I spoke too soon about drinks. I had a couple last night. Food was on plan today though and no drinks. I hiked this morning and then took Otis for a walk. I called the doctor cause my cast was not comfortable and now I don't have a cast, just a brace. It is kind of itchy, but I will start PT on Wednesday and they will make a better one for me. The doctor air dropped a photo of my thumb during surgery. Gross but interesting. I think the grossest part was the color of my hand because there was a tourniquet on it. It looked just like the hand of a dead person. Anyway, I am thankful to have the cast off and knowing I will be starting PT soon and can get in the pool. Tomorrow I've got an MRI of my head in the morning r/t my tinnitus and slight one sided hearingnloss. Personals tomorrow though.
Tuesday - Edward VIII, King of England, abdicates his throne (1936)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner centered around the Father's Day steaks. I was surprised that the two of us ate the equivalent of one single steak. Either I'm getting it about this program, or the reality that we need to eat less as we age is happening. Good news is that there is steak leftover for another meal. Again, enjoyed eating on the patio in the greenery of our backyard garden. DW made a cold salad of white beans, tomatoes, and onions that we both think just amazing.
The scale this morning double punished me for enjoying my underserved two pound jiggle down yesterday. It jiggled more up. I accept that as punishment for eating on plan, for constraining myself in front of steak grilled for my celebration, for serving a modest portion of white bean salad, and for doubling the serving of green salad made with the bounty of our garden. My guess is that sarcastic folks shouldn't write diet books, LOL.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Kudos for converting allergy malaise into calm. The world needs a little calm right now.
maryann - Those online graduations are such a small substitute for the real thing. At the public high school where both my kids graduated, there were always a few families celebrating the kid who was the first ever to graduate from high school in their family. They were always the best dressed with the most expensive mylar celebration balloons and loudest cheers. Always brought tears to my eyes.
Karen (karenrn) - Sounds like progress with your thumb even if a bit yucky. Hope the brace feels more comfortable.
curlyjax - Interesting benefit of the isolation that you can walk around while talking to your clients. Hope you get a working laptop.
Penny. - LMAO at your conversion of the sleep meditation into a threesome with Michael. Dr. Beck needs to add that to her book. Or maybe you're ready to take up a new career as a romance novelist.
Readers -
Quote:
chapter 1Begin a New Way of Life
The Role of Thinking
For example, at some point you will have a thought such as, I don't care ... I know I'm not supposed to have this brownie, but I'm going to have it anyway. You will then pull out a Response Card that you have been reading every day that says:
It is true that I don't care at this very moment.
But if I eat this unplanned food, I am going to care
quite a lot in just a few minutes. I know I will feel
really bad if I give in, but I will feel terrific if I resist.
I need to go do something else!
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 21.
My work laptop is fixed, yay. Even though I live quite a distance from the agency, I decided to go back home at noon. For some reason I was really depressed being there, plus I felt uber self conscious talking on the phone since there were so few people- mostly the supervisors. I have really got used to my freedom and having 2 extra hours in the day where I don't have to commute/get ready for work.
DS has his online orientation today for college and another tomorrow. It is a bummer because I remember how exciting it was to go to DD's and attend the parent side. But at least we're moving forward with college plans.
I really feel like life is on hold with the pandemic, its very wierd. It feels like it should be mid-July already. I was doing good with eating for a few days but have majorly slipped. Back to work on it.
I ate too often and too much yesterday. Partly hunger at inconvenient times and partly freshly-made tempting food at other times. I usually have more control over all of that at home. I'm out of practice dealing with it, now that I'm not putting myself in places with temptations very often.
I'm typing this without my brace on and it's nice to be able to use the space bar again. Yesterday was on plan with no drinks. I wanted to have a drink to celebrate the cast off, but the LaCroix with a little lemonade powder over ice worked just fine, plus I count it as more water. I'm feeling better today just because I feel like I'm making some progress. I took Otis for a walk today and it was way too noisy with garbage trucks out there, so it was a very short walk. Nothing much planned for the day except the MRI in a couple of hours. I may go out in the pool for a bit. I do like to have a little tan.
