[gardenerjoy]

We managed to bake potatoes and roast broccoli for our supper last night -- with slight differences in our potato toppings. It felt like a bit more normal of a meal.

DH is generally having brown rice with precooked chicken and canned veggies for his supper. I fix a potato in the microwave (much easier than his method, but no crisp skin at the end) and eat it with tempeh sausage crumbles and a sour cream substitute that I make from cottage cheese and yogurt. We're going to do that again tonight but expect more adventurous meals later in the week when the Sunbasket box arrives.

Exercise +65, 105/1400 minutes for April

[karenrn]

Good morning coaches,

We didn't end up going out to dinner because our friend wasn't feeling well, so I made what seemed like a treat meal. We had black bean burgers on multigrain sandwich thins with air fried French fries and a side of baby boy choy. I purchased a 2 pound clam shell of the bok choy at Costco yesterday and knew I had better start using it. The recipe had it stir fried with shallot, garlic, soy sauce and a little sesame oil. It was delicious and we each ate a large portion.

This morning I hiked a pleasant hike with my friend early and now I'm doing some meal prep . . tofu, roasted veggies and sweet potatoes. It will be nice to have this done ahead of time.

GardenerJoy Are you and dh still feeling some effects from the food poisoning? I sure hope not.

Penny Thanks for the tips. Dh is all fine again and I'm pretty much fine too. I eat a lot more veggies than he does, because I have a big portion at lunch and he doesn't. I read the tips and laughed out loud. I had to read it to dh. She is a funny gal. I remember my ex-husband and his friends when they were in high school used to bottle farts. Since I have always been surrounded by boys as in 3 brothers, 2 husbands and 1 son, I have always had a lot of fart humor in my life.

Maryann I'm glad you're having such a nice trip. Of course you're going to miss your db. Thank goodness for travel and easy ways to communicate these days.

Curlyjax It's so great that ds was able to build the above ground bed and super you will be seeing your green thumb friend. I guess having the bed built is just one of the many things to consider when growing a garden. I actually just use a teriyaki sauce that I brush on the tofu, bake it 30 minutes and then turn it over and brush some on the other side and another 30 minutes in the oven. This is after I have sliced the firm tofu and pressed the water out.

Bill I'm so sorry that dgd has the flu and I sure hope nobody else gets it, but that may be asking too much. I just don't know how contagious it is or if it changes a lot from year to year.

Well I think it's time to take the tofu out and get things put away and dishes done.

Waving to Nationalparker, Ann and Onebyone!

[nationalparker]

Hello! A swift weekend, but a good one with DGS (4.5 yo) ... he is such a sweet soul and has us laughing so, so much. DH didn't feel well yesterday, so he didn't interact as much, but was better today and ran around with us outside in the yard. My idea of games (let's collect as many sticks as we can and put in a pile ... let's fill the garbage bag with leaves I rake up months late) were not thrilling to him. But the ability to wear a pair of my gardening gloves won him over, and i had a semi-enthusiastic helper, if not one with accurate aim for the pile or the bag. Loads of fresh air today. We were supposed to bring him home, but step daughter called and said she'd pick him up, she was on her way to the market in our city and then would come by. That was three hours before she showed up. I made a quick dinner, we cross checked our taxes and got them ready to mail in, and then booked it to the cinema to see The Lost City. We laughed a lot with the silliness of that flick.

Bill - I have to highly rec CODA - it was touching and funny. I thought I might just see it again when DH goes to see Morbius bc that one is not on my list at all. Only bc the unlimited plan is free and DH won't really go to the theatre alone. He'll always pick another day when there's something for me to see at the same time. I hope DGD gets well quickly! Sounds like not much gets her down.

Maryann - Safe return travels! I love hearing about you and your DS's connection. He is lucky to have you, and vice versa. You did well there.

Better note tomorrow - Food was OK today. Not great yesterday. I reached my goal to start April ... but then shot up two pounds in one day and now need to remove those. Hopefully just water weight.

