Beck Diet For Life/Solution – December 2009 – Support, Discussion, Buddy/Coach

FutureFitChick · 12-02-2009, 08:25 PM

Coaches/Buddies, I made my lunch for today, then forgot to grab it walking out the door. So, more fast food for me today. But, I feel very comfortable ordering healthy choices now, which is good. In reality, there is likely going to be fast food in my life for the next several years when things get chaotic. So, if I can make a healthy choice when I have to do it, then that will give me the success and confidence I need to do it without thinking twice in the future.

Upcoming plans include the Hunger/Craving/Desire exercise tomorrow, contact the trainer on Friday, and potentially the day experiencing hunger on Monday.

BeachPatrol, great job for executing your plan over the holiday and getting in exercise. I have no doubt that you can get where you want to be with the food planning.

BennyHannahMama, no problem on not doing the personals yet. It does take a chunk of time, but I am finding it really important for my ability to stay on track to get to know people more. So, it has had its own reward. All of your dancing broccolis are wonderful. I’m using GoWear Fit. Are you? I really like it and has kept me from going into the “why haven’t I been losing weight” mode when the calorie loss isn’t really there.

BillBlueEyes, you make a great point about wanting to compensate with extra calories for disappointing meals. It’s frustrating when disappointing food leads to disatatisfaction. Oops on the coordinatory…

CeeJay, mmm… broccoli.

GardenerJoy, bummer about the slowing down of weight loss. But, you had a loss with all of the increased writing (= sitting) time and with a holiday and lots of family chaos. I have no doubt that you will be rewarded at the end of December when you pick up on the exercise. Hope your family is doing well.

Nuxmaga, great job on by-passing the evil crust. I’m really happy for you that you are on track for your calorie goals. Also, congratulations on the big order. What is “exposure”mode?

Shepherdess, too bad about your oven. That makes planning meals a real challenge, I’m sure. It’s funny you mention the hit-or-miss nature of the alternate cooking methods. I was just having that conversation with someone else the other day.

Wndranne, glad to hear about your success staying on plan and running. Hope you are feeling better and that the cravings remain at bay.

Today’s Essentials:
Weigh-in: -0.5 lbs.
Read Advantage Cards two times: No, I only read them once.
Read Response Cards at least two times: No, I only read them once.
Ate slowly, sitting down, noticing every bite: No, I ate lunch in the car driving to class.
Gave myself credit when I engaged in helpful eating behaviors: Yes, I posted them here.
Did spontaneous exercise: Some
Did planned exercise: No
Tracked today’s food: Yes

gardenerjoy · 12-02-2009, 10:38 PM

It's official that my husband's bil has MS, but the more pressing problem is that he reacted badly to the spinal tap that gave the diagnosis. We didn't hear from his sister today, which we suspect means that she was busy caretaking.

I went up to my brother's to sit with J for a while so he could walk his dog. Then, I committed to doing my own exercise because I didn't want to report here that I'm giving up my exercise time so my brother can have his. Something else has to give this month, not my exercise.

I did my Pilates DVD and it felt great. It's for beginners (which I am) and doesn't feel like much of workout until I'm done and then my body feels great!

WI: +0.25kg , Exercise: +60, 105/1300 minutes for December, Food: op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

bennyhannahmama: I think it's an excellent idea to get in the appropriate reporting habits before worrying about doing personals. Do that when, and if, it feels right to you. I get benefit from your stories and reporting whether or not you write personals.

BillBlueEyes: Thanks for the quote dedication. I'm honored. And, it's perfect!

Shepherdess: is it just the oven or the entire range that's broken? I'm embarrassed to say how long I've lived without an oven. We do a lot of stuff on the stove and also make good use of a toaster oven. Since there's only two of us, that actually works quite well. Tonight was pizza -- sauce on the stove and home-made pizza shells sized for individual pizzas (which fit in the toaster oven).

Beach Patrol: great to hear that your Thanksgiving went so well.

FutureFitChick: way to go with finding a way to make necessary fast food work for you.

