Happy Friday everyone! Despite the three-day workweek I've got this week, it seems rather long, having to get into the routine again. Credits yesterday for prepping and eating a large salad at lunch and trying to walk outside - only a short one but got out and breathed the 15 degree air and thought about moving back to Florida.

Even stayed within my calories yesterday with dinner of tomato soup and grilled cheese - this time i did small grilled cheese croutons that came out wonderful for the soup. These darn food blogs of clever people got me again.

Not sure if we have stepdaughter this weekend or not - seems to be a game-day decision more than I like. Aiming to hit the gym both days and get out with the dog for fresh air. Will weigh tomorrow and hopeful to see a small loss. Well, always hope for a major one, but ... not going to happen at this point - ha! Frustrated that I jumped up so much the past few weeks, but also KNOW I didn't ingest an extra 14,000 calories, so it has to work itself off sooner or later.

Welcome, VioletDolphin! Looking forward to hearing more from you and getting a peek at your life in Australia, as well :) Good luck on your healthy living journey!

Hi, Coaches and Buddies.

Yesterday I made a turkey for pup and me. (DH is vegetarian.) It came out pretty well, but Aslyn still only took a few bites. Upon DH's suggestion I pureed it with some cauliflower and she licked at that several more times. She seems to eat better if I am eating the same thing at the same time. So, I may have lots of meat in the immediate future. Pup is still doing very poorly and DH is really struggling. He cried yesterday more than I have ever seen him cry. I think this would be much less difficult on him if his mother had not been a complete jerk about our past decisions to euthanize pets that were suffering and had no hope of recovery after years of extensive veterinary/home veterinary care. I worry about her quality of life, however, Aslyn remains very "bright, alert, and responsive" as they say. She can only walk a few steps with both of us carrying her. (I have been getting in some serious weightlifting CREDITS the last few days of ~120 pounds of dog.) I know I can't force his decision though. She is our dog and all I can do is pray and try to point out that she won't get better (even with thousands of dollars of oncology) and that she has very low quality of life.

Eating yesterday was a little off pattern, as I ate my turkey/lunch/dinner at 2 PM and had a bit more turkey at 7 PM. Breakfast this morning was on plan.

BillBlueEyes, glad to know how much that bite of brownie and beans were not on your mind! :) When you master the still book task, please share how you did it. Hope your PT can give you guidance on the painful step. For the BOSU, I would recommend start on two feet first, then gradually lifting the leg higher and higher off the surface (either side is challenging) as you master your balance. It is great on the core too.

Lexxiss, congratulations to you, because I KNOW you did not find pantry comfort yesterday! :) I am glad you were able to diffuse the family tensions for now. That must be really hard. We live hours from any of our family, so we get to miss out on that dynamic. But, we also miss out on the fun stuff too. Hang in there!

NationalParker, I love your idea of PLANNING for tea while waiting for DH. My husband works 1 hour away, so if he works a little late and I get home a little early and am hungry, I often make my dinner and eat before he gets home. Thanks for the idea. Also, I edited that link yesterday. This should work so if you want you can you try it again. http://www.realsimple.com/health/nut...0000001170137/
We also had 2 cats and 2 dogs. Then my aunt died and we inherited her two awesome cats from her as well. That was a lot of fur! One of my aunt's cats really did not care for other pets, until it was just her and Aslyn. Only then did they relax more around each other. I really found it helpful to add more litter boxes to help create more kitty community peace. I never got as high as the recommended (# Litter boxes = # cats + 1), but I religiously cleaned them out daily. Having boxes in completely different spaces also helped ease tensions between the cats as well. I find it strange that that helped, but it did and is a fairly cheap solution.
I hear you about the grilled cheese. If DH makes a grilled cheese (he is a naturally-thin-jerky-person that has never struggled with the amount of junk he eats) he will put one thin slice of soy cheese on. If I make one, I am wanting to
get out ever cheese we have and pill it on.

OnebyOne, congratulations on loosing after the holidays! Yea! They are OVER!!! Good luck on getting organized for your show. I had no appreciation how much work artisans have to go through to prep for those. But, I can see what a good booth and an OK booth look like. It sounds like you are preparing for and outstanding one! Thank you so much for your kindness and your support!

