KarenRN: I have just set my MFP to 1350 DOWN from 1500. We are about the same age I height , I think. Let's keep checking in with each other. I count exercise . Also, did you stay in a hotel in NY. I want to take my guys there and do all that you did but I have no idea where to stay. Could you tell me the name?
nationalparker: I am going to request that book at the library. Thanks.
onebyone: It was certainly a touchstone in my life when I read my short story to a couple of hundred people at Goddard. Boldly revealing a part of myself really forced me into growth.
GosfordGirl: Credit for going forward with organization despite a disappointing number. I was discouraged this morning as well.
BBE: I am taking the boys a picnic lunch today. DS was raking walnuts with the men all day. Both DH and DS slept out at the ranch to discourage thieves from stealing the harvested nuts. We will see lots of different water birds, ducks flying south, pheasants, quail. The farmers flood the fields after rice harvest to encourage migration patterns ( well, really to hunt but I don't like to think about that.)
As for me: Super credit for working with a new food. One of DH's field had white milo in it. I gave him a food safe 5 gallon bucket and he had it filled. Talk about the local food movement. Now what to do with it? I discovered it is more often called sorghum, has no gluten, high protein and is the mainstay grain in Africa. It took a few attempts to cook like rice but I did it! I will bring the "Sorghum Roasted Carrot Salad with Pomegranate Molasses" to the picnic at our ranch on the Sacramento River. This week I will try to pop it like popcorn.
Food in MFP. Walk yesterday. This morning I am off to pick up many pounds of Gala Apples for .59 cents a pound.
I'm, again, working on the green book this morning because I didn't make time as intended last night. I suppose I could rearrange things and make it a morning practice instead of an evening one if that works better for me.
Task 8. Talk to Your Family. I talked to DH last night, not because of the book, but because things blew up for us. One of the causes was that I wasn't sharing the source of my grumpiness (gaining so much weight this year) or my fears (setting out on the path to get it off again.) So, now he knows and that seems to be an improvement for us.
silverbirch: I love that you are actually editing the book as you read. That sounds very powerful! What a great way to make it your own.
Lexxiss: We had a fall scare with MiL in the spring -- that was near the pool, too. She ended up with two black eyes but her biggest worry was that they wouldn't heal before her grandson's wedding and how would the photos look? Fortunately, she did recover enough, especially with the magic of make-up. The worst part, for us, was that it happened in Florida. Fortunately, friends and neighbors took up the slack when family couldn't. Good for you for remembering that you need to take care of yourself, too.
onebyone: I would love to be writing buddies with you. Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? I am. I have a more important project, but I knew from experience that it would be hard to get back to it after my trip, so I'm working out a novel idea this month and plan to write my 50,000 words in November. It is helping me put the time in, most days. I'm not achieving perfection in this area, but perfection isn't the goal. I probably need to remember to give myself credit instead of getting all worked up about the days that don't work out as I planned. I hope the poetry sanctuary goes well!
Last night I read chapter 1 of the Beck book. Credit! I think it boils down to ‘you’ll learn how to diet’, this is what CBT is, and here are nine points which are important. The nine points are: choose a nutritious diet; create time and energy for dieting; plan what and when you’re going to eat; seek support; deal with disappointment; view overeating as a temporary problem that you can solve; cope with hunger and cravings; eliminate emotional eating; give yourself credit.
I know that Beck was out to write a best-selling self-help book but, for my purposes, it has to be edited quite hard. That’s for three reasons. 1. I don’t agree with Beck’s extrapolations from her clients to all people who want to lose weight. 2. Her narrative is not in accord with mine at all: cheating, blame and being on and off ‘diets’ are just not in my vocabulary. That’s not how I live my life. 3. The case studies (including her own) and the sabotaging thoughts don’t speak to me at all. Note: I'm using a 2B pencil for all you artists and others who need to know!
Today has gone quite well. Some of you writers may use Scrivener, a quite excellent software program which enables you to move all kinds of ideas around. (gardenerjoy and onebyone, there’s a special NaNoWriMo version, I think.) I’ve decided to use it for my Beck work - or at least see how far it goes. That makes me feel good - credit! I weighed myself - credit, of course! - as I did yesterday and I’ll keep a note of it in Scriv, month by month. I heartily dislike Excel for this kind of thing and I end up not using it. Scriv makes me feel good so I should end up keeping my notes up to date.
