I was OP for the most part today - the extra calories were under 100, and I can live with that for a day in which I rarely felt relaxed enough to take a deep breath. Went in to work a bit early and left a bit later, right in the middle of a drenching downpour. By the time I reached my car, I was soaked like I fell out of a boat. At that point, I thought, I'm in no rush. So drove over to the front of our building and did a few runs driving others to their cars so we didn't all end up soaked. Funny that those I "found" had such good stories on why it was perfect timing for them. Turned what could have been a miserable drive home, cold, soaked and cranky, into a drive with a smile on my face.

Trying to make it to the weekend without much meal prep since we're both slammed. I'd made DH some turkey taco meat before I left and there was plenty left, so I put two servings of the organic scoops in a pan, added some extra sharp cheddar, broiled it, and then added black beans, the hot turkey meat, onions, a bit of pepper jack cheese, and broiled it to bubbling... then added tomatoes. It turned out delish an the cheese was used sparingly but so flavorful. Logged it all in MFP and surprised at how do-able it turned out. Added guac for DH. I love coming up with something a bit different out of stuff already prepped.

Anxious for the weekend and have one more day to get through. Poor DH is wiped out... I did a foot bath for him earlier with massage and he's sacked out on the couch already! He's down 12 pounds with this new job! I'm happy for him... he's snacking a lot less as he's sleepign a lot more and not up for 20 hours straight. He looks healthier to me.

Bill - I think that performance would have wigged me out, especially after the experience of the policeman in my back yard, knocking on my window at 1 a.m. a few years ago. It still bugs me. Keep thinking I'm going to make your pb, banana and pecan sandwich for DH for a lunch ... maybe this weekend :) any bread the best?

Maryann - Keeping your ranch manager and your DH in my thoughts - so stressful/worrisome on many levels. Credits for seeking and finding jeans that are good for now. I think this is such a good move. We all have the "when I" clothes, but feeling good now is key.

OneByOne - Hang in there - scales are fickle but you're doing the work and will reap the reward. Good luck with your projects!

Karen - Hope your hike went great! Good folks with you? What are your "go to" meals for thru hikes? I overpack food for regular camping as well as thru hiking, but haven't done much of that lately...

Lexxiss - Hope all went smoothly with the tenant situation today!Thank you for the reminder of the breakfast smoothie. No spinach now but I'll check my lactaid and see what I can whip up tomorrow.

GardnerJoy - You are wise to see the sabotaging at work. It takes me a while to notice sometimes. And so true, too much food at home is better than too much out. Smart and positive!

PrairieChicken - I like the pink book the most, but then again, I only have the pink one and the green one so far. I haven't made it through the green one yet. In fact, if I'm honest, I should AGAIN restart some of the tasks I don't religiously do yet. As everyone is saying, take your time and you'll build a solid foundation. Any good weekend plans?

LizardNumbers - Hoping you are enjoying a few lower-stress days at work with the boss out. What do you find to be your biggest challenges typically?

Happy Friday eve!

Nationalparker: You truly deserve a huge amount of credit for looking up what to eat before you got there.

GardenerJoy: That's a great response card. Thanks for sharing.

I'm doing alright today. Grade B. But let's focus on the credit. I did get a salad instead of Reuben for lunch. I did not snack. I did eat what I intended for two meals. And I was not a total idiot on the off-plan meal. I just wasn't OP on account of the seconds.

Oh my goodness, terrible day today! This week has just been full of stressors, and today my anxiety got the best of me and my day was terrible mostly due to me. So fun to admit that. Had to give a speech tonight for work on a topic that I didn't usually talk on, and I haven't had to talk in public in ages. Went fine I think but I was more nervous even during it than I expected. Will try to prepare next time. My boss would have done it but was out of town today. And worse of all overreacted to something at lunchtime and completely picked an awful fight with my SO :(. Somewhat resolved I think but he's at work so I won't see him in person until Saturday. Have done all I can for now but waiting to pass time with my thoughts stinks. Sorry to be so whiny but I decided I needed to post on bad days as well as the good. I hope to have better things to post tomorrow. Have plans to cook a nice soup tomorrow night that fits into my plan well.


Nationalparker credit for making lemons into lemonade with the rain! Sounds like you certainly made a lot of people's day a little brighter. My main struggle is emotional eating, and letting my anxiety determine what food I eat. Didn't do well on that today, but I will try to use it as a learning tool for tomorrow.

