Day 2: There Is Hope

 

I've been up and down but I'm not giving up. However, I'm near rock bottom for sure. 

It's Wednesday and it's Day 2 of this last-ditch effort to get the weight back off. I weighed myself this morning and I've lost 2 pounds! I'm sure I was retaining some water after all the salty food I ate over the weekend. Still, 2 pounds is 2 pounds. It's a good start!

Breakfast was 120 calorie french toast with sugar free syrup and an 80 calorie yogurt. 

As expected, my hips were a little sore this morning. I'm not going to let this keep me from exercising because I know the more I move the better it will get. I will continue to proceed with caution so that I don't injure myself.

It was a frosty 33 degrees when I got up today. It wasn't snowing but I could see snow coming across Lake Ontario. The winter storm warning is in effect until 8 pm today, so the 8 am quiet may not last long!

Minnie seems to have settled in to being an only child. She snoozes on her usual chairs but she also snoozes on the couch, which she was never able to do. Right now she is lying at the other end of the couch, where Abby would usually be. I still miss my sweet Abby but I am glad she is no longer suffering. Minnie spent a of time in my lap over the past 2 weeks but the last couple days she was done that less often. Perhaps we are both moving through our grief.

I dug right in to work this morning and before I knew it, it was nearly noon and I didn't have my shoes on and I hadn't made my shake. Rather than not exercise, I opted to head outside and clear off my driveway. That meant clearing a few inches of very heavy wet snow. I am 1000% sure I burned more calories during that 45 minutes than I would burn on the treadmill in a week. I went pretty much non-stop from 12:06 to 12:49 and when I came inside it was all I could do to get my shoes, gloves and coat off before grabbing a Diet Coke and a yogurt out of the fridge before collapsing on the couch to catch my breath. The good news is it only took a few minutes to recover, because by 12:54 I was able to get up and heat my pizza melt for lunch. I am sure my back and arms will be sore so I planned to take some aspirin later in the day. It was so satisfying to see all that snow cleared away but it was hard work! Not surprisingly, the bottom of the driveway was the heaviest and therefore the hardest but I got the job done! I also cleared the snow off the front steps but that was the easy part of the job!

I didn't have my extra power fuel with breakfast, didn't have my morning snack, didn't have a salad at lunch and I also didn't have my afternoon snack. I did have some pretzels. So I'm pretty low on calories today.

Not long after I got done shoveling the driveway the sun came out and melted the residual bits of snow! It made me so happy to look outside and see that smooth clean black driveway! It's about 6:45 and we just had a quick blast of flurries. I'm glad I got to enjoy a clean driveway for a couple hours .. lol! My work afternoon wasn't super busy but I dived back into the huge project I have and lost track of time .. meaning I worked until 5:20 by mistake. I let my boss know and she had no problem counting it as overtime. 

I had a 250 calorie meatloaf sandwich and the rest of the roasted brussel sprouts and broccoli for dinner. By 7:45 I was starving! After a shower I had my evening snack, which was a 140 calorie lemon zest cake with whipped cream and a 130 calorie mint ice cream sandwich. I had the extra dessert because I was really low on calories and they're been hanging around in the freezer a while. There is only 1 left and then I'll be limited to my 2 favorites, which are the chocolate cupcake and the lemon zest cake.

Today was a good day. I'm so happy to have the driveway clear AND I'm so happy we didn't get the 6-11 inches of snow that was predicted. It's 9:12 pm now and it's 28 degrees outside. We do have a high wind warning until 2 am and I can hear it howling out there. I hope my stray cat family is sheltered from the wind and cold. Our low for tonight is 21 and tomorrow night is 19. I guess I moved the couch back in front of the heat register a little too soon. The house has been perfectly comfortable so I'm not worried about it. I doubt we'll see any single digit or below zero temps at this point. It was a good day because I ate within the Nutrisystem guidelines. It was a good day because I got dressed before work and I made my bed. Starting the day off with a 2 pound weight loss was the best and I know that is NOT going to be a daily occurrence. 

I'm nearing the end of a 2h10m YouTube video of this guy cutting down a massive tree and then I'm heading upstairs for to brush my teeth and do skincare.