VioletDolphin83, welcome to the forum! I hope you find this is a great bunch of kind and helpful people. I look forward to getting to know you.

Hi... checking in. The past couple days have not been stellar in the food department. I am up a few pounds from my ticker weight. Credit for getting on the scale.

DH had to go out of town on business. When he left I threw away his chocolate and candy canes. He was mad. But, he got over it. I feel badly that he didn't have his goodies around. But, Dr. Beck says that we have to be willing to 'stick to what works'.. even when it makes others a little unconfortable. There are times when I can 'handle it'. Sometimes I can't. There just has to be one place in the world that doesn't have all the foods I find difficulty staying from... right in my face and environment. I want that place to be my home.

My performances went very well today. Folks were very nice about helping me get things in and out of the school. Grateful for that.

I will catch up tomorrow. Good evening.

TGIF-1st one of 2013.
 

Coaches

Got myself to my studio space where I organized my environment for success. I am ready to store my paintings when I next run into the landlord there and I am ready to make prints. I dd bring some canvases back here to work on/start and some woodblocks to start on as well. DH is fightng a monster flu and I could feel the tickly throat so I decided to hedge my bets with having some of my work here for me if I get the urge. *credit for all that*

Foodwise I have tracked and written things down and am on plan *credit* I a SUPERCRAVING something-that-is-frozen which we don't have *credit for not havng it* I need to plan my food for tomorrow. I'm at loose ends with DH being ill. And everything I want to make he doesn't really like. Oh well. Not really something to worry about is it? I can handle that. *credit for knowing I can*

Guess that's it from me today.

nationalparker I brought back a starvng stray in March last year. We hd one cat, Caesar, but he's a hippy cat who LOVES everything and everyone. He accepted Looloo within hours. For Looloo it was a few days but this is really exceptional for cats. It can take years. Looloo does have issues with litterpans and we have FIVE (argh) for two cats but if we don't have five Looloo uses our socks, so five it is. There was a period there where she was super stressed out cause she got sick and we had to grab her to give her antiobiotics 2x a day for 2 weeks and she'd pee on the floor and had compulsive scratching so much so that she'd scratched her fur away behind her ear and kept re-opening the incision where the vet had drawn blood from her neck for her bloodtests. So we got this stuff at the pet store http://cats.about.com/cs/behaviorali...omfortzone.htm and she, and I'm not exaggerating, stopped peeing on the floor within 2 horurs of plugging that thing in and her scratching was greatly reduced. She just really did calm right down. It is supposed to help any stressed out cat and there are stories that when the thing runs out, you can tell cause they act up again. We had the choice between the name brand and the generic store brand and if you look close only one company makes this stuff so save your $. It's the same product. I recommend trying it cause there is no stress like being stressed out over your animals being stressed out! Good luck. Give them all extra love too... but you already know that. If you are calm and loving it really helps. (It was about $23 for the stuff--a bit pricey but if it works--that's cheap.)

Good Evening!
 

Hey Coaches and fellow Becksters,

Very busy but satisfying day, which concluded with going to see "Life of Pi" with DW. Pretty good flick, but I found myself writing a response card in my head, not for avoiding buttery popcorn, but for avoiding yelling at the talkative family sitting behind us. It wasn't their fault that they had never seen a movie before. :)

I went off plan today because I ran out of time to cook. I bought pizza and a salad, which wasn't as bad as it sounds because I only ate 2 slices and the salad. Completely satisfying thanks to sitting down, eating slowly and enjoying every bite.

FutureFitChick My son is four years old and I will buy him a cape if he promises to never listen to Rick Astley again.

VioletDolphin Welcome aboard, or welcome back from what I've read. This is a great group.

Until that time...

Saturday - National Bird Day
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Did my rehab exercises twice, CREDIT moi, working hard stepping down that continues to pinpoint my neediest muscles. Also did gym with a minimal set of wimpy lunges (that tweak the recovering parts) and some weights along with the stationary bike. I'm bored reporting about rehab exercises, but more bored doing them; so I'll keep typing about them to help keep me on track.

