Day 7: Lazy Friday

 

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 7 blog can be found here. I was feeling down on this day in 2019 because of my office closing and the loss of Tigger. I took another vacation day and stayed home. The irony is today I am facing what I feared back then. The good news is I'm in great financial shape and ready to embrace life as a "retiree" !

Today is the day to get the tree down and reign in my eating. I don't have a lot of "bad" things in the house, but I just had some pretzels with my lunch. Not the end of the world and it was my own fault. I waited too long (again!) to eat and I was starving. I made my pizza melt and followed it with some pretzels. No time to make a salad ! 

My day started off pretty early as I was awake around 7:30 and there was no way I was going back to sleep. I had breakfast and then sat on the couch with Minnie watching YouTube and playing Cookie Jam. I'm on level 9437, still over 1200 more to go if I want to move up a slot in my team ! Minnie was back and forth chasing sunbeams in the kitchen and right now (3:14 pm) she's snoozing on the chair. It is an unexpected treat to see the sun today ! It helped clear some of the snow from the roof - I've heard several loud crashes today ! That's the nice thing about metal roofs, it just slides right off.

Breakfast was 180 calorie Eggo waffles with sugar free syrup. Later I had 2 more waffles (another 180 calories!) with peanut butter (untold calories). That stands in for my yogurt, morning snack and afternoon snack. Lunch was 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt and some pretzels. Dinner was a 240 calorie enchilada with salsa and low fat sour cream. Evening snack was a 140 calorie lemon zest cake with whipped cream. I'm done eating for the day !

As I mentioned above, I waited too long to have lunch and was starving. I'm going to cut up a head of lettuce so that I can start having salad with my lunch. I have to stop skipping meals because this keeps happening. I wait until the last second and then there is an urgent need to eat something. Honestly, I don't know why I keep doing this. I really need to start listening to my body !

The cold and snow and being stuck at home is really taking a toll. I'm going to have to figure out some creative ways to keep myself occupied in the winter going forward. I can't sit on the couch watching tv all winter year after year. I just have no motivation when it's cold and snowy. Of course, I sat here all summer too, so is the weather really the problem ? Nope. In the immortal words of Taylor Swift: It's me. I'm the problem. It's Me. So yeah, I am still my own worst enemy. I could be cleaning the house. Taking down the tree. Firing up the treadmill. There is plenty to do around the house yet I sit here and do nothing.

In a surprise twist, I got a notification tonight that my insurance cost is going down slightly ! When I got the email about an "important" benefit update that needed my attention I expected it to be bad news. Something stupid like canceling my retiree dental because I'm not "retired". Actually the premium for my medical is going down slightly so my monthly payment for medical & dental combined will be reduced by about $10. It's not a lot, but $10 in my pocket is better than putting more in their pocket ! That reminded me to check my dental to ensure coverage is shown as active, and it is ! As soon as winter has passed I plan to make some appointments and get my teeth in shape. I will eventually have some preventive medical exams as well, but I'd like to lose some weight first.

I didn't accomplish anything today so the plan for tomorrow is the tree, dishes and cutting up a salad. I'd also let to get on the treadmill. It's a lot to put on myself but we'll see ! Sunday I'll be out most of the day. The time to be at Kim & Joe's is 2 pm, but I plan to leave early and stop at the store since more snow is forecast for next week. 

Yet another of my Facebook acquaintance's has passed away. I always feel bad when I "unfriend" someone who passed, but what is the point of maintaining the connection ? In all honesty, I did not know her personally and we never chatter or connected one on one. She likely played one or more of the games I used to play (Cafe World or Farmville, most likely) so we likely just connected to share posts to get help with challenges or to collect free items. Both games are long gone but I didn't unfriend everyone. I've been doing that as I come across those who have passed or ceased posting. Again, it feels a little heartless but there is no reason to remain "friends". It's always sad when I see things like this and this one was especially sad as she was only 62, the same age as me ! She had breast cancer and possibly other medical issues, so my only hope is that she is at peace and no longer suffering. It's also sad when people pass around the holidays. She passed on 12-28, so she had one last Christmas. She was on hospice so it's hard to know if she was able to enjoy any of the festivities. I am sure it was extremely difficult for her family. The obit indicates her husband passed before her, so I hope they are together again !

Sigh. Today was not what you'd call a productive day but I will try again tomorrow. I was going to say I did better with food, but the extra waffles & peanut butter were nothing but an indulgence. The peanut butter is about gone and I'm going to toss the jar. The "best by" date on it was January 2024, so it's a year past that. Even so, it tasted fine but I don't really want to scrape the jar ! I will buy a new smaller jar just to have in the house. The pretzels weren't an awful thing but they were unnecessary. As I said, I'll try again tomorrow !

Technically speaking, tomorrow I need to weigh myself. If I don't lose or only lose a couple pounds I have no one to blame but myself. With the chicken tenders, ranch dressing, chocolate chip muffins and peanut butter gone I am better prepared to be compliant. I can't even set a goal to be compliant 6 of 7 days since I'll be eating lasagna on Sunday. However, I can go easy on the lasagna and have a big salad. I can also have a small serving of any desserts. I have to teach myself to eat smaller portions if I want to have any chance of success. One thing to note: those muffins I ate were 370 calories each ! I knew it when I ate them, but it's ridiculous. My all time favorite muffins are oat bran and I've been looking around for some recipes. One of these days I will make some muffins of my own where I can control the portion and calories better. Less fat and sugar equals fewer calories !

I was talking to Kim about soup the other night and she gave me a recipe she uses for cabbage soup. I'm going to make some because it is considered a "free" food on Nutrisystem. This means you can eat all you want as long as you don't add things like pasta or beans. it's basically a veggie soup that includes cabbage. Cabbage, green beans, carrots, tomatoes, onions, celery, garlic and veggie or chicken broth. Super simple and it's not like I don't have time to make it !

I got a couple of new Nutrisystem desserts to try in my latest shipment and I was disappointed the minute I saw them. They are TINY ! One is an apple crumble and the other is a pumpkin spice cake. Reviews are mostly positive on the Nutrisystem site but there are plenty of negatives. I figure I will warm the apple dessert and drown it in whipped cream but the pumpkin dessert has frosting on it and isn't really designed to be microwaved. I'll have to thaw those out and just microwave a few seconds to warm it. I have 6 of each and I'll try them, but I'm not ordering any more. They're a seasonal item anyway, so they may disappear soon ! I'll stick with my 2 favorites, lemon zest cake and the chocolate cupcake.

I may go to the post office tomorrow. If I do, I may try to get my oil changed and make a quick stop at Walmart. I don't need anything other than milk but I may pick up cat litter. I was going to add plastic forks to my list, but they're getting expensive and I use too many ! $4.64 for a box of 100 now at Walmart. I use 2-3 a day, so they go fast ! I was thinking I could rinse them off and reuse them ... but if I'm going to do that why not just use a "real" fork and rinse that off !?!?!?!  Ok. I resolve to give up my plastic habit ! I'm on the last box of forks but I still have 2 boxes of spoons since I don't use as many of them. I want to reduce my spending and paper plates and plastic utensils are a good place to start ! Paper plates and bowls have gotten very expensive too. I have a dishwasher so it's not like I have to wash plates, bowls and silverware by hand. However, in reality, there is no reason I couldn't wash up the dishes each day. 

So maybe my 2025 resolutions are lose weight, exercise, give up single use plastic & paper and wash the dishes every day or two ! That is NOT a big ask !

On that note, I'm finalizing this blog and will watch a little more YouTube and play a few more games of Cookie Jam. Then I'm off to bed !