@sls631 I'm glad that you feel my posts are of benefit; sadly, my enthusiasm for the food side of the ledger is waning. I do get my exercise in and every day, I don't hesitate in starting my exercises, but I am aware I want to get the elliptical work done and over with! It's not that I don't enjoy it (at least a little bit), it's mostly that it is a lot of effort. Yet, I can do it. I think there is a laziness component inside of me when it comes to cardio. FYI, by 'every day', I mean six, sometimes five, days a week. That is 'every day', pretty much to me. I aim for every day excluding Sunday (only because we go to early church services and I can't easily exercise beforehand). Once I am showered for the day, regular exercise is out the window! My husband and I have yet to switch from the elliptical to walking in the neighborhood (3 miles, more of a hike, due to elevation changes). We love it and yet, just haven't gotten around to it yet. I have been wanting to get out to the parks, though. We have to scope out two new (to us) parks that are nearby and fairly level. We need to check them out for suitability for beginner cross-country skiers for the coming winter.

Btw, and I think this may be an infomercial for exercising, but it has been a big positive in our lives (hubby and me). I have exercised off-and-on throughout my adult life in 'playing' outdoors, but also in the gym/home with purposeful exercise. We purchased a Bowflex machine a year ago February (a bendy-rod strength-training machine). You know how you hear that after about three months of exercising, you should start to 'see' muscle improvements, definition, toning, whatnot? I have always found that to be a bit bogus for me. Yes, I certainly feel it (DOMS) right away and start to feel more energetic/healthy (whatever that means because I have always had energy and have been healthy (for which I am very thankful)). But, now, with having worked out most days each week for over a year, I can say that I started to 'see' results after a half year. And that was before I dropped the 10 lbs or so in the past six months. I can see more muscle definition. Be assured, there is no bikini competition in my future (having children certainly can wreck havoc in the tummy area)! And also know that I have never gone over-the-top in my weight lifting. I have very slowly increased my weights, with many times lowering them for a time, if I felt it was a bit too much/hurting. In the warm months, my husband and I walk the neighborhood and this past October, we purchased the elliptical machine (because I don't walk in the cold). That was the same time I restarted logging food and reduce my calories. Even with appropriate core exercises, I do think that the love handles have all but disappeared due to the weight loss, not exercises. I am unsure of that, though. I only have a 'whisper' of them left. The stomach, however, may be a lost cause!

You all may remember from my earlier posts, that I gave myself 1200 cal/day, to drop 2 lbs/wk. I pretty much was able to achieve this, even with less weight to lose. But, significantly, I would not track or restrict my food for holidays, vacations, or social activities. So I would have sometimes weeks of dropping 2 lbs each week, followed by a spike of weight, and then getting back to losing. I calculated this to be about 1/2 lb/week. I think that is funny! It seems to be a lot of effort for only 1/2 lb/wk. I did lose the weight in an acceptable manner for me, though. Two pounds a month is still 2 lbs/mo!

Anyway, I have (very loosely) been doing 1300 cal/wk and I just have lost my desire to track closely and keep to my calorie budget. I am thinking to just raise it to 1500 cal/day, but then I would still have to track. I am also thinking (more strongly) of not tracking and just modify my food intake by my daily weigh-in. I understand the variations of the scale, but without logging food, it is the only guide I have. Scary territory!

I am open to any input, thanks, Maggie

@beccaboo1276414 I am sorry to hear of your extended COVID symptoms; I have heard of others with this (primarily here, on mfp). It sounds frustrating with the desire to get back to life as before.

I, effectively, have rotated in and out of logging, just simply of not doing it on my ‘fun’ days (holidays, vacation, social events). The big difference is, that on those days, I was making no effort to keep my calories to their budget. I think it has the potential to be very helpful, when also minimizing calories on non-log days.

I had another thought, too. I don’t count my exercise calories because I pretty much exercise every day and sort-of count my exercise inclusive of my baseline calorie expenditure. I understand that mfp does not work in this matter, calculation-wise, but I also really don’t know how many calories I am burning. Various monitors are inaccurate and usually overestimate calorie expenditure, including mfp’s estimates. As well, mfp doesn’t easily allow calorie expenditure logging for weight lifting (you have to input each exercise separately). My elliptical machine says I burn about 170 cal during my 25 minutes of its fat-burning program, which includes an incline and resistance. So…I changed my goals to lose 1/2 lb per week, but changed my activity level from sedentary to light activity, the next level up. This is an effort to be similar to me really being sedentary with purposeful exercise. This gives me 1410 cal/day.

At a certain point, I have to pick some strategy and just move forward, lol.

Random observation from today… I don’t usually eat pizza because I find with the salt and the carbs, I pop up a couple pounds the next day and just don’t like to see that. My husband will occasionally pick-up a pizza and I will then typically eat usual food at home. Well, today, we both got a pizza (my husband gets gluten-free, so I get a regular pizza). Since he gets the ‘meat-za’ or ‘all the meats’ kind and cannot eat the sausage (may have gluten), the pizza place tosses his sausage on my pizza for free. So, I had a small hand-tossed sausage pizza and ate half of it. I was super-surprised to find out that it was only 690 cal. I typically only eat at 425 cal or so for lunch, so this was a much bigger lunch than I’m used to. (We eat our biggest meal of the day, midday.). I’m commenting here on my surprise of the calorie count, but also of still feeling full now mid-late afternoon. I think I may very well like a higher calorie allotment/day!