A quietish day at home. I’m trying to clear some space in the bedroom for air to circulate. That’s important in this tiny, old house if we're to avoid mould over the winter. I’ve already moved shoes and a few boxes to the garden room so today I’ve tried to make some inroads there. Credit!
onebyone, hoping the poetry sanctuary went well. You've done so well with the accountant and the dear one at home! I am going to send off my tax return tomorrow; it has to be in by 30 October.
nationalparker, of course. Ask away. 'Tea' is what I call our evening meal, just as it was called in our area when I was young and is still called in parts of Britain. Some people call that meal 'dinner', some people call it 'supper' and some - just to be clear as names for this meal have been in a state of flux over the years - call it the 'evening meal'. I'm going to light the fire in a moment. It does cheer you up.
(As I was typing this, the SO entered: "Excuse me, darling, I'd like to talk about food." So tonight it looks as though we're going to have leftover chicken in white sauce, pasta and peas. That sounds OK and I'll go shopping for yet more supplies tomorrow.)
Cheryl, good luck with the diet. Will you add things back after a while?
Bill, the bird-watching and tree-watching sound lovely. I'm always very impressed with how you seem to manage to navigate your social (with food) events so this Minor Credit Phase is bound to pass, surely. I've been remembering the Tree Nut Phase and how you eventually triumphed with, I think, 'Not About Me'. I've started to think that to myself. It's a very good phrase.
Karen, yes, get the bike out! This summer I germinated some real Arizona cactus seeds given to me as a present and I'm hoping to keep them going over winter. I think the best way is to neglect them, in the main, from what I've read. I think a very large saguaro would look brilliant in our tiny front garden but it's pretty unrealistic to expect it to happen! Wales is known to be wet.
Maryann, full marks for having a go with sorghum! Is DH growing it as livestock feed? If so, I wonder whether it's the yummiest variety on the planet, thinking about the kind of maize that's grown as fodder here which seems to be not as nice as the sweetcorn sold for humans.
gardenerjoy, well done for explaining things to your DH. Putting the time in is so important with writing, I do agree. And re the Beck material, I'm currently reading a chapter of the pink book in bed. Not sure that's the best arrangement but we'll see how it goes. I'm not sure how I'm going to write up my observations during the week.
Will light the fire now and get in the washing as it looks like it's going to rain. See you all tomorrow.
Hello, all! A busy weekend with a busy week ahead. Can't complain about being busy, right? Chores and errands today. I overate today by about 400 calories, near as I can overestimate, trying to add in a buffer. I recouped the day somewhat this evening, so I'll say credit for that. Also credit for prepping DH's dinner for tomorrow (he'll leave before I get home tomorrow) this evening and having a very small serving myself - enough to go with a salad. Debit - NOT going out on the trail despite a nice day today.
DH is back to work tonight and I'm going to wrap it up early and get some sleep. Less time to keep heading to the pantry as a side bonus. Luckily the choices for treats here are seriously minimum ... but two hint of salt triscuits and a slice of precut extra sharp cheddar for 70 calories is my temptation.
We ended up skipping Gone Girl last night, coming home to light a fire and relax, reading. Nice to enjoy the silence.
Looking forward to our mini vacation this week. A lot of driving, so want to download some audiobooks that we'll both enjoy. I forgot to do it this weekend.
Aiming for a better check in tomorrow morning. Just wanted the accountability for today. Instead of restarting the pink Beck book, I'm going to just open to a chapter that perhaps will be one that I'll need when I do so.
Time for bed but reporting in on a very eventful day.
First, I was OP all the way. 2 month anniversary of no sugar and on plan. *credit. Avoided all snacky things, at poetry sanctuary. Ate fine did not overeat later in spite of challenges.
So today these things happened in this order:
-went to poetry sanctuary day - approx 1 hr drive
-wrote poem in morning
-had lunch
-wrote 3 poems in the afternoon
-drove home at 5 forgetting to remove laptop from roof of the car where I put it "just for a second"
-when getting ready to turn off of dirt road I heard sound and thought tire had gone flat
-drove on and tire seemed ok, was anxious to get home.
-picked up dinner
-happy to be home I wanted to read my work to Dh and could not find computer
-totally felt sunk. called writing teacher asked if he saw my computer told him to check the road
-DH drove me back out there to look for computer in the dark
-found computer on dirt road
-turned computer on. NO DAMAGE!
