Day 3: Chilly Monday

 

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 3 blog can be found here. 

Yesterday was a good day and I managed to avoid the temptation to eat anything extra. The only time I was hungry was at dinnertime, and that's only because I waited too long to eat and didn't have my protein shake earlier in the day. I won't make that mistake today ! I was awake around 7:45 today and I had to get up to pee even though I really wanted to sleep a little longer. I'm glad I did because Doug came by to clean the end of the driveway and that would have woke me up anyways. He was back at about 9:20 to clear more. There goes another $20 ! It was 10 degrees when I got and my water was fine. I left the cabinets under the sink open all night and that may help. The thick blanket of snow up against the house likely blocks drafts too. Regardless, water is good and the house is warm ! That is all that matters ! There were no stray cats this morning but there were little footprints to indicate they at least came to get some dry food. I will check throughout the day to see if anyone shows up. The high temp for today is only 18, so they may stay hunkered down. We'll see !

Today is the big day for President-Elect Trump. The election will be certified today and will, hopefully, be a relatively quiet event. In only 2 weeks Biden will be kicked to the curb and Trump can start righting this Titanic of a country ! I really hope he can turn things around fast. It's rather ironic that my first Nutrisystem journey started during his first presidency ! Perhaps that is a good omen for success ! Today was also the last day of my vacation back in 2019. I had been off for 2 weeks and was looking forward to getting back to work. Little did I know what was to come ! I'm sure Trump has a long list of "executive orders" he'll be signing on Day 1 ! I'm hoping Biden doesn't kick the bucket while Trump is President, so that Trump doesn't have to do anything to honor that POS. I'm glad his wife and drug addict son are now stuck being the caretaker of that loser.

My goals for today are simple. I really need to shower as it's been days. It's just pure laziness on my part. As tempting as it is, I'm determined not to weigh myself every day. I will take a weight on the morning of day 8 and hope for the best ! Would I like to see a more than 2 pound loss ? Of course ! Will I be disappointed if I don't ? Of course ! Will I give up ? Of course NOT ! I'm not pushing myself exercise just yet. So far I feel perfectly fine but I know from experience that if I do too much too soon I will fail ! I have to take it slow and easy. I was absolutely starving this morning and honestly, it's been a while since I woke up really hungry. I take this as a good sign ! 

Breakfast was a 180 calorie cinnamon roll and an 80 calorie yogurt, which I had around 10:30. Morning snack was a 155 calorie chocolate shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt and the broccoli that I had cooked last night. I added a little bit of butter for flavor but the calories in that are negligible. I'm just trying to use up the tub of butter. Afternoon snack was a 120 calorie can of mandarin oranges and 100 calories of crackers. Dinner was a 240 calorie enchilada with salsa and low fat sour cream. Evening snack was a 140 calorie chocolate cupcake with whipped cream.

Today looks to be another day of watching YouTube and playing Cookie Jam. I went online and certified my unemployment benefits for the current week. This is something I will have to do every Monday until the benefits run out in 26 weeks. I won't see any money for a while as they say it takes 3-6 weeks. I think that is ridiculous because a lot of people live paycheck to paycheck and without timely payment they would really be hurting. I am fortunate to not be in that position ! I will have to start applying for jobs again in order to be in compliance with their rules. No big deal, as I'm sure no one will even give me a chance. I'm ok with that.

I checked in on my bank account this morning to make sure all was well. I also scheduled my credit card & utility bill payments the other day. I was washing my hands just before 10:30 and I saw the lady next door out there shoveling a bit and her little ones were out too. I had thought schools might be closed as I never heard the bus but turns out they were delayed 2 hours because of the cold. What's ironic is it was 10 degrees at 8 am and it's only 11 now ... so the kids are still out there waiting in freezing temps ! Fortunately, the bus seems to stop at each house so the littles don't need to be outside for long. It came just after 10:30 so school must "start" at 11 for the elementary kids.

Since it's so cold outside I'm not even going to attempt to go outside and shovel any snow. The driveway looks really good, thanks to Doug ! It's 10:42 and I'm going to go take a shower and then get dressed. 

