Good morning coaches,

Food was on plan yesterday and weight is inching down. I did Bell Pass with my backpack on today. I'll get more backpack training this week cause we're hiking out Wednesday and back Friday from Aravaipa Canyon. It won't be strenuous, but it is walking in the water a lot of the way apparently. Not much elevation change though. Yesterday I decided to sign up for a hiking trip in Canada in August/2022. My backpacking buddy is going and at first I thought it was too much money, but I decided I want to do it and it would be easy to have it all taken care of and not take care of planning myself. It's with Explorer Chicks and is a Hiking and Hut to Hut backpacking trip in Banff. My husband reminded me of the rules, "If you want to do it and you're able to do it, then do it." I do love to have something to look forward to, and I guess this will be it.

GardenerJoy It sounds like things are going well for you and you're able to continue with your exercise.
Maryann Walking on an incline on the treadmill is so much harder than just walking on the treadmill. Enjoy the new tv.
Curlyjax Fingers crossed that the dishwasher cleaning did the trick.
Bill That dolly does sound like a great thing.

It's cloudy and much cooler here today. We may even get some much needed rain tonight. The desert looks about as bad as I can ever remember it looking at this time of year.

Waving to Penny.

Hey everyone!

I blew my diet in a big way and wishing I could be done with this struggle. Oh well.

Karen, the supported hiking trip sounds fabulous! I did a cycling one from Women Tours and it was so nice. What a treat!

Curly, the dishwasher cleaning is such a pain. We had to pull ours apart regularly because it kept growing a nasty pink mold. We discovered the platinum version of Cascade seems to keep the mold issues down. and a new dishwasher with an easier to access screen so we don't have to tear it apart to pull out random bits of bones and food blocking things up.

Maryann, the pancakes sound good. Instead of hiding veg in our kids' foods, now we hide beans in our own. Lol

Bill, lol at the invasive questions about what kind of car you drive. I guess it was for a good cause.

Joy, that curb side pick-up is nice! We only recently used it and wondered why we hadn't tried it before.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Ran into a 13-year-old young lady who I hadn't seen in two years. She'd done a growth spurt of about a foot. Looks like an adult - albeit a rather skinny adult. Caught me by surprise. I need to be around kids more. They do grow, and are known to do so in brief spurts. My memory of our kids is being grateful when newly purchased winter clothes lasted until we could buy new spring clothes.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was red lentils slowly cooked with onions, carrots, celery, and a handful of spices that DW has slowly added to her recipe. Was a lighter version of 'Indian' tasting foods - lighter than the lamb curry from the restaurant takeout. Very satisfying meal. Served with kale, corn tortilla chips, and our standard green salad. I had to rush to a 7 pm Zoom meeting. Seems that we're one or the other doing a lot of Zooming these days.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Kudos for planning to not forage for treats when out and about. Yep, I could get used to curbside pickup.

maryann - Yay for a new TV with Super Kudos for figuring out how to solve the last quarter inch. Counting the days for the appearance of your DS.

Karen (karenrn) - Love the rule, "If you want to do it and you're able to do it, then do it." Hut to Hut backpacking is such a delightful way to travel.

curlyjax - Congrats for getting your dishwasher back together with no extra parts. Fun to have a bunch of chicken breasts cooked and ready for quick meal prep.

Penny. - I agree with you, "I could be done with this struggle." Yep, wish it'd just go away. And take a few dozen other issues with it, LOL.

Readers -

I had my first lobster roll of the season on my way home from work yesterday. It was so good, and really not that caloric, just the right amount of mayo. I could have had two more but the price stopped me. hopped on my stationary bike for a few minutes but that was about it for exercise. Taxes finally in to my accountant so yay for that. I'm been feeling overwhelmed by even fun problems like the kayak and need to get back to some helpful self talk and routines. I'm cherishing my quiet while it still lasts-2 more weeks-but I'm not using it productively.Ugh. Just venting I guess.
Penny- I have totally blown my diet too. I'm embracing the saying :setbacks are okay but quitting is not. Onwards.

Good morning!

Yesterday was good. When I weighed myself today I looked at the trend graph on the scale app and noticed a 25 pound weight from 1am. The only 25 pound member of my family is one of our dogs. so funny that he stood on the scale long enough for it to weigh and send the data.

Today is my first do-nothing day since last week. Wohoo! Maybe I can catch up on the house cleaning. The clutter creep has been setting in.

