Diet Coaches/Buddies – We had an easy Fourth of July. Dinner was three couples at a restaurant where I ordered Cod as a reasonable dish. It was, although it came on a bed of herbed potatoes to compensate for the low calories of the Cod itself. I did good enough for a festive restaurant meal, CREDIT moi. We were leaving the restaurant just on the edge of the Charles River when the two military jets flew over quite low with afterburners glowing as part of the festivities. Startling. Our second low flying airplanes in two days. The skies were full of helicopters and the blimp that come with the Boston fireworks.
Not much exercise - Ouch. It was a day of dawdling. The streets everywhere were nearly deserted. It turned out to be a good beach day because the rains just threatened but never happened.
Joy (gardenerjoy) – This is the kind of strategy that seems helpful to me: "+ tiny servings of anything else I want." [Good luck in your war with the cabbage worms.]
Erika (eusebius) – Yay, indeed, for new paint to change the look of a room. Kudos for staying on track even while experiencing age appropriate behavior from your teen DD.
maryann - Six inches of rain sounds amazing in an area that's in need. Hope it all stayed to make it to the groundwater. Viewing boutique clothing sounds like a good motivator.
Extra Small (karenrn) - Yay for finding a dress that you like. Triple Yay for finding it at a bargain price. All the foods you list sound super healthy.
SuzLen - Yay for a college DS to consume all unneeded food. Neat to make a sandwich bar with fruit and veggies so that wise choices are available. [Thanks for the Candy Bomber video.]
Readers -
Quote:
Day 39Keep Up with Exercise
How You Can Change
Give yourself lots of credit. Every small step in the right direction deserves credit. Reward yourself for exercising - just not with unplanned food! . . .
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), pg 253.
Another busy day ahead - as I don’t have work engagements it’s become a day to hang out with a couple of friends. One of them wants to walk on a trail - yay!! It’s a beautiful day here so that should be very enjoyable.
Tomorrow morning I have to appear on local TV to promote the opera workshop I’m playing for this month. Gulp! My mantra - “It’s not about you, it’s about Rossini!” Repeat ad infinitum …
karenrn - kudos for staying consistent and for great planning for your trip!
maryann - so glad your back is getting better.
BillBE - kudos for staying on plan at a special occasion! As they say in Newfoundland - “In Cod We Trust” LOL.
I followed my plan pretty closely -- stretching the meaning of "tiny" a little more than I meant to and adding a second snack at a moment when I was truly hungry. I woke up hungry this morning, so I figure I did all right -- good enough for a holiday.
I have a full plan for today -- credit! Including the last of the coleslaw that I fixed a couple of days ago using farmers' market cabbage & purple carrots, plus parsley from my garden. Photo attached.
Today's featured response card:
Quote:
When dieting seems unfair, I remind myself that I'm not alone. This is how all successful dieters and maintainers eat. What would BillBlueEyes or Lexxiss do?
WI: NA kg, Exercise: +40 155/1300 minutes for July, Food: 90% op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes
eusebius: I'll be thinking of you tomorrow morning for your TV appearance. How exciting! I love your mantra -- just perfect for the occasion.
Two meals perfect yesterday and that is what I'll focus on. Food logged for the day and a slow hike planned. I am going to make some new advantage cards this morning. I really need to draw a line in the sand. Marshall Law has been declared. The Is no room for input for my undisciplined mind. No rebuttal. All rebellion against the removal of sugar and standing will be ruthlessly squashed for today. I have one goal today which is stick to plan: three meals, no flour, smoothie for dinner
Mary Ann Agree!!! Sugar rebellion shall be only to stay far away from all sugar!!!
Lunch was roast chicken, raw cauliflower (love the crunch) and baked beans with the juices drained. Morning time, only glass 1% milk and Coffee of course. Too near time for Church to eat well.
Last night was up till 1:30 with interesting book. Daniel Isn't Talking, a navel by Marti Leimbach. This mother's devotion is beautiful to see.
