Day 65: The First Milestone !

 

Monday October 21, 2024

Here is the link to my original Day 65. It was Saturday March 9, 2019. My headline for that day was "Focus On The Journey". This was a reference to not getting too far ahead of myself since I had so much weight to lose. Considering I'm right back there, this is good advice at an appropriate time ! At this point in my original journey I had lost 37.4 pounds. I haven't lost that much yet, but I'm moving in the right direction ! The scale read 274.6 this morning, which puts me at 30 pounds from my original 304 weight ! I was happy to bring the 40 pound bear downstairs, though I decided to keep the 30 for the day to celebrate the milestone ! Tomorrow will begin the quest for 40 ! I wonder how long it will take to reach 264 ? Can I continue to lose a pound a day ? That would be awesome ! On a side note, there were times during my original journey that I lied about my weight loss, so I'm not going to stress over being "behind" at this point. I felt like I had to show a loss every week since my blog was public. This time around the numbers will be 100% real.

Breakfast was 160 calorie waffles 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 250 calorie meatloaf sandwich and green beans. I also had a 95 calorie Michelob Ultra. I drank about half ot it with my dinner and then finished it after my last workout. Evening snack was a 120 calorie oatmeal chocolate chip square with whipped cream.

It was gray and gloomy when I got up, but it was also nearly 60 degrees with a forecast high of 73. To my surprise, all 6 stray cats were waiting for breakfast this morning ! That hasn't happened in a while. I had to scramble to warm up 3 cans of food and wash out all 6 bowls ! Minnie turned her nose up at her food and opted to continue snoozing. I can relate, but I missed our morning snuggle ! By noon it was warm enough outside to turn off the heat and open the doors, and by 1 we had some peeks of sun. Minnie trots right out to the porch the minute I open the front door ! I closed the doors around 7 pm as the sun was down and I knew it would get chilly. Being able to turn the heat off for most of the day is great !

I started to write that I had a hard time getting to sleep last night ... then I remembered I was scrolling my phone until 1:30 am ! Yeah, not doing good at avoiding that ! Once I put the phone down I was asleep in minutes ! I was rather sore when I woke up this morning but I find that stretching a little before I get up helps tremendously. I'm hoping that as the weight comes off, my old joints will feel a little better. The march of time goes on but losing weight will definitely help with joint pain as I age.

Yesterday was the 2nd day in a row that I "checked all the boxes" on my goals, as I was disciplined enough to brush my teeth when I went to bed. Today I plan to be on the treadmill at noon and to work harder to get a workout in at 2, 4 and 6 pm. It's 10 am and I can already feel the anxiety building for the switch to a workout that is a bit more difficult. In my original blog I had this to say: "I tried a new one today, 30 second intervals alternating between 2.7 and 3.0 mph for 20 minutes. This was a little bit of a challenge (the workout I’ve been doing is 1 minute intervals alternating between 2.4 and 2.8 mph) but I made it through. 3 mph is totally the max speed for me right now. I had to stop halfway through because my shoe came untied (again!) so I’m glad the workout has a “pause” feature." I also wrote that I completed the same workout a second time later in the day ! Yeah, I am not doing that today .. lol !

I sat here at 10:25 am with a sense of dread. Yep, I was afraid of workout #1. It will worry me until noon rolls around and I either conquer it or fail.

It was close to 12:30 by the time I started my first workout, but all that matters is I did it ! It was 20m12s power walking on Lafayette Beach. Not gonna lie .. the 2.7 and 3 mph intervals were hard as hell, but I did it ! I huffed and puffed and sweated just like I did when I started the Hauru Beach walk but I recovered quickly once it was over. My heart rate skyrocketed up to 184, which is well over my max, but that doesn't surprise me. I would expect to see it go down as I continue to repeat the workout. I started sweating about 14 minutes in and that didn't stop until the cool down, so I know my body was working hard ! I will be doing this one daily until November 18 when I switch over to the Atlas Mountains walk, which is about 32.5 minutes. I have a soft goal to be at 264 or less by this date. It's 4 weeks away, so this is not a stretch goal ! 

