Hi Coaches!

I weighed this morning even though my little voice said it was ok not to. Weight is fine. credit. Yesterday I had the opportunity to pitch many things at work, including a FF screw up. I had two or three (because they were there) then remembered beck and they were gone. We go through so much bread, and the sourdough, especially, drives me nuts. A new loaf gets opened and there are 2-3 pieces that are too small to serve...plus the heel. They always get pitched, but are left in there the entire time. I always think I need to toast them and eat them. Yesterday I opened a new loaf and got rid of them first...it felt better.
I got home, was tired, and really wanted goodies. I took a nap instead then was willing to make my planned dinner.

BBE, yay for rain! I wish we had some. GJ passing by homemade bread and jam. A hard one for me.

gardenerjoy, great strategy-Plan A-Plan B

CajunCatholic, I hope you enjoyed your dinner in moderation.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Did well with meals, CREDIT moi; continue to struggle with snacks. Evening snack was exactly one orange, as planned, CREDIT moi, since evenings can be a place for having extra fruit since it's "good for me."

Did gym, CREDIT moi, walking there in the rain. Need to get back my old mojo where I'd go out for an hour in the rain using proper rain gear. I'm not made of sugar.
Joy (gardenerjoy) – Yay for planning to get the old head back on path.

Debbie (Lexxiss) – Major Kudos for watching that bread being tossed when it could be toasted to host peanut butter. I once fancied asking Panera Bread to save their ends and sell them to me at the price of a loaf of bread. I'd get variety and all ends - couldn't make me happier. Can't imagine why a busy restaurant would entertain such an offer though.

CatholicCajun – Yay for boiled crawfish - couldn't be too many calories in those little guys. Sounds like a busy day off. Kudos for "But, I will have control!!"

Readers -

Hello Everyone!

Another quick check-in, my life has gotten really busy this past few days and for the next few. I had to make a list of each day until Sat and write down all the things I need to do each day to get ready for the 50th anniversary party. I decided to take Friday off work so that's helping. I have not tracked anything I've eaten for probably 10 days now and it's starting to show on the scale. Guess while I'm making the to-do list for household things I should be doing my menu at the same time. I'm doing okay during the day because I only bring so much food to work, not so good in the evenings. Oh well, another new start again today. I'm feeling like gardenerjoy and the I don't wanna.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Hi. I am in the over-eating haze. Will come out of it. Will return to this thread later on today.

Your posts are good for me.

Credit to me for posting.

Susan

Hello all. Did great with the crawfish, enjoyed them and did not overeat and today gave the rest to an elderly neighbor who I KNOW will enjoy them as she is a widow and does not have anyone to boil them for her, there was a time when I would have NEVER given food away, so that is a plus! Another site I am on had a member say that she eats figured about 25 bites is a fist of food, she started at 25 and realized that it took only 10 for her to get full, so I tried her method today, she uses some kind of counter, well I am at work so I took out 25 paper clips and it took 18 for me to get full AND I left 3 bites of food on my plate! So just thought I would throw that out there.

I overate my baked fresh bread, today. Argh! But, it came with insight, finally, after several days of struggle. The error in my thinking is about entitlement. I'm working very hard so I think I'm entitled to eat more. This would be true if my hard work involved reaping winter wheat with a scythe. Since my hard work involves staring at a screen and moving my fingers across a keyboard, I can't justify more calories.

Here's what I'm entitled to: frequent stretching and walking breaks, extra glasses of water or herbal iced tea, feeling proud that I'm working so hard, listening to calming music, and maintaining the healthy habits that I've worked so hard to create.

WI: -0.2 kgs, Exercise:+70 1080/1400 minutes for April, Food: 70%op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

Tazzy: I write my food plan on the same page as my to do list. It does help to have it all in one space. Usually, the energy that gets me to make a to do list can be summoned just a little extra to get the food plan written, too.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Meals on plan, CREDIT moi, snacks still large, Ouch. Short walk.

Did well at dinner that I harvested from an Indian takeout place for four of us. I made good vegetarian choices - not hard with Indian food. Yay for chick peas. I left basmati rice on my plate, CREDIT moi. I rarely leave food, especially food that I served myself, so that's a good step for me. And I had the same sized serving of pakora's (fried dumplings) that everyone else had - even though a mound of them was what I wanted.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Homemade fresh bread if a killer for me; Kudos for stopping at all, LOL. I like your way of converting entitlement into a real list.

Tazzy - Neat idea to add you food to you to-do list.

Susan (hikergirl) – Yep, Kudos for posting; it starts the breaking of the haze.

CatholicCajun – Interesting notion to count bites of food - I'll have to try that. Kudos for stopping when full, with three bites left on your plate.

Readers -

Hi Coaches!

I just weighed. Weight fine....interesting since I had a late dinner last eve. I had expected a higher number. No food at work yesterday, although I thought about bites more than once. credit.

I've been experimenting with taking a rest after work...not necessarily sleeping but getting horizontal with my library book (Does This Clutter Make My Butt look Fat). Yesterday I saw many similarities to Beck Diet Solution regarding distraction techniques, creating new habits around food and enriching your life. A suggestion was made that instead of journaling ALL your intake, to only journal after eating something you regret.I am so busy and 99.9% of the time I stay OP easily until after dinner. It made sense to have a log of my detours along with every bit of information I could come up with regarding my state of mind/emotions at the time.

