Day 84 to 87: Goodbye March !

 

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 84 through 87, but I was still fighting a cold or flu and wasn't exercising. I'm so discouraged with my inability to get back on track. My respiratory issues seem to be getting better and I am determined to get myself on a schedule that includes exercise starting tomorrow. I've spent the first 3 months of the year making little progress and really not trying very hard, so anything will be an improvement.

Let's catch up on the past few days. Thursday I went to Walmart and came home $300 poorer. Cat food and litter is just so expensive and I bought a 30 pound bag of dry food for the strays, two 30 count boxes of canned food for Minnie, a big box of canned food for the strays, a case of litter and a big tub of treats for Minnie. I also spent $14 on 2 nightshirts for me. They were on clearance and I wear them all summer. I also bought pizza supplies, egg rolls and a box of Eggo waffles. Add 2 six packs of diet coke, sour cream, salsa and a cheese danish and voila - $300 poof out the window. Oh - and I also spent $15 for 3 packages of Hershey bars that were on rollback. I won't need anything from the store for a while other than milk and yogurt. Friday I did nothing but sit on the couch watching YouTube and playing online slots. Saturday was pretty much the same, though I did shower and wash my hair. I'm glad I did because that evening Rich texted me to see if I wanted to go on a Sunday roadtrip to Massena. Of course I did and he was to pick me up at 10 am. It's a good thing I got up just after 8 and was all ready early, because they arrived at 9:25 ! We picked up breakfast at the McDonald's drive thru and then headed north to a place called "Alkies". We first made a stop at BJ's, where I picked up a box of Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches. In another cluster of a road trip, the place was closed and there was nothing open in the surrounding area. We did visit the Eisenhower lock on the St Lawrence Seaway but unfortunately there was no ship traffic. We viewed all the historical stuff about the lock in the visitor's center and that was fun because no one else was there ! Then we ended up having dinner at a place called Buster's in Ogdensburg. The food was good and prices were reasonable. For $19 I got grilled chicken over fettuccine alfredo. The entree included their soup & salad bar and I enjoy the chicken gnocchi soup and a nice salad with a ton of toppings like sunflower seeds, french fried onion, potato sticks, bacon bits and dried cranberries ! I also had a nice cold beer ! Everything was really good. I brought most of my entree home and had some of it for lunch today. I mixed in some sour cream and it was delicious. It was a long day as I didn't get home until 7 pm. I was glad to throw on my jammies and hit the couch ! So here we are at Monday March 31st. The last day of the month. The last day of the first quarter of 2025. Perhaps a turning point ? I really, really want to be motivated enough to shower at bedtime today, get dressed when I get up tomorrow, relaunch eating 6 times a day and get a workout in on the treadmill. It's not a big ask ! I am not coughing as much and I'm not blowing my nose a lot, so my respiratory issues are continuing to resolve. I coughed a bit this morning just to clear my lungs after a night of sleep. I also blew my nose a couple times. It's been worrying me some that it's taking so long to be 100% over this even though I feel fine otherwise, but then I realized I started feeling sick around March 4 so it's only been about 4 weeks. Kim and Joe had the same thing and Kim said it took a long time for the cough to go away. Going forward I'm going to add orange juice to my grocery list so that I get a bit of natural vitamin C. I also forgot to look at multivitamins when I went to Walmart, so I need to do that too.

The weather has been mostly cold and rainy on and off. We get peeks of sun here and there but winter is just not letting go. Today it went up to 63 but now the temp is dropping, headed to our overnight low of 31. High for tomorrow is 36, Thursday is 66 and rest of the week will be in the 40's. March isn't really going out like a lion and April is certainly not coming in like a lamb ! Ugh. I am so sick of it being cold and wet and dreary. I want dry ground and warm sunny days !

My online slot games have been mostly down the past few days. 88 Fortunes took all my 100M coins and right now I have about 8M that I've won back. Dancing Drums was my favorite and most reliable game but it took all my coins today. Jackpot World has been up and down but coins disappear so fast because I've been betting 6B per spin. I've scaled that back and I'm going to play at lower levels for a while. CluBillion has been up and down but I have about 130B coins right now. I won a bit today for the first time in a while ! It's frustrating but I am keeping to my rule of never spending real money to buy coins. I see how fast the free coins disappear, imagine seeing coins you paid for disappear ! Buying coins doesn't mean you will win more ! You will lose them all because they want you to buy more. I'm sure my games are cyclical because their algorithms are trying to get me to spend money. It will NEVER happen. Losing all my coins in these apps is my fault really because i bet and bet and bet hoping (or thinking) I'll win them back. Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn't. Same goes for casino gambling in the real world. This is why I'm resolved to stay away from casinos. I worked hard for my money and my income is limited now, so I don't have cash to burn. I'm enjoying the rock & roll bingo and the road trips with Rich & Barb. That's enough entertainment for me ! This coming Friday we're going to a baseball game. It will be chilly so I'll need to bundle up for that !

So the plan for tomorrow is to shower if I don't do that today, then get dressed and do my skincare. Putting on my shoes and charging my tablet is also necessary. I'll make sure the charging is done tonight. I'll make myself a protein shake and then I'm out of excuses not to get on the treadmill ! I can easily walk for 20 minutes. I have to start somewhere if I want to get this weight off. Another plan for tomorrow is house cleaning ! I have a sink full of dishes and filthy litter boxes. If I spend just one hour I can have the downstairs in really good shape. My bathrooms need to be scrubbed too but I'll plan that for another day. I have no excuse for letting things get the way they are. Much of it is pure laziness.

Today I had the remains of the cheese danish for breakfast. Lunch was a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt and half of my leftovers, because I was starving ! Dinner is going to be a pizza and evening snack will likely be a 140 calorie chocolate cupcake with whipped cream. I also had a Hershey bar. The candy I bought is 6 packs of smaller bars and 1 package is gone, so I have 12 pieces left. 

I checked in on my bank account today to make sure my credit card and utility payments posted. That was the last of the March bills and tomorrow the whole thing starts over again with the mortgage payment and my benefits payment. I also certified my unemployment benefits to keep that money flowing in ! The political scene remains chaotic and the market is responding accordingly, so I haven't had the courage to look at my IRA balance lately. I am just hoping things settle down at some point and the market stabilizes. I'm kind of glad I didn't vote for Trump, even though I thought he was going to bring positive change. I don't think any of us expected the chaos and I tend to blame Elon Musk's influence for a good portion of that. I just hope I can survive financially until the next administration comes in. Unless things change drastically, I don't see JD Vance being elected in 2028. These are scary times.

I'm publishing this post early since I'll likely just be making my pizza, watching YouTube and playing my slot games. I'm going to try and get a good night's sleep so I can hit the ground running tomorrow !