Evening everyone! :grouphug:

I've read Day 11 today, and I'll be using the chart tomorrow to pay attention and monitor the strength of my hunger around meal times.

I made myself a little response card that seems to put things into perspective for me. In the "advantages" fashion, I made an index card that simply reads "Do you want to weigh 279.9?" (My next mini-goal weight) I put it on top. So every time I pick up my cards to read through them I see that on top. And the answer is yes! Yes I do! I like this. And I'll be making a new card for every mini-goal after this one to keep thinking about what's more important. Achieving my goals... or engaging in a behavior that isn't going to help me achieve them.

Today I tried an experiment. On purpose! I made a meal, and I came to the computer room and ate it at my desk doing what I'd usually do. (My before behavior) Then I compared this meal to the meals that I've eaten at the dining room table lately. Let me just say... there's a difference. I looked down after eating my food and thought "Gee where'd all my food go? Did I really just eat it all? Is my meal done?" I thought about how my stomach feels. And I wasn't necessarily hungry, but at the same time I wasn't feeling very satisfied, either. I'm sold. Eating at the dining room table makes a difference for me.

Check List:
* Read my A&RCs: Yeppers!
* Ate at the dining room table: No...but it was for my experiment. Going back to the dining room table tomorrow!
* Credits: Super Yes! Feeling good about the healthy things I've done all day long.
* Movement/Exercise: Yep. Had to move it to the evening, but I got it in! :D

Painting accomplished, I'm back to being more conscientious about my daily food intake. I'm glad I used my Beck skills to carry me through my busy time.

Yesterday, I committed to writing down my food right after I ate on my dry erase. That worked very good for me.
I set rules:
No Pie!!
No white rolls!! Rye toast, no butter OK
Drink warm water
Accomplished, OP, and I went ahead and logged calories in livestrong even though it wasn't on my checklist..

Today, much the same. Today's rules were:
No snacks between meals
No ice cream
I'll log my calories into livestrong tomorrow morning.

valerie, :welcome2: Glad you're joining us! I hope we meet your diet buddy, too.

BillBlueEyes, yay for a day when eating was OP with very little effort, especially after squashing a sabotaging thought.

MaryContrary, great to see you! Kudos for keeping your eating/exercise on the forefront during dissertation time.

gardenerjoy, I hope today was better, since you were in charge.

Michi702, great that you planned ahead for the cookout, including having your ARC close by.

Pam(atga), I chuckled...guess Labor Day isn't big for piano tuning. Great that you made a holiday plan which included some favorites in moderation.

SuperChick, that's quite a ride! Do you have an official holiday coming up in Scotland?

Beverlyjoy, yay for a healthy day...ouch for smore drama. Thanks for the update...glad you stayed strong.

onebyone, interesting insights….I've been studying "intention" through my yoga. Keeping my statement positive seems to really help. I can say today, I want to lose weight for me. I found a quote, "When you really want something, the whole universe conspires to help you."

Lovely, what an interesting experiment with your food. I never purposely tried it but the few times I get distracted I wonder the same thing, "where did my food go?

Weighing every day hasn’t magically stopped the gaining. But it did “magically” penetrate my brain, finally, that it’s time to accept that I can’t keep eating this way if I don’t want the same results. This would be a good time to switch plans since that’s worked for me in the past, but I don’t have anything to hand that appeals to me.

So, I’m going to play with an idea from The Step Diet by James O. Hill which is to simply eat 75% of what you normally eat. For some meals that’s not all that simple, but it’s simple for breakfast and for my snack. So, I’m going to implement it for those two. Plus, I’m going to skip the occasional second snack which has not been all that occasional recently. Let’s see if those simple changes are enough to move things in the right direction again.

I managed it today, but was hungry more than I expected or wanted: Hunger is not an emergency. I added an affirmation: I choose not to act grumpy just because I'm hungry. Besides not inflicting a bad mood on DH (which was the impetus for the corollary), it turned out that I feel less grumpy when I don't act grumpy. Good to know.

WI: +0.1kgs, Exercise: +90 135/1300 minutes for September, Food: 100%op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

Beverlyjoy: love the picture of your DH loading s'mores with chocolate! And loving that it's a mind image and not something I have to deal with in front of me!

Welcome, va1erie!

