Phone check in. There is no delay time. Nice. Up at 6:30 and feeling good. Tomorrow is 3:30 but I can sleep on the plane.

Packing failure! Medicine bottles with vinegar. Nope! Good thing I double bagged. Lost food I brought. Oh well. Also I put ointment in another new container and it leaked as well. Good news is no mess and it happened the first night so I move on clean to Ecuador.

I Amazoned a second pair of hiking pants down here. They came Tall not Reg. But I tried them on and they are fine. Wow! I really like them. Easy to wash and flattering but Just Fit! It will be a reminder that the point of my vacation is not food.

I have to choose a few books to download. Mani/pedi today which is a treat.

wave

We had a couple of cooler days for walks. I'm grateful. Today will be indoor exercise and I'm fine with that, too.

I've penciled in a bigger adventure for Wednesday, but it was predicted to be a little cooler when I made that plan. I may swap my Wednesday and Thursday plans. Or I might just go and let it be hot. In good news, though, they've taken out the several 100+ degree days that were in our long-term forecast.

Exercise +60, 560/1600 minutes for July

VertOlive: I've always wondered about the safety of cooking utensils that start with touch raw chicken and are later used to touch cooked chicken. Double utensils make sense to me!

Good morning coaches,

Food was on plan yesterday. I got up and hiked an easy/moderate hike today by myself listening to a book as a distraction. It was 91 degrees when I started and about 94 when I finished. I think it will be that way all week. My goal is to just do this hike when it is this warm. It's about 4 1/2 miles but only about 500 feet elevation gain which is good because it doesn't require much exertion in the heat. I was happy that I felt just fine and then came home and walked Otis. I have PT this morning at 11:30 for my sciatica or whatever it is.

I have 17 days until I leave on my trip. My goal is to stay on plan and be down a couple pounds by then. I have plenty of clothing that fit, but the white jeans might be better with a couple of pounds off. I think I'll be busy enough once I go that I hope food won't be an issue and my goal for the trip will be to maintain. I will need to decide on a few food items to take on the hiking trip for snacks and maybe to supplement meals since I'm not sure they can quite accommodate my food plan and I will want to be sure I have good nutrition and enough calories.

Maryann Good to know about the packing failure before you head to Ecuador. Enjoy your day and especially enjoy your spa vacation in Ecuador. I would love to come see you in Truckee sometime. We could hike Mt. Rose.

VertOlive That's great that you have a good weight loss on your first week on Noon. So motivating. I love that you play the harp. The music is so beautiful.

Curlyjax You really did have a productive day. Go you! Great weather with nice temperatures does really help. Nice that you have a couple of weekend events to look forward to.

Bill That is so sweet that you 2 yr old little one was pushing the "baby". It is so funny when they are just a little bit older than the baby.

Nationalparker I want to see Mrs Harris goes to Paris too. Also My Donkey, My Lover & I and a few others. Your little dgs sounds like he is keeping you plenty busy. I never eat at the movie. I'm too frugal and I don't want the junk. I do bring some water in my purse though.

Penny I'm glad the coffee gave you the needed pep. I don't know if I'd get out the door in the morning without my coffee.

GardenerJoy I wish I had kept track of books I've read. The library keeps track of those I've checked out, but I don't always read them anymore. If I don't like it or something else comes available and I'm not really enjoying it, I return the book. Maybe I should just start now. That is good news about fast growing cancer responding to chemo better. I believe I knew that at one time.

MommaMeli Your little one and family continue to be in my prayers.

A friend recommended a movie on YouTube that helped re-enthuse me about more nutritional plant-based food choices, basically about healing our bodies. Nothing really new, but good timing for me to watch it and reinforce things I've learned. DH watched part of it and he, too, was engaged and mentioned a few things we should/could do. One line I particularly liked was, "We don't know how good the good stuff is and we don't know how bad the bad stuff is." relating to the healthy aspects of disease fighting by plant-based foods and the danger of the processed junk. I wrote that in my journal as a reminder.

Just got random things done today - Sam's for a variety of things and DH went and wanted to meander around there so I just got what I needed and then perused the books/magazines area. Also was able to go to the library and picked up another cookbook and will see if anything in there looks good. Picked up a few other books, one on hold was Truly, Madly (about Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier - I know nothing about them other than she was Scarlett in GWTW.

Joy - I wanted to ask if you've read "The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle" set in England, 1942. By Jennifer Ryan. (I listened to her audiobook of The Kitchen Front and that was engaging.) I finally came up for the digital version of this book and have started it. It was recommended on a frugal blog I enjoy. I put aside my own books to read library ones. I think I need to commit to getting through more of my own.

Karen - I had not heard of My Donkey, My Lover and I - thank you! I want to see that one now, as well. I'm still waiting for The Duke to start streaming or be available for purchase and rent from my library.

