Hi everyone, thanks for thinking of me. I caught a bad cold so I have even less energy than usual and am finally taking off today to just rest at home. I don’t want DH to catch it so i’m sleeping separately. I had a little breakdown of sobbing yesterday and always feel better afterwards. I don’t have to do that much to take care of DH, its taking care of everything else including Christmas stuff, that is exhausting.
DH is doing okay, just waiting to get better. He is hooked up to stomach suction which does eliminate the nausea/vomiting thank goodness. He is super weak and gets out of breath so easily. He is still unable to eat anything, hooked up to nutrition in his port, but at least the weight remains stable.
Wave to all and keep plugging along!
It's a good thing I exercised in the morning because there wasn't another moment in my day. We enjoyed the show and had a good book discussion. A good day to remind myself that meaningful experiences are the spice of life.
I have an ambitious plan for today, with a trip to Whole Foods and a good amount of kitchen time. That will help for the next several days.
Weigh-in: -0.1 kg, Exercise: +15, 235/1200 minutes for December
Finally ... the weekend! A busy one ahead for us, but starting it out with a relaxing evening by the crackling fire and candlelight. I put on Home Alone and forgot how funny it was in parts. I guess I don't give it my full attention some years. Food was good (tasting) today - a bit indulgent but not off the charts. My allergies are hammering me tonight - falling asleep will bring welcome relief.
Snow expected tomorrow and DH and I always take a walk in the first snowfall of the season. I hope we keep that up, even if we're in the middle of decorating. We'll see. Even just a half hour is a nice break.
Good morning! It's cold and dark here. There was on and off snow yesterday: 5 minutes of dark skies and snow and then blue skies and nothing. It's unusual for us to have snow before Christmas and we don't always have it afterwards. We're tucked between the coast and the mountains so it's not certain what's going to happen. Lots of snow is forecast for tomorrow but it will be warmer by the middle of next week. We have a log delivery on Monday so that's just in time. I like to have one or two deliveries in the autumn, usually, but that hasn't happened this year.
I was at work yesterday. I did a few stretches and then a quick walk around the block when I was waiting for the DB later. Somehow I managed to rack up around 5k steps so that's good. I'll be at work today too to get a report to draft stage and sent off to my colleague. It's cold at work at the weekend so I think I'll take my fleece blanket from the car in with me. And possibly my hot water bottle too.
Food yesterday was OK although I would have done better not to have any rice pudding and jam. I made it as the DB isn't eating enough at the moment (he goes through phases). If I make a pudding he eats a two course meal in the evening and that's good for him. But not for me.
I have to take a packed lunch today and a salad doesn't sound very attractive. There's soup in the freezer so perhaps that would be a better bet.
nationalparker, good to hear that you lit the fire and the candles. Lighting the fire is almost the first thing I do when I get into the house in the late afternoon nowadays.
gardenerjoy, 'there wasn't another moment in my day'. Oh yes, that's familiar. Hope you managed to get a lot done in the kitchen to float you through the next few days.
curlyjax, Christmas! So shattering getting things ready, even if you have a fairly low-key celebration, as we do. Here, the country shuts down or gives the impression of shutting down from the 24th to the 2nd or 3rd January so that encourages people to prepare for a siege. Baby yourself with that cold!
Bill, I recognise getting 'swept away with the camaraderie'. Difficult. I am very much in favour of automation of basic tasks. So says the woman who is analysing a questionnaire designed by others without thinking of analysis, plus several hundred bits of paper. I specialise in artisanal analysis and writing, it seems to me. That's all very well but automation can play quite a big parallel role. And that would really help.
OK, time for breakfast. Hope your Saturday goes well!
Last edited by silverbirch; 12-09-2017 at 04:01 AM.
Saturday - Astronauts complete repair on the Hubble Space Telescope (1993)
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Eating was a problem day. Ouch! The party for the classes I take was held between 2 and 4 P.M.. That's just a lousy time to plan for consuming a meal. I planned for a light lunch and dinner with the party to be modest in volume. It sorta worked. At the party I served myself one plate, and I did sit for a spell but not for long since I was taking up one of the few chairs that had been set out for old people which certainly doesn't include me. Unfortunately, it was the walking appetizers that did me in. I consider scallops a good food for my eating plan. And scallops wrapped in bacon are OKish. But multiple scallops wrapped in bacon make for a high calorie day. So many good conversations; so many dressed-in-black servers offering a platter of scallops. It was bounded; I did limit myself, but at a higher level than I had planned.
