Diet Coaches/Buddies - Enjoyed a pleasant sunny day. Took a walk in some woods where I'd never been with some old friends; a lovely day. CREDIT moi for activity and socializing at the same time. Opportunity for some extra calories with some hot homemade bread. Opportunity accepted; cut back a little at dinner to try to compensate. It was good bread.
ChinaMaine - Ouch for the attack by ancient chips. Kudos for giving yourself credit for an otherwise mindful eating day rather than wallowing in the single diversion.
Susan (hikergirl) - Waving back. Hope you had the sunshine yesterday that we had.
Kim (bennyhannamama) - Yep, keep yourself accountable and d*mn the perfectionist Sabotaging Thoughts.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - It could have been worse; I've heard of a pasta salad sandwich, LOL. Thanks for the reference and the comments about overcoming addictions. I doubt that on my last day I'd ask for Big Mac. Got some work to do on a Big Bowl of candied pecans, LOL.
Shepherdess - Yay for sane eating at a "Mammoth Ball" - can't say I've ever been to one, nor can I say that any of my neighbors have dug one up lately. 9 feet long is a lot of skull. Interesting point that mediocre food draws us to eat more looking for satisfaction.
Beverlyjoy - I am so stealing your question, "What would you recommend for someone watching their cholesterol?" Just love having a question that doesn't imply that anyone not asking is not a sane eater. Kudos for leaving some of your order.
CeeJay - Neat idea to bring my own snack to a meeting where I know there's going to be food. Kudos for designing a snack for you and your mother where you each get what you want.
Readers -
Quote:
day 21 The Numbers on the Scale
It's important for you to start using the scale as an information tool that provides data you can use to guide your eating. If you took your temperature, you would use the number on the thermometer as a guide to decide whether you should go to work, whether you should take over-the-counter medication, or whether you should call your doctor. When you weigh yourself, use the number on the scale as a guide to decide whether you should keep doing what you're doing or make some changes.
WI-no-weigh-in. Did not read my cards, made a plan. Food – almost on-plan; Exercise – on-plan (30m).
I’ve been pruning back the calories in lunch, dinner and snacks for the last couple of months. My lunches tend to be 300-350 calories now, with my goal to keep it closer to 300 calories. Yesterday, my planned lunch was 240 calories, and I decided to see what my hunger levels were with such a light lunch. I was a little hungry when I got done eating, but within an hour I was very hungry. And I had elevated hunger levels for the rest of the day. Lunch was just too light yesterday, and I’ll go back to having 300 calorie lunches…
The Good
- Throughout the day, I identified satisfaction vs fullness while eating, and I stopped eating when satisfied – credit!
- Throughout the day, I identified hunger vs non-hunger before I ate – credit!
- Eat mindfully, enjoying every bite – credit!
- Give credit throughout the day for every positive eating behavior – yep!
- Tolerated non-hunger without eating – credit!
- Used resistance techniques – partial credit!
- Spontaneous exercise – yes!
- I posted here – yes!
The Bad, and the Ugly
- Read the pink book – nope
gardenerjoy It’s too bad the Wellness fair was too basic, but interesting info about how you stand.
shepherdess So cool that you could wear your dress from college! Sounds like you had a reasonable plan for the Mammoth Ball, and kudos for sticking to it.
CeeJay Love your healthy Oscar-night snacks!
Susan (hikergirl) Keep on posting...
Kim (bennyhannamama) Kudos for posting!
Bill Yay for walking and socializing at the same time. The bread sounds yummy…
Yesterday was a good healthy food day. I am so grateful. I took some strong muscle relaxing drugs to help the lower back spasm go away. It did help. It need to be alot better tomorrow because I need to do two programs. This is a school where we've rescheduled two times this year (when I was so, so sick with the flu and two snow days) I can't cancel unless I am in really really bad shape. I have a friend who is coming along to help. I am feeling pretty hopeful that if I am willing to baby it (no bending, lifting twisting) I be OK for tomorrow.
I think I've found a way to finally feel fullness - I follow the bite of food from my mouth down to my tummy. If I concentrate then I can feel it down there.
Yesterday
gentle stretches and strengthening
lots of water
read beck book
read arc/rc = two times
fork down between bits - most of the time
no seconds - all the time
ate seated only
tasted food/mindful - almost all the time
working on feeling fullness
left bite on plate - all the time
DH went to the store and got me healthy foods for the week
read beck book
mindful slow eating - most of the time
ice and heat for my pieces and parts
oops
no spontaneous exercise
Today I must get some letters out for work. I will only stay at the computer for short patches of time.
