Quick Ciao! I'm very stressed at work, due to an icrease of responsabilities, but this event this time seems to be good, because I have no time to thinkg about food, almost no time to have my fruit break...and the consequence is...I'm losing weight! Never thought this could be possible for me!
Anyway, can't wait for tomorrow evening to arrive and relax a bit!
I wish you all a very nice weekend, free from sabotating thoughts and with a lot of winning challenges! :-) Onebyone, happy to see you here again!
Don't give up!

Hi Coaches!

Posting from a funky older laptop but it does save me from hauling the good one back and forth. Yesterday went pretty well as I didn't have a formal plan. I squelched sabotaging thoughts of a lunch out (not a good choice) and came home to prepare healthy. I do have a plan for today. credit.

BBE, great that you left the event early to prevent further uncontrolled snacking. Yep, events at dinner time are difficult. You did, however, show up in support of your friend. credit.

onebyone, glad you're back on track and here with us once again. I know it's been a stressful time for you but have to say you were missed.

BootedKitty, yay when stress at work makes it easier to stay op!

Beth(fromDayton), loved hearing how your Beck skills are making dieting so much easier! Great that you replaced that extra freezer meal at work so you'd have it when needed.

Beverlyjoy, yay for having thought out your trip in advance. Even though there will be difficult times it's much easier with a plan.

gardenerjoy, great strategy to make sure you get that written plan in before lunch.

nationalparker, credit for skipping the lunch because you knew the choices were less than stellar. As planner, you know there's always another event.

Tazzy, credit for checking in and for recognizing that even though you were staying within your points that your choices could be healthier.

Coaches, good morning.

Today is official weigh-in day. I just did my usual unofficial weigh-in and it showed -0.2lbs overnight. *credit for weighing in.

Had a perfectly tracked *credit and planned *credit food day yesterday that came in on plan *credit. All systems go to do that again today.

Did not get even 1/4 of what I had to do yesterday done yesterday so it rolls over into today. The bad weather had me surrendering the car to DH so I just hung around here and came up with a 2nd version of my artist proposal that is due to tomorrow. Need to make significant progress on that today.

I am going to remove the pottery clutter from the Guild's porch right after I get officially weighed this morning.

Ok must go.

Ta!

UPDATE: my weight was lower at official weigh-in than at home. Yay. 255.8 today. Also finally have a clear direction for my art submission proposal. Now to write it all down.
*credits
1.for tracking all food today
2. checking in with my coaches
3. putting my fork down, twice, during my lunch
4. and for planning ahead to my dinner
5. for sitting down to eat.
6. for facing the scale

Hi all,
I'm back! Phoenix was beautiful. It was sunny, not a cloud in the sky and in the lower 70's. We had a wonderful time with SIL and her husband. Eating was not exactly great but I did notice a few changes in eating attitude. I ate some high calorie junky type food but much less that I would have in the past and when I got home I had a 2-3 pound gain. Instead of continuing down that wrong road, I got turned around right away and today am down to lower than when I left a week ago. I'm very pleased about that. I will do some reading tonight and see what's been going on with everyone.
JuliaMissesTheSunshine

We're having a spot of weather here today. I kind of like the "whee! snow day!" feeling but DH gets antsy about the driveway. That sometimes means that my cozy day in unexpectedly turns into energetic snow shoveling days. Credit for working this out ahead of time, for a change. The prediction is wintry mix followed by snow followed by freezing rain. So, we're not touching it today. It doesn't make sense to shovel off snow just so the driveway can turn into a sheet of ice. If we shovel at all, we'll do it tomorrow when we can scoop the whole mess off together. I'll count shoveling as exercise which makes me much more cheerful about it.

Today's challenge is not to let either my "snow day!" sense of a day off or DH's anxiety affect my eating. Eating does not fix his anxiety and eating is not necessary for me to enjoy the day.

Exercise: +80 980/1300 minutes for February

BillBlueEyes: My favorite aspect of the library is that they store "my" books for me so I don't have to. Mostly I'll take my Ireland travel wardrobe to France, but I might buy one or two new things for fun. I came home from Ireland with a new scarf so I'm determined that I'll come home from Paris with one -- Hermes? Christian Dior? Should be a fun decision to make! DH has declared he'll be getting a tie as well.

Julia150: glad you're safely home and quickly took off the trip weight -- that's the way to do it! I gained weight after my Ireland trip last year and I'm determined to do things differently this summer after our France trip. I'm already telling myself that eating does not fix jet lag.

Beverlyjoy: good for you for thinking through the family visit challenges in advance.

Hi Becksters - I am so happy that yesterday was a healthy day. Very grateful.

I planned/measured/logged my food, had no seconds, and always left a bite. Those are all the credits I can think of at the moment. My dietician reminded me of something Dr. Beck has mentioned too - to write down your credits at the end of the day. Good idea!!

I have much to do. I've read all the posts and so appreciate the input I've gotten this week. I am sorry I haven't had time to do the personals the past few days. On Saturday and Sunday I may not have access to a computer. I still have one of those old fashioned 'dumb phones'... no smart phone for me. Maybe next time - when my contact is over.

