My weight is up this morning after my first day with a second snack in a while. Probably a late supper of stir-fry with soy sauce didn't help either. Credit for exercising on a busy day and being more on plan than off.
WI: +0.3kgs, Exercise: +50 1040/1400 minutes for May, Food: 80%op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes
BillBlueEyes: I haven't read 50 Shades of Grey yet -- but I've read lots of reviews. So, I can tell you not to expect great literature, but apparently it's a page-turner. DH saw this on the news last night, too, so we've been having good discussions. What's the difference between erotica and porn? Where is the line between hot romance and erotica? Is it porn if there are no pictures? Why do women want stories and men want photographs? If libraries have 50 Shades of Grey, why not Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds? I just checked--a few public libraries actually do shelve that book in the 700s, with the art books. Fun to think of conversations like that happening in the staff rooms of libraries around the country.
I, like Beverleyjoy, can say I had a healthy eating day. Today is Day 5 OP which is a miracle run considering the last several months. I have sat while I ate, although twice it was in the car between meetings. I have not chocolate foraged at school. The scale has gone down a pound and of course I think it should be more. But I ignore those feelings.
Mantra when an urge for chocolate comes: I'd rather resist it at 161 pounds than 175 pounds and I will have to resist it at some point.
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Another on plan day with the food, CREDIT moi. Evening was easier because I was out until 9:30 which didn't leave time for over snacking.
Exercise was a walk, CREDIT moi, that included Whole Foods for peanut butter and coffee where I carefully planned to snarf only one FREE item - the first fruit when I walked in the door - and then leave the rest alone. I did that. I ignored five offerings of FREE cheeses and crackers. The cube of watermelon was all the sweeter when not immediately replaced.
Joy (gardenerjoy) – Yep, soy-sauce does that finger wagging water weight thing. [So I repeated your discussion with DW about 50 Shades of Gray. She delegated me to read it and report back. Seems that gardeners don't have time for erotica during the spring and summer, LOL.]
Debbie (Lexxiss) – I think I can buy buffalo burger around here, but don't think of it since there are no buffalo in sight when I drive in the country. Gotta try that since I recall that they're lower fat or something.
Beverlyjoy – Yay for a healthy day with its (symbolic) two pound loss. Ouch for a garbage disposal with a mind of its own.
maryann - Gonna steal that manta, "I'd rather resist it at 161 pounds than 175 pounds and I will have to resist it at some point." Kudos for again avoiding the chocolate foraging.
Readers -
Quote:
chapter 6Stage 3The Challenging Situations Plan challenging situations skills Confidently Follow Your Plan at Social Events social event skills
To handle social events with ease, you will use many of the skills already presented in this chapter. Here are some additional suggestions:
. . .
Sit down to eat. You just won't be able to appreciate every bite if you eat while standing. If there aren't any chairs, be creative. What would you do if you had a broken leg? You'd have to find a place to sit down. Perhaps you can find a step to sit or ask for a chair.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), pg 152.
I'm just checking in to let you all know I'm still on board.
I've been travelling and will be doing so a lot until the middle of June. My internet opportunities are very limited. I've often found that travel is a big contributor to my weight gain, so while I am at home this weekend I plan to read Day 32 I believe it is in the original book that talks about this.
I'm not really following the book just yet, but I am trying to be careful about what I'm eating, ie not using this time as an excuse to overeat because soon I'll be going on a diet, which is another trap I've frequently fallen into!
I'll be making my full commitment when I get back home in June, because then I've got a solid 10 weeks at home before I am travelling again to really get to work on this.
