Good morning coaches,

Food on plan as far as calories yesterday and no alcohol. However, I did eat a small cookie at Whole Foods. I was hopping on the scale this morning expecting to see a small loss and to my surprise I saw a big gain instead. I don't know why other than possibly high sodium, but all I do know is I need to stick with the program. I thought about eliminating my post hike snack, but I'm not going to. Breakfast is very early, like 5 a.m. I hike hills with or without a backpack for about 2 1/2 hours and I need something before lunch. I'm just going to keep at it, try to cut down on sodium a bit and drink lots of water. The good news is I feel great.

GardenerJoy Congrats for an on plan day.

Onebyone The makerspace sounds incredible.

Bill We have summer here but I just always hope it will hold off a bit cause it lasts soooo long once it arrives.

Ennay Good for you for doing well on your plan.

Nationalparker Let's just forget about the demerits. I think I'd rather think about them as learning experiences and move forward. I hope your event is going well.

I don't have much planned for the day. I downloaded Gaia GPS to my phone a while back, but still have things I need to learn about it. I used it on this mornings hike just to practice and am getting a little more familiar. May spend some time today reading up on some articles and also You Tube videos on the computer.

Now to shower and get a few things done.

Credits - weighed and logged. hmmmm. Did not totally give into the major binge cravings. I did not have cravings for any particular food, I had cravings for the act of binging. I wanted nothing more than to sit and stuff myself and sabotage. I ate some tomatoes and snap-peas. I didn't make dinner because every time I wandered into the kitchen I would get the feeling. But then oddly I did quite fine at the chinese buffet. Not quite as fine as I was planning because they normally have a grilled pork chop dish, but I avoided the fried and the desserts and had 1 plate.

Day is winding down ... I have work to do but I'm back in my hotel room and just want to wrap it up and relax. My deadline is tomorrow evening, and we're on track.

Did GREAT for breakfast (well, good). I counted it great because I ate what I bought before - cereal and 2 TBSP peanut butter. Lunch was four lettuce wraps loaded with veggies and some mango salsa. Not the neatest/easiest thing to eat but it was the only chicken choice I had. So dinner, I pulled up various closeby things on Waze and went from one to another trying to find a space anywhere to park. Finally left this area and went to a small italian place and got a good-size salad and small pizza with cheese and tomato slices. It's thin and no grease, and I actually feel no guilt from that. I ate two slices and it was less than a large, sbarro slice. Of course, now, I'm talking myself into eating one more slice. Just one more. Just half of one more. It'll never be better than it is now, I say. I'm not hungry but not stuffed. Let's leave it at that.

Three days down; nine more to go. Actually eight until the stress/pressure lifts. The last day is just my travel home day. A big relief. I don't want to wish time away; many people will lose loved ones in these eight days.

No more demerits on this trip - thank you, Karen! I'll think if I can't "claim" them, I can't "do" them.

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Dinner was a piece of grilled salmon left over from Sunday's gathering. It finished an onplan day, CREDIT moi, since I didn't even have an evening snack. Breakfast has reached the summer regular now that peaches are also available - no dried fruit substituting for the real thing. That's good for me because I feel a natural limit to fresh fruit but dried fruit sugar bombs just slide down.

Walked, CREDIT moi, to my final class of the spring semester. The pollen from oak trees is peaking. DW insists that my cough this week is a newly acquired allergy. I insist that a lifetime without allergies doesn't just change one year. I have a friend who spends half his salary on antihistamines during allergy season, trying each new combination trying to find a cure. I don't want to go there.


onebyone – This resonates with me, "Yes, I need to stop making the small exception." Yep, you can't be more pure than DaVinci.

Joy (gardenerjoy) – "w00t!" indeed for on plan.

Karen (karenrn) - Wow Gaia GPS is just the coolest app ever. It does seem like you need a morning snack after that long a hike.

nationalparker – You're really organized at finding food to stay your plan - Kudos. Lettuce, veggies, and mango salsa does, indeed, sound messy.

ennay - Super strategy for a Chinese buffet, "I avoided the fried and the desserts and had 1 plate."

