Slip: Yes, that's 7 am. By that time it's already 80 degrees and it's been very humid lately so it feels like 90-95. So it's pool time for me. The other walking I get in during the day at work. 6 Five minute walks a day. My office building is ridiculously cold, so walking outside for 5 minutes helps me to defrost periodically during the day. Are you using the Leslie Sansone Walking DVD? I love her videos, I use them when I can't get outside. Hope your headache goes away.

Howdy maintainer peeps: I'm back from a summer vacation from he11...
First part was great, camping and hiking way out in the back of beyond (we were the only people in the campground), saw a lovely grizzly fairly close up and a moose cow with two sweet little calves.
Second (awful) part started with our vehicle giving up the ghost at a caving trailhead 4 km from any help and no cell service. We walked the 4 km to the ranger station and luckily he was still there as he was going to leave the next morning for a stock-up road trip to a town several hours away and stay for the weekend. He drove us the 1.25 hrs to the tiny town closest over rough gravel forestry road (we thanked him profusely and paid gas money of course).
We stayed overnight in a hotel (the cheaper of 2 in this town) and called our automobile association insurance for towing. Ended up they don't cover forestry roads so we had to pony up for the 3.25 hr towing trip at $135 per hour. Then had to wait for parts to come from a bigger northern town and then the repairs began. 5 nights total in the hotel.
So here we are back two days late and $2000 poorer.
When we are about 1.5 hrs from home (it's a 2 day drive) we hear on the radio that there is a fire on the other side of the ridge just above our place. We expected to have to grab our Go-bags with 72 hrs of supplies and essential papers/computer hard drive for the business when we got home. So far the weather has not been very windy and the fire is only growing slowly and most of the travel is in the opposite direction from us. Keeping an eye on this anyhow, fires can reverse very quickly.

Oh yeah... and I'm up 8 lbs thanks to 'tiny-town Northern food' which mainly consists of battered and deepfried stuff, and our included morning breakfasts of 5 strips of bacon, two eggs, two pieces of toast, and hash browns. Of course I couldn't have the toast or the battered anything thanks to being gluten free, but that left very little to eat besides wonderful gluten free pizza at one of the local restaurants and lots of fat/carb in the breakfasts. Done in by lots of pizza & hash browns AAARGH!

Okay enough whining from me... today has been P1, and if I never see another egg I will be happy, lol.

Good to read all the catch-up posts! Hi to the new/old maintainers I haven't 'met' yet!

Liana

Liana, that really does sound like a trip from Heck! I am happy that the fire seems to be leaving you alone,TG! Glad that you are home.

Andrea, winters at my work are freezing! Your thaw out time works well for your health though. Yes, the DVD is her HITS one, with interval training. I hate to exercise in public and it has been too hot to walk outside.

Liana welcome back. I enjoyed your story since I wasn't there. But glad you made it through OK without too many scars other than eggs overdose.

Hello to everyone and hope the day and week goes well.

I'm still in it to win it.... life. Remembering to stay positive even then things feel challenging.... I knew in June these two months would be busy, but come Aug. 15th I have another weekend in the mountains and then several slower weeks...ahhhhhhh.
My new plan has been working well - restaurant food on Sunday put me up three pounds (argh) - down 1 of them but this going down is so slow during Maintenance. Just learning about the rhythms. But reminded myself this morning that I am still staying in my fluctuation range, so this is a win - not to be flying up the scale but staying steady.

Welcome back Liana! I think the scariest part of your story is the grizzly bear sighting. I would have been petrified. But glad you made it out ok, albeit a little poorer. Bummer.

for your entertainment….

Hi all,

Observation of the day: fitness shorts are short! Why? Obviously not designed for the over 40 crowd! Makes me grateful that I exercise at home

Amber, funny ts!

Liana - yikes that sounds like a crappy time and expensive. I know you both were looking forward to a holiday. The fires out your way and in B.c. Sound very scary and with no end in sight. I hope the one by your place keeps its distance. Good work jumping back on P1 right a way. I'm sure most of it is salt.

Andrea - that is a lot of heat out your way. Dangerous to be outside.

Grateful - hope your leg is feeling better

Slip- lol short shorts. I have no idea who wears them. I wear capri length pants. My bike shorts go to mid thigh but that is as short as I dare. Sounds like you are doing some serious workouts.

