get another 8 inches today ! I can see the lake effect spewing right over the top of Mexico from the lake. The village guy that clears the sidewalks was stuck at the end of my driveway for a bit because his snow blower clogged up. He was out there with the shovel trying to unclog it with no gloves ! Even though he's in a heated cab he should have gloves etc. with him, just in case.

Breakfast today was 160 calorie waffles with sugar free syrup.

My plan for today is clearing some snow and getting a shower in. I may also throw a load of laundry in. Beyond that, it's YouTube and Cookie Jam. I'm watching a live stream of the kid (@chasingwconnor) chasing the snow in MO. As of 10:10 he appears to be in Faucett, MO and it's basically whiteout conditions with snow covered roads. He said the stream will likely be 12 hours (started at 8 am), so I guess I'll be watching this all day ! There is nearly 10k people watching the stream and he's thrilled !

I've been clearing the snow off the back step but the stray cats were nowhere to be seen. They may have come and eaten some dry food, but they're not sticking around to wait for the canned stuff. I'm checking every time I get up, just in case. They will be hungry when they do come back ! Hopefully they are someplace warm and dry to wait out this weather.

I went out about 10:30 to shovel the snow at the top of the driveway where the plow can't reach. It only took me 20 minutes to clear that and the side door. I will go back out later to clear off the front steps. I don't want to take any chances with my back OR my heart. After all, I'm 62 and very overweight so overexerting myself could be dangerous. We had a lot of graupel snow last night so that made what it is out there somewhat heavy. I feel fine but I'm not going to push it. We'll call this my exercise for the day ! Snow is continuing to come down pretty heavily, so we will likely have a few more inches to deal with. Right now I'm enjoying a 3rd cup of coffee and my 80 calorie yogurt, while watching the live stream of the MO blizzard. Kid got into some scary whiteout conditions and had to turn around. I'm glad he did, as there is no reason to endanger yourself and others who might have to come out and rescue you.

It's 11:15 now and the snow is coming down pretty heavily. It's not supposed to stop until around 5 or 6 pm, so we'll probably have close to another foot on the ground. No signs of graupel today so it's the light fluffy stuff. With all the snow on my roof there are going to be some spectacular crashes when it starts sliding off !

In spite of the sudden change in diet I feel fine. I wasn't really "hungry" at all yesterday, but the fat calories in the potato skins I had for lunch may have had something to do with that. We'll see how today plays out ! 

The live streamer I'm watching likes to stop and help people get their cars unstuck, which is pretty dangerous. He seems to be pretty safety conscious but you never know ! Crazy to see so many people out in heavy snow with front wheel drive vehicles that have NO business being out in it. I guess people have to go places but they end up becoming a danger to themselves and others. I'll never get a front wheel drive vehicle again. I got stuck in my own driveway several times because of the snow. Never again ! My Charger isn't the best in the snow but at least it's all wheel drive. I may get an SUV for my next car, but I'm not planning on buying one anytime soon.

About 11:53 I went out to clear off the front steps and the sidewalk in front of the house. I was done with that by 12:02, so it didn't even take 10 minutes ! Snow is still coming down pretty heavily but it's easier to keep up with if you shovel frequently. Now I'm back watching the livestream of the nonsense in MO. There are so many people out in front wheel drive minivans with shitty tires that can't handle the snow. In their defense, they're not used to this kind of snow in that area. This is like a storm of the century all across the country.

It's 7:34 pm now and I'm winding down my day. I've spent the day watching the storm chaser livestream and playing Cookie Jam. For lunch today I had a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was a 110 calorie can of peaches and 100 calories of crackers. About 5:30 I was thinking about dinner and realized I had waited too long. I was super hungry and wasn't sure I could wait for dinner to be ready. I just barely made it ! I know the feeling when my blood sugar is low and getting ready to crash. I cooked a bag of broccoli but never ate it. I had a 260 calorie roasted turkey with mashed potatoes and a packet of stuffing I had frozen. That's a little extra and I only have one left :(  I also had some shrimp that I had gotten out earlier to thaw. There were 9 pieces and according to the bag they are 10 calories each, so that is 90 calories. I realized I had forgotten to have a morning snack (the protein shake) so the shrimp took the place of that. For some reason I bought "zesty" cocktail sauce and it is painfully zesty ! I will not make this mistake again ! I haven't had my evening snack yet, but I'll be having a 140 calorie lemon zest cake with whipped cream. I'm enjoying a cup of caffeine free tea at the moment. The electric kettle I got for Christmas works amazing and I'm so happy I picked that out ! It boils in minutes and shuts itself off as soon as the water boils ! That's a great safety feature. I had a cup of vanilla caramel chai tea earlier and the cup I'm having now is chamomile. I had 4 or 5 cups of coffee today and decided to switch to tea late this afternoon. I really enjoy tea and I've never used sugar or cream in it, so it's a great alternative to coffee. Coffee has actually gotten very expensive since I use k-cups, so I'm going to limit myself to 1 or 2 cups of coffee per day and then switch to tea. There are many varieties of tea available but I'll have to do some price comparisons to see if tea is actually cheaper. Switching to more tea would also allow me to easily eliminate the sugar free syrups which are full of chemicals. I already said I was not going to buy anymore of the syrups once they are gone. If I'm going to remain "retired" I need to be more careful with my spending. I really want to eliminate things like paper plates, paper bowls and plastic forks and spoons. These things are getting more expensive and I use a lot of them each day. I'm also glad I eliminated supplements from my daily routine as I've seen several articles lately that indicate there are little controls over these things so you can't really be sure of what's actually in them. A lot of this stuff is manufactured in foreign countries with zero quality control or oversight to ensure safety. The article I linked here even pretty much says there is no point in taking Vitamin D, which I had started taking. I'm glad I already dumped all that stuff. I did keep the bottle of B12 and may start that again soon. I also have a calcium supplement that includes a bit of vitamin D. I've used these for years so I'm fine with that. However, I'm adding nothing else.

Doug came around 1 to plow my driveway and it took him almost a half hour to move all that snow. I haven't gone out to see if I need to widen the sides. I will do that tomorrow. I shoveled enough today and I don't really need to go anywhere ! The good news is the snow has finally stopped ! However, there is a chance of snow every day this week. No real accumulations, so that is typical winter. I don't think we've had snow like this in years ! I was starting to have flashbacks to February 2007 when we had 10 feet in 8 days. I'm glad it's finally over. I realized today that I haven't been out of the house all year .. lol !

Today was a good Nutrisystem day. Not 100% perfect but not bad either. I am trying and that is all that matters. It's after 8 pm now and I'm ready for bed ! The livestream that started at 8 am is wrapping up in a few minutes. He's waiting on a buddy to arrive to help some guy whose car is stuck in a gas station parking lot. Once they get him sorted out he's going to end the livestream. It's been an entertaining day ! I'm going to get my evening snack as soon as the stream ends and then go to bed to watch tv. Onward to day 3 !!