[gardenerjoy]

Turning the mattress didn't help. DH reports that I slept on my stomach some during the night, which isn't going to help matters. The internet says bigger pillows are best for side sleepers, which is how I start off the night. Fortunately, I have some in the house to try. I suspect they'll keep me from turning onto my stomach, too. As MrsCalypso pointed out, pain is hard to deal with -- it makes it hard to know what self-care looks like and harder to follow through on my best guess. Knowing that, though, at least makes me forearmed.

Exercise +50, 920/1500 minutes for June

BillBlueEyes: I like the three-word strategy for Quordle and Duotrigordle, too. It's old school, but scrap paper and a pencil help me think of words.

karenrn: I hope your finger heals quickly.

maryann: I hope you heal quickly, too. You mentioned yoga on paddle boards, recently, which sent me on a fun little journey. There's a nearby lake where I can take a beginner paddle board class one weekend and a yoga class the next. I may try that sometime this summer just for something a little different. To try it out, I guess I'd just use the swimsuit that I own. But that also sent me on a little journey to find something more appropriate. Lands' End has modest swimsuits (I'm assuming for women who have religious reasons to cover up -- but I'm grateful to see that I have some options that are going to make me more comfortable). Some of them look like something that I'd wear to a regular yoga class -- long sleeve shirt with leggings.

[maryann]

Good Morning, Coaches.

Still tough loading the website this morning.

Symptoms were mild yesterday. I slept much of it and woke nearly symptom free this morning. Yesterday, I did roast frozen broccoli in my new air fryr and there will be no going back in my conventional oven. It did not heat the house and was a snap to clean. I also "fried" shelf stable gnocchi but over cooked. Still tasty like little french bread croutons. My oven is from 1990 and is just puttering along with most functions like self cleaning broken. This new machine is perfect. Rather than have anyone bring me groceries I am goin to try and use up all my food I have here.

Right after I finish m y computer work, i will do yoga. Then I will pursue several gemology lessons.

nationalparker: I think it is so smart to pack food for any trip. restaurant costs are outrageous and the food is very difficult to monitor for calories, etc. . . . I am might be going to Mendocino for 4 nights in a hotel. I usually camp. I am going to bring all my own meals including "Poshi" asparagus, artichokes and sweet potatoes that are shelf stable and cooked. I will have lots of dried fruit, low carb tortillas and hummus. I 'll bring soup as well.
BBE: so envious about the recital. It reminded me of DS at 3yo started singing the first line of a Xmas carol on a church alter and then immediately turned his back and studied the hanging cross for the rest of the show.an engineer even then. The SUP is easy to get on but I was in warm water. It will be interesting in Lake Tahoe.
Curly: That sound like my nightmare - conflict with things that you have no control over but NEED to take control to protect your father. You are in my thoughts.
Karen: I agree that Drs just prescribe. I often think about people who don't have the language to do the additional research that we do to advocate for ourselves. There is a real vulnerability I have much compassion for.
gardenerjoy: We posted at the same time: I wore a long sunshirt coverup and leggings. Lands End does have cool swim leggings but i just used the exercise ones I had and it was fine.

[MrsCalypso]

Popping on for a quick hello. I have made 2 new vegetable dishes (Korean cooking rabbit hole) in 2 days and enjoyed both.

Today's dish was vegetarian bibimbap, a kind of rice bowl with blanched veggies and a spicy umami sauce. I wasn't sure how much farro to use as the base. When I was about halfway done, I started to wonder if maybe I was getting full, but I am really TERRIFIED of feeling deprived, and equally scared that some twist of my mind will start telling me I am full when I really have not had enough. I know it sounds weird, maybe, but maybe some of you relate?

My next focus here will be on gradually reducing portion sizes. I'm still not ok with leaving food on my plate, the very thought makes me feel VERY uncomfortable. So, this is something I am going to have to reconcile if I am going to be successful achieving and maintaining a smaller body size.

Work in progress!

Day 23 is "Counter the Unfairness Syndrome" I don't see this one as all that applicable to me today, so this is another "save for later" for me.

[nationalparker]

Will aim to read and post regularly if I can from my phone... Fingers crossed. Schedule has been all over the place regarding tomorrow with the pickup of DGS. now for 8 a.m. ... Had earlier thought afternoon as they couldn't get a stand by flight. Time has been perfect. So, so many wonderful conversations. A little while ago, up late, he thanked me for something then said you're a great Nana. Be still my heart...

Food could have been better... Could have been worse.

