Hi Beckfolks - quick hello. Yesterday was a healthy day. I am grateful. I made it through the evening with determination and planning. I am grateful for that too.
Credits -
planned, logged
lots of water
no seconds
stretches and strengthening
left a bite
meditation
My mom wasn't feeling well today, so I went to the drugstore and got her a few things. She had the stomach flu first and I am doing better than she. If she doesn't feel better soon, I encourage her to call her doctor.
Hopefully, I'll have time for personals tomorrow. I was busy all day today...I am not sure with what. I had a very elderly friend pass on last night. I got 'the word' and had to make lots of phone calls to friends and other storytellers to give them the news. He founded our guild twenty years ago and will be dearly missed.
Have a great evening.
Last edited by Beverlyjoy; 12-10-2010 at 04:08 PM.
Hi Coaches
I slipped off the list for a while again - highly distracted with work and not doing so well with food mainly because I needed to shop and didn't
I have discovered something quite obvious - that I do two types of off-plan eating. The first type is when I get really busy and disorganised and food is food - which means anything I can find because I haven't planned or the cupboard is bare. The other sort of eating - often triggered by the first - is comfort eating. I have a choice and make bad ones because I need to go to get prepared food. The key (duh) as usual is plan, make lists, shop, prepare. But I have to say that it is sometimes really difficult to squeeze that in, but I have to try.
I find this time of year SOOO stressful. Work is always crazy with unfinished projects and trying to get things done so I can take a bit of compulsory leave, and the preparation for Christmas which I find a bit overwhelming. If I believed in biorhythms I would say they all plummet for me at this time of year and don't come up again until after my birthday in the middle of January. And that is when I eat my worst.
No credits worth mentioning - got the meat part of my shopping yesterday on the way home and hope I get the veggies and other necessaries today. At least we aren't under water like most of the south eastern states! Hot but manageable
Afternoon, All. Friday is my day off and I haven't gotten out of my pjs. Credit for allowing myself to try and relax. Still, some free floating anxiety hovers. I sit quietly on my couch, though, and let myself feel it. My number 1 advantage on my card, which I have said before, is to face my fears and therefore grow spiritually. No more hiding behind foods. I am clearly aware, however, that this doesn't mean my fears go away it just means I have ONE problem, not TWO. I have found I must do less when I am confronting fears. I must face them with peace and quiet or I will become overwhelmed. I know this is all a little esoteric but it is the true root of my overeating and I have to acknowledge it. It is a truth gained by much effort. Credit.
On the lighter side, I am 1.5 pounds down this morning. I am tired from teaching 150 first graders music ( a side job) but I feel I was truly of service (credit.) Lexxiss: read your "using distraction technique" and identified. Xmas time brings drama. Madrikh: congrats on the chip squish. I have had to do wild things to make extra food unavailable - pour water in bags, burn, add salt. Whatever works. BBE: I had to laugh at your xmas party scene. My husband and I were teasing each other that we never get invited to Xmas parties - we just aren't part of that kind of social scene. I guess I am happy about it after reading your description. Shepardess: I feel a tech cloud looms over me often. Good luck with excel. Gardenerjoy and OnebyOne: congrats on your weightloss. Beverleyjoy: Glad to hear you were getting out and having some fun as a result of surgery cancelation.
Blue Daisy You must be somewhere south that it rarely snows. I ask myself: I wonder what that's like? I hope you enjoyed it! Kudos for exercising and enjoying it.
madrikh I actually *gasped* when I read you crushed the bag of chips after one serving! I thought that was very powerful... and it seems so logical. Kudos!
BillBlueEyes Had to tell you I found 1/2 pint blueberries from Argentina for $1.79! Even in the summer they are more. They were even good, which I never expect this time of year. I am wondering why you have a June de-cluttering deadline? Is it due to renovations? Kudos on skipping the warm cookies!
Shepherdess Kudos for doing weights when it was too windy to run and you didn't feel like it but did it anyway! yay! Also I think it's a great plan to accept life as it is and move your furniture back into place. I'll second your Here's to success in the New Year wishes!
gardenerjoyWow such food sanity! I would have definitely used the off plan lunch to nag me into an off plan dinner. At best I would have had everything coming to me... but to adjust? To eat lighter? You ARE thinking like a thin person. KUDOS. Also I just wanted to say that I appreciated reading that you too need volumes of food and that your solution is the salad. I think I can do this if I use clear soups and/or salads for main meals. That may really help me start this weightloss process really rolling. I may need to invest in some fun frivolous kitchen gadgetry to make salad making more interesting though. It's really a joyless chore to me
Beverlyjoy Nice to see you're turning lemons into lemonade and enjoying some fun activities since you can! Kudos for buying veggies and making a plan. O well about the bedtime snack. So sorry to hear a friend of yours has passed.
