Good morning!

Yesterday I hoped to do the lower calories but then ate back up to the higher calories. Weight is holding.

Karen, credit for staying on plan! Seeing the rattlesnake would have made my whole day. I saw a bobcat on one of my bike rides and it was exciting. lol

Joy, I hope the pizza temptation was not too strong.

Maryann, I'm glad you are fully relishing the start of your summer break. You needed this!

Bill, I haven't been to a restaurant in so long! It sounds like it was a great time out with friends.

Curly, you're in the "it gets worse before it gets better" stage of cleaning? I would have accepted the cookies too. How incredibly thoughtful of her!

Good morning coaches,

Just back from my hike and I can report I didn't see any snakes today. The weather isn't bad and is expected to stay a little cooler than normal which means it will be about 75 when I start hiking and 85 when I finish. I can handle those temps especially when the humidity is low. My husband thinks I should focus more on strength training, but I do some things at home and I much prefer the hiking. I know the temps are going up from here, so I'll spend more time in the gym once that happens. The other thing is I'm in a couple of Garmin step challenges and I have to say I get a little competitive. I might have to quit those when I'm heading to the gym more. I stayed on plan except that I added a nectarine after dinner. Basically I forgot to put it on the plan. I must remember to put some fruit on the plan for dessert because most days I have it. My weight is back to where it was 2 months ago, so I'm planning to continue heading down. It's amazing what happens when I stay on my plan.

Penny The rattlesnake made my day too. I love to see bears even more, but also at a distance. Glad your weight is holding.
Curlyjax I'm sure it feels good to be getting some things done around the house. I have a new strategy I just thought of for myself. I'm going to join Audible and listen to the books as I clean house. Hmmm, we'll see if it works.
Bill The restaurant menu looks delicious. I'm with Penny in thinking the portions are usually small.
Maryann Yay for fun summer plans and double yay for your weight already being at next weeks goal!
GardenerJoy Whole Foods is not convenient for me, but I need to go take a look again. It's a little pricier to be sure, but sometimes it's just fun to go someplace different.

Waving to Beth and Onebyone!

Good Morning, Coaches.

Beautiful morning here in California. The temps are going to start increasing so I am going to try and get up earlier to take a morning walk. In Beck I am working on spontaneous exercise. The boys got up at 3:45 a.m. for the farm so I am probably feeling a little guilty about a 7 a.m. rising.

Weight adjusted down another pound. I have adjusted my stats to reflect my new goals which is kind of fun. A pound a week and I am starting a little ahead of the game by having lost two pounds. Again, I know there will be weeks that I don't lose so it is good to be ahead of schedule. Also, these first few pounds always come off more easily as we all know. It is the next few pounds that get so tough. I have put food in my MFP. But I am also suppose to log feelings, times, and satiety, so I have downloaded another app called Ate. I'll see if that is useful. I am willing to do some new things while I have the time right now.

I had dinner with a couple of girlfriends. One of them has dived into Keto head first. I have known her for years and she always does extremely well in the beginning of these diets and loses 35 pounds but then she gains it back. I can't risk that kind of swing. I searched around through my old journals to see my pattern of weight loss in the hope of better understanding myself. I have kept off the 30 pound drop since I was 25 and above 200. Then I kept off another 10. I found an entry in 1999 about my then fiance asking my father for my hand in marriage. I was the exact weight I am now. That is good information because I can remind myself that at this weight I am vibrant, attractive, and lovable. So I am not losing another ten pounds to gain those attributes. I am losing weight to remain healthy.

KarenRN: I think fruit is always free ;0
BBE: Restaurants are such a danger zone no matter how often you go.
Penny: Glad weight is holding steady. Do you unschool in the summer?
Curleyjax: A nice little pick me up to be remembered by a 94 year old.

It's not morning, but I'm completing my Morning Routine, anyway.

A problem that I'm having is competing expectations for my morning. I've promised myself to complete my Morning Routine. I've also promised myself that I'll do some doodling in my sketchbook in the morning. Predictably, I often do one and not the other.

At a minimum, it would help if I set my expectations so that I don't expect both of those things to be done by 9am, because it's unlikely. Today, I managed to work in the sketchbook, but then I had to get ready for a meeting at 10am. Then, I ran a bunch of errands while I was out. So, I'm doing my Morning Routine in the mid-afternoon.

