Since I'm losing weight, I've decided my exercise goal of 1800 minutes in April (which I didn't meet) was more than I needed, anyway. So, I'm scaling back to see if 1400 minutes a month will get the job done. I'm going to go for more intensity, fewer minutes.
WI: -0.35kg (new low), Exercise: +40 40/1400 minutes for May, Food: 90%op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes
Shepherdess: hope your busy weekend is going well!
onebyone: cool insights about how your work and how that's changing
CeeJay: I'll post my food plan in the recipes thread later today -- thanks for asking!
BillBlueEyes: yay for warblers!
Beverlyjoy: big credit for "I don't 'graze' any more"
hikergirl: welcome home!
Hello to wndranne, maryblu, seadwaters, ChinaMaine, bennyhannahmama, Lexxiss, and everyone else!
I've been catching up at home this AM.
-read from the book
-read my response cards
-read my reasons to lose weight
-planning my meals for the week
-had spontaneous exercise
-will eat slowly, mindfully, while sitting
*credit for all*
Weekends are harder for me. I WILL use my response cards BEFORE engaging in unplanned eating today.
hikergirl, wndranne Glad you are both back home safe! everyone else! I will catch up later.
Buddies/Coaches:
Hello there-- I miss you guys! Not sure when it all went to #$%*, but it has I'm pretty sure it's absolutely no coincidence that I stopped checking in here. Thanks Joy (gardnerjoy) for checking on me and I'm sorry I haven't responded.
I had a garage sale on Friday and Saturday and preparing for that was stressful. It went very well, but of course I still have more work to do now that it's over.
I kind of feel like I've lost all my Beck skills over the past couple of week, which quite frankly sucks! Oh and on top of that, I've been smoking over the weekend
Right after typing that, I had my last cigarette and then threw the rest of the pack out. That helped me feel more in control. The next couple of days will be hard, but I do NOT want to smoke anymore. The only reason I even started this weekend was because Jim (my boyfriend) started again. Hopefully he'll quit soon, but I'm not going to wait for him.
I'm tired and feeling pretty overwhelmed. So, I'm going to set some goals for myself for tomorrow.
#1 NO smoking!
#2 Check in here
I think that's a good place to start. I'd like to accomplish more than the above (thinking about waking up early to do a workout on the elliptical in the basement), but if that's all I do, then I will be satisfied.
okay had 3 meals, no snacks. credit.
Did have seconds of plain rice at dinner.
Worked hard all day on art stuff-managed to make some progress. credit.
Kitty X continues to linger but now she's having a tough time drinking water. This is really not good. She is still enjoying "the blue room" aka outside so ...
bennyhannamama I see we cross-posted so hello. I just went through the garage sale stress too and yep, my junk room is really torn apart but I can still see the space I made so that makes me feel better about it. Sorry about the smoking. I was a 2pack a day smoker and quit at age 18 (I loved everything about smoking but one day woke up feeling like crap so I stopped cold turkey. I do believe you get one chance at this cold turkey being easy business and if you pick it back up again it is never so easy again. Just my pet theory... I digress...) and then, every 7 years or so, I get wicked urges to smoke. I went through that a few months ago actually, who knows what triggers it? For me though my DH would surely move out if I started. Big credit for throwing them away tonight. Smoking and following a program to bring you to good health just really don't jive. Very glad you posted tonight.
Lexxiss Kudos for your credits. I agree, weekends are harder. I especially have a tough time with Friday night. More Beck needed for me too.
gardenerjoy I'm curious about your exercise minutes target. Do you workout at regular times for x minutes to get your goal number? Or is it more some weeks, less others? How do you view exercise for yourself and your weightloss plan/life? Did you always exercise? You seem so very consistent! Kudos for this!
hikergirl If you were eating out while away that weight is probably sodium. It's in everything. AND if you are dehydrated, your body is hanging onto your water and probably pushing your weight up. Could be a double whammy. Nice to have you back.