GardenerJoy It is so true that the resistance muscle works better when exercised regularly. Curlyjax I agree, it does feel like life is on a kind of hold with the virus. I'm glad to have a couple of things we can do this summer, but the day to day is so different. I'm sorry for the change in your children's lives and only hope for a vaccine soon and many wonderful years ahead. Hopefully many lessons are being learned for a next time. Bill The salad does sound very good. Oh the scale! I wish I didn't let it influence my emotions so much. Weight loss is certainly not linear. I was at my lowest in awhile Friday, then popped up, now about back down to that . . for no good reason that I can think of. I guess all we can do is stick what we know to do. Maryann I hope you are feeling fine and no sore throat today. Any little symptom would be cause for concern at this point. Have you watched the movie Game Changers? I did and liked it. It's about athletes who eat plant based. Penny Yes, I think it's time you start writing some romance novels. Glad you're enjoying the sleep meditation.
I hope you all have a great day. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be able to use the space bar. Writing is still a challenge, but it will come.
Karen: yay for some progress with the thumb. Slow going I know. curleyjax: Yes, DS has his orientation on Wednesday.
Yesterday was OP but I was SUPER hungry - not just fangs in my mouth but HUNGRY. At an awards ceremony for DS, people were eating spaghetti and it looked really good. I will have to put it on my plan. I am cautious though because I really want to drop to 164. Any change in food plan usually results in a little adjustment. But I am in this for the long haul so tomorrow I'll add in the pasta. Interestingly enough, pasta has a low glycemic count compared to bread. There is something about the density of it. I have mine with some nice pesto.
I am nearly finished with the book A Year Without Sugar. It is a quick anecdotal read of a family staying away from anything with fructose. In some ways, they had much stricter guidelines than I do in that they wouldn't eat anything with any sugar in it on the label, even miniscule amounts. My justification is this is a living program and their's was finite. Plus they allowed themselves a dessert once a month and my body can't handle any added sugar. I have just come to understand my body.
While writing this I just got a call from something claiming to be Amazon questioning a fraudulent order. I read about scams such as these. Drat! I have to go deal with it.
Wednesday - Henry VIII is crowned King of England (1509, Westminster Abbey, London)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Shopping at the supermarket was closer to a normal experience. There was no line outside to wait for admission. No maximum number of people inside at the same time was displayed. Carts were being sanitized. EVERYONE wore masks. Aisles were marked one-way. It felt odd to buy no lettuce - this is the moment in the summer when our garden produces more than we can eat.
Accomplishment, CREDIT moi, was to complete and dispatch an email to a college friend who I haven't seen in fifty-five years. It was emotional and educational to reduce my last half-century into a few paragraphs. Had to make choices. My first draft forgot to mention that I'd been employed for most of that time. I've been known to contemplate writing such a missive and then not completing it or not sending it. Felt good.
Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner on the patio in the calm of our little backyard with fresh foods as if we weren't in a crisis. Finally finished the watermelon; it was good to the last slice.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - I also appreciate your reminder that practice helps us stay our paths. We're at that moment of giving away heaps of sugar snaps and lettuce. Breaks my heart because the bounty will soon just abruptly end.
maryann - Super Kudos for standing down the spaghetti at your DS's awards dinner. I get those SCAM Amazon order calls every week.
Karen (karenrn) - Yep.Thespacebaronacomputerisaniceaddition,LOL. I'm so old that getting an MRI was a big deal.
curlyjax - Ouch for having to flip between work-at-home and work-at-office. Good to hear that your DS is moving ahead with college plans. Is it clear yet whether he'll be in a dorm there?