I am taking a bag of things for me to eat that will work in. I am taking three quarts of chicken & noodles for Saturday or Sunday night. It's low sodium.

It's my grandson's 6th birthday. Very exciting.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Billbe - sorry to hear that more snow is coming to Boston... get out your shovel again.

Good evening - first of hopefully two check-ins ... work last night rolled until about 9:30 p.m. ... finally able to shut down and turn off and relax. Then pulled out some hummus and pita chips ... and they actually stll fit in my day's allotment since lunch was other than planned. But not a wise choice to turn to food to calm down.

Woke up and weighed - finally have the dang Florida trip weight off. HOW does it come on so dang quickly and leave so dang slowly? Ah well... Also woke up with major eye pain and lucked out with an appt.to have it checked out this afternoon - corneal ulcer. In my mind I know it's not related but in my heart I feel as if it's part of the stress from this week. Sense? First Rx was to be more than $100 ... pharmacist took it upon herself to call the Dr. and have an $8 one subbed instead - a blessing. I have to return for a followup with doc on Saturday and will swing by and thank the pharmacist again as I think I just asked will it do the same good job okay, thanks. Instead of a heartfelt THANK you - she didn't have to do that.

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Back on track for snacking, CREDIT moi. Dinner was a Turkish lentil soup that DW made from a newspaper recipe - good filling stuff in need of a little more jalapeno pepper than she used. Lentils, like beans, cry out for salt. The jalapeno pepper might reduce that need.

Exercise was good walking, CREDIT moi. The snow is gone but there's still ice. I'm wary since a friend just slipped and wrenched her arm badly. It's aerobic to walk briskly and stable to walk safely. Oh, well.


onebyone – Congrats for chasing your art proposal until you were clear. And congrats for the scale reflecting your persistence.

Joy (gardenerjoy) – Ouch for some nasty weather in your area. Yep, shoveling is exercise as declared by my muscles. [Love the thought of buying a scarf and a tie in Paris.]

Debbie (Lexxiss) – I love stretching the life out of an old computer. Planned obsolescence is the pits.

Beverlyjoy – Yay for healthy. Double Yay for grateful. Kudos for hauling "three quarts of chicken & noodles" when that's what you need.

nationalparker – Hummus and pita chips are the best. For me, that means measured in advance since I can do one whole lot if I'm not paying attention. Congrats for choosing a pharmacist who knows the difference between $100 and $8.

Julia (Julia150) – Makes sense that the first thing a visitor from the Pacific NW notices in Phoenix is the sky. Yay for attitude.

Kitty (Bootedkitty) – Neat to turn increased responsibility into weight loss instead of unplanned snacking. Holding my breath for your elections. if you vote Monday, it'll be a full moon - folklore around here is that a full moon is when the crazies come out, LOL. Good luck. Italy and the world have much at stake.

Readers -

Just a quick reply to Bill about the elections...you made me laugh! :-) With full moon we say wolfmen come out!! Seen the general political situation, I can previsualize much better a big wolfman "eating" everything...because a crazy man governing us would probably be better now! I've lost my hopes about politics and I can't see anyone in the Italian goverment able to save the situation. The problem is..most of Italian people, think the same way I do...
Oh well, we'll see...thanks again. Have a good weekend!
:-)

Hi all,

Yesterday included a dinner out to an Italian restaurant I'd never been to before (and didn't have nutrition information on line). I ate more meat than I should have--but controlled the pasta, so credit for that. I usually fill up on salad and bread, but only had one small roll--credit. The salad was horrible, so I didn't each much. Anti-credit to the restaurant.

Breakfast, lunch, snack, and exercise were all OP (or over, on exercise). Even though it was a late night, I got today's lunch and snack packed before bed, and planned all of today's food in MFP. Credit. I'm thrilled about how much easier it is to plan now. I didn't "sneak in" a strawberry or cracker or celery stick while packing. That's getting easier, but it's still easiest when I pack during dinner prep or cleanup than later at night.

Weight is basically stuck this week, but I know I'm staying OP and at least it means that I have truly and thoroughly lost those 13 lbs, since it isn't going up.

I'm iced in and working at home today. 5:30 phone call to tell me DD's school was delayed (she wasn't going anyway--she's on a college visit with her dad) and then another 2 hours later to tell us school was closed. My work is more civilized--they texted--first a 2 hour instruction to report late, and then another saying it was closed. Fortunately, I anticipated this and brought my laptop home so I could avoid taking vacation time.

I still have my lunch and snack planned and packed--so that's what I'll be eating, just at home rather than at work.

Today is going to be a great day--even if I am iced in.

Hello all,

I haven't been posting here for the last three weeks because my life all of a sudden went haywire! I work in disaster recovery and was deployed to the Northeast to assist with Hurricane Sandy recovery. The good part is that mucking out flooded houses everyday is a great workout, the downside is that with all the work and my schedule being thrown off, all my good work towards my goals was scrapped and now I'm busy picking up the pieces and trying to get myself back on track.

