It was good to be at home yesterday. I may have said that now I've got my decluttering eye in, so to speak, I see things around the house that should move on. Yesterday I noticed a sun lounger from my uncle's house, stowed behind a chair in the garden room. None of us ever lie in the sun and this lounger dates from the late 60s or early 70s, I'd say, and is very uncomfortable. Someone will find it at the charity shop and be delighted. Food wasn't bad but I did succumb in the late afternoon. I am going to try having a short sleep instead of food as this is a perennial problem, and it's the main thing standing in my way to weight loss. I think.
karen, I will return to the house dimensions this afternoon. My mistake is a good example of how exhausted I'm feeling. There are others ... Have a great time with your cousin.
gardenerjoy, I agree about the number of decisions to be taken making one very tired. Some of the decluttering people I've come across online seem pretty hyper. There has to be a connection somewhere. I've noticed you're posting your weigh-in and exercise line again. I'll think about how that might suit me. I'd like to get back to daily weighing and I've no cold weather excuse in July!
I am loving the break in our hot spell here. So wonderful to have the windows open instead of the a/c, although I am grateful to have a/c as well!!
DS is back after a week visiting his uncle. He had a great time playing with dogs, older cousins, helping on the farm etc but said he was ready to come back home, which I was glad to hear. He also started doing some driving which is great, I hate teaching that!!
DD is able to start eating some foods like mashed potatoes. The feeding tube will be in until she can eat enough to get enough calories in. She will be able to return for work on light duty shifts soon which will improve her spirits.
I am thinking about various home projects. It’s inspiring to read all your organizing stories!
Silverbirch- Would Scotland in April be really cold? I am starting to think about a trip there with DS to visit a bunch of castles, including the Monty Python one. Either this or next year. Karen- so good to have you back!! I have thought of you often. Glad the kitchen reno went well, and dear Otis is doing well too. Someday I will make it out to your neck of the woods! Gardenerjoy-how funny that the prior owners might have built a sauna- in Missouri! Doesn’t it get hot enough there? Maryann-Have a great time on your hike!
The importance of "hunger is not an emergency," for me, is often not about when I'm hungry. It's about when I'm afraid of being hungry. I can eat a startling amount to prevent future hunger -- yesterday, it was simply because lunch was going to be 90 minutes later than it was the day before. I can survive 90 minutes of hunger! And, I know I wouldn't have even been hungry for the full 90 minutes because there was a ton of distraction going on (if there wasn't, I would have eaten earlier). So, not that happy with what I did yesterday morning, but this is all a good reminder of what works better for me.
Weigh-in: +0.15 kgs, Exercise: +35, 270/1200 minutes for July
curlyjax: It does get quite hot in Missouri! But, it also gets very cold in the winter, so I guess that would be a nice time to have a sauna in the house. Although, I can't say I've ever met anyone who has a home sauna. Our house was built in the 1970s -- I think there was a fad for saunas about that time.
Hope it is okay for me to just jump in here! I'm working through the Beck Diet Solution Weight Loss Workbook. I'm restarting at Day 1-"Review the Advantages of Dieting". This seemed easy when I did it a few weeks ago, but yet, somehow, I ended up NOT reviewing my reasons daily. So, I've reviewed my reasons this morning- I have both an index card with my top 6 reasons and have filled out the checklist in the workbook.
Today I'm walking to the farmer's market with my mother. We are planning to have breakfast there. I'm also going on a hike with my brother this afternoon. [I got laid off last year, and am taking some time to be with my family. My parents are older and in ill health, so I feel lucky that I have this opportunity. I did move back in with my folks, which I feel weird about as an adult with a (formerly) successful, semi-high profile career. I'm trying to own my decision and be upfront about it. Hence the long parenthetical note. ]
The two lists that I talked about a couple of weeks ago are helping me. I'm making one list of "Things that seem like they're treats, but don't really taste or feel that good" and one list of "Things that really are treats."
At first, it felt like I needed to try everything to see what list they go on. But, now, it's clear that almost everything on the "not a treat" list is there because when I really taste it, it's too sweet. So, now, I'm able to act on an educated guess.
I encountered chocolate-covered oreos that looked good at first glance. But, I asked myself how likely they were too sweet. I could answer with near 100% certainty that they would be, and I was able to leave them at the store and go on my way without feeling like I'd missed something special.
Weigh-in: +0.05 kgs, Exercise: +20, 290/1200 minutes for July
Welcome, ssbbg! We love having new people jump in! My adult niece has moved home to help care for her dad with MS, so I can relate to the weirdness as well as the necessity behind that sort of move.
Good to hear you chime in KarenRN. Enjoy your trip. It is so fun to have buddies on these outdoor adventures.
