I hit the gym this morning. I’m getting better at the bench press - 9 reps of 75 lbs today.

That is awesome!! Well done!

I got out for my group run. It was -3 C but more like -10 with the wind chill. I wasn’t cold for long. We had a 20 minute warm up run and then ran up and down a huge staircase a bunch of times. Watching Sugar Coates now.

That's really cold!

Now that's motivation! I might have taken the missed bus as a sign I was supposed to stay home ;)

It's great that he'll eat what you give him. I end up packing leftovers for dh - though I also have him fasting a lot, so the only day he brings a lunch to work is Wednesday. Also great that he's working with a personal trainer! I'm slowly trying to convince my dh to do the same thing. Right now he works out with our middle ds, but it means that both of them have to be available and willing to do it so it's only happening a couple of times a week. Would your dh go out and walk with you? Mine would agree to come for a walk - unfortunately I rarely feel like walking after dinner and clean up, so we usually only walk on the weekends. I've been tired all week - I think it's a combination of PMS and interrupted sleep. I'm just trying to push through and check all the boxes this week. Hopefully things will pick up soon.

I'll add the kids. I made the older boys' a breakfast sandwich. Toasted bun with melted cheese, fried egg, and bacon. That's fairly typical - they don't have time to eat before we leave so they end up eating in the car which means it's always some kind of sandwich. Sometimes I make grilled cheese. Other times they get a bagel with cream cheese, bacon, and tomato. The youngest doesn't like to eat very much. This morning he wasn't hungry at all and didn't want anything, but I gave him an Instant Breakfast drink and a piece of bacon and he finished both. The breakfast drink isn't typical - usually I can get him to eat a piece of toast with peanut butter and banana or half a bagel with cream cheese. He always has lots of time for breakfast in the morning.

Black coffee. I think I've maybe eaten breakfast a handful of times in the last 22 months, so the coffee is typical.

Wow. Thanks for all of the help and advice. I had no idea that it was ok to have her eat more wet food. Cleo will be thrilled. I'm going to do some experimentation with food and see how she does. If I can get her eating more and gaining some weight that would be great. If not, we'll head back to the vet. We will be back there in March for her yearly check-up and vaccines anyway, so I'll definitely mention IBD. That wasn't something the vet brought up when we were last in. Now my biggest problem will be my fat cat and my dog both losing their minds when Cleo gets extra wet food. Though, maybe they should all just have more wet food? Oh - and her teeth and gums are great. Very healthy. She's eight years old this year and has always been on the slim side and, honestly, has always thrown up a lot. It's only in the last year that she's actually lost weight.

So I have this cat who keeps getting skinnier and skinnier (her brother keeps getting fatter and fatter, but that's another story). She has lost nearly a pound since March - I think she's at about 7 lbs right now. She has always thrown up quite a lot - anywhere from twice a week to every day, depending. I had her at the vet a month ago because she was having diarrhea and was occasionally pooping in my front entryway and because I was worried about the throwing up and the weight. The vet thought maybe her thyroid was overactive so we did $400 worth of blood tests. Turns out, everything they ran was just fine. No red flags. Except the vet thought she was trying to tell me that she wanted more wet food (communicating by pooping outside the litter - nice). I went to the fancy pet food store and asked the owner about food that might be easier on my cat's stomach. She suggested a fish based kibble with no grains. My cat hates it. I give my cats wet food in the morning (which they love) and then kibble throughout the day. My skinny cat barely touches the kibble and is constantly begging for food - whenever I'm preparing food in the kitchen she is in there trying to get on the counters or in the dishwasher. Clearly she's hungry. And she'll eat little pieces of chicken and beef if I give those to her. She doesn't typically throw up meat. She's driving dh crazy because she's constantly jumping on the counters. I chase her down every time and also have a spray bottle. Sometimes when she throws up it's shortly after a meal. Other times, it's first thing in the morning and just looks like water or bile. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to it. Anyway - this cat cannot afford to lose any more weight. She's tiny. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd love to find something she can eat comfortably and that she would like.