I've been eating okay-ish again. I only was 75% successfull on eating sitting down. I try to eat my lunch on the clock so I can hula hoop on my breaks. That was a time, I had to stand at the front desk for 15 minutes. Although it was within my calories and planned, so better than a binge in front of the fridge! My weight still seems to be a pound or two heavier. I don't know if it could be lack of water. I've been having a very hard time drinking 5 cups of water, let alone at least 8. This weekend at the training, I was drinking at least 56 oz(?) in a morning. I finally broke into my savings and bought me some sleeping medicine. Hopefully, sleeping will be a bit easier for me. I'm way under calories today (even counting the veggies I ate) but I really didn't feel super hunger until I walked the dog. Now, I'm about to go to bed. I kinda don't want to eat before I lay down.
On the hoop news, I found out I did get my vacations! I'm going to PlayThink Movement festival and 4-H camp. I might make back up plans if Playthink doesn't work out. I also do not have mot the days that I needed to work only 8 hours. I'm going to try to start sporadic evening hoopdance classes at a martial arts studio plus the fitness studio.
I'm worried the most about 4-H camp cause I remember somedays I'd so overeat certain foods, especially breakfast. I'm not really comfortable eating real breakfast foods at all. I do believe I can control my eating at lunch and dinners (also my mom said there is a salad bar now for BOTH meals which for me salad + most of the regular meal, no seconds) but I can't say no to sausages, gravies, pancakes, bacons. I'm wondering if I could see if I can bring my own breakfast. I pretty much don't eat breakfast foods anymore since working night shift. I'll eat cereal only cause it's lighter than anything else for when I go to bed. Or maybe I shouldn't care. I mean, surely I can't eat myself into gaining weight at 4-H camp if I just eat mindfully? I just hate losing control when I feel like I can't even stock up on veggies and fruits like I do with most meals.
Hi Becksters.... yesterday was mostly OK. I had a plan.. but changed it a little when I had a stomach ache and switched to a popsycle, toast & cherrios. I was only a hundred calories over for the day. I am grateful for the willingness to NOT eat a sleeve of saltines. Yesterday I made my plan/measured/logged, did my exercise, quite a bit of water, read my book & cards, ate mostly sitting,and tried to eat slower. I am making progress. A few credits.
This weekend we will be with family. I am going to make the best effort to have food sanity. I think I'll stay away from sugar... sometimes it's a springboard to unhealthy/overeating. We will celebrate DH's birthday. I suggested steaks, salad, garlic bread, & asparagus. I know our DIL will make a pretty cake. One bite is ok...half a cake (sneeking it later) is not.
Our neighbor put in a new garbage disposal for us. DH went to Lowes to get it. It's nice to have helpful neighbors. It saved us alot of money, really. DH is always helping him with projects, as well.
Even though I can't plan everything meal and snack for the next four days. I can try to make good choices. I will try not to approach this as a - I'll start Tuesday time. I hope. I am reading and writing my Beck things.
I need to get ready to leave. I'll see. Have a great weekend.
Thanks to everyone for being so supportive and helpful.
Last edited by Beverlyjoy; 05-25-2012 at 09:26 AM.
I look forward to today, Day 6 OP. A miracle. Resistance seems slightly easier because I don't want to break my streak. Credit for continuing to juice. Credit for step class today. Weight down 1 pound. I have Promotion Dance from 7:00 to 10:00. I will allow myself a Diet Cherry Soda and have a filling dinner before. I do not like the last week activities. I don't like saying good by. Lots of emotions come up like "I didn't do enough" or "I don't get enough appreciation" or "I get too much appreciation". This all makes me very hungry.
Artemis and Daimere: I completely understand the fears of being away and over eating. I spent many a day at science camps stuffing my face, missing out on every other experience because I was obsessed with food. For me, being home is much easier. My most successful plan in traveling circumstances was to eat only one meal out. I ate fruit and oatmeal with protein powder for breakfast in my room and then had cheese, cold cuts or protein bars plus veggies for another meal. At least then , I could limit the chaos. This got me through two weeks at Disneyworld and weeks at a family reunion.
Since Artemis brought up travel, I'll remind myself of my best practices while traveling. In the last couple of years, I almost always lose weight when I travel by following completely new strategies.