Good morning coaches,

Food was just a little off plan yesterday. Dinner portion was a little large and a handful of granola. I've packed up 2 portions of granola for my backpacking breakfasts and had the last of it for breakfast this morning. No more thinking about the granola in the drawer.
Today is a rest day from hiking but I will get Otis out for a walk. I started getting my things together yesterday on the dining room table for my backpacking trip. It's nice and light in there and Otis can't reach it. I made a list of things to take and hopefully I won't forget anything.
Today I'm going to write down the calories in the different food items I'm taking and be sure I have enough, but not too much. We had enough rain last night to get the sidewalks and road wet and it's cloudy today as well. It's kind of nice once in a while for sure.

Curlyjax The lobster roll sounds delicious.
Bill I'm amazed at how quickly kids grow too. Even just seeing photos on Instagram or Facebook is surprising at times.
Penny I so hear you about wanting to be done with the struggle. I guess I have resigned myself to knowing it is a lifelong process. I would like to fit in my smaller clothes, but at this point I mainly want to be as healthy as I can be. Some of my friends, especially the ones in WA, are quite a bit heavier and less active and I don't want that lifestyle. I still think if I hit age 85 or so I will eat absolutely anything I want. It might be cookies for breakfast, ice cream for lunch and cake for dinner.
Maryann I hope you're having a wonderful visit with ds.
GardenerJoy I hope everything is going well for you and dh. I share your habit of no foraging when doing errands. It goes along with my other habits of no eating in the car or at the movie theater.

If you don't hear from me for a few days it's because I doubt there is any cell phone coverage where I'm going. I leave tomorrow morning and return Friday afternoon.

Yesterday included two short walks so that I didn't find myself taking a long one in 80 degrees -- although the breeze made it feel cooler. I'll do the same today for the same reason. Tomorrow we get rain and cooler temps, so I'll change my pattern, then.

DH and I ate the same supper at the same time last night. That feels like progress in feeding a patient.

Exercise +65, 1150/1400 minutes for April

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Trip to the supermarket was boring - I'm getting used to this. Cosmic Crisp Apples cost only $1.49 per pound instead of their previous $2.49 per pound. I do hope it's a permanent price drop. That's not as important to me as waiting, patiently, for the price of Florida blueberries to begin to drop. Hard to believe that I get excited about this every single year. There are still markers outside the store to hold folks in a line for entry; wasn't used yesterday. Either we're past that stage or I've very cleverly found the sweet spot when the crowd doesn't shop.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was omelettes served on trays taken to our respective offices so that DW could watch a Zoom presentation. She never found it but continued working on her computer. Alas, we missed having dinner together to attend a phantom Zoom presentation.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Congrats for your super organization that achieved having a joint dinner with your patient. Neat idea to take two short walks to avoid the heat.

Karen (karenrn) - You got me wishing that I had a jar of granola to munch on. That stuff is so good - with so many calories. Good luck beginning your short journey.

curlyjax - Really got me drooling for a lobster roll. Yep, they're pricey. Neat that you found one without too much mayo.

Penny. - LOL at your weight-conscious dog registering on the scale. Yay for a do-nothing day - necessary for the brain to continue processing the overload of the preceding week.

Readers -

I rallied yesterday, whew! did better with eating, and got my weights done. Then a friend called at 6:30 to go for a walk which was awesome. She has met someone online and was very excited about it;it was fun to listen to her. Then I came home and finally finished some overdue notes. I also got some mindless things done while listening to a work webinar, I love multitasking like that. Today I get to see one of my favorite clients. It will be good to get out of the house. My friend took some photos of me since the light was great, and I thought, do I really look that fat?? A reality check again.
Gardenerjoy-sounds like things are going well and you're getting time for yourself too.
Karen- have a great time. Healthy as I can be sounds good to me too.
Penny- too funny about your dog. He is modeling his behavior after you I guess!
Bill-you've inspired me to look at some zoom lectures. There's one tomorrow by Harvard Musuem on ancient egyptian funeral practice that looks kind of cool.

Good morning,

Yesterday was good and exercise continues steady.

I browsed the sporting goods store and bought some 12 pound weights. Big time! Lol we'll see if I'm actually ready to use them for any of the exercises. I still had to go down to body weight for some of the arm exercises, but leg exercises feel like they could handle more.