Walked, CREDIT moi, to the subway to get downtown to hear Handel's Messiah yet another time. We don't go every year, so when we do go we're primed. It was even better than we expected. Chills up my spine when the Alto sang "He WAS despised ..." thinking there could be nothing better. Then even greater chills when the Bass sang "The trumpets shall sound..." while a stop-less ancient trumpet made gorgeous music using only his mouth for making notes. I chose to stand during the "Hallelujah" chorus; DW didn't. The audience was split about 50-50. The program notes said to do whichever you wanted. Thank you Germany and England for giving the world George Frideric Handel.
Joy (gardenerjoy) – Thanks for "meaningful experiences are the spice of life" - gotta remember to look beyond all the must-do items that just keep the wheels turning.
silverbirch – Kudos for finding slots to get in those extra steps. [Love the phrase, "artisanal analysis and writing."]
maryann - Waving. Thought of you last night when the chorus of only 22 people sang their hearts out to fill the auditorium.
nationalparker – This sounds reasonable, "indulgent but not off the charts." Hope you keep that snow out your way.
curlyjax - Good to hear that your DH's weight remains stable. All the brouhaha around Christmas can just be overwhelming.
Readers -
Quote:
day 2Pick Two Reasonable Diets
Guidelines for a Doable Diet
The Beck Diet Solution teaches you how to eliminate spur-of-the-moment eating. I encourage you, however, to modify your diet by working planned indulgences into your overall plan. This can help you stick to your diet long term.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), Pg 66.
New rule: don't listen to the news on the way to the grocery store. I got worried about people half way around the world and ended up trying to soothe it with a treat. It didn't help me or them. I'm going to be better off listening to music. If I want to catch up on the world, I can listen to news on the way home where I have fewer things that are a temptation.
Today's challenge is a 9am to 2pm regional strategy meeting. It's an honor to be at the table. It's also pretty far out of my element. We've been offered a light breakfast and lunch. I'll eat breakfast before I go, since it's unlikely they'll be offering anything that makes sense in my food plan and too likely that I'll go for the high sugar stuff to soothe nerves. With lunch, I'll just want to be careful.
I also seem to be having a challenge with exercise the last few days, so my highest priority after the meeting is to get in a long walk or lengthy workout, depending on the weather and whether or not DH wants to walk with me.
Weigh-in: +0.55 kg, Exercise: +20, 255/1200 minutes for December
nationalparker: your cozy evening sounds wonderful.
silverbirch: thanks for the example about getting in steps. I'll want to pay attention to opportunities to move today. Sitting for more than an hour at any time is really not good for me or anyone. We'll have to see if I'm bold enough to stretch and move, setting a good example for everyone at the meeting.
BillBlueEyes: My greatest discovery while researching for my NaNoWriMo novel was the Handel-Hendrix museum in London. I can't remember if I shared it here. Two pieces that reliably give me chills are the Star-Spangled Banner that Hendrix played at Woodstock and, as you say, several pieces from The Messiah, especially the Hallelujah Chorus. I just love that there is a museum in the world that honors them both together. They lived in adjoining buildings, two hundred years apart, that now form the museum: https://handelhendrix.org/
Caught up on posts. Looking forward to a time when I can sing The Messiah again. Right now continue putting one foot in front of the other to show up for this holiday season for DS, work, and walk through the meds thing.
Weight is only one pound from ticker and MFP says I have logged food 40 days. Credit. Mom says there is a new WW program coming out that might work better for me. I'll put it on the back up list.