Lexxiss I think eating more low glycemic food is really shutting down the sugar/junk cravings. I am dreading one aspect of DH's arrival tonight though as with him will come the seductive cola beverage and the junk food. It's been much easier to control the food around here with just me and Caesar the cat. Alas, I do not live alone so must say NO CHOICE to that stuff. EXCELLENT use of the pool to distract from others. You are really making me want to get to the pool too. This is good! Sorry for the family drama. we have some of that this year too, but so far, I am not the ostracized family member... someone else is. The way we handle ourselves as a family is just ridiculous. O well. Kudos for continuing to not eat over it!
seadwaters Kudos for posting. Sorry your food has been tough due to stress. I too have first hand knowledge about this kind of thing. What do you typically do for Christmas? I read that Aussies take a trip to the beach. Is that true? When I was in Key West, Florida, I saw plenty of lights showing Santa's sleigh being pulled by dolphins, also Santa with pink flamingos. Do you guys have Santa and kangaroos? koalas? platypus?
maryann Kudos for relaxing in your jammies! We all deserve a little R&R. When I was actively fighting anxiety I was often worn out by the struggle of it all. I give you extra kudos for facing your fears and feeling the feelings that are coming up. Removing excess food will indeed bring things up and out of us. It's all worth it. As they say, the only way out is through. Congrats on the -1.5lbs!
Of my three holiday events this week, one I skipped because I still wasn't feeling well, the next turned from a 'salad potluck' which would have had lots of other treats also to a trip to a mexican restaurant, which I was able to handle with ease (tortilla soup) and we just returned from the third. How did I do? Well I told myself I could have either a drink or dessert and beer seemed safest but there always seemed to be someone topping up my glass, and then there was peppermint ice cream--I NEVER get peppermint ice cream--so I sorta broke my own rules. But the baked potato was OP w/reasonable toppings and the rest of the day was very OP; just a nibble of Off P mac & cheese when I got home from work after reading 65 student papers today --ugh!
OMG! Why did I not start with the really good news???? I took myself back to my dr's office scale this morning and I was down 3.5 pounds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have worked so hard and worked out so much with inches lost but really no weight lost so far, so this is really important! Finally! And I know that starting in the morning, the old "success motivates success" motto will help me focus once again and try even harder with eating.
For sure x-c skiing tomorrow; I'm so excited for the first trip this season. And an awesome way to burn calories.
ONEBYONE, when Beverlyjoy was facing food donations after surgery we helped her with suggestions to keep the things that came into her house at such a crucial time healthy, OP, and not likely to sabotage. I'm wondering if your DH would be willing to help with that same thing for you when he comes home;sometimes I have my DH keep the truly tempting things out in his shop, or I put the rest of the Halloween candy in his truck so he can enjoy and I don't have to exercise my resistance muscle quite so much. If he thinks you're adorable and sees all the progress you're making, will he be willing to help out in this way?
Dang, BillBe, I think Beck had a whole day about this very issue of taking time & effort to set the table nicely and make food more about the experience--sounds like the people who fed you figured this out!
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Lunch was OP including half of the prior night's pork chop, CREDIT moi, with extra CREDIT moi for bringing in some applesauce to put on it since making food appealing is part of staying the course.
Did gym, CREDIT moi, before taking in Boston Baroque's Handel's Messiah. We hadn't been to a live performance of the Messiah in, maybe, 15 years and last night reminded me that that's not enough. The audience was almost in tears when the bass-baritone sang "And the trumpet shall sound ..." in duet with the Baroque era trumpet. Thank you Mr. Handel for such beauty - written in three weeks some 269 years ago. I'll do CREDIT moi for a day 40: Enrich Your Life event to encourage myself to get to more concerts.
onebyone - Kudos to you for choosing a DH who says, "Too bad. You're adorable. They'll love you." He's right on. If I were the spouse going, I'd be aware that the big bosses are always at a loss of what to talk about with the newbies; you've got such an advantage because you have a life that's interesting to hear about. If you wore a onebyone original brooch and used that as a trigger to talk about your art life, the big guys would be grateful as well as mesmerized. (My take is that most corporate cultures wouldn't want to hear gratitude - might just make the big guys feel uncomfortable.)
