Hi Coaches

I got back from my trip to Ottawa on Tuesday. I came home broke and that makes us broke, again, until payday next week. Gee. I forgot i was supposed to save some of that $ Dh gave me to take on my ttrip. I had a very challenging visit wiht my mom and with everyone. For whatever reason, probably cause I am born optimist, I thought I wouldn't have that "being pulled in evry direction" feeling when I went back to visit. Well, no such luck. too many people to see; too many plces to go; not enough time.

I stayed at my brother's one night. Then stayed at my mom's the next two. My mother has decided her cat Max doesn't like the red or the green bits in his cat food so she goes through this ritual of sorting his food. She will do it a good hour or so. She reaches into the dry cat food bag and pulls out a handful onto a plate for the kitty and then dumps the plate on the table and then separates the coloured bits out then she pours them back into the bag. The kitty is quite thin, but has always been thin, but I am a little worried. I now know not to get colourful cat food. For those who don't know, my mom has alzheimer's so her behaviour shifts around. She is fairly stable though so that's a blessing.

Foodwise I ate whateve was thrown at me. But then I came home and am OP. I am formulating a foodpland now which I am following as best I can until we can do some groceries on payday.

I am off to spend the day in the ceramic studio. It's great as I went to the pottery supply store in Ottawa and used my gift certificate from my Best in Show win at the xmas sale at the school of art last November to buy most of my basic tools and some indulgences! y new studio doesn't supply tools like my old one did so I didn't even have any basic ones to work with... but now I do. While in town I saw my Big Print on the wall of the city hall gallery. I took myh mom and two visitors were there and they crowded around me as if I was famous. Excited to meet "the artist" i tld them my sad tale of missing the opening due to my bad going out and one of them asked me to tell them what I would have told everyone had I been at the opening. So I got to talk about my artwork and that re-connected me to it in a big way. I really felt fortunate.

Better go.

Bye for now coaches...

I'm playing with Evernote to organize my life. Hope it works. Because I really need something along these lines to move to the next phase of my life, maintaining weight loss while doing something creative and productive.

WI: -0.1kgs, Exercise: +65 260/1300 minutes for June, Food: 70%op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

maryann: yes, the box of veggies has really helped my cooking skills! Cool that you have a great reason to read great books.

GardeningDeb: glad you managed a post. I always type mine up in a different program -- mostly so that I can have the 3FC screen and the note screen open at the same time. But it also means I have a copy of the loading part goes wrong.

BillBlueEyes: ouch for the unmet expectation of an evening meeting offering healthy food. That's certainly what should have happened! But I'm glad to know that a maintainer can find some way to cope with even that situation. Calling it dinner was a good response to a bad situation.

Lexxiss: Your bike ride sounds lovely!

onebyone: so great to see you here -- I missed you. And I'm so grateful to the person who asked you to say what you would have said at the art opening. What a wonderful gift!

Good Morning Coaches:
Whoooo - Doggie! I love summer. DS and I lounge around in the morning, read, eat a nice breakfast; he gets a dose of cartoons. The sun has finally come out in a big way. I read a whole book in one day and DS can spend extra time on piano and violin. The laundry is done and my toenails are painted. This afternoon we are off to the pool.This is living!
OP today. Frustration at the scale - up a pound even though I am eating well. Again, I know things will iron out.
BBE: Credit for choosing to eat rather than grouse. I am with you.Ours is a long race and that means we often make do - choosing the better option rather than bemoaning the absence of the best.
Lexxiss: I love that feeling of being in the middle of people exercising. That is why I like class at my exercise club, longs walks, etc...
GardenerDeb: Credit for snubbing the ice cream party.
onebyone: what a comfort it must be to have an artistic talent. I can tell by your writing that it makes you happy.
gardenerjoy: Now I have to Google Evernote.

I did it. I pushed through, I didn't give up, I brainstormed how to move through this plateau, and I did what so many of you have spoken of before: on Sunday I weighed in at 176 (because of salt intake the previous day). On Monday, I weighed in a 169 on the nose. It's been within that range all week.

Despite the joys of this break-through, yesterday was my one-day-a-month hormone festival of eating. Too much salt resulted in a gain, but I have the tools to get back on track.

In other news, we have a new kitten! She's a little five-week calico named Shady Lady. And we're fostering another from the feral bunch we rescued, the runt who was on death's door when we got her. So I feel exhausted from being the Mama Kitty all week.

Credits:
* counting calories and writing them down (rather than relying on my phone)
* measuring out my portions
* no food three hours before bedtime
* last week: exercise five days
* this week: exercise yesterday despite an extremely heavy feeling
* coming here

Work on:
* emotional eating
* standing eating / sneak eating in kitchen

Thanks for all supportive comments! Sending the love and energy back!

