Hi Coaches!
So much for getting back to regular posting! My excuse is I wanted to wait until I actually started up a program again. So yesterday was my first day back on South Beach, the dreaded phase one!
I have done this before and know it works for me…as long as I actually do it! It’s tough to give up fruit and grains for two weeks (not to mention sugar!) but you do get back to the healthy carbs after that, and it is sustainable I know.
I passed out some sweets but didn’t eat any. It is easier for me to say to myself, no sugar for two weeks, than something more vague. I have made a food plan for a few days, started gathering recipes, and told my husband I am not eating dessert for awhile. So I feel good and much more ready to commit than I have for a long time.
I will get back to personals soon, but in the meantime and reading and enjoying as usual. Good vibes to all!
A pleasant start to my day so far. PT at 7:30 and then a nice walk with my new friend Nancy. Unfortunately she is another one that only lives here part of the year, but she is here 6 months, so that's pretty good. She is wanting to lose about the same amount that I am and we have many similarities, so it is fun getting to know her. After we walked and she left, I took Otis out for his around the block walk. I am just amazed how well he is doing. Yesterday we went around the block and then we did it again when dh came home. He was very pleased with the progress too.
I've pulled out a few cookbooks with healthy recipes to get some ideas for the next few days. It's going to be cloudy and rainy, so it might be fun to do some cooking.
I got a really pleasant surprise this morning. I overpaid the contractor by a little over $2800, so they are sending a check back. It was the amount that we had already paid as a deposit. What a bonehead move on my part! Glad they are honest cause I would never have given it another thought.
Curlyjax Always good to see your posts. Phase one of South Beach sounds a lot like Phase two of Fast Metabolism. Good luck getting through it, but heck we can do anything for two weeks, huh?
Lexxis I did what I could with reorganizing the closet. Mostly I went through a few small bins of my hiking/backpacking things and threw out a very few things and neatened up the remainder. I have quite a few things that I will not use very often, like microspikes for hiking in snow and ice and really warm mittens, but I will need them again.
Bill Yes always having a snack for a little one is probably about as important as having a diaper.
Onebyone I'm glad the week is easier than the weekend for you. It sounds like you are really growing your resistance muscle. I need to be working on that a little better too.
Nature Girl Thank goodness you didn't hurt yourself when you fell on the ice. I must find a way to be busier but still be home more than usual for the pup. I do find being home as much as I am lately makes it so much harder to keep from eating.
Maryann I wish I could be a student in your classroom. There is so much I would learn. My focus was always more on the math and science and I wish I had paid more attention to literature.
Nationalparker So glad your test results were good. I wonder what more they will think needs to be done. Do you know? As for walking Otis, I really haven't even seen anybody but a few workmen and yard guys. I don't know where all the neighbors are when I'm trying to show off our new pup. I guess I'm not going at the right time of day. Maybe when we're out for longer periods of time I'll see more of them. Many people around here drive into their garages and are never seen until they drive out, us included. Most people seem to spend time in the back yard. I am hoping to meet more of them.
GardenerJoy I'm glad your statement at the school board meeting went well. Sounds like you're really stepping out there on many fronts. I admire your work and it sounds very nerve wracking to me.
Better go, dh is home for some lunch and to get some warmer clothes for golf this afternoon. He wouldn't go since it isn't very nice, but it's a work thing. Poor guy.
Flying through. A morning meetings has me off-balance for my day, but I can still make healthy choices for food and exercise. Making that observation, here, will help me do that.
There are pink jelly beans in our office kitchen and I decided I wanted a couple and took three - not on my food plan but also don't think it'll derail me. Stayed OP otherwise today, and dinner was OP with a large salad topped with rotisserie chicken, straying again from the tuna. Weight was at ticker today.
I'm ready for sunshine and spring temps. About four months earlier than it'll arrive. The gray dense skies feel like they're bearing down on me this winter, stifling me. My moods are so often dictated by the sunshine or lack of it. I try to control my environment in the evenings and make it cozy, have a non-fluorescent lamp on my desk at work, but it's just so bleh. I need a redirect to that unsettled feeling.
Bill - Just actually thought about it and realized by the time your DGD is old enough to sit/listen to Cinnamon Bear radio shows, they'll have been out almost 85 years. Didn't mean to come across like you NEED to have her listen to these... I just love old time radio and thankful we're in another time period that seems to enjoy visualizing with the robust emergence of podcasts.
