Day 64: Keep The Momentum Going

 

Sunday October 20, 2024

Here is the link to my original Day 64. It was Friday March 8, 2019. My headline for that day was "Looks Can Be Deceiving". This was a reference to fear of being judged for what I ate or what I looked like. I was starting to see small changes in my body as the weight started to come off but wondered if I was seeing things that weren't really there. Was I seeing what I wanted to see or was I seeing the reality of my efforts ? I look in the mirror today and I hate what I see, only because I haven't lost enough weight to see much of a difference. I haven't set much in the way of goals this time around, other than wanting to reach 274 and "earn" the 30 pound bear back. I'm close ! My weight this morning was 275.8, so I'm only 1.8 pounds away from owning it again. Once I hit 274 I can put it back on the shelf and get the 40 pound bear out. The 10 pound goals make sense right now. The big, big, big goal is to reach 199 and I know that is a long way off. My biggest challenge from a weight perspective was the secretive eating. When Alex was alive I always had a stash of candy in my room and I would eat it once I went to bed. I didn't "share" with Alex mostly because he was diabetic and he actually wasn't much of a sweet eater. Once I lived alone I could eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and there was no one there to judge me. Although, trust me, I judged myself plenty. This is why I can't have poor food choices in the house. I am determined not to open the s'mores clusters or the Biscoff cookies anytime soon, because once they are open I will feel compelled to "finish" them. I wish I could just sit down and have 2 cookies or one piece of candy, but I can't. I might start out that way, but before long 2 becomes 10 and 1 becomes 5.

I was awake shortly after 8 this morning and it was another day of sunshine and blue skies. Once the cats were fed I sat down with my coffee and breakfast. Minnie hopped up for her morning nap on my lap and I watched YouTube while crushing the current challenges on Cookie Jam. I think new challenges will arrive on Tuesday. I took the B12 vitamin with my breakfast and didn't have any nausea. I took the D, E and iron later with my yogurt. The plan was to take the multivitamin with my lunch, the potassium & zinc with dinner and then the calcium at bedtime. I did manage to brush my teeth at bedtime last night, so I successfully completed every item in the checklist for the first time in a long time !

Breakfast was 150 calorie pancakes with sugar free syrup and an 80 calorie yogurt. 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 220 calorie rotini with meatballs. Evening snack was a 120 calorie oatmeal chocolate chip square with whipped cream and a glass of milk.

First workout of the day was 20m3s on Hauru Beach. My heart rate maxed out at 135 during this workout. Tomorrow I'm going to try and move up to the next level workout and, if I'm honest, I'm not confident in my ability to complete it. The intervals are 2.7 mph and 3 mph in 30 second bursts, which the workout I'm doing now is 2.4 and 2.8 in 1 minute bursts. I won't know unless I try, so we'll see what happens ! I am sure it will be a challenge, but isn't that the point ?

My stomach felt a little off before my workout, so I had 2 pretzel rods then some of my shake. That took care of the problem ! I may need to spread my vitamins out a little more and maybe take the iron with my afternoon snack. 

I didn't check the temp outside when I got up but it wasn't awful. By noon the porch was warm enough to open the door and let Minnie get some sun. It's nice to be able to turn the heat off for most of the day. It was 65 outside by 1 pm ! I can't help but think about the dark days of winter that will soon be here. I tend to get a bit depressed in the winter, so it's going to be even more important to have a good routine. Right now I think YouTube and Cookie Jam keep me sane ! As of 3:40 pm it was an amazing 69 degrees outside, though the sun makes it feel much warmer ! Minnie is snoozing in the lawn chair in the corner of the porch. 

By 3:15 workout #2 was in the books. It was 19m47s and it was workout 18 of 20 in the Road to Recovery part 2 series. My heart rate maxed out at 120 during this workout. I will finish this series today and start part 3 tomorrow. The next workout is just over 24 minutes and has no incline, while the very last one is just over 22 minutes and has a LOT of incline. We'll see if I can do that at the end of the day ! So far I have managed the incline in this series, but no workout had as much as the last one !

