I have read up to Day 9 in the book, being that I have been following a structured diet plan for the last 3 months, and just started a small amount of exercise. I originally thought I could use my IP coach once a week, but after reading through I see it would be preferable to check in with someone daily, and have someone who gets the thoughts part of it. Can I formally request a coach on here?
Taking a brief break. Now we're struggling along with my father because he's just holding out so darn long and despite the meds, he's not wanting to leave this world. We're telling him it's okay to go meet his wife, see his parents, anything that we believe might bring him comfort. Not sure how long this goes on - the meds to keep him calm are near their max but he's fighting and while these would knock most others out, he's still pushing through it and not relaxing. Hospice is suggesting we bring him to their facility so they can increase meds and reduce struggling - he's maxed out for home administration. He didn't want that.
It seems that the past few days we've kept hearing it'll be within the next 24 hours. Again. And again...
It's not hitting me fully yet - and I truly think that the loss of my mom still hasn't hit me either. DH can't come here really until he can take bereavement leave - after he passes. I miss him and wish he were able to get here soon for support.
Quick note for today--I had another OP day, even though it was a hard day, with some difficult personal stuff.
I'm thinking about the sweet limiting--but it absolutely HAS to be that I can't have sweets on weekends. I already don't have sweets at work. I'm committed to no sweets for the rest of the month. If I were to have a "planned" single sweet, it would have to be a weekday evening. Something to think about. For the time being, though, none.
I don't have a real plan for tomorrow--I'm not quite back into planning out tomorrow the night before. But I'm heading there--tracking today. Planning tomorrow.
I am enjoying my break but food is a bit hard to manage - I don't really know the area and where food is available or what is available and I notice I am regressing to being afraid of being caught out and hungry. Went back for seconds at breakfast - one of the dangers or buffet style food. Tomorrow I will try to do better . Tonight is a seafood buffet - I will make sensible choices
Walked a lot today along the beach and up and down the nearby hills (not really hills - more slight inclines that I still have trouble with). I was here about 18 months ago and could barely walk down to the beach - I feel so much stronger.
BillBE - Luck with your tension projects - great insight that they lead to snacking
flnu - Love your reasoning around how to make OP the default mode moment-to-moment
Onebyone - LOL at passive-aggressive scales that talk back. Hope you made progress with your "big-piece" project. The temperatures are 50 (10C) min to about 60 (16C) max and very windy and a bit cloudy. But there are people in the water with no wetsuits and on the beach so not too cold
ChoosingHappy - we all act as coaches to each other here daily on an informal basis. That I think is the purpose of the list. You will see others discuss that they should post more often - I think that is probably in order to check in daily as opposed to randomly if using the list as a coach.
Nationalparker - thinking of you sitting vigil with your Dad. Hopefully he gets to be at home but time will tell
BethFromDayton - You for on plan even though things have been difficult
Tricia - Waving - hope the tracking started as planned. And have an awsome weekend
Credits
- Checked in
- Ate sitting down
- Made opportunities for incidental exercise
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Eating was on plan including snacks 100%, CREDIT moi. Thanks all for your support; part of my motivation was my desire to write that sentence. I didn't have dinner until nearly 8 pm when I was ready for food or snacks or something. Am pleased that I didn't take being 'ready' as meaning that I should have double portions of cold leftover rotisserie chicken - a food that I'm capable of eating in unlimited quantities. Grinding black pepper on cold chicken reminds me that a few centuries ago a man hauling pepper over the Silk Road would become rich - so glad for ample pepper in our lives.
Project tension continued. The dishwasher delivery didn't happen until 7:20 pm after multiple phone calls with sweet young voices on another continent so carefully explaining that the delivery order couldn't be changed or hurried because it depended on the geography of my house location then ending each time with the maddening "Is there anything else we can do for you?" and me being sure that they wouldn't understand my response, "Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, did you enjoy the theater?" But more importantly, it arrived after my plumber had ceased answering his cell phone. Good news is that it is the model ordered; no dents or obvious problems; and I saved the box for the kids next door to play in.
onebyone – LOL at a passive-aggressive scale. But wouldn't laugh much if it happened to me. Kudos for not committing a violent crime.
Cheryl (GosfordGirl) – Thoroughly enjoying vicarious walks along the beach and 'hills' with you. My imagination wanders at the thought of what wondrous creatures appear on an Aussie seafood buffet.
Woodland - Congrats on that downward motion.
nationalparker – Such a difficult situation when loving means hoping for a calm transition. Continue to send supportive thoughts.
Beth (bethFromDayton) – Kudos for working the issues of a plan for sweets.
flnu - Love, love, love, "My future-self is completely unreliable." The ultimate delusion is that good ole future-self will compensate, will atone, will starve, will spend time with the kids, will fix the screen door. My future-self seems only capable of feeling guilty.
ChoosingHappy - Kudos for beginning that exercise - however small. We tend to use the group as our Diet Coach for daily check-in. Some folks report using a standard line as Joy (gardenerjoy) does. Some report it differently each time. But daily is definitely the right way to stay the path.
Readers -
Quote:
day 19Stop Fooling Yourself
what are you thinking? You might not have many self-deluding, sabotaging thoughts right this minute. But these thoughts probably will surface later, when you want to eat something you shouldn't. Be prepared and have your responses ready.
Sabotaging Thought: It's okay to eat this because otherwise I'm wasting money. Helpful Response: I'm better off wasting money than gaining weight.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), pg 164.
This morning's walk with a friend represented my 365th day of exercise in a row! I was so excited that I made her take my picture.
I didn't post yesterday because I had a morning doctor's appointment. He asked about exercise, so I told him that I was about to reach this milestone. He was very impressed -- he didn't think anyone had ever told him that they'd exercised every day for a whole year.