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - The outing with the (2 yo) DFGD got delayed because her nap was late. Then changed into an indoor visit because she was acting too clingy to go outside. Got so late that I had to drop out since I had a 5pm Zoom meeting. Having a toddler in the critical path doesn't contribute to sane scheduling. When DW visited, she was upbeat and playing with the toy car we'd given her for her birthday. She has way too many toys, but seems to gravitate to cars and trucks. Hope they continue to encourage her; we could use a mechanical engineer in the family - or even an amateur mechanic.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was "Dreamy white beans" which means a lot of white beans cooked with a bunch of rosemary. I was supposed to add my leftover pork to my dish, but got late and didn't get downstairs until dinner was already done. Oh Well - I'll have it today somewhere.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Hope your DH gets back to eating his usual range of foods. Roasted broccoli sounds good to me.

maryann - Yay for time with the DS - however sad it is for it to end. Hope you're now safely home and on your way to work.

nationalparker – Super clever to let your DGS wear your garden gloves to make the stick pick up game more appealing. Congrats for getting your taxes ready. The Lost City looks like a winner; will add it to my list.

Karen (karenrn) - Bok choy is one of our favorite veggies. Seems to have just suddenly appeared a decade ago. It's so good stir fried with whatever is on your mind.

curlyjax - Kudos for tossing candy - all the way to the dump. That's definitive! DW already has her sugar snaps in the ground, but you can start later with nursery-started plants. So fun to think of designing a garden from scratch.

Penny. - LMAO reading the Tips that you linked. What a grand sense of humor. I do remember when dog hair on the floor was "really screaming at me now." I do miss laughing at the pile of kiddie sand and doggy hair swept up on the kitchen floor every single evening. Our sweepings are no longer interesting, LOL.

Readers -

Chapter 5 Stage 2 - The Think Thin Initial Eating Plan

Your Think Thin Bonus Calorie Options

She knew that she would want to eat it again at some point, so she decided to try to reintroduce it into her diet while she was still working with me. We devised a number of strategies: Right after Mira measured her bowl of cereal, she returned the milk carton to the refrigerator and put the cereal box back in the cupboard.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 121.

[curlyjax]

Busy day yesterday with yoga, using the weight machine, returning DS to school and getting groceries afterwards. I was so hungry I stopped at a fast food place around 6:00 before groceries because I hadn’t had that much food during the day. I did not eat any sugar but I did drink some sweet wine leftover in the refrig.
I didn’t sleep well-I’m worrying about the logistics of DD finding an apt in Boston, having a car (driving and parking is a nightmare especially in the winter) exhausting herself working while being in school etc. It’s coming up soon- she graduates mid-May and then starts nursing school 3 days after. Anyway- onwards with the day.
Penny-thanks for that link on tips, very funny and useful! Your cookbooks sound great.
Running late, more personals tomorrow!

[gardenerjoy]

I sorted cookbooks, yesterday. That felt different than sorting other books. I was often willing to let go of cookbooks, but only after I wrote down the one to three recipes that I actually use.

At the beginning, I thought that I might get the collection down to two books: my binder where I keep recipes that we use in vinyl sheet protectors plus The Joy of Cooking, which feels more like a reference book.

In the end, I kept two published cookbooks -- the aforementioned Joy of Cooking and Julia Child's The Way of Cooking, which is a more sentimental choice. It's what DH and I used to learn to cook together early in our marriage. Many of the recipes are too decadent for our current way of eating, but I wasn't ready to let it go, either.

I got rid of most of my collection of Home Ec Club and Church cookbooks from my family in rural Indiana. I kept the one that was personally inscribed by my aunt as being from her and from Grandma -- earlier in the same year that Grandma died. Otherwise, I cut out recipes that I used in the past or that were submitted by my family members and saved them in the binder. Then, I recycled the paper from the rest of the cookbooks.

For now, I kept my mother's final recipe collection in the binder that she used. I could go through that and just save what I can imagine using (or imagine that my brother might ask about someday), but it had already been a long day and I decided that it was enough for this pass.

Exercise +55, 160/1400 minutes for April

karenrn: We're fully recovered from the food poisoning incident. DH has chronic tummy issues and I think that he's enjoying, for the moment, how reduced variety has given him some predictability in his digestion system. We'll see how long that lasts.

[Penny.]

Good morning!

Quick check-in before work. Yesterday was on plan and weight is in the no progress but holding zone.

Only one day of work and then off until Saturday, busy with appointments. My ultrasound is tomorrow and then a full day of dental appointments for three kids. A second son getting wisdom teeth out, a daughter getting a retainer, and a son getting braces. Whew!

The 15yo still cried about school this morning but keeps moving forward. Hopefully her first full week goes okay.

Have a great day, everyone!

[maryann]

Good Afternoon, Coaches.

Good to be home. Food was healthy today. Let's call it day one of a healthy roll. I am exhausted. Pulled in from Michigan last night at 3:00 am. So . . . to bed early.

