Day 66: Rocky Start and A Rough Finish !

 

Tuesday October 22, 2024

Here is the link to my original Day 66. It was Sunday March 10, 2019. My headline for that day was "A Life of Purpose". This was a reference to not having any goals in life until I decided it was time to lose the weight. It was a dreary late winter day, unlike today which is blue skies, sunshine and 71 degrees as of 12:15 ! I just opened the windows and doors to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. By 4:15 it was 76 degrees ! Simply amazing ! Tomorrow is the last day of 70 degree temps. We'll be back to daytime highs in the 50's with overnight lows in the 30's and 40's. If we get any sun during those days it would probably warm up the porch enough to let Minnie out there. We'll see !

Breakfast was a 270 calorie breakfast sandwich followed by 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 a 250 calorie meatloaf sandwich with steamed carrots. Evening snack was a 120 calorie oatmeal chocolate chip square with whipped cream.

I titled this blog "Rocky Start" because my morning was just that. I got up around 9, fed the cats and made my breakfast. I settled on the couch with Minnie and had forgotten my coffee ! So there I sat until she decided to move, which was after 11 am. At that point I got the trash together and put that out, made the bed, got dressed, made my shake, watered my plants and then made a cup of coffee ! So here it is almost 12:30 and I'm not in the frame of mind required to exercise. Looks like today will be 1-3-5-7 for workouts. I did manage to take my B12 on time, since you don't need water. Since I want to get my vitamins started now, I decided to have a yogurt with my coffee and then take my multivitamin and potassium. Well, that was a mistake as it made me nauseous, even with the yogurt. Ugh.

I weighed myself this morning and the scale read 274.4, which is a .2 drop from yesterday. If I'm honest, I was disappointed in that. However, I think it's a good thing to get that disappointment out of the way early. Expecting to lose a pound a day is unrealistic, so this was a good reminder. I did have beer and pretzels yesterday and I accidentally overdid the butter flavored salt on my green beans, so I may be retaining some water. We'll see what tomorrow brings ! Regardless, I'm not going to stop striving for 4 workouts a day. If I'm not going to work for someone else, then I'm going to work for myself ! These 4 workouts take less than 2 hours of my entire day, so I cannot complain !

Workout #1 was complete just after 1:30 pm, with 20m12s on Lafayette Beach. This workout was just as hard today as it was yesterday, but I got it done ! I actually felt great when the workout was over - the nausea has completely gone away, probably helped by my shake since I drank part of it before I started. My heart rate peaked at 184, which is a bit high. That shouldn't happen again today since the next 3 workouts are slower paced. I'm going to try and start workout #2 at 2:30 so that I don't find myself exercising so late in the day. 

In an effort to get my sleep schedule straightened around, I've set a daily alarm for 8 am. I had tried 7 am but that was just too early, and there's no reason I need to be up then. I think 8 am is a reasonable time to get up. I'm also going to make more of an effort not to endlessly scroll through my phone. I waste so much time throughout the day doing that.

I'm still using the "hot mess express" graphic and tomorrow is going to be the first test of my new routine, since it's rock & roll bingo day. If I can get myself up at 8 I'd like to exercise at 11 and 1. I really want a good week or two in this routine before I declare that I've made progress. I know myself and I know how easy it is for me to abandon a routine. That's how I ended up so fat again ! Today is Day 6 of getting 4 workouts a day, which is great. I will call Wednesday's my rest day ! I will say that my left hip feels better today, but that could be lingering effects of the ibuprofen I took when I went to bed last night. I don't take that every day as it's not good for you, but I really wanted to get a good nights sleep.

By 3:48 pm workout #2 was in the books and I had brought in the garbage bin and hopped on the couch with my afternoon snack. The workout for 19m1s in Italy. That's where Road to Recovery part 2 was filmed. I love the fact that each series is in a different country ! Part 1 was Mexico and Part 2 was Spain, specifically Mallorca and Menorca. My heart rate topped out at 136 during this workout, maybe during the short period of 5% incline.

