I have nice muscle indentation on both outer thighst (fascia- between quadricep and hamstring), which I absolutely got from walking. More muscle is good, however you get there. I love that my thighs have that definition even as I am getting older.

Without knowing the issues needing care, this might help in a pinch. A bit of focused breathing can help. This one has been particularly good: Breathe in on count of 4. Hold for a count of 7. Breathe out slowly for a count of 8. Repeat This seems to work well for many.

What about local elections/ballot questions?

I felt very safe. It's a busy business area in the daytime. I was there for a full week. I loved how close I was to everything. Dh was working nearby, so I explored a lot on my own, and the price was great. I'm used to the city and city things. I never felt I was in danger. I wouldn't have suggested it otherwise. I've stayed at the Claremont. It's gorgeous. I would not dissuade that option. :)

My youngest attends a public high school with an open campus. Kids come and go all day, lunch, internships, work, appointments. However, there are strident attendance policies. Every teacher of every class takes attendance daily. Even compliant me has recieved a truancy notice in the mail for forgetting to call when DC was sick. It cleared with one phone call. The letter I got basically said, 'Don't' panic, but please call the attendance office ASAP to clear these absences." I think it's ridiculous for any school is micromanage HS students like that.

Call the Midwife

I live close to several really good smal food markets, plus WF and TJs. Where I go depends on meal planning, proximity, cravings. :) I would say I average two a week. My fav is a small market down our street, although I can't get everything I need there. But for produce and eggs, it's great.

I think there are some foods most of us can agree are 'healthy'. Maybe. :) I do include some meat, broths, and I love aged cheeses, but this goes against the call for fat reduction, so doesn't meet current guidelines of what is considered healthy. Veggies , cooked and raw, and those which do not negatively affect insulin levels if that's an issue Fruits (same recommendations above) especially berries Dark leafy greens Low sugar yogurt Chia seeds Orange food, including sweet potato Good, sustainable fish, if not a vegetarian Good sourdough bread Lentils Chickpeas Lemon & lime Olive oil (I refuse to believe a good finishing olive oil isn't the cure for all that might ail me. :)) A couple of good eggs a week, maybe more. :) Fermented foods, especially kimchi ;) Flax seed Seaweed, especially toasted nori ;) Moderate coffee intake Moderate wine, esp red But I think it's also about what we don't eat. Minimal sugar, minimal to no processed foods, reducing or eliminating foods with more than 4 or 5 ingredients (a Micheal Pollan recommendation) This is a such a tricky & emotional topic. But yeah, more food ideas!! What have I have actually eaten, and planned for today: 1/2 cup plain full fat yogurt w/ tablespoon chia seeds, 2 pieces of bacon. :) Late lunch will be grilled fish w/ garden food on the side; sliced cucumbers, tomatoes w/ a bit of salt, pepper and lemon juice And later, a salad with cherry tomatoes, toasted sliced almonds, goat cheese, and dried cranberries ( which I can't eat, so will pick around them). homemade dressing will be olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, crushed garlic clove) My youngest created a calender with a week's worth dinner meals, and who will prepare them. She is slated to make zucchini lasagna tomorrow night.

The Hotel Durant on Grant St in Berkeley is terrific, not costly, near everything Cal, and will give a good sense of the college scene. The lobby is lovely, with a nice bar for the grown ups. The Durant is a bit quirky, which my kids loved. In SF, I'd give great consideration to the Holiday Inn near the Civic Center at Market Street. It's a quick walk to BART, and an easy walk to the cable cars on Powell. It's inexpensive by SF standards, has great room service. (For a solid week I had the avocado omelet delivered for breakfast.) Supremely convenient. It's not fancy, but is solid. ETA: I see Durant has been discussed and booked. Enjoy!

Rehab? Shut off the computer, JD. That's really big of him to abandon 3 tots, a newborn baby, and a probably exhausted post partum wife.

I learned to drive on a stick. Automatic is easier I suppose, but to me, stick is real driving.

Everyone is different. I'm sharing what works for me. It might help someone else. Or not. I'm certainly not upset if my way doesn't work for other folks. I do lower carb, and I don't eat tons of meat. I'm not a huge carnivore, even if I am an omnivore. Today was an avocado for breakfast. A big Greek salad for lunch. Seltzer water and a small handful of cashews in the afternoon to get me through the afternoon rush at work, and then supper was a big slice of spinach frittata I quickly tossed together when I got home from work. I put a plate of sliced tomatoes & cucumbers on the table. Nobody complained. lol I feel energetic with what I've found works for me. A carby diet makes me feel supremely sluggish, while the bread and potatoes camp out in mah belly and have a party. :) I very much understand that every bod has its own needs.

Lower carb works for me. However, I Do not think you have to give up a good crusty sourdough, baguette, or bagel for the rest of your life (allergies notwithstanding). The key is to plan them, and then enjoy. Nobody needs empty carbs every single day. A waffle at breakfast, a donut at 10, a ciabatta sandwich at lunch, sugar-laden ' low fat' yogurt at 3, with a big latte, spaghetti for dinner... Few people can metabolize so many carbs and sugars. I don't care how much you excersize. Full disclosure: I gained about 5/7 lbs by cheating a boatload this month, although I'm still at a negative weight loss I've maintenance fior over two years without much effort by doing low carb.

A calorie is certainly not a calorie, and not even in the basic sense of energy. Food with fiber fi, is not going to affect metabolism and blood sugar in the same way soda or juice will, even if the calorie count is exactly the same.

