Our holiday has been rescheduled for later in the year.

I’ve had one cold after another for months now. Little one brings everything home from nursery and has kindly shared all the bugs with me. My immune system isn’t where it should be from not mixing with anyone for the past 18 months or so.

I’ve completely lost track of this week and missed too many days. I’ll join again in next month’s challenge.

Best of luck to everyone!

28 Oct 21
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? yes
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? yes

Just a quick catch up note. I truly believe that there is no one set way to maintain. It is not a static thing. For many years I thought that a person could diet and lose the weight and then just go on as before without any sort of plan. Perhaps some folks can. However, there also has to be a balance. The nice thing about maintenance is that you can be a little lenient. Trying to control everything to the n th degree seems a recipe for disaster. And maintenance evolves over time for everyone. It's not a static thing which you decide X and do that forever. Sometimes it's a do Y this month and do Z for this week. And focus can change from scale weight to health metrics or fitness goals or challenges in other areas of our lives. I guess I am saying that what is gospel for one person to maintain is possibly a trash novel for another. None of us are perfect and accepting some failure and figuring out a plan to recover is one of the best ways to approach it. But realize that we are all on different journeys and someone else's plan do to a recent glitch and advice for where THEY are right now can be considered but we really are smarter than to fall behind each new plan or advce like lemmings. Absolutely read and absorb, but always remember you are in charge or your own journey.

Pass Day 4

I wasn't feeling well the past days but still tried to push through, turns out I have food poisoning and won't be doing any kind of exercise for the next few days. It's annoying this close to the "finish line" but until the poisoning I did very well and this isn't in my hands so overall I'm still proud of myself.

28/10/2021
Exercise - yes
Tracked – yes
Calories – yes

I’ve only admitted to 2 pass days so far but it looks like I’m going to finish the month about 0.5kg heavier than I started and just over my maintenance goal/range so it looks as though some of my estimating has been off.

I have to admit to a moment of weakness a couple of days ago: my morning weigh in was a steady 51 kg for 5 days in a row from the 22nd then popped up to 51.3 kg on the 23rd and I was very tempted not to record it in my Libra app. Then I remembered something I wrote a couple of weeks ago in response to one of the “nuggets” (thanks to @biketheworld ):
“sometimes, when you know you have gained weight you just want to pretend it’s not happening.” It’s not the fault of the scales, we have to be responsible for our own journey.
PS the weight is dropping again but very slowly.

I agree with Summer that maintenance is not a simple do “this” for ever. As you will all have noticed, I take a lot of holidays so I have three situations – preparing for a holiday, enjoying the holiday, and recovering from the holiday. I don’t go over the top on holiday and I’m often very active, but I do allow myself to enjoy restaurant meals, occasional drinks, ice creams etc. I know that the break may result in a little gain, but that can be reversed again fairly easily.
It was easy during the travel restrictions but I have enjoyed several holidays this year while maintaining in my range.

October 28
Yep, Yeppers & You betcha!
4 pass days used (1st, 2nd, 7th, 24th)
Today's exercise was a strength routine; three sets each of dumbbell bench press, banded lat pull-down, banded tricep extension, dumbbell wrist curl

I'm definitely not going to be in the Winner's Circle this month with 4 pass days. And despite how much I could gripe about October, I can clearly see the way forward. This was a month for adjustments. November may present challenges too but I am better prepared for it thanks to October.

Yes x 3

✅ all three good night

Exercise: Tracking: Calories:

Well, only three days left in the month and no pass days used so yes to Winner's Circle!

I should be able to stretch my no pass day streak to 3 months, but you never know...there is a cake on the counter that has been really messing with me. Today I seriously contemplated how many calories would be in a piece for tracking so I wouldn't need to take a "pass," and more importantly if I would be able to stop if I only had a small piece. I decided it was a bad idea, but I feel my resolve weakening....

I have to convince myself that I CAN eat something off my pseudo whole foods plan and be strong enough to get right back on course, but given my history I just don't believe in my ability to do that.

So, for today anyway, fear trumped cake!

Pass Day today, I've lost count how many I've used... 🤭 Congrats to all who are still in the Winner's Circle!

Track: yes
Calories: yes
Exercise: yes

• Full Body Warm Up: 5 min
• Caroline Garvin 20 min knee friendly leg workout
• Caroline Garvin 15 min compound leg workout

Passes used: 2/3 : (17oct) (21oct)

Today was supposed to be day 37 of EPIC I but it was a lower body workout consisting of mostly lunges so I had to find alternatives. I ended up doing two different leg workouts. The knee friendly one was all mat work with no weights and a tiny bit of isometrics. The compound one had lunges, squats and deadlifts. As usual I replaced the lunges with calf raises (other than the lateral lunge which I can do pain free).

I should be in the winners circle.