I am sorry I can't do some personals now - I will as soon as I sitting at the computer is easier. I sincerely appreciate you all here - with your wonderful ideas, support and comments. Have a great day with lots of food sanity and willingness to try.
Last edited by Beverlyjoy; 03-08-2010 at 08:44 AM.
My big worry about getting more serious about dieting is the need to count and measure. Doing it ad hoc worked for me for several months, but now it has stopped working and since I'm not ready to stop losing weight, I'll need to take this step. To quote Beck, Do It Anyway.
I've been fretting about it so much that I got tired of myself and started doing it yesterday, by tracking my nutrition at SparkPeople. It was every bit as onerous as I anticipated. And, I seethe with resentment that it would be easy to add a slice of Wonder bread while it's a many step process to add a slice of my healthy home made bread. However, now that I've got my bread in the system, it won't be nearly so difficult next time. The longer I do this, the more of my own foods I will have in the database and the easier it will get to track things.
Not too surprising, I discovered that I'm eating too many calories. Fortunately, I also identified a couple of easy changes to make where I can measure smaller servings, eliminating a couple of hundred calories, and probably not even miss them.
WI: -0.5kg, Exercise: +60, 385/1550 minutes for March, Food: op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes
Shepherdess: congrats on fitting into the special dress for your Mammoth Ball -- what a great event to celebrate!
CeeJay: chick pea dip sounds like a great plan for your little Oscar party!
bennyhannahmama: I've been collecting quotes to combat my perfectionism in the last year. There's a phrase in the crafting world (I've heard it from both scrapbookers and quilters): Done is better than perfect. I stole one of onebyone's sayings and put it in my Response Cards: Progress, not perfection. Then there's always the classic Voltaire quote: The perfect is the enemy of the good.
BillBlueEyes: good point about not wanting a Big Mac on your last day -- that would be on my list of things I don't mind if I never eat again, too. A good indication that we are getting better at this, even while there are still challenges!
ChinaMaine: love your experiment figuring out how light your lunch can be before it's just too light. Good job!
Beverlyjoy: Hope your back is doing better today. No bending is another biggie for me. I've been working all winter to strengthen my quads and glutes so that I will squat or lunge while I'm working in the garden instead of bending over. I noticed when I was in the yard yesterday that I squat now without even thinking about it and my back feels much better in that position.
We had a sunny, warm day yesterday that dried the roads nicely. I got my long run in, in shorts and a short-sleeve shirt, no less. Unfortunately, it looks like sunny and warm will end tomorrow and we’re looking at snow and rain for the rest of the week. Oh well, that’s spring. Besides, we always need the moisture.
We celebrated dh’s nephew’s 4th birthday last night. I’m taking a big credit for not even noticing the chips and salsa when I walked in (I usually have a pretty strong food radar). I was also able to play several rounds of cards sitting right next to cheese and cracker plate without taking any. I stopped myself the few times when I was about to reach for them—especially after hearing someone say, “That’s really good Gouda.” So both of those are big successes for me. On the other hand, I should have passed on the second dinner roll, when they were passed around but just snatched it up without thinking. Oh well. I’m still counting it a success.
Hikegirl, waving back. Glad things are going well.
CeeJay, great job planning some healthy snacks to celebrate the Oscars. Glad to hear that eating mindfully and slowly is getting easier.
Bennyhannamamma, good job ignoring the sabotaging thoughts and posting anyways. Sorry for a week of feeling off—hope you’re feeling better in the new week.
BillBE, your sunny walk with friends in the woods sounds wonderful. It’s so great (and rare) to find ways to socialize that burn calories rather than consume them. Fresh homemade bread would be difficult to resist. Good job compensating for the extra calories.
ChinaMaine, I’m so impressed with your lunch experiments. Good job recognizing that the hunger you felt after the light lunch was not an emergency—just information. Wow, I’m so impressed!
Beverlyjoy, I hope you are fully recovered for your programs. I’ve never been to a chiropractor, but I know a lot of people who swear by them. Great job having healthy food days despite the pain, and extra kudos for the gentle exercise.
Gardenerjoy, huge congrats on beginning the measuring and counting. It is time-consuming and cumbersome at first, but like so many other things, it does get easier. LOL at it being easier to add the wonderbread than your healthy homemade bread. I have had similar problems with the site where I track my food and in previous diet attempts, have consumed more processed food for this very reason. Talk about counter-productive.