Bill - I get a huge kick out of tots calling others nearly equal to them in age "babies" ... that brought a smile to my face with your including that in your note. We had a cool enough evening to put the window fan in but it warmed up and got muggy very quickly, so I shut it down even before DH woke up. Got in an hour of gardening and now ready to transplant more tomato seedlings. Late but I'll keep trying on them. Usually when the plants die off in September, I pick all of the tomatoes and let them ripen. This year maybe if I have younger plants cycling through, I can grow them longer. Maybe?

CurlyJax - I feel you on coming more alive with the warmer weather and sunshine. Your trip plans sound great!

Maryann - Continued safe travels as your journey unfolds! What a summer you have planned.

Penny - Love the recall of your parrot going for the junk food, too A tortilla just seems so bland. How long did you have it?

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Walk, CREDIT moi, went past two sidewalk libraries; dawdled at both but took nothing, separate CREDIT moi for that. Perhaps I'm getting better at not grabbing a book of vague (Nb: super Quordl word there) interest knowing how quickly I can get stuff that I reserve from our library system. Reminds me that many, many years ago I grabbed a copy of Richard Nixon's memoir at a yard sale for 5 cents. Thought I had the bargain of the year. It occupied a space on my shelves for years before I finally admitted that I had no interest in reading a politician's memoir.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner on the patio at a pleasant temperature (with no mosquitos). Discussed ad nauseam the single photo of deep space from the Webb Telescope released last night. Two great thoughts from the NASA administrator, Bill Nelson: the picture covers an area the size you'd see by a grain of sand on the tip of your finger at arm's length; and looking forward to seeing things we don't yet know to be looking for. So fun to be reminded that we're starting a new phase with the Webb. Looking forward to the formal release of pictures this morning at 10:30 am ET.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - I love it when there's a change in the predicted temperatures in the direction I want. As if the weatherfolk had done me a favor.

maryann - Having pants shipped to your SIL's is some serious last-minute planning. Congrats for your success. I assume you'll be on the plane soon. Have a great trip.

nationalparker – Congrats for still getting tomato plants in the ground. We've now harvested three (3.0) cherry tomatoes from our vines that are loaded with green tomatoes. If it's like last year, when they ripen, they ripen all together to challenge our ability to eat them all.

Karen (karenrn) - Yay for having plenty of clothing that fits for your upcoming trip. You do sound ready.

curlyjax - What a satisfying list of chores to get done all in one day.

VertOlive - is new to me so had to listen to this harp rendition. Then had to listen to it sung, and then to Wiki for the lyrics. Indeed it is a spirited piece. I wish you well finding a way to improvise with your finger issue. Fun to be reminded that a home schooled kid chooses his curriculum.

MommaMeli - Continue to send supportive thoughts to you and your family.

Readers -

Good morning!

Another day of work ahead, with tennis class after. Thank goodness for the class, or I would probably not do anything outside of work. It sucks all my energy away!

My brain is not coming up with anything to write so I'll make it a quick check-in and wish everyone a great day.

Greetings!

Well, the Password Curse is upon me again! I just lost my entire post because, after being logged in and having typed it, the site said I was not logged in. So I logged in again and my password is no longer valid. SIGH. So I made another password.....

Yesterday was On Plan and 11,641 steps logged. The step count is normal for my workday; I now work as a manager in a 110,000 square foot Fitness Club and can do that in air conditioned comfort. Happy to say I also was able to hand write a 4 page letter. I had put my very active pen pal life on hold while my hand heals and had had to send out a printed post card explaining to my pen pals why I wouldn't be writing for several months. SO great to be back at it!

Bill: yes, that's the song. I learned it as a child in 4th grade French class and thought it would be fun for this year's carol to master. The recording you showcased sounds as if it is played on a harp a bit smaller than my own, which is by no means large. A very nice rendition.

nationalparker: While researching online cooking schools for DS, I learned that there is now a specialty designation for chefs exclusively interested in "Plant Based Culinary Arts". I could really use a few more recipes of that sort.

karenrn: You are one hardy hiker! I can barely make it to the car alive here during the summer, I'm a total heat wimp!

Maryann: Amazon comes in SO handy sometimes, especially in those "Gotta have it NOW" situations.

GardenerJoy: In 2021 I did count all the books I'd read in a bullet journal. It came out to 92. This year I didn't get a jump on it and have no idea.

Waving to everyone and wishing you all a great day!

The weather forecast changed again. Today would have been the pick of the week for an outing, but I’m too invested in other plans. That includes running errands, so maybe that will be enough to take care of the current wanderlust. Truth be told, just having the idea that I might go somewhere this week helped. That may last long enough for the weather to improve. This tells me that I want to make more of an effort to get out when the weather is nice.