AnneWonders · 12-02-2009, 11:01 PM

Coaches/Buddies Not even close to being on plan today, as schedule was nuts. DD was home after yesterday's fever, and DH and I switched kid-watching at noon. But I ate thoughtfully anyway, and calories came out almost exactly on target. Two mile run tonight, a good, hard effort that felt great.

No longer pissed tonight. Just resigned to being confused. Thanks for your wishes and good thoughts on that, everyone.

Margaret Sounds like you did a great job with your food and exercise. And yay for big orders!

gardenerjoyThose are 2.5 pounds you are never going to see again, right? So great going!

Sorry to hear about your husband's bil.

Kim Good to see you here, and love the broccoli!

CeeJay Go have some broc! Yum. We've convinced DD that it gives her shiny hair and sparkley eyes and she can't get enough of the stuff now. Not sure how I worked that miracle, but I'l take it.

BillBE Hope you enjoyed your cod, disappearing though it might be, and bummer about the mango. Did you get out for a walk today?

Shepherdess Good luck with your oven repair. I'm not sure if I'd know if mine was broken. This reminds me I need to make some honey balsamic chicken with rosemary. Easy, fabulous and healthy. Wow on getting in a snowy, windy run.

Beach Patrol Glad you enjoyed your Thanksgiving. Sounds like the perfect way to do it: eating mindfully and enjoying everything. Good job on the walking too!

FutureFitChick I hate it when I forget to bring the lunch I made! Seems like it happens often to me. But my brain is shot from the children, so I suppose it is to be expected.

'Night everyone.

Anne

bennyhannahmama · 12-03-2009, 12:14 AM

Coaches/Buddies: Getting to bed earlier definitely needs to move up on my priority list

So here's another quick report:

Weigh-In: -.5= 127.5

Read Response Cards: yes

Read Advantages Deck: yes

Checked in Here: yes

(I almost forgot!)

Overslept this morning by almost an hour (managed to turn off both alarms and not remember) so reading my Response Cards and Advantages Deck first thing was just not an option (which is when I have been doing it.)
As I was getting ready to leave work I realized I had never read them. I was about to put it off again, thinking I would read them later when I stopped myself. I was going to be picking up the kids from daycare, come home to make dinner, etc. and I knew realistically I would not be reading them. So, I chose to delay leaving work by just a few minutes and carefully read through all of them--- it felt great!

Lots of other good things today too, but need to get to sleep now!

Thanks again for all the feedback and I am reading what you guys are up to, too!

BillBlueEyes · 12-03-2009, 06:33 AM

Diet Coaches/Buddies - When DW asked if there was any meal I've missed, I immediately responded "meatloaf." So we had it last night. It was good enough, but my super fond memories might have come from the massive portion I used to serve myself and from the large sandwiches slathered with mayo that I made with the leftovers. CREDIT moi for a rational serving and for a small chunk in my lunch for today. So many of my food memories seem related to volume not taste - so many neurons to rewire.

At gym, CREDIT moi, I concentrated on doing my push ups with correct form - it's easy to get sloppy without a trainer. Saw a large guy jumping rope using a 1 inch diameter rope that impressed me because of the noise the rope made hitting the ground.

Anne (wndranne) - Sigh ... "confused" over human behavior is probably as good as it's gonna get. Congrats on teaching your DD that foods have a specific benefit - it'll be hard to get caught since all kids have sparkly eyes, LOL. Yep, I got in my walk the other day; was kinda impressed that I didn't remember anything about it other than not stopping at Whole Foods for samples, which some day I need to stop reporting.

Kim (bennyhannamama) - LOL at turning off both alarms to oversleep for an hour. Perhaps you need to bite the bullet and get to bed earlier.

FutureFitChick - Neat that you've accepted that fast foods are going to be part of your hectic-scheduled life and have learned to order well. I love hearing the results of the hunger exercise - can't wait.

Joy (gardenerjoy) - Kudos for seeing that you need to exercise despite the realities of family health right now.

Shepherdess - Now that's about the best excuse I've heard - that we don't have to honor an extended warranty because we didn't program our computers to handle rural addresses. Gotta give credit to the guy who thought of that one. I've got relatives who for years only had a Rural Delivery Route Number for an address - the postman for that route knew where everybody lived.