I didn't get all that I hoped to get done today, done. No Christmas tree. The sun will come up tomorrow. Got my office work done and Christmas decor is half up, bathed the pooch, helped DH get the snow tires on the truck and my car and the reg ones back up in the attic, made chicken salad from rotisserie chicken for lunch and sweet heat chili for dinner, and tried to eat intuitively. That tanked a bit in two instances, but not on big things. Small steps. I'm not sure why I thought it'd be just turning on a switch - OH, I'll eat intuitively now! Hooray! I am listening to the audiobook, Intuitive Eating, and in one of the "tests", it was that I ate for nearly every emotional reason and I knew that already, but yeemaneekers, maybe it's just that way for life. I don't know.
I look at my life and the YEARS of counting calories, points, fat/fiber, whatever, to always still be having to be aware. I'm fortunate to have plenty to eat, though, and I'm grateful. The snow hindered my heading out to stores today - it was minimal but when we walked in the snow on the trail, it was a bit slippery to me - as i hate falling. Well, who likes it? But I hit my head hard last time I fell on ice and that has stuck in my mind. A sign of my aging, I know. I never thought about falling years ago! I'd just get back up, curse gravity and get rolling.
Good to see folks here this weekend. Love hearing what everyone is doing from attending holiday events to getting through another day on plan.
Ran across my folks' Christmas stockings in my decor. Hard. I teared up a bit, then went into the kitchen and got a snack. I wasn't hungry and didn't even realize I'd done them back-to-back until later. So much for trying IE.
Last edited by nationalparker; 12-09-2017 at 09:58 PM.
Sunday - Human Rights Day (Since 1948, U.N. General Assembly)
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Exercise was shoveling snow, CREDIT moi. Thought it was only going to be a dusting, but several inches accumulated. At last we feel like we've entered winter. The Oak trees still have their leaves as well as many trees that didn't get enough chilly nights to get their hormones engaged to let go. This could lead to limbs breaking as the leaves hold excessive snow. Resistance exercise was lifting the Christmas tree from the car to the back yard. Buying a tree while it's snowing is romantic, but not that convenient. Trees in our favorite lot range from $15 to $150; we were pleased to get out for $50 since our requirement has shrunk to a tree that DW can reach every branch without using the ladder.
Entertainment was member's day at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum - Boston's quirky Venetian Mansion stuffed to overfull with the collection of one of the city's more memorable Victorian characters. I've been many times, but it was the first time that I noticed three paintings of Mary, Queen of Scots stacked in a corner. It's so full that no painting hangs more than inches from others to each side, above, and below. The highlight was the docent talk about the literary circle that included Henry James, Gardner, Sargent, and all the swells of the day who had time to visit each other in Europe and America. I planned to enjoy the FREE breakfast offered by skipping my bowl of cereal at home. CREDIT moi for enjoying an away-from-home meal without going off plan.
Joy (gardenerjoy) – Five hours is, indeed, a long meeting to have to avoid the inevitable platters of whatever that are placed to keep folks at the table. I agree; keeping up with the world is getting more and more difficult. [Boggled at the notion of a Handel-Hendrix museum - straight onto my Bucket List.]
silverbirch – Meant to ask you why, despite all his musical talent, George Frideric Handel consistently misspelled his middle name.
maryann - Keep on keeping on. The holiday season is a challenge all about.
nationalparker – Kudos for getting out for a walk with your DH in the first snow of the year - you'd mentioned that you always try to do that. Yep, this Intuitive Eating business seems like a serious challenge. You got me (and Google) with "yeemaneekers" - spell check thinks you meant 'gym sneakers' but I doubt that. Sending supportive thoughts as you're reminded of your parents.
Readers -
Quote:
day 2Pick Two Reasonable Diets
Learn from your past. Think about previous diets you've tried. Did you lose weight? Were the diets healthy, appetizing, and relatively convenient to follow? Perhaps there is a healthy diet you liked that worked fairly well. You might consider trying it again.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), Pg 66.
The day improved yesterday. After frustration of waiting an hour for a scout master to show to sign off on a challenging badge, I finally I told DS to call me when he was through and took a walk around the neighborhood. Credit for spontaneous exercise and turning what could have been an explosion into a positive experience - 6,000 steps and DS running to give me a big hug shouting, "I did it." He can now begin the Eagle process - daunting but valuable.
