[maryann]

Good Morning, Coaches.

Good Luck on your flight, Beth. I am also getting to the point where it is much easier to say, "That is not about me." to any off plan food. I have been lax, however in making sure I add the veggies I am supposed to add. this will be crucial in maintenance. I will follow gardenerjoy's rule of two salads a day.

Another pound down flashed on the scale screen for just a moment. that tells me I am almost there. I want to make a big push this weekend ( the first one in several without social duties) to try and see that pound off early next week. I am looking forward to changing my ticker. It has been a year ago since I was at this number. Exciting stuff.
It really is pound by pound, a constant state of intention even if that intention doesn't always manifest itself as success.

[B]Curleyjax[: I feel that blessing having both my parents. They are in good health and often drive me crazy but they are here and in DS' life. In my adult relationships with them I can now have so much more compassion, forgiveness and gratitude. All the things I lacked as a kid.

[nationalparker]

A good day but I'm ready to wrap it up soon and kick back and enjoy 20/20 or 48 Hours. I wish they weren't at the same time - a guilty pleasure so I just pick one. No DVR so I do office work while it's on and I don't mind the commercials. Hit the markets this morning and got the ingredients to make two lasagnas. Prepped one and brought it to a coworker whose wife just had surgery; I'd offered a dinner and he accepted. I'll make them banana bread muffins and ask my director to drop them off. They live minutes apart. I guess I should do a few for them, as well.

Prepped DH's favorite soup, and made two deep loaf pans of lasagna - one for DH alone and one for a coworker who was walking by me a couple of months ago with a scrawny dry, crummy-looking square of lasagna he'd just bought from the cafe. $7+! I jokingly said I'd have to make him some one day and he was gung ho on that. Figured I'd better come through on that! I baked it so he can just reheat it. He's a friendly guy, with custody of his little boy, so it should make a meal a bit easier.

I feel like the kitchen has been in use the whole day. I'm weary of standing in there. Was on plan much of the day but ate protein instead of veg/healthy fat for one snack. Back on track with dinner. Grain is optional with dinner in this phase and I didn't do it last week but did it tonight, will do one of the three days. I was looking forward to a half sprouted grain bagel with my chicken salad. DH had the lasagna. Hit the spot for me. We have the grandson today until tomorrow afternoon and then the dinner theatre. He's teething hard but is remarkably not cranky. You can tell he feels terrible, but he just soldiers on. I will be up much of the night because his cough is so sharp, so deep, that it is startling. (hence the early bedtime)

Got my hair cut this morning -cut off a good bit. Feels a bit like a refresher. I needed that. Will be easy to style (angled bob) with the very early mornings of my event next month. Chugging along! I feel hopeful that I can be 10 pounds down by my event (and fingers crossed I didn't just jinx myself).

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Confidently set about to make a large salad for our potluck last night. I've done this before. Had bought the English cuke, the plum tomatoes, BIG red pepper, Gorgonzola cheese, roasted pecans, and, of course, lettuce - two one-pound containers of triple-washed 'salad mix' lettuce. No problem. I am 'da man. Then, in an abundance of caution, I read the label to be sure that there was no Romaine lettuce in the mix - particularly not from Arizona where the FDA suggests that the Salmonella seems to originate. Yikes, the first listed was Romaine!!! The origin was "Mexico and the USA." The FDA recommendation was to discard any and all Romaine unless one was absolutely sure that none came from Arizona. I was skewered. Should I worry? Should I tell the other diners? Didn't take long to realize the answer was YES to both. I offed to a local supermarket to get a mix of Red Lettuce and Boston Lettuce with zero Romaine. My salad was a success - greatly appreciated since I bought the empty container with me to assuage those who might be worried. Now I have two containers of mixed lettuce that I'm not going to eat. Maybe a trip back to the store for a refund?

Bird walk, CREDIT moi, saw many Ruby-crowned Kinglets - a bird we only get for a small window at the start of spring. We saw one single Palm Warbler as the only representative of its group. Eating was OK; I only had one plate at the evening potluck. I did have an afternoon snack of an oatmeal raisin cookie because long meetings bore me, particularly long meetings where the major topic is how to avoid making a difficult decision. When an organization is running a deficit, the only options are to increase income or to lower expenses.


maryann - Thanks for "It really is pound by pound, a constant state of intention."

nationalparker – Yay for a haircut to lift the spirits - especially one that will be easy to maintain on your long work event. Congrats for handling the little tiger who's teething. So generous to make a lasagna for your co-worker.

curlyjax - Yep, "I have a harder time resisting hunger when I'm tired." Hope your sleeping works out.

Beth (bethturnaround) – Best accomplishment ever, "I’m really getting out of the habit of thinking of food as something I do."