Penny. - Yikes! Hard to imagine life without a library card. Let us know how to do CPR with a face mask - presumably on both parties.
Readers -
Quote:
chapter 1Begin a New Way of Life
The Role of Thinking
Eventually the messages on your Response Cards will become ingrained. You will build new pathways in your mind, so when you experience sabotaging thoughts, you will automatically answer then without thinking too much about it.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 21.
I am loving having fresh herbs to pick. I' found some chives growing randomly in a pot; I don't know who planted them but it was a nice surprise.Gardens are another thing to take care of but the herbs are definitely worth it.
I am beating myself up for being 40 pounds overweight, plus being so disorganized I can't find all my tax stuff. I tell myself in the evenings I'm going to look for things but then I get depressed and just want to escape into tv or books. Ugh. time for a mind re-set. Karen- so glad your hand is doing better. Too funny about the space bar! Bill-They are still figuring out the housing, but since he'll be a freshman i'm sure they will be housed, they seem to be a priority. The poor sophmores may be the ones scrambling for housing. Fortunately DD who will be a junior already has an apt.
My CPR class only had three people and we all wore masks. We each had our own assigned dummies, did chest compressions only, and skipped the mouth to mouth.
At one point the lady in front of me turned her head to the side and sneezed quite aggressively, and the instructor had a little run of coughing. These simple things aren't so simple anymore and don't go unnoticed. Coughing and sneezing is no longer allowed. lol
Yesterday still wasn't a great eating day. I need to figure out how to handle delivery from a new place that we tried.
I had a pulled jackfruit sandwich. St. Louis is usually the last place to get things, so y'all have probably heard about it. I learned about it from my young vegetarian friends. It tastes like a yummy barbecue sandwich but is based on a fruit, not a meat.
That should be healthy enough to fit in my supper plans, but not if I eat the whole thing and, especially, not if I eat the whole bun that it's served on. It's such a sweet filling that I suspect it would be really good on DH's sourdough bread. And, it will be great for one or two lunches, too.
Yesterday did not turn out to be a good food day for me. I gave in to an afternoon urge to whip up a sweet treat and then had drinks on top of that. I didn't every feel at all full, but I know it was more calories than I needed. I am not doing a good job of managing my mind around this covid thing. My sister in law flew down from WA on Monday to visit her daughter and family who live remotely near Castle Hot Springs resort. She was going to stay with me next Sunday night and I was going to take her back to the airport. With the numbers going up so fast, first I called before she left home and said "are you sure you want to come?" Anyway, long story short she won't be coming to our home. I told her I am even more worried about her with the young people all week than I am the air travel. I am so looking forward to our road trip to WA that I don't want to worry that I have been infected, at least by anything I had some control over. She was fine with it and I am glad, but in any case I know I need to do the right thing for myself and my husband. This morning I got up early and hiked and then walked Otis. I am going for my first PT session after lunch and I'm glad of that. My thumb is darned stiff. I think the first 2 to 3 weeks are to get it more flexible and then work on the strengthening. So far I have felt very safe in the medical appointments so I'm hoping PT is the same.
Penny I thought chest compressions alone was the new CPR. It's been awhile since I've taken a class though. I though mouth to mouth was abandoned some time back. Curlyjax Give yourself some grace. I don't think beating ourselves up helps at all for anything. You've had a lot to deal with over the past couple of years. Baby steps. Bill How is it that you're corresponding with a college friend after so long? I have several friends that I still keep in touch with frequently from first grade. We went to Catholic school and had a small class, so I think that's part of it. We don't have so much in common anymore, but we sure do have history. I can't imagine having to get them up to date with what has gone on in my life in 60 years. It sounds nice to have your own produce for now. Maryann I hate those truly hungry days. Sometimes I end up eating lunch up to an hour or two early on those days and it seems to work.
Okay, time to make my food plan for the day, think about breakfast and shower and wash my own hair. Yipee!
Good Morning, Coaches.