Not having hiking buddies, medication changes, and some physical limitations have made me finally decide to let go of the Mt. Whitney idea. I did not summit Mt. Rose which is only 10, 7000. I fell short by 600 ft. I had elevation effects and aerobic conditioning issues. I told my SIL who is 60 and who sprinted to the top with DS (16.) She was gracious as always about me bowing out of the commitment. I feel bad but I am simply incapable. Whitney is 4,000 feet higher and over twice the length of Mt. Rose. I am going to continue my Personal Training and hiking and make Mt. Rose my new goal.
Credit for having relationships that allow change, growth and grace.
Food is askew because of such a long hike. Back on track by dinner last night. Today's focus is OP with biking at the gym to cross train.
gardenerjoy - I'm impressed with your mindfulness around treats! I'm glad your "two lists" method is providing a useful framework for decision making. maryann- Your hike sounds lovely. I had never heard of Mt. Rose- when I googled it the photos were breathtaking. I hope you had a great time, despite not getting to the summit.
My mom decided to drive to the farmers market. I was a bit relieved. While her endurance has improved dramatically in the last 6 months, I wasn't sure that she could walk there, walk around at the market, and walk home. We had a nice time, and she seemed to really enjoy it. Her world had gotten very small because of her health issues, so something like the farmer's market is a huge deal.
My brother and I went for a hike at Accotink Wildlife refuge, which is on the base of Ft. Belvoir. All the warnings about not wandering off the trail because there might be unexploded ordinance were pretty intimidating. There wasn't a lot of wildlife- it was pretty dry, so I guess they were all hiding. We saw a bunch of baby toads (which are apparently called toadlets). They are super tiny and super hoppy. I thought they were small crickets at first.
Today I am working on Day 2- Commit to a diet plan. This is something I find really hard. I do believe there is a "magic diet" and with enough research, I will find it. Coming up with a plan to modify the diet lead me to spend two weeks researching diets when I hit this day last month. I made a response card that says, "Some diets must be better than others.
There is no magic diet. I need to eat fewer calories."
So my primary diet is a low carb diet. This worked well for me last year but is working less well now that I've increased my exercise. Eating more carbohydrates tends to make me ravenously hungry though. So, I'm currently trying to add more carbohydrates around my workouts to see if this improves my performance without making me super hungry. I imagine it will take a few months to optimize this. I don't really have a secondary plan- I think the broad outlines of my diet do work for me and are the result of trying a bunch of different diets over the years. I'm not sure if this is a realistic assessment or a sabotaging thought though...
Tuesday - Spain opens 1st mosque since Moors were expelled in 1492 (2003, Granada)
Diet Coaches/Buddies – The trip to visit DW's family was a roaring success. Any visit to relatives that ends with all folks still speaking is a low-bar success, LOL. The highlight event was walking Longwood Gardens to see exquisite orchards, Versailles-like fountains, and acres of wild meadow. It's amazing what one can do with a 1000+ acres and the money of Pierre du Pont. We had to drag DW away from the docent at the wild meadow as we learned how they do a controlled burn of one-third of the space each year. They never know what will come up afterward. Their army of volunteers tries to catalog what's happening but can't keep up.
Eating was OK for a vacation, CREDIT moi. During our dinner out, I ordered lump crab cakes - a specialty of the Italian restaurant. Just amazingly good. We just don't get crab that good around here. I did OK with snacking despite being in a household with food constantly available. Had a fun discussion about electric cars with a nephew whose very veins run gasoline. He'll NEVER go electric. So there! After the long drive home, I found an excuse to walk, CREDIT moi, to the supermarket so that we'll have strawberries for breakfast. My reward for walking despite the heat was to discover at the checkout that the quart of strawberries has $3 off the $8 price. I'm so easily pleased.
Joy (gardenerjoy) – Yay for serious re-organizing. Wish you could have been with us at Longwood Gardens; it's made for serious plant folks.
silverbirch – Glad that you're getting a break from the heavy lifting of organizing someone else.
maryann - Kudos for making a difficult decision about Mt. Whitney - it'll be there for later.
Karen (karenrn) - Do admire a house large enough that "kitchen opened up into a great room." Love that you're now camping over in Sequoia. Neat that Otis is already two years old; fondly remembering when he first arrived.
curlyjax - Good to hear that your DS enjoyed his visit to the farm and that your DD continues to recover. A driving teenager is an angst producing era.
ssbbg - Glad that you jumped right in to the discussion. Congrats for making the decision to move in with your folks when that's what was right for you. When each of my adult kids moved in at some point, there was tension because they so vehemently wanted that we not tell them what to do. The tension came because we weren't; didn't want to; didn't plan to - pushing against a vacuum isn't much fun. Would you be willing to share one/some of your Advantages Card? Accotink Wildlife refuge sounds like a fun hike.