Penny: Thinking good thoughts for your 15 yo.
curleyjax: I am so impressed your daughter got right into nursing school. It is very difficult out here to get in anywhere in nursing.
Karen: impressive bok choy seems like a "treat meal."

Wave to everybody else.

[karenrn]

Good evening coaches,

Just a quick check in. Portions a little large today and I enjoyed some oat milk ice cream for dessert tonight. It was really good, but I probably need to be sure I don't have it available very often.

I had a good hike this morning and will again tomorrow with different friends that I don't hike with often. Otis had a second vaccine after lunch and then I actually came home and got some vacuuming and dusting done. Dinner was pasta made from chick peas, roasted veggies and some tofu. We actually put the veggies on top of the pasta and put a little Trader Joe's Spicy Asian dressing on it. Dh thought the pasta was great. It's higher protein and fiber than regular pasta. I'm so fortunate that he is easy to please.

Personals tomorrow.

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Walk, CREDIT moi, enjoyed cool weather that wasn't biting. Stopped by the pharmacy in response to their Rx pickup notice after a minor victory: I'd noticed than an auto-fill prescription was getting low; usually I'd have received a text message that the refill was ready by this time. Went online to the CVS site; dug through their options; discovered that they'd tried to fill my prescription but were out of the drug. So neat! I knew just where it stood without interrupting their always-super-busy pharmacist. Sometimes the Internet does its job.

Fun was watching the first of two episodes on PBS of the Ken Burns film about Benjamin Franklin. Was the first time I experienced the turmoil of the loyal British subjects in the colonies before the American Revolution. The little history I'd read has been so one-sided: all the good colonists against the nasty representatives of King George. Sobering to be reminded that they were British. British colonists. And the educated, sophisticated folks like Franklin spent a great deal of time in London where he was also revered. Until the end when he wasn't. And he was whacked upside the head that a colonist would never be accepted as fully British. Wish I'd learned a bit more history years ago.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Recognize, "Many of the recipes are too decadent for our current way of eating" - BTDT. Glad to hear that your DH can reduce his GI issues with some predictability.

maryann - Welcome home. You must be exhausted. Kudos for getting right into healthy eating.

Karen (karenrn) - I've never had oat milk ice cream. Are you into it to reduce dairy?

curlyjax - Always Kudos for "I did not eat any sugar." Wish your DD well finding her space in Boston.

Penny. - Ouch for being your dentist's gold mine. Seems to be tooth extraction week around here. Wish your 15 yo DD well adjusting to this new school thing.

Readers -

Chapter 5 Stage 2 - The Think Thin Initial Eating Plan

Your Think Thin Bonus Calorie Options

When she finished eating, she immediately rinsed the bowl and spoon and put them into the dishwasher so she wouldn't be tempted to have more. She made some Response Cards, which she read before eating this snack, reminding herself why it was so worth it to eat only one bowl of cereal.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 121.

[curlyjax]

Excitement yesterday was annual gyne visit. I’ve been feeling very crampy and not sure if i’m in fullblown menopause or not so I too am scheduled for an ultrasound for next week -maybe we have the same thing going on Penny Afterwards I made a big comfort casserole filled with veggies, ricotta cheese, wheat pasta and ground turkey- bland tasting but I love it. That will keep me going for this week and i’ll freeze some too. I went on the stationary bike for about 20 minutes -not calorie burning but to give some movement to my hips. A friend from high school called out of the blue and chatted a few minutes so that was fun.
Bill-there are some cool things indeed the internet helps with. That documentary looks good.
Karen- I’m curious about the oat ice cream too! Your dinner sounds tasty.
Maryann- glad you’re back home safe. I’m very proud of DD, she’s worked hard.
Penny- yikes, that’s a lot of dental time! Hope DD starts feeling better about school, its a big adjustment.
Gardenerjoy- I’ve kept a few cookbooks for sentimental reasons too; definitely things I wouldn’t actually cook out of for the most part.

[gardenerjoy]

Yesterday's exercise was a walk with Dear Niece along the Missouri River followed by a walk with DH in our neighborhood. Plus, some stretching to balance all of that out.

DN is nearly recovered from the Great Basement Flood of 2022. She had a counseling appointment last night with someone from Better Help, so I'm interested to hear how that went. We're starting to work on how to get a handle on her messy house and even messier financial state. I'm hoping the counselor will help her with messy relationships stuff, because I feel less equipped to help with that.