[Yep, the plasterers and painters will arrive mid-June expecting an empty house. What I don't de-clutter, we have to move to temporary storage. Jealous of your blueberries.]
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Super Kudos for responding to extra food by eating "a little more lightly" later rather than having more later. Yep, obviously logical, and just as obviously not what I've always done in the past.
Shepherdess - Yay for a party where the veggies are cooked well instead of a mindless side to the food, LOL. Ouch for the round trip moving bedroom furniture.
Beverlyjoy - Condolences for the loss of your friend who started the story teller's guild. Kudos that you can remember to leave a bite even while handling all the phone calls about a sad occasion.
Cheryl (Seadwaters) - Yep, "plan, make lists, shop, prepare" is the formula. Kudos for shopping for the meat to get that started.
Nature Girl - Handling a Mexican Restaurant with ease is a big deal; Kudos - tortilla soup sounds like a good choice for me to remember.
maryann - Love being reminded, "just means I have ONE problem, not TWO." My mind boggles at that thought of facing 150 first graders. Thank you for getting the little guys started in music - some of them will sing the Messiah in just 20 years.
Readers -
Quote:
chapter 11 When to Stop Losing and Start Maintaining
But I Want to be Thinner!
You can do a number of things if you're unhappy with your Lowest Maintainable Weight. . . . Focus on how you've improved. You might not be as thin as you'd like, but how many of the benefits of weight loss have you achieved? Do you look better than you used to? Do you get more compliments? Are you wearing different clothes? Do you have more self-confidence? Do you feel more in control? Do you feel better about yourself? Do you have more energy? Are you healthier? Do you feel less self-conscious? Focusing on all the benefits you've derived instead of on an unrealistic number on the scale will make you feel better. . . .
Yesterday could have been better….could have been worse. I will give myself credit for
-stopping and taking a nap
-not using it as an excuse to "keep the ball rolling".
On a somewhat humorous note, we had 2 certificates which needed to be used at Vill. Inn. Each was for a full meal, beverage and pie. I decided to stick with something moderate (veggie burger, no mayo, FF-gave dh half). I left quite a bit on my plate because we were trying to get to a concert. DH had fried fish, shrimp, O rings, 1/2 my fries, mashed potatoes and gravy AND a salad. He ate every single bite and was in misery ALL night...the worst heartburn, and I'm sorry, but all I could do was laugh. Thank goodness I strive NOT to eat that way anymore. I know I used to, but fortunately, it's more of a faded memory every day.
BillBlueEyes, *credit* for Enriching Your Life, and recognizing that you should get out and do it more often.
onebyone, I totally agree with DH, that they will love you at the party...also agree w/BBE that you have such an advantage with all of your interesting art endeavors. I, too, would go for the mini makeover ; new outfit, makeup, hairstyle, nails...all the pampering things that helps a gal feel better. I second NatureGirl's suggestion that perhaps DH might be persuaded to tweak some of his indulgences. I asked my DH if he could lay off the junk for two weeks while I got back on track. I have provided some healthy options for him and it has been Soooooooooo much easier without Costco sized bags of chips and chocolate in the cupboard. BTW-my advantage card says, "Sugar excites my craving mechanism. My journey is much easier without it."
NatureGirl, congrats on your WL! Enjoy your first day of XCS tomorrow.
maryann, good for you, staying in jammies on your day off. Especially this time of year. Kudos for facing your fears while sitting quietly on the couch without hiding behind foods!
Cheryl(seadwaters), thanks for sharing your two types of off plan eating. Since you recognize that now until your BD is your worst time of year, perhaps you could make a very short range plan which would provide the road map to get you through.
Beverlyjoy, Yay! for determination and planning to help you achieve another healthy day on Thursday. Sorry it ended finding out that your friend had passed on. Take care, as you deal with your loss.
gardenerjoy, great job, "Thinking like a thin person"! Yes, it is much more logical.
Shepherdess, yay! for brushing teeth and going to bed after a successful holiday event which did leave you feeling a bit hungry (for whatever reason).
I am planning an afternoon "distraction event", since I jumped into the fire during that low afternoon spot. No outside events this evening, but a potluck at church tomorrow which I must prepare for. I always bring food that I can eat, including an OP dessert.
Yesterday was taken over with moving furniture back into the bedroom and then, unfortunately, a funeral in the afternoon. We ran errands afterwards and I was sure that I was going to die of starvation. But I did resist ripping into the chips DH put in the shopping cart on the way home and made it home to have dinner.