It is always a relief when the "hard" workout of the day is done ! It makes it that much easier to motivate myself to get the next 3 done. I will say that I am really happy to have made it through the workout ! Being able to do that indicates a progression in my fitness level. Was it easy ? Hell no ! It was hard ... but not so hard that I thought I couldn't do it or wanted to give up. It was challenging, but attainable. The fact that I recovered quickly also reflects a progression in my fitness level. I didn't feel like I was going to die. A minute or two into the cool down, I was fully recovered. I'm so happy !

My workout started late mostly because I was playing Cookie Jam .. what else ! Minnie decided she wanted to snooze in my lap around 11:30 but she had moved on before noon, so the delay is really all on me ! I will give myself until 2:15 to start workout #2 if I'm not ready to tackle it on the stroke of 2.

Well, workout #2 started around 2:45 for several reasons. Minnie wanted lunch, then I decided to pull the underwear & leggings out of the dryer so the shirts could tumble a bit more. By the time I did all that, my hip was twinging, so I wanted to walk around a bit more. I folded the leggings & put them away, stashed the underwear in a drawer and hung up all the shirts. By then, my hip was fine and I started Road to Recovery part 3. This workout was no joke ! Due to downhills, the speed increased from 2.2 to 2.3 mph for a few minutes several times. There was also a stretch of 6% incline. Even though the speed was reduced to 2.1 mph, I had to hold on to the bars for a few minutes. It was either that or drop the incline ! The workout was 23m41s and I was super glad when it was over ! My heart rate topped out at 135 during this workout, which is well within my range. Workout #3 is just over 19m and only has a couple brief inclines, so it will be much easier. Workout #4 is less than 19 minutes and the brief inclines are very low. Seems like the progression of my workouts today went from hardest to easiest, without me trying ! It's just about 3:30 now and I'm planning to be back on the treadmill at 4:30.

I made it to the treadmill shortly after 4:30 and completed 19m25s walking in Venice. My heart rate maxed out at 120 during this workout. Workout #4 is also in Venice and then it's off to another destination in Italy tomorrow. That's the great thing about iFit, I get to see and hear about places I will never visit.

At 7:38 pm I stepped off the treadmill for the final time today after an 18m50s stroll around the streets of Venice. My heart rate maxed out at 131 during this workout and I was tired by the time it was over. I'm glad my exercise day is done !

My total workout time today is 82m8s plus 28 minutes of warm up/cool down for a grand total of 110m8s !!!! I will take over an hour and a half any day ! I now have 76 workouts for 2024. I used to get 500, but this is a good start ! My goal for 2025 will be 500+ workouts ! As of 7:45, Fitbit says I completed 14,440 steps and burned 3,383 calories !

I don't seem to have experienced any nausea from the B12 today, which is great. I took it right after I ate my waffles this morning. I took my iron with the remains of my shake after my first workout, with the plan of taking the multivitamin with my lunch, D/E with my afternoon snack and potassium/zinc with my dinner. Calcium at bedtime will round out the day. I know some people take handfuls of vitamins in one sitting, but my stomach just can't handle that. I suppose it could if I ate a ton of food with them, but I'm not about to do that. Side note: I didn't abide by my vitamin schedule and had to take most of them after my evening snack. As a result, I had a few pretzel rods and the yogurt that I was supposed to eat with my breakfast, just to make sure I didn't end up feeling sick.

I managed to get all the vitamins in with no adverse effects ! It helps that I had the pretzels and the yogurt, along with my evening snack in my stomach. I'm really happy with what I accomplished today. Would I rather sit on the couch all day ? Absolutely ! However, I won't lose the weight if I do that and I'll just sink into a depression. It's hard to believe I've been unemployed for 5 months. I really thought I would be able to find a new job, but it's a jungle out there. Perhaps it's just an indication that I've done what I needed to do and it's time to enjoy the rest of my life. I'm kind of ok with that ! I'm glad I have the stray cats to encourage me to get my ass out of bed in the morning ! 

It's just after 10 pm and I'm about ready to head to bed. I've had a full day ! In addition to my workouts I managed to get 2 loads of laundry done. One thing I really need to do is empty the closet in my office and organize it. I also need to organize the spare room upstairs. The pantry also needs some attention. First order of business is getting the house in shape for my dinner party on 11-10. I may start chipping away at those tasks tomorrow. On that note, I'm going to publish this blog, watch the last few minutes of a YouTube video, brush my teeth and hop into bed !

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