Shepherdess Is lambing season officially over then? Do you have twice as many sheep now with the newborns? How long do sheep stay with you?
Beverlyjoy I like this little bit. Reads like a poem to me:
Quote:
eated seated,
no seconds -
all of the time
See?
Good job on your loads of credits.
BillBlueEyes How big is a warbler? Bagel size? Muffin sized? 6" sub sized? I thought comparing it to a food thing would make it easy to picture but then the sizes of every food thing have metastasized in the past decade so... are they bigger or smaller than the common robin? Kudos for your walk. Oh and do they actually warble?
CeeJay Sorry for the slow weightloss. I keep doing myself in when I get on a roll. I am yo-yoing between 272-262. Have been doing that for quite some time now. Makes me doubt my resolve. Oh well thought be off with you! Ceejay you only stop making progress when you stop what you are doing. Hang in there. It's happening. Believe it.
wndranne Nice to see you around here! Hope you got your run in. It was like summer here, with the humidity too, (weird weird weird) and there were so many runners everywhere in my fair town. Everyone looked pleased but a bit shell-shocked by the onset of the dog days of summer on May 2nd.
Kudos for having a great trip food-wise. Awesome.
seadwaters, ChinaMaine, maryblu, MerinoGirl, and everyone one else lurking and reading.
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Another glorious weather day. Took a nice walk, CREDIT moi, through a park where the kids were running about like summer. Sadly, DW announced that there would be no more roasted Butternut Squash for the season because it was too hot to keep the oven on for that long. Braced up a section of fence that's in a back corner of the yard and should be replaced, but it works to drive a long metal stake in the ground and screw the fence post to it. CREDIT moi for working so hard driving the stakes that I worked up a sweat.
While eating dinner on the patio, we saw the Chimney Swifts darting above; welcome back little guys!
onebyone - Continuing to send supportive thoughts to you and Kitty X; know it's a difficult time.
A typical warbler is about 5 inches beak to tip of tail, as compared to a House Sparrow which is about 6 inches. We also call the House Sparrow the English Sparrow around here due to our tendency to name our invasive species after some place else to shift the blame, LOL.
Susan (hikergirl) - Welcome back from six days of exercise. Kinda hard to believe that you can gain weight cycling and hiking; hope a bunch of it is water and some of it is new muscle.
Kim (bennyhannamama) - Yay for a garage sale for clearing out one's clutter. That's a good emotional achievement to stand on to get back on track with your eating plan. Sending you good vibes for that as well as good vibes to stick with your plan to drop the smokes.
Beverlyjoy - Kudos for "willingness to keep trying" - that's such a good reminder to me to avoid the winning/losing kind of thinking. Your five things to be grateful for is one beautiful CBT strategy for life; hats off to you.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - New low. New low. New low. New low. - I've noticed a trend, LOL. Good move rethinking your monthly exercise goal.
Shepherdess - Hope you (and your floors) survived your day.
Debbie (Lexxiss) - Yep, weekends can be difficult when the mind relaxes and the undisciplined thoughts of eating just appear like weeds.
Readers -
Quote:
day 26 Common Thinking Errors
There are nine common thinking mistakes people make when dieting:
. . . Thinking Mistake #4: Emotional Reasoning
You think your ideas must be true even though objective evidence says not. Examples:
Since I feel like a failure for having strayed, I really must be a failure.
I feel like I just have to have something sweet right now.
Happy Monday! My Sunday was good/healthy - I am always grateful for a sane healthy day with food.
Dh and I went to the grocery and I got lots of fruit and veggies - so I am set for the week. Last night DH wanted pizza for dinner - he got his pizza and I ate my planned dinner (used reistance tech.) - credit.
I was able to take only arthritis strength tylenol for my foot/ankle pain - I am really grateful for that. I am going to be very careful and rest my foot/ankle this week so I can do my programs next week. At least that's the plan. Little by little am making progress.