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Was good to have an on-plan eating day; CREDIT moi. Dinner on the patio with a Blue Jay taking a bath - noisily - right behind me. Yay for warm weather.

Gym'ed; CREDIT moi. Had the Sabotaging Thought that I wouldn't be able to do my regular routine because my neurons were feeling stressed. Then had the thought that I'd try anyway just to be sure. And did it all. It's not just about food where the brain looks for the easy way out.


onebyone - So neat that you got to see your Big Print - and to give your remarks to an appreciative audience. Yay for having your tools to start ceramics in the new place.

Joy (gardenerjoy) - Good luck with a life organizer. For me, a live personal assistant is the only thing that I think would work - that's my dream.

Debbie (Lexxiss) - Yay for biking among other outdoor people. Denver always comes out on top of the list of the most active cities.

MaryContrary - Congrats on that weight, with Kudos for your perseverance in staying the path. My take is that kitties are as ungrateful as teenagers, yet folks don't seem to mind. (Feel free to ignore comments from a dog person, LOL.)

maryann - Yay for some unstructured time for a kid. Yay for some unstructured time for an adult. Yep, summer is good.

Readers -

Thank you ladies for the input on taking the bridge to more vegetarian recipes. I have found that the several diabetic cookbooks I have do rely heavily on vegetables with low sodium/no sugar and controlled carbs per serving. I will definitely get some of those cookbooks. In the past year, I have begun a subscription to both "Cooking Light" and "Eating Well" monthly magazines. I usually don't do this but I felt they could be one other source of finding recipes to support my reformed way of eating. Last year, I subscribed to "Diabetic Forecast" magazine and I really liked their revised recipes for Thanksgiving. The stuffing recipe is a definite keeper.

Credit moi: I have been eating OP 90/10 since April 1st. Thanks for the clarification about The Zone. It makes sense. Balancing components of our food plan means balanced sugar levels and likewise hunger levels. I have found that managing carbs (which is the keystone for managing diabetes) does this. If I see I am unbalanced in my ratio, I grab a light (ie; low fat) stick of cheese. I am relying more and more on low fat dairy and starchy vegetables to satisfy my after meal "full feeling".

Credit moi: for over a week of rested sleep at night --not during the day. Have used this opportunity to do some early a.m. walking.

Credit moi: over a week of daily balanced workouts: free weights for upper body (still irritates shoulder joints), 4-20x(80 total) ab core exercises, TYOK knee program to eliminate knee pain (in 8 weeks).

I'm going to share some info from this book I'm following: "Treat Your Own Knees" by Jim Johnson P.T. (I will try to only share what I didn't know and what you may not know)

The knee has four functions:
strength
flexibility
balance
endurance

The restorative program I am following deals with each of these components:

For your knees, one muscle,in terms of strength, is the most important: the quads. This is the steering wheel that drives your knee.

Did you know (I didn't) that the more flexible your knee is the faster you can walk? This is why the elderly seem to practically crawl when they walk. How to test your knee flexibility? Can you touch your butt with your heel?

Propriception (being able to balance on one leg) is very important for all vertical activities performed by knees. Practice standing on one leg with eyes opened and then closed. Why important to maintain? #1 reason why people fall(especially as they age) is they have poor propriception. At the Men's Health Expo, which my DH is at this a.m., this is something the dr. tests for. Believe it or not, he did not completely pass last year. I hope, that this year he will.

Endurance: start with walking, then go to using the bicycle and beyond.

Happy Knees will lead to Happy Feet. which I am all for.

Today, we have to go and "treat" our tomato plants. Our Master Gardener, Daniel, sent out an e-mail with pixs showing that here in GA we have a 4" green worm who poops black grenades and eats tomato plants/fruit. Since we are organic we will not be spraying these "invaders". Daniel gave us two choices: manually extract w a tong (I will not touch these fellas) or spray our plants w a mixture of Ivory soap, vegetable oil and water which annoys them. Well, I figure since they will soon be annoying me, right back at 'em!

I told my DH, NOW I understand why organic costs more. It is more labor intensive. I feel like "Mama Kitty" to my plants. I am armed to defend them against any unwanted predators. Daniel did say we could "capture" these fellas (only time to find them is at dusk or dawn) and put them in a jar with holes and they will turn into moths. Naw! I'm saving my unused jars for painting. So, you will know what I will be doing tonight at dusk.

Take care all, and thanks for all the tips.

P.S. BBE congrats on yet another maintenance month. I had an original drumstick (DH brought home from choir practice) for breakfast and it held me until lunch where I was right back OP. I forgot how much full fat ice cream really does fill you up (and satisfy you)in a way that all the neutered food doesn't.

Sadie is going to have a baby brother, Jude Paul, this coming November. Her new word: "kitty".

