Wednesday night
 

Hey Coaches

Just a quick check in. I weighed in *credit* and was down 0.2lbs. I don't remember what the weight was though. I'll know in the morning.

I have kept up with the task of recording when I eat what and what was going on and how I was feeling at the time. I'm half way through now.

I worked at the ceramic studio today and got the low down on my new guild position (I'm looking after the tea room for the year) and then I picked DH and then we made dinner and watched the premiere of Survivor.

My food was okay today. Not to good/not too bad.

I'm off to read my foodplan book and to read my reward books for getting my tasks done today.

See you back here tomorrow Becksters.

Thursday
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating on plan included dinner at a friend's house, CREDIT moi. Exercise was lifting our new refrigerator with another guy using a set of those neat Shoulder Dolly straps. It was flat out easy, even though the fridge is large, wide, and heavy. Don't know how I've lived my whole life without owning these before.

Thanks all for your kind words at reaching six years on my journey.


onebyone - Yay for an OK food day. Nice to know what your Guild position is so you can just plan that into your life.

Joy (gardenerjoy) – Kudos for having in your pocket, your "normal party strategy of focusing on the veggies and taking tiny servings of other items."

Erika (eusebius) - Ouch for a day so stacked that you have to trust your instincts to do the right next thing. Hope you made it through.

Beverlyjoy – Kudos for using your resistance techniques against the desire for "something chocolaty."

Debbie (Lexxiss) - Congrats for your uphill hike with new ease. Ouch for a Doctor's office providing candy bars.

Pam (pamatga) – Such a nice thought, "Still, I sense my body is happy." [I don't have a vision of "never have to battle the weight issue "- my take is that I'll need to continue being diligent for life. Hopefully, that will include remaining at a healthy weight, but I doubt that will occur without remaining mindful.]

Lovely – Yep, build on what you've got - then move out when it's time.

Readers -

Good morning! :goodvibes

Yesterday was a swimmingly grand day on plan!

I really saw the benefit of having my foods pretty much planned out. I wasn't dreading the "lunch time struggle" of trying to figure out what to make. I looked at what I planned, I made it, and then ate it. No fuss.

It was.... nice. :)

It's also been very nice to enjoy feeling mildly full to almost full when I'm done with a meal. I've settled in on a slowing down/mindful technique that seems to do the job for me. Take a bite of food. Put down the fork. Wait until I chew thoroughly and swallow the one bite before taking another. Repeat. It's so miraculously simple, but without thinking about it, I could easily take 3 bites at a time and not really enjoy the food.

I want to take a moment to thank everyone who posts in this thread, because I've really enjoyed reading about your days and the positivity in the posts and about working the plan. I've taken a lot of comfort in seeing others who are succeeding with such great attitudes about the whole process.

:)

Good morning everyone!

Another very quick check in as things on my desk keep piling up! Had a couple of okay days OP, still not fitting in the planned exercise and am feeling tired because of it. Mentally tired also but need to focus and get back on track with exercise. Credit for weighing in the mornings and reading by cards at least once each day. A big credit for grocery shopping last night and leaving the store without any temptations. :carrot:

I'll try to check back in tonight, I have a massage appointment after work so if I'm still awake and get to the personals.

Have a great day everyone, it's almost Friday.

Hi coaches/friends -yesterday my food plan took a few twists and turns - however, I was willing to, still, write down everything I ate and I was just at the high number of calories. My sodium was around 2000 mg salt. (That's OK) So, it turned out OK on ’paper’ -as a successful food day. I am grateful. (successful but kind of sloppy) But, still grateful to be willing to use ideas I am learning to stop me from going crazy with food.

I had many positives and credits - wrote down & tracked all my food (planned and unplanned). I ate seated only, had no seconds & always left a bite. I didn’t read my Arc/rc or Beck Book.

I just found out that in two weeks my 4 year old grandson is coming for the weekend - he’s bringing his parent’s too. *wink* I am excited!!

I got a Britta filter pitcher. It really makes the water taste better.

T-izzy - credit for your shopping and other Beck tasks completed despite being so busy. Enjoy your massage.

Lovely.. I totally agree with you about the planning ahead. So often, when we don’t plan’ the food or the day's menu- our food thoughts will continually spin around in our heads. But - planning takes that away. Just have to look on the paper, etc to see what’s next. It’s wonderful that you are feeling the results on mindful, slow, tasting eating.

Billbe - credit for staying with a plan, even at a friends!! DH said the same thing about shoulder dolley straps years ago, too.

Onebyone - good job on keeping track of your food. Glad you could work at the ceramic studio.

Gardener-joy - credit for working on figuring out all the hunger possibilities. Good that you had a plan for the gathering.

Lexxiss/Debbie - so glad you made your plan and stayed with it. Credit for taking your Beck book as you wait at the doctor’s appointment. I like to do that, also. It’s the perfect time, really. Credit for your hike and only one stop!!!

