Another busy day at work, but zipped home to check on our pet crew at lunch. Basically I can get there, 10 mins at home and get back to work in my hour, and still be a little late back to work. Credit for ONLY eating my lunch (soup) and not adding more to it like I tend to at home. I did take a bag of skinny pop 100 cal popcorn and then thought, I'm satisfied - I don't need it. SO left it and saved my treat for tonight. (I ate it before dinner, but what can I say...)

DH is home later again tonight - he's off work but has the long transit. Peppers, onions, medallions of chicken sausage and a bit of pasta mixed in with some parm. Crisping up my romaine for salad, too. I've been looking forward to this dinner :) I sure hope I'm not the only one who anticipates meals on regular nights. I figure I might as well make things I like vs. things that are just ehh.

Bill - I just cannot fathom that much snow! Be careful. Love the reality of neighborly neighbors coming together with the challenges.

Joy - Hope your Thai lunch was delish! Our Thai place isn't cheap but I can get 3 meals solidly out of a meal... one for me and one for DH if he takes the rest for leftovers. Now you have me wanting that again! ha ha ... Great news on the dr. appts!

Karen - I am so envying you your weather right now. I asked DH if we could start a folder of nearby hikes (there are VERY FEW options right here), ranging in distance and also in distance from here, so we can quickly come up with ideas.

Have come to the conclusion (sadly and fighting it, apparently) that if I'm going to get active, I gotta do it all by myself bc DH isn't as gung ho as he was a few years ago. DH said we can go look at the exercise bikes before ordering one (amazon has it for $100 less with free shipping than a local store) ... I don't want to let that go too long.

Hello Coaches,

Just a quick pop in tonight. Credit today for:

-eating healthy and on plan
-knowing what I am going to eat tomorrow
-making lunch to take to work tomorrow
-doing some meditation. Trying to get back to daily meditation-find it helps me in so many ways
-checking in with my coaches
-weighing myself

Hope everyone has a good, sane eating day tomorrow.

:grouphug:

Wednesday
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Shoveled the remaining snow, CREDIT moi. Today I woke up to see the streets without a single new flake of snow on them - a welcome change. We get a clear day today . . . and then Thursday's storm will hit. I wanted to return a library book - mostly for the change of scenery. The library didn't answer their phone; Of course, everything was closed yesterday.

Food was good enough, CREDIT moi. Evening snack was a California Navel Orange. After dinner, DW and I went through our favorite seed catalog to make choices for spring planting. We'll try a new Kale and one new tomato. Mostly we'll repeat what succeeded last year. The bush beans in the community garden did poorly last year we suspect due to insufficient watering (my responsibility). It's been suggested that a little more diligence this year will create a bigger crop.


onebyone – Ouch for gravity; if a large enough chuck of the earth would spin off (like it did to create the Moon some zillion years ago) then we'd all reach goal weight. Neat solution to the two menus issue with the pot roast - Kudos. [That Otawa just stopped removing snow blows my mind. Don't let the Mayor of Boston learn about that.]

Joy (gardenerjoy) – Yay for each step that delays the failings so that more of our end game is played out mobile and healthy. My Congrats to your DH for being the direct cause of his improvemed data.

CeeJay - Great list of credits - Kudos. It feels strange to me to think, If I lived in Canada now I wouldn't face all this snow.

maryann - Super Kudos for having the clarity to be grateful for a colonoscopy. I do tire of having friends complain about its unpleasant aspects instead of being glad that it's an available option.

nationalparker – Count me as one who also looks forward to regular evening meals. Kudos for skipping the popcorn - even if it later went down.

ForMyGirls - Waving back toward down under. Always inspired to read, "Long term goal: The Overland Track."

Karen (karenrn) - Yep, right now it's hard for me to remember days when one has to get out early before the heat builds up.

Readers -

Today's schedule keeps changing. I'm writing a flexible food plan, including the option of "none" for one of my snacks. We may go to a movie and split popcorn, in which case one snack will be plenty.

