Saturday - Bob Dylan booed for his electric guitar (1965, Newport Folk Festival)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner on the patio was the leftover pizza from Wednesday. Heated in the oven, the crust was crisp and true to form. The great news is that there were exactly four slices left so overeating wasn't an option. DW made a 3 bean salad with green beans and yellow beans from our garden and red beans from a can. Cool salads are just the best. Watermelon after dinner while dawdling on the patio.
Walked, CREDIT moi, to include stopping at the drugstore. Once again, everyone I encountered wore masks. Surprise was the high quality of a glasses case that I'd ordered online. Didn't expect it to arrive so soon. Didn't expect high quality stitching. Wasn't sure that it would really be big enough for my glasses and my reading glasses both. And wasn't sure that 'natural leather' meant that it was leather that came from a cow. Exceeded all expectations - all for $10 with FREE shipping. Sometimes one wins.
onebyone - Yuck! I actually like radishes - in their place - but would freak out if I bit into one expecting potato salad. Kudos for 100% OP.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Once a week shopping does make lettuce and summer fruits more possible. We are finally harvesting enough cukes that I'm not buying ones from the supermarket.
maryann - Congrats for sticking to your plan sufficiently to continue with the loses. Love the notion of having the kids pick our heroes. Reading the sour news about John Muir recently was a real bummer; he's a hero way out here on the East Coast, also.
curlyjax - Congrats for overcoming all the obstacles to get a stint at the beach. I have so many friends holding their breath waiting for news about the fall.
Penny. - Yay for a bike ride - even if shortened.
CJZee - Yay for finding your copy of Dr. Beck's book. Love the memory of a $1000 laser printer. Neat to find old letters to remind you of the good old days.
Readers -
Quote:
chapter 2Experience the Difference
Stage 1
When your family members try to cajole you into taking second helping at a holiday meal or undermine your progress, you will know what to tell them.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 26.
Yesterday I received the exciting news that my agency is starting to plan resuming home visits. I am ready to do this, as long as there are clearcut instructions and protections in place, and there is a place for me to hang out between visits. I used to go to the libraries during my lunch (after eating quickly in the car or whatever) so that will be a bummer, and some other things will be a challenge. I've been so tired and taking naps at home during the day, and i'll have to get up earlier, so that will be a challenge. But with the kids off at school in a month I will have more time to myself. I think I will be less depressed too which will make me less sleepy.
It did make me laugh, one of the suggestions was to do a visit outside. Um, no- its hot out, its hard to find shade or a seat, and unless its fabulous out i doubt the elder will want to do that either. Folks have had their homemakers and visiting nurses inside all this time. Maryann- I am super impressed at you losing that weight during the pandemic, major congrats! Bill- yay for your own summer produce. At least the ground hogs (that eat everything here) provide me entertainment CjZee-I would just throw out the letters personally; you know you won't feel good reading them, and no one else will want them- and then you'll just have to deal with it another time. It's the letters from people I love that I keep, and even then I have to cull some of those. I read a book once called "Throw out 50 things" and it talked about getting rid of the emotional baggage too.
Shopping went fine. They even had our favorite brand of toilet paper, although not in the giant package that I usually buy. They also had our favorite brand and shape of pasta -- I bought the last two boxes on the shelf.
We're under a heat advisory through the weekend, so we'll go for a walk in a few minutes. We would have had to get up a lot earlier to get a walk while it was still in the 70s.
So I really have trouble staying on plan on a Saturday. Since I was a kid, Saturday was a day for fun and relaxing and doing whatever I want. When that is interfered with in any way, like today I was teaching, I rebel. So I already feel like the day should be a free-for-all and add a rebellious tone to that and right now, since I'm not a teenager anymore, I rebel with food.
Now as far as offplan eating goes, what I ate was not that bad.
