[curlyjax]

I feel so tired these days, I took a nap after work. Then I did go to the gym; I did the weight machine and 25 minutes on the treadmill as well.It took awhile to get home since it was rush hour, but it was worth it. There's a grocery store across the street from the Y which is handy; I went in there for a few items and came home with a little Easter candy which I was craving. Not doing so well on my resistance muscles even while I build up my physical muscles, ha ha. then I fell asleep while watching tv. I hope nothing is wrong with me but I do tend to exhaust myself at work with my mind whirring away, and i'm a low energy type of person, so that may be it. I need a taskmaster at home to keep me on the straight and narrow food wise!
Penny- Whole foods has awesome desserts, great job with those resistance muscles!We women are complicated indeed.
Gardenerjoy- messy relationships are indeed more complicated than a messy house.
Bill-acorn squash is so good. I keep a butcher knife for things like that- very satisfying to slice it cleanly in half.
Karen-wow, you have really changed your eating. I would have a hard time giving up all dairy- I really need my milk in my coffee, and the substitutes don't cut it. Those movies are powerful.

[nationalparker]

Hello - I thought I posted on Monday and knew I didn't yesterday, but when I opened my laptop, my note from Monday was still in the reply box. Nothing in my note was interesting, anyway. Went to DH's folks home and cleared out more yesterday, bringing a lot of junk downstairs, which was a project in itself, and then a completely full vehicle to recycling. We brought home an antique dresser that he thought was a great grandfather's but now not sure he wants it. He had his brother go through first and pull anything he wanted so we weren't checking at every step of the way. I got to feeling terrible as the day wore on. I had put a new recipe of spicy black bean soup in the slow cooker after soaking the beans overnight and had also cooked up some rice, and said to DH I wanted to stop and pick up a container of pico ... i didn't want to stand in the kitchen and chop everything up. Then I said we'll move that dinner to tonight, it was feed yourself night instead. Plenty for DH to choose from. I took a bath and went to bed, feeling terrible. Fever through the night; chills, body aches, up a lot for the bathroom. I can really tell I'm retaining a lot of water and if not Hashimoto's, then I'm perplexed. We'll see. Another covid test to just clear that possibility, and it was a no. I feel much different than when I had covid (then it was breathing issues mainly). I got up to feed the cats and give one her insulin, and will just "be" for a bit, sipping some sparkling water with oj. I have a mammogram tomorrow so will see how I feel later today and if back-to-normal, I'll think it was a quick bug. If still dragging, I'll reschedule so I'm not infecting anyone.

[Penny.]

Good morning!

Yesterday was on plan. The Chantilly cake has no allure this morning and I preferred my avocado toast.

I shopped for groceries last night and my mouth is watering for the repeat of the Mexican corn and black bean salad I need to put together. My oldest son and I agree it is the perfect food. So delicious!

The 15yo has not been able to figure out how to open her locker at school so I bought a combination lock for home instruction. It's all good now.

Bill, squash is so difficult for me to cut into. I need whatever butcher knife Curlyjax is using. I bet it was delicious.

Nationalparker, sorry you aren't feeling well. I heard someone say if you don't give yourself breaks, the body will force one. Not that you didn't give yourself breaks. It just reminded me of that sentiment.

Curly, you are really pushing through the low energy with all the gym workouts. Kudos!

[gardenerjoy]

Yesterday's long day of exercise came from walking to and from my polling location. In between, I also stood for two hours to campaign for my favorite school board candidate as other people walked in to vote. My body is feeling pretty beat up. I had another adventure in mind for today, but I'm going to stay home and do more gentle things.

My morning started off well because I got the news that my school board candidates won.

Exercise +75, 250/1400 minutes for April

BillBlueEyes: I was recently reminded of the French involvement in the Revolutionary War by listening to Sarah Vowell read her book Lafayette in the Somewhat United States. It's not exactly a biography, but it gets a lot of the facts in, anyway.
We're hoping that Marie Kondo already wrote the book that resolves the messy house.

Penny: That was a clever solution for teaching someone how to deal with a combination lock.