I took lexxiss's lead and made a seperate response card for weekend planning and eating. Thanks so much for the idea.
planned food, wrote down food eaten, measure food - all the time
stayed in calorie range
eat seated, no seconds - all the time
taste the food - some of the time
feel fullness in my tummy - not much
slow mindful eating - sometimes
remember why - yes
give myself credit when I do healthy things - yes
leave a small bite of food - yes
lots of water - yes
gentle stretching, upper body weights - no
read arc/rc - just a few
beck book - no
hikergirl - glad you are home safe - credit for getting on the scale - carry on.
shepardess - credit for taking time to check in - good to have a plan for a busy, busy day. Ya know...sometimes as little extra something is better than alot of extra something.
gardenerjoy - sounds like a good idea - switching up your exercise. You said "since I am losing weight..."- that sure is a nice thing to read!
billbe - walking and working (causing a sweat!) - yes, credit. Sorry about bye bye to the squash. When DH and I went to Krogers (grocery) yesterday a cedar waxwing flew out of the tree in front. It's only the second time I've ever seen one. Go figure...at the grocery store in the suburbs.
lexxiss - thanks for the 'weekend response card' idea - I made one. You had many credits of late - carry on!
onebyone - I hate when I lose a post!! That happened to me often - so I've gotten to save, copy and post as I go along - so I don't lose it. Kudo's for having 3 meals and a snack. I am sending a few under the chin scratches to Kittyx - hope things improve. I love how you made some of my credits into a poem!
kim - glad you checked in- glad the garage sale is over (they are so much work) You hold on tight the best you can to things that will help get you through no cigs...we are here for you.
Have a GREAT day, folks. Shout out to anyone stopping by. Be KIND to yourself.
Last edited by Beverlyjoy; 05-03-2010 at 07:38 AM.
Hi Coaches
A quick check in - I really should do this in the morning as way too tired at night. I am disgruntled because my weight did not drop any further than currently in my profile and ticker - in fact it is about + 0.4lb! I have been within plan except for one or two mishaps.
I am slipping with logging food immediately after I eat so I need to try to do that. With the cooking I have been doing (stews and such) it is really hard to estimate their value and short of putting in all the ingredients and then doing it on a per serve basis etc etc. Anyway I will work it out I guess
I made a plan pre-branding and stuck to it. I had a muffin at coffee break, skipping the coffee cake, snicker doodles and cinnamon rolls. At lunch, I stuck to the salads and had only a small portion of the devilish potatoes au gratin. The problems came when everyone was left. I just started munching on the dessert trays that were left here. I tried giving as much away as I could, but there’s still quite a bit left. I remember Beck saying something about being prepared for after the event, which I wasn’t. I think I had been so vigilant and then thought I could just relax and let once it was over. Oh well, better luck next year. I have a ton of leftovers that I don’t need. I will have dh go through everything and throw away what he’s not going to eat, since I have an aversion to throwing away food.
Wndranne, kudos for making outstanding food choices on a business trip! It’s tough to get any workouts in at all while traveling, so great job on 2 out of 3. Good luck with the kid tantrums. I guess it’s their way of saying they missed mom.
Onebyone, your thoughts on the connections between binge working and eating are interesting. I think one of the key aspects of Beck is consistency and I hope that spills over into other areas of my life as well. Sorry about Kitty X, but it’s good that you are appreciating this time with her.
CeeJay, yay for a new month! A scale that isn’t moving is a downer, but you have a great attitude about it. You are learning so much and that is going to help you in the long run.
BillBE, yay for the glorious days of spring to make you want to get out doors and enjoy the fresh air. Sorry about the Butternut squash, but at least it gives you a reason to look forward to the cold months.
And yes, Wyoming has cowgirls. They’re the U of WY women’s sports teams, LOL. I always call our work crew “cowboys” because there is often such a macho attitude, but there are always women working the corrals doing all the jobs the men do. A foreman of another ranch always brings his daughter out, who is now 12 or 13 and she ropes and rides. And we get plenty of cowboys out there who wear the hat but don’t know what they’re doing.