Readers -
Quote:
day 10Set a Realistic Goal
You probably want to lose more than that, of course. So once you lose 5 pounds, celebrate. Call a friend or your diet coach, and celebrate together. Or buy yourself something you can afford that you've wanted for a while.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), Pg 113.
SSBBG: It is wonderful for me to read about your journey through the early days of Beck. Picking the diet indeed can prove to be stumbling block. You missed my most recent experience of trying Nutrisystem (which made me physicallly ill) followed by BistroMD. I take the attitude "Well, I know now they don't work for me." But through all the experiments, I didn't have to gain weight. Now I am in the early phase of South Beach. Although the weight is not flying off, I have unchained myself from sugar. That has got to be worth something.
BBE: Welcome back.
Another day in the books of OP. Although portions remain largish, I have stuck to three meals a day. That is a huge deal for me. Also, becuase it is three set meals, I am sitting while I eat more often. Weight is three pounds from ticker. I have Personal Trainer today. So I have a plan which is a good thing.
I had a dream, a couple of nights ago, that I needed to move a pile of rocks for my aunt. I woke up wondering if I were still capable of such a task. So, I invented a workout to make sure. I walked around the room carrying weights, then lowered in a well-formed squat to set them down. Then, I walked around again and squatted to pick them up. Repeat until I’ve carried enough rocks. I started with two 5-pound dumbbells and did it for fifteen minutes. I’d like to build up to both more time and more weight.
The aunt in my dream has been gone for many years. But, you never know when someone might need a pile of rocks moved. And, if it’s someone I love as much as my aunt, I’m going to want to be able to say, “Sure. I’ll take care of that.”
I'm sore this morning from that workout, but it's the level of soreness that I would expect if I'd moved a bunch of rocks.
Weigh-in: -0.35 kgs, Exercise: +30, 320/1200 minutes for July
BillBlueEyes: Longwood Gardens is on my bucket list. We were really into canna lilies for a while and they have the world's best collection.
BillBlueEyes: Thanks for the welcome! I ran across some mentions of Beck on the myfitnesspal forums, so I looked up the book. There is (was?) a group there as well, but it didn't seem to be active. I found this group by the power of google.
Longwood is one of my favorite places, though I haven't been there in a long time. I used to live in Philly (about 4 cities ago!) and Longwood was a great place to go on the weekend. Sometimes there is a special where you can buy a pass for a bunch of the Du Pont mansions that is good for a week or two. I did that once and it was a lot of fun, though many of the Du Ponts appeared to be massive hoarders. To the level of building secondary buildings to house collections OR to house themselves because the mansion was filled with stuff. Of course, when you have that kind of money, the hoard tends to be _really_ nice stuff that people want to look at.
maryann: Have fun with your trainer today. I also have personal training today... I'm feeling... fragile? demotivated? ... not really sure. Trying to get in a better mindset before the gym.
gardenerjoy: Your squat workout sounds challenging! I'm impressed that you grounded the motivation in love.
Today's task is "Day 3- Sit Down to eat". I am actually very good with this, though I do tend to multitask while eating- reading or watching TV while eating. (I know mindfulness is coming up, and that is going to be hard.) I do taste while cooking (and I cook all the meals for my family), but I am very restrained- dipping a fork into the sauce and tasting the drops on the tines not eating an entire spoonful of stuff. Outside of that, I always sit down to eat.
The last two weeks have been horrid. Bad eating choices. No exercise. Emotionally difficult. And I've been sick. On the plus side, I saw a ton of people i haven't seen in a year and everyone was very complimentary :-)
We're heading home tonight and hopefully getting back into a reasonable routine.
I'm trying to get into a new routine which helps me recover from the decluttering work and gives me a bit more energy. It goes something like this:
evening - make breakfast muesli, tomorrow's lunch, lay out other things ready for the next day, read book in bed for a bit and turn out light by 10pm
morning - get up earlier, do not do much on computer, do exercises (building these up as my body is finding this a bit hard)
afternoon - when I get home make a cup of tea, get into bed and go to sleep for half an hour (building up to not eating anything when I come in - today's aim)
evening - whizz round doing things that make the household run more smoothly.
Managing to cram in more sleep is really helping me.
Beth, lovely to hear those compliments at a very difficult time.
ssbbg, glad you're here.
gardenerjoy, you're right about being prepared to move rocks.
maryann, having a plan is a fine thing.
Bill, very pleased to hear about your 'roaring success' of a visit.
Last edited by silverbirch; 07-11-2018 at 02:10 AM.
Welcome ssbbg