Okay-- I am in need of your best strategies. It seems like I get on a roll and then hit a speed bump and lose my fool mind. The most recent speed bump was a very sick husband and then a very sick one-year-old. Flu hit those two hard. I hate that as soon as that happens, I completely lose track of what I am supposed to be doing. Many of you have hit MUCH larger speed bumps than I, what has worked for you to KEEP you on track??
I've been having a great time with my sister over the past weekend. She was here on a "working vacation" and I just decided to take a vacation. She left this morning. I'm a bit
Food-wise it was a bit of a free-for-all. I ate sugar maybe three times: a giant cookie one day, a very special Italian dessert at the family dinner we had to celebrate the selling of my mother's house (her reason to come up from Florida as she's the executrix for my mother and had to sign papers and arrange to have the money go somewhere safe to cover the expenses of my mother's new apartment in the senior's residence). I think it was the best time we all had together in years. And there will be a few of you here who know it wasn't that long ago that I was frozen out of the family altogether.
My how things can change.
DH was unable to participate in any of the events with us. His work schedule is 12-9 so that cuts out all evenings and he is not a morning person. I now think, having lived with it a full month, that his schedule SUCKS. Usually when people work full time they can sometimes squeeze a little something in after work but not so with this schedule. DH is probably perfectly happy with it this way. He's not really very social though he's at his best when out with others. I really enjoy that side of him... but I'm ticked off at him tonight. I made reservations spontaneously for us a day ago for early this evening, 5:30pm, at the same Italian place my family and I went to cause I thought it'd be a nice thing for us to do and I thought he would like it and so I looked forward to going somewhere new with him and so I rushed my day at the school to come home in time to go back out with him and not meet him here and he's weird about that sometimes and when I came home he was all pis*y. Just sour. Really irritating. He wouldn't actually say anything until finally I just said "do you want me to cancel the reservations?" "Yes." So I did. No discussion. No explanation. Nothing. So then I said "I guess that I can't count on you wanting to do anything on your days off then?" No answer, no discussion no anything. Still nothing and it's what? 8:41pm.
I may as well live alone. Have we talked ourselves out after 18 years? Am I so boring and so predictable that there's no need no point to talking to me let alone going out with me anywhere? Man. It's all just worse to me because of his dumb work schedule because we only HAVE two evenings we can do anything.
So what's he doing instead? Playing poker online. Yep. He's a full time employee for an online gaming company 12-9, Wed to Sunday and he is now spending his day off glued to the screen playing poker online for relaxation while I STEW.
Believe me coaches, this won't last. This will get worked out cause I won't put up with it. And I REFUSE to eat over it. The way I am feeling I will say something all wrong and I am sure something is behind DH's actions but I don't really care right now truth be told. He's not a child and I am not going to chase him to get him to tell me how he feels. He may not need to talk about his feelings but, thankfully, I can leave mine here and not stuff them down with food. Those days are over.
As B used to say... You can be stuffin' your face or facin' your stuff - your choice
Thanks for listening coaches. I'm giving myself a big credit for turning to you guys and not to the food. Thanks.
Okay-- I am in need of your best strategies. It seems like I get on a roll and then hit a speed bump and lose my fool mind. The most recent speed bump was a very sick husband and then a very sick one-year-old. Flu hit those two hard. I hate that as soon as that happens, I completely lose track of what I am supposed to be doing. Many of you have hit MUCH larger speed bumps than I, what has worked for you to KEEP you on track??
Many thanks!
KidsLibraryLady ask yourself "how will me eating food make this situation better? Will it fix it, cure your DH, or your one year old, of their illness if you eat x and x and then more x and x?"
"Is excess food the answer to this problem?"
The ONLY problem food can fix is.... HUNGER.
If hunger is not the problem, then food is not the solution.
Also remember this gem: If I have a problem, and I eat over it, then I have TWO problems....
These all work for me if I can think straight to remember them, so thank you for reminding me as I need to keep them in mind this evening. I hope everyone is on the mend in your house tonight...big to you
Yesterday was a healthy, on plan, beck day. I am so grateful. My back is slowly improving - grateful for that too. I am able to do some gentle stretches and strengthening. No loopy meds yesterday...as I can't do my programming that way. I was supposed to have a friend helping me off load my things - but, she has a job interview. So, I will HAVE to be willing to ask the school for help. I must not do it myself or I'll undo the progress I've made with my sore back..