Friday - First Earth Day (1970). R.I.P. Prince (2016)
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Walk, CREDIT moi, included the library. One of our librarians has a sleeve tattoo - apparently we're not as uptight as people think New Englanders are. Later walked with DW on a tour at a park of plant restorations that support wildlife. It's always neat to know that the folks that select the flora are thinking about the birds and the salamanders.

Eating was OK for the day. Until the period after the tour when oatmeal raisin cookies were just sitting there for everyone to grab. I did. What I ate on the tour was called dinner so I'm not that far off for the day.


onebyone – Yep, the scale releases rays of negative feelings when stepped upon. Good luck with your paintings.

Joy (gardenerjoy) – Kudos, indeed, for errands without snacks.

maryann - Terrific advice, "You can always make another choice." And thanks for the insight on the Beck quote, "Alcoholics are the only ones who feel judged by others' abstinence."

nationalparker – Such a good story of shuttling your coworkers to their cars instead of being miserable. [I've made peanut butter sandwiches on heavy breads and found the bread competing too strongly with the peanut butter. So I use 100% whole wheat sandwich bread (preferably crusts).]

flnu - Passing a Ruben for lunch is a big Kudos in my book.

lizardnumbers - Yay for a forced public speaking event to keep the brain working. Kudos for just doing it.

Readers -

hi everyone! i tried to post yesterday at work but it kicked me off and i lost the post. maybe just as well, since i was depressed, but today i feel better so onwards!
It was nice to get away, and DH and I got away from the kids too which was nice. It is a little sad to visit family and see them and their friends getting older, but at least they're still around! I always come back feeling sad, as I do wish i lived closer to them and to where i grew up. I feel like i have spent 20 years living in the wrong place, and why did i ever leave home! okay, theres the depressing part again.
But i did not eat anything sweet at work or at home, so credit for that!
Anyhow- I am about the same weight as before and DH and I split some lunches here and there, so that helped with food intake. the good thing about staying in hotels is you can't snack at night (unless you hit the vending machine, and i didn't!)
Will try to do some personals later today but need to head off to work soon. I really enjoyed catching up on everyone's lives, there have been so many posts which is great! And it was nice to know i could come back to my group here, so thank you for all being here!
lizardnumbers- welcome! I love the colors in your photo. I struggle with emotional eating too, usually more depressed/anger than anxiety.

Friday
 

Coaches:

Guess all my griping yesterday re:scale number burned some calories. I woke up to 263.4, (credit for weighing) my lowest number yet in a few years. (note to self: not going to ruin the feeling by checking fitbit data today. credit.)

I am happy (:carrot:) to see the scale respond to my ongoing effort. credit to the scale.

I will continue with my paintings today until I have to bring them to the gallery for installation tonight around 6pm. My only interruptions today will be my exercise this morning and gathering my ceramic wall sculptures for the show. I also need to decide if I will frame up all of my new tiny linocut prints. 4 are in silver frames. 4 are in weird possibly too distracting frames. I can decide on this later.

Most important is to stick to my foodplan despite the stress and distractions. If I don't do that I will not be happy and instead will be pre-occupied and upset. I need the peace that being onplan provides. Have a great day.

Good morning coaches,

I got back from our backpack in Sedona yesterday afternoon. It was just my friend, Carrie, and me. She is also a married, retired nurse, whose husband doesn't like to backpack. She's about five years younger than I am and is the gal that first got me into backpacking. We like to do things mid-week when the trails aren't crowded. We didn't see a soul for 24 hours. We hiked Loy Canyon to the Secret Cabin and then a little further up for great views. The only downside to this backpack is there is no water which means a heavier pack to ensure we are carrying enough. It was beautiful and great views down the valley to Cottonwood and Jerome. It was only about a 7 mile hike each way, but with about 2000 elevation gain in a short area, so a good workout. It's hard not to stay within calories when I'm backpacking, even with a higher calorie sandwich after we hike out. But I think the higher sodium dehydrated dinner is helping me hold a little extra water. I'll drink lots today and hope to drop a pound or so.

Carrie has a permit to hike some of the John Muir Trail this summer and I think it may work for me to join her. I'll have to check a few logistics like getting back to my car. There are shuttles though they have to be arranged in advance. I'll shorten my trip to Washington and do that I think. Today I need to get some things done around the house. It's hard to do an hours worth of housework when I'm not home. I also got a new phone and need to go to Verizon to have things switched over and appt for new tires at 1:00. I couldn't believe I needed them already, but I do.

Onebyone Yahoo for your persistence and the cooperation of the scale. Amazing how that works.

Bill Oatmeal raison cookies would be very hard to resist. I hand it to you for restraint most of the time.

