Encouraged to post briefly by gardenerjoy.

Very busy few days. Food was strangely terrible today. Can only think it's exhaustion eating.

Going to my mum's by car tomorrow for a week. We eat sensibly together but I get so tired and often turn to sugar in some form. I never seem to have enough energy in the tank these days. It's stress-related, of course. Seeing the excellent sports masseuse who's also a hammer thrower when I'm there. That will be good. Also spending Saturday night with a friend which will be lovely and give me a head start on my journey back.

maryannTwo colleges/universities a day sounds pretty demanding. We are about to embark on a summer of university visits too.

Hi everyone,

Meant to make dinner tonight but we ran out of time so I had a shake, so stuck with products today. DH did a driveby at Taco Bell, so I consider my shake a win for me.

We took a 2nd look at a house today--we're trying to decide what we're going to do, since buying it means abandoning the plan to build and we'd have to sell our lot.

One of the reasons we ran short on time is because I decided to walk, so exercise for today: +30, June: 210/300. The lake/wetland I walk around is a small forest preserve in the near northwest suburbs. There's an incredible amount of green space in the Chicago suburban areas.

joy: Credit for planning on eating when you get home. If you get home hungry and tired and have a plan, that's always better than hungry and tired and planless.

silverbirch: I hope your visit with your mother goes well--and a visit with a friend sounds lovely.

maryann: I'm so glad you're starting to feel better. A non-working summer may allow you to stabilize--I hope so. Yay for exercise!

BillBlueEyes: The place setting are amazing. Credit for using your summer evening for a walk.

G'night all,

--Beth

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Was such a relief at my yearly visit to my cardiologist to find that my blood pressure was normal, CREDIT moi. A relief because the dental hygienist had measured it using a cheap cuff device yielding numbers that were high for me - high enough to be alarmed. "Not a problem, it's probably because you just walked here." It would have been a problem, walking or not. I think I'll just refuse to let her take my blood pressure in the future. If the measurement is taken, then it has to be taken seriously. Don't know whether to be more annoyed that a bad measurement was taken or that the response was wimpy. Or just to be happy that the old ticker is ticking along well enough that my cardiologist doesn't want to see me any more often than my yearly checkup. I'm going to choose 'happy' - there are already enough issues in the world to get worked up about.

Eating was OK, CREDIT moi, including an evening in front of appetizers that I ignored. A friend is trying to prune his books. I walked out with one book about Georgia O'Keeffe and another large format book of her paintings. This isn't a true victory since I have rooms of books of my own that I should be dispersing.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Evening meetings seem to create their own type of hunger.

silverbirch – A masseuse who is also a hammer thrower sounds like a challenge to the muscles.

maryann - Congrats for using the elevation setting on your Couch to Whitney program. [Neat colleges to be 'avisiting - hope we can squeeze in a visit despite the lad's tight schedule. I'll think about routes to get four into two days.]

nationalparker – Waving. Hope all is well.

Beth (bethturnaround) – Kudos for ignoring Taco Bell. That's a tough decision to have to let go of a lot that is the key to a dream for a future bespoke house.

Readers -

Good Morning, Coaches.

The scale floated down another pound as I slowly decrease one med and continue to exercise. Funny that it is almost always a simple solution of exercise and eat when i am hungry from choices of fresh food. BistroMD comes today. it is only a week's worth of food. I have till Sunday to cancel next week. I hope it is as fresh as promised.

BBE: Thanks for thinking about my trajectory. I have to convince DS to take one day off school and he might refuse.

gardenerjoy: Salads are the ultimate solution. They heal and fill. Why do I resist so often?

silverbirch: Good thoughts your way that things calm down.

beth: your walking places sound great. It sounds like a tough decision between house and lot. Credit for all this living and still staying OP.

Quick wave coaches.DD continues to do quite well medically thank god. Hoping she is able to go home Thursday. I am not doing a good job resisting ice cream etc so I will really have to ramp up efforts when I'm h one.
I'm enjoying the diversity of the city. The hospital offers translation services for about 20 languages, some I have not heard of!

I packed food for the journey but too much! I feel stuffed! I think it's all the salad, especially the raw carrots. Do you relate, gardenerjoy?

curlyjax, very glad DD is on the mend. You'll both be pleased to be home.

maryann, exercise and eat when you're hungry, you say? What a good plan!

Bill, you could always ditch those decluttering books, you know.