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was chili made with Bob's Red Mill 13 bean mix and Impossible Burger. DW says that Impossible Burger browns nicely; the other one never turned brown. Really good stuff, DW's chili is. Eaten indoors because the temps dropped into the 60's Fahrenheit. Unfortunately, evening snack included two homemade cookies that our friend dropped off. She gave us eight; by eating two, I'll be done in two nights with my half. I do like homemade cookies. She's a great buddy with DW: they walk together, garden together, have tea together. Her plan is to move to Washington, D.C. to be near her grands within the coming year. Painful to feel friendships dissipating away.

Planned visit with the (2 yo) DFGD got cancelled due to them feeling under the weather. "Not COVID", our DIL texted. These are the times when one can't cancel a social occasion without explain that it's not COVID. Excitement was the arrival of new trash cans from the city. In order to fight rats, trash will only be picked up from the barrels distributed by the city (for FREE from our tax dollars). The new barrel is just enough wider that the space we've allocated that we have to do some rearranging. Fortunately, our neighborhood isn't one with a rat problem, but apparently it's bad in some neighborhoods. A new rule prohibits barrels being put out on the curb until after 6pm the night before, but preferably just before 7am in the morning. I'll give the rats a week to figure out how to gnaw into these. Our squirrels have figured out how to gnaw into every container we've tried. Hats off to nature for inventing rodent teeth, LOL.

I've posted a request to the Tech crew of the site asking for help with the loading problem. However, they might be taking the three-day weekend.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Good luck on your mattress quest. When we were looking a couple of years ago for new twin mattresses for the guest room, I was startled by the wide range of prices. Not a fun shopping experience.

maryann - Neat that your new air fryer worked so well with frozen broccoli. We're hoping that our gas stove lasts forever because we're concerned that new gas appliances might soon be banned. Maybe an air fryer will help us when that happens. Love the story of your 3 yo DS interrupting his performance to study the cross. First things first.

nationalparker – Stories of your DGS just melt my heart. It's so amazing that he is so verbal about his positive feelings for his Nana.

Karen (karenrn) - Ouch for the lump on the finger; do hope it's something like a small splinter. LOL at the memory of that video clip of the father coming up to the stage to dance with his crying little girl while holding his younger daughter in his arms - father of the year, to be sure.

curlyjax - It's unacceptable to wait until 10am for the first cup of coffee. I use a one-cup coffee maker that would serve the early-birds until the official household coffee is made.

MrsCalypso - Leaving food on the plate was the hardest of the Beck strategies for me to work. I just couldn't do it. Finally got myself to leave some rice since I know it's plentiful and inexpensive. But leave a chunk of meat? Never.

Readers -

Chapter 6 Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan

challenging situation skills

Before the Event
1. Change your mindset.

In deciding to adopt this new mindset and to limit their food intake, dieters get so much in return. When they view the situation in this way, they come to realize that the trade-off isn't even close. They would much rather gain the benefits listed in their Advantages Decks.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 131.

[MommaMeli]

Good Monday morning coaches!

We had a great weekend around here hosting my daughter's First Communion party. Credit for exercise and credit for no snacking after dinner. Still having trouble eating slower, but I'm ready to start dieting. The old book I'm using doesn't require you to start dieting until 2 weeks in. It's been more like 3 weeks for me, and I definitely wasn't ready to start until now. I'm thankful for the time to prepare my mindset. I really want to make this a lifelong change.

I had 5 kids in 10 years. The last 6 years of my life have included several big stressors with the emotional eating to go along with them. My niece died while I was pregnant with my fourth child. My fifth child had emergency heart surgery, which gave way to some nearly crippling postpartum anxiety. Then COVID appeared while she & I were still recovering.

But the good news is, these difficult things have caused my husband and I to take stock of our lives and really work hard to create lives we love. It's been a painful, beautiful process of learning to prioritize the things we value most over the things that are easier and comforting. I feel like the health journey I've been attempting to undertake is also part of this, and I'm excited to move forward on it.

So anyway, now that I've laid out my motivation history, today is Day 13: Overcome Cravings. I need this. I've been allowing myself to give in to my cravings because it is easier. I know from my history that the sooner I decide not to give in, the easier it becomes. Also, the distractions that seem to work best for me are to drink a no or low calorie beverage (hot tea in the winter, carbonated water in the summer) and play with my kids or work on a project.

maryann I hear so many good things about the air fryer. I'm still doubtful it would work for my big family, but I'll get one when the kids are grown!

gardenerjoy I love Lands End swim suits. Mine is lined shorts and a rash guard long sleeve top. Saves so much time on sunscreen, but it is hot if you aren't in the water. I have a cotton sundress coverup to pull on after I get out. I just peel off the rash guard, slip it on, and sit in the shade.

curlyjax My sympathies for your struggles with an aging parent. I'm sure it is a helpless feeling. Credit to you for facing it head on. I think a lot of people try to hide from the struggle and deny the problem.