Good Morning Coaches:
Op today. Dropped 2 pounds in a day yesterday. I knew it was coming. I just had to be patient. I am now right on ticker. It feels good that I didn't give up and eat when the scale would not go my way. My focus is lots and lots of Veggies - regular form and juice. I had a nice dinner yesterday with hardboiled eggs - yolk hollowed out and filled with hummus. Tasty and filling. Big weekend - DS bday celebration in SF with cousin. Spontaneous exercise will be House of Air - a giant warehouse filled with trampolines and dodgeball courts.
BBE: We really don't have bluebirds here - we have the obnoxious cousin Starling Jays who scream loud enough to wake a crow.
Pamatga: interesting knee info. I take a Pilate's/yoga class and we balance on one leg lots.
Mary Contrary: Congrats on pushing through. I am in a similar space.

Hi Coaches!

Another healthy day and another pound down. I'm really using my Beck skills to keep focused on my journey one day at a time. Our family projects are coming along pretty stress-free. (credit moi) I am being very careful not to step on toes. It's really been on my mind this week that my dieting and my life go smoother when I accept "life on life's terms." I can either wait for my life to get easier before I lose weight or I can persist amidst the chaos and enjoy success even if the other stuff never gets straightened out. *credit* today for finding one chocolate raisin on the counter and pitching it. I rode my bike to breakfast and back (4 miles) and will spend the rest of the day doing yardwork.

BillBlueEyes, a Blue Jay in my yard this morning..an interesting cross between beautiful and annoying. Yin and Yang all in one. Great that you resisted your sabotaging thought at the weight room.

maryann, kudos for persistence and patience while looking for scale movement. Great idea with the hard boiled eggs! I'm going to try that one, for sure! Enjoy SFO!

Pam(pamatga), thanks for the info about knees! It's really helpful and interesting, too!. *credit* for ongoing successes with dieting and exercise!

MaryContrary, *credit* for a great weigh in after persisting with your dieting skills. Welcome to the new kitty!

gardenerjoy, is Evernote similar to OneNote? I'm enjoying the organizational benefits of OneNote.

onebyone, great job getting back on track after your trip to Ottawa, especially with it's emotional ups and downs.

I had a bit of a breakthrough last night, I think, on how I can effectively approach my writing. It's been a bit of a struggle figuring out what behavior, exactly, will get the results I want. With weight loss, it was a bit more straightforward. Although as I write that, I remember that I did struggle at the initial phase of figuring out exactly how to approach eating healthier and eating less in my kitchen with my abilities and my tastes. It's always going to take some thought and experimentation and re-thinking to figure out how to change in ways that work for me in my life.

WI: +0.55kgs, Exercise: +30 290/1300 minutes for June, Food: 90%op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

maryann: sounds like lovely summer days!

MaryContrary: yay for the whoosh! It happened to me several times on the way down and I still marvel that there are weights that my body gets stuck and other weights that it breezes past.

BillBlueEyes: good job for persisting at the gym in spite of stress

pamatga: my sweet gentle aunt used to hack her tomato worms in half with kitchen shears. Made me laugh. And made me tougher on the bugs in my garden. I won't use pesticides but manual lethal methods I am all for.

Lexxiss: Evernote is similar to OneNote, but with a web component, so I can do things with the same notes on my laptop and on my iPad and on any old computer at the library. There are differences, too, which I'm learning about. I suspect that the organization boost is coming from the newness of the program to me than from anything inherent in the software. But I don't really care if it works.

Coaches:

I spent the whole day at the ceramic studio yesterday. I made three wall pieces and got to use most of the tools I bought with my gift certificate last week so I chose well. I didn't find myself wishing I had a certain tool as I seemed to really get what I really use. *credit for choosing well in the midst of great temptation!

I also made jar. (A jpg is attached. The paper is preventing the head from sticking to the body). I've never made a jar before. A cat body modeled around a balloon (always wanted to try this!) and then I gave it a head which is a lid. I woke up this morning knowing I made a few mistakes, mostly structural: neglected to reifnorce the bottom seam where the side and the bottom meet and didn't add a coil of clay at the top of the jar to reinforce the lip and also didn't add *something* to catch the lid inside the bottom of the jar. It's too late now so I'll see what I get knowing this.

I came home exhausted and slept over 10m hours last night.

I have two potlucks to go to. One tomorrow night at the community garden. and the other at the ceramic studio in conjunction wiht their annual meeting. I'm making oven potato chips for the potluck tomorrow as I have NOTHING else in the house. I'm serious. All the food will be gone by the time DH gets paid on Wed. I did get a bag of potatos and can make those and they are good so I am saved. Monday's potluck will be provided by my new friend who won't be able to make the meeting so I'll give her excuses and offer her food and it'll do double duty for me as well.

