I echo Maryann in that I feel I am gathering strength from the good choices and demonstrating that it CAN be done by so many of us.
Bill - can i ask and don't scold if you've just answered this and I missed it ... when you have 100% on plan days, does that mean you've planned out every meal and stuck to the plan or that the day's choice fit 100% into your plan? I think I could do the latter - well, close to 100% but prob not stringing together as impressively as you
Came in at calorie goal today with Panera cup of soup for dinner and savored the baguette - my favorite part, honestly. We went to check out the exercise bikes but they were assembled shoddily and seemed extra flimsy as a result (well, and some WERE extra flimsy). So DH will check out online and see what he finds there. I am one who wants to BUY NOW. JUMP IN, no toe-testing the waters.
Goal tomorrow is wise eating while surrounded by a sports festival. We'll be away from the house for about 10 hours and I can't allow myself to slide into holiday weekend/party mode.
Love2garden: thanks for the reply. There is nothing in the bed I want to keep. One big stump has sent up large-ish branches I noticed this afternoon,and the air-conditioning/heating box/unit is also in this bed. I am on the list for a "native plant kit" given out by the town. There will be shrubs wildflowers and I think 2 trees. That's or what is appropriate in that kit is what I want to plant there.
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Did gym, CREDIT moi, for the first time in a few months. I'll use a trainer for a few weeks to get my mojo back. I had devolved into doing the exercises that I liked instead of the exercises that I need. There is a peace that comes from being told to do an exercise for 14 minutes. I don't focus on whether or not to continue; I just do it. Walk was just a bonus.
Eating was 100% on plan, CREDIT moi, with a California Navel Orange for evening snack. It wasn't very good - end of season or too long in our fridge - yet I ate the whole thing. I don't think I've ever failed to finish a piece of fruit that I've started.
onebyone – Kudos for preparing yourself for a food pusher. Neat that Weight Watchers welcomed you warmly. No gardening advice here, except to cheer your attempt to get native plants.
Joy (gardenerjoy) – Love the notion of a "mood improvement project."
maryann - It's a secret, one of the dark failures of my life, that I've never read Middlemarch. Kudos for thoughtfully planning your post-Lenten eating plan.
spanky - "Breathe" - great strategy to recover from a whack upside the head. Kudos for seeing that you have to give yourself some attention to get back to center.
nationalparker – Yay for ruining donuts for the week. May you ruin them next week . . . and the next. DW and I are both in the market for bikes; I'm currently riding a hand-me-up abandoned by my DS. I'll be interested in what you discover. [My "100% on plan" is helped because my written plan for dinner each evening is to eat what my DW serves in sane portions. I alter her plans, slowly. For example, she now serves, at most, a single potato for both of us since I no longer will eat a whole one. Per Beck's suggestion for maintenance, my written breakfast and lunch menus are a short multiple choice of the several that I regularly eat. My snacks are also multiple choice. So I award myself 100% fairly easily by avoiding extra snacks, seconds at dinner, gratuitous tables of foods, and all the FREE samples I encounter.]
Karen (karenrn) - Ouch for the pain that asserts itself when you cut back on the meds. Glad that your doctor sees that your arm is healing well.
love2garden - Think this sentence is terrific, "Gardening gets me lippy" - without the faintest idea what it means. [DW is still evaluating her shrubs. There's been damage for sure, but we'll have to see what arises from the dead.]
p.a. - Your family day at a local farm sounds fun.
Ani (dailypractice) - And a healthy on-plan day to you, also.
Readers -
Quote:
day 33Eliminate Emotional Eating
what are you thinking?
Do you feel unsure about your ability to get control of emotional eating? If so, take a moment to identify and respond to your sabotaging thoughts. . . .
Sabotaging Thought: I deserve to eat when I'm feeling bad. Helpful Response: I deserve to feel better. I deserve comfort. But I also deserve to be thinner. Comforting myself with food will only work temporarily, and I'll feel even worse later.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), pg 230.
I decided that since I was off track any way, I should eat things I don't normally consider food. Yeah, that logic seems ludicrous now, but somehow it was irrefutable at lunch yesterday. I've now gained back in two days what it took me more than a month to lose. Wow!
It became glaringly obviously late in the day, yesterday, that the root cause for these dark days is allergies. I don't know quite why that makes me feel better, but it does. I guess it takes some of the pressure off to fix myself. I can do better than I have the last two days, but I can't make myself feel great. I made two nice long lists of things I can change and things I can't, so I have material to work with to improve my mood, but there's no expectation of perfection here. The expectation is that I can feel better than yesterday and that controlled eating will contribute to that.