We worked on some advent calendar activities. ( I made ours after DS grew out of the Lego calendars. There is a small one for works of service and gratitude and one with Xmas memories. DS in a surprise response to today's tag of "donate near new toys" packed up ALL of his Legos and took them to the Cancer Society resale shop. I am very proud of him. We also trimmed the tree. Since we are leaving the 22nd, I suggested a live tree that could be planted on the ranch. Mass was in the evening so the boys can go to the Sacramento Kings game today at noon. I will be happy to have the house to myself.
I had told DH we needed to simplify Xmas this year. It still feels busy with only a quarter of the decorations, a 3 foot tree, and only mandatory events. But I am taking a page from nationalparker on gratitude. I am lucky to have a full life i can participate in. My little family is strong in faith and communication. My lifelong friends are always checking in. As I work through the bi polar diagnosis and subsequent med trials, I must keep all this in mind.
I like BBE's clip on choosing a back up food plan. I continue to enter MFP. I have scale records from five years ago. I am two pounds up from when I was 49. That seems like a win. Constant monitoring is critical for me - especially now. I see that slight two pound gain and remember everything I have done to maintain a reasonable weight - packing my scales on travel trips; weighing and measuring at times: bringing my own food to restaurants at times; eating before I go so i don't eat at a place I can't control myself; throwing food away in the trash and putting dishwashing soap on it so I don't pick it out of the trash (thanks Beverleyjoy) My husband's favorite story is when I found a bunch of candy at the cabin he had left. I packed it up and mailed it to his office. In the end, it takes what it takes. I have been over 200 pounds twice in my life and I won't get back there again. My back up diet will be the new WW program. I am going to check it out today. If I am under 162, I can get it for free. The scales says 164. Unfortunately, I can't weigh naked at the meeting hall so I am going to have to lose about five pounds to get it.
Yesterday's meeting was frustrating for all, I think. Two meetings in a row that I've been to where people came with wildly different agendas. I'll consider it a blessing that I wasn't running the second one. It's much more fun to criticize how a meeting went than to be the one who ran it.
I'm running a meeting on Monday and I can send an email today to set expectations for it. So, today will be about setting that up well. And, about planning my week in general.
Weigh-in: -0.45 kg, Exercise: +40, 295/1200 minutes for December
maryann: glad to see you here.
nationalparker: I think I turn to food for every emotion, too. Happy? Sad? Too down? Too up? Fearful? Brave? It seems like there isn't anything that some part of me believes that food won't make better. I'm not sure that will ever go away. The best I can do is structure my life so that I can succeed as often as possible. I keep trying different things, cycling through them, because lots of things will help the symptom even if none of them are going to be a cure.
BillBlueEyes: That tour and museum sound fascinating. Since I invented a museum for my NaNoWriMo novel, I'm finding museums endlessly fascinating, right now.
I'm feeling resentful tonight at whom I'm not sure because my schedule was my own choice today. But this is literally the first time I'm sitting down since 9 a.m. other than when driving to another store or during our lunner. I'm just wiped out. I feel my age today. DH wanted to go to the stores with me, but then when I was done, I had to track him down and then wait for him to check out and in one store, it took an additional half hour, while I waited up front with all the marketing. I definitely had to practice patience and think that I'm thankful we're able to go together, that he was buying some items for his job (so thankful he has a job) and on down the line. I could have been waiting in a food line but I'm blessed to not be. It took me a few minutes of seething inside to change my thought pattern.
I got my Secret Santa gifts ready to go for two more. We received a wonderful, heartfelt note from our recipient to her "Santa" saying how much this meant to her, how we brought the Christmas joy into her life in a tough season (her husband passed earlier this year). I cried when I read the card and her message. She doesn't know how long it's going to go, so I think the 12 days will be a surprise. My DH was right, don't say it is 12 days right from the start like I wanted to.
We bought our tree and DH got it set up and he cut off the top, which threw me for a loop. Now it's not a triangle. It's a lump. He thought it looked better. OK. They all look good when they're lit and decorated, so ... I felt like on so many different instances we just weren't connecting on our thoughts today. Do you all have that? Or am I just too critical today (clearly that's an option! haha). I saved the pieces he cut, trimmed them to fit in some vases here and they look festive and smell nice.
