Day 10: How To Make It Through The Weekend ?

 

This picture will continue to be the header of my blog until I'm able to establish some better habits. I originally wrote "good habits" but I'm trying to stay away from negativity - so things are not "bad" vs "good". How about good vs better for positivity !

I didn't check the temp when I got up this morning but it was 53 degrees at 10 am ! All the snow melted over the past couple of days. Snow is back in the forecast by late Thursday, so we'll see how that plays out ! 

Breakfast was a Jimmy Dean Delights breakfast sandwich (270 calories). Morning snack was a protein shake (120) before I headed out to the grocery store. I don't want a repeat of last week, where I found myself feeling weak from not eating. The good news is the remains of the candy bar I bought last Saturday are still safe and sound in the fridge ! Lunch was a beef bean & cheese burrito (230 calories) with salsa. This item was discontinued and I'm sad about that. I might have 1 or 2 left and then that's it ! I looked online to see if there were any low cal options I could buy and the closest one had 270 calories. I could probably make some at home with less calories but I don't like to cook and probably wouldn't do it. I do make tacos once in a while. I have some ground beef in the freezer that I really need to use, so I may do taco's again soon ! Afternoon snack was cottage cheese (80 calories) and a can of peaches (110 calories). Dinner was broccoli and a meatloaf sandwich (250 calories). Evening snack was a chocolate cupcake with whipped cream.

I was a little stiff this morning but I think once I settle into a daily exercise routine that will go away. Once I got moving I was fine. When winter is over and the living room is rearranged I will get the Total Gym out and start working on my muscles again.

My favorite YouTuber Post 10 posted a new camping video this morning, so I spent a lazy morning watching that 94 minute video and enjoying my coffee. 

This is my second weekend on Nutrisystem 2024. Weekends have been a problem over the last couple of years as I have too much time on my hands and snacked, maybe out of boredom. Weekends also involve a grocery store trip and it was easy to fall into the trap of buying a "treat". Problem was I bought too many "treats" ! Before my mom died we used to go to the casino every Saturday and that always involved a big coffee with cream, sugar and caramel flavor for the drive. Then I'd stuff myself at a restaurant in the casino, followed by another coffee and something sweet. After mom's stroke and after she died I did go to the casino alone a few times. I ate in the food court but still had that coffee for the drive and the 2nd coffee & something sweet. I used my $200 in casino vouchers to buy baked goods and candy at Opal's, just to use them up. That amount of vouchers every month sounds amazing, but I spent far more than $200 a month to get them. I also had $75 free play every week, but again .. even with $500 a month in "freebies" I was spending (and losing) triple that amount to gamble. I never gambled to the point that I couldn't pay my bills, but nothing was going into my savings. Right now today I am tempted to go to the casino occasionally, but I'm afraid of falling back into that trap. I don't trust myself enough to limit it to maybe once a month. Once a month will become twice a month and before you know it you're going there every weekend. Do I really want to throw my money away ? Because that is what gambling is. The short is answer is no, I do not want to throw my money away. However, like my mother, there is little other entertainment in my life. I could buy "stuff" ... but I have enough "stuff". I splurged on a Michael Kors purse and that didn't make me feel any different. I've bought shoes and some clothes and the stuff to do my own gel manicures, which I haven't tried yet. None of that really excited me. So what else is there ? To be honest, my life feels pretty empty. Going to the casino was exciting when mom was alive. I got to spend the whole day with her. I got to do my hair and makeup and dress up. It felt good. I think that is what I'm searching for right now. Having gained all this weight, I don't feel attractive at all. I'm back to plus sizes and I miss my tight jeans ! Most of the rings I have don't fit and that bugs me. I guess what holds me back a lot is not being able to look the way I used to. Well, there's an easy fix for that ! Stay true to Nutrisystem and exercise and I will get there again ! Maybe I will treat myself to a casino visit at each 10 pound mark ? I want to lose 100 pounds so that would be 10 visits. Maybe at the 100 pound mark I will treat myself to an overnight stay and a spa visit ! Sounds like a plan ! So when I get to 258 I will go to the casino the weekend after I hit that mark. However, the trade off will be NO sweet coffee, no baked goods and a sensible meal. I love the General Tso's chicken with veggie lo mein at the food court, so that is likely what I will eat. Ugh .. talking about this makes me want to go there today !!!!!!