Home from work…..dinner in the oven….need to stop and post. I've been weighing everyday and am mindful of food choices. Credit. Scale reflects effort. Crazy busy. DH back grumpy and tired. I'm doing the best I can keeping up. Rain today. Nothing much else exciting.
love2garden, glad you are doing so well with your (reasonably) new food plan. Love cauliflower, too, my favorites are roasted and mashed.
maryann, happy to hear your back is doing better and you had an enjoyable 4th in Tahoe. Kudos for drawing that line in the sand!
gardenerjoy, yay for a new response card! Yep, dieting certainly seems unfair at times I do really try to avoid the backtrack syndrome. I've some leftover coleslaw, too, untouched but will add a little asian dressing.
eusebius, yay for Rossini! You will be great! Kudos for finding both a friend and a walk.
BBE, potatoes are healthy in moderation! It's been busy in your neighborhood! Hope you find your way to some post-holiday exercise!
karenrn, yippee for homemade dog food and lots of healthy food for your Sequoia trip! Enjoy your cooler temps!
SuzLen, yay for leftovers to a deserving college boy! Good strategy to stay home later!
NottsMike, welcome! Kudos for avoiding a Mardi Gras moment at the pub, especially pre-diet.
silverbirch, wishing some routine for you! Kudos for a sports massage!
OK, dinner is ready and I haven't eaten all day, excepting 2 biscuits at work. It's been a long day. I'm looking forward to a relaxing and healthy meal.
PS I haven't posted since I was having difficulty with my doggy. He is doing much better. It's certainly not a permanent fix but some medication tweaking really helped. Every day is a gift.
Served dinner for a huge family get-together with close and extended family on both sides of my DD and her husband. Made a huge pot of season chicken and had the fixings on the side for chicken tacos. CREDIT for not touching both pans of dessert I made! It was tough, but I kept telling myself I will regret it because I have no self-control once I start. I ate all of the fixings that kept me on plan and only ate a small portion.
Last night I did weights and treadmill. Gardenerjoy, I loved your response card. Because of all of you, I know that I am not alone in having to watch what I eat and make wise choices. I forget that sometimes.
Lexxiss: Happy your dog is doing a bit better.
love2garden: My DD gave me a book to start about the running of the Iditarod. I hope it is a good one.
maryann: lines in the sand have been helpful for me. I hope they are for you as well.
eusebius: good luck tomorrow morning! And hang in there, teenagers are aliens in disguise.
karenrn: ditto on the sizing, sometimes I don't know what to pull off the rack. It is ridiculous.
BillBB: deserted streets...I think they all came here. Glad your 4th was relaxing.
Late post today, so don't be surprised to see another one soon. Tomorrow I plan to be back in my routine.
hi coaches!
Ive had a few nice days. DH and I had 24 hours to ourselves with both kids away which was wonderful! Vacations are great but its nice to have time to ourselves at home with no interruptions and no one to worry about. We had one meal out where we split a pizza and both felt really full, i'm not sure what they put in it! then one meal of scallops, quinoa and swiss chard which was scrumptious.
we also went to see the movie Spy which was fun but a good deal of swearing and the body count was huge!
We went for a long bike ride on the 4th, and today I went kayaking in the am and then a leisurely 30 minute walk in the afternoon with a friend, so i feel i have gotten good exercise! Its good to have a nice full weekend.
As Maryann says though I too need to draw a line in the sand. Sugar is still my biggest problem and hard to keep it out of the house with others clamoring for it (DD made a holiday cake which was nice but...and she wants to cook more but only desserts!)
Back on track tomorrow..waving to all!
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Bird walk, CREDIT moi, in the morning were we saw 29 species which is a bunch for that location in July. The Double-crested Cormorant was a surprise, though hardly rare. The Ruby-throated Hummingbird was rare for that location. They are our only hummingbird, he said, with a touch of jealousy thinking of Arizona where a dozen species are common. An eight year old girl joined us happy that I had a small pair of binoculars to lend her. Using binoculars for the first time is like magic.
I'm proud to have skipped the table of morning snacks, CREDIT moi. Only the apple slices were healthy; the little pastries that were calling to me - that looked so appealing - had crusts baked to look like fila dough but they were soft instead of crisp. Ouch! DW said they were disappointing. I was so glad that I didn't grab. The day was on plan as well as vegetarian since dinner consisted to white beans with sage and freshly picked garden Kale. DW picked a bag of Green String Beans and a bag of Yellow Wax beans; when our garden produces, it all comes at once.