Good Evening Coaches:
Back from camping trip. These trips are so fantastic in so many ways for DS and me. These last moments of young boyhood are precious. He will still hold my hand, he will still whisper in my ear in the tent, he still dances for the Elvis impersonator show at the campsite. But for me, food is always tough. I did have almost two complete days OP before the smores. Sunday was not great nor was today. I am home and very tired. I do have tomorrow off so I will get some MFA stuff done, be easy on my self when I weigh in, remind myself this is a long race. I have said many times - I can have perfect food or I can have a rich life of family, friends and adventures. I know there is a balance and I get closer to it every time I am willing to live in truth and a willingness to change.

Beverleyjoy: I was trapped in a house with 2 pounds of See's candy this summer. I can sympathies with the unsafe feeling.
BBE: Tracklighting- impressive but can you lift the bikes on the roof top carrier all by yourself? (OK you probably can)
gardenerjoy: hang in there. I feel we are running the same race. I touched down briefly to goal and then lifted five pounds up. Still we are both here and much lighter than our former selves. Willingness is the key.
Lexxiss: Like the idea of dry erase boards.
Valerie:welcome and congrats on your success
Lovely: It is truly eye opening to realize how you wait every moment for the next bite then zone out while you are eating so there is never truly any satisfaction.
Superchick: Quite an accomplishment. That is beautiful country, I visited it once.
Pamatga: Credit for productive time with hubby.

Hi Everyone,

Finally checking in again now that I have the last thing on my to-do list done for the weekend. Good thing I had 3 days! Stayed OP pretty well Sunday and today, am quite happy with my exercise for the weekend. Swimming on Sat, Zumba on Sun and a 35 minute bike ride today followed by 1 hour working in the garden. Credit to me:carrot:.

I worked through one of my sabotaging thoughts for the exercise on Day 27 and it did take some time and some serious thinking to answer those 7 questions. Now I need to do it about 3 more times for the other thoughts I'd like to address. It was sure interesting to see how my mind can turn things around.

All "3" of the boys in my house have wanted me to bake pies for a long time, I kept putting it off as it is too much of a temptation for me. Yesterday I decided to go ahead (probably because I brought home about 10 pounds of rhubarb from my mom's house) and I made a strawberry rhubarb pie and blueberry ones. I had planned one small piece for the day and actually served myself half the amount I had anticipated having. And it was just enough. There is still some left today but it does not appeal to me at all right now (and that's saying alot as I make one heck of a good pastry crust) :chef:

BBE I can totally relate to your IKEA experience, I generally only go there under duress. I'm not fond of a store that almost forces you to look at every item in order to get to the check outs. Last time I was there I planned to have the frozen yogurt but the line up was way to long for me to wait it out.

va1eri Welcome to the group!

Lovely I love your idea of the pretty paper for your notes. In the "olden" days of handwriting letters I used to love picking out all the beautiful kinds of stationary. Makes me want to start mailing letters by snail mail again.:snail:

Hello to onebyone, pamatga, Lexxiss, SuperChick, gardenerjoy, beverleyjoy, Michi702 and Maryann. Hope you all enjoyed a nice long weekend.

Hello, everyone! :welcome3: va1erie

As things have a way of evolving, my DH, Paul, has been working on a presentation for a men's group retreat in October. I had an epiphany that since his is the very first one that I exclaimed, "You are going to set the tone for this entire retreat." I don't know how helpful I was saying that. He is already in full perfectionist mode as it is. He has re-written it 6x. There was a hand-out with some key questions. Smarty-pants that I can be, I said, "well, how about if we follow the thesis, antithesis and synthesis model??" (how 'bout you shut up, Pam!).

Anyway, as we were working through the anti-thesis part of his presentation, a familiar crisis we went through in 2004-2006 came up. I mentioned some things that I thought I had shared with him about this extremely painful time we had gone through together and either he was hearing it for the first time or what, I don't know....anyway, before I knew it we were both feeling very emotional, some tears and some very gut wrenching honesty on my part. My dear sweet Paul, saint that he is, just looked at me with such "Oh my, gosh, I did not know...." kind of look.