Beverlyjoy, I love your practice of finding things you are grateful for. I can so often get bogged down in the negative and take for-granted all of those things that are gifts in my life.
Hikegirl, don’t get too hung up on the number on the scale post-vacation. There are so many factors that could be affecting it. Give it a few days and if it still is high, then it’s just telling you something needs to change. Sounds like you had a great and active trip!
Gardenerjoy, your exercise plan is a good one. If you are upping the intensity, than scaling back the total time will prevent injury. Great job making an informed decision.
Lexxiss, kudos for your determination to break old patterns! Hope you are all caught up from your week of house guests, but it looks like you are doing great on plan.
Bennyhannamamma, kudos for deciding to quit smoking and not waiting for Jim. Best of luck. Looks like you have set some good goals and are doing a great job taking reasonable steps. If you get in your elliptical, it will just be a bonus.
Seadwaters, sorry for the disappointing weigh-in, but my scale can certainly be fickle at times. If you stick with it, it will drop again. I’m sure there are lots of web sites that track calories from recipes. I use: http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php. You plug in your recipe and the number of servings and it gives you all the nutrition info.
Just a quick check in. Had a good food day yesterday but did not exercise due to sore foot. I am headed to the city for an overnight. I am pretty focused after last month's lack of overall progress so have a plan and am going to stick to it.
Last week I agreed to assume my manager's job for the next year or so while he is on sick leave. Not exactly sure when it will start as it begins when he has surgery and he does not have a date yet. I am telling my staff today which will be hard for all of us. The good news is I am not really going anywhere so I can help out. And I will have my job, which I love, back when this is over. One of my staff will fill in for me. I have the highest functioning, most cohesive team in our organization and we worked very hard to get there, so am a little worried about this change.
I am keenly aware that in the past changes (and yes, stress) like this has been enough for me to completly derail from any healthy things I am doing. I am going to have to be really, really careful that this does not happen. I am determined to keep on track and especially not to slip into a big round of working too many hours. I know that if I work hours like a "normal" person I can fit in all my wellness activities, if I work too many hours things start to crumble.
My brother took us out for Japanese food last night. I think I did okay, but I skipped my weigh-in rather than see a sodium-induced uptic.
WI: NAkg, Exercise: +35 75/1400 minutes for May, Food: 70%op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes
CeeJay: As I was writing out my current food plan (in our recipes thread), I remembered the book The Incredible Shrinking Critic by Jami Bernard. At one point in the book, she gives up sweets entirely, and reflects that at the beginning of the journey, she would have never imagined that she would do that. But by the time she did, it wasn't that big of a deal. I love bread and my current food plan has less of it than I thought I could tolerate. But having made lots of other changes, that one has come pretty easily after all. So, I recommend making gradual changes that you can right now and keeping an open mind to further ones later on.
Lexxiss: sounds like a great list of goals and a good plan -- hope it went well!
bennyhannahmama: good to see you! Great goals to get things going!
onebyone: one of the things I like about a goal of minutes per month is that I can be pretty inconsistent about things and still pull it off. I keep in mind how many minutes a day (45 this month), so I know roughly what I need to do, and I mean to exercise every afternoon. But if things don't happen that way, there's time to make it all work out before the end of the month. I've always walked, even at my highest weight. These days, I'm doing more videos because the intensity of the cardio is higher and it gets me to do more stretching and strength training. Every time that I've tried strength training in the past, I injured myself. So, I'm doing it now with tiny weights and calisthenics and I'm amazed at the difference I can see and feel. For me, the biggest motivators for exercise, though, are stress relief and as an effective treatment for insomnia (that's why I exercise in the late afternoon).
BillBlueEyes: we like squash roasted on the grill -- especially the Delicata that we get in September from our CSA box. I slice it into arches, marinate it in oil and maple syrup and DH grills it. Yum!