Joy (gardenerjoy) – I do like your stories of making Cole slaw - particularly avoiding the mayonnaise. Thanks for the picture.
Erika (eusebius) – Good luck with your TV interview this morning. Isn't Rossini reputed to have said, "Give me the laundress' bill and I will set to music even that," although I usually think of The Barber of Seville.
Debbie (Lexxiss) – Glad to hear that you've got some relief for your doggy. Kudos for all the days that you don't have biscuits at work - those lure me in.
maryann - Cheers for the Marshall Plan against sugar. Sugar is a slippery slope for me, also.
curlyjax - Kudos for spending your day without kids being active.
Sandy (love2garden) - I, too, am a fan of raw cauliflower. (Requested Daniel Isn't Talking from my library - sounds like useful reading.)
SuzLen - Double Kudos for avoiding "both pans of dessert." Congrats for hosting both sides of your DD's family.
Readers -
Quote:
Day 39Keep Up with Exercise
How You Can Change
Focus on your progress. Can you walk a minute longer than you used to? Can you exercise more vigorously than before? Remind yourself during every session that you're getting stronger and more physically fit. . . .
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), pg 253.
Continued on plan for the rest of the day yesterday - CREDIT. Today will be a less active day of entertaining except I am taking mom, DS and grandaughter to see "Joseph and His Technicolor Dreamcoat" at an outdoor theatre tonight. Here's to hoping there is a breeze tonight.
BillBB: congrats to your DW for having such a green thumb. It makes my mouth water thinking of all your abundance of good things to eat. That, I believe, is a true talent.
curlyjax: I'm with you - sugar, sugar, sugar. Such a deep pit to pull oneself out of..........Happy you had some relaxing, yet active, time to yourself this weekend.
Good morning everyone. I hope everyone in the US enjoyed their holiday weekend.
I had some good things and some not-so-good things. The good thing: My meal time eating was good. The Not-so-good. Consumed way to many liquid points/calories in wine and beer. And had more snackie things than I should have.
I had a good time exercising. I got to an early class on Thursday. Then general house work activity on Friday & Saturday. Did a lot of clutter cleanup. Then on Sunday we took a bike ride (about 7 miles each way) to a fun little touristy town nearby. Biked up, stopped and had lunch then biked back. Then I also kept a commitment to go to an exercise class late Sunday afternoon.
But all in all I am up 1.5 lbs since last Wed. Not so good. We did a lot of prep work and cooking for the week so I know I have good choices for dinner every night.
I made a substitute at lunch. A not uncommon one for me -- it usually happens when DH can't come up with lunch from the fridge and I'm feeling in a hurry. So, we end up with carry-outs. It's okay once in a while, but I'm pretty sure that's how I get moving away from my plan. That feeling that I don't have time to prepare healthy food gets me in trouble every time. I need a new response card for that.
Quote:
I always have enough time to prepare healthy food for myself. Nothing is more important because everything falls apart when I'm not eating well. Healthy eating is the foundation of my happiness and my productivity.
WI: NA kg, Exercise: +85 240/1300 minutes for July, Food: 80% op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes
BillBlueEyes: It makes me happy to think of the moment of magic you gave an 8-year-old girl!
Great advantage card, Gardenerjoy. It is the absolute truth that healthy eating is the foundation of my day. Curleyjax: glad you had time for yourself. I took two extra days up here at our cabin. We have been lucky with DS. He is about as easy going a kid as I have met (And I have met a lot of them in my 25 year teaching career) but it is still refreshing to be alone. I am very much an introvert and need time apart -even from those I dearly love. BBE: Cool birdwatching event. Does anything ever taste as good as it looks? Certainly nothing ever tastes as good as abstinence feels.
Diane: Food peace is a long race. The scale sometimes is the last thing to come around.
SuzLen: Enjoy the performance.