I rarely snack when I travel even though my normal routine at home is two snacks a day. This makes up for any excess calories that I can't see in the restaurant meals (that pat of butter that goes on the steak just before it leaves the kitchen and has completely melted by the time it reaches the table). Travel is distracting so skipping snacks isn't as difficult as it would be at home.
Even though I rarely snack, I always have some kind of snack food in the room and/or in my bag. The presence of that snack keeps me from overeating at meals. Sometimes when I'm traveling, it's literally true that I don't know where my next meal is coming from. That thought can lead to overeating the meal in front of me, but not if I know there is a snack stored away in case that meal doesn't materialize. Of course, in the US, and I assume Ireland, the next meal does arrive, right on schedule.
Focus on veggies. And, to a lesser degree fruit. I almost never get as many of either as I would eat at home, so I grab every opportunity to maximize my consumption.
Pay attention to portion sizes. If it's bigger than what I would eat at home, then leave some behind and make sure to thoroughly enjoy the bites that I do take.
This last one is new to me. My weight was up a few pounds in the middle of May and I realized that if I let it stay up there I would be less motivated to be careful what I ate in Ireland. So, I got determined to bring it back down to the low end of my maintenance weight. At this weight, I'm feeling much more motivated to follow all of my practices above. I'm even secretly hoping to be at a new low when I get home. Having that as a goal will contribute to my willingness to eat carefully, but with great pleasure, while I'm on my trip.
WI: -0.35 kgs, Exercise: +20 1060/1400 minutes for May, Food: 90%op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes
Daimere: We frequently travel with breakfast food, although that won't be an option for the Ireland trip. It starts my day off right to eat something healthy for breakfast and that helps my motivation to continue eating well for the rest of the day. It's easy to pack cold cereal and milk or yogurt in a small cooler to go with it. I would have to stay away from the mess during breakfast to pull that off, I suspect, because just the smell of sausages can be hard to resist. Would it help to tell yourself that you'll eat breakfast in the mess on the last day of camp but you're going to stick to your own breakfast on the other days?
It seems we have our weekend planning already in the works. credit.
Yesterday turned into one of those days where I'd say "the heck with it" and turn to my worst food choices (donuts and fast food) for immediate gratification. We have big family events this weekend and yesterday DH just "checked out" of the process. He just stopped participating in ANY decisions and sat in the car while I took care of all the details. We were in Denver and his DD was flying in (right over us) while we took mom to her appt. She's here for the other DD's baby shower on Sunday and is the one he has had very minimal contact with since his divorce 25 years ago. We got home late and my planned dinner not happening was feeding right into my sabotaging thoughts of donuts.
Answer: remember my Beck program. I needed to make a legitimate change in my dinner menu. I went to the store and resisted any and all junk. I purchased items for a healthy meal and subsituted some Kashi whole grain fruit bars for all the awful things I was imagining. credit. It felt absolutely great to be in the grocery store fully under control of what I was going to purchase. Yay!
I weighed this morning and as expected, the scale was up, as I had consumed a considerable amount of coffee before remembering. I almost said skip it for the day, but since I weigh everyday I hopped on anyway.
Today is Dim Sum with DD's. I will be mindful and grateful for working on the skills which allow that to be possible.
BBE, great strategy at WF! I practice that one myself because it helps me to actually "taste" super healthy foods in small quantities.
MaryAnn, kudos for OP days! I so relate to your mantra regarding maintaining our current losses. Looking down the road ahead I KNOW it is easier to resist today than it is 15 pounds later. Gratitude.
Diet Coaches/Buddies - A day of eating on plan, CREDIT moi. Since breakfast and lunch don't include meat, it's a vegetarian day when dinner also doesn't. Yesterday was, with lentil soup for dinner with a big wad of kale on the side. Yay for dark green veggies since I just read, for the zillionth time, that they are the best thing we can do for our diets. Breakfast strawberries are in-season-local uber sweet. So very very yummy.
