Courage To Continue

"Success is not final, failure

 

is not fatal: it is the courage

 to continue that counts."

This quote is attributed to Winston Churchill and he was certainly right about courage to continue. It took a lot of courage for me to finally address my weight and my financial and physical fitness, and to do it in a public manner. I knew I had to put it out there to help keep me accountable and anyone who actually knows me knew I was extremely overweight, so it really was no secret. It's not like I didn't know how fat I was. It's not like I didn't know my finances were a mess. It's not like I didn't know I was not physically fit. I did know. I knew it for years. Still - to say it out loud was no easy task. For some reason I wasn't able to seriously address any of it until I finally hit the proverbial wall in December 2018. I hit that wall hard and I feel like it was the lowest point of my life. The good news is it's been all uphill since. I've stumbled along the way and I've backtracked some but I've never given up the fight. The courage to continue is not always easy to come by. Some days I wonder why I bother .. because life did not magically change when I reached my goal weight. Truthfully, it was just an ordinary day. The good thing is those thoughts are fleeting because life DID change. Maybe it didn't change as much as I'd like but who's fault is that ? Maybe nobody's. Life is what it is I guess. I feel better, I look better and I don't worry about how I'm going to pay my bills. I have a roof over my head, a car in the garage and a good job that allows me to work from home. What more can you ask for ? Considering the current state of the world, I am pretty fortunate. So that's how I chase away the negative thoughts when they creep in.

A while back I decided it's time to stop counting days. I started Nutrisystem on January 4, 2019 and I remain committed to the program. I reached my goal weight on July 23, 2021 and lost over 150 pounds. After taking a break from exercise to focus on work I gained a bit of weight back. On December 28, 2021 I started working on getting back to my goal weight. The next milestone in this paragraph will be the day I get back to 150 or less pounds. I started this "new" blog since the journey I started back in 2019 is over and I'm transitioning to my new life. 

Breakfast was waffles with sugar free syrup and a yogurt. Completely missed my morning snack. I had a huge lunch to compensate - chicken & dumplings over a 10 ounce package of riced cauliflower with a chef salad. Afternoon snack was cottage cheese and oatmeal cookies. Dinner was a meatloaf sandwich with roasted veggies. Evening snack was a chocolate cupcake. 

I spent about 60 minutes on the treadmill today but went with an easier pace to give my legs a bit of a break. Last night I struggled with cramps in both legs from knee to toe for the first time in weeks ! I had to get up 4 different times to walk it off so I didn't get much sleep. As a result, I got up late so I had no time to do anything before work and didn't even get dressed or make my bed until noon. This day went by so fast it's like I was in a time warp ! 

Weather is still chilly but we had some sun today, so that is always nice ! We have a winter storm warning that stretches from Friday evening until Sunday, so I may find myself stuck at home this weekend. It's a good thing I shopped last weekend because there is nothing I need at the grocery store ! I will miss my casino outing with mom, if I do have to stay home because of the weather and I'm not happy about that ! So we'll see how the forecast pans out !