As for me, two big awakenings from seemingly small incidents:
We had a 14 yo guest up for the holiday who just lost her mother. There was great tension among her aunts and uncles because she refused to eat correctly and went low several times (Example: refused eggs but ate two large bagels). The general mood of the group was bafflement (and a little resentment) as to why she wouldn't take care of herself. She was creating unnecessary drama. On my morning walk, I realized that in no way could I allow myself to judge her. I can't eat discipline myself. Why should I expect it of her? Certainly the consequences of my food rebellions is less dramatic but there ARE consequences and those consequences have caused heart ache, anger and depression for nearly 50 years. As a result of this reflection, I had my "three meals/ nothing in between" day - a first in months. I remember Gandhi's idea: Be the change you desire. If I can put two days together, then three, then more, would those around me have a better chance of meeting their goals? How about changes in DH whose family is riddled with diabetes and who is 40 pounds overweight?
Second thought: I had a peaceful night which is a blessing after the nights of pain due to pinch nerve. I woke up in a great mood, started my hot tea, and then noticed a few emails on the phone. I checked the email, going against my rule of never check email before meditation and breakfast, and found my hair cut appt would now no longer include a blow dry after a cut from the owner but from an apprentice. (This is on the heels of being charged last time for products that I thought were a giveaway -embarassing) I immediately became enraged. Yes, enraged that someone would take advantage of me and planned my angry retort. No one would take advantage of me. Here is my awakening: I am the one who is suffering from my 0- 60 emotions. My feeling were completely out of whack with the situation. I was not threatened yet my adrenaline zoomed to flight or fight. What does this have to do with eating? I know that in a few hours I will dump from the high and be low and hungry. I will be vunerable to straying off plan. Here is what I did: I told myself "How interesting that you are angry. You are not threatened. There are a hundred ways to deal with this. For now, you are safe and this is great opportunity to work on taking care of yourself because the outcome is nearly meaningless. What great practice for situations that are far more important."
I will report back as to the rest of my day as I hold these two awareness in the fore front. It is my hope to stay OP with them in mind.
Carol Sue Your time at the cabin sounds wonderful. How fortunate you are to have your son who can obviously entertain himself.
Awareness is such a gift. Sometimes we can be so lost either socially (never my problem) or in our mind that we miss what is here and now.
After two very late nights reading wonderful books, I'm aware that I was so lost in the lives of those between the pages that I totally neglected what is actually here and now. Family, my need to work on health, work to do, and beauty outside, and conversations inside.
I also need to put together the first day of eating for health beginning now. Breakfast was healthy with organic peppers and lots and lots of organic parsley with eggs, and organic tomato. Tonight portebello mushroom sandwich on whole grain thin bread with provolone cheese. Will have some cereal with blueberries in between.
Well, the TV interview was (for me) a total bust, because there was no keyboard for me to play, so the hosts cut me out of the interview altogether - only 2 seats on the interview couch. Oh well! (I think the fact that I’m not as young and photogenic as the singer and assistant conductor probably had something to do with it, too, but it was a bit of a relief so I don’t mind too much.) Anyway, Rossini got his due because I went home and worked on preparing my score for the workshop next week.
Later in the afternoon I went for a nice drive and a dinner overlooking the river with my good friend. Stayed on plan with dinner though I wonder if sodium will affect my weigh-in tomorrow. We’ll see …
gardenerjoy - kudos for staying on plan, and I love both your response cards. WWBBED? LOL!
maryann - kudos for 2 perfect meals! Keep up the good fight!! Very interesting to hear about your 2 awakenings - thanks for sharing them so we can learn also.
love2garden - your book sounds interesting - did you enjoy it? LOVE portobello mushrooms.
Lexxiss - kudos for staying on track during a busy, challenging time.
SuzLen - Well done staying on plan during a special family occasion!
curlyjax - sounds like you had a lovely staycation with DH.
BillBE - Nice job skipping those yummy snacks! I remember how much I loved binoculars when I was a kid. You’re right, Rossini said that about the laundry list … and it is the Barber that we’re putting on here.
diane1102 - sounds like you have some good basic habits of eating and exercise to build on. Great!
Sunday