[karenrn]

Good afternoon coaches,

I woke up too early and thought maybe I wouldn't hike, but I felt fine so did a shorter one. After that I took Otis for a walk and got cleaned to head out to the nutritionist. At first I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but it ended up just fine. I lost 4 1/2 pounds in the four months it has been since I've seen her and her fancy scale shows that I lost only about 1/10 of a pound of muscle and the rest was fat. I'll take it whether I entirely believe the fancy scale or not. She changed my macros to 63 g protein, 187.5 g carbs and 42 g fat to lose a pound a week. I'll see her again in a month.

So, yesterday afternoon I received a Junior's cheesecake from Brooklyn. My friend's daughter who was recently here from New York sent it to me for helping out. I cut it in half and took half to my friend, who is from New York, and did have a very small piece for dessert. It won't be the first or last time I have something delicious that is not on my plan.

GardenerJoy Yay that your school board candidate won. I find the standing much harder than the walking. Two hours is a lot of standing.

Penny Good for you for passing up the cake. I couldn't quite do it. I love cheesecake and I know she must have spent a fortune to send it. The corn and black bean salad sounds really good.

Nationalparker I sure hope you're feeling better today. I had a dinner planned for last night that we're having tonight too. It took over an hour to get that half a cheesecake to my friend and by that time I didn't feel like cooking. Good thing we like leftovers.

Curlyjax I think you just need a personal assistant. You have a lot to do with the kids and the house and work, that's a lot. Luckily I gave up milk in my coffee years ago. I add a couple of ice cubes so it isn't too hot and I'm used to it. Dh still puts a couple of tablespoons of regular milk in his coffee, but uses soy on his cereal.

Bill I'll have to check out the Benjamin Franklin series. Acorn squash is so delicious. I love it most with butter and brown sugar, but I think I'll try it with just a tiny bit of maple syrup. Lately I've been cutting up butternut squash and that's another tricky one.

Maryann How are you doing? Getting a little extra rest I hope.

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Excitement was chase the (6 yo) DGD after kindergarten. It was too wet outside to play on the school's playground, so she and her buddy went down the slides anyway. Not a problem; we drove home with a wet, but happy, kid who had plenty of dry clothes in her room. Stopped on the way there for a walk in the Middlesex Fells where DW remembered seeing Bloodroot a few years ago. Voila! There they were. They're special because their seeds are distributed by ants that carry them to their homes to eat the small edible part then toss the remainder - that grows. Without a tutorial from DW they'd just be one more little-white-flower in the woods.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was consumed at my computer as we each watched a Zoom presentation, Exploring Humanity’s Technological Origins, by a French-accented archeologist who had discovered stone tools a million years earlier than had been believed before - all the way back to Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) some 3.3 million years ago. Apparently, our ancestors didn't need to have a big brain or super flexible hands to make stone flakes to use as knives. We've been clever longer than we thought we'd been. Hats off to the diligent scientists who walk for hours in the hot Kenyan sun staring at rocks on the ground looking for one that's been chipped.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Neat to use your body for some good in the world. Hope your School board candidate wins. I was aghast to learn that Marquis de Lafayette was only 19 when he became a major general for General Washington's Continental Army. Must add learning about him to my bucket list.

nationalparker – Hope you get to feeling better. Glad it's not COVID; I'm still worried about the Long COVID that affects the brain.

Karen (karenrn) - So neat that you lost a bunch of fat for such little muscle loss. (Yep, I forgot, DW did add a touch of maple syrup to our grilled Acorn Squash.)

curlyjax - Ouch for the Easter candy that's hard to resist. Kudos for some good gym time.

Penny. - Super Kudos for preferring avocado toast over Chantilly cake. Neat to be reminded that one has to learn how to open a combination lock.

Readers -

Chapter 5 Stage 2 - The Think Thin Initial Eating Plan

Your Think Thin Bonus Calorie Options

To gain control over trigger foods, plan to eat them with your evening snack, so you can look forward to the treat all day.