When I first tried to get back on the treadmill (months ago) I was trying to do workouts that were well beyond my capabilities, and it was quite frustrating and demotivating. I kept giving up because I was trying to do things I just wasn't physically capable of doing. I'm so glad I decided to start with the Road to Recovery series and then go back to the workouts I did the first time around. I'm so glad I made the Hauru and Lafayette beach walks a "favorite", because they would not be available if I hadn't. I also made sure to "favorite the Atlas Mountains culture walk, even though that entire series is still available. Most of the workouts in the series were running but there were a couple of walks for recovery days. If I continue with 4 workouts a day 6 days a week, it should be an easy transition to the Atlas Mountains on 11-18. At this point in my original journey I had lost a few more pounds but I was only exercising once a day during the week, so I'm hoping the extra workouts offset any difference in my weight when 11-18 rolls around. On my original journey I would have weighed about 260 when I transitioned to the Atlas Mountains walk. That is about 4 weeks away. Can I lose 14 pounds in 4 weeks ? Probably not, but I'd be happy with 10 ! Reminder: I was not always truthful about my weight during the original journey. It's kind of ironic that by Day 66 of my original journey we were easing out of winter and on Day 66 of this journey we are easing in to winter ! Considering I tend to get depressed during the winter, it's surprising to me now that I was able to stick to Nutrisystem and be so successful. I guess it was "time" and perhaps now it is "time" again ? I really can't wait to be able to wear all the clothes I bought when I was "thin". I have a closet full of nice things I can't wear. I really miss the size 10 jeans ! I've given some thought about what I'll do with all the plus size clothes this time around. I've decided I will keep them, mostly because I'm unemployed/retired and if I gain weight I'm not going to spend money on new fat clothes. Of course, the goal is to never have to wear those clothes again ! The day I can start wearing my old workout sets will be wonderful ! I have so many pretty workout sets and I can't wear any of them ! I feel like I'm on my way back to those happy days !

I still have the 30 pound bear cheering me on ! I decided to keep him on the treadmill until I see 273 on the scale. Once I do he will return to his place of honor on my dresser upstairs. I'm so glad I was able to get all of those bears for free. Nutrisystem no longer does that. 

Workout #3 was in the books as of 5:07 pm ! It was 21m48s in Italy. My heart rate topped out at 127 during this workout. That was probably during a short period of 5% incline or the brief 6%.

It took me until 7:55 pm .. but workout #4 is in the books ! It was a tough 22m57s in Italy. This one had a stretch of 6% incline that almost got me. It was probably less than 2 minutes but the minute the incline on my machine started lowering I exclaimed "Thank God!". Yep, it was a tough one but I did it ! My heart rate topped out at 161 which is almost my max. I'm not surprised as I was tired and any incline over 2% makes me work harder.

My total workout time today is 83m58s plus 28 minutes of warm up/cool down for a grand total of 111m58s !!!! I will take over an hour and a half any day ! I now have 80 workouts for 2024. My goal for 2025 is 500+ workouts ! As of 8:06 pm, Fitbit says I completed 13,642 steps and burned 3,380 calories !

It's hard to believe I made it through 6 days with 4 workouts each day. I have NEVER done this. Tomorrow is rock & roll bingo so I'll only get 1 or 2 workouts, but I'm ok with that. Today has been another amazing day and the warm weather was a bonus ! It's about 11 pm so I'm going to head to bed. My goal is to be up at 8 and I'm going to try and get 2 workouts in. I don't know if I'll be able to motivate myself, but I'm going to try. I need to start getting ready to go out around 3 pm ... so I would have plenty of time ! I watched plenty of YouTube and played a ton of Cookie Jam. I won the most recent challenge and started the 4 new ones that came out today. I already completed 3 of the 4, but you can repeat one of them and earn 50 coins and 24 hours of lives each time. I plan to do that one as many times as I can to build up my coins & free lives. I have something like 76 days of free lives right now ! The 4th challenge requires completing levels on the first try and I'm in first place with 40 levels. The 2nd place person has 10, so I have a good lead. The current challenges end on Friday at 3 pm. It's been a fun day but I'm tired and ready for 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