Gardenerjoy, great job choosing well at the deli and then making the rational decision to eat lightly for the rest of the day. Hope the car gets you where you need to go!
Onebyone, yay for having your DH home and yay that for living with man who thinks you’re adorable. Great response to do things to feel better about your appearance now. There are so many things we tend to put off until we have lost weight, but it’s important to feel good about your appearance at every stage.
Beverlyjoy, kudos for having the “determination and planning” to have a healthy day! I’m sorry to hear about the passing of a friend and with your mom sick it sounds like you have a lot going on.
Seadwaters, ouch for extra stress at work and upcoming holiday season that lead a lack of planning and poor food choices. Maybe it would help to make a list of healthy prepared options you can choose when you don’t have a chance to get to the store. Kudos for recognizing that this time of year is tough for you and getting back to Beck habits.
Maryann, hugs while you deal with anxiety, but great job recognizing that food will not help. Congrats on another 1.5 lbs down!
Nature girl, congrats on 3.5 lbs down! It sounds like you are handling a bunch of holiday events in a row pretty well. One mistake at one event doesn’t undo all your other hard work!
BillBE, yay for leftovers so you look forward to lunch. Kudos for getting to the gym before getting to the Messiah. I love that music and it’s so great that you got to hear it live.
Lexxiss, great job taking a much needed nap! Great job making good choices at the village inn and then getting to feel smug since your DH paid the price for his own choices.
Report for the last 4 days: 3 on, 1 off. Not good enough, but certainly much bedda than I have been doing.
Winter Weather Warning derailed my plans for driving the 60 miles to dance to "my band" last night, so did a jig saw puzzle to loud blues blasting away. *love Pandora radio! Did the puzzle on my feet with a few dance moves thrown in. The dawg has adjusted to loud blues, though she does occasionally think the bass is something to bark at.
Still weather-obsessed..saw 43 degrees for Boston today. *sigh. With windchill, it is ~ 20 below right now! It does sound as if I will be able to go into town tonight, though. Seadwaters, am thinking it's time to do a vacation trade...Australia for summer now, and Minnesoda for summer in June. Good idea? You betcha.
Yay, BillBE for the appreciation of Handel, and the area in which you live with such diverse treats of enrichment. 'Tis a good life, yes?
Onebyone, I *love what DH said to you. Couldn't have said a single word that would have been better. I agree with BillBE completely.
I do have to say it is much different going into a situation like that at a normal weight than at 220#s. It just is. ...as I reflect back on a lifetime of being fat...my wedding, my career, being a fat mom for my son's activities all through middle school..and then the last 8 plus years of "normal"..wow. I think the most painful memory now is being around the moms all 10 years younger and much, much healthier than I was. By the time I divorced and by the time DS was really active in BB and golf, I was thin. Sometimes it feels as if I were a different person then.
I do think being fat made me work harder and just *try harder. In some cases, it was probably false bravado. My career has basically been sales/sales management in one form or another. If you don't have the looks to get you in the door, you have to be good! I was hired at my last two positions at my former weight..which was always ~ 220#s I got my current position 16 and 1/2 years ago, the job of my dreams at *that weight and with very bad hair.
I had planned to go out to the cabin today to pick up a few things, but it rained so I'm staying home. Looking forward to a quiet at home sort of day!
WI: NA kg, Exercise: +85 415/1500 minutes for December, Food: 80%op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes
BillBlueEyes: it's been too long since I've heard the Messiah, too. Your example makes me want to fix that.
onebyone: I'm amazed how helpful it has been to focus on clothes and hair color and similar things during this journey. In the past, I have always put that kind of thing on hold until I lost weight, which I never did in the way I have this time. For me, there was a carryover from looking the best I can in the moment to actually doing the things that would improve things in the future.
NatureGirl: yay for seeing the scale move at the doctor's office!
Beverlyjoy: sorry for the loss of your friend in that special area of your life.
Lexxiss: hope your distraction event goes well and great job making a plan to fix OP food for tomorrow's potluck
Shepherdess: way to flex your resistance muscle against those chips on what must have been a distressing sort of day
Seadwaters: glad to see you back here and working through your issues
maryblu: love your story of successes at every size and age and how it matters, while at the same time not being an unsurmountable barrier
maryann: good job taking time for yourself after an exhausting job
Morning - Much more rested today. Lots of sleep and some good talks with DH and DS. I am very lucky in that my spouse and son are really interesting people with good opinions and a great sense of humor. They rejuvenate me. My husband says I am like a high performance racing car - fast and exciting but with a lot of down time.