Lizardnumbers I give you credit for speaking in public. When I first had to do that I would take a beta blocker to keep my heart from racing, which kept me from getting quite as nervous. I never got really comfortable.

flna Big time credit for passing on the Reuben. I hate to see them on the menu because I am always tempted.

Nationalparker I bet you made some co-workers very happy giving them a ride in the downpour. The only thing worse than a downpour getting to the car is the downpour when you have to go into work. Holy moly, dh is down 12 pounds. Is that okay for his weight? I remember seeing something about night shift shortening a person's life by up to 7 years, so once his 7 day/weeks are over, hopefully it will be good.

As far as my go to meals on backpacking trips. Coffee and oatmeal for breakfast, sandwich or tortilla, cheese and fruit for lunch and a dehydrated meal for dinner. I usually also have a bar for a snack. I will carry a little more for a lengthy backpack, just in case. But on short ones I try not to over do it cause I know I'll be just fine. I have my base weight down to a reasonable weight, so it's just the food and water that add.

Maryann I'm glad you found some jeans that work and isn't it wonderful that we can always make another choice. Your poor dh, what a hard thing for him to go through. I'm sure your feeling good enough to provide support to him is much more important to him that you losing a few pounds. I find my weight is not a big deal to my husband as long as it doesn't prevent me from doing things I want.

GardenerJoy Darn that saboteur that provided a too large serving. My gal does the same darn thing to me. It's healthy food, just too much. I know I really do need to get back to measuring again for a bit, just as a reminder or what a serving size is. I often weigh the protein and measure cheese, but other things have calories too.

Have a great Friday everybody!

The scale is creeping up every day this week. I'm reminding myself what I said at the beginning of the week -- this was never going to be a good week in that regard. I'm doing the best I can and I'm successfully keeping the binge-behavior at bay. For this week, that's more than enough to celebrate!

I never managed a food plan yesterday. Tonight's supper is a mystery but I just planned the rest of the day with an intention to get my snacks back down to a normal size.

WI: +0.15 kg, Exercise: +15, 690/1000 minutes for April, Food: NA op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

An early lunchtime checkin for me as not sure of our plans tonight ... Possibly dinner out and I'm thinking a firepit since we've been early-spring snowed out of the last one I planned and it doesn't seem windy. The rains are to be gone by late afternoon... we can find some dry cushions and relax. With the small wireless speaker I bought DH for Christmas, it's fun to sit out and enjoy relaxing music with the crackling fire. No dinner plan yet, a mystery dinner like GardenerJoy :)

The dang donuts are driving me bonkers today, so I ate my lunch early. Smoothie for breakfast and raisin bran for lunch since i was in a hurry to come up with a lunch option. I want to bake some potatoes and use those - I LOVE a potato and it's so filling.

Karen - DH would like to lose 40 pounds total, so he's nearly a third there... but I don't think he needs to lose that much. He's a muscular guy, but wants to remove the excess weight.

Bill - Checked the pantry and I have walnuts, not pecans, so will pick up a small bag. They'll be nice in his salad with berries this season. I don't care for pecans. The nuts I like, I LOVE, but the ones I don't, I really don't like. Picky. Bread ends never get eaten in my home - they get used for the birds. I wonder why I don't like them at all ... I like the end of a baguette and there's no real difference.

CurlyJax - Good to see you on here. So often what you says rings deep for me - I have felt like I'm living in the wrong place and "lost" the last 15 years of my parents/brother while living a two-day drive or a $$ flight away. But I got home a lot, met my DH here, and my job is helping me save for retirement, so I look at it that way, but when someone asks where I'm from, I say I'm currently living here and from Florida. :)

Just found out I have a bunch of data to rekey that cannot be lifted and I've wasted time trying different methods to do it, so better get on it and cutting this short.

I am having a much better day today. Work was productive and fairly quiet, and made up with the SO so feeling much better emotionally. Also stuck to my food plan for the most part, and credit to me I didn't have a free snack from the break room today :) Working on the start of week 2 in the pink bo, which is about scheduling time for meal planning, exercising, eating, etc. I'm going to stick with this one for a little bit while I really try to get that taken care of. Really taking the time for grocery shopping and planning my meals is a big problem for me, and definitely something I want to work on. Going out for breakfast in the morning but planning to make a sensible choice.

curlyjax glad that you are having a better day today! I can definitely relate on the depressed/anxious too - really almost any strong emotion seems to cause me to eat - but definitely excited about working on that. I hope that you have a happy and low stress weekend

Saturday - Passover
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies – One of our best spring days. I went out without a jacket in a cotton shirt - later replaced by t-shirt. I felt half-naked. It was so nice. For whatever reason, my to-do list was mostly indoors. I have to get some summer clothes out - a transition that isn't my favorite thing. It's another task that I'll assign to the butler when I become Czar.