Beach Patrol - Yay for getting three long beach walks and for getting your dad and brother out as well.

Readers -

Quote:

day 11
Distinguish Between Hunger, Desire, and Cravings

Almost every dieter I've worked with has had difficulty distinguishing between true hunger (when you've fasted for several hours and your stomach is empty), a desire to eat (not being particularly hungry but eating because there is food around), and a craving (a physiological and emotional intense urge to eat). Interestingly, many of them initially thought they could tell the difference. What about you?

The Beck Diet Solution, pg 116.

ChinaMaine · 12-03-2009, 08:27 AM

I had gained a pound over Thanksgiving, but most of that is gone already. And I’ve noticed something else positive. For the last 2 months I’ve been hungrier than normal. But this week, my hunger level seems to have returned to it’s normal level. It’s much easier to stay on plan when I’m not constantly thinking of food. This experience has made me newly appreciative of the folks on this list who grapple with high hunger levels every day. It does make weight loss much more difficult…

I’ve been reading online about set points a little bit recently. One thing I read is that if you’ve lost 10% to 20% and reached your set point, you will feel hungrier until your set point is reset to a new, lower level. This is because your body thinks you’ve lost too much weight and needs to gain some back. I’m hoping my return to normal hunger levels means that my set point has reset, and I can go about the business of losing weight again.

WI-almost back down to pre-Thanksgiving weight. Read my cards, made a plan. Food – op, Exercise – op (Tues-60m, Wed-66m).
The Good
- Identified hunger vs non-hunger every time I ate –didn’t have my evening snack of leftover, oh-so-tasty, baguette, so double-credit!
- Tolerated non-hunger without eating – credit!
- Used resistance techniques – credit!

The Bad
- Eat mindfully, enjoying every bite – for dinner the last 2 nights, I’ve wolfed down my food even though I wasn’t especially hungry. I had developed a habit of being the last one finished eating, and I’ve been been the first recently. So I’m going to pay more attention to eating mindfully at dinner.
- Give credit throughout the day for every positive eating behavior - nope
- Spontaneous exercise – nope. But I did force myself to take a break yesterday afternoon to take a planned 20 minute walk (I woke up late and couldn’t fit in all 60 mins before work). So I’m going to try and make this one occasion a habit.

The Ugly
- I posted here – nope (but today is a new day…)

Once again – no personals. Things have heated up at work again, but if I can get my document out early today, I’ll sneak back here and post some personals. In any case, I will get caught up this weekend. In the meantime -

Shepherdess · 12-03-2009, 12:37 PM

I didn’t get home until nearly dark yesterday, and so did not get my run in. I did pop in a DVD and jump roped instead. I usually hate that, but it was cold enough yesterday that I didn’t feel so bad. Besides, I sold some wool and yarn to a local shop, so it was worth it to get home late.

Eating was mostly OP, but I did have huge cravings last night to go back for seconds. It’s probably because I’ve started skipping snacks. I think I’m just getting bored with the same things over and over. I picked up a trail mix at the store the other day. It’ll mix things up and be a snack I’ll look forward to.

Beach Patrol, yay for another 2 lbs gone, and over Thanksgiving, no less! Kudos for avoiding that overfull feeling, walks on the beach (I’m so jealous of the beach and your weather) and yoga. Good job recommitting to your plan—can you work some of those handy but healthy foods into your plan?

FutureFitChick, kudos for making your lunch ahead of time, even if it stayed on the kitchen counter. Huge kudos for feeling comfortable making healthy choices at fast food places. Fast food is convenient, and if it makes your life easier and you’re able to eat healthy, I see no problem working that into your plan.

Gardenerjoy, kudos for getting your exercise in on a busy day. I love pilates. I used to do it more regularly and have recently been trying to work it back into my routine. It’s great for the core! The pizza sounds delicious, and you’re right, there is plenty we can make without the oven. We just have to think a little harder because it’s shook up our cooking routine.