I've got a new friend date at the beach on Sauvie Island for my daughter. She wants to start school just so she can make friends, so when another mom was looking for friends for her daughter, I reached out. The one downside of homeschooling can be finding friends.

Have a great trip, Karen!

I successfully completed two walks and a yoga session of hip openers. My MiL is complaining of hip pain. I can't do much to help her, but I can do a little to prevent the same problem in myself, especially since I've been tolerating some glitchiness in my upper left leg that may lead to hip pain in the future.

Exercise +85, 12351400 minutes for April

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Exercise was chase the (5.5 yo) DGD day, CREDIT moi. She retained her interest in "hunting birds" at Mount Auburn Cemetery, much to our delight. When we got there, the fountain at the entrance was running. Ooops - that killed nearly an hour splashing, tossing dandelions, and throwing in pennies that I found in the car. Moving water is just the best. When we did get around to birds, we saw a scant half dozen. But that did include the Screech Owl conveniently resting in a hole in the same tree where we saw it last week. It was new to her that granddad also owns a spotting scope. Seeing a Screech Owl eyeball to eyeball is worth a bucket of giggles. She later got more exercise at a local playground. So much energy to burn.

I read her the book Nicky and Vera by Peter Sis that a friend had sent me to give to her. My friend was one of the 669 kids rescued by Nicky Winton via the Kindertransport from Prague to London in 1939. Endured much angst about such a difficult topic in a book written for kids. Finally realized that every topic that I talk to her about has a dark side that I don't cover. She listened, with few questions. It was just a story about kids to her. She didn't show much interest about Czechoslovakia - just another odd place. I told her that I'd take her to London someday; couldn't tell her that I'd take her to Czechoslovakia since it no longer exists. I would like to take her to Prague where I've not been.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was ready early so that we both could be at our separate computers to hear the Zoom presentation from the Harvard Museum of Science and Culture titled What Spiders Have to Say. It didn't disclose their secret language. It did remind me that there exist serious biologists who are personally offended if one makes the mistake of calling a spider an insect. NO NO NO NO. Most recent common ancestor of spiders and insects was 500 million years prior. Just NO. Was enamored to learn how well a Jumping Spider can identify another Jumping Spider by sight using its tiny, tiny brain.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Good to have an awareness that unexercised muscles can lead to problems later on.

curlyjax - Neat to multitask with a webinar while doing mindless tasks.

Penny. - Good luck with the friend date for your DD. Yay for the heavy weights.

Readers -

Another OP day. I visited some clients in person, including one of my favorite people. Everyone seemed happy to have company and it was hard to escape I went for a walk when I got home, then did some stationary bicycling as well. I did eat my banana-cocoa powder-pb2 powder concoction, but it doesn't have sugar in it, and I was still hungry at the time. Today i'm going in again to see a few folks again. I did not sleep well so it will be a long day but ah well. DS has made an appt for a vaccine when he gets home which is a relief. DD has had one and will have the other soon too. Some of the universities are now requiring students to be vaccinated in the fall, and some parents aren't happy about that. I don't think they understand how the partying college kids have kept the pandemic going.
Bill- of course I had to look up that book, and then google about Winton. So cool that you know someone that was rescued by him. Yay for a great day with DGD.
Penny- I'm impressed with 12 pounds! I'm still using puny 5. I may have some 8 pounders in the house somewhere, I should look for them and start increasing.
Gardenerjoy-stretches are very helpful for hips. I'm starting to feel them in my good hip, and the one thing I do every day is stretch.

Today's adventure is a trip to the grocery store. I'm not even going to attempt to make this the last trip for a week, much less two. DH's dietary needs are too hard to predict. Right now, apple juice and graham crackers are staples. I can't remember the last time we bought those before this month!

Exercise +55, 1290/1400 minutes for April

BillBlueEyes: Jumping spiders used to creep me out, especially since one often shows up in our bathroom at certain times of the year. But, like most things, learning about them produced a fascination greater than the creepiness. I especially liked learning that they are very efficient insect eaters. We live on wooded property and I chose to make peace with our carnivorous spiders rather than pay an insect termination company to spray poison around our house a few times a year. Brown recluses are the sole exception. They get smashed when spotted. The other spiders get left alone or escorted out of the house if they're in a really inconvenient place.

Yesterday was OP. Life is busy and nice with DS. School has changed my schedule again starting next week. I am staying positive.

I am seriously considering signing up for the same Banff trip Karen was talking about. Maybe not the same date but the trip sounds wonderful.