At any rate, my enthusiasm and, more to the point, my motivation is propelled by the fact that I’m giving an in-person presentation a week from today. So, I'm going to see how much progress I can make on preparing for that.

Since we sometimes talk about getting rid of possessions (which seems oddly related to getting rid of pounds), I had success in the last couple of days. I've held on to my dad's old coin collection and his old slide rule since 2006. I think I found loving homes for each of them yesterday.

The coin collection was a little tricky. I didn't want to put it up on our Buy Nothing group because I hoped for it to go to a coin collector not someone who wanted currency. So, I made a post just to my friends on Facebook and asked if any St. Louis area friends knew a kid who collected coins. I also didn't want to ship these (they're heavy!). I found a young coin collector not that far from here.

The Buy Nothing group worked great for the slide rule. It's going to a woman who is an engineer and has two kids who like math. Perfect!

CREDIT for getting rid of what isn't needed, both extra pounds and extra stuff.

Exercise +55, 615/1600 minutes for July

nationalparker: I've had The Kitchen Front on my list for a while now, but I might enjoy the Wedding Dress one, too.

VertOlive: 92 is a lot of books. I haven't managed that many since the invention of YouTube and podcasts. Most years, I read 40-50 books a year.

Good morning coaches,

Food was on plan yesterday. I hiked again this morning, this time with my friend. It was a tiny bit warmer, but we are doing fine. I think being acclimated and having lost some weight since last year has helped. There was a small rattlesnake at the trailhead, but it was light enough to see it thank goodness. I stopped at the store on the way home to pick up a few things and so I won't really need to leave the house again today if I don't want to. I'm already to watch the hearings now.

I went to PT yesterday and she is thinking maybe it's a pinched nerve causing my problem. The exercises I have are to mind my seated posture (or any posture), prone press ups (into I guess you would call it the cobra position?) and bridges. It was kind of fun because she went to PT school at the University of Puget Sound (about 2 miles from where I lived in Washington), and then stayed in Washington for about 14 years. She only moved to this area a month or so ago. She's a hiker so I'll take some maps of the preserve to her and give her a few hints on best places to hike once it's cooler.

Yesterday I listed to a YouTube, Nutrition Made Simple, and Dr. Gil Carvalho had Dr. Stuart Philips a protein specialist from McGill University on the program. I think after watching that I'm going to try to increase my protein a bit to 1.2 grams per kg. For me that would put me at 74 grams of protein day. I think the easiest way to do it is to have a protein drink in place of fruit for a snack. It's a little more calories, but I want to ensure I'm getting enough. I'll do the same for dh but make his with even more protein.

GardenerJoy Thanks for mentioning getting rid of things. I think I still have some of my Dad's stamp collection. I'll have to look to see if I have it or gave it to my brother. My Dad sold his U. S. collection for enough to buy a Lincoln Continental. I have what was leftover an I think an Australian collection. Totally forgot about them. It's fun to have some enthusiasm.

VertOlive The password issue has got to be so frustrating. I'm frustrated with just the login being so slow. I knew the harp song once I played it. That is so nice that you can play an instrument.

Penny I'm so sorry that you're not old like me. You will love retirement. I do remember those sucking the life out of you jobs though.

Bill The Webb photos and just the thought of them just brings me to tears. It's so exciting and mind boggling and such a positive thing to have happening. It must be even more exciting for you since you understand astrophysics.

Nationalparker What is the movie you watched that gave you renewed enthusiasm. I have watched a number of them and watch many YouTubes, but always like to see more. I don't have any in person friends who are on this food plan. Thank goodness I have time to keep up with things on the internet.

Waving to Curlyjax, Maryann and MommaMeli.

Hello - another day at the in-laws. I wasn't thinking we were going today. Walked with my friend at 10 and when I got home, DH asked when I'd be ready to head. WHAT? I told him you need to give me the heads-up (not so that I won't come home, haha) but we packed up drinks and I made us each a smoothie and we got on the road right then. I rushed so much I remembered sunscreen and our hats, but forgot to put on my old sneakers and had changed into flipflops when I got home. I was able to mow on the Cub Cadet in flip flops because I'm above the deck, but still...i'm a stickler for stuff like that with regular mowing. We each mowed and that cut the time substantially. Then Goodwill load, worked on getting a piece of the hardwood under the junk floor showing, boxed up a lot of the more valuable (in theory) porcelain dolls to sell on FB marketplace I guess. Back there tomorrow and that should be THE LAST CLEANING OUT. I said we need to get out the door earlier in the morning. Today we didn't get home until 9:30. I said I'll pack up a good lunch tomorrow, but honestly, it's hard without preplanning. It's going to be watermelon and pb&j sandwiches on wheat. I don't want to make anything tonight. We stopped at Subway for a footlong veg on wheat to split late afternoon, so that was good. I thought we'd only be there a few hours, not into the night. Ah well. Coming to the end. THANK GOODNESS. I'm sick and tired of it. We have another goodwill run, another scrap metal run to get rid of the vac and a few other random things, and cleaning.