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

[curlyjax]

I gave my body a rest from exercise yesterday, and took a nap after work again. Then I went for a massage- it was only a 30 minute one and I had her focus on my upper body as my right tricep is a bit sore. She said both triceps were tight and I should stretch them. Another thing to add into my repertoire; one really could spend a few hours a day stretching etc if you had the time! It felt soo good. Maybe i'll start treating myself to one every other month, as it is expensive.
Today at work we're running a workshop on improving balance, fear of falling etc which runs for 8 weeks. I've run it before and I really enjoy doing it. I' m so glad my job has different aspects to it.Then I'm leaving early to get the winter tires off my daughter's car, so I'll grab a book to read there. I'm still eating my dinner casserole, its nice to have food prepped and i'm fine with eating it all week.
Nationalparker- hope you're feeling better. There is a flu going around, maybe that's what it is.
Penny- great job on avoiding the cake. That salad combo does sound good.
Gardenerjoy- standing for two hours would be harder for me than a walk, i'm sure you are feeling it.
Karen- you're doing great with your nutrition. A small planned treat is a great idea.
Bill-how cool to get all the plant knowledge from DW, i'm sure there are so many interesting aspects beyond "ooh that's pretty".

[gardenerjoy]

My to-do list is too long. And I don't seem to be in the mood to figure out priorities. So, I'm just letting it sort itself out. That can work for a few days, without undue stress, but I probably want to reorient this weekend so that I have a better plan for myself.

Exercise +55, 305/1400 minutes for April

curlyjax: I read somewhere that sitting too long is as bad or worse than too little exercise. So, when I'm at my desk, I set a time for 25 minutes of work and then a 5-minute break. At least twice a day, I use that 5-minute break for stretching. Yesterday, with soreness, I actually did it six times for a full half-hour of stretching. Very helpful without being particularly disruptive to my day.

[Penny.]

Good morning!

Yesterday was on plan. My streak continues.

After all of the dental procedures, two (adult) kids took a pain pill and a very long debate ensued with their father over whether or not anything can be considered objectively good or bad, right or wrong. Getting high and going deep in discussion is not what I expected for the day, but it was quite amusing. Their dad would not reconsider his opinion that murder is objectively wrong.

I only ducked in a couple times because it can get exhausting debating with him, but finally it was settled that things can only objectively be considered good or bad if it includes a qualifier for context. For example: it is objectively bad to kill someone if the goal is to preserve life.

The kids hadn't even touched on self defense or abortion. I love that they are thinking about things and forming ideas.

Karen, your macro goals have me looking over my numbers. I can definitely increase protein with tofu but how do you create a meal plan to produce such specific numbers?? It seems so difficult! The .5 on the carbs lol.

[karenrn]

Good morning coaches,

Food is on plan and weight is holding. Hopefully as I tighten things up a bit the weight will slowly go down. I've taken the day off hiking and it's feels really nice to be kind of lazy. I did take Otis for a walk and then went to 3 grocery stores, one of which was Costco. Sprouts has bulk items and I wanted to go there to get Brazil nuts. I understand they have a lot of Selenium so we're each going to eat one Brazil nut a day. No big plans for the rest of the day, might just take a nap after lunch. I'm a little behind on sleep.

Penny The nutritionist gives me those numbers and then also how many portions of each food group to eat at each meal and snack. As far as I'm concerned they are goals only. The only one I'm really going to pay a bit of attention to is the protein. I'm getting more used to the Chronometer ap and it's very interesting to see the breakdown of amino acids. Unless I get really hooked on it I plan to use it for a couple of months and then call it good.

I'm giving myself credit for not touching the cheesecake after the first small piece. I looked at it today to see how dh is doing on it. I think by tomorrow he will finish it. I seem to have a bad day on Thursdays more than any other day for some reason and that will not be happening today.

I did buy some dates at Costco, but put them up high in the cupboard for later this months when I have a few long hikes and the Grand Canyon again.

GardenerJoy I think I need to start making a to do list again. I can be pretty lazy without one.

Curlyjax The balance workshop sounds like a really important thing to do. I have two former co-workers that I get together with regularly that have fallen multiple times. One of them finally went to PT for balance. I'm glad you have such varied duties.

Bill I'm glad dgd is back to running around healthy. The Bloodroot are such sweet looking flowers. I loved the heliotrope also.

Waving to Maryann, Ann and Onebyone!

