Welcome to May! I havent made any big strides forward -- but no backslides either. This past month was pretty busy with work and that is going to will continue until i go on vac in a few weeks. As I was preparing my Tuesday grocery order this morning, I decided that I will return to routine meals until I leave in 3 wks -- it is a very easy way to stick to a certain number of calories and it makes shopping/prep such easy work. Sure, it is boring but there will be plenty of time for interesting food on vacation.

Not much else going on in my world -- how are you all doing?

I had my annual primary visit and it was more or less a year since the last one I had, which is good for me, it's usually longer.

I have a referral for a dermatologist just for a general look, and also for what seems to be a small cyst that I pick at, and for my psoriasis, which was almost gone for months and is now popping up all over the place, and is almost completely stress/anxiety related. Luckily with all my other hang-ups, I don't really care if people see red patches all over my arms and legs.

I have increased my weights for every exercise at the gym. I have gotten *slightly* taller with increased workouts probably because I lost some weight and am standing up straighter.

I still miss artificial sweetener in my tea, which I am still making myself, half green half herbal, and weak.

My rental with kids who had kids, purchased a house. New tenants move in May 9. They had two 3" large holes in the wall...? Fixed that. Weeded the dandelions, painted scuffs. haven't been to the gym in 4 days. I swear I have a double chin....? NOT working out for 4 days....and I have "chins"! 😂

Keep up the good work everyone!

Pal, can you share your ”recipe” for your tea? is it iced tea? I am trying to drink green tea every day but I use one regular/plain (caffeinated) green tea bag with one decaf pomegranite tea bag (in one large-ish mug) because I don’t love the taste of plain green tea.

I ate too much over the weekend. We were away for 3 nights and ate out for lunch and dinner, and I am feeling the effects now. Back to real life! I made a greek-ish salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, feta, and chickpeas, along with grilled chicken, for dinner tonight. Made enough to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow, yay.

It's iced tea, but it's pretty weak and boring. And it never gets colder than room temperature really.

I started using the iced tea maker according to directions, filling it with ice to the line in the pitcher and the cold water in the back part, but we don't have an ice maker, so I started just using cold water to the line in the pitcher, too.

And I started out with 6 tea bags, and them maybe one herbal so 6-7 and now I do two green tea bags and two peach or two chamomile, and it's pretty weak for a half gallon. And I frequently use the tea bags twice, just adding a new teabag to the second batch, which is also weak.

I also like a hint of peach in my tea -- i use republic of tea ginger peach (virtually no ginger flavor to my taste buds) but I had a beautiful iced tea at a local restaurant here and it was soooo good, I had to ask what it was-- it was a mix of oolong and black tea. Specifically, Harney & Son's Oolong. It also has a mild fruity peach flavor.

I also ordered wegman's pineapple green tea hoping I like it better than plain green tea.

I also want to kick the artificial sweeteners -- I dont need them with iced tea but I enjoy a touch of sweetness. The oolong may be the trick for me to kick it for good.

ETA I also like Republic of Tea Blackberry Sage tea bags for iced tea.

I like Earl Grey + blackberry mixed together.

oh interesting-- i never liked earl grey in iced tea but maybe the mix will hit the right profile! I do love bergamot

Republic of Tea Blackberry Sage is delicious. I usually do not like flavored tea (or coffee). But years ago we were at a restaurant and I ordered unsweetened ice tea (as I always do). They gave me a list of flavors. I asked if they had just plain black iced tea. Nope. So I tried the Blackberry Sage and it was so good.

I was ordering both the bags to make my own and the premade stuff for a long time. Haven't gotten any in a long time. Now I just get Pure Leaf unsweetened to keep in the garage fridge to grab on my way out when I need a drink.

At home, I just drink ice water.

I do not like green tea at all, and I also don't like hot tea. Unless I'm sick, then I want hot tea.

I have never liked sweetened drinks, which I'm very happy about since it saves me calories. I also drink my coffee black with no sugar.

No changes here, unfortunately. Weight is holding steady. Considering I haven't worked out since getting home from vacay last month, I consider that a win.

Telling myself this is the week I get back on the treadmill!

Hi, Everyone, I am in final exams and grading so it has been a crazy couple of weeks. I am feeling good. I am down a couple of pounds, and my BodPod showed 3% down in body fat and 1 lb. gain in lean body mass! I lost 8 lbs. of fat since my last BodPod in January. Consistency is paying off. My doctor is very happy about this as am I. I just need to see where my body ends up and then we can talk maintenance. But I'm < 10 lbs. from my goal! Holy moly who is this woman?

We have decided to take our trip but just go for 2 days instead of 4. We just feel we cannot leave MIL alone for 4 full days plus travel days. Also the cell phone service is very spotty there because of too many people in one area. So, we hired a cat sitter to come. She was here to meet the kitties and pick up a key.