I'm holding my own with blood pressure, now without the medication that I took for a decade -- another thing that impresses my doctor.
My blood results came back this morning and everything is great. The good cholesterol is off the charts and the two nutrition components that sometimes seem low in my diet were fine -- middling potassium and calcium right at the top of the standard range.
I forgot to weigh myself this morning in the excitement, but I was on plan yesterday with a swap for dinner when we needed something easier after a busy day.
WI: NA kg, Exercise: +30 830/1400 minutes for July, Food: 90% op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes
GosfordGirl: your room and view sound just lovely! Have a great and relaxing time! So cool that you're seeing an increase in your abilities by revisiting the same site 18 months later.
ChoosingHappy: posting daily here is how I check in with my coaches. As a group, we have a startling amount of wisdom amassed among us.
nationalparker: my mother died three and a half years after my dad, and I felt like I wasn't "done" with the first before the second came along. You're definitely dealing with a double dose of stress and grief to have these two events so close together.
I'm heading out for a short vacation. Eating will be different, and much less in my control. I'll work hard to control what I can though. I don't want my downward weight trend to get derailed. Luckily, I have the Beck words in my head now, so will work on using good "self talk" to stay motivated.
Hello - still sitting vigil with hospice here. He is finally now moving a bit more forward down the road to passing but this has been a long five days for him and us. I have been wearing a necklace through this whole time that is a sing of peace and calmness for me and I find myself reaching to hold it at times instead of heading to the kitchen. Despite that, though, I STILL ate three cookies, which typically is not a temptation for me. Three cookies. Sheesh. Even if I count them at 100 calories apiece I'll still be under 1,400 calories solidly. Not moving around a ton, though, so don't need a bunch extra.
I owe a few notes on here, but might take me a day or so to reply. Thank you ALL for your supportive thoughts.
Bill - I had to laugh at your line about liking writing that eating was on plan. I was thinking of you with that super long streak you had earlier.
GardenerJoy - LOVE the pic - such a joyful smile and a streak to be rewarded!
I could get used to being on holidays and taking nice walks on the beach in different directions 3 times a day. But not disciplined enough to have to eat out all the time. I will have to reestablish better habits when I get home tomorrow. I will leave here and pick up my girls and head home. Then back to the routine and discipline of work and dog walking habits and food buying and planning habits - not such a bad thing maybe. I am enjoying sitting here looking out at dusk and listening to a very noisy birdy bed-time
BillBE - Nice to read "on plan including snacks 100%" . I hope to write that sometime soon. Glad that the dish washer at least arrived - hope you made progress with installation today
Gardenerjoy - Love the photo - beaming! So many positives to report from your medico visit - satisfying to not need their help really
Woodland - enjoy your vacation and hope there are not too many challenges with food or self-talk
Tricia - Yay for under 200 - ! Hope you stop feeling a "bit off"
Nationalparker - hope you are travelling well with your father
Credits
- Checked in
- Ate sitting down
- I stopped eating when satisfied
- Exercised - walked
- Made opportunities for incidental exercise
Sunday - 45th Anniversary of the First Lunar Landing
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Dishwasher project remains stalled waiting for the plumber to enjoy his summer weekend. Hopefully Monday. The price for weekend plumbers around here is astronomical - intentionally punitive. Projects do have their own list of little obstacles. A friend yesterday who is trying to get a new apartment under control for her expected baby described how she was working to identify what she had to accept in life verses what she could change. A doctor friend laughed, "Yep, the old serenity prayer again." It reminded me that I'm trying to master the "Things I cannot change" part of that. Maybe I have to accept that I'm slow to accept, LOL.
But, eating was on plan, including snacks, for a second day in a row, CREDIT moi, despite no letup in the tensions. A more rational person than I would note that I ate a whole bunch of cherries for my evening snack. Yep, I did; my plan allows that. Good cherries only happen when they're ready to happen and that's now, so my skin might be a shade more red this morning.
Joy (gardenerjoy) – Super Kudos for your exercise consistency. Just thinking that 365 days has to include the days not feeling well, tired, cranky, or uber busy on elsewhat. 365 days is a big deal. And Yay for good blood work results.
Cheryl (GosfordGirl) – I hate to give up my vicarious beach walks. But I guess you'll be glad to be reunited with your dogs.
Woodland - Happy vacation. Neat that you're taking the Beck words with you in your head.
nationalparker – Thinking of you today sitting vigil. [Thanks for reminding me that I've done a streak in the past.]
Tricia (AZtricia) - Honking Congrats for reaching onederland.
Readers -
Quote:
day 19Stop Fooling Yourself
what are you thinking? You might not have many self-deluding, sabotaging thoughts right this minute. But these thoughts probably will surface later, when you want to eat something you shouldn't. Be prepared and have your responses ready.
Sabotaging Thought: It's okay to eat this because everyone else is doing it. Helpful Response: I have to decide whether I want to eat like everyone else and remain overweight or control my eating and lose weight.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), pg 164.
I dealt with a backyard party, pulling together friends from high school, some of whom I haven't seen in thirty years. I used the same strategy as family potluck -- focus on the vegetables and tiny servings of everything else. I came home hungry and ate a bigger snack than I planned, but I'm considering that a win.
WI: -0.25 in kg, Exercise: +50 850/1400 minutes for July, Food: 90% op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes
AZTricia: Welcome to one-derland! It's a great place to stay.
nationalparker: staying under 1400 calories at this point is an achievement. Could you walk outside some? Ten minutes a few times a day? I found walking outside to be a helpful stress reliever and a moment to connect with what was going on in myself.
. Tonight is a seafood buffet - I will make sensible choices 
Saturday
Off to collect groceries!
! Hope you stop feeling a "bit off"