Exercise: +50, 605/1100 minutes for June

Wednesday - Juneteenth Day - slaves finally freed (1865)
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Walked, CREDIT moi, to the bank to get rolls of pennies. Thinking ahead, I am. We'll be going to the Museum of Science in two weeks with the DGD and house guests and they have the most wonderful orbit simulating device into which one rolls coins so that they can orbit down to the bottom. Great idea to get coins in advance. Alas, I arrived at the bank six minutes after closing. So what lesson do I learn from trying to get prepared in advance?

Eating was on plan, CREDIT moi, including dinner for both of us constructed from a half portion of take-home chicken from the previous night's restaurant dinner. So the restaurant serving was large enough that we used half of it for two home servings. Good reminder.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Great solution - it's morning somewhere, LOL.

maryann - Those extreme diet swings are so attractive - until they aren't.

Karen (karenrn) - Thanks for, "It's amazing what happens when I stay on my plan."

curlyjax - Can't say no to a 94 year old pushing cookies. Dr. Beck needs to add a chapter to her book covering that, LOL.

Penny. - Bobcats are exciting - from a distance.

Readers -

I'm doing my Morning Routine in the morning, yay! It's all a matter of balance, I suppose, and moderation. This morning had just a little bit of sketching and a lot of routine things so that I could get the house ready for the cleaning crew.

I also wrote a full food plan for the day -- credit!

Exercise: +40, 645/1100 minutes for June

BillBlueEyes: thanks for the good reminder about how large restaurant portions really are.

Good morning!

Yesterday was on plan and weight is holding.

The 12yo and I are binge watching a show (Jessica Jones) and his watching stamina is lower than mine. I'll have to keep myself from waking him up just to ask if we can watch again.

Karen, enjoy the cooler weather! It cooled down here too. So nice!

Bill, 1/4 of the meal was enough? Credit!

Joy, how is dh doing since cutting dairy? Better?

Maryann, 3:45 wake up time for the farmers? Wowzers! That does make 7am seem like a luxury. lol

Good Morning,

Continuing in the Beck book still focusing on new strategies. The “Ate” app didn’t work. In my quest to differentiate between hunger and craving I have researched and chosen another app called Rise up and Recover. I like many things about it. It is easy to identify feelings, log hunger, time meals and customize. I am uncomfortable with the preset log entries including purging, binging etc. . . Maybe I don’t want to be reminded of the darkest days of eating disorders. I’ll try it out for a few days. My plan is continue to weigh and log into MFP and then identify feelings around food in RR. Credit for willingness to spend time look at my patterns of eating.

BBE: DH declares bank’s hours ridiculous all the time.
Gardenerjoy: Credit for posting.

Good morning coaches,

Food and exercise were on plan and weight was up .8. I was disappointed to see that but it doesn't matter. I know it is just data, our bodies fluctuate and instead of what I do so often which is overeat cause it doesn't matter anyway I am staying on plan like a boss today. It was only 72 when I left to walk this morning and under 80 when I finished up, boy was that great. It even felt a little cool when I first started out. No plans today but I have several books that I got at the library on the weekend. One of them is about retirement and one of them is about dog training. Otis is darling and he is mostly very good, but he does bark too much when he sees things outside and he jumps up. Luckily he is small, but I don't want him jumping up especially.

Maryann Isn't it nice to have the time to do some research on things that will help weightloss.
Penny I bet my watching stamina is even lower than ds. I seem to have the attention span of a gnat.
GardnerJoy Balance and moderation are a good thing, but I can't seem to get there. I think I'm doing better on moderation than balance.
Bill That restaurant must have provided some darned big portions.

Have a great day all of you!

Thursday - National Bald Eagle Day (since 1982, by President Ronald Reagan)
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Exercise was chase the (3.5 yo) DGD day, CREDIT moi. It's becoming harder to keep her left arm velcroed to her side to minimize movement of the healing fracture of her collar bone. She insisted on climbing the plastic climbing structure just using the one free arm. The new big deal is to walk to the local park where the dog walkers are gathering. She gets to pet a dozen dogs and one sympathetic soul let her 'walk' one of the dogs on a leash. She was in heaven.

Eating was on plan, CREDIT moi, with a California Navel Orange for evening snack. It was a small orange, not that sweet. The season is coming to a close; only the diehards won't give up.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Gotta love the notion of getting a house ready for the cleaning crew. BTDT.

maryann - Yep, Kudos, indeed, for looking at your patterns of eating.

Karen (karenrn) - Best line of the year: "I am staying on plan like a boss today."

Penny. - You got me on Jessica Jones - had to google her. Good luck trying to keep up with a 12 yo - in any category.