Food was on plan, CREDIT moi, with one snack just a tad larger than planned, Ouch. I learned that cucumbers kept longer than a week become translucent and limpish. I'll buy some fresh ones today and DW will remove the older ones to the compost. She has no difficulty tossing inedible food from the fridge - every couple needs one partner with that skill. I can do it once they've turned black enough. But than a major scrubbing is required, so early removal is the winning strategy.

Big deal is that I did some clothes shopping - CREDIT moi since i'd rather have teeth pulled. Specifically, I said to DW, "Would you order me four black turtlenecks from L.L.Bean?" So it wasn't terribly difficult. It just took admitting that being washed twice a week all winter for about four years had extracted the joy from the cotton.


onebyone – Yes indeed, Kudos for "credit for not having it" - it's hard to binge on what's not there.

Beverlyjoy – Yay for the performer back on stage. Kudos for doing what you had to do with the chocolates and candy canes - that's what garages and car trunks are for.

FutureFitChick – Continue to send supportive thoughts as you and your DH walk the path with your pup. Couldn't help but smile at the image of you and pup eating cauliflower-turkey soup together. [I'll give the BOSU a try; it sounds difficult on one leg.]

BigchiefDavid – Kudos for not hitting the talkers in the theater - I've heard of that happening more frequently lately. When DW was in the hospital recovering from DD's birth over Halloween, I inherited the task of DS's costume. Bad news. I don't sew and don't create costumes. And he wanted to be a banana! Fortunately, desperation and laziness won; I safety-pinned a square of yellow cloth around his neck and he was the world's happiest Banana Man, LOL.

nationalparker – That sounds as deadly as they do yummy, "small grilled cheese croutons" - hope those don't make it into my life. Kudos for making it out into 15 degrees. Florida might get full if we all head off there at once, LOL.

Readers -

Hi Coaches!

Yesterday was not stellar...the family drama continues. No planned meals (ouch) but no off limit foods, either. I am just trying to keep my sanity and hope that some issues start finding resolution. I work today and have a plan for dinner.

Impromptu date night last night as DH daughter had a sleepover and will be coming today instead ... so headed out to a steakhouse (I don't buy/prepare beef or pork or seafood - and as he says, i put a dent in the chicken and turkey population ... just haven't made the final move to vegetarianism) ... so he had his once every other month or so piece of steak and I chose chicken and baked potato and salad. All I really wanted was the potato and salad, and savored those - brought majority of chicken home to use in another meal. BUT hadn't planned on the meal out and so was over on calories. I can't gripe as it was my suggestion!

Our morning trail walk has turned into an afternoon one as DH slept late! And hopefully to the gym. NO - definitely to the gym as well!

OneByOne - thank you for the link for Feliway! I had TOTALLY forgotten about that - it had been recommended when we adopted the very cranky kitty and then she settled a bit after spaying, but really, she is a miserable thing. I love her to death, but she acts as if she struggles to endure her life with us. Luckily DH and I alternate in our patience with her so we're not both fed up with her at the same time :)

BillBlueEyes - Yes, those grilled cheese croutons could be dangerous! I sliced the french bread about 1/8" (and lost several slices in the process trying to get them super thin) and put 1/4 slice of 2% cheese on each, so they were not as deadly as they could be. I love finding unique ideas for cooking but then it's one more thing to resist sometimes. Great Job on keeping up with the rehab and making progress! And thanks for the smile at Banana Man! :)

Lexiss - Good luck with the family drama settling down soon - I know how uncomfortable that is.

Big Chief David - Credit for not getting into it with the talkers behind you :) My pet peeve is all of the smart phones owned by dumb people in theatres shining their screen light during the movie. Argh.

Good afternoon! I was down 1 pound today at Weight Watchers and I'm very pleased with that. I rewarded myself for losing weight over the holidays by having acrylic nails put on yesterday. This afternoon I will plan out my menu and exercise schedule for next week and that way I can do some prep for it tomorrow.

