Day 54 & 55: Another Week Is Done !

 

Thursday October 10 and Friday October 11, 2024

Here is the link to my original Day 54 and Day 55. It was Tuesday February 26 and Wednesday February 27, 2019. My headlines for those days were "Shining Bright" and "Choices vs. Decisions". I was still recovering from my cold but wrote about being thankful for what I have on Tuesday. Wednesday's highlight was a 105 minute commute home due to snow ! I still remember that, over 5 years later !

So I haven't written since Wednesday morning. I went to rock & roll bingo and had a fun time, though we all left losers. I had the buffalo chicken wrap but I missed the pizza, so I'm going back to that next week ! Yesterday I spent most of the day with Kim and Joe. Kim & I went for breakfast while Joe did some things at the office, but we were on our way to Costco by noon. We also made a surprise trip to Trader Joes and I've never been there. I was able to pick up some riced cauliflower (which was amazing and I need to go get more!), some vanilla scones, pumpkin waffles and some maple pancake flavored cookies. The scones had great flavor but they were doughy and a little too sweet for me. I prefer a scone with a more biscuit like texture and less sweetness. The cookies were an impulse buy based on the free sample they gave out ! They're tiny and it's not a huge box. I haven't tried the waffles yet, but I may do that tomorrow ! Trader Joes gave me a free reusable bag since it was my first visit. I thought that was really nice ! Next stop was Liquor City, I guess since we were out that way. I picked up a bottle of Inferno whiskey so I can make our fall cocktail when I have everyone for dinner on 11-10. I usually bring it for Thanksgiving as well. The whiskey is cinnamon flavor (think fireballs) and we add apple cider and prosecco. I usually rim the glass with caramel and cinnamon sugar, but this year I'm going to skip the caramel. It's messy and I always end up throwing away 95% of the container. I'll dip the glass in apple cider or rim the glass with an apple slice before the dip in cinnamon sugar. I got back home a couple minutes before 5 and was glad to have beaten the 5 pm traffic ! I had an omelet, home fries & whole wheat toast for breakfast and had a scone not long after I got home. Very late in the evening I had a pepperoni pizza melt as my dinner, followed by another scone. Calories were not off the chart for the day !

Today I was just plain tired. The alarm went off at 7 and although I didn't really go back to sleep, I didn't get out of bed until 8:30. The tiredness persisted all day. For breakfast I had a pumpkin muffin that Kim gave me. Joe likes Costco's muffins so he always get 2 packages of them. It was delicious and huge ! I had a pepperoni pizza melt late in the afternoon and for dinner I had creamy chicken alfredo over riced cauliflower. My evening snack was a lemon zest cake with whipped cream.

My Costco haul was modest but yet again included stuff I shouldn't have bought. I got my multigrain crackers, which was great. I bought a 3 pack of whipped cream because the cans are bigger and the price was cheaper than Walmart. I'm ok with this. I also bought a package of snack squares called "Heavenly Hunks". I haven't bought them in a long time ! They do meet the Nutrisystem guidelines for a smart carb as long as you only have one. They're pretty filling so I can't imagine ever eating more than one. I'm ok with this purchase too. I bought a big bottle of B12 as I want to start taking that. I'm 100% ok with this purchase. The poor choice I made was a bag of s'mores clusters. It's basically candy. My other poor choice was a box of Biscoff cookies. I just couldn't resist, they are so good. As with everything I eat, I just need to work harder at moderation. 

So today I spent the day on the couch watching YouTube, playing Cookie Jam and scrolling my phone. I didn't spend the day eating, which is progress ! I did shower & do skincare but I never got dressed. I did check in on my bills to ensure my cell phone bill got paid, as I didn't get the usual text confirmation. I also scheduled some transfers to cover the remaining October bills. After November my health insurance cost is going to skyrocket. I was hoping I could transfer money from my investment account to my HSA each month for that payment, but from what I've read online, you can't use your HSA to pay premiums. However, after age 65 you can use HSA funds for anything, so I could probably use HSA funds to pay Medicare premiums or my supplemental insurance. I guess I'll worry about that when the time comes. I did check the NYS website and I can get health coverage for about $600 a month, which is less than I expected. I can swing that ! I never had a problem throwing away that much and more every month at the casino, so I can't complain ! It looks like I'll have to get coverage through MVP, which if fine as I had then years ago. Once I have a plan in place, I'll set up appointments to get a physical and all that stuff ! Seeing that coverage really is affordable makes me feel so much better ! I'll have to go with a high deductible plan, but I've had that for years. If I have unexpected expenses, I can transfer money from my IRA to my HSA to pay with tax-free funds.

I gave myself this day of rest and tomorrow I will get back on track. I do need a quick Walmart run as I have no milk. I also need to go to the post office. I think I'll go out first thing in the morning, before I get lazy ! I don't need any produce, so I don't need to go to Wegman's. The weather started off chilly today but by afternoon the sun was out and the porch was quite warm, so I was able to open the front door and let Minnie go out there. She loves basking in the sun ! Starting tomorrow our overnight lows are going to be in the 30's and 40's, so I don't think I'll be turning the heat off before Spring ! Ugh.

It's not quite 10 pm, but I'm putting myself to bed early tonight and I'm going to try and get up at 7 when the alarm goes off.

Below is what I achieved today. I am focusing on what I do each day, and not looking back to what I did or didn't do any other day. I hope that one day soon I won't need to include the "disclaimer".

Make the bed - 

feed cats - x

have breakfast - x

get dressed - 

exercise - 

clean litter boxes - 

take vitamins - 

have morning snack - 

have lunch - x

have afternoon snack - 

have dinner - x

have evening snack - x

shower - x

skincare - x

brush teeth -