[nationalparker]

A day spent sipping hot tea, watching Nine Perfect Strangers (during the DAY ... I don't usually put the TV on during the day, so quite the decadent afternoon), and dozing off and on. I feel better as the day goes on but felt like I was hit by a bus this morning. Mammogram and several errands tackled as well as completing the paperwork to renew my passport, which expires in three months and I've let it get too close for my comfort. Had a dream last night that we were flying to Europe and I got stuck in the Charles de Gaulle airport because I'd forgotten to even bring my passport, which of course couldn't happen, but I surprisingly was like oh, well. I will go to Walgreens to get the photo unless DH can take a decent one of me with a blank background. We're cheap, so might try that option first if we can get the proportion correct.

We'll finally have the black bean soup and rice I prepared earlier this week with pico for dinner tonight. I need to roast some sweet potato cubes to pop on it, as well. I had a small air fryer that I used often, but when it broke (operator clumsiness, knocking it off the counter), I purchased a larger one, more like a toaster oven shape, and I like it less. Too big for my counter. But it does quick jobs like these easily. Last night DH hit the movie and made his own dinner before he left. I would love to have a "fend for yourself" night every other week where we just nosh on what we want instead of a regular meal. I like a larger lunch and smaller dinner and sometimes I think I overeat at dinner because he is eating more, having had a smaller lunch than I did.

Karen - Purchasing Brazil nuts was on my list for Trader Joe's as well, having read earlier this month that the selenium will assist with this auto-immune issue. Dose for that is two/day according to the NIH. I was worried because in my internet research on Hashimoto's, I read that you need to avoid beans, legumes, along with peppers. That is a vast majority of my diet, so I said to DH that's not going to happen. Then I clicked on the "studies" that indicated that and the page didn't even connect, so I immediately devalued that article. Credits for seeing that Thursday is a tough day for you some weeks.

Penny - I really do hope that an easier solution is determined for your intense pain each month. That sounds just miserable, and unsettling, as well. Kudos for monitoring the debates yesterday. I think you may be right, my body demanded a break from always thinking about clearing that house out. I should go tomorrow, but part of me wants another day, without errands or major tasks, to just recuperate.

Bill - I, too, have worried about covid's effects on the brain, because I notice more brain fog in myself. That's one of the hashimoto's symptoms, but I was concerned earlier bc it's also one for menopause. Maybe ... it just is inevitable for me. Some things I remember crystal clear, and others seem like a distant memory - ohhh, i know you said something about that, but what... type of thought. ugh.

CurlyJax - I wish I could send you my resistance muscle for Easter candy and chocolate. Not eating anything with milk knocks out nearly everything that's mass produced candy-wise. It's the whole, oh well Beck thinking, I guess. But then again, at the end of the day, if in moderation, does a piece or two make a big difference? Your massage sounds glorious. We have an aveda school here and I've booked massages before with them and while they're students learning, they still do a good job. That could be a good retirement gift for DH.

Joy - When I was WFH, I'd set my laptop on the top of a shelf on a cat tower, and stand up and work from there, take all meetings and conference calls there, etc. Then I got used to it and still did it when doing video calls with my sister.

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was reheated grilled salmon and kale. Was reminded how much we enjoy kale from our garden. Have to believe that summer is coming. Dinner was consumed on separate trays in our separate offices as we watched a Zoom presentation, Manifest: Thirteen Colonies - digging into the libraries and museums of the original 13 colonies. Artists can be dull speakers, and this one certainly was. But he got to my gut when he showed a picture of the sale's receipt for a slave - then showed the insurance policy bought to protect the property. You can tell me a thousand times that slaves were treated as property, but one picture of property insurance gets the point home.

Excitement was my two classes, both via Zoom. Neutron stars are so much fun. Hard to comprehend that so much 'stuff' can compress into a volume the size of the city of Chicago. Hard to believe that I wasted my entire life as an engineer when I could have been sitting in cold winter nights staring at the skies. Still reeling at the realization that knowledge of the Neutron is less than one hundred years old. When I first heard of radio telescopes, I was annoyed; telescopes are for "seeing" things. Learning to expand my notion of "seeing" beyond the limited range of my eyeball's view of the electromagnetic spectrum.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Thanks for the reminder that it's useful to take a break for a few minutes of exercise every hour. Have a lovely image in my head watching your to-do list "sort itself out." Trying to avoid the image of more and more brooms carrying more and more buckets of todo's.

nationalparker – You remind me that one shouldn't try to leave the States without at least six months remaining on their passports. We've taken our own passport photos - kinda easy once one figures out how to get the right size.