I was tired at the gym on Tuesday, but I wonder if that's because I ran 19.25 km on Saturday? I don't know if it's possible for it to take that long to recover... I felt great during the run - much better than two weeks before when we ran 18. Had a tempo run last night which was good. I was supposed to do an easy 5km today, but it was rainy, cold, and windy out and I didn't feel like going to the track. The really fun part about this week is that I tried on my goal skirt yesterday. It's a 26" waist and I was only able to wear it a few times last year between when I bought it and when I lost my mind and had a few months of carbapalooza (I was hit with really bad seasonal depression and gained 25 lbs). Anyway - not only could I put the skirt on, but it actually fit comfortably. I wore it all day. What's weird to me is that I'm still 15 lbs above what I got down to last year. And yet, all of my clothes from my smallest weight are fitting beautifully. I know, logically, that it's muscle gain. I've been lifting heavy for months and I definitely know that I've built muscle, but there is some sort of brain disconnect that tells me I can't possibly fit into my skinny clothes when the scale still says I'm not at my "goal" weight. I think it's time to revise the goal weight ;) I do still have some inches I can pinch, but as soon as those are gone I'm done. I really feel happy when I can walk into my closet and wear anything I want.

It's tough to make changes for another person. Tough and exhausting. I hope your dh starts to see some progress and that he starts feeling motivated to do some of this on his own. Sometimes it just takes a few steps in the right direction before someone realizes it actually is possible to make changes and see progress.

That's awesome!

It's hard to say. My grandma just died at Christmas. She was 95. She played piano every day up until a few weeks before her death. She had five children and about 30 grandchildren and had visitors every day. I can't remember when she went into the nursing home - maybe at 89? At first, she wasn't happy, but then she met some friends who she'd gone to elementary school with and she found some social events that she enjoyed so she did end up having some happy years there. My uncle created a slideshow with hundreds (maybe thousands?) of photos from her childhood all the way up to present day and she loved to look at them. They played continually on a screen in her room. She was also financially stable - not a burden on anyone. I guess if she had lived but wasn't really living an enjoyable life - not able to play the piano, or have conversations with her visitors, or appreciate her pictures - then maybe it wouldn't have been worth living longer. But, she did pretty good up to 95.

Dd is planning a fun reception - she gets married in July. They're having the ceremony and the reception outdoors on a lake where her fiancee's family has a cottage. It will be an evening wedding with light appies served afterward. The cool part is that she's having a cake table - she's encouraging people to bring a cake. I will be making the cake that they will cut together - it's the chocolate birthday cake that we make for everyone's birthday. I'm also making Pioneer Woman's 4th of July cake. It will be fun to see what kinds of cakes show up. They've also planned to have a poutine truck show up at midnight. And they'll be serving local craft beer. And there will be a live band. Hopefully the weather will be perfect.

From what I can see, it doesn’t look like Victoria, BC is in any danger. Does anyone see a warning for southern Vancouver Island? I’m nowhere near, but most of my extended family is peacefully asleep in Victoria right now.

Ds was just accepted to Queens - he applied to their Commerce program and to their Honours Science program and was accepted into both. Also, small scholarships for both, but they reevaluate scholarship amounts in July and he'll see a big difference in marks between what his November marks were and what his July ones are.

I just played around with it to see. It does combine. I chose three recipes with butter in them. It showed 6tbsp of butter in the list beside a place where I could check it off and then below, in bullets, it showed the breakdown of how much of that butter was in each of the three recipes.

I was going to say wine. And a strict bedtime (which was good for both of us).

It really is free. I've been using it for years and haven't paid a thing. I was always intrigued by Plan to Eat - I guess because it's a paid service? - I figured I had to be missing something big by using Pepperplate. Glad to hear I'm not.

I love hearing about your tennis. My dh and I are planning - at some point - to start playing. I could probably look into doing some lessons sooner rather than later... The park behind our house even has a court, so we could play pretty easily in the summer.

Yes, you can sort and edit. You can't "friend" people, but you can "share" your recipes via email, twitter, or facebook.

I'm trying to figure out how it's different from Pepperplate. I've been using Pepperplate for a few years. I can import recipes from other websites or manually input my own. I can plan meals in the calendar and add meals and plans to my grocery list which I can then access on my phone. I create menus. I can use it to scale a recipe to a smaller or larger size. I can customize how the grocery list is arranged. I can also add things that aren't recipes - like, I can put "leftovers" in the planner so I know that Thursday is leftover night. I've never tried saving a week of plans and reusing it - maybe that's something it can't do? Is there something I'm missing?

What really bothers me is that after reading this thread the pants came up as an Instagram ad when I checked my Instagram. It's creepy how much "the internet" knows about me.

I was thinking a nice curry would be good. Chicken Tikka Masala or Butter Chicken and rice.