Decided to try to enjoy Thursday evenings a bit more - the actual weekend seems to arrive and depart so quickly, leaving us counting days to the next one. But starting the weekend vibe a little early, including Friday (even though we both work that day), might just stretch it out in our minds. Perhaps I'll tag it "weekend eve" (grin). DH always humors me when I want to celebrate little things - he even started toasting small joys with me, which surprised me in a way. I got a bit melancholy thinking I always hoped/assumed I had decades ahead with my brother, and now that is most likely not the case, it just really hits me that it's just the day-to-day to count on. The grand experiences are wonderful, but the small ones can stack up just as nicely in my memory.
Had a big day. Substituted for my friend's art class. I put everything into doing it well and several students began new work, like work they'd never done before. I encouraged them to keep moving forward. At the end of class one asked if I gave private lessons. Why yes, I said, as I just say yes and figure it out later. Another said I had to come back to teach again! They were very appreciative. I even started the class with a poem by Billy Collins, Forgetfulness. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poe...s/detail/37695
This was a way to tell them inspiration can come to you from anywhere.
Right before I had to go to class my sister called to say my BILwas being rushed from Key West to MtSinai hospital in Miami for a stent to be put in. He narrowly avoided a massive heart attack. She is rattled. He is a year older than me and the age my brother was when he had the cardiac event that killed him in 2013. Yikes. I haven't heard anymore so perhaps all is well. I sure hope so.
My food was good today but I gobbled down an avocado when the kitchen has already closed. A response to the day and to DHs popcorn. I wanted to communally eat. All things considered, an avocado is a good choice for a bad action.
Friday - Women barred from smoking (1908, U.S. in public)
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Walked, CREDIT moi, to the dentist for the fourth visit for this one crown. Voila! It's now done. The latest version from the lab was a tad too wide - an easy fix for the dentist with a grinding tool. I sat and wondered where the gold dust was flying since I'd paid for it, LOL.
Eating was OK. I overdid afternoon snacks and then skipped dinner, CREDIT moi. Skipping meals isn't a reasonable way of eating, but that worked for me last night. I was annoyed with myself that the jar of peanuts had gotten to me when I was trying to finish a book that I wanted to finish even though it was becoming tiring.
onebyone – Love the poem, Forgetfulness. Sending supportive thoughts for your BIL. These days, the stent itself isn't a big deal - it's just the catching it before a major event. Yep, an avocado is good fat.
Joy (gardenerjoy) – All meetings should be timed to leave spaces for sane eating.
Debbie (Lexxiss) – Yep, some days are longer without help from astronomical mechanics. Kudos for finding a sane choice for lunch from the hospital cafeteria.
nationalparker – LOL at "ready for sunshine and spring temps" - with a full February in front of you. Sobering thought, "that it's just the day-to-day to count on."
Karen (karenrn) - Yay, indeed, for an honest contractor. And Yay for Otis becoming such a good walking companion.
curlyjax - Bon Voyage on "the dreaded phase one!" Always Kudos for handling sweets without having any.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 9 Psychological Traps
Creating Escape Plans for Psychological Traps
Consider this sample escape plan as you create your own.
Escape Plan: Psychological Trap Situation #1: I feel so discouraged. It just feels like this whole week was so hard. . . . Sabotaging Thoughts: Even if I keep it up for now, I won't be able to keep going in the future.
Reminders: Although I should expect some hard times in the future, dieting will get easier and easier the more I practice my skills. A few months from now, my skills and my resistance muscle will be stronger than they are today.
Strategies: Read over my "worth-it-memories" to remember how wonderful it feels when I stick to my plan. Turn my attention to right now. I can certainly keep it up for today.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., Deborah Beck Busis, The Diet Trap Solution, Train Your Brain to Lose Weight and Keep It Off for Good (Blue book), pg. 195
Just a quick check in this morning. Food OP yesterday. I put mom in the car when I went to Denver for a few errands. I resisted suggesting we go out to eat because home was just 1/2 hour away. That choice saved money and calories. Took a nap and set the alarm to go off for an AA meeting. It didn't so when I woke up I chose a double snack instead of dinner, one which included fruit.
I'm up early for work and just got the company W-2s filed with the govt. Cross that off the list since it's due by 1/31. Credit. Another coffee (decaf) then I will decide whether the LR carpet is going to get cleaned or not.