Up and out early this morning. Credit walk, PT and grocery shopping. Weight is ten days stuck on a number. Grrrrrrrr.
I cooked my groats. I had a bowl with roasted broccoli. It was pretty tasty but a far cry from a stack of blueberry pancakes or a plate of spaghetti. What I accept is this is my exploration summer. I need to continue to refine new normal eating yet still be able to participate in my everyday society.
On deck for today is cooking up green beans and summer squash before they go bad. I need to finish Year of No Sugar because it is due in a few hours. I have started Never Get Angry Again having abandoned The Mind Gut Connection halfway through. It became repetitive.
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating was on plan, CREDIT moi. The only daytime snack was a bunch of strawberries; DW bought a quart of local strawberries that won't last a whole week. They have to be eaten - or they'll end up as compost. Fortunately, my own little perverse manner of counting calories assigns ZERO calories to strawberries. However, for this minor transgression, the scale punished me by two pounds this morning. Perhaps it has its own perverse manner of counting calories, LOL. I need the Beck lecture about not getting too caught up in the scale readings.
We dawdled after dinner on the patio until 8:30pm - while it was still light. Gotta love these longest days of the year.
The time has come to register for courses in the fall. I'm contemplating courses in: the planets of our solar system; the human brain; and seeing art. I'd love to take all three. An odd side effect of courses being forced to Zoom is that there is more competition for each course since traveling isn't a barrier to anyone.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Had to google pulled jackfruit sandwich - adding it to my list, although I don't know where I can buy one.
maryann - Great first sentence for a novel, "I cooked my groats." Maybe a bodice slasher, LOL.
Karen (karenrn) - Ouch for a lost visit with your SIL. Yeah for making a sane choice around isolation. And Yay again for being able to wash your own hair. A mutual friend who I am in contact with gave me my old roommate's email. It's good to have at least one friend who stays in contact with everyone.
curlyjax - Yay for fresh herbs. I love the notion of 'discovered' chives.
Penny. - Ouch for anyone sneezing. Anytime. Anywhere. When my allergies call for a sneeze, I have to lift my mask to put my handkerchief over my face because it absorbs more.
Readers -
Quote:
chapter 1Begin a New Way of Life
The Role of Thinking
Once you get to this point, sticking to your diet gets dramatically easier. That's when you will breathe a sigh of relief. You will know the formula works for you, too.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 21.
I woke up a little early yesterday and did get a walk out of the way so yay for that. I may try to sneak one in today too. I'm going to try the south beach diet again so i'm starting to organize myself for that; i'll need to go grocery shopping and plan well so that will wait for the weekend. That should give me a jump start and an easier way to say, no choice.
I've had a youngish looking deer at the back of my backyard twice yesterday around 7, and before that was a mother turkey and 5 tiny babies. I like seeing the deer as long as it stays out of my plants, and doesn't bring a lot of deer ticks. And of course rabbits and a groundhog show up. Lots of nature! Bill- how do you avoid getting bitten at that time of night? I get bit easily, and I don't want to put on bug spray for an hour and then have to wash it off, but maybe i'm being lazy about it. Karen- wise thinking about your SIL not visiting, one does have to be vigilant, especially if you're in a hot zone. I was thinking about going to a conference center in Maine on the beach for a few days at some point towards the end of summer, but they require a negative covid test from 3 days prior to the visit if you're from MA. That seems like a lot of effort to try to get tested just for a holiday, i'll wait until next year. Yay for washing your hair yourself! Maryann-I like roasted broccoli but don't know that i could face it in the am, good for you! Penny- glad you got your renewal done in a safe manner. yes, its touch to sneeze these days without folks looking at one suspiciously! Gardenerjoy- I think i've seen a jackfruit in the store, they are huge. Interesting idea for a sandwich!
Tuesday - Edward VIII, King of England, abdicates his throne (1936)
but the herbs are definitely worth it. 