Yesterday - credits
planned and logged food
read beck book
read arc/ rc/no choice - 2 times
new ar card
fork down - most of the time
tasting food - most of the time
no seconds - all of the time
feeling fullness - doing better
slow/mindful eating - most of the time
did not
spontaneous exercise
I am sorry I can't do the personals...I need to scoot out the door and sitting at the computer is still not coming easiely.
Have a GREAT healthy day. Thanks to all that have been such good coaches, friends, and helpers.
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Doing taxes this morning. Yuck. I've been told that I should be grateful that I can pay taxes. Today isn't gratitude day. Food is on-plan; CREDIT moi. Exercise was running an excel spreadsheet and looking for receipts. Ouch.
onebyone - Yay for the wonderful story of good times with your sister. I well remember the days when you were an outsider in your own family. Congratulations for continuing to work that issue and coming out on top. Ouch for the difficulties of living with an SO; Kudos for being clear that you're going to work it out and Double Kudos for being clear that you "REFUSE to eat over it."
ChinaMaine - Neat that you're experimenting with your eating levels. My guess is that it's easy to forget that our needs change over time and we would be wise to continuously experiment to keep up with that. Just guessing, haven't tried it myself, LOL.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Yay for "Do It Anyway" and Kudos for a full 60 minutes of exercise.
Susan (hikergirl) - Waving back. Good demo that one can check in with one line. We'll be here.
KidsLibraryLady - Ouch - speed bumps with the flu are difficult. It's worked for me to keep chanting, NO CHOICE. Doesn't reduce the pain, has just allowed me to keep going. You're in a tough spot; sending supportive thoughts for you to be able to think about yourself when you're so committed to taking care of your family.
Shepherdess - Yep, well deserved Kudos for ignoring the chips and salsa. Love hearing that you ran in a short-sleeved shirt; Spring is coming.
Beverlyjoy - Ouch for real back pain and going forth anyway. Good luck.
Readers -
Quote:
day 21 The Numbers on the Scale
On any give day, the number on
the scale is exactly what it should be, given what you
ate, how much energy you expended in the
past few days, the amount of fluid your body is
retaining, and other biological influences.
WI-no-weigh-in. Did not read my cards, made a plan. Food – on-plan; Exercise – off-plan (no exercise - TOM is visiting).
It feels like work is burying me alive. I was actually happy DH wasn't home so I could work until 8:30 last night. Pathetic...
The Good
- Throughout the day, I identified satisfaction vs fullness while eating, and I stopped eating when satisfied – credit!
- Throughout the day, I identified hunger vs non-hunger before I ate – credit!
- Eat mindfully, enjoying every bite – credit!
- Give credit throughout the day for every positive eating behavior – yep!
- Tolerated non-hunger without eating – credit!
- Used resistance techniques – credit!
- Spontaneous exercise – yes!
- I posted here – yes!
The Bad, and the Ugly
- Read the pink book – nope
Beverlyjoy You are making great progress every day on building your Beck skills, it’s impressive. Kudos for finally feeling defense. I hope school goes well and you continue to feel better.
gardenerjoy About logging foods – I found it took a few weeks to get the foods I eat most into my database. But now that I’ve done that, it takes me 10 mins in the morning to make a plan, and another 15 mins during the day to tweak it so it matches what I’ve actually eaten. And I don’t think I could lose weight without doing it, so it’s well worth the effort…
shepherdess Wow – what a great weather day you had. At this time of year, a nice day like that is all the more special because you know it can change in a moment… Kudos for using resistance techniques at your family event!
Susan (hikergirl) Good luck for the next 2 weeks.
KidsLibraryLady Speedbumps… I think reading response cards help me the most. I think in a situation like yours, I’d probably carry a few around with me – maybe the ones that combat my feelings of ‘Life isn’t fair, so I want to eat’ and ‘I don’t care’. I find that the ones about the ‘giving in muscle’ and the ‘resistance muscle’ are very helpful too. Finally, be sure to say ‘oh well’ and get immediately back on track if you do eat off-plan.
one by one I’m so happy you had a great time with your sister, and that your relationship with your whole family has improved so much. Ouch that you and your SO have hit a rough patch. But Kudos! For refusing to eat over it.
bennyhannahmama-It is tempting to avoid posting when not on plan. I have done that at times and it seems to just add to my problem. It feeds into the all or nothing thinking that so many of us seem to struggle with. Glad you are posting.
BillBlueEyes-yay for eating the bread but cutting back later in the day. The only thing good about doing taxes is when they are done.