Food was just OK today - I thought ahead and brought big tumblers of ice water and some on-plan snacks as we were gone for hours. But my lunner was pretty big.
Monday - Apollo 17 Lunar Lander touches down (1972, Moon)
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Standard Sunday walk with DW, CREDIT moi, over snow-crusted sidewalks. The snow is still beautiful; still sticking to the trees. A neighbor had a box of pears delivered to her front porch. The squirrels got there first to chew a hole through the cardboard to steal three pears. Squirrels had a splendid Christmas treat. She was livid. Can't for the life of me figure out what moral to draw from that story.
Eating was on plan, CREDIT moi, except for a larger morning snack as I engaged in a more intense conversation at Happy Hour than usual. If you corner someone with a one-on-one opportunity, there's more to discover than imagined. I now know some of the problems of translating ancient Hebrew into English given that Hebrew is an oral language written without vowels. Seems that there's a group on each side of the interpretation of each word. I'd only known about the debate between 'created' and 'formed' in Genesis but there are a zillion others. My friend is headed off for a spell in Israel to improve his Hebrew to better work these issues. Now that's dedication.
Joy (gardenerjoy) – Ouch for the challenge of folks arriving at a meeting with different agendas; Kudos for surviving and moving forward. [Love the notion of inventing your own museum.]
maryann - Thanks for the reminder that gratitude is possible. Kudos for taking a walk instead of feeling the frustration of waiting for the Scoutmaster's signature. LOL at the candy mailed to your DH's office.
nationalparker – Kudos for picking up on the notion that gratitude is an option. And Double Kudos for accepting the shape of the Christmas tree - there really are more serious issues of concern.
Readers -
Quote:
day 2Pick Two Reasonable Diets
skipping meals
Are you tempted to speed weight loss by eating as little as possible or by skipping meals? Don't do it! Several studies have linked skipping meals, particularly breakfast, with weight gain rather than weight loss. If you skip a meal, you'll probably compensate for it later on. For example, research shows that people who habitually skip breakfast tend to seriously overeat at night. You might be better off, in fact, if you plan to eat up to six small meals a day.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), Pg 66.
For several days running, I haven't followed what I wrote down as my snack. Today's going to be weird, so I wrote down a weird snack. Maybe that will help given that I don't seem to want to do what's normal for me at the moment.
Today's challenge is that we'll have contractors in the house to replace the two long windows in our stair well. They are dramatic, architecturally, and one of the reasons that I love my house. And, they are single panes of glass. They leak during rainstorms and, on the coldest days of winter, we get ice on the inside of the windows. Clearly, they should have been replaced long ago.
So, that will mean that I can't work in my upstairs office because I'll be trapped up here at unpredictable times while they're doing their work. I'm packing up my work and moving to the sun room for the day, which we can keep shut off and heated. I'm anxious about being able to work there and whether I'll be comfortable in the chairs. I'm going to take the lead from silverbirch and use a timer to make sure that I get up and stretch frequently.
Weigh-in: +0.5 kg, Exercise: +65, 360/1200 minutes for December
nationalparker: We definitely have days when communication isn't working. And, it feels extra odd because, much of the time, we are practically reading each other's thoughts. I suppose that might be part of the problem. We think we're reading each other's thoughts but getting it wrong and not using spoken words to check. My best habit, that I've developed in recent years, is to under-react. Usually, I'll figure out what's going on a bit later and it helps if I haven't already taken things to a different level. It sounds like you were practicing that yesterday.
BillBlueEyes: we laughed about the pears. We used to order those before we got a store nearby where I can pick them up. It's been a few years -- that reminds me to go by and pick up box this season. It's nice to have a treat that is actually good for me.
Just lost my entire post. When will I learn?
Will post in the morning... cold windy night. A true December night. We decorated the tree after dinner and now it finally looks more festive.
Curlyjax ...just a note to say I'm thinking of you and hope you're feeling better very soon!
Saturday - Astronauts complete repair on the Hubble Space Telescope (1993)
and get rolling. 