It's 12:30 now and I've showered and done skincare, including lotion on my super dry hands ! I feel so much better being clean, moisturized and dressed ! Although I said above I wasn't going to weight myself ... I did just before my shower. The scale upstairs read 284 .. while the scale downstairs read 281. Weird. Thing is, I took my "starting weight" from the downstairs scale. So, did I lose 3 pounds or 6 over the past couple days ? It's impossible to know, so I'll just keep track of what the scale reads. All that really matters is the numbers decreasing !

In shocking news, the Prime Minister of Canada announced he is resigning ! More historic news on this day. This didn't come as a surprise as he's been under fire for a while over the state of the Canadian economy. His party was facing election in October and was predicted to lose badly. Hmm, that sounds familiar ! We'll see if a new leader can get that country back on track too. Hopefully they elect someone who can work hand in hand with Trump to make both of our countries stronger.

I'm having my shake now (at 12:30), in hopes I can have lunch a bit later and fend off hunger when dinner time rolls around. Since I never ate the broccoli I cooked last night, I'm going to have that with my lunch. I can have green beans with my dinner. The later I can have dinner and my evening snack, the less likely I'll be hungry at bedtime. I'm feeling really good about the first couple days of this new journey. I feel like I'm in the right frame of mind to be successful, though I still have a lot of things to work on. Winter is never the best time for me. I hate the cold and the constant worry about pipes freezing and driving in it. The higher utility bills don't help either ! We'll be on the down side of this in 60 days or so. I will just keep telling myself that ! We've already made it through December and we're gaining a little bit of daylight each day. Since I no longer work the fact that it's dark in the morning and dark early in the evening doesn't really matter unless I'm going out.

Today is Little Christmas, or the Feast of the Epiphany, for Catholics around the world. I don't actually "observe" religious traditions, though I was raised Catholic. I only mention it because for me, it's the last day my tree and other Christmas lights will be lit. Tomorrow I will take them down and rearrange my living room. The couch will be moved so that the full radiator is exposed. I do this in preparation for the colder temps that February often brings, but I like the change of placement. The room gets boring if you don't change it up a little. It's also motivation to fire up the vacuum cleaner ! 

I've been peeing a lot today and was thinking maybe tea is more of a diuretic than coffee, but Google says it's not. I'm probably peeing more just because I'm drinking more ! I've had 2 cups of coffee and a cup of tea. I just finished my shake and now I'm having a 2nd cup of tea. Drinking enough water is a challenge when it's cold, which is really why I decided to start drinking tea. I really love the electric kettle as it boils fast and shuts off automatically. For once I made a really great choice !

The batteries I bought for my garage door openers should be delivered today and I'm looking forward to that. I'm hoping my opener will work on the first try now ! A box of cat food is included in this shipment and the supports for the couch are supposed to be delivered tomorrow. That's perfect since I'll be moving the couch tomorrow and will be pulling it all apart to clean. I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon watching YouTube and playing Cookie Jam. If I feel like it later I may consider the treadmill. We'll see ! I also plan to work on a grocery list. I mentioned buying cabbage and I'd actually like to throw together a quick soup using the chicken broth I bought at Thanksgiving !

Well, it's 3:34 and I've had lunch. Minnie demanded a short snooze in my lap after lunch but she's abandoned me now to perch on the chair by herself. She's funny. Sometimes she will meow at me to let me know she wants to snooze in my lap. Other times she will basically meow at me to get off the couch, so she can snooze alone in my spot. Other times, she hangs out on the chair by herself. I'm just glad she's become more of a lap cat. She doesn't come hang out on my bed anymore when I go to bed. We'll see if that changes when it gets warmer ! She might just not like the 62-65 degree winter temps upstairs. I sure do miss my Abby. She's been gone for 10 months now. I don't miss the stress of caring for her but I certainly would have continued if it would have kept her with me. You couldn't ask for a sweeter more gentle cat. I miss her little trills and those beautiful green eyes. If there is an afterlife for animals (or anyone), she is probably curled up with Lucky now. Princess and Sparkles might be together and Pooh and Tigger would be together. Minnie was always the lone wolf of the group, perhaps because she was the baby and she grew up while I was fighting leukemia. I don't know if I'll have another cat once Minnie is gone. I've tried taming the strays but they are not interested. I've seen kittens at times but they never come close enough to be tamed. Sadly, most of them don't seem to survive. It's possible someone takes them in, it's hard to say. I suspect there are others feeding the strays so it's possible someone is trapping kittens and finding them home. I'd like to think that is happening !

