A Complete Fresh Start

  Wednesday October 30 and Thursday October 31, 2024 Here is the link to my original  Day 74  and Day 75 .  It was Monday March 18 and Tuesday March 19, 2019. My headline for those days were The Key To Success and It's Not A Sprint. I didn't write yesterday as I took the opportunity to go shopping and then had to get ready to go out. I was awake before 9 but lingered in bed scrolling my phone until 10. After I fed the cats and had breakfast I watched some YouTube and played Cookie Jam. Around 11:30 am I headed out to gas up the car and buy groceries. It was a beautiful warm sunny day, so I was happy to be out and about ! I got my gas, stopped at Wegman's for produce and then headed to Walmart to get the remaining items on my list. I got home just after 1 pm, $300 poorer ! I showered, washed my hair and got myself ready to go out. It was just Kim & Joe and I for bingo, but we had a good time ! We came close to bingo a couple times but didn't quite get there ! I go...

  Tuesday October 29, 2024 Here is the link to my original  Day 73 .  It was Sunday March 17, 2019 - St Patrick's Day ! My headline for that day was "Improving Yourself". This reference is pretty self-explanatory ! I woke up shortly before 9 and I'm not sure of the exact time I got up, not that it matters. I had 6 stray cats to feed this morning ! Minnie and I had our usual morning snuggle but when she hopped down just after 10 I took the opportunity to make my bed, get dressed, brew a second cup of coffee, take the trash out, open the porch curtains and put the mums outside. I didn't have to make a shake as I still had the one I made yesterday. I also weighed myself and the scale read 273.6, which was great. It was 273 on the nose yesterday. I am still behind. By this time I had lost 39.4 pounds the first time around. I don't think I can catch up, but I'm going to try my best ! There didn't seem to be any blood in my stool this morning. There might ha...

  Monday October 28, 2024 Here is the link to my original  Day 72 .  It was Saturday March 16, 2019. My headline for that day was "No Excuses". This was a reference to getting a workout in despite being out all day. Very appropriate for today. My morning did not start out well. There was blood in my stool again, though it looked old, since it was maroon, and there wasn't a lot of it. Even so, it completely destroyed my day. I really don't know what to do. I have one month left on my current medical insurance and I have to sign up for a new plan. I don't really want to see any doctors before the new plan is in place. I really, really, really want to believe this is related to taking ibuprofen since the last time it happened I had been taking it. Still, how do you know ? For all I know, I have colon cancer or some other serious problem. I'd like to think I don't since my appetite is healthy, I'm struggling to lose weight and this is not a daily occurrenc...

  Sunday October 27, 2024 Here is the link to my original  Day 71 .  It was Friday March 15, 2019. My headline for that day was "Finding Hope". This was a reference to the many years that my life seemed hopeless, and being thankful for the blessings that came my way starting with the fire. It's not often that someone is grateful for a fire ! I believe Tigger accidentally started the fire by turning on a stove burner while jumping up on top of the fridge. I had left a coffee pot sitting on the stovetop and it just so happened the burner that got turned on was the one the coffee pot was sitting on ! I am grateful that the house didn't burn to the ground, since all 5 of my cats were in it and I was at work ! I woke up just after 9 and had 4 stray cats to feed this morning. Minnie and I had our usual morning snuggle but when she hopped down just after 10 I took the opportunity to make my bed, get dressed, and brew a second cup of coffee. I forgot to make my shake ! After ...

  Saturday October 26, 2024 Here is the link to my original  Day 70 .  It was Thursday March 14, 2019. My headline for that day was "Stay The Course". This was a reference to staying on the Nutrisystem program, as I was doing well and was very motivated to continue. I woke up just before 9 and only had 3 stray cats to feed this morning. Minnie and I had our usual morning snuggle but when she hopped down just after 10 I took the opportunity to make my bed, get dressed, make my shake and brew a second cup of coffee. I also went out on the porch to open the curtains and right one of my mums that had tipped over. We had some wind but by 11 or so it seemed to have calmed down. This morning I had blood in my stool again and of course I immediately panicked and decided I have colon cancer. However, after thinking about it I relaxed a bit. I've taken ibuprofen a couple times recently ! Looking at the side effects of it, I feel like I have all the symptoms of a reaction to the ibu...

  Friday October 25, 2024 Here is the link to my original  Day 69 .  It was Wednesday March 13, 2019. My headline for that day was "Memories Are Sweet". This was a reference to a memory of going to bingo with my grandmother back in the 70's, since it's day 69. At the bingo games people would whistle or holler "woo hoo" when $69 was called. It's hard to get old and think back on all the wonderful people you had in your life, who are now gone. I used to love spending the night at my grandparents house. My grandfather would occasionally take me to the local barroom where he'd have a beer and a shot and I'd have soda. I felt all grown up sitting at the bar ! My grandmother died young due to lung cancer brought on by many, many years of smoking. I think she was 67 or so. My grandfather lived to be 80 and never stopped missing her. My dad's mother died young too, most likely due to diabetes complications. I was in 4th grade so I don't really kn...

  Thursday October 24, 2024 Here is the link to my original  Day 68 .  It was Tuesday March 12, 2019. My headline for that day was "The Road To Success". This was a reference to basically finding my way along the weight loss and exercise journey. There were no major "a ha's" in the blog. It was still early in the journey and I was stumbling along trying to figure out what works and what doesn't works. Reaching back to the original journey does help me somewhat, though I'm realizing many of the behaviors that led to me gaining the weight back are still an issue. I know what the road to success is, I just have to stay on it ! Breakfast was 160 calorie waffles with sugar free syrup followed by an 80 calorie yogurt. Morning snack was a 155 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was the other half of my buffalo chicken wrap. Afternoon snack was an 80 calorie cheese stick and 120 calorie crackers. Dinner was 220 calorie creamy chicken alfredo o...

  Wednesday October 23, 2024 Here is the link to my original  Day 67 .  It was Monday March 11, 2019. My headline for that day was "Never Give Up On A Dream". This was a reference to having dreams and not reaching them. This is part of what that blog said: "Too often I set lofty unreachable goals and then gave up because it was too hard or it took too long to get there. In reality I just wasn’t willing to put in the effort required. I’ve done that 100 times in my life." These words are still true. I still catch myself making unreasonable goals but I'm making progress on not abandoning them. I've stopped and started trying to re-lose the weight over the past couple of years. I never put in the work required to do it until now. Even now, it took me a while to get where I am today. At the beginning of these 67 days I was still stopping and starting and sabotaging myself. The past 6 days were amazing and here I am at day 7, tired. I could not get to sleep last n...