Exercise +105, 175/1400 minutes for April

[karenrn]

Good afternoon coaches,

Food has been on plan and weight is stable. I'm looking forward to seeing the nutritionist tomorrow for a kind of reset into weight loss mode rather than the current mostly weight maintenance. I am happy to be maintaining at my current weight rather than a higher one, but I really do want to get a bit more off. This morning I hike Tom's Thumb with a friend who I haven't seen in awhile. She lives here and in North Dakota and has been dealing with her husband's brain tumor, surgery and recovery. It was not malignant, but quite large and near the brain stem so recovery has not been overnight. Luckily he is doing very well and even able to do his work again although he isn't 100%. Our health is just so very important.

GardenerJoy So nice that you are available to be a rock solid person for your dn. I'm sure it makes you feel good to be able to help her.

Curlyjax I hope you get the gyne issues sorted out. I was so lucky that things just quit. Not that I didn't have hot flashes etc, but none of the other issues.

Bill The Ben Franklin series sounds very good. I saw Ken Burns on something the other day. I haven't just reduced dairy, I've eliminated it along with any animal products. Anything with eyes or a mother I don't eat. It started as a way to lower my cholesterol, but the more I've researched I am very much in it for the environment and for the animals. I think the movies, "The Game Changers, Forks over Knives, What the Health and I think it was Plant Pure Nation" were pretty good motivators for me as well as Dr. Michael Greger and others in the field. The oat milk ice cream was very tasty, but I'm sure it had plenty of sugar and calories. I'm not to the point of never wanting a treat though. Luckily I like most foods so I find plenty of good things to eat and try to stick with very little processed food.

Maryann I hope you're able to get a little extra rest to get caught up.

Penny Sounds like a busy week for you. I hope the ultrasound went okay.

Waving to Nationalparker!

[Penny.]

Good evening!

Still on plan even though I tried to sabotage myself. I was telling my ultrasound tech about my two sons working at Whole Foods and she tells me about the Chantilly cake they sell being super delicious.

I texted my kids asking if one of them would bring one home. It was carried home on the bus and made it here, and looks delicious. I think it was Nationalparker's trick I used, telling myself I can put it on the plan for tomorrow. It worked in the moment and now I'm questioning if it's even worth it tomorrow. It's fun just having it for the family's enjoyment.

Curly, sorry you are having gyn issues too. After talking to the ultrasound tech I'm now led to believe this can just be how it is. Some women go on birth control just to ease the pain. I'm wondering now if surgery is too extreme, but that pain and malaise will have me calling in sick every month.

Karen, I wrote down a recipe for a quick meal that provides 44 grams of protein: arugula, tofu, "Just egg", onions, black beans, and avocado. She also put hot mustard on it. I need to find out what is in the fake eggs. Whole foods has a little 12oz bottle of it for 3.99. Too much for regular use for me.

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - The second of the two episodes on PBS of the Ken Burns film about Benjamin Franklin grabbed me big time. Grew an improved appreciation for the contribution the French made - even if they were more interested in punching their longtime nemesis, the British, then aiding the notion of flourishing democracy. They donated money, officers, and enough ships to swing some major battles. So much more to the story than "The shot heard 'round the world" as I was taught. Franklin is presented as a complex man - a euphemism for a brilliant used car salesman. Ended his career as a spokesman for abolition - after spending years owning slaves. Resolved all his ties with British friends by the end - except with his own son William who tried to mend the rift but was rejected. Complex indeed.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was grilled salmon with grilled Acorn Squash. Yep, one of those little nut-shaped squashes that the food banks beg folks not to donate since poor folks don't know how to cook them and don't own knives sharp enough to break in. It was grilled with butter and oil, only, and was splendid. "Would be an entree at a vegetarian restaurant," DW declared. Getting the first cut was the challenge.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - It's so neat that you're being the stable soul for your DN. When you resolve her messy house, write a book.

Karen (karenrn) - Ouch for a tumor near the brain stem - bad place to work on. Your approach to eating seems so healthy, "Luckily I like most foods so I find plenty of good things to eat and try to stick with very little processed food."

curlyjax - Sounds good, "a big comfort casserole filled with veggies, ricotta cheese, wheat pasta and ground turkey." Neat when a comfort food looks healthy.

Penny. - I recommend that Chantilly cake be banned from planet earth. If I got near that, I'd fall right in. But Kudos for not diving in immediately.

Readers -

Chapter 5 Stage 2 - The Think Thin Initial Eating Plan

Your Think Thin Bonus Calorie Options

Mira ended up making this card for her Memory Box:

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 121.