Beth, your walk sounds very nice. Lakes and wetland are so interesting.

Off to have a bath with Epsom salts.

I'm posting late and quick again, mostly to declare that I'm going to eat a salad next (to forestall a different idea that is much less healthy).

silverbirch: raw broccoli is oddly filling for me.

Hi everyone.

Had my weight management class tonight—talked about how to eat at summer parties. I was down 3 lbs from last week when I did my official weighin.

I didn’t cook tonight (again) but I did go for a walk after class. Exercise for June: +30. 240/300.

We made an offer on a house. Now to be patient and see what happens next.

G'night all

—Beth

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Got a pleasant walk, CREDIT moi, by parking a distance from the hospital where I had to get a standard blood test. Of course, the real reason for parking a distance away was to grab a FREE parking space instead of using the handy, attached, uber-expensive parking lot. I'm right in touch with Dr. Beck's quote of the day, LOL.

Eating was good enough, CREDIT moi. Weather was perfect for dawdling after dinner on the patio. Dessert, however, was some flan that was a gift for which it seemed impolite to refuse. The gift giver wasn't there, but DW and I each ate our serving. The gift was from someone who had missed a scheduled date causing us minor inconvenience but causing them great guilt. We tried to assuage their guilt since we easily rescheduled the date. They had to give us flan to compensate. For some reason, it seemed totally unacceptable not to eat guilt-flan. It was delicious but I prefer the fruit that we usually have after dinner.


onebyone – Waving. "Departs the solar system" means crossing the plane of Neptune. Knew you'd need to know.

Joy (gardenerjoy) – Yay for more salad. Our evening salad in now all home-grown lettuce.

silverbirch – I do like raw carrots. [Can't "ditch those decluttering books" until I read them. Can't read them because all three start out with the premise that stuff must be removed from the house or I wouldn't have bought the book. The audacity!]

maryann - Hope your BistroMD is fresh and satisfying.

curlyjax - Yep, Boston has such tempting ice cream options. Hope your DD continues to recover.

Beth (bethturnaround) – An offer on a house is pretty exciting; I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Around here, the market is so overheated that houses are listed on Friday and offers are due at noon the following Tuesday.

Readers -

Hello, all! I need to catch up on posts when I can carve out some time for that. I am back from my work trip with the meeting I was concerned about going sideways but all went well. I did preemptive strikes to those who told me they were waiting for that meeting ... I just asked what I could answer THEN. So they got one-on-one direct responses. Worked!

My time with my cousin was oh so needed. She's in an abusive marriage (psychological, emotional and less often physical. ANY abuse is wrong, so while she says he hasn't hit her in a few years, my heart breaks). She shared the issues that caused her to descend into the depths of depression over the past couple of years, saying she couldn't keep the mask on with me, including that her husband has been stepping out on their marriage repeatedly, knowing she wouldn't leave him/their kids. I would just change the locks and be like, Goodbye! but I'm also in a better mental state. We were up until 3, 4 a.m. and some was just crying and holding each other. I am so wigged out by some of the tracking of her that he does (gps, keystroke, computer history, text monitoring, voicemails, as well as not sharing ANY financial info - she has no idea of money, bank accounts, etc.) that I even hesitate to reveal much here. Paranoia on my end, I know. She has to get out but she has been mentally beaten down for 45 years, since she was a child, told she didn't matter and didn't deserve anything. What do you say to someone who says, "Why would I deserve happiness or safety?" I am going to contact my counseling service through my work to see what I can do to help from outside (besides burner phone, cash, etc.). If you have suggestions, please share. I struggled to answer her question of why she'd deserve a better life. It's just so freaking basic. She vows that she'll visit in the fall. She does this every time I visit her, so while my hopes are high, I feel they will be dashed come autumn. I sure hope I'm wrong.

Food thought has been a far distant second to this priority. I need to be healthy, I know, but I just cannot get my mind on other things. I took a vacation day from work today to get things done here, schedule some dr. appts., write some notecards, and just rest.

Good Morning, Coaches.