SueB, walks after dinner sound wonderful. I just sometime walk on the treadmill after dinner, sometimes while I work.

Hang in there, everyone. Not sure if I can check in any more this week.

I am about to start making my iced tea jugs -- a tip from Mtn to get the 100 oz jugs of deer park water and stuff iced tea bags in them. It works really well -- no more boiling and making a tea syrup first. It just barely fits in my fridge but that works. I usually do half orange pekoe and half ginger peach or blackberry sage. I dont always add sweetener but when i do it is light-- maybe 1/3 of a packet. I also dont like super sweet drinks but a *little* sweetner brings out the blackberry and peach.

Jsk, i am the same-- I only drink hot tea when I am sick but I loooove iced tea.

Congrats on the continued weight loss, GScience! You are a motivation!

My business analyst had her baby a week early so I am now filling her position as well as mine -- it has only been 2 days and I am already loaded up! I am back to starting work at 5am but I actually prefer to work in the dark hours. I get more done between 5am and 8:30 than the whole rest of the day!

I was pumped to get out and walk as a break from work but we have thunderstorms ripping through. Maybe tomorrow.

I was inspired to kick off my own personal iced tea season!

This is a combo of Honey Ginseng Green Tea and hibiscus tea. I only tried a sip so far, seemed ok but might add more hibiscus next time. I did 1/2 as much hibiscus.

I like Iced tea, I need to get into this trend here. I bought one of those cold tea diffuser/pitchers last year and have tried a few things but nothing with enough flavor to really make me a fan. But I'll be following along.

I've been doing OK. My food choices haven't been the best. I'm honestly just hungry all the time and nothing seems satisfying so I end up eating a lot. I'm trying to just keep eating real whole foods and assume my body knows what it's doing, but it seems to want other stuff:) So, there's that.

I did find one challenge- step related on my Garmin - to finish the virtual Camino de Santiago by July 31. Looks like that is averaging between 12 and 13,000 steps a day. It will take some work, but I'm hoping the consistency over a longer period of time will keep me active. I'm already only averaging around 10,000 through 6 days, so I really need to "step" it up. Ha. Pickleball will also pick up soon so that's always a good thing. I did lift weights ONCE - still trying to get back into that habit. I need to just start back easy and doable and realize anything is better than nothing and go from there.

@gsciencechick - that is really amazing progress! Very happy for you! I love that you have the actual data too. Gaining lean muscle takes hard work. Losing fat and gaining muscle? WOW!

@palimpsest - way to go at the gym! That is very satisfying to move up weights.

Oh, I'm getting on this iced tea train, too! Great combinations!

All is good on my end. I've lost 2 of the 5 eggnog lbs from the holidays, and maintaining protein intake to hopefully minimize muscle loss. Just adding more cardio through walking, and limiting calories (but not too much) is working. I've been cooking a lot and avoiding restaurant food as much as possible. With the weather, I'm starting to grill a bit more, which switches things up a bit. And I'm still eating a minimum of 5 different vegetables a day, along with a lot of protein, so I'm not feeling hungry.

Consistency over perfection... I keep reminding myself that.

So strange no new posts can be made! I hope there is a fix in our future. I don't post a lot on other threads but I almost always read along.

I had a big exercise week - lots of pickleball and walking. Our weather was gorgeous this weekend so we were outside a lot. I haven't been eating super well - I think the uptick in activity is what is making me extra hungry and I haven't been making the best choices to satisfy that. That and weight lifting are a work in progress still. And my sleep tracking shows me I need a lot of wind down time to get the best sleep. So, still working on the basics I guess:)

Happy Mother's Day to all. It was just a spectacular day weather wise here in the northeast. We had a wonderful day at my DD's house for brunch.

Nothing new to report for me. Holding steady untill I can convince myself to get back on the treadmill. My scale started registering in kg instead of lbs. We pulled the battery and put it back and I now weigh 2 lbs more than I did. DH also weighs 2 lbs more. At least I know it's the scale and not actual weight gain but still very annoying.

We had a good time at the festival for the two days we went. We walked 15,000 steps each day. I did some weights at the hotel exercise room. I had the place to myself. It was COLD at night. I had leggings and a light zip jacket but 48 with wind is cold in a stadium. Did weights over the weekend after we got back and did Pilates today since it had been a full week since a class.

I have end of the year reports to do, manuscript reviews, and I am very behind. Summer classes start next week, so I have to get ready for those, too. Ugh.

At least eating is going OK. We had good breakfasts at the hotel and had some poke bowls for lunch. I brought some Rx bars to have at the room at night.

Hang in there, everyone.