Alice I'm glad you're in much less pain. Life is easier with less pain.

Dagmar :beach:

Birchie - glad to help! :)

Alice - glad you are feeling some better.

My MIL has to have another bronchoscopy next week, to see if the infection in her lungs has come back. I'm hoping we don't end up with 20 more days of IV antibiotics, I don't have the energy in me for that again, and I know she doesn't. But if we have to, we have to...

Small items still going well - laundry and changed the sheets on the beds on Sunday, cleaned the boys bathroom (except for floors) and the master bathroom counters this morning.

DH booked a condo on the Gulf Coast for our anniversary in November. Can it be vacation time already, please?

Pouring rain here with flooding warnings while out west BC burns. Not going to be a pleasant day but it's doable. I have to remind myself of that tonite when I want to comfort eat.

Sweaty Gortex for the rest of the day as I got wet down to the undies on the first walk this morning. :yikes:

Dagmar :rain:

Be careful, Dagmar-- yuck!

Good luck Shannon with your MIL. And, yes, I wish it was vacation time, even though I just got back from one and still have some of the weight to lose!

I've had a friend visiting from Oregon. I take her back to the airport this afternoon. Great to see her but threw off my schedule entirely, and I do well with routine.

I'm going to do a 3-day "refresh" tomorrow- Friday and then dh comes home Saturday. I'm hoping to lose the rest of my Japan weight. It's sorta like a cleanse, but I'll still get to eat some-- just mostly veggies, etc. My dd has done it several times and loved her results, so I'm hopeful but I may be cranky come tomorrow!

Crossing my fingers that I can get back from airport in time to do yoga today as I missed last weekend as I was being a tourist with my friend :-) I need some zen!

I've been doing a bit better with eating this week, and am back to exercising after a couple weeks off due to the chest cold of doom. (I figured if I couldn't breath without coughing up a lung, running was a bad idea. :lol: ) This weekend is my BIL's wedding -- one of my friends from work is going to watch the kids overnight and I hope they do okay. I need to be on track between now and next month if I want my dress for my cousin's wedding to fit at all comfortably. This whole summer has kind of flown by and I'm simultaneously sad it's ending and looking forward to fall.

Jessica I'm having exactly the same feelings about summer/fall as you said!

Dagmar :sunny:

It won't start cooling off here until October...

My weight is hanging steady at 11 pounds down. Maybe another pound will evaporate this week.

It's hard to resist the urge to push it--exercise more, or drop intake more--but my experience has been that those efforts backfire. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and see what happens.

It was cool enough this morning that the kids wore sweaters waiting at the bus stop, which is unusual for August! I expect it'll get hot again for a while before it cools off for real. Sometimes it's hot into October and sometimes it's freezing in September so :shrug:

I failed at meeting my calorie goals yesterday. I know I intentionally gave up on Noom because it didn't seem worth the money, but I think there were a couple things about it that were more motivating than MyFitnessPal's interface. Specifically, it shows a progress bar on your calorie consumption for the day, which I think is more useful than just the straight numbers. Logging is easier in MyFitnessPal though, and it integrates with my other workout apps, so I just need to figure out how to bridge the motivation gap between the two.

I'm starting a 3 day "refresh" today in hopes that I'll drop the remaining stubborn 3.5 pounds from my trip (before the wedding that is two weeks from Friday!). My dd has given me her tips as she's done it several times-- I do eat but much of it is drinks and they apparently don't taste great-- so she's giving me tips to make it palatable. According to her, the first day is fine. The second day I will hate everybody and everything and the third day I'll be happy that it's almost done. We will see.....

And it is cold here as well. I turned on my "fake" fireplace in my bedroom last night for some heat!

So I was reading yesterday about weight loss after menopause. Everything I read says that I should consume 200 calories less than what I was eating prior to menopause. And I should exercise. And I should get a good night's sleep. And I do ALL that and still am not losing. I was doing keto for a few weeks and that helped at first but then stopped working. (Besides, I find it inconceivable to eat that much fat.) I'm going back to more of a Mediterranean or DASH diet and will stay away from most carbs but won't deny myself good fruits and vegetables (many of which aren't allowed in keto). I sure hope this helps. I really need to lose weight and it bugs the S**** out of me that DH has lost 20+ pounds without doing anything differently (it is because of his many diabetes drugs--you know when you hear the ads on TV that the drugs might help you lose weight--they do). He now weighs 15 pounds less than when we got married. And I weigh 15 to 20 pounds more. Along with this reading, it also said that weight gain after menopause (which is what this is) is cause for high blood pressure (have that), high cholesterol (getting there) and higher incidence of stroke or heart attack. I don't want that and I'd LOVE to got off my BP meds. It also said that hot flashes happen less when weight is off. I'd sure like that!

Allison Don't forget that everyone is a bit different and the stuff about menopause is different for everyone. I gained 22 lbs. while going through it and then lost that. I now eat about 400 calories more every day than I did before menopause. It's mostly the same food as before menopause, except not so much processed stuff and we're skipping the 2 litres of ice cream that we used to eat every 3rd day or so. My BP, cholesterol, and heart and everything are excellent according to my physical every year. I didn't have any hot flashes during menopause because I increased my vitamin C and Vitamin B12 intake. I took no other drugs and still don't take anything except pain meds when all my past injuries flare up.

I wonder if being active and basically on my feet all day has something to do with it? Or not having any kids? I think those are the two main differences between my life and yours re weight and fitness.

Dagmar :shrug:

I feel ya, alinnell!

I think eventually it comes down to what one is willing and able to do to weigh a certain amount. I think some weights are just not reachable or sustainable given one's individual characteristics--age, metabolism--and preferences. Also, it depends on how much restriction one can take without developing an eating or exercise disorder.

The weight one can actually maintain may in fact be higher than we like! I think we have it backwards sometimes--we think that we can force the body to be a certain size that we have intellectually decided we want it to be. But the body has its own agenda.

That's why I'm not going to drastically increase exercise or drop calories just because my weight seems to be stuck.

Jayell When I first wanted to lose weight I had the idea that my body should weigh 125 lbs. I got that idea mainly from other people`s height/weight stats. My body thought differently. :lol: It took a long time and a lot of fighting for me to finally acknowledge that my body is going to weigh around 136 lbs. with the amount of effort I'm willing to put in to sustain that. I am able to and enjoy exercising so my body comp is muscular and I like that. I happily live with the "extra" 10 lbs. and the slightly jiggly lumpy bits.

I would be ravenous and dizzy a lot if I forced myself down to 125 lbs. and would have to weigh and count everything I put into my mouth. For me definitely not worth it :no:

Dagmar :strong:

And reason number 5,333,445,663 that I don't weigh myself daily. With the 3-day refresh I'm doing, you weigh yourself daily for the 3 days. Yesterday was day 1. Today I'm up .2. Just going to trust the process and keep plugging away. I'm about to float away with the liquids and veggies, so I suspect a water whoosh at some point!

Bronchoscopy yesterday went pretty well. The lungs were a lot clearer than the one in March, but still have a lot of inflammation. Now we wait for the cultures to come back to see if there is infection. I'm draggy and tired today, it was a longlonglong day yesterday.