I had a successful weekend. A couple of times I was really something ~ I couldn't tell if it was hunger or cravings or wanting to eat for the sake of eating, perhaps due to boredom. On Saturday, I went for a walk to pass the time until the next meal. Then Sunday, I put half of my supper away for lunch today in order to have some treats.

I was excited to get that honourable mention last week!

@Ademann1 I'm glad you're in our group. Your first post was lovely and I would have been sorry to see you go. Great loss last week too!

@sleepymom5 Great loss last week. I know you worked really hard given all that you're keeping in balance. It must feel great. As they say, you have to sharpen the saw.

@lennoncpa Great loss considering you seem to be plateauing. I'm on a 1,200 calorie plan right now and when I looked back to the time when I lost the most weight consistently over time, I switched to doing 1,700 cal on Thu/Sat and 1,000 plus 1/2 my exercise calories on Sun/Mon/Tue/Wed/Fri. I think it's effective at shaking me out of a plateau. I'm not recommending it per se, because it's a little extreme. But I think one could still fit in their delicious hummus. The 'eat-up' days are something to look forward to. In order to do it without 'going over,' I used MFP Premium when I do this. You can change your calories by day of the week in there. Once I'm back into a groove, I go back to the 1,200 per day. BEBE looks amazing after his makeover!

@lenka1 Outstanding cakes! Your girls look so smart in their dressy/Christening outfits. I think a celebration should be enjoyed. You'll get back into the grove.

@danisp Celebrating your husband's birthday sounds so fun! You too will get back into the groove.

@GingerPwr I love the sound of the 'senior parade.' That could totally catch on even when we get past this. It's so symbolic of the final year of high school and heading off on the road to young adulthood.

@Cafelelia Great loss! What a lot of work it is to do grades 4 and 8 over again. Even when my daughter and son were in school all day, I remember grade 8 was epic. The projects! I have no memory of grade 4 because I skipped it. Hmm...skipping a year. I bet that would look good to a lot of parents and students right about now. I'm really relieved that we had peaceful marches in Toronto this weekend. I know that many people are self-isolating after marching too. In our neighbourhood we have volunteers shopping for them and helping otherwise.

@tryingagain5 I think being patient with yourself is the best approach. You've got more to worry about than most and have kept up almost all of your good habits. I think the social approach to exercise is a good one. I love walking with neighbours.

@Mrsbell8well You really kicked that bloat out the back door! Well done. That must feel amazing.

@brown6267 Must feel marvelous to be in maintenance. Congratulations! I had to look up Pickleball. BTW, I love pickles. I found it on BlogTO so it must be hip. They have it at my community centre. Well normally they do. It's still closed.

@ljdanny It sounds like life is getting back to normal in some ways for you. I love how you're putting all your healthy morning routines back in place. Outstanding!

@kirsten11872 Yay! Four pounds. I'm thrilled for you. Ditto on what I said to Lisa. Catching kids up in school is such a huge undertaking.

@pacsnc6 As I said to Casey, I love hearing about these drive-by graduations. What a great week this will be for you. I'm sending all my positive energy your way for this week's chemo and the news that follows soon. You are amazing through all of this.

@timibotkin @Freeglerock @nstephenson01 How are your gardens growing? I think about you when I'm out watering my the patch I'm in on with my neighbours.

@melaniedscott That's a lot of gardening you did this weekend considering you say you're not good at it. I've forgotten where you live. Please remind me.

@JillyBT I really feel for you. You are really living the life of the sandwich generation. No rest for you at all. I'm glad you can focus on you a bit this month. As I said to Pam, with all the balancing you do, sharpening the saw will really help.

@twyla77 My daughter's been on Whole30 a few times and last year I did the meal prep for her for one of the months. She must like it as she goes back to it from time to time.

@annliz23 Doesn't HIIT feel great!?! And for such a long time afterward too.

@CassieGets @hope002 @bburrer30 @KUMEcyclingteam @jedaschultz Congrats on your losses!

I need to catch up in here, but NZ officially has no cases of Covid 19 and we're at level 1 which basically just means that our border is closed and no other restrictions apply.

School, sports, everything is back and I am crazy busy with work and kids. I didn't miss this tbh. Yesterday afternoon was a write-off, I wound up in a meeting for one son and then having to take the other to basketball training because my kids all forgot their keys. Locked all kids out of the house while I was at this meeting and older son then couldn't ride his bike to training because he couldn't get to it.

By the time I got home last night I was exhausted, managed some quick yoga and 15 mins on spin bike, very slowly! My weigh has fluctuated back down this morning and I am actually 100 grams under my lowest recent weight. Go figure. My plan is to just stick with calories and drink plenty of water, and do what exercise I can.