DH reserved a storage unit after he mentioned it and I've kinda pecked at him a few days to DO IT. We need our garage back to be able to reorg stuff... and let's get stuff out of the way (that will be sold). I'm thankful that we can get on that this week now.

My turn in the bathroom. I urged him to go first so I could linger in a hot bath and relax without wondering how long I've been.
Karen - The name of the show on youtube was Eating You Alive. Interesting as I keep hearing how are you getting enough protein and that was covered in there, too. Same thing I'd read/heard before but good to have refresher on stuff.

Bill - This full moon is so gorgeous, seeing it during the day as well. I wish my DH had been able to go to college as he would have loved studying that.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Breathtaking day! Watched the NASA release of the first five pictures from the Webb telescope. NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency did a bang-up job of presenting useful background explanations for the pictures. The pictures were stunning in their detail. Loved that a professional astronomer bet that a tiny white smear was just an artifact but it was yet another galaxy. Galaxies, galaxies everywhere. And new stars being formed. My little brain still has to work to remember that we're looking back 13 billion years in time.

Also watched the Jan 6th hearing. Also breathtaking. More than I wanted to know.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi, even though I spent an inordinate amount of time in front of the TV wondering what to do with my hands thinking that using them to shovel food would be a great idea. If I even get into watching TV seriously, maybe I'll take up knitting.


Onebyone - Waving. Though of you as we watched the Webb pictures just as you described, "Through Canadian Eyes." Hope all is well.

Joy (gardenerjoy) - Such good news that you found a good home for your dad's slide rule and coin collection.

nationalparker – It's encouraging to hear you speak of your in-laws' house being close to done. You've been heroic in your work there. Thanks for the reminder that, even as we boggle about the Webb telescope pictures, the full moon is a wonder.

Karen (karenrn) - Such a coincidence that your PT knows Puget Sound. Such a casual mention of a rattle snake.

Penny. - May your brain return to functioning in due course, LOL. Neat that the tennis continues.

VertOlive - It's encouraging that your hand is healthy enough for you to continue to work full time. Love the notion that your DS might lead you to more "Plant Based Culinary Arts".

MommaMeli - Continue to send supportive thoughts. Do hope that your three with you are allowed to visit their sister.

Readers -

Quick wave. the window guy is here in prep for my shower replacement, which will be tomorrow. Yay! I did not get into junk at work and I did do my weights at home, so merit for that. i am currently boiling some eggs that I can snack on for protein.
VertOlive- I love the idea of plant based culinary arts, cuisine has come a long way!

Yesterday got eaten by errands, Facebook, and the hearing. Not quite what I intended, and I let that change my eating plan, too. Oh. I see that I never managed to write down a food plan -- no wonder that I found it hard to follow!

I have a written food plan, today, and good motivation to follow it so that I don't go down a path that I'll have to backtrack in a few days. Also, my annual doctor's check-up is at the end of the month, and I'd like my weight to be at my happy place.

Exercise +45, 660/1600 minutes for July

Good morning coaches,

Just a quick note. Food has been on plan and I hiked the same trail again this morning and then walked Otis. I'm giving myself tons of credit for hiking in the mid-90's. Today will be a run to Costco and a mammogram in the afternoon. I can't believe how much produce we go through, but it's a good thing. Gas is down $1 at my Costco to under $5 for premium. I'm pretty happy about that. Have a great hump day all of you!

Good morning!

Tennis class is super fun and the scoring system is starting to make sense. Lots of exercise running and bending to pick up the balls.

my break from dieting is going okay. I'm feeling less desperate for rapid fire snacking in the evening, and making better choices for the snacks I do indulge in. I have a delicious bag of peaches I'm working through. Buying peaches is always a gamble but it worked out this time.

Speaking of purging items, the backyard trampoline is finally moving on, and then I need to figure out how to get rid of the hot tub. It had a good run but it's falling apart.

Nationalparker, exciting that you are so close to being done with the house cleanup! It's impressive you have the energy to sell so much of the stuff. I tend to give everything away because I don't want to take the time. You're probably getting more $$ that way. Hopefully enough to make it worth it.

Vertolive, that's a lot of books! I only manage 30+ but it's feast or famine with me. I'm either reading a lot, or going through a long dry spell when my brain seems to not be able to stay focused long enough.

Bill, yay a knitting buddy! Lol it doesn't always help and my brain still wants to shovel food in.

Karen, good luck with the protein increase. That sounds like a lot! I got mine up some with tofu but it's back down again. I can see that the shakes are a must for that goal.

Joy, have a nice day out running errands. I enjoy errands as an outing sometimes too.

Waving at Maryann and Curly. Have a great day, everyone!