-meet writing teacher on road tell him all is well and thanks for helping
-drive home
-DH makes unexpected stop at store
-orders me to buy lottery tickets with my own money because of my incredible luck
-drive the last 3 blocks home
-at final turn to our place car makes high pitched sound then sort of a snap then we smell rubber, sort of
-1 minute later in driveway see smoke rising from beneath hood=car trouble and may need tow to repair place
-could have happened on lonely highway but didn't=also very lucky
-signed lotto tickets and placed them on fridge. Wow.
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Walked, CREDIT moi, wearing a jacket as if it were October. Indian Summer is gone. But it was a clear day. Some of the ground covers still have flowers.
Eating was only OK. CREDIT moi for having only a bowl of lentil soup at the restaurant with friends since I'd had too much snacks already. It felt good only having a small dinner. Their lentil soup had different spices than DW prepares so it was a treat. It was a Tibetan restaurant with Tibetan customers - that neat feeling that the food must be authentic.
onebyone – Good grief! That was a lucky day. The laptop survival is just choice. Hope the car repair turns out to be simple. And Kudos for the monster achievement of two months of no sugar.
Joy (gardenerjoy) – Super Kudos for recognizing the need and then doing a bit of marital communication. Wish there was pixie dust to make that easier.
silverbirch – Useful insights into Beck for me. Kind of neat to have her book condensed. Now I've got to go try Scrivener. [Thanks for reminding me that I got through a tree nuts phase. That would go in my Memory Box if I was keeping one.]
maryann - Drooling over "Sorghum Roasted Carrot Salad with Pomegranate Molasses" - Sorghum isn't part of our regular diet, don't know why. I appreciate the farmers who flood their fields to help the migrating birds. I've made my peace with hunters who take only a few.
nationalparker – Great Beck strategy, "Luckily the choices for treats here are seriously minimum" - Kudos. Neat idea to dig into the Pink Book at the chapter needed.
Karen (karenrn) - I'm a big fan of large quantities of raw veggies.
Readers -
Quote:
Day 24Deal with Discouragement
what are you thinking? When you feel overwhelmed about the future, you may notice some of the following sabotaging thoughts. Prepare for them now by creating Response Cards.
Sabotaging Thought: These tasks are too hard. I don't want to keep on doing these things. Helpful Response: I'm just feeling overwhelmed at the moment. It doesn't always seem this hard. Later on today or tomorrow, it'll probably feel easier again.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), pg 190.
I moved my green book work to mornings since that's what I was doing anyway.
Task 9: Build a sense of entitlement. This is one of my favorite concepts, although the wording here doesn't speak to me as I would like. She uses an example of a busy mom needing to carve out some time for herself. It works differently for me. Entitlement is one of my causes for overeating (I deserve this treat). So, re-imagining entitlement as "I deserve to be healthy" is very helpful.
Task 10: Make response cards. I've already started this, since I knew it was coming. I added several more while reading this task. Like silverbirch, the wording always seems a bit off, so I'm just changing it to suit me better. Mostly I make things a bit more positive and change "diet" to "weight loss" or "healthy lifestyle."
That's the end of the preliminary tasks. Tomorrow, I start Stage 1!
silverbirch: I agree with your edits of Beck. I'm glad you're finding a way to make it your own!
I love the idea of using Scrivener for your healthy lifestyle notes and ideas.
nationalparker: reading by the fire does sound relaxing!
onebyone: that's quite a day -- with a lot of scary moments! good job not overeating over the challenges.
BillBlueEyes: authentic Tibetan lentil soup sounds like a wonderful October meal.
Last edited by gardenerjoy; 10-20-2014 at 09:52 AM.
Yesterday was a perfect example of BBE's quote - deal with discouragement. The moment I impulsively ate a packaged, mass manufactured dessert item, I was off and eating, compulsively, nearly to the point of making myself sick. It brought back the days of when I was over two hundred pounds. The most baffling part is that it was a fine day spent with beautiful people I love. Sometimes I suspect the intimacy, beauty and availability of my little family is scary to me because it is so not what I was taught to expect to expect in life. I accept that I must stretch myself to find peace. Peace does not come naturally. I put yesterday away.
This morning I start the "2" of the 5:2 plan. I am adding some different food items and see how they feel. I have Pilates planned. There is a mysterious hip twinge that has appeared this morning. I hope to stretch it out.
Well, a happy Monday to all and to all a good week. My mind is racing with all that I need to get done at home and errands before we leave on Thursday. So much for a relaxing getaway. They're never relaxing when two vacation days are bookended with 10+ hours of driving, but we'll aim for that.