BillyBlueEyes Thanks for talking to the tech crew for us. My loading is impossible on the phone right now.

Wave to everyone else. Out to pick the garden!

[gardenerjoy]

I struggled to sleep with the new pillow set-up and was in bed for nine hours. Both of those can cause lower back pain. But I woke up no worse than yesterday -- which might mean that I'm actually better. Here's hoping!

I'd like to put off the mattress-shopping until the end of our current COVID surge.

I'm sure that I'll get used to the new pillow set-up; it just may take a few days.

Exercise +70, 990/1500 minutes for June

[Penny.]

Good morning!

Quick check-in. Stress eating has continued as I started back to work. Weight is up.

I'll put more effort into it in the next couple days after my work days. I have food prep that needs to be done.

[karenrn]

Good morning coaches,

Food on plan and weight is 135 ish four out of the last five days. Also I'm at the lowest weight I've been on a Monday, so I'm going to promote in my own head that I'm going to lose weight this week. (We'll see if that works.). My friend and I had a great hike this morning. It was 70 degrees and there was a breeze. The coolest it's been in some time. I've also taken Otis for a walk. He was hesitant cause of some noise he was hearing a block away or so, but I got him moving. He has his groomer's appointment today, so Xanax at 11 and groomer's at 12.

I decided I needed some new denim shorts. I have several pair, but they are all a bit too big. I saw Kohl's had some Levi's on sale for about half price. They didn't have many sizes and I thought the smaller ones might be too small, but yay they fit. I bought the darker blue color and the lighter blue color. They are longer shorts and I wear shorts a lot, so they'll be great. I soaked my finger in hot water twice yesterday and it's better. I will do that again today.

Penny I hope you're feeling okay with being back at work.

GardenerJoy Fingers crossed that your back is going to be better soon.

MommaMeli Oh my you have been through it. It sounds like you and your husband have used the stressful situations for good though. Just the evaluation process we should all do on a somewhat regular basis. Our health relates to so many things and available choices in our lives and for you your children's lives. Good for you for focusing on it.

Bill I don't think there is anything better than homemade cookies. It's one of the things I'm willing to go off my food plan to eat. We have roof rats here from the citrus trees. We used to have a very large orange tree in our yard but had it removed some years back. We had a rat zapper in the tree (battery operated rat killer). Once dh was in the hospital with sepsis from a prostate biopsy and I had to remove a rat. Yuck. I think it was the most horrible thing I've ever had to do. Glad we don't have that thing anymore.

Nationalparker What a sweet relationship you have with dgs. What an expressive little guy. Have a wonderful time on your trip.

MrsCalypso I have a lot of trouble leaving food on my plate too. We mostly eat at home, so it's not a problem. I guess the problem is I should decrease portion sizes a little. I have done that with breakfast.

Maryann I'm glad to hear your symptoms are mild and hoping you are feeling even better today. I haven't tried frozen broccoli in the air fryer. I'll have to give that a go. When I did some fresh broccoli one time I turned it to ash on the edges. Oops, a little too long. I need to use both the air fryer and instant pot more these days to keep the kitchen cooler.

Curlyjax Thinking of you and hoping you got some things sorted out with your Dad.

You all have a great day!

[maryann]

Good Morning, Coaches.

Credit for forging ahead with plans despite my quarantine. The other physical symptoms of COVID are gone. All that remains is being overly tired. Nevertheless, I finished two more lessons of a total 11 in my colored stone essential class. I did yoga with Adrienne. Using my stand up desk, I was able to do arm weights while finishing a lesson. i ate up more leftovers from the freezer. Still weight slipped up a bit. I think from the salt of leftover Mexican food frozen "food- savered" from the freezer. Also maybe the exercise. In any case, credit for getting in lots of veggies.

Today I am unboxing the new carpet cleaner I bought. I usually have the carpets cleaned every summer. While visiting my friend in Oregon, I learned she and her husband have their own cleaner for their airbnb rentals. My friend is a housekeeper by trade. I figured the machine would be a good investment especially since i can take it up to the place in Tahoe. I researched and ended up buying a Hoover. It seemed the most economical for my limited needs.

