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My "American take on a Greek salad" from dinner last night:

Another salad ☺️

Dinner last night....filet, portabellas, broccoli, cauliflower and a small dose of horseradish sauce.

Celebrated my birthday last weekend and took an impromptu trip which consisted of visiting an obscene number of restaurants and trying different yummy foods. The highlight was this dessert platter the hubby ordered as my birthday cake: It had an insane amount of desserts. Guess what, I had a sever dumping episode after ingesting some of this monstrosity. A few of the desserts that were offered: Molten lava cake (had around half because it was effin delicious) Banana green tea cake (also yummy, only took one bite) A coconut custard topped with tropical fruits and passion fruit foam (two bites) 2 scoops of regular vanilla and vanilla bean ice cream Pistachio Mochi (ate half) Mango and passion fruit sorbets An endless amount of fruit Man I was so so stuffed. I need to post what normal food I ate soon Lol.

Dinner last night….. This was two meals….and the only eats on both days. Would be much better if I would have had a little bit every couple hours through the day…but didn’t sop to eat. Boneless chicken, powdered ranch dressing and onions-peppers with a splash of heavy cream and chicken broth.

I buy the chopped frozen variety. Drop it in a good pan, as it comes out of the packet, without water. Slowly defrost it, it only takes a few minutes. I add a small amount of cream cheese, garlic and a few scrapes of nutmeg. No waste, no fuss. Delicious.

@SpartanMaker funny you mentioned your run and how you had to play the why in your head -this morning I woke up at 4am. as I always do. and kept pushing the snooze button, but I knew I had to go the gym and do lower body weight lifting- I knew in order to progress how I am trying to shape my body I needed to do it. So I got up, and did it. As I was working out, I told myself your here, put your game face on and just effing doing it. Probably one of the best lower body workouts I have done in a long time. I am constantly repeating it in my head- glad I could help!

You didn't know it @AmberFL, but this statement has been stuck in my head almost all day. Let me explain. Earlier I spent ~1.5 hours running in a cold hard rain and frankly it kinda sucked. My mind started wandering (as it often does when I run), and I was asking myself why I was out there running in such lousy conditions. That's when determination popped into my head and that's when I remembered this thread. It made me think of all the folks that say "I just don't feel motivated to do XYZ today". I was thinking on my run though that I wasn't feeling motivated either, but I was still out there running (and partly questioning my sanity). It occurred to me that it was in fact determination, stubbornness, perseverance, resilience or just plain refusal to quit. I wasn't out there because I wanted to be, or because it was fun, I was out there because I HAD to be to be. I guess my point here is that I think of motivation as fleeting. It's the spark that sets me off to accomplish hard things and set lofty goals, but it's determination that keeps me going toward reaching those goals day-to-day. I short, your statement above was perhaps more spot on and profound than you might have realized. Of course it's your determination to do hard things that's keeping you going. That's perfectly normal and as it should be! Anyway, thanks for motivating me through a hard workout!

Do not let doomsdayers get you down! You are already well past your surgery. Your stomach tissues should be all healed and happy. You just have to follow your program, know it’s a journey not a race (don’t be bothered by plateaus). This kind of talk by your co-workers is common — ever notice how when someone in a group is pregnant or has a major illness people will start sharing stories about how they know someone who had something similar but there was a freak occurrence or bad outcome, etc.? “My sister was pregnant with twins and she was in labor for 36 hours!” “My Aunt Ada had kidney cancer and her left leg just popped right off one day! They never did find it.” They are just connecting to the experience with storytelling, which is pretty thoughtless (but a good reminder to be mindful ourselves that we probably do it to other people and should watch out for that). Next time you hear talk like that, smile to yourself and know you are completely in control of your journey, you are rocking it in every way and you are a success. If you feel the need to say something, maybe a breezy, “Oh, I think the docs I’ve had care with have everything under control just fine.”

THOSE. SHOULDERS. AND. ARMS. You look ridiculously fabulous, lady. I looooooove the fit/strong look, and have fantasies of looking like that myself, but in all honestly, i HATE strength training/lifting (I'm more of a cardio gal). I force myself to do it though, because I know it produces results. Maybe one day I may grow to like it and do more. In the meantime I can drool over your arms. ❤️ Nice work!