WI: -0.35 kg, Exercise: +60 390/1200 minutes for February, Food: 100% op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

Tired of the mental hit of being on plan each day recently and seeing the scale rise each day. I want more correlation. I have been proud that I've been able to reduce my portion sizes, we're using small plates for entrees, larger salads first, more veggies, etc. Now I'm getting confused in if it's the 100 Day Weight Loss Solution that says weigh daily so you get more immune from it and accept it just as data ... or is it Beck? I thought Beck was a weekly weigh in. Both seem to have value.

Just checking in - don't have a lot to say today. I gained three pounds from my last weigh-in, which I'm obviously not happy about. But I wasn't as compliant with my diet plan as I could have been, so I accept that. Reading the lessons every day; I'm on Day 12. Don't think I really need to do hunger tolerance as intermittent fasting is part of my regular diet plan, but I may as well do the logging exercise next time I have a fasting day.

hi coaches- quick check in from me too!
i had one of those instances where i thought, is food really necessary here? we had a meeting to start up a book group, and someone offered to bring food to the next one (and had offered in the email too beforehand). Someone else spoke up and said please no sweets, then later said she didn't mean to be rude about it. I chimed in I would rather not have them either, and there are just a lot of temptations everywhere. The first person made a joke about moderation and healing power of chocolates etc. I didn't want to push it but I did feel we were there to discuss a book right after dinner, did we really need to eat- I wondered what was behind this offer of hers. did she want an outlet for baking? She also said other times, she would bring cookies to events and then bring them home as no one would touch them. Hmm, wonder why?
I didn't want to say no snacks, its for the group to decide- but i really don't like starting off with that assumption that we need food for an event.

anyhow, that is my thought of the day! Take care everyone!

Good Afternoon, Coaches.

Checking in from one of the various Dr. offices.

I am on track for my 100% stage two success skills. Resisted several modifications to the food plan. I wanted something else for no other reason than I wanted to control or sneak in more food. Identified hunger versus non hunger when I thought I hadn't planned for enough lunch.

Spontaneous exercise is showing up to work. Planned exercise is sit ups. Oops called into office have a good evening

Here is my valentine poem:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
If I don't see a pound gone soon,
I don't know what I will do.

:D

I am stuck at 285. Need to believe if I just keep doing what I am doing I will be 284 some day. :dizzy:

Hope everyone is well. Off to the hotel tomorrow night but have my food ready to go and I have a plan for Friday.

:grouphug:

Hi All,
Tracked food and came in under goal, credit. DH took our outside walk - apparently it is going to get much colder soon, so we have been diligent in walking when it is "warm."

Still toiling on taxes, but making progress. My goal is to be done by Saturday. Was also weeding old papers which put me in a funk - so I put that aside for now. I did shred a lot though - credit.

BBE- I always feel extra guilt for late returns of library books since I used to be a librarian. An Instagram friend from Boston noted my photo of my backyard(I take one each week) had spots of bare ground, and she would give anything to see a clear patch.

CeeJay- I have started meditating again too. Jon Kabat-Zinn's body scan helps me the most - I have been doing it 20 minutes a day most days.

Thursday - Abraham Lincoln's Birthday
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies – It was kind of a wasted day. The things that I'd planned to do were closed. I did catch up on some reading that I'd put off - including preparation for our trip to Rome. Saw a PBS show about the Colosseum of Rome last night. The engineering was awesome. The acceptance of death as a spectacle was difficult to confront even though I've known about gladiators and similar entertainments forever. It wasn't good to be conquered by the Roman Empire.

Ok in the food department, CREDIT moi. I'm braced for VERY cold today with more snow, hopefully light.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Winter seems to serve up schedule changes.

CeeJay - Yep, stick to the plan and know that the body will respond in its own good time. Thanks for the Valentine's ditty.

Debbie (Lexxiss) – Waving westward to send supportive thoughts to you, the kids, and all the family involved.

maryann - Kudos for "Identified hunger versus non hunger" - it's so easy to fall for that 'hunger' feeling.

nationalparker – My take is that a daily trip to the scale is part of the mental game. I also like the additional data; it would be hard for me to go a whole week with an odd high scale reading.

Margaret (Nuxmaga) - Count me as one who'd love to see a bare patch of land. DW spent some time yesterday reviewing her last season's garden pictures - partly for planning but mostly for nostalgia. I've been told that Spring will come this year.

curlyjax - Our book group does a pot luck beforehand - it seems to get folks to arrive on time. It also allows the chatting so that discussion can turn to focus on the book. Good luck figuring out what works for you.

