The post about the last day of vacation, a heat advisory and Motivational Monday...

• It's #coffeetime, Labour Day edition. A big shout out to my union and to all the workers who fought in the past for our current labour laws. Today marks the official last day of summer as well. And I've already gotten a heat advisory from Environment Canada. Maybe we should head to the beach this afternoon. But what to do first? Run, gym, Ride? I'm leaning towards riding because I haven't in so long. But I might stay below the mountain and just go along the Rail Trail for a mess of kilometers. It goes on forever. I should get my shit together and move along. It's gonna be a hot one...

• Riding to Ancaster and back in this heat is no joke yo! Nothing left to do but peel down to your sports bra and eat your recovery meal of chicken breast, eggs, tomato slices and avocado on your deck because you're too nasty to be in the house. Riding towards Brantford on the Rail Trail is fecken hard. It's up hill. My legs are fatigued. And I'm gross. But I'm glad I got out there and worked hard. I may be crazy doing this ride the day before leg day. Meh. It's all good. Love working my legs hard. It's going to be 40C (104F) with the humidex today. There's nothing you can do in that heat but stay in your air conditioning. Still have all my laundry to do. And there is winetime to look forward to...

• It's #motivationalmonday and I've not got anything elaborate because it's too fecken hot out to think straight. I will say this though. I used to weigh over 300 pounds. Just 4 years ago. I get asked a lot about when I started, how long it took, if I plateaued. You know, the usual questions. 
• I started the Dr. Poon metabolic diet in September 2011. It's a low carb, high protein, low sugar, low sodium diet. The 4th anniversary of my lifestyle change is coming up on the 17th. This is a medically supervised diet covered by our universal health care system. It cost me nothing to participate in and I ate food bought at my local supermarket. No supplements or pills were taken. I ate nothing but real, whole foods. I met with a doctor every two weeks for my weigh in. It took me 15 months to lose over 130 pounds. 
• During that time I never had a gain. I lost an average of 10 pounds a month until the final 4 months or so. That's when things slowed down. The closer I got to goal, the harder it got to lose. I did plateau once around 230 pounds. That's when I began running and it kick started everything again. I was 41 when I began my lifestyle change and I've spent pretty much my entire life morbidly obese. 
• This diet is the only one that has worked for me. I had to admit some things to myself that I didn't want to, but admitting I had food addiction issues helped me finally beat obesity. And realizing I had to continue to follow a structured diet for the rest of my life was necessary to maintain my weight loss. My 3rd year maintenance anniversary is coming up in December. I follow Paleo for maintenance. I'm not 100% Paleo, but I do stick to the 85/15 rule. That means 85% Paleo, 15% other. You know for extras like cream in my coffee and wine. 
• My life has changed so much in the past 4 years. Everyday I pinch myself because my life, my body, is everything I used to dream about. I never imagined it would ever be possible to get the results I have. But here I am. I've figured out what works for me. It only took me 41 years but I always say, better late than never...

• It's the last word and I'm solo once again. I'm still holding out hope that Smitty will reunite with me in the near future. I miss our nighttime cuddles. And it feels like ages since we've done haiku. So today was so hot that I did little more than sit around. Completed the laundry, made dinner, got stuff ready for school tomorrow. And for the gym. I'm up at 4:30 to meet Tony for leg day. Should be interesting. My knee is bothering me. I messed it during my ride this morning. Anyway, I'm also back to work tomorrow. But I've a broken car that needs attention so I'm going to have to work from home. It should be productive. I'll have the house to myself. 
• Today I had my last holiday #winetime. Schedule returns to weekend drinking only. Looking at my pie charts today and my calories are lower, but my fat is high. It's the eggs, avocado and olive oil I consumed today. There was lots of marinating, sautéing and tossing going on. 
• Quick recipe. I was given a giant zucchini by my father. He also insisted on buying me a huge basket of field tomatoes. So I made the zucchini sauté my mom used to make. It's just sliced onion, sliced zucchini and sliced tomatoes thrown into a giant pan with some extra virgin olive oil, chopped garlic, sea salt and red pepper flakes. You cook it on medium heat until the tomatoes come apart and make a sauce. The photo shows the dish half cooked. You know y'all got a giant zucchini sitting around somewhere. Goes awesome with any grilled meat. Anyway, I'm off to bed. Gym and school drop off in the morning...