12" sub and half a large poutine. That's it. I was super stuffed and stopped eating at 4pm. It's a whack of carbs though. And my weight was teetering about to drop. This will stop the drop. I've probably added a few days to the drop now. I just didn't want to say no. And it was me, all me, doing this to myself.
I finished teaching at the makerspace at 2:30 and called DH asking him if he was hungry. He said yes and I said I'd pick us up something. I want s to please him (I rationalized) so I got what I was craving knowing he'd like it too. It was off plan food. High carbs.
So this has been a prime pattern for me. I eat off plan just enough to keep my weight stable. A little up. A little down. Too far up I settled down, get focused, bring it back down but never hang in there to keep on going down. I go off plan and stall. Sometimes I can't find the willingness to focus and it does bump up really fast, like 10 or 20lbs in a flash. This can't happen to me anymore. My body has had it and is sending up flares!
Honestly what really got me restarted was all the constant messaging about covid19 and people with underlying conditions. Obesity keeps being mentioned. Non stop. And age. I need to be in better shape as the winter and flu season arrives. This is the time to do the work. Its never been so obvious.
So this is how I will cope with next Saturday's class.
I will make, in advance, a yummy meal for me and DH that will only require reheating when I get home from teaching.
Saturday I don't like to cook.
I will force myself to drive directly home from teaching. I always want to dawdle and see the sights and go here and there and that makes me see.food places I want to try. So, can't do that, drive home instead where my yummy meal awaits.
Long term lifestyle change is what's important here. How can I capitalize on my instincts and make them work for me, or at the very least, not allow them to sabotage my progress?
The food today will not induce a gain over the long run. I am right back on plan. But I gotta get a grip and make some real changes.
Sunday - Playwright George Bernard Shaw born (1856, Dublin, Ireland)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Surprised when the postman delivered a 24 oz box of Whitman's Sampler Chocolates. From a business at an address in Illinois, but no person's name. No name or invoice inside. Just no idea who or why it arrived. We've debated how to get rid of it; neither want to eat so much as a single piece. (3300 calories for the 24 ounces by one calculation.) We're flummoxed. None of the places we would normally visit four months ago are meeting; we have no access to a kid returning to college. The assisted living facilities won't even let anyone in the door - much less leave a box of edibles. Hoping I'll get a message from someone that it was a birthday present. Or Christmas present - who knows. I only know that I want it gone; these were considered the good stuff when I was a kid decades ago. Not so much now that I've discovered dark chocolate.
Excitement: DW suggested we take my $5 off coupon and walk about air-conditioned Home Depot. She needs a pitchfork for a group she supports. So we did. Called it an adventure. (Talk about lowering the bar, LOL.) She found one for nearly $40 - too much for her taste. We walked by stack after stack of of Home Depot 5-gallon buckets; she grabbed one ($3.40). Turns out to be the only thing we bought. On the way to the car she mentioned that she's now satisfied her Bucket List. I was puzzled. "How'd you do that?" I asked as I put the bucket in the trunk of the car and she gave me that woman's eye roll suggesting that men can be clueless. Oh, yeah, I get it. Duh!
Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner on the patio concluded with watermelon - the last of this one. Still very sweet - they do last in the fridge well for a few days.
onebyone - Carbs so easily sneak into our lives - so readily available. Kudos for making a plan for next Saturday.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Just love it that getting your favorite brand of toilet paper is news. Morning walk before the heat arrives is just the best.
maryann - So neat when you can enjoy an area during the week before those working folks appear for the weekend.
curlyjax - So difficult to figure out how to get back to 'normal' when visiting older folks is a contact situation.
Penny. - Yay for having glutes that will get you up the mountain.
Readers -
Quote:
chapter 2Experience the Difference
Stage 1
You will always be faced with tempting foods that you have to limit. Wouldn't it be wonderful to find it easy to resist? If so, you have to learn and practice the Success Skills over and over again.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 26.
