Day 61: Month 3 Begins With A Bang !

 

Thursday October 17, 2024

Here is the link to my original Day 61. It was Tuesday March 5, 2019. My headline for that day was "Life Isn't A Race". This was a reference to life being a journey with yourself and not a race against anyone else. Well, I tend to turn it into a race. Maybe that is not a good thing. I dithered around with getting this weight back off until Michelle started losing weight. Here I am again not wanting to be "the fattest one in the family".

I woke up around 8:45 but didn't get up until almost 9:20, because I was scrolling my phone. I feel like I need to put my phone out of reach at night to stop this behavior. No scrolling before sleep and no scrolling when I wake up. I'm going to try just not doing it, even with my phone within reach. Living alone, the phone is my lifeline if something happens. It was 35 degrees when I got up but the blue skies and sunshine made up for that ! It's going to be warmer after today, which is great ! I brought my mums in when I got home last night as there was a frost warning, but I put them back outside around 11 after I got dressed.

Breakfast was 150 calorie pancakes with sugar free syrup and an 80 calorie yogurt. Morning snack was a 155 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 220 calorie pepperoni pizza melt. Afternoon snack was an 80 calorie cheese stick and 120 calorie crackers. Dinner was a 220 calorie creamy chicken alfredo over riced cauliflower. Evening snack was a 140 calorie chocolate cupcake with whipped cream.

My morning routine tends to be feed the cats, sit on the couch with my breakfast while Minnie snoozes in my lap. I watch YouTube and play Cookie Jam until she moves. At that point I make the bed, get dressed, retrieve the cat food bowls, make my shake, make a second cup of coffee and settle back on the couch with my coffee and a yogurt. I also tend to start my daily blog. Then it's more YouTube and Cookie Jam until I am motivated onto the treadmill ! 

I really want to motivate myself to get 3 workouts a day in. I am spending too much time sitting on my ass and the scale is not moving. The box of cookies and 6 chocolate bars I've eaten this week haven't helped. Cookies are gone along with the chocolate. They were bars I had brought home from Disney in December, so I either had to eat them or toss them. I'm going to try exercising every 2 hours today and see if I can do that. I won't set that as an expectation for every day, but I'm going to try and do it whenever possible. The goal for today is 1 pm, 3 pm, 5 pm, and 7 pm. This will offset a few of the extra calories I had over the past few days. I will do the Hauru Beach walk once and then do 3 Road to Recovery workouts, which are slow paced. I'm not trying to exercise myself into exhaustion. 

Rock & roll bingo was just me, Kim and Joe last night. We ended up getting food at the burger place, so I had a burger with bacon & bleu cheese with fries. I also had the usual 2 Michelob Ultra. I ate every crumb and it was delicious. It was my week to pay but we all paid for our own meal and I said I'd pay next week. They could care less about the money and who pays, but I don't want to be a freeloader just because I'm unemployed. On a sad note, I ran over a raccoon on the way home. I didn't see them until it was too late. I felt terrible about it all the way home. I know it's a reality of life, but I was sad to have had that happen. I just hope the poor little guy didn't suffer. On an odd note, I put some leftover wet cat food outside after I got home and there was a big old possum out there ! I haven't seen one of them in years, but I guess they like dry cat food too ! It was scared and ran away, but I don't mind having them around as they eat a lot of bugs. I also read online that they eat slugs, and I've seen plenty of those in my yard on rainy days ! Hopefully that possum is gobbling them up !

With winter coming I'm trying to work harder to establish a routine because once the dreary cold of winter arrives I have even less motivation to move. I'm acclimated to keeping the house temp at 68 degrees (65 upstairs), so I should be able to sustain that through the winter. Space heaters will supplement if needed. I'm glad that I don't have to go out if I don't want to, but I need to make sure the pantry is stocked with the bulky stuff. That makes winter so much less stressful. I will always worry about my heating system, but I will no longer try to "fix" anything if it acts up. I will call a pro for help ! Last year there was trouble with the refill valve that adds water to the system and when I tried to fix it I just made it worse. Lesson learned !

By 1:28 my first workout of the day was in the books ! 20m on Hauru Beach is definitely getting slightly easier, but it's still a challenge. I typically break a sweat in the last few minutes and from what I've read online, this is a good thing ! My heart rate peaked at 134 today, which I think is the lowest during this particular workout. Hopefully that is an indication that my fitness level is increasing.

My second workout started late, but the important thing is that I did it ! It was about 3:30 when I finally got on the treadmill and completed 17m46s, which was workout 8 in the Road to Recovery part 2 series. The next goal is to get back on the treadmill by 5:30 for workout #3. It's about the same length as the one I just did.

Made it to the treadmill for workout #3 !! It was 18m9s and towards the end my left hip and knee were twinging, but I kept going !

Well. I did it !!!!!!!! Completed 4 workouts today ! I am so proud, but I realize this will not be a daily occurrence. It just proves that I can do whatever I set my mind to ! Last workout was 16m38s and wouldn't you know it, iFit crapped out and didn't record the workout. It said it would try later, so I'll see if it updates. Doesn't matter though. I know I did the workout AND I took a screenshot so that I could accurately capture the duration.

My total workout time today is 72m34s plus 28 minutes of warm up/cool down for a grand total of 100m34s !!!! As of 8:26 pm my steps for the day were 12,693 - which is amazing ! Now, I realize I can't do this every day. Wednesday's I go out, so I'll be satisfied with one workout. If I run several errands and am out for a few hours, 4 is asking too much. However, if I'm home all day I have zero excuses, so we'll see how I do tomorrow. I will say that I feel great and I'm looking forward to my evening snack and a shower ! My little toe on my right foot is a little sore, so I'll need to keep an eye on that, but my knee and hip were fine during the last workout. I know that losing the weight and moving will help that over time !

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 a checklist to ensure I do all of these everyday tasks !

Make the bed - x

feed cats - x

have breakfast - x

get dressed - x

exercise - x x x x

clean litter boxes - 

take vitamins - 

have morning snack - x

have lunch - x

have afternoon snack - x

have dinner - x

have evening snack - x

shower - x

skincare - x

brush teeth -