Readers -

day 7 Arrange Your Environment

Changes at Work

Consider a compromise, such as taking
a small portion of food and saving it for later
or eating a small portion at a time when you
won't be tempted to eat more.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), Pg 93.

[gardenerjoy]

We were eating a salad of romaine lettuce while watching the news report about romaine lettuce on Friday night. We decided to live dangerously and finish our salads, but I threw the rest of that lettuce out. I bought red and green leaf lettuce from a store that listed the source of their romaine lettuce as "USA." Since Arizona is in the USA, I didn't buy that and I was a little surprised there wasn't further signage and/or that the romaine wasn't removed from the shelf. I went to Whole Foods later. Their romaine was from Wisconsin -- a green house, presumably, given the late spring. So, I bought that. It's all washed and ready for salad-making!

[nationalparker]

This was a rough day plan-wise. I got about three hours of sleep last night - DGS was teething and has a cold, so he was up and down a lot ... I need more sleep than that. I just can't get over how pleasant of a baby he is - despite feeling absolutely crummy, he was still cuddly and played. Lunch was out at IHOP, meeting for the dropoff ... I chose the best I could on this plan and i ordered a senior's meal, but they didn't card me. So a bit upset because I'm not 55, but ... at least i got the one grilled chicken meal. Dinner was at a dinner theatre and I got a large plate for my salad at the buffet and then put a piece of chicken on it. Was NOT on plan as I forgot to bring balsamic vinegar and so went with light italian (sugar and HFCS I know in salad dressings, so bleh), and our special is we get one glass of wine or dessert free for each of us. I thought about it and decided I DID want dessert, despite the no sugar plan. But went with flourless, no sugar chocolate cake. It looked pretty dry, but was melt in your mouth. I didn't each the whole slice, but almost. Now I feel sick.

Working for another hour at home, and then hopefully, blissful sleep. Resigned to know that the scale will be up but... on plan 13 days and not on plan 1 day for the past two weeks. Breakfast and snack was on plan. I'm concerned with travel next week on the most restrictive phase - I need meat that travels that won't spoil and i don't eat beef or jerky would be a good option. I cannot find chicken jerky at any of my markets now (that doesn't have sugar or nitrates).

Better note tomorrow. Accept and move on.

[bethturnaround]

Hi everyone.

Home from a wonderful and exhausting weekend playing board games. All attendees played 30 of the last year's game releases and 5 now get to claim to be "Mensa Select". We also didn't sleep last night. Literally--dozed from 0400-0445 and then got up again. DH has gone to bed early and I'm headed there soon.

I stayed completely with my products this weekend--just as I had planned. On travel day, I had 3 bars and 2 shakes instead of 2 bars and 3 shakes (bars are limited to 2 a day), but I can't bring the RTD shakes on the plane, so had bars instead!

I'll know tomorrow how the scale feels about my weekend :-). My travel scale says I'm done a bit more, but I didn't weigh or check sugar this morning since I do that on waking--and I didn't go to bed!

I'll post personals tomorrow--for now, it's bed time!

--Beth

[maryann]

Good evening, Coaches

Relatively easy to be OP this weekend since we went nowhere. I have been fighting some of the blues. The medication can dangerously sabotage weight loss attempts. But first things first. I need to focus on mood stabilization. Thank goodness for having a plan.The weight as always comes off less quickly then I hope and the answer to this is always the same. Stay OP until tomorrow. I can do that. The day is done. I can go to bed early. Read. Then when I wake up tomorrow I might have lost the next pound.

Funny how I was talking about packing things last week. Looks like I get to use my skills. SIL has won the Mt. Whitney lottery permit. We have seven tickets for Sept. 24. I have no idea if I am in good enough shape. So I decided on the spur of the moment to fly down to her in Ontario, California. We will drive straight to Mt. Jacinto in Palm Springs which is 10.5 out and back. The next day we will do part of Baldy. That is pretty exciting and it should give us an idea of how close we are to being. Whitney is the tallest peak in the 48 states and goes up to 14,00 feet.

I think I get a few extra nutrisystem snacks on the hike

Night all

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Standard Sunday walk, CREDIT moi, passing multiple gardens in joyous bloom. Was warm enough to have wished that I hadn't worn a coat but I don't have faith in the weather yet. I resolved my Romaine Lettuce dilemma by returning to the store with the two packages. At the customer booth, they had installed a sign declaring that all their lettuce came from California - not subject to the FDA warning. I was done in; I'd already replaced one of the packages. So I returned one and took one back home for our own use this week. I've never returned produce in my life - just seemed odd.

