Day 20: A Brief Respite

 

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 20 blog can be found here. I was back to work and yet again projecting "everything is ok". It really wasn't, so yet again I will say I'm grateful I had another 5 years to get my life together !

I was awake just after 9 today. It was nice not to wake up feeling the house was too cold and worrying about the heat working. For a change, the temp increased overnight instead of falling like a rock ! It was 64 upstairs and 68 downstairs when I got up. I didn't check the thermostat in the laundry room but I'm sure it was below 68. I didn't have to avoid using the kitchen water first thing but I've left the cabinets open to keep that area warm. The low's are going to continue in the teens or low 20's for the next week. Next Thursday is showing a low of 9 but that can change.

Breakfast was a 180 calorie cinnamon roll. I got a yogurt out but never ate it. I didn't have a morning or afternoon snack. Lunch was a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. Dinner was 1/2 of the chicken rice casserole mentioned below. I'll go with 500 calories for that. (Update: I ate the entire thing .. all 980 calories)

I didn't write much yesterday, but I had such a great day. Kim & Joe don't leave for Florida until 2-6, so we went to bingo last night. I managed to overcome my anxiety about getting the car out of the garage but I ended up going out there early to do it. I'm glad I did as the front right tire was low on air. That seems to be a recurring problem ! I grabbed my compressor and extension cord and took care of that while the car was warming up. I got the car out pretty easily and just it in the driveway until it was time to go. Rich & Barb didn't come as Rich had an accident with his work truck. It was completely not his fault (thank God for dashcam video!) - some bozo merging on 81 sideswiped him by trying to cross 2 lanes while merging. Fortunately, Rich was not hurt. We didn't win at bingo but I thoroughly enjoyed my pizza and beer AND being out of the house talking to actual people ! After bingo we played the slots a little and I won $40. That paid for my dinner and still left me with $15.

Today was a relaxing day until late this afternoon when yet another lake effect snow warning was issued from 9 pm tonight until 7 pm Saturday. It says we could get 8-12 inches but it doesn't look like they know where yet. With any luck it'll stay north of me ! I spent the morning playing slot games. One game that had sucked away all my coins suddenly decided to let win a little, so I played for hours. It was around 4 pm when I ran out of coins and I decided to go to Walmart. The milk I had would not last through Saturday and I was low on dry cat food for the strays. Speaking of which, the light gray mama cat was waiting for canned food this morning. I suspect she is pregnant again, which is sad as I never see her kittens and I don't know where she shelters. I do what I can by providing food and shelter. Anyhow, I had a harder time getting the car out of the garage today. I just overthink it and I'm paranoid about getting stuck. I just have to keep doing it and I'll get better at it ! My tire pressures are still reading low because of the cold, so I may go out tomorrow and top off all 4 tires. The long extension cord I bought makes it easy to go around the car and do all 4 tires. I need to clean my lights off too. I'm sure they are caked with road spray as I haven't cleaned them all winter.

In sad news, Laurie sent me a text today to let me know she received a surplus notification. She will be off payroll as of February 6. I'm not surprised as she has said this would happen because she refused to move to Dallas. Like me, she has no college degree and I know she is very worried about being able to find a job that pays as well. She's in her 50's so she is nowhere near retirement age. Her husband is supposed to have heart surgery next week, and I hope she doesn't end with a ton of out of pocket costs other than her deductible. I guess it's a good thing to get the deductible out of the way now as that means the insurance has to pay most costs for the remainder of the year. With the office closing in March I guess there is no reason to keep her around. She's lucky to have had the extra 8 months of salary and she should get her full bonus in March. Hopefully that will help her out. I have no idea what her financial situation looks like, so it's hard to know if she'll be ok. Her husband is retirement age but I don't know if he signed up for Medicare, since Laurie has been covering him on her insurance. She'll keep her insurance at the same cost for the next 6 months, just like the rest of us, so hopefully that will help. I told her I'd love to chat sometime and she said she'd reach out when the dust settles. I take that to be post surgery and post end of job. She'll have her 6 months severance and I'm sure Missouri has unemployment, so hopefully she can find a good job when she is ready !

So I left for Walmart around 4:20 and was back home around 5:35. Roads were 100% snow free, traffic wasn't bad and it wasn't completely dark yet when I got home. I did buy some things I shouldn't have, but I did manage to keep myself from buying the stuff to make pizza. I had the crusts in my hands but I put them back. I bought pretzels, which isn't the worst thing. I also bought 2 frozen Marie Callendar meals. One is the scalloped potatoes & ham that I bought before and the other is chicken, broccoli & rice casserole. Oddly enough, both entrees have the same calorie count. That will be 4 meals for me and the casserole is in the oven as I write this. It's 6:39 pm. I also bought a 6 pack of pastries. 3 are cherry and 3 are cheese. I looked for cherry pie and they still had none. I also looked at the cheese danish strip. The 6 pack of pastries was a compromise to cover both cravings ! I also bought the usual dry cat food, litter, milk, whipped cream, diet coke, salsa and low fat sour cream. I also bought a bottle of vanilla, in case I want to make tapioca pudding again. Honestly, this eased any and all anxiety I have about the possibly of snow over the next 2 days. I meant to buy a couple cans of bbq beans but I forgot to go back to that aisle. I also bought a box of Eggo waffles. I can sub those in for breakfast and have them as a snack with peanut butter.

Once I got home & put everything away I threw the frozen dinner in the oven and sat down to catch up on my blog. I've been watching YouTube video's all day and just really relaxing. I feel at peace now that my unemployment is approved and my finances for 2025 and (hopefully) 2026 are set. My COBRA medical will end as of 5-31-26 so I'll have to jump onto the ACA exchange and that may cost more. That will likely be when I look into starting to collect my pension and possibly social security. Right now I plan to enjoy 2025 and I'll check in with my financial advisor once the snow is gone !

I'm still not 100% compliant with Nutrisystem and I haven't been on the treadmill yet. Winter is really getting to me right now, so I'm trying to be gentle with myself. However, that will end when Spring is here ! That will 100% be the end of any and all excuses and 100% the start of eating right and exercising. Spring will officially arrive on 03-20-25 and I hope it gets here super fast !

I'm really happy to have gotten through these past few nights of very cold temps with no water issues. I think the snow piled against the house and the insulation I added have helped tremendously. I also think keeping the cabinet open helps as well. Not using the water when temps are low is also key, as that prevents it from flash freezing. I remember one time last winter my cold water wasn't frozen when I got up on a very cold morning, but it froze after I used it. So I think I've finally figured out how best to handle my situation. I would still like to get a closer look at the plumbing in the basement and decide if I can crawl in there and do anything about the draft. My other option is to do something outside, as it appears the draft is coming from where the walls meet the foundation. I've thought about adding a planting bed with dirt that goes up to the bottom of the siding. I like the landscaping idea, but it would have to be something that can withstand the snow dumping off the roof in the winter. Lots to think about as winter drags on !

Yesterday and today were good days ! I was glad to get out and enjoy the company of Kim & Joe and I was glad to get out to the store today. From a health perspective, my digestive issues seem to be a thing of the past. I do wear my bra all day as my boobs sagging onto my stomach is uncomfortable ! Losing weight will help with this issue. They are SO heavy ! At one point I was convinced I had cancer, but at this point I think I've just gotten so fat that I'm uncomfortable. We'll see how I feel as the weight starts to come off and I begin exercising again. Speaking of which, I really want to figure out a comfortable way to use the exercise bike. I just can't find a comfortable position with the seat. We'll see if losing some weight helps with that. Then there is the Total Gym. I plan to get that out once the warm weather returns and I reset the living room furniture.