Credits for listing what needed to be done and will state my goal here (which I am dreading for some oddball reason): mow and bag all clippings this evening so can be picked up with yard trash tomorrow. Last mow of the year, and tons of leaves. Will take 2-3 hours and I don't want to do it but must. SO ... goal tonight is to check in with a "did it" note. Or else I'll put off until tomorrow and that won't work with the bags. Would like to go to sleep with a sense of accomplishment and enough proportion of chores/errands marked off.
Frustrated at myself for getting on the scale when I KNEW it would be up due to normal body cycles, but saw the 164 and inside told myself, I know you can't get back to 159. Now why in the world do I set myself up like that?
Food today is planned and appropriate and healthy. Last night I botched things by deciding on some dry cereal ... and finished more than a half-cup of wheat squares that I didn't need, but it allowed me to empty the crumbs in the container and put in the next cereal. It could have sat there, even with a 1/4 cup... but nope - i had to eat it.
Hate to skip the personals since the notes are so good and credit-worthy (and good karma-worthy) but I'm going to table it for tonight, hopefully, with a before-bed checkin.
Ate on plan yesterday but won't get back to the exercise until tomorrow. Today I had a meeting at a cabinet shop to choose bathroom cabinets, done, annual exam at 11:30 and the Cox (cable) people are coming this afternoon. We are getting a new cable box, new services, faster internet and a $50 reduction in the bill each month. I guess they are having some competition, yahoo for a reduced bill. I had my higher calorie (homemade chicken pot pie) smaller portion foods yesterday and it was fine, but I will say I am hungry right now. . . . but of course I will not eat until after the doctor's appointment.
BBE Yes, the stores here sell everything even warm winter coats and lots of boots. I guess because they are so fashionable. I hope to treat my coat with something so that it is again waterproof. It's a very cute coat I bought at Nordstrom's in Seattle years ago and in fact they still sell it.
Maryann I am just an inch shorter than you are so we'll see how we do with the 1350 calories. I think one of the main things for me is to stay off the beer and not eat back most of my exercise calories. My friend and I stayed at the Belevedere in NY. The address is 319 West 48th Street. It is a great location for shows, Times Square, lots of restaurants. It is older and the rooms are not large, but we have stayed there before and find the location to be the main draw. I think if I were to stay a little longer I would try one of the rental by owner deals. I did look on airbnb.com, but there wasn't much. Didn't look till after we got home.
Nationalparker Oh my goodness you sound busy. I hope you get those chores done and can relax on your getaway.
Onebyone What a day you had yesterday. Thank goodness you found your computer. I left my purse on top of my car once years ago. Then I drove from my parents house and it fell off as I rounded the first corner. I stopped up the freeway about 10 miles for gas and didn't have my purse. Luckily the people whose yard it landed in had already turned it in to the police. I've also left it in grocery carts a few times and have always gotten it back. I never think of myself as an airhead, but if I am I am a very fortunate one.
Silverbirch Okay I will get the bike into the shop sometime this week to see what it needs. It hangs in the garage, which gets to be over 100 degrees in the summer. I will likely need new tires at least. My nephew stayed with us 6 years ago and used it for his transportation, but that's the last time it's been ridden. We have so many saguaro around here. If I can figure out how I'll post a picture one of these days.
Joy I read some in the green book this morning. I hear you about Beck's example for entitlement. I guess I just always think of needing to take care of myself in every way possible. My Mom happened to be a very good example of taking care of herself and even saying no to others when needed. She was on the exercise bike, burning those wine calories, when she had a major bleed (stroke). It was quite a shock since she did always take such good care of herself. She didn't have high blood pressure, just some funky vessels in her head called an amyloid angiopathy. At least she was healthy and happy up until the end. She was pretty careful with her diet and kept her weight in a very narrow range. I'm finding that as I get older that is a little easier for me or maybe I'm just using my resistance muscle a little more often. Now if I could just use it enough to get 20 pounds off.
Well I guess I am a bit long winded today. Perhaps I'm procrastinating so I don't have to do my Spanish homework before my doctor's appointment.
1) Weekend has been very bad. I forgive myself for going off plan but going off plan by eating stuff I don’t even like that much is something I’ll never understand. The flavor receptors in my brain have a big caption over them: “WTF???”