BBE, the friend we are going to visit is very practical. Her will includes instructions to have her gold crowns removed and given to her sister. Yes, sometimes skipping a meal is ok, especially when you overdid foods earlier and aren't hungry.
onebyone, I hope BIL is doing alright. Great the need was seen before a major event.
CurlyJax, best wishes for P1. It is such a healthy step.
gardenerjoy, kudos for a quick check in between many scheduled meetings.
Karen, nice to get a refund! I hope you find some good recipes.
nationalparker, kudos for 3 jelly beans. Rotisserie chx sounds good atop salad. Thanks for sending me the food lists! Very helpful!
Hit a damaging compulsive patch last night. Screamed at DS and was a mess with DH. Horrible remorse this morning. I guess I could have seen it coming with how much I have been working and the after school commitments.
I have apologized. The boys are gracious. It is hard to accept myself for the flawed person that I am. But DH says flaw and person is a redundancy. Every person struggles. Slept in later. I have a good plan. I have promised myself I will go to the gym.
I know tomorrow will be better
Doing well on my foodplan today. What a lifeline it feel like for me today. Like, I can hang onto my plan, I know what to do to work it now, and I trust myself that I will follow it and continue forward with it. It helped as well when I was talking with my sister this morning and this afternoon. I absorb others' stress quite easily and then I am left churning with feelings, though often not right away. My conversations with her have been mostly listening and thinking about what she is not saying and predicting what may yet happen for them. This happens as she is talking. And that's stressful. My job is to listen and to support and then when I am off the phone TO NOT EAT OVER IT but to follow my plan, knowing that it is my path to healing my own body so I try to do whatever I can for myself so I avoid a trip to the hospital for a stent!
My BIL made it through and when they got in there the damage was worse than expected, or shown, on all the tests. He ended up with three stents in the LAD which right now I only remember the initials and not what they stand for, but I do know the slang for it. A blockage where he had the three stents inserted is called The Widowmaker. He had another block that was tiny in comparison and required a stent as well. When my sister went to visit him he wanted her to leave and to go home so as not to spend money on a hotel. He came out of surgery worried about money. Hoooboy, I thought, as my sister expressed how messed up she felt being sent away. It's going to be a long road for these two to a less stressful life. I hope they get there.
And, I did not eat over it. Credit.
My weight this morning was 269.2 or .3. I am looking forward to the next scale drop. C'mon scale!
Weight back under ticker at 150.6. I have been tracking it through the FMD plan and it's interesting to see that since I went to Friday-only data-entering, it's been 150.6 four of the past six weigh ins. I wanted to see if I could maintain around 150 for a while, though I'm sure I should try to lose more since i'm only 5-4. My chart started 11 months ago at 179.0. It also was neat to read what I'd written in my journal from the first week - bemoaning that I couldn't fit into many of the clothes I owned that I liked, but I couldn't fit into them. Now some of them have been donated because I went through that size.
Tomorrow will be DH's family over to the house and then out to dinner. Ready to have it over. There are so many games at play with those girls - always an ulterior motive of wanting money or something. I would love to be proven wrong in that thinking this time. The oldest, who is supposedly pregnant and not living on her own, living with a friend's family, in a loser relationship, no ambition to do anything, etc., texted him to see if he wanted to go to a comic convention with her. (So he could pay her way, of course - it's nothing he's into.) My gut reaction is she needs to be focusing on working to buy the things this baby will need, etc. I can't handle.
Planning to hit the market on the way home and list is made, more than half of which are fruits/vegetables. Credit. Issue is I want to make more soups than we have meals to eat them this week.
OneByOne - Hope your BIL's recovery proceeds well and your sister is able to find the support she'll need as well. I know the feeling of absorbing the stress around you. I do that as well and it affects my moods too often.
Maryann - Hang in there. Is there ever a moment before you unload that you can do a 180-degree turn and just exit the room?
Last edited by nationalparker; 01-20-2017 at 11:55 PM.
Phone check in. I want to close the kitchen. School was good but exhausting. Good will not make me less tired. DS agreed to hit the gym with me. Grateful I have a weekend
Saturday - R.I.P. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1924, Moscow)
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Did my shopping trip but forgot cherry tomatoes which I need to make a salad for a potluck tonight. My focus the entire trip was to remember to buy a single head of garlic for DW. Seems that the supermarket where she normally shops only sells them in packages of three. Three heads of garlic would last us a year. The price of remembering the garlic was to forget tomatoes. This with a list in my hand. The value of a list seems to be limited if it's not being read.