Our excitement, on the level with BillBlueEyes' Home Depot trip, was a friend dropping by. She's a notary so she came to notarize our mail-in ballots, in the driveway, for the August 4 election. When DH mentioned that he hadn't spoken to a person, besides me, in-person in months, she kindly stuck around and chatted for a while, six feet away and everyone masked.
Exercise +45, 1035/1400 minutes for July
onebyone: Planning next Saturday when you spot problems with this Saturday is stellar Beck work.
BillBlueEyes: LOL at DW's Bucket List. We've had an unexpected benefit from buying wheat in bulk -- a continuous supply of buckets. I'm estimating that we'll get 6 to 8 a year. That's about all we need at any one time and we already had that. I'm not quite sure what we'll be doing with excess buckets.
I talked to my HS friend yesterday who lives in Minneapolis, very close to the police station which was burned down. She described to me the chaos that happened and being part of a neighborhood watch, to ensure their houses wouldn't get burned down. There are indeed people coming from other states who want to be destructive, who have nothing to do with the protests. It is still very tense. I forget what is happening in other parts of the US sometimes. My own concerns seem very petty compared to that.
It's so hot, I'm not exercising much, and emotionally eating. DS is going off with a friend's family to a peaceful cabin in the woods and getting away from his exhausting womenfolk which he desparately needs. We're still trying to figure out getting a roommate and other college stuff, from all the conflicting online info. Penny-Thank you, i'm looking forward to my alone time too! I will let you vicariously experience the peace! Bill- The mystery of the unanticipated chocolate, I hope you find out who sent it! My feeling is, you can always just toss candy- it isn't wasteful because its bad for everyone.
I attended a small gathering outside and I thought it was going to be nicely social distanced and masks on, but it devolved.
I was the only one wearing a mask, and then after lots of drinking they pulled in closer and also started dancing together. Eeep! I desperatly want and need the social interaction but it's scary too. I'm torn.
I weeded the remainder of my community garden tonight. Big credit for that. I really didn't want to go. I'm so glad I went anyway. It's not weed-free but I don't have to feel bad about it and I won't be reported! And... Bonus... I can see what's growing. I have a watermelon the size of a golf ball. I have three or four almost red Cayenne peppers. My Pineapple Cossack Tomatillos are showing their papery husks which was a real surprise. I thought I was very far away from that! I saw a.honker of a tomato at the base of one of my plants after the weeds were gone. Another surprise. Failures in the garden include shallots. Not one sprouted. None. And three onions grew in a space 3'x3'. Terrible. All the radishes have bolted. They are now flowering. If anyone knows what to do about bolted radishes please let me know. Pretty sure they are inedible now. Should I just pull them all up and plant something else? Its only mid July. Maybe even small carrots would mature there? I will have a large empty space and it seems wasteful to just have it sit there. My canteloupe plantsjplants never grew. I think there is insect trouble or something. It's too weird. I guess that's it. The kholrabi were a stellar success. I'll double the amount I grow next year. Squashes are good. Steady progress. I am really really enjoying my garden this year. It's giving me great joy.
Foodwise and excellent day. I have stayed OP . I had to flex my resistance muscle until it hurt between 10am and 3pm. I'm surprised I didn't get a muscle cramp. i really wanted off plan food but I did not give in knowing that the craving would eventually pass. It took hours but it did. This is necessary behavior if I no longer want the morbidly obese label and the normal label instead
Dare I even dream of being a statistically normal weight?
I'm doing it. I am daring to do it and be it.
Monday - Bugs Bunny debuts in the Warner Bros. animated cartoon "A Wild Hare" (1940)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Unbelievable success: The 24 ounce box of Whitman's Sampler Chocolate Candy is gone! When DS and his SO dropped by for a socially-distanced glass of iced tea on our patio, we showed them the unexpected box and told them the story. They checked inside to see if it really was candy. "Can I eat this one?" my DS asked. "Only if you take the whole box home with you; it's hard to give away a picked over box of candy." So they did. They declared that they had the skill to eat one every night. Just one, no more. Hard to believe that he's related to me and can do that. DW and I danced for joy - so very happy that it was gone and we'd had not a single piece. CREDIT moi for dodging that bullet.
Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks including no Whitman Sampler Chocolate Candy, CREDIT moi. Dinner on the patio was pasta salad - a summer favorite. It feels 'good for me' despite all the white pasta. All the green, red, and yellow Bell Peppers, scallions, and plum tomatoes are certainly healthy. After dinner snack was cantaloupe - just a tad overripe so that it dripped its sweet juices as one bit. Good enough.
onebyone - Kudos for using your Resistance Muscle almost to the point of muscle cramp. And Congrats for getting your garden weeded. Funny that some things just decide not to grow some years. We, too, are still waiting for our first full-sized tomato. It'll happen.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Sobering story that your DH hadn't spoken face-to-face with folks other than you for a few months. Maybe we'll all lose some of our social skills. Wish you well figuring out what to do with a stack of buckets arriving each year.
maryann - Waving. If that had been See's Candy, it's not clear that I could have avoided it.
curlyjax - Thanks for the reminder that I "can always just toss candy." I do forget that. Good luck sorting out all the issues that remain for getting your DS off to college.
Penny. - Such a good reminder how torn we all are between our desire for social interaction and current need to socially distance.
Readers -
Quote:
chapter 2Experience the Difference
Stage 1
These skills are so important that you will not only use them during Stage 1, but also you will continue to practice and bush up on them in every subsequent stage - and to use some of them for the rest of your life.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 26.
I met manfriend for lunch at Paneras and had a half salad with side of bread, which felt just right. He has been bad from allergies for weeks but was able to be awake at that time in the morning so we got to catch up. There was a family gathering going on with children running around and no social distancing, but hopefully we weren't too close to it. It made me realize I am getting a bit lax on the SD. As mentioned here, the need for social isolation is huge indeed. I was reading an article in the NYT about dating, sex and the pandemic which addressed this and the need for physical contact. Some of it was ridiculous but at least it addressed the challenges of staying isolated for months, especially if you're single.
Then I went grocery shopping, came home and had about 5 lovely hours of the house to myself. I used some of it to blast 80s music and dance around the kitchen, noting with pleasure I could do it like I used to before my hip went off. My only problem is endurance now, I get out of breath easily. Dinner was salmon, corn, green beans and sweet potatoes with a little choc for dessert. Heavy on the starches but all good veggies anyhow. Bill- glad you got rid of those chocolates. Vegetable pasta does sound good. Penny- Drinking will indeed lower those inhibitions for sure! Onebyone- sounds like a lot is growing anyhow. I may plan to have a raised bed next year so I don't have to stoop to weed (which I'm not even doing) and to keep the ground critters out.
We're expecting a rainy day. I proposed a walk at 9am, even though I could see rain on the radar. DH wasn't keen, so I'm going to exercise indoors today.
Rainy days can make me feel like I should eat more, that it would enhance the cozy, safe feeling of being home. So, I'll work on appreciating the roof and windows, instead, since those are the things that really make my house cozy and safe.
Home for just a day. Tomorrow I take a five hour drive to see my father At Pismo Beach. There will be beautiful ocean views and my favorite sister is coming up to meet me from LA. Good stuff.
Weight is two pounds above ticker which could be just a readjustment from elevation and 500 calories of brunch that were not planned. Again, this is a living program. 500 calories does not equal 2 pounds. Follow the science. I will feel better as I hop back into my food routine adding things like the vinegar, cumin and matcha that have help my weightloss journey.
onebyone: I look at that normal number which would be 154 for me and dream.
BBE: Whitman is definitely second tier.
Saturday - Bob Dylan booed for his electric guitar (1965, Newport Folk Festival)
lay it all on us anytime. Congrats on the weightloss progress! 
Saturday Night's A Fight Alright
No Garden of Shame for.Me