I will do Yoga in addition and two more lessons.

Mamameli: good memories of when my son had his first communion. I went to Catholic school for 12 years.
Penny: Good luck getting back into work. I know it will get easier.
Mrs. Calypso: Yes craving is a tough one for me. But I am going to focus on the difference between habit and craving. I think many times I think I want something but it is just a habit going into the kitchen.
BBE; Yeah for a limited amount of homemade cookies.

Wave to all.

[nationalparker]

Well, I am trying to not eat out of frustration. Stepdaughter knew we were leaving today for driving trip to Florida, a two-day trip. She asked last week if we could drop DGS off on Monday instead of her getting him on Sunday. We said no, just come get him (DH has already driven to check on her cat twice, four hours in that task) ... we're going to be driving about 10 hours and don't want to add another couple in the wrong direction. So in the middle of the night she texts and says she's "afraid" she'll fall asleep, please just drop him off. So we get the text when getting up this morning w/our own list of things to get done, one of them being the BMV bc our tags expire today and no replacements yet, so need to get to the BMV (most closed today, but a kiosk could hopefully solve the issue). We won't get on the road until about 2, instead of 9. We now say apparently something is slowing our departure down to avoid an issue on the roads, a drunk driver, accident, etc. This happens to me often and now i'm more zen, but this time I'm a bit non-zen.

Karen - I hope that splinter comes out easily. I prefer straight cuts to any splinters.
Penny - GOOD LUCK with work today - i hope it's a smooth transition. It's always hard to go back after vacation, this must be that much harder when you still may worry about twinging, etc.,
Bill - Do you find all the beans are cooked about the same in the 13 bean mix? I never buy them because I don't want some hard and some mush. Or half mush and the rest OK.
CurlyJax - That is so hard to navigate, especially when money is in the picture and you're not sure what they're getting paid for. Once it starts, it's hard to pull back. I hope you and your brother were able to get things resolved. Never hesitate to PM me if you just want to vent at length.

My DGS has such a sweet soul - he is loving and caring and I don't want him to get brash and bold. But ... that's probably coming down the line. Just heard his mom is on her way here. Fingers crossed it's a smooth handover.

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Walk, CREDIT moi, included stopping by our community garden to admire the bounty. More Sugar Snaps are ready to harvest - yes, I ate two straight from the vine to be sure, the tomatoes are just barely visible, and the green beans are growing nicely. A nearby woman didn't recognize me and asked what I was doing there. "It's my wife's garden," I offered to defend my right. Then she turned nice again. It's good to know that the gardeners are looking after each other's plots. A dozen years ago, there were problems from time to time when the teenagers who lived nearby wanted tomatoes to throw at each other. But that crowd has grown, hopefully doctors, lawyers, astrophysicists.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was a lasagna from Whole Foods that was pretty good. DW has assured me that she's never going to make a lasagna from scratch again, "The store products are as good as mine and I don't want to do that much work without a benefit." Good enough for me. My notion of a lasagna is a HUGE one for a table of folks. Evening snack included the, planned, last two cookies of my share of the eight that our friend gave us. DW is VERY protective of her share - as if she was married to a cookie thief.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Wish you well with you attempts to solve the back problem. [Note to self: 'SOLVE' is a five-letter word using 'V'. Playing Quordle, I failed to get 'AXIOM' and 'TOPAZ' yesterday. Gotta work on words containing 'QXVX'.]

maryann - Yep, Kudos for a lot of veggies. Neat that you're progressing with your colored stones class. I immediately thought of you when I missed 'TOPAZ' thinking that you'd have guessed it right away. (The link is to remind the rest of us that topaz doesn't have an obvious color.)

nationalparker – Ouch for the drama with the DSD over the DGS. You get my heroine award by maintaining any zen about two extra hours of driving on top of a planned nine hour drive. Do hope you're safely and comfortably in Florida right now. Don't know how DW does it, but all the beans from the 13-bean mix are cooked evenly. I'd have a problem with crunchy or with mushy.

Karen (karenrn) - Yay for a deal on new shorts that you really needed. Hope soaking is the only cure your finger needs. So glad that we don't have rats after reading your story. Of course, we also don't have citrus trees.

Penny. - Happy back-to-work days. Hope you're feeling well enough for a full day of your active kind of work.