Didn't get out much; there was much to do around the house. Dinner was the other half of the salmon that DW grilled two days ago. Methinks grilled salmon is even better warmed up a few days later. Perhaps it's the anticipation for two days since I know that it's coming.
onebyone – Great to hear that your BIL made it through the insertion of his stents. Kudos for absorbing that as an item on your own Advantages List.
Debbie (Lexxiss) – Congrats for getting the government paperwork done. [I'd never heard of instructions for removing gold teeth. Will look into that.]
maryann - Neat to have company, "DS agreed to hit the gym with me."
nationalparker – Sending supportive thoughts as you face your Stepmother challenge today. Yay that you are keeping your sense to humor to realize "I want to make more soups than we have meals to eat them this week."
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 9 Psychological Traps
Reflect and Recommit:
Why I Want to Escape This Trap
You have a choice: you can keep allowing these psychological issues to get in the way or you can use the strategies in this chapter to address sabotaging thoughts.
If you feel discouraged, think about all the easier hours of the week and focus on just doing what you need to do today.
If you feel deprived, think about which deprivation you'd rather live with - being deprived of some food or being deprived of all the benefits of weight loss?
. . .
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., Deborah Beck Busis, The Diet Trap Solution, Train Your Brain to Lose Weight and Keep It Off for Good (Blue book), pg. 196
Thursday: 2 hours late school delay; roads ok; massive blood sugar crash in the afternoon which led to much horrible eating, and a night spent slumped on the couch eating more bad food. Stomach hurt when I went to bed at 8:00
Friday: on time to school, roads clear but terrible fog; on plan eating and good teaching day. Went out right after school for friend’s birthday and didn’t pay a bit of attention to plan. Ice cream to end the night . I have a plan for today and I’m eager to stay on it – actually looking forward to vegetables and fruit and plain chicken, etc.
Got a new phone last night so most of today will be getting it up to speed with the apps I want, etc.
Hike? Gotta figure that out—today? Tomorrow? Where—given all the snow, including another inch last night.
Last edited by Nature Girl; 01-21-2017 at 01:16 PM.
Nature girl: The past two days sound painful and isolating. We treat ourselves so poorly. I'm glad you're posting and have a plan for the day. You deserve peace with food.
BBE: Loved your "reflect and recommit" quote. Remember Beverlyjoy? I used one of her old tricks today. I poured dishing washing soap in a food I had fooled myself with long enough. No means no.
I'm always so grateful it is the weekend. I remind myself that I must treat myself gently this weekend. I'm not "well and wonderful" as evidenced by my breakdown mid week. I must do the minimum. That is hard for me. I usually want to give the maximum at everything I do. But I am committed to compromising on some things: stock up on fruit "fusion" cups for DS and DH. I like them to have fresh fruit but now if I don't feel like going to the store they can still have fruit - not ideal but ok. Simple menu rotation. Simple wardrobe rotation for now. Eyeball grades - leaning toward the generous so I don't spend so much time correcting papers on the weekends. What matters is that the kids learn and progress. All my classes are eager and attentive. That is good for now. First things first. For me to feel successful is to not explode on DH or DS. I must exercise, have a food plan, sit for awhile everyday in my chair and simply "be." That will produce the effect for which I am looking.
Yesterday was not the greatest. Not so great on my food plan and the hike got shorted due to rain. Today's hike was cancelled due to flooding, but I knew it was cancelled so went to the movies and out to lunch with a friend. The movie was "Hidden Figures" which some of you have seen and it was excellent. Afterwards we went to Pita Jungle for lunch and I had a cup of coconut curry soup and 2 dolmades. I looked at the menu (with calories) online before we went, so I stayed within my calorie goal.
I just got thru taking Otis for his longest walk yet. He is quite sensitive to loud noise, so I still have to pick him up when yard crews are especially noise or a loud car is coming by. Other than that he is doing very well and class starts tomorrow.
I have a friend due here any moment, so I'll leave it at that. Personals tomorrow.
A response to the day and to DHs popcorn. I wanted to communally eat. All things considered, an avocado is a good choice for a bad action.
Friday - Women barred from smoking (1908, U.S. in public)
The Day
Hang in there. Is there ever a moment before you unload that you can do a 180-degree turn and just exit the room?
