Day 77 through 80: When Will It Get Better ?

 

Here we go ! It's a new year. Time to get back on track with diet and exercise. The goal was 100 pounds by 12-31-25 but I'm failing miserably. I'm not going to link my original day 77 through 80. The first time around I had lost 41 pounds at this point and things were going well. I weighed myself this morning and I'm at 285 .. just 19 pounds under my original starting weight of 304. I'm so discouraged.

Today is Monday, so let's catch up on the past 4 days. Friday and Sunday I did nothing but sit on the couch watching tv and playing slot games, though I did step out Sunday evening to pick up chinese food. I actually enjoyed the brisk walk ! Saturday was the FX Matt brewery tour with Rich & Barb. It was a lot of fun ! We had a beer before the tour, a generous (12 oz or so) "sample" during the tour and then another cocktail after the tour. Since I don't drink much, I had a bit of a buzz going on. After the tour we went to Delmonico's for dinner. I had a delicious sliced sirloin dish with pasta and I brought tiramisu home. Everything was delicious and well worth the price ! The temp was in the low 50's when we went out Saturday but by the time we were heading home it had dropped to 30 ! That was quite a shock as I hadn't looked at the forecast. The low for Saturday was 20 and the high for Sunday was 30. It hasn't snowed, so I'm grateful for that !

That brings me to today. I spent the morning watching YouTube and playing my slot games. Around noon I took a shower, washed my hair and did my skincare. I also heated up the last of the hot & sour soup, some of the wonton soup and some of the chicken with garlic sauce for my lunch. It was SO good !

As I mentioned earlier, I weighed myself after my shower today so I'm still sitting at 285. I'm glad I don't weigh more and I'm actually also glad I don't weigh a lot less. When you worry about cancer you look for unexplained weight loss, so I'm glad to not see that. My digestive issues seem to have cleared up though I still get uncomfortable if I'm not sitting correctly. I am convinced there is nothing wrong with me, as I'm perfectly fine when I'm up and around or out for the day. I believe my issues are based on the slumped position I am often sitting in. I wanted to "restart" Nutrisystem and exercise today but I am still not 100% over this cold. I'm not coughing as much and my sinus congestion is a lot better as of today, so I think I'm nearing the end of it. I'll give myself another week. Tuesday April 1 will be a good day to start fresh.

I've been really down about my lack of progress and I've felt powerless to pull myself out of this slump. My cold is not helping but there is a lot I could be doing other than getting on the treadmill. I just need to find the motivation and so far, that is escaping me. Will warmer weather and sunshine help ? I'd like to think so, even though the first time around I started in the dead of winter ! Life was different back then I guess. I'm blamed it on the weather. I actually wrote "the winter of 2024/2025 was just brutal. The snow came and never left." Here's thing about that ... winter didn't really become brutal until storm after storm starting rolling in during February. I was also worried about my digestive issues and abdominal pain. The reality is I was just a ball of anxiety for the past couple of months. Once the snow abated I came down with the cold that has lingered for a month now. I feel like the worst of winter is over, it's officially Spring, my digestive issues have cleared up and once this cold is 100% gone I have no excuse not to pull myself together and start working on getting this weight off.

I thought about going to Walmart today but right around the time I was thinking that we had a quick blast of rain. It literally blew in blew out. It's nearly 5 now and more rain is possible. I don't really "need" anything but I'm getting low on dry food for the strays. I'll probably go tomorrow or Thursday. I'm not sure if they're having rock & roll bingo this week. I did check the March Madness schedule and it doesn't look like there are any games. We'll see !

So that's where I am as of today. I'm feeling better and I have not given up on getting the weight back off ! Walking to get my food yesterday actually felt good, so I think getting on the treadmill will be a good thing. I don't know .. I might try the treadmill tomorrow and see how I feel. If I can walk to the chinese place, I can walk on the treadmill. A big change that I need to make in my daily routine is getting dressed when I get up. I've been living in my nightgown all day long. I also need to get back to daily showers. I can't spend the rest of my life living like this. Even if I don't get a job I have to set a daily routine of self-care and exercise. That means shower, exercise, skincare, brushing teeth. I also need to spend more time on keeping the house clean. It's fairly neat right now but I have some plastic stuff lingering in the sink and the litter boxes need attention. Again, daily routine is the key !

I checked in on my bank account today and certified my unemployment claim, so those benefits will keep rolling in. Once my unemployment runs out I'm going to have to decide about filing for Social Security and/or my pension, unless I've got a job. That will be a discussion to have with my financial advisor when the time gets closer.

Today I've started working on drinking more water. I did a quick Google search and my lack of hydration has likely kept this respiratory junk hanging around. More liquids help loosen up congestion. I've had a tendency to get a soda out at lunch time and never finishing it and never drinking anything else. So today I didn't get a soda but instead refilled my water. I've drank more today than I have in weeks or months. I have 6 bottles of soda left so I'm going to take a break from it. I've resisted buying junk entrees at the grocery store (pizza supplies, hot dogs, frozen meals etc) and instead focused on eating the backlog of Nutrisystem meals I have. I pushed my next auto ship to early April, so I will have plenty of room in the freezer when I place my next order. I will have to supplement breakfast with Eggo waffles but I have plenty of items for lunch, dinner and evening snack. When I officially restart I'll add in the protein shakes and afternoon snack. Once the Nutrisystem protein powder is gone I'm going to start buying a store brand for that, since Nutrisystem's is expensive and they no longer run sales. I'll have to do a cost per serving analysis on other brands and then decide on one. I might try the one that Kim drinks as she's been using it for years. It's called Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides. It actually has less calories than Nutrisystem's protein powder.

The weather looks to be unsettled over the next few days. There is a slight chance of snow tomorrow night and Wednesday and then rain is possible Thursday through Sunday. The long range forecast is predicting temps in the 50's so I'm hoping for an end to the 30's and 40's !