Violette_R - Smart to incorporate the hunger exercise into your current fasting plan.

Readers -

Good Morning!

Hi coaches!

I read posts every day but have had physical challenges to post, myself. Computer is upstairs with ex wife. Food choices have been very good, considering all. Ex wife has been cooking but eats healthy, too, just more meat than I'm used to. Scale reading has been ok, too. Scale is also upstairs so I'm not getting that early morning read, but hop on when I can. I find myself focusing on Beck skills many times daily, especially at work. I give myself credit many times during the day.

I'm tiptoeing around. Kirk is in the shop and ex is still sleeping . She leaves today and is excited to get home, for now. We know this isn't over.

The kids mediated a plan with the court. DD is going to watch her kids at his house during the day. Nanny cams to be installed and only visitors to be family. She is supposed to get drug counseling, but we don't know where the accountability will be for that. All we can do now is resume our lives and hope some good comes. Thanks, all, for many kind words during this time!

Our neighborhood excitement is mountain lions...a mom and 3 young ones. A neighbor took a pic of one staring into our yard from the high street on Tuesday and they were spotted again yesterday afternoon. We've all been alerted about our household pets. I don't know if they will try to relocate them. One was on my coworkers porch last week, not a block away.

Take care everyone, and thanks for all the kind words! Your daily messages have really helped me to stay on track with food!

We saw The Theory of Everything on BillBlueEyes' DW's recommendation. It sounded like it would work for a Valentine event, at least for a couple of geeks. And it did! Thanks!

I'm shocked at the new low. I was certain my weight would be up this morning due to movie popcorn salt. This means that skipping a snack has a greater effect even than sodium. That's unexpected. And interesting. I'm emotionally attached to my two afternoon snacks. But I'm also frustrated by my slow weight loss and still not finding willingness to move on to Stage 2 in the green book. So, I'm going to experiment with occasionally having only one snack. I pulled out my response card that says "I eat 3 meals and 1 or 2 snacks a day" and circled the 1 in purple ink to remind me of that option. It's more likely to happen if I set a goal. So, I'm going to aim for 6 more days in February of 1 snack instead of 2. I've got check boxes on my white board to track it and I'll report my progress here.

Thanks, you all! I worked all that out while writing to you.

WI: -0.45 kg (new low), Exercise: +50 440/1200 minutes for February, Food: 100% op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

nationalparker and CeeJay: my weight has been up for three weeks, for no good reason, and then, today, it's down -- also, for no good reason. Hang in there!

I read Day 13 - Tolerate Cravings very carefully as this is a big issue for me. In addition to many other notes I took, I wrote down distraction activities that have proved helpful in the past and/or may in the future. My list is:

Polish nails
Play with/groom cats
Take a bath
Do yoga
Needlework
Housework

What distraction activities do you do?

Violette Distractions? I enjoy going outside to walk when weather allows me to go. To garden, or weed, or simply walk around the many garden beds to see what is different.
Inside, I love to read, play computer games, straighten up my desk, call someone I like to talk with, write a letter, finish laundry that never seems to be done, work a jigsaw puzzle, or meditate.

Debbie Your patience is amazing. I thought surely by now you would be released to live a more reasonable life. Prayers increase also for the rest of your family. And, consider being more demanding of your own needs!!!

Bill you made me aware of how lucky we are we can see no snow right now, altho some may be coming tonight. Not grateful enough to realize that for February, this is truly wonderful.

My fall yesterday has my shoulder and elbow really tender. I was more worried about getting wet because I landed in the garden, but a sprawling sedem plant kept me away from the soil. Getting up was really more pain producing that the fall had been. I was alone, and no one was likely to be coming by the Church at that time of day. Thank goodness, I did finally get up and the 2 hours at next appointment weren't so bad after all.

CeeJay My scale seems to be stuck, I keep checking within 10 minutes of waking up, with scale in same spot, but so far it simply refuses to dip no matter what I do.

Exercise is increased this past week including mall walking for mile yesterday. House is really clean as I've used all the energy I have to make up for several weeks of neglect. Allergies are better when all is cleaned.