I reread Beck on exercise. It reminded me how grateful I am to be willing to get to the gym most days of the week. Naturegirl: seems like we are both teachers. Do I really have to grade that stack of papers on my desk? Lexxiss: you have the gift of awareness - you are willing to see the effects of overeating. For many years I ignored the ramifications others suffered from overeating and only saw how much fun they were having in the moment. Shepardess: congrats on resistance techniques. Hunger is not an emergency but it sure FEELS like one. BBE: I have sung in the Messiah several times and have my own score - credit- alto part part and all the hiccups in "For unto us a child is born" gardenerjoy: enjoy your day.
Hi All!
I feel a bit guilty for not doing personals...I DO read everyone's posts and learn so much; so thank you each for sharing
I have done OK the past 2 days. I ate mostly OP, except for overeating one of my snacks on Thursday. Last night was dinner on my DH's plan; he had planned to take me out and I didn't know about it until I was ready to start fixing dinner. So, even though dinner wasn't on my Plan, I am familiar with the restaraunt we chose so knew I could make good choices, and I did. No bread, salad (with a light dressing) instead of soup, grilled salmon and wild rice pilaf with steamed frech vegetables for my entree. I gave half the salmon to DH and left half the pilaf. Loved the veggies!
Yesterday I took 2 yoga classes and went to yoga this morning.
I am planning to break through this weight plateau!! Two of my golas for this week : no eating after dinner, add at least 3- 20 minute walks in afternoons.
I'm not doing so well with the scheduled eating, but will keep up the attempt!
Another (too) warm day. I could go for your suggestion Maryblu that we do a vacation trade - you can have my house over summer - can be unbelievably hot. I loved Stockholm when the snow was up to my chest and it was -10C in December. Our winter's are puny compared to yours - didn't get under 8C this year
Went shopping yesterday so have the necessaries but need to plan to eat it of course. As some of you have suggested I need to make a plan to survive the festive season doldrums that doesn't involve eating. Not sure yet what I will do especially given I will be with family. When I go home this year (4 hours south of my home) my sister and I will be packing up my parents home, so I will be staying much longer than I like.
Thanks for asking about Christmas in Australia Onebyone and showing a great command of native fauna. You will be gorgeous for the bosses dinner and a clever dinner companion as well. Like BBE's suggestion for wearing a conversation starter! Definitely not white of course and no - it never (rarely) involves Santa with kangaroos, or koalas or platypus - probably because of ties to Britain originally then the Mediterranean. Often more concerned about being visited by spiders and snakes flushed out of the bush by the bushfires. Those who live near the beach may spend the day there but it is usually way too hot for the rest of us. Many I know go for a traditional lunch - roast meat (chicken and pork, less commonly turkey - and veg and stuffing etc) with seafood for other meals. There was one memorable Christmas about 6 years ago - 38C, no air conditioner but fans, had just finished cooking and serving lunch and then the bushfires burned down the power lines. Good thing we finished cooking before that. I was trapped in Ulladulla for 4 days because the roads were closed
Credits - Shopped for food - exercised by gardening this morning - yesterday on plan and today looking good - posted here - ate olives at sink while unpacking groceries - no planned exercise - no A&R cards
Have a good day - wave to everyone. Working today to get projects done
Last edited by GosfordGirl; 12-11-2010 at 08:59 PM.
So we packed an OP lunch and headed 68 miles north to ski and see our DD's BF play in a Christmas festival. The skiing was incredible! Beautiful scenery, snow coming down, and I was so ready for it, because Rugby Girl & I have been training for this. Skied for 1 1/2 hours, then went downtown for the festival in the snow; beautiful and fun. One more ski session (1/2 hour) and we headed home. The picturesque snow suddenly became a driving hazard; the one hour 10 minute trip north took us 4 1/2 hours to get home!!!Quite an adventure! So right now we're a little exhausted, especially since it snowed in our town also and we needed to shovel ourselves into the parking area, and shovel out the dot's dish so we could feed him! Credit spontaneous exercise, I guess. 8" - it is beautiful around here.
Food was OP because I packed it; there is something so great about a basic turkey sandwich & sliced orange when you have worked your butt off and are truly ravenous after hours of fresh air.
Maybe some personals and tomorrow's goals later; right now even my fingers hurt, not so much from skiing but I think from clutching the steering wheel so hard!
Hello! I just finished the first part of Beck Diet for Life. Wow! Lots of stuff to do! I'm a little overwhelmed, but just going to work on the steps a little bit each day. Tomorrow, I just want to get all my supplies together and get organized.