WI: +0.75 kg, Exercise: +20 80/1300 minutes for April, Food: 50% op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes
nationalparker: I reward myself 100% only for following my written plan. But, I'm highly tolerant of any score at 80% or above. In fact, I lost most of my weight on 80% and 90% days. Progress not perfection. For me, the exercise of writing down the next day's plan helps me figure out the hurdles that I'll encounter in advance and think through them.
onebyone: I don't think I've dealt with just those conditions, but my miracle cure for every gardening problem I've encountered is compost. I'm not a huge fan of weed blocking fabric--I find it difficult to deal with both when I put it down and future seasons. I prefer newspapers or even cardboard. They'll compost eventually but keep the weeds at bay, to a degree, the season that I put them down.
Last edited by gardenerjoy; 04-04-2015 at 09:31 AM.
For starters, I'm giving myself some Credit! Today is Weigh In and I'm down 1.5 pounds and standing in the 120's Zone. This has been a hotly contested "line in the sand" between me and my excess weight and I'm delighted to see it budge in my favor. Win!
Friday was spent at the parish with DS, then movies with DH in the evening. My Intermittent Fast just happened to coincide with Good Friday and I feel more in balance today.
Have been reviewing what could improve from week one and moving on to week two in the pink book. For some reason, the chapter on exercise is causing me anxiety so I'll revisit in a day or two.
Big cooking day today for the week to come. Best vibes to all here!
Brief checkin before we get out the door. Scale down to 168.4 this morning so while just barely under ticker, I started my April challenge for DH and I to work together at 170.6 and I'm pleased that I have kickstarted a bit. Rare for me.
We're heading out on the trail here in a few minutes in the glorious sunshine and then I'll get cleaned up. Spent time this morning reordering a closet and have a large pile again for donation. Will push to drop it off on the way downtown for the sports stuff. A very productive day so far and just remembered to pop on my pedometer so I'm going to see what total I get when I return home tonight.
Worried that I'll think I have room to play, calorie-wise. I didn't write a plan at all today - no food allowed and we'll be there for ages. My hope is to either choose something like a grilled chicken sandwich or burrito bowl. Those I can navigate and count easier.
Spanky - YAY for the push downward into the 120s. I don't believe I've ever seen those ranks. Enjoy them for me, too You've had a hellish week and have emerged successful on the food front.
Smoothie for breakfast this morning. Often I seem to try negotiating myself out of it. "I feel like eating something substantial. I'll have my smoothie as another meal. I'll have something with my smoothie." In the end, I said, "No Choice." Lunch is just a few hours away. As I have said before. Noon always comes eventually.
Planned walk in the beautiful mountains today. Thinking of KarenRN, I am a little ashamed to say I have been sticking to the flat routes following the river. Just for today I am going to plan what I WILL DO and not what I SHOULD DO.
BBE: 7 chapters in to Middlemarch. I am so familiar with fast paced modern story lines that this meticulous unfolding will strengthen my patience muscles. I didn't realize that unlike Austen most of the characters are caricatures - straw men for Elliot to make her point on women's rights. More like Dicken's I would say.
Nationalparker: I am 100% for making exercise easy. A stationary bike sounds great. It is hard to not put 30 mins to something if it is in the house. Like my piano practicing. I don't want to start but once I do the time flies and I feel better.
gardenerjoy: It is truly humbling to see weeks of efforts erased in two days. This is one reason I continue to post here. It would be nothing for me to gain 15 pounds in a few months if I didn't daily practice Beck skills.
Happy Easter, Everyone. I have planned treats of high quality - no mass marketed 1.99 jelly beans that are not worth the tradeoff in weight. I am going to stick to my 7-12-6 plan with one smoothie and get off my back for the rest of the day.
Hello Coaches I’m happy to report 2 days OP eating. It helps that there were no tempting outings or diversions to contend with. And as usual, long daily walks with pooch and bf. Tomorrow, we'll be with family and lots of food. I don't have a good plan .... YET ... I gotta write one. Don't know how to word it.
Today was Beck Diet Day 21, end of Week 3. I’m a bit behind on following Beck’s day by day tasks. But I'm getting there. I'd rather make sure I really attend to the task before I continue. I’m up to Day 14 in the book. But EVERY single day, I’ve
1. read the advantages,
2. weighed in,
3. walked at least 4 miles,
4. logged what I ate, and
5. tried to remember to sit down.
6. tried to stay on plan. (some [+] days and some [-]
Today was day 2 of a self-invented Beck-like strength training program. (Aerobic exercise is already good. And I do Yoga.) But I need to put energy into strength training. And I see so much value in Beck's day by day tasks, I figured I'd modify to fit exercise. I got the book “Strong Women, Strong Heart” recommended by Gardener Joy (thanks so much) and I have put a program in place, which I’m starting at slowly. I’m approaching exercise in a Beck-like 42-day, one task per day, CBT way.