Food today was okay. I am craving everything under the sun. I got this weeks flyer's yesterday and will be planning our menu based on the sales and my foodplan. I'll get at that tomorrow.

I'll weigh in tomorrow on the wii.

Have a good evening coaches.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating was good enough for a day that included a trip to Home Depot to choose ceiling fans. I couldn't figure out how one makes the fan run in the opposite direction by reading the box or looking way up at the ones on display. When I finally found a clerk, he assured me that one removes the blades and turns them over. Arrrrrrrrggh. That simply isn't true. So, he reluctantly opened a box and found the directions which showed the separate little switch atop the fan. That's all I needed to know. Then he re-sealed the box, "so customers will know it's factory fresh." TMI for me.

Little exercise other than helping a contractor crack open the concrete basement floor to install a toilet line. And walking what seemed like miles from one end of Home Depot to the other. Ouch.


onebyone - That cat's got attitude! Hope it's structurally sound enough to take to your first market in Toronto - it'll sell first thing.

Joy (gardenerjoy) - If you've found the antidote to writer's block - or even writer's ennui - would seem you've found the Holy Grail. Congrats for making that step.

Debbie (Lexxiss) - Just amazing that you can pull off family projects "stress free" - obviously you're doing something right.

maryann - Kudos for your patience waiting for those two pounds to drop. [That Starling Jay is one good looking bird. I've never seen one; you won't get to see them in Vermont.]

pamatga - Yay for sleeping at night as well as for making it a goal to figure out how to get there. Thanks for using "proprioception" - sending me to Wiki to find out that it means, "The sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body." Think I'll get back to putting on and taking off my socks while standing. I've done that in the past and noted that my ability to do it improves rapidly.

Readers -

We are going on a tour of gardens in the St. Louis area today. Should be fun! It means lunch out in a restaurant that we won't determine until we're hungry, but I'll focus on veggies and small portion sizes. I'm bringing a cooler because we might stop at a cheese shop. It will also help if we end up with lunch leftovers.

WI:-0.25 kgs, Exercise: +60 350/1300 minutes for June, Food: 80%op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

onebyone: yay for the productive day at the studio! Love the cat! He looks so friendly.

BillBlueEyes: good for a good enough day with home improvements

Hi Coaches!

Yesterday the stress finally reared it's head. DH left his lunch on the table and went upstairs to nap. I started unplanned snacking in response, but stopped. I used distraction techniques and went over to try and help a widowed friend get a TV hooked up. The remote was packed in a box so it didn't happen, but I was able to go home and have my planned dinner and move on. Exercise, OK, as planned.

BillBlueEyes, ouch for a weekend filled with project details. I hope you find a pleasant moment on your Sunday.

gardenerjoy, thanks for the Evernote info. Glad to hear you've had a "breakthrough" on how to effectively approach your writing! *credit* for a plan for lunch during the garden tour.

onebyone, what a cute cat! Just adorable! Sending you supportive thoughts as you head through the next few days before DH gets paid. *credit* for making your best choices in the mean time.

Hi coaches

It seems I am pro-active in some areas and let other areas slide. I was feeling *embarrassed* at DH making such a big salary and yet we are so broke and in the last two months we have not been able to get me to the community garden because we can never come up with the yearly fee.

I got an email asking if I was going to the monthly potluck supper held at the garden with a walk about on the grounds afterwards. I figured I couldn't go as I hadn't paid my dues nor worked in the garden yet. I emailed back mentioning this and got a reply assuring me that payment plans can be made, reduced fees can be arranged and come out for Pete's sake.

So to bring to the potluck I am going to make homemade potato chips in the oven. Simple, tasty, and I have potatoes here. DH is invited too so we'll go there together.

That's the plan for the day. Until then I'm just hanging around, planning my food for the next week based on the flyers we got. It's all good.

Have a good Sunday.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating got diverted by a day too busy with things happening. I had forgotten that I had promised to participate in an evening meeting so I had some snacks there off plan. Ouch. I'm in the market for memory pills - to remind myself to look at the calendar where I've written down my commitments.

Nice walk, CREDIT moi, in the cool weather around here. There's still new stuff blooming - continues to be an exciting time of the year to just stare at everyone's gardens.


onebyone - It's not uncommon to suffer cash flow difficulties with the expenses of a big move and establishing a new life; I have a friend with a CEO salary who had to work through that pit. Kudos for making your way to the community garden pot luck so that you're part of that community.

Joy (gardenerjoy) - Yay for gawking at others' gardens just for the sheer joy of it.

Debbie (Lexxiss) - Yay for family; Ouch for family stress. Kudos for finding your path through it and moving on. Love the, "but stopped."

Readers -