2) Happy I can be frank about the Beck points I don’t like; I’d feared voicing them would have me Banned From The Beck Board. (Currently envisioning Bill going from Blue to Bug-Eyed seeing these incendiary passages.) But as I roll my eyes at some simplistic (sorry, Bill, I mean simple) advice of hers I'm reminded of simple cliched phrases I heard growing up that – ouch! – turn out to be true.
3) Among the many reasons I was drawn to this sub-forum: the complete sentences! Ha! Now realizing writers and reviewers abound here, I should have known!
Gardenerjoy, re your comment last week “When I overeat, I hate how I feel when I go to bed and, even more how I feel when I wake up. I deserve to feel well more than I "deserve" any treat. Insightful! I’m borrowing this mantra as I recover from this weekend’s food coma.
A quick check-in as things have suddenly become too busy for words here. (Have just seen the double entendre on re-reading!)
I read chapter 2 of the pink book last night. It's about sabotaging thoughts. I struggle with this, and I also struggle with the 'helpful' Beck suggestions which I sometimes find too negative. So I'm going to follow gardenerjoy's lead and make my answers positive and upbeat. I'm also going to have to listen to myself more closely to hear any sabotaging thoughts, I think, as I have a very intermittent internal monologue. In fact, perhaps I should just cut to the chase and tell myself upbeat and healthy things associated with food. I know that this would avoid the detailed taking-on of the sabotaging thought but I don't want to have to invent a sabotaging thought when there isn't one there. Any advice?
Thanks for being here, everyone. See you tomorrow.
Proud (!) to say that I got to the vets and then home, got changed and tackled the entire yard and it's all trimmed and oh, how overdue it was. I did NOT want to finish it after several neighbors had stopped by to chat at times when I'd stop to empty the grasscatcher. (TOO many weeds next to the field to just mow/mulch - my yard becomes a petri dish of every weed when I scatter them that way.)
Ate dinner a bit later and survived to tell about it
I might be the lonely person here who wasn't a critical reader of Beck's pink book when I first read through it ... I select what I feel will best help me and add that to my arsenal ... the ARCs have been a good way for me to focus on what I "say" I want to lose weight/get healthier to see in my life and I think it's time that I go back and refresh them a bit. I'm now fitting into most of my clothes which was a goal of mine ... but now I want to avoid weight gain this winter. Instead of worrying about it, I need to funnel that into more activity and smaller portions.
Ive been revisiting my time at home with my folks when I lost a few pounds each extended visit - I was not eating perfectly, and was trying to figure out what the difference was ... I wonder if it's that I was hungry between meals - they weren't at regular times, they weren't of approx the same size each day - there was a great variance in when/what/how much I ate each day depending on how they were doing and what I was doing. Wonder if that is any key to mixing it up? Or all just nothing.
Food today was pretty awful-at work I strayed from my usual (almost fasting shift) yet still my definition of awful has changed....I had 4 PC of toast. And 3 pieces of bacon. No sweets nothing fried. I did keep reminding myself to resist especially when eying the pastries and cakes. Credit.
Home, to packaged vegetarian dinner, a bit too much dark chocolate and off to aa meeting where I did not touch the candy. Feeling sad today (came home to DH being back to grumpies) tired and wanting to isolate myself so credit for getting myself out.
Onebyone, wow super kudos for great response to stressy yet miraculous day!
Re: The book....being a 12 step gal I tend towards "take what you need and leave the rest". I've learned so much through Beck and yet when I went to read the remotivation chapter (green book) it didn't really apply to my situation right now. I think my remotivation may come with acceptance of the things I cannot change.
I was at work at 530am....didn't sleep much last night. I need to try now. Thanks for being here everyone !
Time to call it a night. Quick check in to report I am OP. Car was towed to dealership today. We'll learn what happened tomorrow. All a new adventure to me, this being my first car and first tow. My week feels totally screwed up though. Need to make detailed plans with deadlines. I feel like things are falling between the cracks. Yikes. But for now I'm hitting the hay. Until tomorrow.
in a nutshell
Monday
My mind is racing with all that I need to get done at home and errands before we leave on Thursday. So much for a relaxing getaway. They're never relaxing when two vacation days are bookended with 10+ hours of driving, but we'll aim for that. 
(Currently envisioning Bill going from Blue to Bug-Eyed seeing these incendiary passages.) But as I roll my eyes at some simplistic (sorry, Bill, I mean simple) advice of hers I'm reminded of simple cliched phrases I heard growing up that – ouch! – turn out to be true. 
Ha! Now realizing writers and reviewers abound here, I should have known! 