Wndranne, good job coming ok on calories during a nuts, off-plan day, and I’m impressed that you were able to eat thoughtfully during a crazy day. Kudos for a good, hard run. Hope it made you feel better.

Bennyhannamamma, kudos on making reading your response and advantages cards a priority. Good luck getting to bed earlier. If you are turning off two alarms in your sleep, I think that’s definitely a sign to get to bed earlier!

BillBE, LOL at food memories related to volume not taste. Kudos for rewiring your neurons and serving sane portion sizes. Kudos for concentrating on form during push-ups. I’m not sure which I hate more push-ups or lunges. Either way, I get pretty sloppy on both. (Full disclosure, I can only do a few “real” push-ups and then resort to girly push-ups.)

ChinaMaine, interesting that hunger increases once you’ve reached a set-point. Glad to hear your hunger levels are returning to normal and it’s easier to stay OP. Kudos for skipping the delicious and planned snack because you weren’t hungry.

I noticed that you’ve consistently reported that you don’t give yourself credit during the day. I don’t do this either, but I was thinking that it might help. I’m trying to think of something to remind myself to do this throughout the day—anyone out there have suggestions?

Beach Patrol · 12-03-2009, 06:00 PM

Howdy-Do BECKSTARS!!!!

Shepherdess ~ I, too have found that I have huge cravings if I skip a snack, so I try VERY hard not to skip! Fruit is my favorite quickie/healthy snack, but sometimes I want something... uh... "man-made"... & I have fallen in total love with the Quaker True Delight bars! - ummmm!!!! And they really help tide me over til my next meal. Kudos for jump roping! - As much as you are jealous of my beach weather, I am jealous of your kick-*** attitude toward exercising -no matter what!!

ChinaMaine ~ Excellent job identifing the hunger vs non-hunger and using the resistance techniques! I have also found those to be incredibly helpful!

Bill ~ OMG... I love "meatloaf"!!! And I have learned that I am better about eating LESS if I have a nice big salad before hand, or an extra helping of veggies on the side. So - YAY YOU! for rational serving and left overs for your lunch! And extra super YAY for doing push ups w/correct form! - you're right! - that IS difficult - and correct form is SO important in ANY exercise!

b.h.mama ~ congrats on your -.5!!!! I love the positive feeling of a negative number!!!

wndranne ~ Not to worry about not being on plan for one day... sometimes life REALLY gets in the way of our plans! But you "ate thoughtfully" and that's a big part of the success! - also, BIG CREDIT for your 2 miler!!!!

gardenerjoy ~ Way to go with the Pilates DVD! - it's very GOOD to do exercise and TAKE CARE OF OURSELVES first! - exercise is not only good for your body, but it really does help combat the stress and emotional upheaval you feel with all that's going on in your life right now. So X-TRA STAR POINTS for committing to doing your own exercise - TAKE CARE OF YOU!!!

FFChick ~ I know how you feel about forgetting lunch! - I soooo HATE it when I do that! I can't say how many times I've left the dang thing on the counter! But fast food doesn't have to be "unhealthy" or fattening - I've learned to go for the "small" junior size burgers and not order fries or eat just half a burger and a handful of fries... or go for the chicken sandwich, etc. Fast food doesn't have to ruin us! So always remember that when fast food seems to be your only choice! You're doing GREAT!!!

AS FOR ME.... I'm OP with eating (mostly) and when I'm "off-plan" I'm still doing it healthy, so I can credit myself for that. Exercise is going GREAT! - I am really enjoying moving again!!!

It's nearly "that time of month" for me, so I expect to see my weight fluctuate a bit due to that joyous occasion. And I feel myself craving crazy sweets right about now... so gotta take some extra special care & watch out for those! I could eat a pound of chocolate right now...and I'm not hungry at all.... At least I recognize them as cravings... can I get credit for that?

EVERYDAY'S A NEW DAY!!!