I went out with friends for dinner last night and they wanted Mexican, which I'm not too fond of to begin with. I ordered 3 California fish tacos and it came with a huge bowl of rice. The tacos we actually on 2 tacos shells each. I removed the grilled fish and cabbage from the shells, added a little salsa and that was my dinner. The rice went back with only one bite taken and it wasn't very good so why eat it.

I adopted a 10-month old deaf cat (yes, he's all white with green eyes) last April from the ASCPA. He had been in the shelter for 16 weeks and they were afraid he'd never be adopted. He doesn't get along with other pets or children (they probably scare him since he can't hear them coming). It worked out well for us because I am a widow and have no family. He loves my friends and is sure anyone that comes to the house has come to see him, not me. He is never more than 3 feet away from me.

Have a wonderful afternoon and evening.

We got out on the trail and got in a good walk with our dog - got home just as the snow started coming down. It's pretty sticking to all the trees. I'm glad I pushed to go - DH enjoys it but is a procrastinator ... and so often we miss a window in which we could go, and I end up frustrated that I didn't just do something myself.

QuilterInVa - I like your description of your kitty expecting the guests himself :) To those of us who are new in this group, can you share how you have been so amazingly successful in your plan and was most/all/some with the Beck resources, etc.? Kudos for losing over the holidays - i hope to be able to say that one day!

Good Evening, Coaches.

I am here in Vermont at the beginning of my MFA low residency weeks. All has gone well - especially my food. I have followed my commitment to no refined sugar or wheat. It has been over a week. I did not bring a scale like I have in the past but I am happy with the way I feel.

Lots of veggies because this is a hippie dippie kind of place plus I took yoga class this week. Everyone keep on trucking.

National Bird Day - ambiguous title
 

Hi coaches

I'm stumped by BBE noting that today is "national bird day". Is this elebrating your national bird? Canada has no national bird I just discovered (http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/a...-national-bird), or does this mean it's a day that your nation has set aside to celebrate the bird? I kind of like that thought. We need more days to comtemplate and celebrate the usual fare.

Foodwise an okay day. I compromised on many thngs, opting for the better of choices which was good. Portions were ok, but still large-ish.
I also weighed this morning: 254something. I wanted it to be less, and expected it to be less but it's ok it wasn't. Just salt and not enough water being drunk. Less of that and more of the other will fix things.

Managed to start cleaning uop the joint after a bit of a meltdown inside at the state of things. Oh well, just go do something and it will be better I thought. I did and it is. *credit*

Must get to bed. G'nite.

Sunday
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Bought fresh cukes and then . . . drum roll . . . tossed the older ones in the compost myself, CREDIT moi. While looking over the bananas at the supermarket, I stood on one foot which is a rehab exercise. Did stationary bike at gym as well as both sets of rehab exercises, CREDIT moi. Then took a walk around a local un-frozen pond with DW as the sun set. Got to see both a Common Loon and a Red-throated Loon as well as Canvasbacks (ducks) - an unexpected nice selection for a January evening.

Food was OK, CREDIT moi. Would have been 100% but had double snacks when our schedule suddenly changed because we decided to grab an evening concert performed in a Cathedral. Beautiful music, extraordinary ambiance, and middle-ages chilly since Cathedrals are difficult to heat.


onebyone – Please enter my vote for the Canada Loon for your national bird. (I love the name, Whiskey Jack and admire the intelligence of Jays, but it pales next to the Canada Loon.) Kudos for "opting for the better of choices" - a satisfying thought. [National Bird Day actually isn't national - it's an informal day supporting all wild birds.]

Debbie (Lexxiss) – Yay for a plan to help bring some stability during family stress times.

Susan (QuilterInVA) - Kudos for choosing a non-food reward for that pound lost during the eating season. And Kudos again for finding a way to extract a sufficient meal away from the taco shells. Have to laugh at a cat who thinks visitors are his.

maryann - Waving back toward the "hippie dippie" section of the Green Mountain State. Kudos for continuing your "commitment to no refined sugar or wheat."

nationalparker – LOL at, "put a dent in the chicken and turkey population." Congrats for getting your DH his needed steak. Sounds like a neat walk.

Readers -

Happy Apple Tree Day! Also, National Bean Day!
 

