Diet Coaches/Buddies – Eating at a car show is a challenge. The only food for miles around was FREE hot dogs. Ouch! Oh Well, I've had my hot dogs for the year. Too late I heard a woman in a sari ask for vegetarian; they went to the other grill and brought out a tray of vegetarian hot dogs for her family. Someone asked what was in them. They guy in the apron just grimaced, "Who knows." Maybe I was better off with the standard that are known to contain, "Whatever," LOL.

Exercise was walking around looking at neat Electric Vehicles. I got a complete tour of the Tesla display unit - a marvel unto itself. The corporate representatives were acutely aware of the gap between the reluctant dealers and the pronouncements that we'll all be driving electric in a few years. One couple drove all the way from Montreal. A couple who spent a long time examining my LEAF already had the concept that they could buy a short range electric car and rent for the one week a year that they drove to Cape Cod (Massachusetts) for vacation. A year ago, I reluctantly accepted that I could just rent a van for the rare occasion that I needed one.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Waving. Continued supportive thoughts as you guys try to hold it together.

maryann - Neat to discover that normal teaching is a two mile walk.

nationalparker – Good choices at Applebee's. Sanity requires choices in places that aren't our first choice. [Thanks, I guess, for the suggestion to use a toothbrush when washing my car.]

Karen (karenrn) - Glad to hear that you see an end to your project. Yay for finding a compatible hiking companion.

Readers -

Good Morning, Coaches.

and God Bless Sunday! Of course, I think God always blesses Sunday

I totally took yesterday off. If I am going to make it through December with a shred of sanity I must let go of some "shoulds" with the classes and embrace some "fine." The students thrive in a contented, structured environment. They do not thrive in a stressed out/ burned out teacher environment. I am my most important resource and I must be preserved. Sounds selfish but there are few who have been in the business as long as i have and few believe I have the energy I do at this stage in the game.

So - I am going to echo nationalparker's pitch for credit. I am also too hard on myself.

Credit:
Shopping for healthy food
Craving Starbuck's Salted Almonds and instead having a WW friendly treat of PB2, a little cho.syrup, and some Chex cereal.
Logging 21 miles on my fitbit for the week.
Recharging my fitbit for this week
Weight 1 pound under ticker for two days in a row.

A reflection back to my four horseman:
no wheat: excellent
no sweets at work: excellent
sitting while eating: fair
tracking what I eat: poor

I will focus on the "sitting while I eat" skill today.

Karen: Glad you are investing in some relationships with people who have common interests.
BBE: Terrific to embrace the idea of renting something if needed. I love it when I expand my world of possibilities.

Good morning coaches,

Food is on plan and I did a good job yesterday, only using 4 of my 28 weekly points. I hiked Bell Pass again this morning listening to Fall of Giants by Ken Follett. The hike seemed hard and I almost turned around before I got to the top and then just told myself I can do it and went. When I got to the top I realized part of the reason it felt hard is because I was moving at a pretty good pace. I always figure if I get to the top in 90 minutes that's fine. I got there in 83 minutes and I think 80 minutes is about my best.

I'll get a few things done around here this morning and then we'll go to our house again in the afternoon for some pool time. It is looking really nice.

Maryann It sounds like you're doing a good job prioritizing with having Sanity as #1. We each have to know what we can handle, huh? Or not even what we can handle, but what we want to handle.

Bill You know I am glad you mentioned that a person could always rent a car for the times that is needed. I hope to drive my car until the wheels fall off, it is a 2007 BMW X3 and is perfect for my hiking jaunts and such, but really an electric car would work for me except possibly trips to CA and WA in the summer. I'll have to keep it mind for when the wheels fall off. I haven't had a hot dog in such a long time. My eating habits have changed over the past couple of years, but I used to like a grilled hot dog once a year or so.

Nationalparker You are always so darned productive. I am mighty impressed. I hope you get a little down time today before you head out.

Keengkong Great job giving yourself credit for the things you've done right. I don't think negative self talk has ever helped anyone. I have gotten pretty good at saying "Oh well" and moving on when I do have a slip up. Just another chance to learn.

GardenerJoy Thinking of you.

I made a decision to give up my greeter duty at Tom's Thumb beginning in November. I will still do hiking patrol for my volunteer job, but the timing for that is more flexible. Greeter was only on Fri, Sat, Sun and Mon. My Cross fit conflicts on the Monday and Friday times and I have WW on Saturday. Then it was always difficult because of company coming to town also. I may miss it, but I'm sure I can always go back if I do.

Time to get a few things done before dh gets home from the golf course and the gym. Have a great Sunday everybody.