Beverlyjoy: Huge credit for staying on plan while DH had pizza! That's a terrific accomplishment!
seadwaters: I am also frustrated by the difficulty of adding home cooked food into a system that will give me exact calories. What ultimately worked better for me was to cut back a serving or two of bread a day and to really measure instead of guestimate the most calorically dense things I eat like nuts. But I also recommend being patient and not changing stuff in response to a few days' scale readings.
Shepherdess: good self awareness there -- I'm sure you'll do better next year. Great job getting DH to do the throwing way of exccess food.
CeeJay: (again) congrats on the temporary promotion! Sounds like you are valued at work. The last time I took a new job, I was in a mode of "Okay, how can I do this in the healthiest way possible?" And I was able to establish a habit of bringing my lunch and walking around campus that really helped. Maybe you can find a way to make this a really positive change.
I need to be better at being upfront with my husband about all of my dieting activities. He's a thin guy who works at keeping his figure by basically starving himself most of the day and then eating a big dinner. While I think this is very unhealthy, he can't be convinced otherwise and points to his 30" waist as evidence.
He also thinks that people who need to lose weight essentially have a will power problem. So, you would think that someone who feels this way would be very supportive of support groups, such as this forum, or Weight Watchers, etc. But, no, actually, he doesn't even think this should be necessary. He looks down on weight loss support activities.
So, I didn't check the site this weekend, didn't read or post, all because I wasn't ready to defend myself on this point yet. <sigh> Yes, it was cowardice. So, my goal is to confess all this week and prepare him for the fact that I have some new things that will be part of my weekends going forward. I kind of sorted of started the forward momentum on this when he caught me reading Beck. I just couldn't seal the deal and give him all the news because I had enough of the "it's just a question of willpower" speech that came from the sight of me reading the pink book.
And yet, he says that he's supportive of my efforts to lose weight! I guess that's true if you define support narrowly enough.
:-)
I started reading through the posts here and taking notes, but will have to reply more later. Off now to get my dad to a doctor appointment, with many logistics involved.
Coaches/Buddies:
I can't believe how much better I felt last night after checking in here and throwing out the cigarettes. I also sent Jim a text letting him know that I threw out the cigarettes and I'm done. This way, when I see him tonight, he'll know not to let me have any of his. He apologized for making it harder on me (by starting to smoke again) and I told him I would let it go since he makes my life easier in so many other ways
This morning had potential to be disastrous since I slept through both alarms and woke up an hour late Somehow, I managed to get myself and the kids out of the house on time
So far today I have:
not smoked
weighed myself
read my advantages
gave myself credit
eaten slowly and mindfully
checked in here
left over some food
tracked my eating
Today I ate my lunch at my desk while catching up on posts here and made a very calculated effort to eat slowly and mindfully. I realized that just making sure I put my fork down between bites isn't always enough to make myself eat mindfully. I decided that I need to make sure that I'm looking at my fork while I gathering my next bite and be aware of what's on my fork. This helps keep me from shoveling it into my mouth. This caused me to eat my lunch very slowly and I found that I was full before I came to the end of my food! This hardly ever happens (especially since it was a frozen, pre-portioned meal.) When I recognized the fullness, I thought about stopping before eating the full meal. This made me a bit anxious and my saboteur came up with all sorts of excuses as to why this was not a good idea (#1 I skipped morning snack, so surely I need to eat every piece of my lunch. #2 This is my first day back on track with food and I will get very hungry if I don't eat everything. #3 Since I'm going to count the full meal, I might as well allow myself to have all the calories. #4 I might not get an opportunity to eat again for many hours). Well, I decided to stop thinking and just throw the food out-- there were a couple of pieces of pasta a couple of peas left. It was hard, but I did it and it felt great!
Maryblu:
It's good to hear from you. I appreciate your insights and I think BillBlueEyes speculation about yo-yoing is probably about right. I know what you mean about that feeling of being comfortable with yourself, etc. I just wish I could bottle that feeling or remember it in the face of exhaustion, stress, temptation, etc.
gardnerjoy:
I can't begin to express how happy I am for you that your hard work is paying off! You are also very inspiring. Hopefully as I get myself back on track we can encourage each other to keep working in the book. Thanks again for continuing to check on me and I'm sorry that I haven't been able to support you these past couple of weeks.
