Day 69: Another Week Comes To A Close

 

Friday October 25, 2024

Here is the link to my original Day 69. It was Wednesday March 13, 2019. My headline for that day was "Memories Are Sweet". This was a reference to a memory of going to bingo with my grandmother back in the 70's, since it's day 69. At the bingo games people would whistle or holler "woo hoo" when $69 was called. It's hard to get old and think back on all the wonderful people you had in your life, who are now gone. I used to love spending the night at my grandparents house. My grandfather would occasionally take me to the local barroom where he'd have a beer and a shot and I'd have soda. I felt all grown up sitting at the bar ! My grandmother died young due to lung cancer brought on by many, many years of smoking. I think she was 67 or so. My grandfather lived to be 80 and never stopped missing her. My dad's mother died young too, most likely due to diabetes complications. I was in 4th grade so I don't really know the details of what happened. My dad's father lived to be close to 90, but he spent many years in a nursing home with dementia or Alzheimer's. My dad had the start of it when he passed. Cancer took him at the age of 72 in 2012. Mom passed in 2022 at the age of 82. She never stopped missing my dad and I hope they are together in Heaven. It kind of sucks to think I may only have 10-20 years left on this earth. I'm glad I'm working on improving my health & fitness so that I can get the most out of my remaining years ! This is not something I think about often or dwell on, but the memories of my grandmother made we think about it. Our time on this earth is finite, so we really need to do our best to make the most of it !

Breakfast was a 180 calorie cinnamon roll followed by an 80 calorie yogurt. Morning snack was a 155 calorie chocolate shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 240 calorie chicken bacon ranch quesadilla with salsa and low fat sour cream. Afternoon snack was an 80 calorie cheese stick and 120 calorie crackers. Dinner was 260 calorie roasted turkey with mashed potatoes and carrots. Evening snack was a 120 calorie oatmeal chocolate chip square with whipped cream.

I woke up just before 9 and only had one stray cat to feed this morning. I put out 2 bowls of food and I'm sure she ate both of them. She's a nursing mom so she's probably hungry ! I went out to bring the empty bowls back in and she came running, so I ended up putting out a little more food for her. Minnie and I had our usual morning snuggle but when she hopped down just after 10 I took the opportunity to make my bed, get dressed, make my shake and put my mums back outside. It was sunny for a bit but by noon clouds had rolled back in. It was only 51 degrees so there won't be any porch access for Minnie today. Looks like we're going to be in the low 50's for the next few days. I finished a challenge on Cookie Jam at noon and then checked in on my bank account to ensure my transfer had completed. I also scheduled a transfer for the 1st of the month bills. With the morning chores and the financial tasks completed, it was time for the first workout of the day !

My first workout was the Lafayette Beach walk and it was complete as of 12:54 pm. Nothing like 20m12s of intervals to get your blood pumping ! My heart rate maxed out at 184, which is about 20 beats over my max. It's not surprising as this is the most vigorous workout of the day. The next 3 are from the Italy Road to Recovery series, so they are less intense.

I haven't weighed myself in a few days so but I'm hoping to see a drop next time I do. Once I am under 274 I will put the 30 pound bear away and count the pounds to the 40 pound bear ! It's tempting to weigh myself every day but it's disappointing if you see the same number day after day. As I said a few blogs ago, expecting to lose a pound every day is not realistic. At this point I'm just continuing to eat as per the Nutrisystem plan and working hard to get 4 workouts a day. Since I'm not taking all those vitamins I don't need to eat pretzels to have something in my stomach, so that is fewer calories I'm taking in. I've also successfully avoided opening the s'mores clusters and the Biscoff cookies. I thought about having a s'mores cluster last night but I had the willpower not to. I know myself too well: one would taste amazing and the next thing you know I'd have had 3 or 4 of them. At 100 calories each, that adds up fast ! It seems like the exercise I'm doing is helping suppress my appetite as I don't feel tempted to snack in between meals, nor do I feel hungry. Carbohydrates and sugar have always fueled my hunger, so minimizing them definitely helps !

Workout #2 was one that I skipped last night in favor of something a little easier. I was tired when I got to workout #4 last night and didn't want to struggle through incline. It was the right decision as this was a tough 21m49s to get through. It was done by 3:13. My heart rate did hit 174, which is a bit high but not unexpected with the inclines. I would worry more about a sustained heart rate that high. Workout #3 has a fair amount of incline but most of it is 2%. There is some 4% and a brief 5%, but I think I can manage it. Workout #4 has basically no incline, so that will be the perfect workout to end the day !

Workout #3 was in the books as of 5:45 pm. I got a late start because I lingered on the couch too long and at 4:30 Minnie decided it was time for a nap in my lap. The hopped down just after 5, so I took the opportunity to get on the treadmill ! It was 21m40s with quite a lot of incline, though most was 2% or 4%. Even so, incline is incline and it makes the effort that much more difficult ! My heartrate maxed out at 175, which is a bit high. I will say I felt a little weak, as if I hadn't eaten enough today, but I was able to finish the workout and recovered quickly. Should I worry that my heart rate exceeded the max during all 3 workouts today ? They were brief spikes, so I'm not going to panic. It's possible I'm not drinking enough. All I've had today is 2 cups of coffee, about 2/3 of a bottle of diet coke and a couple sips from my water bottle. Tomorrow I will put more effort into getting better hydrated.

After my workout I put some carrots in the microwave and hunted up a box to bring inside to deposit recyclables in. Then I heated my dinner and I felt pretty good after I ate. I'm thinking I was just hungry and that's why I felt weak during my last workout. Since it's Friday night I treated myself to a beer !

Shortly before 7:30 pm I dragged my tired butt to the treadmill for workout #4. It was 20m8s in Italy and the only incline was a very brief 2%, which is nothing. My heart rate maxed out at 115, which is lower than usual, but it was a low impact workout with little incline. I was very glad to step off the treadmill at 7:54 pm and take off my shoes and socks !

My total workout time today is 83m49s plus 28 minutes of warm up/cool down for a grand total of 111m49s. I'm at 88 workouts for 2024. My goal for 2025 is 500+ workouts and that is very reachable. As of 8:02 pm, Fitbit says I completed 13,832 steps and burned 3,316 calories. Another great fitness day !

I'm glad I stopped taking all those vitamins as I felt better today, despite the weakness during workout #3 ! I also slept better last night. Perhaps too many vitamins are just as bad as not enough. 

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 - 

shower - x

skincare - x

brush teeth -