Try a low carb/barely any sugar experiment. Drink only water, and if you like, coffee and tea without sweater. Take a 7 day break from bread, noodles, rice, beans, potatoes, corn, popcorn, bananas, grapes, chips of any kind, cereal. Eat veggies, berries, avocados, salads ( dressings are fine, but make sure there is little sugar, or make your own with olive oil, mustard, salt pepper balsamic or red wine vinegar), sautéed veggies, normal portions of various proteins: eggs, tuna, fish, salmon, chickens, beef and the like. Make your food taste good by using spices, onions, garlic, parsley, olive oil, decent butter, sesame oil if you're doing a stir fry. Weigh yourself everyday. Don't overeat, but don't go hungry. Don't bother counting calories. You're checking your carb/sugar sensitivity right now. If you're still hungry after a meal, do NOT choose a cookie, no matter how small; eat half an avocado, or a handful of olives instead. Talk a walk whenever you can. Moving your body, even a bit will make you feel much better. Building muscle is good. see if you're very sensitive to carbs. I am not saying no carbs. I'm not saying eat pork rinds. I'm saying try seeing if eating far fewer carbs helps you to lose weight and curb cravings. I'm suggesting giving your body a break from the foods that many are sensitive to. Eat real food. Don't eat processed food at all. Try this for one full week. Go from there. Check in. When you have time, watch a couple of lectures by Dr Lustig on YouTube. He is head of pediatric endocrinology at the University of California San Franscico.

Many children, boys and girls, but often boys a bit more, crave big, hard, sustained active play. Running around and building tents/forts, digging, climbing, putting boards across dirt pits, swinging from ropes and tire swings, looking for buried treasure, making mud etc is creative, physical, and exciting. My family is/was lucky to be a part of a mixed age hsing group which had space ( some of us lived on land with trees, and dirt, and able to trim branches to drag about (3 or 4 good branches make a hideaway). This summer, we had a couple of reunions. There was a lot of wild & good play. Manhunt, flashlight tag, pitching tents, playing on an old canoe on land. (Not crazy, but satisfying and in the end, exhausting. A good puppy is a tired puppy and all that.) We used to have a bamboo grove on public land in our town, but was torn town to make a regular park. The kids mourned that. I'm reading that people don't need playgroups etc., but ime, some kids really do benefit from old fashioned play with others. Real work is good too. But little children still need chunks of time for sustained, imagitive, exhausting play. Streams, stones, mud, sticks, swimming holes, open fire hydrants, skate ramps, bike adventures in the neigborhood, ball in the street and more. Jumping alone on a trampoline is fun enough for a bit, but it doesn't take the place of doing and creating something as you communicate and argue your ideas with some friends. It might be a pipe dream to be able to offer that, but it doesn't mean it is not valuable to a growing child. Our modern lives may not be conducive to such play, yet it's a fact the brains, bodies, and imaginations of our young children haven't yet adapted to more the sedate and controlled environments in which many of us find ourselves. I'm not at all surprised that children are so drawn to exciting video games. Living vicariously is all some have left. These are my extrapolated thoughts, and not directed specifically to the post. I know she lives on a farm, so it's possible he gets to ride horse and coral cattle. :)

This is tongue- in -check, but let's try this excersize. Anyone can ' fall' /make a terrible mistake, but has anyone here made a handsome living condemning all WTM folks because we homeschool/after school? Has anyone here exploited their young children and sacrificed their privacy, or tirelessly worked to make/change laws so we can't live our hsing lives in peace? Has a hacker shown that you've been secretly hsing for years? That would be hypocrisy, and we'd have issues. Pass the cupcakes.

They chose to make themselves public and pop figures. They chose to profit from a TV show by sharing nearly every intimate moment of their lives. They tweet, Instagram, blog, and FB constantly as a way to make a living. They have feverently invited - and profited- from public interest, speculation, and chatter. They chose this highly public life, with personal and titilating topics they eagerly share with the world. When it's good it is very, very good, but when it's bad it's horrible. I have great sympathy for the children caught in this maelstrom.

It was the Duggars who made themselves public figures by choosing to work in politics to legislate their brand of Christianity and morality. They support the idea that homosexuality should be punishable by death (that was a focus of FRC) . They have worked tirelessly to legislate againt basic health care, including birth control for women. As a former executive director of FRC, Josh Duggar raised & allocated funds to deny and limit civil rights on the basis of gender and sexuality. The Duggars are part of our political landscape by their choice. Of course they are going to face backlash on their hypocrisy.

My heart hurts for his wife. She's so darn young.

NM

If this happens ( headaches for me if I'm not careful) I snack on toasted nori strips. Salty, delicious, low carb, with some mineral benefits. I can't do no carb /super LC.

Idnib. There is a fishmonger near me selling whole lobster for 5.99/lb. if I could limit myself to just the lobster, all would be fine. Lol I'm like , oh, the water is already boiling, and look, bliss potatoes, and oh, you picked up some fresh corn at the neighbor's stand. Throw it in. I'll blame my husband. Yes. That's the plan.

Lobster is fine on LC. It's the decadent toasted ciabattas. ;)

Hawaii? Florida keys? Miami? FT Lauderdale? As far south as possible if you hope for any warmth. San Diego isnt warm enough for swimming, imo. You could sit in the beach, but the water is cold. Pools at WDW. Those suckers are well heated, although it's not beach. There are fake beaches in WDW.