Hoping everyone is having a happy healthy day.

Good Morning All,
Busy life - ing. Credit for fitting exercise in this week. I hear Tazzy about difficulties of fitting it in. The last two days I squeezed a long walk while waiting for DS to finish piano lessons. This morning I did half a yoga class between dropping DS off and getting my hair cut. The only willingness I needed for those two events was change into work out clothes and not freshen up the make up. Small sacrifice. Before I wouldn't have counted them as REAL workouts but I know now everything counts toward my 30 min. a day goal.
Weigh today - back to ticker which is a shock since I was blue and struggling OP this week but I have learned time and again. It is not when I slip that creates the damage, it is how quickly I get back on track.
Eusibius: Credit for walking through discomfort and getting back on track.
BBE: Belated happy anniversary.
Beverleyjoy. Plan switches sometimes are so smooth and sometimes they are a sign that I am heading off track. Difficult to know the difference.
Lexxiss: I was still hungry after dinner, too. I had to say, Oh Well, bad choice. I get to choose again next meal.
Lovely: Congrats on weightloss
Pamatga: I hope you feel better.

Hi all,

Just a quick check in. Had the last 2 days off and then work tomorrow. I feel almost caught up with my 2 weeks of Beck steps but I do have to seriously sit down and tackle day 14 - Plan for tomorrow. I don't like the idea of pigeonholing myself into eating exactly A for breakfast, B for a snack, C for lunch etc. As with some of the other steps, I know I have to just try it for a bit before saying it's something I don't have to do.

Today I've done well so far, I did want to eat more after my lunch but I think it was just out of boredom so I hopped on here and started playing a game online for distraction and I made it to snack time without a second thought :D Dinner tonight will be Mexican - turkey tacos, rice, and some fat free re-fried beans. I'm looking forward to it because it will be the first chance to get a nice sit down meal with my boyfriend in about a week due to my work schedule. Now I just have to convince him to join me at the table and not the tv.

Thank you for the concept of 'airy lightness', Joy. I'm going to bed feeling this and am, baldly, quite thrilled by it. I'm taking the liberty of quoting you over at the Operation 5-10 thread on the Maintainers Board. :)

Sorry I didn't get in here yesterday! Funeral, then a lot of busy busy busy surrounding that. I'm glad it's over.

Report: read my cards, weighed (down 1 yesterday, back up 1 today), didn't get any exercise for the fourth day in a row :( but I'm hoping to be back at my normal class tomorrow morning if my daughter is feeling better tonight. Ate reasonably, contacted my diet buddy! Once again no time for callouts -- dh is on his way home after being gone for four days, must get dinner started!

Val

Hi Coaches

Had a bad food day today. Chose sugar for my lunch. I did eat and then stop eating it but it made me feel icky all day. Then DH came home and I overate for dinner...so o well and we move on. again. always. We move on.

I weighed in this morning to see a +0.7 rise in my weight.
I continue to write down when/what/where I eat my food. I am done day 3 of 4 now... almost finished and can see if there are real obvious patterns of behaviour there.

Tomorrow morning I have an appt with a doctor who is accepting patients. It's tough to get a new doctor and I need one since my bp meds are on their last renewal. So I stopped by the new doctor's office and I have an appt to meet him tomorrow at 10:30. It's not a "doctor's appt" per se really, we are interviewing each other to see if we like each other or are a good fit.
Hello?
Call me old fashioned but my old doctor never "interviewed" me. He just treated me. I did see another sign for a "female physician now accepting new patients" and I jotted the number down, in case our "interview" is a bust.

That's all I have for today.
Bye!

Friday
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies - No extra snacks, CREDIT moi, for an on plan day. My great achievement was to get my car inspected after sneaking around town for 15 days with an out-of-date inspection sticker - an invitation for a fat ticket if stopped.

onebyone - Good luck with that interviewing a new doctor.

Beverlyjoy – Yay for the upcoming weekend visit with your laugh therapist, LOL.

sliverbirch – Waving toward your 'airy lightness.'

maryann - Useful thought for me, "It is not when I slip that creates the damage, it is how quickly I get back on track." By-the-by, why aren't roasted walnuts sold anywhere I've looked?

Tazzy - I'm jealous of that massage appointment.

Michi702 - I know that feeling that planning is like pigeonholing; I felt that way but after some feelings of success like Lovely writes about, I grew comfortable with it.

Lovely – Music to my ears, "I looked at what I planned, I made it, and then ate it. No fuss." So good to be reminded of the benefits of a plan.

Val (va1erie) - Yay for the joy of DH returning after four days.