Nothing was resolved from that conversation except that we were both aware of how we haven't really been healed from that experience and how important that it is that we need to be. However, this is one of the most amazing things about our relationship. We can be incredibly honest with each other and it binds us like Crazy Glue. That kind of intimacy though is intense so it really helped to watch "Shrek" 1 and 2 sometime afterwards. Whew! What a "heavy" day emotionally and befitting since a tornado was going through the NW part of Atlanta suburbs. Fortunately, some property damage but no lives lost. There was rain all day too so you know what I like to do when it rains:yup! Cook! What do I do after I cook? I eat.

Well, I cooked and I ate (too much) today. I didn't eat junk food. It was all "good for me" but if I would have had it my way, I would have eaten more. I said it. I would have. I didn't exercise because it just didn't fit the rhythm of my day either. So, let's see.....no exercising and eating more than my body needs. That seems a sure fire recipe for gaining weight, doesn't it??

I give myself credit for logging every bite, stopping when I did and allowing myself to sit with my residual hunger pangs. I am confident that those you who had to deal with family/friend outings this past weekend will get right back on track this "work week".

I may have mentioned before that my DH is supposed to be follow a certain "dietary rule" as a professed Carmelite. I am possibly going to join the lay religious order myself. In July, I began praying the LOTH along with him (which he has done for over 35 years). Well, I came up with the "bright idea" that since he didn't do so well last year (the "dietary rule" runs from Sept 14th to Easter Sunday) I thought I would be supportive and offer to join him. Well, he thought it was suppose to be 3 meatless days a week and now he read today that it is fasting Mon-Sat and eating "normally" on Sundays. We discussed how this would impact our life and how we would go about practicing this.

Since those of you who are familiar with my spiritual journey as well and how I feel about that, I wanted to make sure that I didn't use this "dietary rule" as a "convenient excuse" to get into a weird place with food and start "playing some kind of games" with my food plan. So, having said that, I told my DH, dear Paul, that I would follow my BLC recommended food plan (to me it feels like fasting!!)with a strong emphasis on not eating "empty calories" (there is more want than need in those foods). We both agreed that Sunday would be our designated day of eating out (you know how I love to do that!). All I can say is that it will either make me or break me. I am always up for a spiritual challenge so we'll see what comes of this.

Great Job Bill with the track lighting. (I don't like IKEA-the barn-size stores, the too bright whiteness and the ultra contemporary furnishings. I like small stores, antiques and lots of table lamps for a dark cozy feel.)
Tazzy USPS says they might stop delivering snail mail by the end of this year since they have been losing $$. It seems no one buys stamps and only uses e-mail. Boo hoo. 3/4ths of my delivered mail is 3rd class crap and the things that I do mail have been lost (including car payment checks!). Hurry up and send out your lovely stationery before they go belly up.
gardenerjoy My heart goes out to you. Just remember, we are here to back you up so you won't slide all the way back. Ask and you shall receive.Friends don't let friends "sabotage" themselves. You are worth so much more.
Beverlyjoy and to think you said "Yes" to this guy a while back??? Bad boy! ;):D I haven't had S'mores in years and years. Now, I want one!:(
Lovely I don't think food tastes as good after the first few bites. That should be a signal to stop eating, right? Hmmmm.... GJ on practicing this tough skill to master.
Superchick What an exhilirating ride that must have been!! Did you get a t-shirt with Nessie on it anyway??;) My DH asked the nurse after his annual procto exam "if he got a t-shirt with the deal" and she asked him, "and what deal might that be?" [totally unrelated but oh well....]
Lexxiss There is a teacher in you, isn't there??? I like dry erase boards myself. I have one in the kitchen for "ideas". It is small but then so are my ideas.:D

Stats for Day 28 (Labor Day) BLC Buddy Challenge:

**2619 calories (819+) 35 g fiber 4083 mg sodium (1082+)
**Day of Rest
**F/V: apple, raisins, NS cranberry juice, V-8 juice, sweeet potatoes, whole green beans, carrot, celery and onion in [homemade chicken noodle soup].

Pam

Welcome va1erie
 

:welcome: va1erie :welcome:

And, on the occasion of your one year anniversary at 3FC, :wel3fc:

How did you learn about the books by Dr. Judith Beck?

And how did you find this Beck forum on 3 Fat Chicks?

Tuesday
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating on plan, CREDIT moi. Beautiful weather here for Labor Day which we celebrated with a simple Japanese dinner at a restaurant so that they did the labor of cleaning up.

onebyone - That's a satisfying move to pay off a debt - Kudos for getting that off your agenda. Ouch for the Sabotaging Thoughts about how much you ought to lose before Florida when it would seem that one day at a time is the path to a happy Florida.

