Day 62: Keep The Party Going !

 

Friday October 18, 2024

Here is the link to my original Day 62. It was Wednesday March 6, 2019. My headline for that day was "No Matter What". This was a reference to believing in yourself and believing you can achieve your dreams. I stayed home from work, apparently because of the cold I'd been fighting. Odd, since I went to work the day before. Winters were tough when I had to go to the office every day. I have never liked driving in winter weather and I used to use a lot of vacation days early in the year. I guess it was good I had over 30 of them at the time ! Now, every day is a vacation day .. lol ! Anyhow, I'm starting to feel like I'm settling back in to losing this weight and regaining my former fitness level. I just need to keep the momentum going, No Matter What !

I woke up around 7:45 but didn't get up until about 8:45. The good thing is I didn't scroll my phone when I went to bed last night and I didn't scroll it when I woke up ! That is progress ! Once the cats were fed I settled down to enjoy my breakfast and first cup of coffee.

Breakfast was a 270 calorie breakfast sandwich. Morning snack was a 155 calorie chocolate 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 250 calorie meatloaf sandwich and green beans. I also had a 95 calorie Michelob Ultra. Evening snack was the last 140 calorie lemon zest cake with whipped cream. After tomorrow I will have to switch to an alternate evening snack until my next shipment. I have a bag of 120 calorie oatmeal chocolate chip squares that will be perfect. I do like a warm snack, so I could throw it in the microwave for 20 or 30 seconds. I may also make some sugar free jello to have with them. I also have those corn muffin swirls in the fridge, I just need to bake them. They are 170 calories, which is only 30 more than my usual snack IF you only eat one !

I just love the morning routine Minnie and I have. As soon as I sat down with my breakfast I put a blanket across my lap and she hopped up for some cuddles and a snooze. I watched YouTube and played Cookie Jam until she moved. At that point I made the bed, got dressed, retrieved the cat food bowls, made my shake, put the mums back outside, made a second cup of coffee and settled back on the couch. She waited patiently until all that was done and then hopped back up for another short nap. By noon it had warmed up enough to turn off the heat and open the front door, thanks to the blue skies and sunshine ! I was on the treadmill before 12:30 for a 20 minute walk on Hauru Beach. The plan for today is to work out at 2:30, 4:30 and 6:30. I clipped my toe nails and trimmed the dry skin on my baby toe, in hopes I won't have any more soreness today. Ideally I'd like to set my workout times at 12-2-4-6 because I tend to get lazy in the evening and it's harder to motivate myself to get off the couch ! Once I see I can do 4 workouts a day I may move up the schedule to 11-1-3-5 as that would leave time for a Total Gym workout, once I am ready to add that to my routine. I had the Total Gym set up but I realized I wasn't going to use that until I had some of this weight off and some treadmill time under my belt. Since I am following the path my original journey took, I will transition back to the Total Gym on that schedule unless it occurs before the holidays are over, in which case I will set it up once the Christmas decor is down. It feels good to have a map to follow. I stumbled along on my first journey and found what worked and what didn't work. I feel more committed to the program now and I am 100% not going to bring junk food back into the house. I may buy a small amount of Christmas candy in advance of my 11-10 dinner party, but I won't be buying as much as usual ! Limit will be 2 small bags of chocolates. I will also get some mixed nuts. Those are a better snack for me ! My problem with chocolate is a start with 1 or 2 pieces and then progress to a handful, because it tastes so good. I currently have a bag of s'mores clusters and I'm not opening them anytime soon.

By 3:08 pm workout #2 was in the books. It was 19m3s in Menorca, Spain with Tommy Rivs. My heart rate peaked at 145 during this workout. I think that happened during a brief 6% incline. My heart rate peaked at 134 during my first workout, which is about normal now.

Workout #3 hit the books just before 5 pm ! It was 17m11s from the Road to Recovery part 2 series. Knowing these are slower paced workouts, I'm less inclined to be afraid that I "can't do it". I am a little concerned about my ability to do the faster workout that is scheduled for Monday 10-21, but I'm going to try it. If I can't do it, I will continue with Hauru Beach for another week and then try again. I'm not giving up !

Workout #4 is done ! Two days in a row and I'm psyched ! Last workout was 18m41s in Spain with Tommy Rivs. My heart rate topped out at 119 during this workout, probably again during a brief 8% incline. There are 6 workouts left in part 2 of the Road to Recovery series. When I'm done, I'll be moving on to part 3. That should happen Sunday ! 

My Fitbit says I burned 3029 calories today, which is great considering I only took in 1330 plus the barbecue sauce & whipped cream. Even if I round up to 1400, that's still a great deficit and hopefully something that will result in losing a couple pounds over the next week. I've been disappointed with the scale lately, but it's my own fault. I ate a whole box of cookies plus 3 scones from Trader Joe's. I also had a burger & fries Wednesday night. I also ate the Disney chocolate bars. This is all in the past week.

My total workout time today is 74m55s plus 28 minutes of warm up/cool down for a grand total of 102m55s !!!! As of 7:25 pm my steps for the day were 13,324 - which is amazing ! As I said yesterday, I know 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 going forward.

I'm glad I moved my workouts to an earlier time, because it means more time to relax before bed. Some days I'm sad I don't have to rush to bed to get up for work and other days I'm kind of glad to be able to spend my days doing whatever I want. I do worry about having enough money for retirement, but I have over $400k in my IRA and my financial advisor says I won't run out of money. I have a pension and social security, so I should be fine. I also have $70k in my savings. 

I will say that I'm not feeling hungry in between meals. I'm also going to bed without feeling hungry. I read online that exercise suppresses the hormone (ghrelin) that makes you feel hungry, so I'm happy about that. Eating fewer carbs and less sugar helps too. I will likely keep pretzels and nuts in the house for the occasional snack, but I won't be stocking sweets ! I do have a box of my favorite cookies (Biscoff) but I'm not opening them anytime soon. I need to get settled into the diet and exercise and get a few pounds off before I have any "treats". 

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 - x

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 -