Coaches

Got up, did dishes, feel better. Not a coincidence that taking action leads to contentment. *credit for discovering that once again*

Also, weighed in and saw 252.9 *credit* for weighing and noticing there is a downward trend. I am moving forward once again.

Tomorrow is the day I have planned to spend $40 for 30 days of Bikram Yoga The studio is about a 10/15min walk away from me. That's the introductory rate. To say I am worried about, oh, having my blood pressure shoot up and whatever happens after that is to just be honest. But this is my fear. A loooongggg time ago I decided that fear was not a valid reason to opt out of doing something. What I know is my truth is that I can stop/slow down/moderate/tell someone if t gets really bad--I have strategies to deal with this. I am not afraid I can't do the poses. Not afraid of being the fattest in the room. Not happy to show my upper arm fat, but my arms work and that's the important thing. I believe in sweat and heat and my gut tells me if I do this thing I will heal myself at a deep core, dare I say, soul level. That's what I need this year. And so, I am going. Today I need to buy something to wear to class. All websites say the less you wear the better. I cannot go in a sportsbra and nothing else. Can't do it. It'll be a tshirt but a light flimsy one. I will get a yoga mat and some workout short pants--capris if I can't get the shorter ones. I plan to go in the morning. Will call or visit for the details today.

Foodwise I have been faithfully tracking this week*credit* I opted to buy WW snacks which I usually don't do. But coming down off of the foodfest which were my holidays I see that stuff as "transition food". It's moderate, in a pre-measured package, yet lets me have the feel of eating those snacks in a bag. So, not sure if I need this again this week but I have been grateful to have had that option. They usually trigger me to eat "the real thing" but not so far. *credit* for being mindful of my food triggers.

I have created a plan to organize my kitchen and to get me started decluttering my home by focusing on the Tower of Boxes that reside in the dining room area. 1-2 boxes a day. No more.

Overall, my plan is simply *MODERATION IN ALL ASPECTS OF MY LIFE*
Goodness. Did I just say that? How *dull* is that? Yet for me, a natural dyed-in-the-wool excitement-a-holic and binger-in-all things it is ncredible that I even have the desire to try that. *credit for the willingness to change*

Enjoy your day.

Happy Sunday! Was relieved to see the scale drop a bit this morning... have been trying to string together good practices. We walked the trail again today, but cut it short as the wind chill was 18 and despite multiple layers, I was still COLD. DH suggested we go back out later today; I'm not sure. Gym sounds better. Colts game on tv and taking his daughter back home (a two-hour deal) are on the schedule as well. Credits for prepping a healthy dinner last night, no snacking and good breakfast/lunch so far today. I'll make homemade popcorn for a snack later (just olive oil and popcorn kernels) - we love it. I like the process, too ... There's just something "right" about hearing it pop in a big old pan.

Thanks for pointing out National Bird Day - I wasn't aware and clearly skipped that in the subject line! So have refilled the feeder on our patio, and tossed out the older bread in the field for the canadian geese that hunker down there next to the house. Our cats love watching the birds through the kitchen sliding glass door... so it's a double bonus. Though with all the feline drama here, it's one at a time enjoying it - no togetherness in that pasttime.

BillBlueEyes - the Cathedral concert sounds divine - i love things like that. Hope it was wonderful. On a whim, we just bought tickets for Grace Potter and the Nocturnals next week - I hope it's enjoyable. They're new to me and I talked my DH into listening to a few youtube songs and he was all in. I'm an embarassment to him, music-wise as I like ABBA on my ipod - ha ha! (please don't judge me...)

OneByOne - Okay, you've got me ready to get cleaning here. Thanks for the nudge! I need that on a blustery day here. Good job with the downward trend and major credits for signing up for the yoga classes. Be sure to fill us in on how it goes. I used to do regular yoga regularly for years and just need to shut up about wanting to get back to it and GET BACK into it :) We had every shape and every age in our class and it was such an accepting atmosphere. Good luck! Capri pants could be good option!

Maryann - Hope all goes well in hippie dippie Vermont - that had me smiling. You're right with the good food choices there!