Joy (gardenerjoy) – Kudos for evaluating your need to switch your eating plan. I just love the notion in The Step Diet that you would cut one quarter out of your hamburger.

Beverlyjoy – Yep, such a simple but powerful thought. "I need to learn to roll with it." Yay for your DH getting the good ice cream out of your realm. 36 is a lot of Hershey bars, LOL.

Debbie (Lexxiss) - Yay for painting accomplished! That's been a long time coming.

maryann - Beautiful that you are so aware of this precious time of fading boyhood. Kudos for being in touch. Thanks for the reminder that we need to seek a balance between our food plan and our desired social life. [Haven't done roof rack bikes in a while; don't know if I can or not.]

Pam (pamatga) – Amazing that you are able to combine deep emotional feelings and Shrek in the same day. Kudos for being aware that a strict set of diet rules might be a problem for you.

Tazzy - Yay for rhubarb! Double Yay for rhubard pie, with Kudos for controlling yourself around it. Neat that you are working the Seven Questions Technique. I hope you share with us how it works out for you.

Michi702 - LOL at your story with the 4 bags of BOGO chips - mainly because I never remember Buy One Get One so I was trying to figure out what kind those were. Kudos for considering trading some computer time for dieting time.

Lovely - Neat experiment comparing meals at the computer verses the dining room table. It's the "Is my meal done?" thought that I recognize.

va1erie - Neat that you're already maintaining and recognize that you still need the kind of strategies and support that the Beck program offers. I, too, discovered Beck after I had lost my weight and knew that I needed something to keep it off.

Working the farmer's market sounds fulfilling. We have a bunch around here. It's easy to get addicted to really fresh veggies; when we have local strawberries, they are so good with the special feature that they have to be eaten right away - so I get to gobble and gobble. Glad you've joined us.


Readers -

Morning, all! Thanks for the kind welcome!

Lovely: Love your experiment! I have really pretty much got the sitting down habit, but the mindfully part I still work on. I tend to eat while doing something else. I have a rule that I have to leave a bite of everything I eat because it forces me to pay attention. If I look down at my plate and it's empty -- I didn't leave a bite -- I know I wasn't really mindful.

Lexxiss: Why warm water?

gardenerjoy: I love that you feel less grumpy when you don't act grumpy! I've had a similar learning -- if I smile, it actually makes me feel happier.

maryann: Camping's hard. Credit for not seeing going off plan as a disaster.

Tazzy: I had planned one small piece for the day and actually served myself half the amount I had anticipated having. And it was just enough. Credit!

pamatga: I cook when it rains, too! Or snows. And sometimes when it's cloudy...or windy... :D I love to cook.

BillBlueEyes: I first heard about Beck's book quite some time ago -- I want to say maybe something on NPR? -- and finally got it from the library in maybe December, read the first few pages and was really fascinated, then set it down to give myself a chance to order my own copy (so I could write in it, highlight, etc.) and to go get my supplies...and in maybe February finally got my act together. :) I'd already started losing by the time I started using Beck's book, but I found it SO helpful in staying motivated while I lost and developing the habits I need to maintain. This is the first time I've ever lost the whole way to goal and NOT started slooooooowly regaining pretty much immediately upon reaching goal. I credit Beck's book, daily weighing, and having a diet buddy who expects me to report in EVERY DAY for making the difference for me. Then about halfway through the pink book, I discovered the green book and really like its practice-a-skill-for-as-long-as-it-takes focus better than the one-skill-a-day-no-matter-how-simple-or-complex focus of the earlier book.

My diet buddy and I had been using another forum for the past five months or so, but unfortunately that forum no longer works for us so we needed to find another one. I found this forum by doing a google search on Beck Diet Forums. This forum came up second. (A team on SparkPeople came up first, but I didn't like their forum interface as much.)

Yeah, I love working the farmers' market! But boy am I glad this coming Saturday isn't going to be as hot as last Saturday! It's downright CHILLY here today and I am loving it!

So the Readers section of your daily post here -- are you going through the green book step by step?

