45 Strong Challenge: Day 24

 I'm already worn out and the day hasn't started yet! Not because of physical exhaustion, but I'm just really stressed lately, which is not ideal for taking care of my body. I know studies have shown that stress undoes literally everything I'm trying to do to help myself, so I don't love that.

Then this morning literally nothing sounded good for breakfast, which is frustrating because I have so many ingredients on hand. Finally I just gave up and grabbed whatever was easy, and it's funny because it made me laugh to realize that I fell completely back to basics- the old Nutrisystem program that they had back in the early '00s where breakfast was a Nutrisystem entree plus a dairy or protein serving plus a fruit. The program has changed since then, in some ways better and in some ways worse (at least in my opinion) but their food was generally pretty good, and I still do occasionally drive across the border to get an order of the frozen entrees (which are vastly superior to the shelf stable ones)!

So my quick and easy breakfast this morning is a banana chopped into coins, topped with vanilla Greek yogurt and a little caramel sauce, and a Nutrisystem cinnamon roll. I guess old habits die hard but in this case? That's a pretty good habit. I'm not an active Nutrisystem member anymore because I don't order the food frequently enough to keep my auto delivery on, but I'd still recommend that service to anyone looking for quick and easy meals designed to help with weight loss. Is it cheap? No, but when you look at the cost of food nowadays plus the cost of all the ready meal services that have sprung up, it's pretty reasonable. And most of the entrees can be "doctored up" to actually taste pretty good. In fact, if you haven't read back in my blog, that's what Stomach Rumblings was originally about. I shared lots of recipes and tips and tricks to make the NS program work for you. Back in 2010 when I was an active member, I lost 125 pounds with Nutrisystem and I maintained that loss for six years until my life got really stressful and I stopped taking care of myself; stopped even caring about taking care of myself. That's what I have to prevent this time. Weight loss gets harder the older you get, and yo-yo'ing is very hard on your body. I don't want to go through this again.

But I digress! My point is, I'd still recommend them if you're looking for something, and they obviously instilled some reasonable habits in me that I know work well!

I did:

• 59 minutes of walking and 38 minutes at F45 for a total of 97 active minutes. Today was the last week of the Triple Threat workout which is tiring cardio. 
• drank 3 litres of water
• did my dental care
• 42 minutes of Spanish on Duolingo.

Whoosh!

Well, that was a nice boost! I've been losing smaller lately which surprised me a bit but since I wear a Fitbit I know that I am much more sedentary than I'm supposed to be. Unfortunately that comes along with being disabled and having the chronic health issues that I have. I'm doing the best that I can, but I'm losing even without exercise.

I lost 3lbs this week! And this put me over the hump of 30lbs lost. I still don't really see much difference in myself, but I suspect that's mostly due to familiarity. When I look at other people's pictures who are similarly sized to me and lost a similar amount of weight, I definitely see a difference. I've also noticed that some of my shirts "have gotten longer". So I guess that means the belly has gone down a little! I don't take measurements because I'm not really focused on the numbers, but I'm sure they have decreased too.

I finally managed to get my hands on some frozen food! Us Canucks cannot order the Uniquely Yours plan because they don't ship frozen food to Canada, but I was able to get some at a relative's house. OMG it's so good! I am sure I will still enjoy my shelf stable stuff, because I think that works better for most of my tweaks anyway while the frozen seems to be mostly heat and eat, but having the variety will be lovely I think.

Here's what I've tried so far!

Chocolate Cashew Bar (Dessert):

This bar has a whopping 15g of protein, which is considerably more than the other snacks. I'm planning on ordering extra of them because I think they will be handy to have around as emergency protein bars. They're very dense, and not as sweet as one would expect from a chocolate bar- they're nothing like the fudge graham bar for example. But they are extremely filling and I like cashews, so definitely worth a try, especially on a hungry day. I'm surprised they don't put those in the Fresh Start week to give customers a little extra protein to keep them satisfied, honestly.

Cinnamon Roll (Frozen Breakfast):

Well! I liked the shelf stable cinnamon bun, although it was rather on the chewy side. It made a great Cobblestone Cake though- that recipe is posted in my Recipe section if you're curious. No one would ever confuse it with a Cinnabon, though!

But this one doesn't even taste like diet food! It's not quite as overwhelmingly rich, but the icing is gooey and the portion size is considerably larger than the shelf stable roll. I microwaved mine for twice as long because I like my cinnamon buns hot like they're right out of the oven, and it was perfect and melty like that. It made a delicious breakfast with a mug of green tea. I saved my breakfast PF for later.

I am definitely going to enjoy the variety! Some of the frozen items are the same as what I tried when I was on the program years ago, unless they have gone through reformulations. I had the meatball parmesan melt for lunch and it was pretty tasty, although a little bread-y. I didn't take an updated photo though, it's about the same as it was before.

I'm looking forward to dessert- it's Pi Day, so I'll be having that stuffed apple pie for dessert later!