Anyway, my original plan was to nap, make dinner and watch TV. Instead, I had a new idea. I changed into yard clothes, opened all the doors and the kitty and I explored the yard while I watered. I pulled some weeds, talked to the neighbor and finished by cooking my dinner on the grill.

gardenerjoy, you mentioned "entitled". This rings true with me. I rise early, I work very hard all day and feel I'm entitled to get comfy on the couch in front of the tv all evening, even though I know it triggers the urge to eat. I like your new statement...I will work on one today.

BBE, great job leaving that rice. I have an extremely difficult time doing that, too. Reminds me I left a little last night, too.

Tazzy, making your menu at the same time as your household list seems like a good idea.

CatholicCajun, nice giving your leftovers to a neighbor. I think small actions like that lessen the power of the food...being able to give it away.

Susan(hikergirl), check in again today...if you haven't broken the cycle yet you will.

Hi all.
Gardenerjoy-- I giggled over your entitlement conversation with yourself. In my work I do not use a scythe...I should be using a foot treadle (hmmm, is that right spelling) sewing machine. (In my "second career" I have become a designer/seamstress).

Credit to me for coming to the board today. Hopefully today will be the day that I am able to "anchor" my eating.
Susan

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday was better. OP with food, especially after my Zumba class when I too feel entitled to eat more than I have exercised away. I too spend my days sitting at a computer and doing paperwork. Not too strenuous by any means.

Weighed, down 1.6. I need to get back to reading my cards regularly and am going to grab them from my purse right now to read while I'm stuck on hold on the phone.

Have a good day!

Working out some ways to reduce my stress by swapping out impossible goals for doable ones. Reduced stress = reduced sense of entitlement.

WI: NC kgs, Exercise:+55 1135/1400 minutes for April, Food: 80%op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Meals continue on plan, CREDIT moi. Snacks still bigger than planned, Ouch.

Walking (CREDIT moi) was to welcome the arriving Spring Warblers. Pine Warblers, Palm Warblers, and the ubiquitous Yellow-rumped Warblers are here. The trees have leaves early which makes birding more challenging - someday I've gotta get better identifying by song.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – This one sounds unintuitive to me, "Reduced stress = reduced sense of entitlement." Kudos for figuring that out.

Debbie (Lexxiss) – Mixing up the old routines should keep the brain focused. As much as I like the notion of an after work nap, I smiled at your change of plans to march into the yard with your cat.

Tazzy - Would seem that Zumba would compensate for a whole bunch of time on the computer. Maybe Susan (hikergirl) can find you a foot treadle operated computer, LOL.

Susan (hikergirl) – Continued Kudos just for showing up. LOL at getting your exercise by a foot treadle. Here's to getting your "anchor."

Readers -

Hi Coaches

It's time for my official weigh-in at the WW meeting this morning. I was tossing around not going since "I already know what it's going to say."

Uh, no, I don't.

But I have an expectation that the scale will be up given that I went over my total number of points for the week, and I was not careful this week at all, giving in, I'd say 25% of the time, to the urge to overeat to quell my anxiety and my stress re: deadlines and demands on me which have quadrupled all of a sudden this week. I've been so angry watching myself fall back into the old habits and watching the weight go up, then down, then up again all week long. On the days the weight went up, I can say for sure that "losing weight" or sticking to my plan slipped from their number one spot in my conscious brain. When my artwork projects took over, or my anxiety over meeting my upcoming deadlines and managing my time crunch took over, food, and sticking to my plan was nowhere to be seen in my list of things To Do.

Actually, that may be the answer. Put "stick to your foodplan" on my to-do list. I haven't actually done that. Hmmm.

Anyway, since I want to maintain this weightloss of mine and I don't want the weight back, I have got to hold fast to my weightloss goals and the day to day actions I need to do to make that happen.

Gotta run. Meeting time coming up. Hang tough Coaches!

UPDATE: official weigh-in weight was 258.4 I am up 1.4lbs from last week, and 2.4 from my low reached in Ottawa: 256. Ok. Oh well. I was very upset with this scale reading when I was at the meeting. Like way more than I expected I would be. I think I am going to reset my short term goal. I think I'll aim for 253 as my net goal; 5lbs from now. I find these 250's kind of slippery for me--they are doing a number on my head like they are a border between being really overweight for me=260+ and starting to see daylight in terms of really getting thinner=249 and less. that leaves the whole 10 lbs which make up 250-259 as some sorrt of netherland and it's weird to me. So. I better just break it up into bits to get from here to there. That's it. Must get to work.

Ok…I have one respectable day “under my belt” (almost literally).
This morning I weighed myself (yikes, the weight gain is a bit scary) , went to the gym, and now I am here!

Tazzy – congrats on the drop in lbs.
BBE – wonderful credits for the birding. Beautifully written.
Everyone – continue on!
Susan

Good Morning, Coaches. A few hours of a break and then work, work work on my MFA stuff. Two days ago dusted off Beck book and started with Day2. recommitted to my food plan - The Zone. Back up is WW. Interesting, I put my Zone Food for the Day in the WW points calculator and it came up my exact point allowance for the day. What does this tell me? I have to eat LESS! My portions have gone out of control again. I must make a step today to eat less and feel slightly hungry at the end of the day. It has been months since I have felt slightly hungry. Wish me luck.

Loved the entitlement discussion. Isn't that true Gardenerjoy? Calories are calories and they don't increase if I do a good job.
Credit for yoga this morning and writing down my food.