I'm on holiday. Heading up to my folks cottage for week this weekend with the kids. Going to bring some IP food with me and have lots of veggies. Hoping to get some good lake swims in and run a few times. Better not see any Grizzlies!

Hi all,
Just back from a week at the beach this morning. Feeling the bloat from too much food fun (and sunburn). Haven't weighed all week, so I'll see the damage in the morning. Slip, I was also just noticing the other day how crossing my legs feels different. Ready to dive into P1 for two weeks until another beach weekend with girlfriends.

Liana hope the fire stays at bay. Sorry your vacation was stressful, but glad you made it out relatively unscathed!

Grateful, good on you for staying steady and positive! Those fluctuations are annoying, but totally normal.

catlady, Slip, and Jenny, your exercise is inspirational! I make the excuse that it's too hot out to exercise in the summer, but the truth is, I'm just a slug all year round, haha. Did some good runs on the boardwalk at the beach, and hoping to walk the couple miles to the library tomorrow. I'm always pulling down my exercise shorts too, btw...I'm afraid they'll bounce up and show too much cheek. ;-) Jenny, have a great holiday!

believe it or not i like short shorts…

Hi all - it was good to hear how all of you are doing and check back in. I gained about 4 pounds on vacation and was already at my upper end of my range before I left. Spent a week in a sort of modified p1 and am back down but still at my upper range. We also got a puppy and he is disrupting my sleep so I am not going to be too hard on myself.

Amber - that is so interesting about the fruit and your symptoms. Those symptoms are very common for me also but I am not diabetic or any thyroid issues.

Shasta nice to hear from you I was just thinking about you the other day.

Happy Monday to all, hope it goes well.

I had an average week, still kind of getting my foundation about what works and doesn't, but did OK. I haven't been able to exercise due to a pulled muscle in both legs - ugh - and I am seeing in Maintenance that exercise is a much bigger factor than when on VLCal P1. Even when eating less due to no exercise, it looks like my metabolism starts to dive after about 4 days of no exercise.... curious if that has happened for others.... eating about the same thing but it's causing a little gain on the scale where before it was a little loss.

Hi gals: checking in and reading up....
working like crazy right now every night until we head out again on Friday morning to go to the Coast to see DH's Mum. The hospital wants to send her home, but now home is not going to work as she is still quite weak and will need help bathing and preparing meals, etc, and there is no way she will make it up & down the stairs at her place. Soooo, we are hurriedly hunting for a Seniors Assisted Living residence. The good part is she's willing to spend up to $4000/mo (she lives in an expensive area right now and has enough money to do this without stress) which means she can get a 2 bedroom, 'on the lake' resort style residence here. But of course such a place must be available and most have a waiting list, although we did find two smaller 'apartments' at two other residences that are very beautiful and well kept though not on the lake itself.

The bills for the 'holiday' came today, my goodness, we could have gone on a Mediterranean Cruise for the same time period and spent about the same total. We need to seriously decide on whether to just keep and upgrade our car with the bit of body work that she needs (new bumpers, a bit of rust repair, and of course the required paint after that, along with new winter snow tires this year) OR be done with it and get a newer car. Either way it will cost us.

As for the weight... it is coming off slowly, but I will admit with all that is going on I am not very focused on the plan (lunch was a bag of Buffalo BleuCheese Kettle Chips! - my only big booboo) so I will try to get back to things a little better. I now have lots of fresh veggies as it's "cucumber & zucchini gifting season" and I just need to buckle down and choose them instead of handy store crap. Beware when the neighbour sidles up to you and quietly asks, "Do you like zucchini??"

Re: short shorts (under 5" inseam) - ummmmm, no thanks due to flabby inner thigh droopage, lol. BTW, I love the slow runners tank top.
The fire is 75% contained and they have rescinded evac alerts at the moment (there has been a fair bit of rain in the past couple of days.)

Liana

Liana, you crack me up! Droopage!!! Lol. Welcome to my 49 yr old weight-loss thighs, bahaha! Size ten,never felt so fat. Oh, the realities of maintenance, still feels better than size 16.

Haha, I'm with ya there, Slip... don't know if it's the 51 y.o. thigh issue or the weight loss thigh issue. Truth be told, I always had 'good sized' thighs and buns, lol. I suppose I can thank skiing and cycling for that....

Liana