FutureFitChick · 12-03-2009, 09:09 PM

Coaches/Buddies, today went pretty well today. Kind of exhausting, which is frustrating given the number of hours I put in. (only 8 hours). I am hoping my stamina improves with weight loss and exercise. Eating went well, kind of random last minute food selections, but it kept me under my calorie limit for the day. And, I didn’t eat lunch or dinner out today when I had the opportunity. I did Hunger/Craving/Desire today. I was surprised how low my actual feelings of hunger in my stomach were and how much I use fatigue as an indicator to eat. Wrong or right thing to do? I’d love to hear your feedback. It’s no wonder that I tend to eat more during times of poor/lacking in sleep.

Regarding credit throughout the day, I have post-its all over with “credit” on them – calendar, computer monitor, mirror, refrigerator, etc.

Today’s Essentials:
Weigh-in: -1 lbs.
Read Advantage Cards two times: Yes
Read Response Cards at least two times: Yes
Ate slowly, sitting down, noticing every bite: Yes
Gave myself credit when I engaged in helpful eating behaviors: Yes
Did spontaneous exercise: Yes
Did planned exercise: No
Rated my hunger: Yes, finally!
Wrote out food plan for tomorrow: Will try to do this tonight.
Tracked today’s food: Yes.

Time How I Feel Hunger Level (0-10)
Before Breakfast Not at all hungry, but feel I’m supposed to eat breakfast 2
Midway Through Breakfast Full, but feel I’m supposed to finish my cereal; confused about what I’m supposed to do 1
Immediately After Breakfast Full 1
20 Minutes After Breakfast Full 1
Before Mid-morning Snack (Did not eat)
Midway Through Mid-morning Snack (Did not eat)
Immediately After Mid-morning Snack (Did not eat)
20 Minutes After Mid-morning Snack (Did not eat)
Before Lunch Physically tired and sleepy, achy, not hungry 3
Midway Through Lunch Still achy, more energetic, clearer headed 2
Immediately After Lunch Less achy, thinking clearly 1
20 Minutes After Lunch Pretty good, no hunger 1
Before Mid-afternoon Snack Tired, want to go home and sleep, some hunger 4
Midway Through Mid-afternoon Snack Less painful, not really hungry 2
Immediately After Mid-afternoon Snack More restored 0
20 Minutes After Mid-afternoon Snack Ready to go home, Less clear than before 0
Before Dinner Ready to eat. Salivating, tired, cramping in empty feeling in stomach. 7
Midway Through Dinner Enjoying food and getting fuller. 4
Immediately After Dinner Getting fuller still. Good amount of food. Not stuffed. 2
20 Minutes After Dinner Mostly comfortable, slight hunger. What?? 3
Before Evening Snack
Midway Through Evening Snack
Immediately After Evening Snack
20 Minutes After Evening Snack

BeachPatrol, great job on enjoying exercise. That’s great progress and powerful! Major credit goes to you for recognizing cravings. That is really important.

BennyHannahMama, hope you get to sleep earlier tonight. Great job on committing to reading your cards. Congratulations on being ½ pound down.

BillBlueEyes, it’s funny when we get confused by our attachments to a certain eating situation and attribute them to us enjoying a particular food.

ChinaMaine, I find your observation about hunger levels and possible set-point theory interesting. Keep us posted to let us know how it all comes out. Good luck on your work stuff!

GardenerJoy, sorry to hear about your brother-in-law. Awesome job to commit to your exercise!

Shepherdess, congratulations on the sale! Great job on no excuses to skip exercise. You are fantastic! Thanks for the reassurance regarding fast food. I just feel so guilty about eating it, but that is my reality for now.

Wndranne, sorry to hear you were off plan for food. Great job for getting in the exercise and eating mindfully in spite of the chaos.

AnneWonders · 12-03-2009, 10:19 PM

Coaches/Buddies On plan today. A tough interpersonal day, and I'm not feeling up to much more than checking in. Back tomorrow. Have a good one.

Anne

gardenerjoy · 12-03-2009, 10:48 PM

We went out to the cabin to winterize before tonight's hard freeze. We walked and hauled stuff for exercise. I also saw a pileated woodpecker and a deer.

WI: -0.25kg , Exercise: +40, 145/1300 minutes for December, Food: op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

wndranne: Good job staying on target with calories even while being off plan -- that's some flexibility there!

bennyhannahmama: good job on stopping yourself to read your advantages and responses -- you inspired me to read mine today!