For Day 1, I defined the task as (just like Beck’s diet) “write the advantages of a (structured) exercise program”.
Day 2 for Beck’s diet is to pick 2 reasonable diets. I rewrote it as “Pick 2 reasonable strength training programs”.
Happy Easter, everyone.... Wishing you a wonderfully on-plan day focusing on the non-food joys of the holiday.
I love being with folk who have sucha lotta gumption.
Hello Coaches
I am so thankful to each of you for helping me stay on track (and helping me to forgive myself when I fall off) by your sharing your stories of both struggles and successes. I want to also echo Maryann and NationalParker in saying that I also gather strength and hopefulness from reading about the good choices made by you all. It demonstrates that it CAN be done. Thanks to all of you.
Spanky: Congrats on your Weigh In and your standing in the zone you wish to be in. The “breathing” must have helped.
GardenerJoy: I applaud your wise reaction to overeating, stating “I need a different strategy… seeking wisdom and serenity.” So wise. You’ve inspired me to also make list of things I can and cannot change. Thanks for that.
Nationalparker: You are SO right about the faulty thinking in blaming others for MY overeating. I do it all the time! That was a very helpful observation. Kudos on hitting your calorie goal
Onebyone: Kudos on the WW meeting and how nice to hear of the warm welcome you received. I know what you mean about needing outside reminders. Sounds like WW will be very helpful in that regard.
Karen: Sorry to hear that your pain is hanging in there. But wow. A 2 hour walk? Kudos to you. I LOVE your statement “I am very grateful that this is a temporary thing”. How wise you are.
P/A Kudos for limiting the off plan to just two things and then managing to rein things in and getting in a walk before days end. Excellent!
Maryann: Kudos for the 10000 steps. Your walking area sounds spectacular. Thanks for suggesting the idea to throw food away and “put dishwasher soap on it”. That’ll sure do the trick. LOL. And I LOVE the word “gumption”. In your beautiful statement “Cheers for all the gumption being demonstrated in resisting doughnuts, going to WW and every other little habit we develop that takes us closer to our goal.”
Bill: Kudos for the getting into the gym and for creating a plan to do what needs to be done to get your mojo back. I know what you mean about doing the exercises you LIKE vs. the ones you NEED.
Last edited by dailypractice; 04-04-2015 at 08:17 PM.
I made a mistake buying seasonal treats for the gallery opening. I set myself up by missing lunch too.I ended up eating about 8 small choc eggs and 8 even smaller choc eggs in total. I stopped and I tracked and I'm ok because I stopped and I tracked. Credit. I tracked everything today. I have also been parking in really inconvenient spots so my walking is increasing. Enough that I groan when I see how far I have to go while I (everyday it seems) carry things hither and yon.
I don't know if my print show opening was successful or not. I did have one print sell. Credit. Two people came specifically to see it. It's disheartening but before I tried nothing was happening at all. It's worth it.
Tomorrow I gallery sit at the local painting show I am a part of. Afterwards I go with DH to his mother's to have Easter dinner. It'll be fine and I can relax on Monday so I just need to get through it all.
Diet Coaches/Buddies – First migratory bird walk of the season, CREDIT moi, where we saw not yet the first warbler. It's too early for them, although a handful of Tree Swallows were here already. I got more exercise at a production of the Mikado - specifically, The Hypocrites' The Mikado, where we sat and stood among the wooden structures used by the players. Spent the 90 minutes being chased around by Yum-Yum, Koko and the rest as they sang and danced among us. They kept the original music and lyrics jumbled into their unique slapstick rendition. A fun evening. In the clip note that, "Gentlemen of This Land" replaces "Gentlemen of Japan" - this, supposedly, prevents Gilbert and Sullivan from being insensitive. Heaven help us if anyone ever tries to make Monty Python insensitive, LOL.
Eating remained 100% on-plan, CREDIT moi. Fresh pineapple for evening snack. Practicing for our Easter dinner with the kids (some two weeks from now due to the schedules of young adults), DW made a scalloped potatoes casserole that included celery root, which added a pleasant sharp taste. I stuck to one small serving even though she served herself seconds. I continue to skip morning and afternoon snacks as part of getting back on track. So far that's working. I am concerned that perhaps I've let portions get too large if I'm not starving between meals. I'll have to keep a watch.
onebyone – It's always good when "I stopped and I tracked." For me, the problem begins when I fail to stop. Good luck at dinner with your MIL today.
Joy (gardenerjoy) – I do wish the body didn't have the near-miraculous ability to regain at ten times the speed that it's willing to lose. Neat idea to distinguish between that which you can change and that which you can't.
maryann - Always a joy to hear that "No Choice" was successfully deployed. [You aren't helping me with my Middlemarch quest; perhaps I'll do it as books-on-tape if I'm accepted on the first flight to Mars.]
spanky - Congrats for a budge in the desired direction. Will you continue Intermittent Fast after Easter?
nationalparker – Yay for "glorious sunshine" and a kickstart on the same day.