Food was good enough. Dinner was leftover salmon steaks - as good as it gets. Evening snack was mango. Food choices are so amazing. Florida blueberries appeared at the supermarket. I didn't buy any because they were $4 for a half pint but it's so encouraging to see the season starting.


onebyone – Super plan: "stick to my foodplan despite the stress and distractions."

Joy (gardenerjoy) – Yep, avoiding the binge-y type stuff is the first goal.

nationalparker – When I get my drone, I'll send it to your office each Friday to snatch those donuts. I'll buy the covert model so no one will notice.

Karen (karenrn) - It's exciting to think that you'll get to hike the John Muir Trail.

curlyjax - Yay for time with DH away from the kids. Kudos for avoiding the vending machines for evening snacks at the hotel.

lizardnumbers - It is a challenge to schedule time for a healthy life style.

Readers -

argh!! has anyone else had more trouble recently losing posts? I wrote mine, it took maybe 5 minutes, then when i tried to post quick reply it booted me off and said i wasn't logged in and the post was gone. I'm wondering if there is anything one can do about this? it never used to happen.
I'm going to hit the reply now as a test.

okay, its working now i guess!
I will try posting then editing it, maybe that will save the post.
Exercise today is housework, maybe the groceries today since i'm hoping to see a friend tomorrow at the time when i usually do the shopping. Credit for salad yesterday but not much else, got into the desserts. I didn't wake up feeling stuffed though so that is good.
Nationalparker- We are indeed often on the same page! Glad to hear you feel the same about being rooted elsewhere. A fire pit sounds so lovely and springlike!
Bill- I am so with you on the clothing transition, always a pain!
lizardnumbers- glad you're feeling better too! I have followed my organized moms footsteps and done menu planning for a week with a weekly shop, for quite awhile and it does indeed help with eating healthier, although i have picky eaters here which makes things challenging!
Happy weekend all!

Good morning! We decided to hit our little pizza spot downtown last night for salad and pizza. This place's salads are just way above a regular mixed salad, so it's not like ehhh, i'll have a salad.

Scale dropped down to 172.6 and then up to 173.4, so at LEAST back at tracker today! It's been a month of no forward progress and plenty of backward movement. Setting goal for next weekend to be 171.X ... There's a part of me that just feels no way... I worry about stress eating on a very busy week. I need to set my meal plan and market for it this weekend, and make SURE I include my lunches on there. That could be a kicker and a place that I forget.

CurlyJax - Good to see you hear and I know what you mean about lost posts but what happens to me is i hit something in the right margin and some C@#$%^& ad pops up and I go back and the note is gone. I absolutely have GOT to start writing in notepad but just fight it.

Plan today is a big salad for lunch as DH is working. he's worked a straight month, I think ... and no let up for another five-six weeks. ... Wondering if they're working Mother's Day or not. I fight a salad for lunch sometimes...not sure why. Chilly today - so will start the carrots/onions roasting to heat the kitchen a bit as well.

Bill - I hate that I always say I'm tempted by Donut Friday ... it seems like any other person would just be able to be like this is routine - I don't eat them. But I'm always like, weeeellllllll...... I don't want one but let me just see the options. One guy calls over TAKE ONE! :)

Getting moving on more chores - have a great weekend!

Last night's supper out was too salty and too much. Worse, I super-sized my snacks again. I think I needed to work harder with the "mystery supper" notion. In the afternoon, it took on a dimension of not knowing where my next meal was coming from, causing a panic that made my snacks too large. Live and learn.

I find myself tempted to quit weighing and quit posting. The weight's going up and my posts are reporting behaviors that I don't seem to be quite willing to fix, even when I express determination to fix them. Sigh. If I run away from all this, will that help? Can I run away far enough and fast enough to a magical place where these things fix themselves? That seems to be my thinking when I quit weighing and quit posting. I know from experience that the magical place doesn't exist. So, I'm determined, if nothing else, to keep weighing and posting, to see what happens when I go through this phase instead of attempting to run away from it.

WI: +0.75 kg, Exercise: +30, 720/1000 minutes for April, Food: 70% op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

nationalparker: you inspired me to have a salad for lunch today. I'll have several options and a salad bar, by itself, is clearly the best one. So, that's what I'm going to do!