Karen (karenrn) - Like the notion of one Brazil nut per day. When I first learned of the nutrients in the various tree nuts, I abandoned cashews, kept walnuts and almonds in my planned diet, and scan every party dish of nuts to grab a Brazil nut to fulfill my needs. Since I haven't been to a party in a few COVID years, maybe I'll have to find a place to buy a small quantify.

curlyjax - So neat that you allow yourself an occasional massage. It hurts to be reminded that our balance drifts off as we age.

Penny. - That's an impressive home schooling happening at your dinner table. Some college philosophy professor is in for a shock when they encounter your kids.

Readers -

Chapter 5 Stage 2 - The Think Thin Initial Eating Plan

Your Think Thin Bonus Calorie Options

Dieters find that it's easier to resist temptation during the day if they can say to themselves, I don't want to eat this [unplanned] food now because I'd rather have my Bonus Calories tonight.

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

[curlyjax]

The workshop went really well; people took part in the conversation which is a big part of it and they seem glad to be there. I went to my mechanic after work to switch out the snow tires, and chatted with my crush there for quite awhile. Then I sobbed afterwards-he is such a nice guy but clearly not interested. It’s spring and I’m feeling lonely and wistful. I went out to dinner with a friend so that was helpful although I ate too much. Ugh. Well, onwards, today is a new day.
Nationalparker- I don’t watch tv during the day either, I associate it with being sick, but it is fun to do occasionally. Fend for yourself dinner is a great thing and helps use up leftovers too.
Karen- interesting how the nutritionist can break down things, that sounds really helpful. Good job avoiding the cheesecake and recognizing your trigger day.
Penny- That is very cool your kids are debating such deep stuff-and right after the dentist too!
Gardenerjoy- I’ve read that too about sitting too much. That’s a good idea to set a timer particularly on work days for me.
Bill- yay for zoom classes. Are you watching separately because its hard to hear and you need headphones?

[Penny.]

Good morning!

Yesterday was on plan and extremely low energy, possibly a result of all of the activity and worry crammed into the previous day.

I thought the new braces and wisdom teeth removal was going to be the most painful but my little 11yo with the new retainer had the roughest day. She had to miss school and her mouth was too sore to eat. After some Tylenol and some time, it seems to be calming down.

I had my tofu, arugula, avocado, black bean salad for breakfast and it is pretty good. It was supposed to have Just Egg in it but the ingredients list for that looks meh. It has two types of sugar. I'd rather have my sugar in the coffee creamer and sweet hot mustard drizzle, tyvm. lol

Bill, yes! I think my kids would enjoy a philosophy class. We were shoving Plato's Five Dialogues at them but no takers yet. You look forward to garden kale, and I look forward to your daily meals on the patio reviews.

Curly, better to not lose a good mechanic probably. I'm glad the class went well.

Karen, your method sounds easier than I was imagining. I'm sure the food suggestions help a lot. Funny, when I tried Cronometer a while back I too was doing daily Brazil nuts. It's hard to see all the vitamin deficiencies listed out like that. I finally fixed it by not looking. Ha! I should really get back to including some nuts in my diet again.

Nationalparker, I hope you are feeling better. When is your Hashimoto doctor appointment again? I'm still set for surgery after my ultrasound and decided not to question it. It will be good I think.

Joy, congrats on your political win. Hopefully you are recovered from the day.

[gardenerjoy]

Yesterday, I finished off the Books section of Marie Kondo's plan. I had an embarrassingly large stack of embarrassingly old magazines. Fortunately, I posted about them on our local Buy Nothing group and a teacher is coming by to pick them up this afternoon. I'm very happy about that outcome.

I've lost track of my magazines, so much, that I'm not sure which, if any, still have current subscriptions. At any rate, I'm now highly motivated to flip through magazines when I receive them and recycle them immediately. Also, to let any subscriptions lapse, if they still exist.

Exercise +35, 340/1400 minutes for April