Readers -

Coaches

Yesterday I didn't even bother to make a plan. I just didn't want to eat to a plan. I just wanted to give in and I just decided to do that. I wanted to give up for a while and I did. But I cooked from scratch, and I don't have much of anything to go off track with (a sleeve of saltine crackers from when I was sick, two ice cream cones-this is what I ate that was extra). I just didn't want to keep trying to lose weight anymore when my results this month have been a steady rise. I am 6lbs heavier today than 17 days ago. How can that be possible? This morning I feel discouraged, but not as profoundly as yesterday. On the bright side, I remain under 270. This *is* something.

Today I am on track. Today I will be in the pottery studio. Today I will take a walk. Today I will drink some water.

Today is a new day.

Update: went way off plan. Lots of carbs. Tomorrow I try again.

Good afternoon coaches,

Can I just say credit for my hike this morning where I led Hiking Suzanne up and down the hill and then let's overlook yesterday's food? I think that's what I'll do. I do want to say in spite of a less than stellar day my weight was down. Crazy bodies, what do they know.

It was breezy and even a few drops of rain on the hike this morning. I got a message from Carrie who was camping up north that said it was 37 degrees at 7,000 feet are we sure we want to camp at 9,000 feet tomorrow. They are trying out their new camper, so the cool temps don't mean so much, but in a tent . . . too cold. So, we'll see if the weather is going to change, if we're going to change to a different location, or just not go. I don't want to camp if it's under 40 myself. I have everything ready to put in the pack, but will wait to see what she thinks.

Onebyone I hear you about not feeling it. Luckily today is not a hungry day for me. Don't we all wish we didn't like food as much.

Bill Yes, Gaia GPS is great. I only wish there were a sit down class I could attend. I've been watching videos on their site as well as You Tube and learning more each time. I just want to be proficient when I need it. People say it works better than the Garmins that we all paid nearly $400 for.

Nationalparker Sounds like your event is going well this year.

Ennay Good job overcoming the cravings.

If you don't hear from me tomorrow, it's because I'm due to pick Carrie up at 6 a.m. and head south. We'll see how it goes.

onebyone hang in there! Today is a new day

Quiet day today.

Credits, weighed, logged, food in plan, someone noticed my weightloss and I acknowledged it rather than being defensive about gaining so much so recently. Like this loss doesnt count because I used to be thinner. It COUNTS.

Hood Strawberries are here!!!! I can't convey what that means if you aren't from around here. I've lived all over, and there is no strawberry in the world that is better than the Hood. They are too delicate to ship to other areas and pretty much only grow here. So damn good. I need to get to a U-pick and fill the freezer. Frozen hoods are like little strawberry candies.

Diet Coaches/Buddies – I continue to fight a cough from allergies. I met with a group of friends last night and felt embarrassed as my cough provided the background noise. Exercise was walking, CREDIT moi, to my evening event.

Food was OK. Dinner was conjured from the hors d'oeuvres at another event in the late afternoon. I stuck to skewers of rare beef slices with pesto spread on them. It dawned on me that I was at a FREE event for folks expected to make serious contributions to the organization. I'm growing suspicious of FREE food - only Costco gives FREE food without expectations.


onebyone – Kudos for recognizing that discouragement is just a feeling and that you can go forward.

Karen (karenrn) - Yep, 2000 feet cooler than 37 degrees F could be mighty cold. LOL at, "Crazy bodies, what do they know."

ennay - Super Kudos for seeing that it's a sabotaging thought to minimize current weight loss just because it's a recent gain. Now I'm drooling for Hood strawberries.

Readers -

Good morning coaches,

Just a quick check in to say I'm leaving in an hour for our overnight backpack. We're going up Super Trail #134 to Mt. Wrightson. We will likely find a camp spot some place on the way up and set up camp, and then hike to the top and back. That way we still get the hike in but sleep where it won't be as cold. I also took the little thermometer that my husband put on his day pack and hung it on my backpack, just so we know. It will be in the 90's here today and it is 70 right now, but I've packed long underwear, a light down jacket, gloves and a hat. I even have my raincoat rolled and in a pocket for a wind break if needed.