ChinaMaine-I agree that 240 is a bit light for lunch. Credit for experimenting and not treating the hunger as an emergency.
Beverlyjoy- I like your idea to follow the food to the stomach. That is so in keeping with mindful eating. Will try following my breakfast today.
gardenerjoy- good luck with tracking your food and figuring out where to limit calories. Love the quote "Done is better than perfect".
Shepherdess-sounds like you had a nice day to run. Yay for ignoring chips, salsa, cheese and crackers. Excellent
hikergirl-hope your busy weeks go well.
KidsLibrarylady-hope you are finding your way to back on track. I have tried many, many times to lose weight and always gave up after awhile (usually at 5 days or 3 weeks or have stayed on longer but really only eating well some of the time until things just petered out).
I can't give you any advice but I can say that this time with Beck, I have got back on every time I have fallen off. The concept of Oh Well has really helped. The things that I am finding helpful are: weighing in daily, reading the response cards (not just reading them but thinking about them and how they apply to me), spending 5 minutes in bed every morning running the coming day through my head, writing everything I eat down, making 30 minutes exercise a day a no-choicer, giving credit, trying to only worry about today, reading and posting here is incredibly helpful, and planning each day. The other thing for me is that at my age, 48, the health threats are getting more terrifying- don't have anything terrible but live in fear that it is just around the corner for me. Also I am so sick of my feet and knees hurting. I don't know how helpful all that is but there it is.
onebyone- Good for you for not eating the difficulties away. I like what you said "Those days are over!!!"
For me: yesterday all was well. Today am heading to the city for a night in the hotel...You all know how much I don't love that. I have not made a plan yet but will.
Credit today for:
Posting here
Weighing in
Reading Advantage and Response Cards
Yay, we had our first range calf born yesterday! The thought of seeing the babies again keeps me going through the winter. Felt a few raindrops on my run yesterday and the clouds were rolling in. It made me grateful for the days. I can actually run. Eating was on plan, with strawberries marinated in balsamic vinegar for dessert. I am definitely thinking spring!
Hikegirl, kudos for making the commitment to continue to post during a busy week.
KidsLibraryLady, ouch for a sick kid and a sick husband at the same time. I wish I had some good answers about how to stay on track with a sick household. The best advice I have is that I have a few food standbys that are easy and on-plan.
Onebyone, glad you had a good time with your family, but sorry it involved some off-plan food. Sorry for the problems with your dh’s new schedule. You are both going through a big transition right now, so it’s going to take some time for you both to adjust. Kudos for not eating to deal with the frustration.
Beverlyjoy, glad to hear your back is improving and that you are keeping up some gentle exercise to help. Great job continuing to eat well while you’re in pain.
BillBE, good job staying on plan on tax day. Ouch for “running an excel spreadsheet and looking for receipts” for exercise. Whoever told you to be grateful that you could pay your taxes was not working on taxes at the time. Good job getting it over with for another year.
ChinaMaine, I’m so impressed that you continued to eat mindfully and got spontaneous exercise while work was burying you alive. Hope things ease up soon.
CeeJay, yay for another day on plan. Good luck staying on plan on another trip. Just remember that you have been successful before and you can do it again.
HI. A bit of a slippery day for me food wise yesterday. I over ate but did not binge...but it is the thin edge of the wedge for me. I am about to read my advantage cards. I did stand on the scale this morning. All the best everyone.
Monday
Sunday
WI-no-weigh-in. Did not read my cards, made a plan. Food – almost on-plan; Exercise – on-plan (30m). 
Help, please!
catching up
Usually when people work full time they can sometimes squeeze a little something in after work but not so with this schedule. DH is probably perfectly happy with it this way. He's not really very social though he's at his best when out with others. I really enjoy that side of him... but I'm ticked off at him tonight. I made reservations spontaneously for us a day ago for early this evening, 5:30pm, at the same Italian place my family and I went to cause I thought it'd be a nice thing for us to do and I thought he would like it and so I looked forward to going somewhere new with him and so I rushed my day at the school to come home in time to go back out with him and not meet him here and he's weird about that sometimes and when I came home he was all pis*y. Just sour. Really irritating. He wouldn't actually say anything until finally I just said "do you want me to cancel the reservations?" "Yes." So I did. No discussion. No explanation. Nothing. So then I said "I guess that I can't count on you wanting to do anything on your days off then?" No answer, no discussion no anything. Still nothing and it's what? 8:41pm. 
to you