Well, it's 6:45 and I've had my afternoon snack and dinner. My Amazon order came and changing the battery in the garage door opener did the trick. The garage door actually opened by me pushing the button (accidentally) while sitting on the couch ! Tomorrow I'll swap out the remote in the car and change that battery too. I can't complain. I think the opener has been in place for at least 15 years and the battery held up all these years ! Hard to believe that this year it will be 20 years since I moved in !

Good lord, I have been chatty today ! It's been a while since I've felt like blogging, so this is a good sign ! I am very optimistic that I can do this ! I think getting through the first week is the hardest but it'll be a while before I feel settled into this routine. Adding exercise is going to be a challenge, as is remaining consistent. It helps that on my last shopping trip I couldn't get a cherry pie and didn't circle back to pick up a cheese danish, lol ! I had to settle for that coconut cake, which was really good but once again it was not what I wanted. I wanted cherry pie ! Oh well. I guess someone was looking out for me and my waistline.

Late this afternoon I pulled out a box of assorted teas that Alyssa gave me for Christmas last year (or maybe 2 years ago). Even though they were all sealed, the first one I tried had zero flavor. There wasn't even much aroma when you sniffed the bag. I tried adding a second bag and that did nothing. I ended up only drinking half of the cup and tossing the rest. I also threw all of the teabags away. It's unfortunate, as there was 96 of them in the box and it had some interesting flavors. I didn't like the fact that it was packed in Sri Lanka either. Who knows what their quality control is like when it comes to food ! I'll stick with better known tea brands like Tazo, Twinings and Celestial.

I just realized I haven't taken those "before" photos. Since I am dressed, I will take them before I get undressed for bed. I will post those in tomorrow's blog, so that I can refer back to them periodically. I might post an updated pic on the 7th of each month. It might be a good way to keep the goal in mind ! It's hard to believe this is only day 3. I've never been 100% out of the Nutrisystem zone and perhaps I wasn't as far off the tracks as I thought. It's really a matter of eliminating the "extras" like pizza, pie, pastries, cookies, candy etc. AND getting back into an exercise program. I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed the pizza I made myself and I absolutely loved the dozen of doughnuts I bought on New Year's ! I can't say I've enjoyed any of the fast food I had in 2024 (McDonald's and DQ). I didn't enjoy the meal from CopperTop just before Christmas. I didn't enjoy the chicken tenders I recently bought. Another thing I absolutely loved was the tapioca I made. That was so delicious ! I didn't enjoy any of the pre-made meals from Wegman's (General Tso). I didn't enjoy the chinese food I got one day from our local place. There's a pattern here. Baked goods seem to be just as good as always. Fast food has tanked. Food I make myself is amazing. The lesson is if I'm craving a burger and fries I need to buy the stuff and make my own. I could also try my hand at some basic chinese dishes. There are plenty of recipes and video's online. Alyssa does a lot of meal prep and I always said I was going to do that. It would be a way for me to get out from under buying the Nutrisystem food. I may do a bit of that and eat my own meals a couple days a week. I've already discovered I can sub Eggo waffles for Nutrisystem waffles. The only area I'm not sure of is evening snack. I really like the Nutrisystem desserts and I haven't found anything comparable yet. I still want to make my own enchiladas and if I use the small tortilla's they would be a good sub for lunch. For now I'm going to stick with Nutrisystem through 2025 and then see what I want to do. My problem when I cook for myself is portion control, but if I froze individual portions I should be able to manage that better.

Despite the cold weather I've enjoyed my day. I showered. I got dressed. I fixed the garage door opener. I relaxed and played Cookie Jam. I watched YouTube. I saw evidence of the stray cats coming for dry food but no one was ever out there when I looked. Tomorrow is supposed to be a bit warmer so I'm hoping they will show up. Poor things must be hungry ! I don't think it ever made it past 12 degrees today but the temp is supposed to rise overnight instead of fall, which is odd. I may take a trip to the grocery store tomorrow and maybe get my oil changed. I'm going to be out of fruit and veggies in a day or two, so I really need to go.

It's just about 8:30 so I'm going to have my evening snack and then head up to bed shortly.