Lexxis:
How'd it go? Did you remember to read your Response Cards before any unplanned eating? I don't know if I can ever remember a time that I've done that Something I definitely need to work on! Oh and thanks for the quotes re: weekends. Definitely another thing I really need to work on.
Onebyone:
Thanks for your supportive and kind words re: quitting smoking. I think one of the problems I have with quitting so many times is that I tend to think, I've done it before, I'll be able to do it again. I need to stop that thought process though!
seadwaters:
I struggle immensely with planning and shopping-- kudos to you!
hikergirl:
I'm getting myself back on track too. I hope you enjoyed your vacation and I look forward to seeing more of your posts.
That's all I have time for right now. shepherdess, wndranne, beverlyjoy and anyone else I missed
I have been in harmony with my food for already 5 days. I planned every meal, also a special occasion - party with our neighbours - something like BBQ - evening till night in the garden, a lot of homemade food.Every family prepared cake or pie and another delicious food. I promissed myself to eat only 1 small piece of each meal but I had only 3 small pieces of cake (3x3 cm = 1,2x1,2 inch -funny to measure in inch.) and 1/2 of sausage. And planned it as a dinner.Even when I was back at home in my bed, my stomach was rumbling I was happy that I was on plan.
Everyday I read Beck books, exercise and I feel for the first time that I live in symbiosis with food. Thanks God for every next OP day. The same I wish to ALL of you, my Beck´s friends.
Coaches/Buddies:
This afternoon I went to drop a note off on a co-workers desk and she had an open can of almonds on her desk-- I grabbed one After I had already put it in my mouth, I realized the error of my ways! I also ate my afternoon snack and dinner a little too quickly. However, I did leave over a piece of pizza crust from dinner I never leave over any food, so now that's twice in one day and I haven't even gotten to that day in the book
I have a feeling that by the time the day is done I will have consumed more calories than I've burned, but I'm okay with that.
I have succeeded in meeting my goals for today-- no smoking and checking in here. Yippee!
BillBlueEyes:
It's got to feel good getting a mini workout in while also doing some fixing up in the yard-- sounds like some good multitasking to me.
Beverlyjoy:
Kudos to you for using your resistance technique against the pizza-- I'm impressed and inspired.
seadwaters:
Sorry the scale didn't reflect your hard work. I'm sending you some patience.
Shepherdess:
Kudos to you for doing well during the actual gathering and I feel your pain for after the gathering-- I've been there. I also have a strong aversion to throwing away food and have found something that helps at times. I try to remember that the food is going to be gone whether I throw it down the drain or into my body-- throwing it into my body is no different except that it makes me feel like $%&^.
CeeJay:
Kudos to you for looking ahead at potential problems. I think making sure to check in here (ahem, unlike myself the past week or so) can really help keep you on track. Good luck with the changes (and stress) at work.
hikergirl:
For all your great work:
MerinoGirl:
I've been in your position with spouse/significant other that doesn't get the whole losing weight thing. I feel like there's so much more I can say about your post, yet right now I feel at a loss. Keep coming here for support and I'm sure you'll get good suggestions for how to explain things to your DH. BTW, not sure where in Northern NJ you are, but I grew up in Rockland County, NY
nathy:
Sounds like you've had several great days-- congratulations!
Glad you are both back home safe!
I'm pretty sure it's absolutely no coincidence that I stopped checking in here. Thanks Joy (gardnerjoy) for checking on me and I'm sorry I haven't responded. 
Sunday & where does the time go?
thought be off with you! Ceejay you only stop making progress when you stop what you are doing. Hang in there. It's happening. Believe it.
Monday
Somehow, I managed to get myself and the kids out of the house on time 
After I had already put it in my mouth, I realized the error of my ways! I also ate my afternoon snack and dinner a little too quickly. However, I did leave over a piece of pizza crust from dinner 