Gym, CREDIT moi, was uneventful. I watched a BIG guy bench press about 250 pounds. Lovely to watch since that's quite out of my range. I can dream.
Joy (gardenerjoy) – Neat reminder that success breeds success, "At this weight, I'm feeling much more motivated to follow all of my practices above."
Debbie (Lexxiss) – Just super, "remember my Beck program" and make changes. Have a fun, on plan, Dim Sum this morning.
Beverlyjoy – Sounds like clear thinking to me, " One bite is ok...half a cake (sneeking it later) is not." Enjoy all that family time.
maryann - What a powerful bunch of Sabotaging Thoughts to face each end of year. Kudos for recognizing in advance that they're coming so you can have some Helpful Responses prepared. Something like, It was a full maryann year - sometimes folks see that in its right size, sometimes not.
Daimere – Kudos for thinking in advance about your eating at 4-H camp. I, too, have trouble with sausages when presented at a breakfast buffet even though I never have them at home. They're part of the comfort food thinking from childhood. You'd think that I could just savor the smell, recall the memories, and move on to a sane breakfast, but I have to wrestle myself past them every time. If bringing your own breakfast works that sounds like a much better idea than dancing with the notion "maybe I shouldn't care."
Artemis__ – Oh yes, travel presents challenges. Kudos for reviewing day 32 for some strategies. When I travel for work, I add feelings about being put out about evenings away from my family. It's a subtle, Woe is me kind of thing just below rational thinking level so it creeps in where I can't easily counter it with a reminder that travel also presents opportunities. Good to keep reading your goals, including "165 for cruise December 2012,"
Readers -
Quote:
chapter 6Stage 3The Challenging Situations Plan challenging situations skills Confidently Follow Your Plan at Social Events social event skills
I don't expect you to be perfect the first time you go to a social event. As with eating out, social events require you to practice many skills at once. You may make mistakes at first. But practice makes perfect, and you will improve. You will transition from thinking, It's so unfair that I couldn't eat what I wanted, to the liberating thought I'm so glad I don't have to worry about losing control of my eating at social events ... I can just go and have a good time.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), pg 152.
Last edited by BillBlueEyes; 05-26-2012 at 01:32 PM.
Reason: Wow => woe, as in "woe is me."
Lots of exercise in the garden yesterday -- weeding, harvesting, thinning, and (especially) mulching. I've got a friend who will water, but probably not as well as I would so I'm trying to have my garden as clean, neat, and protected as possible before we leave.
WI: -0.1 kgs, Exercise: +120 1180/1400 minutes for May, Food: 80%op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes
A quick hello. Yesterday went well. DH and I went out to dinner on the way. It was a grilled salmon salad with feta. I put aside half of the feta cheese and didn't eat it. It amazes me how sometimes I can and other times I cannot. But, I am doing lots of my Beck tasks and it is helpful.
Credits.. for
writing it all down
lots of water
read arc/rc
very aware of putting fork down between bites
trying to really taste the food
exercises
My hands are achey and tired today. Probably from fist-clenching, maybe also from lifting and toting, certaily not from finger-wagging though that is only from extraordinary self-restraint (see fist-clenching). I went to Ottawa and visited my mom, staying over for 3 nights. My Key West sister was there too, and we agreed it really takes two of us to emotionally handle our mom. I elected not to call my brother or sister to let them know I was in town. I thought, you know, of we were in touch they'd know I was going to be there, but we aren't so they don't and ... truth be told, once my mom knows I am in town it is all about her: seeing her, entertaining her, making sure she's got what she needs for the foreseeable future and then just simply spending as much time with her as I can stand/have because, always always always it's in the back of my mind "She's doing ok this visit. Pay attention. Be fully with her. You have no guarantee she'll be this well next time you see her." This fact is so emotionally draining/tiring/depressing and yet I am grateful I am fully conscious of it all. BUT. We ate. All of us. Together. We ate too much. And then when i got home yesterday, exhausted, after I unpacked the car from the trip and packed it for the farmer's market and a 6:30am start today I gave in and had a super fatty fast food item that I have been craving for weeks. But at the market today I resisted all sweet things and all meat snacks... but I ate nothing at all. So I came home super depressed (bad sales--in fact I OWE a customer 45 cents due to a lack of change on a $3 card sale... vowing I was giving up all markets now because my mother is dying... did you guess I can be a bit dramatic? Uh. yeah.) So DH went out and got us food and geez Louise it was 3x the calorie bomb that I chose yesterday. But I start again. Get on the scale tomorrow and have already re-set my goals. I don't head to Ottawa again until the fall and my art performance, unless I do a couple of art shows inbetween. I may. I may not.