BillBlueEyes: What a great observance about some food memories having to do with volume, not taste. That helps me. Now I understand why one potato chip tastes salty and oily, but eating a whole bag used to be a comfort and pleasure and is still an occasional temptation.

ChinaMaine: yay for the double credit on foregoing the baguette snack

Shepherdess: way to go on finding an alternative exercise

Beach Patrol: you bet you can have credit for recognizing cravings! I find that extremely difficult. One of the reasons Beck works for me is that I eat according to plan and the fact that I'm very slow in my development of identifying real hunger doesn't get in the way of my losing weight in the meantime.

FutureFitChick: wow, I think you had a great result from your experiment: recognizing that fatigue is a trigger for you. I wonder if your hunger would go away if you closed your eyes and really rested for a minute or five minutes.

bennyhannahmama · 12-03-2009, 11:12 PM

Weighed In: 0: 127.5

Read Advantages Deck: yes

Read Response Cards: yes

Checked in Here: yes

Going to bed: now!

Gnite

BillBlueEyes · 12-04-2009, 06:25 AM

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Decided to pick up the pace of my after work walk, CREDIT moi. I returned home soaking wet. Felt really good that I'd worked that much harder until I realized that it was an unseasonably warm evening and I had dressed like December. Oh Well, it was a brisk walk nevertheless. It's time for new walking shoes - OK waaaay past time - but I hate shopping. Gotta do that before I cause shin splints or something.

Was particularly pleased with my packed lunch. Our fridge has a bunch of leftover veggies to stuff into my 3 cup Pyrex container, including yellow beets, kale from our garden with onions, and roasted sweet potato coins. And a small slice of leftover meatloaf. Life is good.

Anne (wndranne) - A tough day deserves a quote to gladden ever fiber in your soul. You've probably already read this but it just blew my mind as a profound statement describing the pictures showing the structure of structures in the distant universe:

Quote:

"We actually see this massive structure in the distant universe. Not theory, not prediction - this is the real universe."

Dr. Masayuki Tanaka of the European Southern Observatory, Science News, 5Dec09

ChinaMaine - So interesting that the resetting of ones set point takes place at the 10% to 20% loss of body weight. That would mean that anyone losing a large amount of weight would go through several cycles like you're describing.

Kim (bennyhannamama) - Yay for going to bed as a way to fight not getting enough sleep.

FutureFitChick - It's interesting that you didn't particularly experience hunger until you were anticipating dinner at level 7. I'm fascinated how little hunger most people record in a day.

Joy (gardenerjoy) - Seeing a Pileated Woodpecker is pretty special around here; I clearly remember the day I saw my first.

Shepherdess - Congrats on the wool sale - even at the cost of having to jump rope instead of an outdoor run. Re "real" push ups: I just read a study that apparently the cause of men living about 4 years less than women is the energy spent building muscles in response to their testosterone. So you get 4 more years to do push-ups and lunges, LOL.

Beach Patrol - Yep, Big Kudos for recognizing cravings as cravings. At the supermarket last week I encountered a 5 pound Hersey chocolate bar for $30. First thought Neat! I want it. Took a while to remember that I don't particularly like milk chocolate and that 5 pounds would be a PITA to keep around nibbling little portions. For me, that one wasn't even a craving, just a carnal desire.

Readers -

Quote:

day 11
Distinguish Between Hunger, Desire, and Cravings

Think about times in the past when you've leisurely finished a rather large meal, perhaps when eating at a restaurant or during a family celebration. I wonder if you've ever had such thoughts as, I'm still hungry ... I think I'll have seconds ... I'm hungry for dessert.

If so, you confused hunger with a desire to eat. Today's task will help you figure out when you're truly hungry so you can tell yourself, OK, I finished the food I planned to eat for the meal, and I'm still hungry ... But that's OK ... It might take my brain 20 minutes to send a message to my body that I'm full ... I'll wait to see how I feel in 20 minutes.

The Beck Diet Solution, pg 116.