Daily check in for Sunday and Monday
Food-not logged but good
Water-over 64 oz
Exercise- Walking at least 30 min, Pt and stretching

Sorry I was MIA yesterday. I had an emergency with Daisy. She ate a bone on Sunday. She never had a bone in the past 10 years and a neighbor brought one for her when Jim was sick. We watched her closely and she chewed off more of the flavoring off of it than anything else. When she was done with it, we had a bone to throw out. We bought her a similar one for her birthday and gave it to her Sunday. We weren't paying much attention this time, I will explain why later, and didn't realize until she was getting sick that she ate the entire bone. She was up all night pacing and acting strange. Mk and Shannon were with her, then she came in by me around 5:30 am and I could tell right away she was sick. I have a friend who has a pack of dogs (like 10-15) and does doggie daycare and boarding. She works closely with a vet and knows a lot. She told me to induce vomiting and see what she brings up. It was small pieces of bone. I still had to bring her to the vet but vomiting must have made her feel better because she was at least able to lay down and rest after that. I took her to the vet for an exam and xrays. He said she has a ways to go before this all passes through. He told me warning signs of when to call or bring her to the ER. I have to give her mineral oil to help her poop. I also have to give her mashed potatoes and bread to cushion the sharp edges. She has no appetite but I was able to get her to eat some mashed potatoes with chicken. Unfortunately, she didn't poop all day yesterday. I was expecting her to wake up during the night and want to go out but she didn't. Hopefully today she will start to pass some of it. Poor little thing, I know we aren't supposed to give bones but since she enjoyed the other one so much, I was a little over confident there would be no problem with this one. Today she seems much better but I am still waiting for her to poop the rest of this out.

Sunday was a great day. Our children had a small surprise 30th anniversary party for us. We had no idea. It was a lot of fun. Our 30th anniversary is actually today. So I did eat off plan but I didn't go overboard. It was fun.

I hope everyone has a great day today!


@bburrer30 Amazing steps! You did have a great week!
@GingerPwr Well said. We need to find balance and be able to enjoy our lives but not go over board either. Love the post on de stressing too!
@timibotkin Wow! Awesome steps!
@melaniescott I think gardening is a lot of work too but I have friends and my in laws for just love it. I also know a lot of ladies on here do as well. I wish I did enjoy it more. Looks like you have a great plan for your gardens and it will be beautiful. Plus some additional exercise. You really seem like you have been doing well with everything. Keep up the good work!
@JillyBT You have really had it tough with everything that is going on. Sounds like you found a good fit with caregivers for your parents. I am glad your son is feeling better. You can tell when they start arguing with you that the are on the road to recovery Lol! Especially after being so tired and lethargic before that. I am glad that you are finding the time now to take care of yourself. Before this all hit, you were on a roll. I hope you can now take a breath and focus on you a little more.
@Cafelelia As I go through all of these posts, I realize I dropped the ball with adding the step count in. Sorry about that. These days run into each other and I wasn't thinking.
@CassieGetsFit2013 You are on a roll! I am so happy for you!
@twyla77 Good luck on the Whole 30! I know you were ready to get back to eating healthier and I hear this is a great way to do that. I am excited to see your progress.
@annliz23 You have been doing some awesome workouts!!
@Mrsbell8well The salads look yummy!
@ljdanny Awesome steps!
@xX_PhoenixRising_Xx I am glad that you know that weight fluctuations are normal. I know we are all looking for a loss each week but the scale doesn't show the whole pic. You are also such a good baker and so creative. Looks like your children are too! That steam punk chicken cake is awesome! I saw on the news that NZ has no cases of Covid. That is awesome! I am glad everything is getting back to normal down there! I personally would want the border to stay closed so it stays that way for you but I guess that too can't last forever.
@Freeglerock I think we are all ready for life to get back to the way it was. My husband is hunkered down for the long haul so I am not going to have my house to myself again for a while lol! I am glad you are able to get your workouts in and also do your gardening to escape a bit.
@danisp There is something with the cold weather and just hibernating that always gets me. When I am cold, I want to just get under a blanket and do nothing. It doesn't make sense to me because if we moved, we would get warmer Lol! My logic doesn't always get my out from under the blanket though. No worries about the gain, just get yourself back up, dust yourself off and get moving. You got this! I have to say, I love that our posts here motivated you to go out for a walk! That makes me so happy! Looks like it was an impressive walk too!
@1theresamcvean You did great last week! Nice job! Nice job with using distraction and going for a walk instead of giving in to the urge to eat. I also love the way you are balancing things out for example, eating half so you can have treats. I think when you are able to make changes in your plan to allow things instead of just giving into an urge it shows a lot of progress. You also have been having the losses to show for it! You are doing great!
@jedaschultz Nice loss! Looks like you had a great week!
@podperson1 At least you didn't gain! Maybe your week wasn't as bad as you thought. Hope this week is better for you. It seems like things are better and not as violent here for the most part. Thank you xo

User ID: Freeglerock
Week Number: 2
Previous weight: 185.1
Current weight: 184.0

Pleased with that. It has been a week of generally being on track - logging, and getting some exercise. I am now at a point where in my normal yo-yoing I would "plateau" then lose motivation to continue. 180 is about the lowest I have weighed in my adult life (in March/April 2011 - then unintentionally fell pregnant). As I have started a 12 week exercise plan, I decided to take some "before" photos in my workout leggings and sports bra - not a pretty sight! But hopefully, even if I have little to no weight change over the coming weeks, I may see body changes by comparing photos. I am not brave enough to post the before photos here, but may in the future if they show good progress!

@Mrsbell8well thank you for sharing the recipe for happiness. I was talking with my Mum a couple of days ago, and she is really struggle since my brother's passing. My step dad is trying to encourage her to see a counsellor, but that really would not be her kind of thing. We talk through some other things that may help, then I read your message. It really resonated with me, but I also thought it could help my Mum. Whether or not happiness is the right word for it, but I truly believe that following such a recipe can help with achieving purpose or fulfilment when life becomes a struggle. Thank you x