Hoping you ladies are all doing well and not overly bored with my ramblings!

@MorticiaAddamsMSFS I’ve heard of carb cycling and calorie cycling, but I’m just not exactly sure what they are. Meaning, super-high carbs one day or a few days followed by low carb day/days? I have thought about having my calories maybe 100-200 less most days and then applying those saved calories for probably only one day per week where I have social stuff and will eat more. I appreciate your time to explain this.

@beccaboo1276414 Thanks for the explanation. I really don’t pay attention to macros, but I did look back in my diary and I seem to eat around 125-175g of carbs a day, at least when I’m tracking! My mom was diabetic later in her life and I know that she would eat 30g of carbs at each of her three meals. I don’t recall how many carbs she ate for snacks, but I would guess 15g.

My husband wanted to get out of Dodge, so to speak, so we spent a few days around Pueblo, CO. We stayed at a bed-and-breakfast, a historic mansion in the area. We went to the Great Sand Dunes national park one day, about two hours west and went sand boarding (seated, not standing, no skill required). We only went down once or twice because, as anticipated, it took a heck of a lot of effort to get up the sand dunes.

Before we walked to the dunes, still in the parking lot, we talked to a lady coming back from sand boarding. We were discussing with her the level of difficulty walking up the dunes and she looked at us and said that we shouldn’t have any problem because we both are fit. So cool! For the record, I did not run to her and kiss her.

When I was talking to the wife of the couple who owned the bread and breakfast and we were discussing food, there were two different occasions when she said that I was thin (referring to me being able to eat more of the food). Now, I am not thin, by any stretch of the imagination. When I was getting ready to leave this morning, I freakishly kept looking in the full length mirror in our room because of these comments. I’ve got to tell you that I really think that this is the difficulty that I have had in losing the bit of weight that I needed to lose for years and years…knowing that my weight was somewhat okay. The thing is, I am heavier than I want to be and 10-15 lbs heavier than before children (I am on the high side of normal BMI now). You would think that these comments would make me less inclined to lose a few more pounds and yet, I think it has been enough to get me back to calorie counting. I have really struggled over these last few weeks, being just a few pounds shy of at least my initial, supposed UGW 135 lbs (10 lbs higher than before kids).

Just some random thoughts. The month of May is a fairly tame one for us, so I think I’ll restart calorie counting tomorrow (yes, tomorrow, lol!) and continue through all of May. I mentally cannot commit to more at this time.

@sis631. Layers! Recently, a couple times when out and about, I needed to slip off my tank top (I wear those as undershirts, camisoles do nothing for warmth!). I had decided that it is too warm anymore to start the day with a tank top and then, BAM! A snowstorm came yesterday. We have a good foot (15"?) on the ground. It truly is insane; it is the end of May!!! It will be gone in a few days, though, and then back into the 70's. I was able to spread some granular fertilizer before the snow around the baby trees that we transplanted last year, so I am hoping that when the snow melts, it will have dissolved into the soil. Lazy way to garden!

@beccaboo1276414 Well, I threw out that recipe because it was too wet, even after baking it longer than recommended. Here is another crisp/cobbler recipe (it says cobbler, but it more like a crisp to me) that I made recently for company. It may be more cobbler-like with regular flour, though.

Apple, Pear and Cream Cheese Cobbler

1/2 c ATK all-purpose GF flour blend
1/2 c almond meal/flour
1 t baking powder
1 t ground cinnamon
1/3 c granulated white sugar, divided

6 T unsalted butter, softened

1/2 c dark brown sugar, divided

8 oz cream cheese, brick, softened
1 t vanilla extract
2 Honey Crisp apples, large, peeled, cored and sliced
2 pears peeled, cored and sliced
1/4 c sweetened, dried cranberries
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 8X8 glass baking dish.

In large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, cinnamon, 2 T white sugar, and 1/4 c brown sugar. Add butter, mixing with fork until mixture is crumbly, set aside.

In small bowl, beat cream cheese, vanilla, and remaining white sugar until smooth.

in large bowl, combine apples, pears, cranberries, and remaining brown sugar, mixing well.

Transfer fruit mixture to baking dish, distributing evenly. Spoon cream cheese mixture over fruit. Sprinkle with flour mixture. Bake for 35-40 min or until topping is golden brown and fruit is tender. Serve warm, top with whipped cream or ice cream.

Some comments:
If you do not need it gluten-free, then you can use 1 c all-purpose flour.
Btw, ATK stands for American Test Kitchens. They have two amazing GF cookbooks for GF-kind of folks. This is not one of their recipes; I just changed it up to be GF. You can't buy their flour blend; it is a combination of several GF flours. The recipe is in their books. Any GF flour would do for GF-ness.
Butter can be salted.
Light brown sugar can be used.
Probably any apple can be used; I typically use Granny Smith apples for baking.
If you store your cranberries in the freezer (like I do), you can microwave them for 15 sec to defrost.
This was very good and easy to make. It is enough to serve four people.

I may sound organized and in a lot of ways I am, but this fire preparation takes a bunch of time. It takes time and dedication to nick away at it, a little at a time. Hearing about other CO wildfires does give you an impetus.