Eating was OK. I was tempted to buy something to eat at the supermarket since I felt like I had $5 in my hand ready to be spent. Fortunately, I didn't - CREDIT moi for that.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Am anxious to see if you post again after eating the Romaine lettuce. Keeping my fingers crossed.

maryann - Climbing Mt. Whitney sounds amazing. I'm jealous - and also not sure that I'm in shape to do that.

nationalparker – LOL at the insult of not being carded for a senior's meal. Sounds like you did OK at that buffet - a difficult place to eat. Hope your DGS gets over his cold.

Beth (bethturnaround) – Super Kudos for staying your plan while playing 30 new games.

Readers -

day 7 Arrange Your Environment

what are you thinking?
If you have reservations about doing today's task, you're probably having sabotaging thoughts. Making environmental changes is important. Get out your index cards and prepare your responses. The following sample responses might be helpful.

Sabotaging Thought: If I make changes, I'll have to tell other people that I'm dieting.

Helpful Response: What's the big deal, really The worst that can happen is that someone will be mildly critical of me if I don't lose weight. On the other hand, this program is probably exactly what I need to succeed this time. Announcing my intention to eat in a more healthful way (I don't have to say that I'm dieting) makes it more likely that others will go along with the changes I need to make. And it'll be such a relief not to feel tempted every time I walk into the kitchen or encounter food at work.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), Pg 94.

[silverbirch]

Lots of driving around yesterday to collect the SO. Long story but it meant that we had time to talk about things. I also ended up in a very beautiful part of the country I hadn't seen before.

Food is not good. Exercise is pretty good. I've realised that you can do quite good bodyweight squats when hanging washing on the line. 25 on Friday and I really felt it yesterday. Cannot believe I hadn't realised this before.

Bill, strange how a lettuce can get so complicated.

Maryann, good gracious! Get training seriously for Mount Whitney. How wonderful!

Beth, you are doing so well with sticking to the products.

nationalparker, three hours is not a lot of sleep. Credit for moving forward.

gardenerjoy, as I said to Bill, lettuce can be complicated nowadays. Glad you found something that was OK.

curlyjax, the glorious weather really makes a difference to my spirit too. We are back to overcast and windy weather today which is a shame. I plan to be outside this afternoon and it may rain. We'll see.

Time for lunch. Unplanned but I think it will be a salad.

[gardenerjoy]

I survived our romaine lettuce -- thanks for fretting for me, BillBlueEyes! My goal is two salads today. Plus, greens for supper.

[maryann]

Safely ate romaine. Didn’t even know the perils. Disappointed with no loss on scale again. I did work out 3 straight days. But the truth no move is a victory. Wearing a nice “new” out fit from consignment: Nordstrom capri , couture open net knit with colors of the sea and my favorite “uno de oro” jewelry of a large dragonfly. That is a present from DH. Off to work

[curlyjax]

Quick wave coaches. Funny after you mentioned the romaine Bill I saw something about it at the local Paneras.
i slept in sunday am which was so wonderful!! so at least one n ight.
I came up with some new quotes for a card- I'm strong, I'm focused, i get things done. This can be applied to many aspects in my life. I need some serious self talk right now to motivate me.

[bethturnaround]

Hi everyone.

Today has been uneventful weight/diet wise--no real change in scale, blood sugar down, and was exhausted from the weekend.

No exercise either, although we were out looking at a couple of houses. Neither one was 'right' and we're starting to wonder what our best direction is--DH is better than I am at being in an undecided/thinking about it phase.

--Beth

[nationalparker]

Busy workday...home about two hours later than expected, but I'd prepared dinner on the weekend, so that was a credit. On plan. Rained all day, but looks like we're done with snow and onto spring. Relief. Hope the bad romaine was pulled before I bought some on Saturday. It just says USA. Ate it without knowing with chicken salad.

Just moving forward. One month and I will have wrapped up the frenetic pace. Starting up the hill now. On top of everything, I need to move my office twice in the next two months.

[maryann]

Good Super Early Morning,

Woke up at 2 a.m. with my head filled with the "how to" of a review session for Advanced Placement Exams in English that I have volunteered to do. Oh Well. I decided to just get up write the lesson plans. It will free up the weekend for my two practice hikes. It is what it is.

Along the same lines, I was very disappointed with the scale. I ate the bare minimum over the last three days and have not lost an ounce. It is what it is. I gave myself another pep talk. "The scale is none of my business. All I can do is follow a plan I know works." If the worse happens and I never lose another pound, I have clothes that fit nicely, I can hike, I am healthy. All good.

Nice comment of the day from a kid. I was teaching the difference between an oxymoron and a paradox. I said the paradox is usually about abstract or larger ideas that seem to contradict each other. Like MLK saying in Letters from Birmingham jail that even though he broke the law he committed no crime because the law was immoral. An Oxymoron is contradictory terms like a jumbo shrimp. One of my boy's said "Or a boring Mrs. D." That is me. very cute.

Nationalparker: We are both climbing that last mountain. May we walk steady and keep our sense of humor.