Anyway all that to say I'm back and back on track. Nice to be home and with you all.
Friday was not strictly OP - some cupcake frosting and half a cookie at 10 pm but I am calling it a success. Today is as planned. I checked restaurant's menu online and ordered the healthiest dish. I am proud of myself for that. No exercise today but went shopping with DS and I realized how much I enjoy his company. It sounds strange but he really is the love of my life. I could deny or moderate it but that is the truth. I adore DH but each moment I spend with my son seems like such a precious gift. I know I only experience these feelings when food is in its proper prospective. So for today, I am truly grateful.
Lexxiss: Congrats for continuing on when DH abdicated responsibility. When my DH does that I always feel a little abandoned and a lot hungry. BBE: Congrats on a vegetarian day. I think we are all supposed to have those more than not.
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Another day on plan, CREDIT moi. It feels good to have the snacks thing back under control.
Spent the day doing stuff; never got around to exercise - Ouch. Life certainly seems to filled with stuff.Stuff expands to consume all space and time. I spent part of the day sitting on my patio in the lovely weather reading a book that annoys me, The Tell-Tale Brain, by V. S. Ramachandran. Great topic, neat stories, yet swamped by a sexist, sophomoric ego constantly taking credit for his research. Even if he deserves the credit, my interest is the evolution of the brain, not him. I need to get my Oliver Sacks fix some other way, LOL.
onebyone – Sending supportive thoughts for the reality of all the feelings that go with your mother's situation. Kudos for "back on track."
Joy (gardenerjoy) – Yay for mulch - the grand solution to many problems in the garden. The news continues: a county in Florida has reversed itself and restocked 50 Shades of Gray. The waiting list at a New York Library is more than four thousand. From time to time I forget that banning a book can seriously improve sales.
Beverlyjoy – Monster Kudos for leaving half the feta cheese. Wish that I had read that without thinking that I'd have finished it for you, LOL. I love feta cheese.
maryann - Thanks for "I only experience these feelings when food is in its proper prospective" - reminding me that over eating can overwhelm all my other feelings.
Readers -
Quote:
chapter 6Stage 3The Challenging Situations Plan challenging situations skills Confidently Follow Your Plan at Social Events Memory Box Cards
The first time you stay in control at one of these events and find it meaningful, file that experience in your Memory Box. For example, Laurie wrote:
Memory Card
I went to Kevin's Football party. He served pizza, wings,
and lots of chips, but I stuck to my plan. I used my
skills, stayed in control, and felt great! Now I know I can
eat pizza and stay in control. It's such a great feeling!
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), pg 152.
Friday
I don't know if it could be lack of water. I've been having a very hard time drinking 5 cups of water, let alone at least 8. This weekend at the training, I was drinking at least 56 oz(?) in a morning. I finally broke into my savings and bought me some sleeping medicine. Hopefully, sleeping will be a bit easier for me. I'm way under calories today (even counting the veggies I ate) but I really didn't feel super hunger until I walked the dog. Now, I'm about to go to bed. I kinda don't want to eat before I lay down. 
messes, messiness and the inevitable clean-up