I already feel more comfortable and in control sitting at my desk with all my structure in place. However I am going to start my Beck journey fresh, at day 1, because I think I need it. I didn't respect the process last time and all of you who commented that wasn't the best method were, of course, absolutely right. Maybe if I'd adhered to the system more closely I wouldn't have had so much trouble when my situation changed.

So, today I pulled out my ARC, blew off the dust, and added a few new thoughts I'd had in my time away from it. I'm also going to put it on my phone and on my computer so that it's easier to access at times when I don't have my little notebook by my side.

I am a very goal oriented person so I'm going to try and make/set daily goals that are reasonable for me to accomplish and make sure to give myself credit (even though I'm not at that day yet )

1. Read my ARC at least 3 times!
2. Drink half a gallon of water!
3. Take my vitamins!

So far I'm off to a good start and I know I can sustain it.

Hi coaches!
I'm at home by myself knitting a bit before I head to the pool. I have some serious agitation going on this morning.... Weather is crummy and I'm still tired. The good news however is that I have a very strong feeling that food won't fix this So I've started my day healthy and have a plan to continue. Packing and travel right after water aerobics so I'm committed to enjoying my final 15 minutes here by myself. Credit.

After writing about DH's antsiness regarding snow removal, I was still blind-sided by his need to go out to lunch and, therefore, to start shoveling snow at 9:30 this morning. Oh well. My exercise is done for the day. My writing isn't started, but I'll get it there. I've already rewritten my food plan to reflect the new reality. I haven't rewritten my day plan, but I left it pretty loose so I should be fine rearranging things as needed.

Exercise: +50 1030/1300 minutes for February

Good morning everyone,

I'm home sick today, it started at noon yesterday so I left work then and am feeling somewhat better today but am taking the time to rest (and do laundry of course, somehow I just can't sit and do nothing!). When I got on the scale this morning I was surprised to see 169.8, hoping it's still there on the weekend when I record it. My crazy body and it's swings in weight. I'm giving myself credit for continuing to track, weigh and measure even when the scale does not seem to reflect the efforts.

gardenerjoy Credit for having your exercise done early, did it include snow shoveling for you too? I like the snow around but hate having to shovel it.

Lexxiss I envy your access to the pools, it's one of the ways I really enjoy exercising. I should plan for that in my daily routine at times.

veganasaurasrex Credit for coming back to the boards and posting. It sounds like your job in a very important one. Credit for getting your books out again and setting goals for yourself.

bethfromdayton Credit for controlled pasta at an Italian restaurant and also for choosing not to eat horrible salad. I agree with you that finding the right planning tool really helps. I really like the WW online program as I just pull out my tablet and add things there. It seems so much easier than the old pen and paper way and I used to think it was the best way. Credit for 13 pounds gone forever!

bootedkitty Good luck on the full moon elections. I can relate to BBE on the crazies coming out around that time. It seems to effect our two puppies as well.

BBE I'm with you with the walking on ice, I'd much rather have the snow underfoot instead. It's getting much better here as we've had a lot of melting but neighbors seemed to be clearing things better and we can do most of our walks without encountering too much ice. Being on the end of leashes of 80 lb and 50 lb dogs on ice is a dicey situation at times. They seemed to have sensed how difficult it can be ahead when I say "slow" in a firm voice as we get to those patches.

nationalparker I know in Canada our health plans are different but it's good to have a pharmacist that knows the $8 generic drug will do the same job as the $100 brand name one. With the plan we have the generic is always the first option, our doctors have to specify if it needs to the the more expensive choice.

beverlyjoy Good luck at GS birthday weekend. Credit for taking some of your own food to stay the course. I have just upgraded to a "smart" phone but still won't use the internet on it. I figure what I need to put online can wait until I'm at home or my desk at work. Guess I'm just not that connected to the new electronics age! I only upgraded my phone because I could not get a new battery for the old one and our 14 DS has gotten into the habit of texting so at least I can reply to him.

Julia150 Welcome back from your trip, sorry you miss the sunshine already I personally find the action of travelling always increases my weight but it's usually back to where it should be within a day or two. Happy to hear for you that it's lower.

onebyone Credit for your official weigh in and moreso for all the other credits you have given yourself.

Hi to anyone else I may have missed I think it's time for a nap.

Hello Coaches/Buddies!

Don't have time to get caught up with everyone right now, but I wanted to post to say that, after maintaining the same weight all week, the scale finally went down 1.4 pounds today, so I think I am fully recovered from Valentine's Day and the big Italian restaurant meal last week. Thank God!!! I was in a serious funk after that, but focused once again on "back to basics" and it paid off. My current challenge is to not eat meat on Fridays, as I am a Catholic and it is Lent, so not as many healthy options available to me on Fridays. I am not much of a fish eater, unless it is "not fishy" and from a nice restaurant, so these Fridays of Lent will be a challenge to me. But, I will plan around it and do just fine. Today and for the moment, I believe I can do this!!! I'll take that feeling and run with it!!!

Hope all is well with everyone. I did see that onebyone was having a rough time. Thinking of you as you get back on track! You can do this, too!!!

Sending everyone positive Beck thoughts and good wishes for a healthy weekend!!!