My food is packed and logged into MFP and my weight is down to where it has been most of the time for the last few months.

Okay, into the shower before I head out the door.

onebyone: my yesterday went haywire yesterday, too. Better today. I don't seem to be able to get back to where I can stay on plan for months and months. I'm doing good if it lasts days and days. So, I'm thinking about ways to get back on track faster and ways to limit the damage when I do go off track. That's already much better than years ago, can I improve that even more? Weird as it sounds to improve the worst moments, I suspect that it will make a difference if the floor of how bad it gets is higher.

karenrn hah! One year when we were living in Austin Tx, it had been over 100 for 30+ days, over 105 for something like half of those days. Our house had a really wimpy air conditioner, by the end of the month it was lucky to get he house down to 90. So we decided to go camping above Santa Fe. We got there and just kept climbing and climbing and climbing looking for the highest, coolest campsite we could find. 9000 feet. We had a tent with an air mattress which is a cold way to sleep even with a sleeping bag. We froze our asses off, but it felt so good to be cold we didn't move lower.

Long days and incredibly short nights. The train running through just blasts its whistle every what - 47 minutes from midnight until 5 a.m.? It can't be that much but it seems like that. I can't completely use ear plugs because I have to hear my alarm at 5:30 a.m. and be out the door quickly. Frustrated. Each night I think it will be different. Each night I'm up for hours with the dang whistle. They need doublepaned windows or a website alert. I suspect I'm cranky.

NOT OP today - I think i ate about 2000 calories. Stress eating included a 400 calorie cookie. It was delicious, but I didn't savor it. I inhaled it. Tomorrow needs to be a better effort. I can start with my banana and PB and bit of cereal or milk/cereal/banana.

Five days down ... six to go. Keeping fingers crossed that DH's job news pans out. Latest info seems promising but you never know. It won't be immediate but seems to be that the position would be open within a month.

nationalparker ugh. Can you use your cell phone with a vibrate alarm and have it on you or under you? Maybe you could use earplugs then?

Pretty good day, Ended up with an odd meal schedule that I might have to play with some more.

Oh yeah: credits - weighed and logged, ate within calories, had a meeting at a bar with crappy food and did not eat it. I pushed my lunch to dinner time so I wouldnt be hungry during the meeting and then ate dinner after at home. I kind of liked it. I was REALLY hungry at around 5 though so I may have to fiddle with this arrangement if I do it again.

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Event of the day was getting to the Department of Works to get another rain barrel. (Rain barrels collect roof water to use in the garden.) We had to be there sometime between 4 pm and 7 pm - guaranteed rush hour driving. Then we had the concern that the rain barrel might not fit in our car. I pictured myself walking the several miles home with it on my head. I had a book to read for the inevitable wait. Much to our surprise, traffic was light; the "brown" barrel was closer to the black that DW really wanted; there was no wait; a worker stuffed it in the backseat with no difficulty; we were home in less than half an hour full trip. Sometimes the worst bureaucracy shines despite its reputation.

Food was OK, CREDIT moi. It was our first evening of the year to eat on the patio. In truth, we both came in early since it was a bit chilly. I like to linger on the patio and watch the evening arrive. One House Sparrow cautiously approached our ground-level bird bath, branch by branch, to take a quick dip while we watched. The Chimney Swifts were catching bugs high overhead. It was as if Spring was really approaching.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – This does seem important, "limit the damage when I do go off." I wish that I only went off by one shrimp from the appetizers.

nationalparker – Hang in there - you're not freezing in a tent or suffering 105 degree temps. Kudos for recognizing "but I didn't savor it. I inhaled it."

Karen (karenrn) - Waving back toward Mt. Wrightson. Neat idea to make camp then hike to the top with lighter packs. Have a fun trip.

ennay - LOL at "it felt so good to be cold" - fun story. Kudos for avoiding bar food.

Readers -