Report: read my cards, weighed (no change), ate slowly and mindfully and left a bite, and made pretty good choices even though we went out to dinner with my dad and his girlfriend and my sis and BIL last night. I ate a very small portion -- just a taste, really -- of the two appetizers we ordered for the table, then ordered an "Eggplant Napoleon" which wasn't exactly -low- in calories but not a bad choice. Skipped dessert. Had a couple glasses of wine, but didn't have a wine-induced snackfest when I got back home. Got spontaneous exercise (walked the ~3/4 mile to and from the restaurant) but no planned, as my regular Monday exercise class was cancelled due to the holiday. Contacted my diet buddy!

Val

what goes up
 

Hi Coaches

Very Fall-like out there this morning. 10C. :brr: Very appropriate for back-to-school though. You just know it's time; the season's are changing.

*credit for my weigh-in a -1.5 = 278.7 heading back down again.

I have to say the trend is downward. A month ago I wasn't below 280 at all, now I hover closer and closer to the 275. In another month I'll be hovering around 270 and so on IF I KEEP ON KEEPING ON.

I start my next 4 day exercise today. Basically it's a 10 minute meditation meant to detach from my stresses and to calm myself down. I don't want to say that this will be "easy" compared to noticing my thoughts, but yeah, it will be much easier.

I'm having a tough time giving myself my rewards. It's like giving yourself credit but putting more action to it. I was assigning myself some time out to read for the first 3 days and in general I have been keeping that up but my reward for finishing the 4 days (day 4) is something bigger and it was supposed to be the free 2 week pass to the Y but right now I can't use excess gas to get to the y in the car (it's far) and there's no extra $ for buses either so I have to postpone that until we improve our finances once more on the 15th. Maybe I'll schedule time to watch a movie tonight at home. I can do that.

I have a focused work week and I'd better get ready to get to the studio. I need to get my breakfast so I'd better go.


beverleyjoy I've adapted your thorough checklist for my own purposes - thanks for the great template. I need to check things off!

Today's plan:
planned/measured/logged/food tracker my food
eat seated only
Response cards
Beck book
fork down between bites
taste the food
water
exercise
journal/4 day win exercise
slow mindful eating
feel fullness
leave table a little hungry
leave a bite
used distraction techniques
countered sabotaging thoughts

Hi Beckies/coaches - I stayed with my plan yesterday - even with the cookout here. DH brought home 36 chocolate candy bars for the s'mores. I freaked out. But, I gave the extra ones to the children to take home. I have four for my mom and she will be glad. Grateful to be willing to NOT eat all the candy bars. I did have a s'more - it about 150 calories. I ate it slowly and enjoyed every bite. It was planned.. So no guilt

I have been doing lots of meditation. It's been helping.

At the cookout I ate mostly veggies and just a few bites of my hamburger (and my s'more). I only had eaten about 850 calories by bedtime. I did have a bigger snack to get it close to 1100 calories. I wasn’t sure whether to just go to bed or eat more… so I ate more. LOL

Today I need to go spend some time with my mom. She's not feeling so well.

I've done my exericises and am planning for a healthy day. I am really liking the food tracker at Sparkpeople. It is especially helpful with watching my sodium.

Onebyone - I love the other things you added to the daily checklist that I use. I’ll borrow a few from you… thanks! I have going back to including some meditation into my day. I am finding it helpful.

Valerie - WELCOME! It’s wonderful that you have lost your weight and realize you need something to help you maintain your weight loss. Dr. Beck’s techniques are so helpful.

Billbe - sounds like a great Labor Day. Credit for staying healthy at the restaurant.

Pamatga - credit for not eating junk food when you ate extra! Especially good that you wrote it all down despite it being a bit extra. That’s the kind of honesty that helps us grow as we learn to have a more sane relationship with food. Yes, it’s easy to play games with our food plan.

Tazzy - credit for getting through those few days well!! Credit for having a half of planned portion of strawberry rhubarb pie. (my favorite)

Maryann - so glad you such a good time with your DS. Being away from home it tough, for sure. Give yourself credit for doing so well the first couple of days! Good to be home in your ‘food comfort zone’.

Gardener/joy - I agree about switching up your food plan to give yourself a ‘fresh start’. For me it was using the Sparkpeople food tracker along with my exchanges as a guide. Credit for remembering that ‘food is not an emergency’.

Lexxiss/Debbie - credit for using your beck techniques to help you with the food during such a busy, busy time. Good for you adding some new ‘rules’ to help you with your living with food.

