Day 15: The Start of Week 3 !

 

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 think this daily reminder is helping as I've been able to start getting things done!

It was 14 degrees when I woke up this morning and it dipped to 12 by 7:30. I knew it was cold because I woke up during the night and needed another blanket - which NEVER happens. I think it was just me because it was 65 in my bedroom when I went to bed and it was still 65 when I got up. The downstairs was at 69 and the laundry room was about 62. The forecast high for the day was a balmy 35 but there is a winter storm warning from 3 pm today until 10 am tomorrow. We had a quick blast of snow around 4 pm and got maybe an inch of the light fluffy stuff. We'll see if more sneaks in during the night.

Breakfast was French toast (120 calories) and a yogurt (80 calories). Morning snack was a protein shake (120 calories). Lunch was a pepperoni pizza melt (220 calories) and a chef salad. Afternoon snack was cottage cheese (80 calories) and a can of peaches (110 calories). Dinner was roasted carrots and a meatloaf sandwich (250 calories). Evening snack was a chocolate cupcake (140 calories) with whipped cream.

I woke up with a sore left knee and took 2 Tylenol with my breakfast. I guess aches and pains are going to be the norm as I age but I'm not going to let them stop me from getting this weight off. I need to be on that treadmill and if that means some Tylenol here and there, so be it. Yesterday was such a great day and I don't want to lose my momentum. I ate right, exercised twice, cleaned litter boxes, showered, did skincare and brushed my teeth at bedtime. I've also kept the kitchen clean. I wiped up the stove after I cooked Abby's chicken and also washed the pan and knife I used. I really love the Dawn spray dishwashing liquid! The smell is fantastic and it makes quick cleanups easy. If I can just put yesterday on repeat it will be smooth sailing to get this weight off and increase my fitness level. The Tylenol took care of the knee pain for the entire day.

I made it to the treadmill at noon and completed a 23m12s interval workout. The recovery speed was 2.4 and the pushes were 3 mph. The programmed workout had six 30 second pushes and three 45 second pushes and went to cool down with over 7 minutes to go! I went ahead and added three 1 minute pushes to use up the extra time. This workout had inclines up to 8% and I overrode that to stay at zero. I am certainly not ready to go 3 mph at 8% incline! I have never liked incline. The programmed workout estimated 149 calories burned and I ended up with 139. I'm ok with giving up that extra 10 to stay off the inclines! 

Work was not super busy but I was able to put the finishing touches on a large project I received almost a month ago. It's a big accomplishment to turn it around in less than a month AND to make no mistakes! 

After work I scrolled my phone for a bit but at 5:40 I forced myself off the couch and onto the treadmill. It was 25m37s of intervals. The intervals were 1 minute at 2.7 or 3 mph with 2 minute recoveries at 2.4 mph. There was no incline other than a very brief 2%, which was no problem. I had scheduled a 30 minute endurance workout did I think I could manage that. At the end of the workout I was struggling a bit as I hadn't eaten enough. I completely forgot to have my pepperoni pizza melt at lunch and I didn't have my afternoon snack either. I had some cottage cheese before my workout and prepared a dish of peaches, which was a good thing because I gobbled them down for a little sugar rush after my workout. I then had my pizza melt and some roasted carrots, then later a meatloaf sandwich. That caught me up for the day! 

Today was another good day. I got dressed when I got up, ate the right things, had my shoes on and my protein shake ready before noon, exercised twice, took a shower and did skincare. I also cleaned out the litter boxes and made sure all was clean in the kitchen. I'll brush my teeth at bedtime and then call it a day!

I weighed myself today and I was disappointed with the results. First weight was 264 .. what? Later it was 263 .. but with no clothes on I made it to 262. Only a pound for week 2. I was 263 on 2/7. Seems like I need to scale back the "extras". I've been putting a little caramel in my coffee once or twice a day and I had that big glass of chocolate milk the other day. I am also using a TON of whipped cream on my evening snack. Well, the caramel and chocolate syrup are almost gone, so they'll be history when the bottles are empty. I do have a new bottle of each, but they will remain unopened for a while. I will also scale back the whipped cream. I also add feta cheese to my salad and I will be using less of that going forward. I checked the jars of olives, red peppers and onions and their calories are minimal but they add up. I will scale back on those add ins too, especially the Kalamata olives because of the fat content. I've always added a tablespoon of peanut butter powder to my shake (35 calories) and I will continue with that. I also didn't exercise much over the past week, and that makes a difference. I'm going to work hard to stay with 2 workouts a day. The good news is I haven't gained any weight. I may be retaining water since I'm not drinking enough. I woke up this morning and my eyes were painfully dry again. You can also tell you're dehydrated when you pee and it's dark yellow. I used to drink 80 ounces a day and all I've been drinking lately is a couple cups of coffee and maybe a 16 ounce soda with dinner. Sometimes I don't even finish that! Drinking ice cold water in the winter has always been a challenge but I'm going to put some serious effort into it tomorrow.

I've had 2 good days in a row so tomorrow I'm going for 3 ! I'm not going to let the number on the scale get me down. I will keep working at this and I will succeed. On that note, I am heading to bed.