Credit for today:

I did my reading.
I did the tasks: Coming up with a Diet Coach. Okay, that's an easy one. That's this forum.
I've continued to eat only while sitting.
I have about 12,000 steps for today on my Fitbit.
I've eaten more slowly and timed my meals. Admittedly, it's hard for me to eat slow.
I've taken things slowly. I haven't actually started the diet part of the diet. That's good because doing it quick early meant I didn't take parts of it seriously enough.
I've previously selected my first diet (mynetdiary or myfitnesspal.com) and my backup diet (Retrofit, a national diabetes prevention program I've done earlier. I did plan in advance to modify it so that I can eat 1 1/2 times what it permits. Obviously, if that doesn't work, I'll lower the amount.)

Other Things:

I noticed that people have repeatedly talked about the importance of giving yourself credit. I know I brought up the subject, but I got more feedback on that one item that anything else that I wrote about so far.
I know that continued participation in this forum is necessary. When I was on another diet program, I did okay so long as I participated in the community. As soon as I stopped reading what other people wrote and posting myself, that's when I stopped following the diet. I thought that the stopping was only temporary; but I never went back to it.

Technical:

How do I add my photo to the site? I tried to, but it said: "Upload of file failed." Does anyone know why this happened?

Hello, coaches! Checking in - busy day today and I'm ready to start packing and then relax a bit. Got in several hours of office work and am in really good shape to leave my stuff for someone else to assist tomorrow.

We got the carpet and pad ripped from the front room (the last room to tackle with this flooring, not counting the bathrooms which will be a different one and no huge rush on that)... I pulled up the tack strip - DONE! I bought the paint to do it but will do that when I return since the dust is still flying and don't want to rush on that today. DH will wait for that to start laying the flooring. I thought we were trying to get it done before I left so he could tackle some of it while I was gone, but as he says, all he has time for when I'm gone is his dinner, shower and pets, then bed. I hope he'll not have more 12-hour days until I get back - that's a long time for the dog to wait. Even though she seems oblivious.

Meals have been on plan. Dessert tonight was not, but it was four bites and I thoroughly enjoyed it - part of fruit tart, so off plan with the wheat and the sugar there.

We've been a long time with no rain at our house - it rained in other areas around town with leftover Irma earlier this week, but not us. DH got the truck washed today. Now it's raining. We should have done that before our grass went dormant a few weeks ago!

Hoping I can stick close to plan on the three days away. The folks I travel with enjoy pub food, and of all places, I find that difficult to choose according to plan. I am meeting up with a friend from years ago tomorrow night, and that'll be Chinese. I need to think veggies and no fried. And that the social aspect is priority.

keengkong - I'm going to let someone else assist on the photo question - it's been a few years since I popped mine up and I'm a trial and error person with that stuff... thanks for the reminder to eat slow. I need to work on that. I feel like I'm rushing too often.

Coaches, Hello.

It's been a while. I should have checked in a few days ago to let you know my sister made it through the hurricane in Key West safe and sound as did her husband, friend and her five cats. Her house had no flooding and one tree uprooted destroying the deck around her pool which was scheduled to be replaced at some point. She acknowledged to me she was very lucky and felt very grateful as she has friends who didn't have it so great.

I have completed almost all of my commitments and am working on the last two. So far, so good, but my food has suffered. I've returned to emotional eating and being unable/unwilling to stop eating when full (credit I know when this is now) and I have indulged myself in anything I want, no holds barred. I will work on working my way back to being on plan once more. There is no giving up. No chance of that.

Must sleep now.
Bye.

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Visited my DS to examine a leak in his house that allowed water to tumble from the second floor bathroom into the first floor bathroom. He had to remove a wall so he could temporarily patch a waste pipe from the shower while he waits for a plumber. I was impressed at how well he got the place into a stable condition. Later that evening, DW calls to me that there's a leak under our kitchen sink. Luckily, I was able to tighten a connection to solve the problem before any permanent damage occurred. Water is just the worst enemy of a house. Makes me even more sensitive to the folks who were so hard hit by the Harvey and Irma hurricanes.

Eating contained too many snacks. I have a list to must-be-done-soon tasks that are bugging me. Bugging me mostly because they could have been done sooner with less pressure. Howsomever, eating is not getting the tasks done faster. In my next life, I'm coming back as a person who never procrastinates.


onebyone – Good to hear that your sister did better in Key West with hurricane Irma than most folks there did. Kudos for your determination, "There is no giving up. No chance of that."

maryann - Kudos for replacing 'should' with 'fine' - gotta try that myself.

nationalparker – Kudos for "the social aspect is priority" when thinking about a restaurant meal with a friend. Hope that your trip allows you more off-work hours than some you've described before.