Lovely - good idea on adding a response card to fit into your daily readings and goals. I agree… there is a big difference eating without distractions. …good experiment, Many credits.. Super!

Michi - yes, indeed. It’s hard with the folks we live with bring in our challenging foods to have around. I agree… it’s so easy to stay on the computer instead of doing other important.

Have a great day, friends!!!

Good Morning:
Just lost the post. DRAT!!! no time for new. Up three pounds from camping. Not unexpected. I will use my program to battle cravings I know will come today becuase of sugar this weekend, weigh and measure, step class 50 mins.
Have a great day.

General Comments:

Well, I had been doing the basic "stabilization" workout recommended on BLC. There were three levels to that. I had been adding ankle weights and doing the max reps just so I was giving myself a harder workout. Today, since it has been 3 months since I began doing the rehab exercises in "Treat Your Own Knees", I thought I would take a look at the next level on BLC. So, today I decided to start the Circuit Workout -Level 1-Beginner. This is more like what you might see in a gym. A lot more of this will be standing on my feet too. I feel like I have graduated. In fact, I have. There are the "traditional" squats using both a medicine ball and dumb bells. There are also some upper body exercises using a "tension" tube. I had all the equipment so I didn't have to go out and buy anything new.

I wasn't sure how my knees were going to handle it but since I was just starting out and kept checking the video demo (on BLC site), my knees didn't bother me at all. I could feel it in the front part of my thigh so I think that is good. I went up to 5 lb dumb bells since I am dropping back down to 1 set of 12-15 reps. In a way, it didn't seem like much of a work out compared to what I was doing but then again I was going slower and kept checking the demo to make sure I understood the mechanics and form of the exercise.

I know it is important to work the same muscles in a different way. One of them, which mimics "dry swimming" (you lay on the floor on your stomach and use both arms and legs in a swimming motion) supposedly uses nearly every muscle group. That is what I have read. If you keep doing the same thing over and over, then your muscles really get "lazy", so to speak. I want to keep on "challenging" my muscles over and over again. So, that is how I started out this new "week".


PHASE 2:
Circuit Workout

LEVEL 1:
Beginner

Perform 12 - 15 reps per set of each exercise. One set will take 45 - 60 seconds to complete.
Complete 1 circuit (Do all 9 exercises).
Rest 30 seconds between exercises.

EXERCISES:

Back extension [lower back]
Bench press [chest, anterior shoulders and triceps]
Bent over one arm row [upper back, posterior shoulders and biceps]
Lat pulldown with tube [upper back lower back and biceps]
Oblique abdominal crunch [side abdominals]
Prone Swimmer [upper/lower back, abs, butt, hips, hamstrings]
Rear stepping lunge with shoulder extension[quads,upper/lower back, hamstrings, butt,hip]
Side step squat with overhead press[quads,lower back, triceps, hamstrings]
Squat with forward lift[quads, hamstrings, lower back, hips]

Favor Please??? Will someone ask me periodically how I am doing with the painting in my home office/workout space?? I have been stalled way too long on this and I need someone to remind me to "move it--move it". Thank you.

onebyone I was also going to mention that although it would be nice if there was less of you by the time you get to Florida; I believe that one of the cornerstones of "lifestyle change" is the fact that you are not doing this for the short-term "perks" but for the rest of your natural life. As Bill can attest to this (et al as well) this is not something you pick up and use whenever the mood strikes, it is a day in/day out kind of activity like flossing your teeth, watering the plants and taking the dog/cat out for a walk. It is just another thing to do in our "lives".

I, for one, have put so much of my life on hold in the past simply because of my weight. Now, that I am sleeping better and I am having a lot less joint pain, I am comitted to getting back into the "swing of things". I am looking into joining a few things that I had hesitated to in the past because I just never knew how I would feel when the time came to do whatever it was I was planning on doing. This fall/winter could turn out to be quite busy.

I am going to put this out there and if I am being too candid, just slap me, ok? Stop worrying what other people think about your body. The only person's opinion that matters is yours and then your sweetie. You are traveling to Florida as an artist not a model. Wow them with your talent not your tush!! The temps will be in the low 70s by then and depending on how long you stay there, it could be quite humid. If you need some clothes, let me know your size (top and bottom) and I will send you some appropriate attire to wear to your Florida address. I'm serious.