One thing I forgot to blog about yesterday was this awful smell I've had in the kitchen for at least the past week. I smelled it in the corner by the stove where the lazy susan is. I was convinced there was something dead in that corner, maybe a mouse ? I had planned to pull the stove out and investigate this weekend. Fortunately, I did not have to do that as I discovered the culprit ! I have dirty pans sitting on the stove and they've been there for a month. Yep - a month since I did dishes. No, I am not proud of that and it will be taken care of before this weekend is over. Anyhow, I discovered a pan with some water an egg that I didn't use when I made potato salad back on 1-12/1-13. It cracked while boiling and a lot of the contents came out, so I left it in the pan with some water. That is what has been stinking ! I put the egg itself in a ziploc and then trashed it. I rinsed the pan out, sprayed it with dish soap and voila - the stink was gone ! I am just so lazy and I need to snap out of it. The laundry room is stinking too as I haven't touched the litter boxes in days. That task was completed today !

I checked the freezer this morning as I've moved out my next Nutrisystem order and was afraid I might run out of breakfast items. Fortunately I found a bag with a weeks worth of breakfasts so I should be ok until my next order processes on 2-19. Nutrisystem hasn't run any 50% off deals lately so I haven't been able to get ahead on the items that typically run short. I'm hoping they run one around St. Patrick's Day or Easter. I can buy a whole month's worth of food for less than my monthly auto ship, so that was a great way to save money. They might have figured out people were doing that ! The last sale I saw was only 35% discount and I didn't take the time to "do the math" to see if there was any savings. Their current offer is free shipping if you spend $150 ... hard pass ! 

I was thinking about buying some Super Bowl snacks at the grocery store but I stopped myself. I'm not a football fan and won't be watching the game, so this would just be an excuse to deviate from my diet. Reasonable deviations would be Easter dinner with my family, so that is the next time I will "treat" myself. Easter isn't until March 31, so it's quite a ways off ! After that the next "holiday" with a family dinner would be Thanksgiving, but there might be some summer get togethers like July 4 in between. There's no reason I can't stick to my diet whether it's a summer barbecue or a holiday meal, so that's up to me to manage. Easter is 7 weeks from tomorrow and it would be great if I have a noticeable weight loss by then ! Just 2 pounds a week would see me drop 14 pounds between now and then !

About 12:30 today I started to feel chilled and I was thinking there was something wrong with the heat, as the registers were cold. The thermostat indicated the temp in the house was 71 but when I looked in the basement the green light on the boiler was not on. I ran the hot water in the kitchen for a minute and it got plenty hot. I checked the basement again and the green light was on and the boiler had fired up. Since it was 53 outside, none of my 3 heating zones were calling for heat and that is why the light wasn't lit ! After all the troubles I've had with the heat I am still paranoid about it. I guess I thought the green light should be on all the time. Apparently it is only on when there is a call for heat or hot water, which makes sense.

I had a lot of time to think about my diet and exercise and self care today. One thing I've also been neglecting are my vitamins and Metamucil, so I'm adding that back in to things I need to focus on. Eat less, take vitamins, exercise, self care (shower, skin care, brush teeth) and keeping my house clean. None of these are "hard", so all of these are doable.

I headed out to the grocery store about 1 and got back at 3. I was nearing 1/4 tank of gas so I went to Delta Sonic first. Wegman's was busy as usual but they had plenty of cashiers on hand, so I didn't do self checkout today. They had tons of Valentine's flowers and a chocolate covered strawberry bar set up. I bought some of those last year but I resisted the temptation today ! I thought about just getting two but you know what ? I remember from last year that they really weren't that good. They're messy - the chocolate all falls off - and the strawberry tends to be wet, which I don't like. So it wasn't hard to avoid them ! I've had a hard time lately finding riced cauliflower so I checked and they had it. I bought 2 bags. It was $2.99 a bag ! Next stop was Walmart to finish off my list. Wouldn't you know it, they had the cauliflower today ! It was about 50 cents a bag less than Wegman's. I bought 2 more bags and 4 bags will last me a while. I'm proud that I didn't give in to the temptation to buy any "treats".

I made lunch when I got home and sat down to watch Post 10's camping video again. At the end of it was a link for another camping video that was "unlisted", so I never knew about it ! There went another 90+ minutes ! I didn't feel like exercising today so I worked on my online life. I deleted my second Facebook account and logged all devices out of the FB account I use. I also want to get rid of some of the email accounts I have. 

One thing I haven't done for Nutrisystem 2024 is take a photo. I will do that tomorrow !