I like today's thread starter a lot. I used to be the queen of justifications & excuses, and it got me nowhere. When it comes to my workouts, I don't let myself have excuses. This week I'm on a running rest break because of my foot - that's not an excuse, it's a valid reason. "I don't feel like it" or "I'm just too tired" are excuses, so I don't let myself get away with that. That strategy does not work as well for me for my eating because really nothing is off limits on my diet. I've lost quite a bit of weight that way, and it's a way of eating that is sustainable long-term, so I don't want to change that by making certain foods off limits. Maybe it can just be no excuses as to calories. I'm doing pretty well during the week but man weekends I'm struggling.

Maureen I hope you enjoyed your visit with your sister! Was it a day trip or did she come to stay with you?

Marla your hair is super cute! Glad the air is clearing there & you're able to get outside. How was your margarita party?

Congrats Jess! I have been strength training for nearly 18 months now & it's so rewarding. I genuinely enjoy it. My advice to you is focus more on your body comp and less on what number is on the scale. It's just a number. My friends on here who have been successful with maintenance have taken the approach Valma said - they changed very little about how they eat, except for adding a couple hundred calories a day. They're maintaining the lifestyle that helped them lose the weight in the first place. Unless you're wanting to really bulk (like a body builder) you're not going to need to go crazy with your calories. You can eat at maintenance and get toned.

Valma glad your hand is starting to feel better! I've been staying away from Candy Crush because the people I know who play it can't stop, so I'm just avoiding the addiction completely. LOL. Congrats on a good food day yesterday! I really struggle with that on my rest days in particular.

Sherry I hope everything is going okay!

Donna, in case you check in - how are you settling back into being home from your trip?

The pool yesterday will definitely be a last resort going forward. There are retaining walls on either side of the lanes and apparently that's a great place for kids to jump in the water - unfortunately they were jumping into the side with the lanes, which I suppose is deeper - so periodically a kid would come down way too close to me for comfort. There were also a couple of girls old enough to know better who would just stop and tread water in the middle of my lane. At one point something hit the top of my head - there was a small boy (maybe 2?) standing behind me who apparently threw sand/small rocks on me. He gave me a cheerful hello and ran away. I was able to get some laps in but there were so many distractions it wasn't much fun.

Today I have gym homework - 90 minutes of cardio (on some combination of the spin bike, elliptical & rowing machine) and I have 4 sets of 15 reps of 4 different leg exercises (squats with a 35-45# kettlebell, hip exercises with an ankle band, inner thigh machine, and one-legged leg curls on the Swiss ball). So that will take a couple hours. My trainer seems to think that if he exhausts me at the gym today, when I work out with him tomorrow I will not be cranky about missing my long run this weekend.

Have a great Sunday.

Donna considering how much you traveled, the 2 pounds are nothing. Kind of a miracle actually. When I trained for my half I had to bump up my calories. I struggled with finding the balance of eating enough to fuel the extra miles (on top of my regular workouts, which I kept up) and not eating too much because I was hungry all the time once I got into double digit long runs. My best advice is not to worry about those 2 pounds until after your race.

Because your schedule was off it's not surprising your running took a hit too. You may need to scale back a bit and build back up. It won't take as long as it did the first time around, but since your running hasn't been consistent you can't just jump back in where you left off either. Today was a bad run, but don't let that mess with you mentally. You're going to have them, and that's part of the deal. My first 11 mile run was horrible and left me shaken, but my 12 mile run was just fine. Come to think of it I haven't run 11 miles since then, and that distance doesn't appeal to me at all.

Fire is 25% contained, 6 miles from me but they have done a great job keeping it from jumping hwy to go this direction.

The national guard is here for all the fires, so lots of help flew in from all over. The air pressure has kept smoke gone last 5 days it's been back to almost normal summer other than seeing all the helicopters and planes.

I swam only today. Tomorrow busy we have company probably just swim again, doing errands so won't be online.