Readers -

weighing in
 

Hi Coaches

It's my official weigh-in day. I'm up 7lbs from last week. I have not lost the puffiness and I just stopped doing what I could to make the numbers better. Because I don't want to gain 7 more pounds this coming week, I will keep trying, but I sure don't feel I will ever get below 270 ever again. I'll just move forward from here. I have no choice but to move forward--and I want to move back down, not up, but I am not sure what I am willing to do to make that happen. I feel very very discoraged today. O well, feelings are not facts, and in a few minutes, a few hours, or a few days, I may be very willing to try again. I'm not the only one "hanging in there".

TGIF coaches.

UPDATE: I passed the interview; I now have a family physician again. It may have helped that he too moved here from Ottawa. He's very soft spoken and was wearing white jeans and red and white pinstripe shirt--very fashionable for a doctor. He took my bp (sigh) and it was a little elevated but to me it sounded ok. I'm glad that's overwith.

My food hasn't improved today, but the offplan eating is only at mealtime. I did *credit* complete the last day of my 4 day win where I track my food. Perhaps it's a good thing to see how/when/where I go offplan. It happens more often than I can count. Tomorrow I'll look and see what patterns jump out.

Report: didn't read my cards, weighed (down 2.6, no idea where that came from), ate slowly and mindfully. Much stress here still as my daughter's boyfriend (the emotional support of whom has been basically a full-time job for her the past two weeks while she was supposed to be recovering from mono) broke up with her last night! :club: Small beans in the grand scheme of things, I know, but to a 17-year-old it feels like the end of the world, especially when she's exhausted all the time because she's spent so much time with him she hasn't gotten enough sleep to allow her to heal. I tend to feel stressed when she feels stressed, so my own stress levels are not great But I didn't eat for comfort, yay me, and today I finally got to my exercise class after missing it twice in a row, walking there and back (yay me). Contacted my diet buddy.

gardenerjoy - I LOVE that! Airy lightness instead of scary emptiness! Good for you for realizing it's to a great extent up to you how you experience hunger.

Lovely - Yay, you for discovering that you actually LIKE feeling mildly full! That's an advantages card: "I PREFER feeling mildly full to feeling overfull."

Tazzy - Good for you for leaving the grocery without any temptations!

Beverlyjoy - Good for you for tracking even though your eating wasn't exactly as planned! I sometimes have a hard time making myself track when I haven't eaten as planned.

maryann -- Good for you for fitting in exercise even though it's not always easy! Wow, 1/2 a yoga class! THAT's determination! I probably would not have even considered doing half a class -- I'd have just thought, "Oh, well, that class won't work for me." But you're right -- half a class is much, much better than none!

michi - You don't have to plan forever. You just have to plan for now. Eventually you move on to a different kind of planning -- one that allows a LOT more flexibility.

onebyone - Good for you for stopping eating, for moving on, and for keeping trying even after what must have felt very discouraging. I don't know your whole story with the 4-day win thing, but it seems you're trying a new approach to dealing with food/eating issues that is expected to take a while to master? When golfers change their swing, they sometimes gain a few strokes before the new stroke starts to become instinctive and they can shave a few.

BBE - yay for an on plan day!

Hi Coaches!

Yesterday was a "hang in there" by a thread kind of day. I did succeed staying OP with SBD Phase 1, which was my goal. I have 2 days down and believe that today will be a breeze. *credit* We hiked up our mountain a little further but will not go up today. I'm nursing a small cold which was part of yesterdays problem. My biggest Beck related success was reminding myself that even though it was lunchtime that I would not eat while I was upset. I waited until I was calmed down. *credit* We have a tree that needs to come down and I found myself in the middle (again) between my mom and DH...very uncomfortable for me.

I must run this morning...I'm taking my mom to Denver for an appt. which is great for me. I pick a lunch spot and enjoy a healthy lunch BY MYSELF! *credit* for good choices. It's a new habit which I've really come to enjoy since she has this meeting once a month.

Take care everyone.

Good Morning Coaches,
OP yesterday. Volunteered in DS class. I taught art. Two kids cried because they didn't think theirs was good enough. This is very troubling to me because it means they have had so little art experience that they can't accept who they are artistically. Plus, art is emotion and it is frightening to some. From experience I know they will come around but I think, What is happening to our expressivenessas humans. Kids are becoming robots.
Work Day on MFA. I have set goals plus a plan to exercise and make a freezer batch of brown bag burritos for lunches.
Michi702: I didn't like (see hated) the idea of writing down my food,as well. I had had a friend in OA and I thought she was insane. But I realized that I wanted to be thin more and that fear was under my Resistance because never before could I stop myself from eating. Good Luck and keep on keeping on.
Lexxiss: Hanging by a thread totally counts. Credit
Va1erie: Credit for walking through this stuff. Nothing more painful than watching your child struggle. Glad you got to exercise class.
onebyone: I can hear your discouragement. I am glad you posted today. That is a credit for telling it like it is. I know recovery comes from that kind of truth telling.
BBE: I ll have to ask hubby. Don't know about the roasting.
silverbirch: thanks for passing on airy lightness.