I completed workout #3 around 6:03 pm. It was 24m19s. My heart rate peaked at 129 during this workout. Last workout of the day was in the books just after 8 pm. It was 22m24s and it was the final workout in Road to Recovery part 2. My heart rate peaked at 162 during this workout, which is nearly the max for my weight/age. Story to follow.

My total workout time today is 86m33s plus 28 minutes of warm up/cool down for a grand total of 114m33s !!!! Again, nearly 2 hours. I now have 72 workouts for 2024. I used to get 500, but this is a good start ! My goal for 2025 will be 500+ workouts ! As of 9:30, Fitbit says I completed 15,378 steps and burned 3342 calories !

So I mentioned there was a story to follow after workout #4. Truth is I spent too much time playing Cookie Jam and time passed. It was nearly 7:30 and I hadn't eaten and wanted to get workout #4 in. I heated up the last package of rotini with meatballs and then got on the treadmill after I scarfed it down. As I mentioned earlier in this blog, the last workout had a lot of incline. Truth is, I was so tired I didn't even think I could complete the workout, let alone the incline. So I had 2 choices: skip the workout completely OR skip the incline. I opted to skip the incline, which I have never liked, and completed the workout. I'm proud of myself for sticking with it but I'm not proud of the fact that I pretty much ignored the schedule I was trying to keep. This is how I get off track and abandon initiatives like this. I get overconfident and think I'm invincible, then find myself here. The goal for tomorrow is simply to do better. Why did I get off track with Cookie Jam ? A challenge, of course ! A challenge popped up to complete levels and someone other than me had the audacity to be #1 ! So stupid. I suspect I'd have bailed on the incline regardless, but I might have tried harder if it wasn't so late. In a completed unrelated twist, my baby toe on my right foot is bothering me again and when I took my socks off I found that the toe protector on the toe next to it had come off. I need to start taking my shoes off in between workouts to check placement and maybe let my feet breath.

It's 8:30 now and I still need to clean the litter boxes, take a shower, do skincare and have my evening snack. I also need to take my calcium and then brush my teeth when I go to bed. There is no reason I can't complete all of these items, especially since I don't have to wash my hair ! Despite the hiccup with my workouts this has been an amazing day. I'm so proud of myself for putting more effort toward working out and sticking to the diet. I had a couple of pretzel sticks today but otherwise I ate nothing I wasn't supposed to. I didn't have a salad with lunch and I didn't have any veggies with dinner, but I'm not feeling hungry. Exercise truly does help suppress your appetite ! 

One thing I haven't mentioned (I don't think) is the fact that I put flannel sheets on my bed last week and I switched back to my "My Pillow" pillows. The pillows I got for Christmas are great but they are so heavy and I felt like I wasn't sleeping well with them. My Pillow pillows are super lightweight and easier to manipulate during the night. I love the flannel sheets because they are not cold when you get in bed on a cold winter night. I'm keeping the upstairs at 65 so those percale sheets were a bit chilly ! I feel like I'm sleeping better with the cooler room (haven't needed the fan), the flannel sheets and the lightweight pillows.

As of 9:30 I've completed everything on the checklist, other than brushing my teeth. I will do that when I go up to bed. Tonight was the first night I had the 120 calorie oatmeal chocolate chip square for my evening snack. They are tinier than I remember ! I microwaved it for 20 seconds, smooshed it in a bowl and topped with whipped cream. It was delicious ! I also had a glass of milk with it. I had thought about having a beer with my dinner but since I was in a rush I didn't do that, so the extra calories from the milk are nothing to worry about. Considering the size of the oatmeal squares, the bag will last forever if I only eat one per day !

So today was another amazing day but I know I will work harder on my time management tomorrow. 

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 - x

have morning snack - x

have lunch - x

have afternoon snack - x

have dinner - x

have evening snack - x

shower - x

skincare - x

brush teeth - x