Readers -

I forgot to post yesterday, I had a coffee date with a friend I am reconnecting with, that I haven't seen in ages. I am starting to reach out more and she was very glad I did. Now that my kids and those of my friends are older, it is easier to make time for ourselves and each other.
A few food triumphs yesterday- i lusted after some desserts at Wegmans but didn't buy any, I didn't get tempted at the drugstore, and I didn't go into the snack room at choir. And I woke up hungry today. We are having an ice cream cake at work today and I will have a piece but will make it small.
Maryann- good luck with the apps. I tend to do the best with paper and pen, I am so oldfashioned, but of course that doesn't give you any info back.
Bill- nice that DGD isn't fearful of dogs. I used to go to a state park with DS and we would count all the dogs we see, quite a few!
Karen-glad you are having some nice temps! Small dogs can be amazingly loud.
Joy-yay for morning routine.
Penny-What did we do without netflix! So nice to have a show to share with your DS.

I've got a busy day, well-planned. Sometimes busy helps since there are fewer decision points where I might decide that a little treat is just what's needed to fill a small moment of time.

Exercise: +40, 645/1100 minutes for June

Penny: DH is doing better since cutting dairy, so we're going to keep up with that. It might be lactose intolerance that can come with aging. More likely, it's related to his alpha-gal allergy to red meat which can also develop into similar problems with dairy.

Good morning coaches,
Food was on plan yesterday and weight is down, but not quite as low as Tuesday but almost. I will stay on plan again today. I just finished a hike, but the shorter Sunrise hike. Still a good hill, but less distance. I wasn't feeling it when I started out, but then was fine. Yesterday I wasn't feeling like doing my other exercises, but I did that too. I can do hard things. I started the audible book that I said I would listen to while doing housework. I told myself I had to get into it a little before I would feel enticed to do the housework. We'll see if that works. I need to be careful with writing my plan today. I sometimes forget to put something on it and then want it but it isn't on the plan, as in no fruit on the dinner plan. Today there will be some fruit on the dinner plan.

Curlyjax It is nice to have friends and sometimes it is work to reach out for sure. Good on you for doing it. Congrats on the food triumphs too!
Bill I bet that is difficult to keep DGD from doing too much with her arm. Hopefully it will heal very quickly.

I can't remember if I told you folks about Restless Kiwi on YouTube. She is here from New Zealand hiking the PCT solo. If any of you want to see what the Sierra looks like recently check out her day 77. She is really amazing and I am addicted to her videos. She has gotten up to Lake Tahoe where she is uploading her video and getting a little rest. She is very smart and I've learned a ton from watching her videos. Maryann you might enjoy some of them, especially because she is hiking near you or will be soon.

Have a great day everyone.

Good morning!

Yesterday was on plan and weight is finally down a smidge. It was only 0.6 after nearly a full month, but I'll take it.

Maryann, credit for keeping track of things with the apps. It sure helps me stay away from mindless eating.

Karen, I love those through hike experiences! I'll have to check out the youtube.

Bill, I'm amazed dgd is still keeping her arm immobile at all. I remember my son throwing off the sling and refusing it after three days or so. Luckily kids heal so fast.

Joy, that's great the diet changes have helped dh. Credit for sticking to your posting and sketch book goals.

Curly, I am with you on the having more time for friends now that our kids are older. It's pretty great.

Weight down. I used Rise and Recover app all day and found it pretty user friendly. I am able to select feelings before I eat and times when I feel full. I discovered that when I am truly hungry I am both afraid and angry that the set amount will not be enough. So today I will eat and then time myself to see if I feel full within an hour. If I don’t I will allow myself to eat something more. Hopefully this will help with the irrational panic. It is irrational because my food plan is reasonable.

I went to the shrink who is very pleased with the meds efficacy and so am I. I feel I have been given my life back. I have come along way from the bipolar diagnosis a year ago. I also am only three pounds up from that diagnosis and determined to lose more despite the meds propensity to cause weight gain. I don’t want to have to change regimens again because it was such a nightmare.

After shrink appt. I went shopping for a few basics and opted for non name brands over the $65 plain white t made by Eileen Fisher. I bought several items that equaled that amount and they will be workhorses in my wardrobe. Sometimes a piece is worth the money and sometimes it is not. (BBE is tuning this conversation out :))

Thanks for the tip on Kiwi. I’ll check it out, Karen.

Today’s task is to vacuum and dust the whole house including the couch. Then DS gets his senior portraits taken.