Tazzy OMG :fr:, fruit pies are my all time favorite. I don't know how you did it.:dunno: I just see a pie and want to fill my pie hole like a not-so-cute pig. Amazing W-Power!! (will or won't, take your pick)

va1erie: GJ in recognizing the "where-to-go" forum for continuing success in your weight lose journey.

gardenerjoy I'll pulling for you. You can do this!! I admire your stick-to-itiveness. Major Credit goes out to you.

Lexxiss, michi702, lovely and maryann: GJ in covering the bases with your choices, food plans and how to work it all out in your daily lives.


Credit goes to me for:

**getting right back into the swing of things today, putting the weekend behind me. "hand to the plow and not looking back..."
**started out by practicing going without two meals until dinner time before eating (not to undereat but to just practice "Hunger is not an emergency")
**deciding to take my work outs to a new level which always gets me enthused and spills over into other areas of my weight lose efforts.
**when some building inspectors came in the middle of my work out, I let them in and told them to do what they needed to do because I was working out and then I continued to do just that.
**for the first time (I think), after making my favorite whole wheat "healthy" pizza (YUM!) I made two personal pan sized pizzas and immediately put one in the refrigerator for another day.
**another "possible" first: since I know how many calories I am burning thanks to both my pedometer and my treadmill, I am not going to have my no sugar fat free ice cream sandwich until I have 'earned it".

Pam

I had a successful Beck day, sticking to OP foods eaten in portions which allowed me to stay within my calorie range. I ate only my 3 planned meals with no snacking inbetween. I wrote down what I ate and will enter it in livestrong tomorrow. Exercise was water aerobics. I resisted the leftover zucchini hashbrown, even though the calories were low and pitched the darkest pancake instead of eating it. Oh, and although I rarely mention it, I do weigh every day looking to maintain or very slowly inch downward.

BillBlueEyes, I like your holiday eating plans, and envy your multitude of choices.

gardenerjoy , yes, it's good to acknowledge that acting grumpy leads to feeling grumpy which is (for me) an eating trigger. I like your new plan and will look forward to hearing your review.

maryann, glad you had fun with your Elvis impersonator and that you're still actively seeking balance.

Tazzy, kudos for a successful weekend, especially for having only 1/2 of your pie slice.

Pam(atga), I think your modified "spiritual fast" is quite sensible. *credit* for recognizing that Pauls version would be sabotaging. How long since you started this painting project? I can tell you, just finishing one, that the reward for finishing is great.

va1erie, great report on your day. Yay for spontaneous exercise! BTW-I'm drinking warm water VS cold this week, which, according to some schools of thought helps cleanse the digestive tract.

onebyone, keep on keeping on!

Beverlyjoy, yay for an OP day, despite DH's smore escapade!

It's been too long............
 

Hello everyone.......I wish I could say I had been lurking and still on plan, but alas, I checked out of the site and the plan for a couple weeks. Too many excuses, none of them acceptable. General theme is that I often place time for myself as the last priority of the day. Which in turn makes it much easier to just throw the towel in. For a day and then a weekend and then a week..... :(

However, I am back! And back on plan. Have decided to try logging in at night - mornings do not seem to work for me, as I get overwhelmed at work. (Not sure who I was kidding anyway, as I am sooo a night owl and NOT an early bird!:dizzy:).

So I have decided to challenge myself to 30 days on plan and 900 minutes of exercise during these 30 days. And I am going to actually track both days OP and minutes exercise. I am hopeful that these tangible goals, along with the BDS principles, will keep me focused and motivated. I planned/tracked everything I ate today and avoided my "pitfalls" of the last few weeks (vending machines and fast food). I re-read the first 14 days of Beck (which is where I stopped) and moved on to Day 15. I took an hour walk. Credit me all around.

I am struggling a bit with the thought that I started WW again last November 1st and am only down 13 pounds at this point - 10 months later. I was down 23 pounds but have regained 10 in the last couple of months. I know I should focus on the loss (and no gain, which could have been the result), but I also know that I can do much better. So I am going to try to really focus for the next 60 days and see what I can achieve.

I have been gone long enough to not be able to read everyone's past posts.....but I skimmed the September ones and am glad to see you are all well. Too many to try and do personals, but know that I find helpful tips and inspiration in all you share. Welcome to the new Becksters as well!