ChinaMaine · 12-04-2009, 08:08 AM

It was a busy day at work, but I got up and walked mid-afternoon to finish out my planned exercise. It was so warm – mid-sixties. It was a wonderful walking day. Like Bill, I’ve been trying to turn up the volume on my walking lately, and it felt good. I did a core workout in the morning - and MFC had me do 2 sets of 'Hundreds'. It killed yesterday, so I did a quick search on-line and found out I was doing it wrong. lol. I was doing 100 hundred crunch-pulses in each set (with legs elevated), but all I'm supposed to do is pump my arms 100 times. Phew - that'll be much easier next time!

WI-down .4 lbs. Read my cards, made a plan. Food – op, Exercise – op (62m).
The Good
- Identified hunger vs non-hunger every time I ate – credit!
- Tolerated non-hunger without eating – credit!
- Used resistance techniques – credit!
- Eat mindfully, enjoying every bite – credit!
- Spontaneous exercise – I don’t know if it qualifies, but walked further than planned yesterday. So I’m taking a credit on this one.
- I posted here – credit!
- I did well enough to have to combine my ‘bad’ and ‘ugly’ categories – credit!

The Bad, and The Ugly
- Give credit throughout the day for every positive eating behavior – nope. Shepherdess, I haven’t figured out a way to do this. I think my anglo-protestant lineage makes me believe this whole ‘give credit’ thing is more than a bit unseemly. Although rationally I realize it is a positive step, just can’t seem to force myself to do anything about it.

Once again – no personals. I’ll try again later today. Hi everyone -

Shepherdess · 12-04-2009, 01:14 PM

I did some jump roping yesterday. Again, I was just busy until it was close to dark. We are, after all, coming up on the longest night of the year. It’s just going to be tough to get outdoor exercise in.

Eating was not as successful. I don’t know why I was just hungry all day yesterday. I tried to objectively analyze it, and it wasn’t craving mistaken for hunger, but honest to goodness hunger, even shortly after eating. Shortly before dinner, I was losing all willpower. DH started munching on some chips and it was all I could do to resist. I read my cards (credit) and managed to not eat. But following dinner. . .still hungry. I waited 20 minutes and then finally went ahead and had my evening snack—and then some. I finally ate to fullness, but still had the desire to eat. I called it a night and went to bed.

I’m still trying to figure out what the problem was. I wasn’t eating differently yesterday, and so far, this amount of food has kept my hunger satiated, for the most part. I was joking with DH that maybe I’m going into hibernation mode. It was cold yesterday—never got above 15 F. This time last week it was in the low 50s. So maybe my body is just trying to get a bit of insulation against the sudden drop in temp. Or maybe its hormonal fluctuations. I don’t know, but today seems to be better, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Beach Patrol, yes you do get credit for recognizing cravings. My hope is that once I begin to recognize before they hit they will be easier to deal with. Yay for enjoying exercise, and kudos for eating mostly OP and eating healthy when you are not OP.

FutureFitChick, sorry for the exhausting day. I have found my energy levels picking up recently, which I attribute to weight loss and regular exercise. I hope you’ll have a similar experience. I also find that fatigue triggers a desire to eat. I’m only speculating, but I imagine it is because your body is looking for an energy source and also because you’re normal self-control is impaired when you are fatigued. That’s just my theory. Kudos for eating well in spite of fatigue.

Wndranne, sorry about the tough day. Kudos for taking the time to check in anyway and kudos for staying OP. Always difficult during times of emotional distress.

Gardenerjoy, there’s nothing like good, manual labor for exercise. The cabin sounds like it’s in a great location.

Bennyhannamamma, great job reading your cards and for checking in, and extra kudos for getting to bed at a good hour.

BillBE, I’m imagining your unseasonably warm evening. We just finally got “seasonable.” Kudos on your brisk walk and kudos for a healthy lunch that cleans out the fridge.

ChinaMaine, good job getting in your planned exercise on a busy day. It’s pretty cool that you can do Herculean 100s. LOL at your anglo-protestant lineage making giving credit unseemly. I’m thinking maybe I’ll have some kind of reminder, maybe a charm that I keep in my pocket. I’ll let you know how it works.