Ani (dailypractice) - Yep, it does seem wise to conquer a Beck Day before moving on. The skills each help as foundations for the next. With aerobic and Yoga under your belt, you're in a good position to increase strength.
Readers -
Quote:
day 33Eliminate Emotional Eating
...Once I start using strategies
other than eating to calm down, .......dieting will be easier.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), pg 231.
I continue to focus on my Beck skills; well thought out food days, weighed every day, eating only while sitting, giving myself credit and being mindful of my emotions (to name a few.) I have worked really hard making progress in my home environment and took time out to enrich my life(getting out my sewing machine and creating a beautiful tea cozy). Credit. Last night my sis and I enjoyed Thai food and passed on dessert. Then we headed to the mall for some walking and perusing. I needed a new bra (2 yrs since my last purchase) and was pleased to drop 3 cup sizes). Now with very little change in physical weight I'm pleased to have definite proof that with continual healthy eating and lots of physical exercise (work) that my body continues to transform into a smaller (and healthier) me.
It's Easter Sunday, and of course, I work. I seem to remember it not being absolutely undeniably crazy busy last year...but one never knows. I made my food plan for my return home since I'm sure I'll be a bit tired. Credit.
BBE, very impressive and credit worthy passing on seconds of the potato dish! Nice to know you can have more (maybe tonight) or in 2 weeks anyway.
LOL on Mikado. My dad educated us early on the old phonograph. I saw the original many times at the Central City Opera House-quite famous in the old days.
onebyone, kudos for stopping and tracking and for a successful event!
spanky, kudos for moving down into the 120s.
dailypractice, thanks for taking the time to share your lists with us. I used Beck skills to entirely declutter my home and make/follow through with a daily plan for maintenance. I also find my brain becoming more organized and keenly aware of certain former pitfalls….catching and correcting "before". Example: I only want to make one trip from the car even though I have lots to carry. Response: Two trips would be much easier than dropping/spilling/breaking things. I find I listen now and make the better choice.
maryann, kudos for saying No Choice to smoothie postponement! Glad you are enjoying your Tahoe time.
nationalparker, credit for the kickstart and weight under ticker!
gardenerjoy, several days of clean eating brings the scale back down. I have great empathy for your allergy woes as much as you enjoy the great outdoors. Kudos for the change/can't change list.
I didn't know how to write an eating plan for an Easter family get-together. So I took the time to journal the issue, and came up with this:
1. I'll eat one moderate plate of food
2. I won't get seconds unless it's vegys and fruits
3. no vegy dips
4. I'll bring cut up vegy's in addition to my assigned dish, so in case there aren't on-plan munchies, I'll have provided some. (to avoid being lured by chips)
5. I'll bring my legal 0-calorie beverage.
6. No candy, cake, etc. Dessert ONLY if fruit/no topping.
7. I'll focus on the joy of conversations and say kudos to myself for the increasing strength of my resistance muscle. And as I watch others over-indulge, I won't feel deprived. Instead I'll be thinking of you all who share this club of folk who have DECIDED to relish the opportunity to make healthy eating a priority in life. Thanks to all of you.
Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate, and Happy on-plan day to everyone.
Ani
A happy and blessed day to any one celebrating one of the spring holidays today. We did our family gathering last week, which frees today for rest and reflection, seeking rejuvenation. Feels just right.
I found little willingness to work with portion sizes yesterday, but I ate the planned foods at the planned times so that was a big improvement. I'm determined to use my measuring cup today.
I made a new Response card: Overeating when I don't feel good adds to the list of symptoms and increases my misery. Eating healthy foods in healthy amounts allows me to feel the best that I can.
WI: -0.3 kg, Exercise: +40 120/1300 minutes for April, Food: 80% op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes
Last edited by gardenerjoy; 04-05-2015 at 09:26 AM.
Today strategizing about mid-day dinner at the Assisted Living Residence w/Great Gramma in Law. Here's my plan:
The food will be mediocre and served at or below room temperature. This helps since I can't stand eating any of that stuff. I'll have my soy protein shake ( which I love) right before I go and carry a travel cup of decent, caffeinated coffee.
No one pays any attention to me because I'm busy keeping my son in check and Gramma, being in her nineties, will need to go back to her room pretty quick. So it's an hour of visiting with an already full stomach.
I plan to prevent rebound eating by having an on-plan lunch when I get home. There is no candy in the house that I eat, so no hidden Chocolate Bunnies waiting to jump me!
I did pick an exercise plan in a calm moment and have started small, but started.
Saturday - School Librarian Day
I love being with folk who have sucha lotta gumption.