Karen (karenrn) - Kudos for making decisions to move forward in your life even when it means giving up a much loved task of greeter duty. Congrats for racing up Bell Pass - maybe you're getting in better shape than you realize.

keengkong - Kudos for continuing to march forward into the Beck strategies. Eating sitting down is such a big step forward. That one caught me by surprise because I had assumed that I only ate sitting down; wasn't so. One cause of "Upload of file failed" is size; you can check to be sure it isn't a HUGE picture.

Readers -

I spoke at a church yesterday. The topic was selected months ago, but it sounded like I ripped it from the headlines.

I came home more exhausted than expected. Fatigue is a trigger for over-eating so I was very attentive to my self-care – and it worked. I kept getting hungry (which may be why fatigue is a trigger if it makes me physically hungry). I allowed myself to eat what was next on the plan, even if it was earlier than I usually would. And, it all worked out. Credit for allowing myself a slow and easy day that was accompanied by re-watching Call the Midwife episodes.

Credit for writing my plan for today.

Good afternoon coaches,

Just a brief note to say food on plan and lots of exercise. Lunch out with Suzanne was 2 TINY street tacos and a side of asparagus. It was nice to see her and we're hiking next Saturday. Yahoo.

[QUOTE=BillBlueEyes;5331960][B]

keengkong - . . . One cause of "Upload of file failed" is size; you can check to be sure it isn't a HUGE picture.

I reduced it to 232 kb. It still won't upload.

Trip has been interesting so far ... got through hours of meetings in the afternoon and out to dinner with my friend. So good to see her. I miss her. Times like these I wish I had closer friends who lived nearby. I know I can work to develop/grow more friendships but at this point in my life between work and home stuff, I don't set aside time for that. The Chinese dinner was actually pretty close to plan - AND they offered me brown rice, completely on plan! Yay! I was overhungry, though, without the fruit snack in the afternoon, and ate a lot.

Have done well this week - and was rewarded on the scale this morning with a four-pound gain from yesterday. SERIOUSLY.

Ordered a salad at lunch with the least amount of iffy ingredients/add-ons, while everyone else ordered yummy-looking spicy fried chicken wraps with homemade kettle chips. That was hard as I wanted their chips.

I'm off to sleep as I've been up since before 5.

Good morning. I'm here but it's busy. I feel I'm moving in the right direction.

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Walked as part of getting to my classes, CREDIT moi. It was a long day with two classes and then doing the writing required for my evening event. I sat for two hours with only one indulgence from the copious snacks that sat in front of us. Classes are the only place in my life that food isn't available. Just ubiquitous.

Eating was OK, CREDIT moi. Being on the go helps control snacking. At dinner I left one solitary corn chip in the bowl. Usually I just eat something like that without even thinking. I chided myself when my hand was about to reach out to grab it. The thinking process was that I'd have to throw it away. Such a tiny step forward to try to make my brain realize that food can be tossed.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Kudos for recognizing that fatigue is a trigger and taking steps to stay your path.

silverbirch – Waving back. I met a woman named Bronwyn on Saturday. I kept adding an 'L' when I said it. "No 'L' in it," she said, "it's Welsh." So I've learned a new name.

nationalparker – Brown rice is so rare at a Chinese restaurant. Kudos for finding it.

Karen (karenrn) - Neat that asparagus were available with street tacos.

keengkong - Hopefully you'll get a response from the IB folks to your uploading question.

Readers -

I rewrote my food plan twice yesterday but I followed Plan C – credit! I have a good plan for my day (that includes a trip to the grocery store for lettuce and other yummy salad fixings) and a good plan for my food.

Good morning coaches,

The weather has really taken a turn for the good here. This morning we took our walk in 70 degrees. Otis and I had an hour long walk this morning since it was so comfortable and beautiful. Yesterday, even though it was in the high 90's for a high, it just doesn't feel as hot because it doesn't stay hot for so long.

Not much planned for today except the Y for yoga and whatever else I decide to do. Besides that a little grocery shopping and maybe stop by the house to see what I'm going to pack for our trip to Washington in 10 days. It's just the long weekend, but I don't want to head up with clothes I wear here at this time of year or I'll freeze.

Bill I hand it to you for your handling of the snacks presented at so many meetings and classes you attend. I love quote from the pink book you inserted today. I guess I finally caught on to that quite awhile ago, but before that I did feel I was the only one who had to be deprived in order to keep my weight in check.

Silverbirch By now it's good afternoon to you. Glad to hear things are moving in a good direction.

Nationalparker Sounds like you likely had some fluid retention on the scale. Do you take your scale with you? I guess you must.

Keengkong I too hope you have success with the upload. I haven't changed my picture in years because I can never get it to take a new one.

GardenerJoy Glad to hear you had a working plan with Plan C. Sometimes that's just what it takes.

Onebyone I'm very happy to hear that your sister survived the hurricane well and that your commitments are winding down. Maybe there will be some time for you before long.

Maryann and Curlyjax I hope you two are having a good week.