Weight up from ticker. Day 1 Bistro MD Breakfast. Meh! then I added a little salt ( I have no BP problems) and a little stevia and it was Meh+. What felt great was I have a plan. I have spent my life gorging on delicious food. I am totally willing to make food a fuel thing and eat bland. As long as it is healthy i am going to stay the course. Exercise today. I spent a too early morning rise figuring out that I could use my fancy new day backpack as my overnight thereby putting aside my prehistoric overnight pack. The way the Whitney excursion is laid out, I only need two separate 6 mile trek with it, not the entire 18 miles. So I lavishly bought the lightest sleeping bag and 1 person tent hoping in my heart this isn't the last pack trip I'll do.

nationalparker: I am so sorry about your cousin.I wish I knew some answers. there are support groups for those living with and alcoholic. It is called Alanon and although this man might not be a substance abuser he may be a dry drunk. But Alanon can help anyone who needs to learn to love themselves and set healthy boundaries.
beth: congrats on pulling the trigger with the offer.

wave to all

Hi everyone!

I made taco salad for dinner tonight--and had fruit for the first time since January. Berries. Yum. I measured out 3/4 cup and put it in a bowl and it looked too big so I set it aside for DH, and then made a smaller bowl for myself. I stopped when full--not even one extra bite, although I thought about it. DH kindly finished the last few bites of my fruit. (He's really considerate like that)

I had some tasks to do at my computer tonight, but finished them pretty promptly so I went for a walk. DH and DD both decided not to accompany me, but it was a pleasant evening, although perhaps a little buggy.

Exercise +30: June: 270/300

maryann: When is your Whitney excursion? I've only backpacked/hiked/camped once--I don't know if I'll ever take that up again, but I'd like to camp again. Meh+ isn't very good--but it can be useful to get away from food as a pleasure. (Also a bit sad)

nationalparker: I'm so sorry your cousin is going through such a hard thing--and that she is so stuck in it she doesn't see how to get out :-( I'm glad you were able to be there for her.

BillBlueEyes: Interesting that you prefer the fruit--especially compared to flan!

Yesterday was fairly gruelling. I didn't like getting up at 5.30am and out by 6 but it meant I avoided the rush hour around one of the bigger cities. Then I had a big rest and read my book. Such a good idea, even though it meant I took ages to get to my destination. So what? of course, as I had only myself to please. And then straight into fairly heavy and detailed things at my mum's. Also, for the first time ever in my life, no proper knife and fork food prepared. I fished some soup made by my sister out of the freezer.

Lots to do today.

beth, berries! How lovely. And well done for choosing such a considerate husband!

maryann, good to hear how the Whitney expedition is coming together.

nationalparker, good idea to talk to the counselling service at work.

Bill, thanks for spelling out the thinking around the guilt flan. You'll be interested to know that although Mum and I get rid of things each time I'm here, I can't remember ever getting rid of any books.

gardenerjoy, we had salad for tea last night. Mum had bought some beetroot which was nice.

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Exercise was chase the (2.5 yo) DGD day, CREDIT moi. That included a long push in the stroller as we took her to a pond in the nearby reservation. She poked a stick into the water to harass the goldfish and the frog who were peacefully ignoring her. "I'm getting a little bored," she declared, making us wonder where you learned such a phrase. It was demanded that I sit through a tea party outside where I was served copious cups of 'tea'. The good news is that I was offered blueberries, albeit it one-by-one at her control. Lots of stuff happened at her control. She's aware that at grandparents' house she gets to set the pace. I learned from her that if you get hit by a car in the road you break your leg. Now to see if that stops her from darting out into the street.

Eating was OK, CREDIT moi. Lunch was the leftover half porkchop from a dinner long ago combined with the dying cibati bread roll fragment leftover from the weekend. It was a splendid combination that included the marvelous feeling of cleaning out the fridge.


silverbirch – Smart to plan around traffic even if that meant having some down time instead of sleep time.

maryann - A new daypack is such a treat; I've seen some new ones with really good support instead of just the sack on the back. Congrats for making it through your first Bistro MD meal.

nationalparker – Congrats for working on a strategy to avoid conflict at the possibly tense meeting. It is so difficult to accept that our ability to help is limited by someone else's ability to receive help.

Beth (bethturnaround) – Super Kudos for "stopped when full--not even one extra bite." And hats off to your DH for nobly finishing your last few bites.

Readers -

Posting more at the time that I mean to. I have what I need to stay inside and eat salads. I may talk DH into a morning walk so that we miss the heat of the day. We talked about the Noel Coward song on our last walk and thought, perhaps, we'd try to avoid the midday sun on the hottest days coming up. Today's high is 94, but we're headed up to the upper 90s, apparently, until we get some rain early next week.