August 29, 2025: Rolling Toward 63

 

Since 2025 has been a horrible year so far (from a diet and exercise perspective), I decided to restart the year early this month. I'm titling my blog's with the date, because I tend not to write every day and it gets hard to keep track of the days. I will still try to capture everything I've been up to when I do write.

It's been nearly a month since I last wrote, and nothing much has changed. I'm still retired/unemployed. I still go to rock & roll bingo on Wednesday nights and I am still struggling with diet and exercise. Both struggles are exacerbated by laziness and a lack of will power. Exercise is further exacerbated by my addiction to the online slot games. I'd rather sit and play games all day instead of taking 30 minutes out for some exercise.

I did have a couple things to do this month and I managed to do that. The car needed inspection and my driver's license needed to be renewed. I got the inspection done last week and I renewed my  license on Wednesday (8-27). I procrastinated on both items and they ended up turning out good ! I tried to get the inspection done 2 weeks ago but the place was mobbed and the wait was over 2 hours. I ended up just getting an oil change. When I went last week they told me the wait was nearly 2 hours but I was prepared for that and opted to wait. In the end I don't even think I waited an hour and was right out of there. For the license, I'd heard horror stories about hours of waiting in the DMV due to the change to the Real ID. I got to the DMV about 10 am and was fully prepared to wait hours. I had a bottle of water, a candy bar, my power bank and my phone. I can play Cookie Jam without using cell phone data or wifi, so I was ready. Would you believe I was out of there in 30 minutes with an approved Enhanced License ?!?!?!?! I wrung my hands over the documents needed and, despite the list of requirements to prove citizenship and your residence, they only wanted my social security card, birth certificate and marriage certificate. I'm happy to have both of those tasks out of the way !

I mentioned earlier in this blog that I'm still retired/unemployed, but that's really not accurate. Bottom line is I'm retired. I don't want to go back to work and I'm not looking for a job. I updated my LinkedIn to remove the "open to work" banner. On the odd chance someone offers me an amazing job I might consider it, but I'm not going to look. I know my age and desire to work from home prevents most companies from hiring me, so I'm not going to waste my time begging for a job. I'll be 63 in a couple days and in 2 years I can start Medicare. Financially I'm good and honestly, I'm happy !

So what else have I done this month ? Nothing really. I've just been enjoying the summer. I play my slot games and I'm playing Cookie Jam a bit more. Dancing Drums is getting on my nerves as they're showing more ads and it gets annoying. I finish the challenge once or twice a day and leave my 160M+ coins sitting there. Jackpot World is still a lot of fun but there are still days when they just won't pay. I had 33T coins this morning and now I have less than 9T !! I was just playing for fun, so it's all good. I'll play Cookie Jam the rest of the day !

I haven't been on the treadmill since August 8. I'm not proud of that and to some degree I might try to blame the hot weather, but it's been much cooler the last couple weeks. I'm just lazy and not motivated. I'm giving serious consideration to canceling my Nutrisystem subscription as it's expensive and the food quality has dipped. I do still like the breakfast options, but the pepperoni pizza melts I have for lunch are mostly bread. My dinner choices are mostly the turkey dinner or the chicken breasts, but I'm tired of all of them. For evening snacks, they did away with my 2 favorite items: the chocolate cupcake and the lemon zest cake. They do have 2 new offerings: vanilla cheesecake, chocolate cheesecake and a new lemon cake. I think being bored with the food is holding me back but at the same time I'm not confident I can do portion control. Problem is, right now I'm eating whatever I want and my weight has ballooned to 294 ! I can handle breakfast with store bought waffles and pancakes. I can also have to occasional omelet or the Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich. I can handle dinner with a protein, veggie and small serving of starch. Lunch has been hotdogs of late, so I need to come up with some diet friendly options there. Evening snack is a problem as lately it's been ice cream. Winter is coming so I'm thinking I can make soup or chili or sloppy joe. Lunch can be canned soup as the calories & protein in non-cream canned soups are within the 1200 calorie range I'd like to maintain. Evening snack could be a pudding cup as they're 120 calories. I can also check out the shelf stable diet items at Walmart too. Variety is going to be key for every meal. My next Nutrisystem delivery is scheduled to process on 9-18, so I need to spend some time putting a plan together and making a final decision before then. My plan might look something like this:

Breakfast: 2 Eggo waffles or 2 pancakes, 2 egg omelet, Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich, plain oatmeal. I can add a yogurt unless I'm having the sandwich.

Morning Snack: protein shake

Lunch: can of soup, ramen noodles, 1 hotdog, chicken wrap. Add salad or veggies without calorie laden add-ins

Afternoon snack: crackers & cheese or yogurt

Dinner: chicken breast or small hamburger, chili, sloppy joe, soup, fajitas, veggies, small serving rice or potatoes

Evening Snack: pudding cup or sugar free Jello with whipped cream

That's just an example but I think it's something I can do. I can't buy candy or cookies or ice cream because I just can't manage the portions. I might try some sugar free ice cream options, but part of my reason for dumping Nutrisystem is getting away from eating so much processed food. My diet won't be all non-processed, but I'm going to try and use as little as I can. I've stopped buying flavored coffees and once the coffee syrups are gone I'm not planning on buying any more. I might treat myself to a little creamer but I'm going to try to just drink it black.

Some of the foods I miss and want to make are tacos and enchiladas. Tacos would be easy enough. Cook up the seasoned hamburger and then freeze. Tortilla's can also be frozen. I could make a pan of enchiladas and freeze them individually. I also haven't made chili in several years. I can make a pot of that and freeze it for lunches and dinner. The key to my success without the Nutrisystem deliveries is going to be meal prepping. I'd also like to enforce not eating in bed and not eating on the couch. I also need to see what items I can get at Costco, that might be cheaper. Walmart has 24 count Eggo waffles but Costco might have a larger size. Costco does have a larger box of the Jimmy Dean sandwiches but I need to compare the price per item. I often find that it's not really cheaper to buy things at Costco. You see the large package and you think you're saving, but you may not in every case.

The quote on today's picture is Your Only Limit Is Your Mind. There is so much truth in that. Would it be so hard to make the switch from "you can't" to "you can" ? Not really.