MommaMeli - Congrats for surviving your DD's First Communion Party. Do the girls wear fancy white dresses these days? In the Italian neighborhood of Boston, the North End, First Communion dresses rivaled wedding dresses. And Congrats for surviving real medical issues with your youngest. Hurts this father's heart to hear such a story. Interesting to be reminded that all these air fryers are going to small families - of course.

Readers -

Chapter 6 Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan

challenging situation skills

Before the Event
1. Change your mindset.

So why can't you make exceptions? The fact of the matter is our body processes calories in exactly the same way whether we are home or out, whether it's a regular Monday or a holiday, whether we're working or on vacation. A calorie is a calorie, regardless of the situation in which you eat it.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 131.

[MommaMeli]

Good morning coaches! Day 13: Plan for tomorrow

I'm ready. I actually went ahead and planned my meals for today. So I guess I've officially started my diet. I'm great about planning meals. With a big family, it is a must! I'm really more focused on planning portion sizes. I think the meal planning will be much more important on days when I socialize or eat out.

Weigh in tomorrow. I have an idea of where I'm at. I tend to be hard on myself about my weight, so I'm not really looking forward to it.

In prepping the camper for our lake trip this weekend, my husband discovered we have an electrical short. It is not going to be an easy find. Our lake trip is up in the air unless he can find it. I'm thankful this is happening on the longest day of the year as he'll have plenty of daylight to work on in.

My part in camping is the meal planning/prep, and the list making for the kids to pack the camper. The camper also need a good cleaning, which I'm going to do this morning while it is still relatively cool. I kind of hate to put forth all the effort when we don't know if we are actually going or not, but I'm going to do the things that need done regardless. I'm going to continue forward with my cooking plans. We have to eat this weekend whether we are home or at the lake.

Credit for yesterday's exercise picking the garden. I've averaged 30 minutes of moderate exercise per day since I started keeping track. Most of it is things I would have done anyway, but I've been making extra effort on my less busy days. I think I'll have to try harder to get my exercise in after school starts.

maryann Make sure you are listening to your body with COVID. I had it in the last wave and felt much better, until I did too much. Then I rebounded and spent the weekend in bed. It can take a while!

billyblueeyes Enjoying your sugar snap pea story! Do you eat the whole harvest or freeze some? DD's First Communion dress was a family heirloom made by a great-grandma she never got to meet. That poor girl was almost weighed down in family heirlooms! Everyone had something of meaning to give her.

karenrn Cheering on your weight loss. I'm sure it is slow going so close to your goal.

gardnerjoy Hoping for back relief soon. We took a chance and ordered a mattress without even shopping in person. My DH picked it out and we've been very pleased. Never felt so sorry for a delivery man in my life!

[gardenerjoy]

Happy Solstice! I got up early enough to watch the sunrise at the northernmost point on the horizon.

My back is better! That's a relief that we may be able to put off mattress shopping for a month or two.

Exercise +60, 1050/1500 minutes for June

BillBlueEyes: The only story I have of my dad committing mischief in his youth involved throwing tomatoes. He was a farm kid, so there was a whole field of tomatoes involved. Unfortunately, not a field owned by any of the parents of the boys who participated. It was mostly told as a cautionary tale about not disturbing anything on farms -- everything is more expensive than you think it is.

[nationalparker]

We finally left the house a little before 2. Stepdaughter didn't come get our DGS, but her husband had gone to work as usual and he stopped by on his way out of town. We then just ate lunch before heading out.

I had prepped the chickpea salad and a potato salad, which uses a dressing of white wine vinegar and Dijon mustard along with diced dill pickles and red onion. Travels extremely well and with less concern about being at a steady cold temp. Brought all the rest of our fruit which wasn't much as we were eating everything down but some overripe bananas and leftover gold nuggets. Have another seven hours today, after stopping at 11 pm. We didn't get in our 10 hours of driving anticipated yesterday but nearly.

Noticed many drivers being very very dangerous, I said it started in covid when fewer folks in the road and now it's just disaster waiting to happen. Or as we passed a few accidents, happening.

Spoke with my brother and found out my SIL took a bad fall the necessitated an ER trip late at night but is faring ok. Scary. She's 72 I think, in prime health, does spinning, yoga, walking, weights etc. I think they're both a bit rattled. Brother is going to Dr today for severe hip pain, and I'm praying it's not metastasized pancreatic cancer to bone. They don't think so in prelim info so I'm holding on tight to that.

MommaMeli - Good luck to your DH in solving that electrical issue! I love planning camping meals but much easier to please just my DH (who will eat whatever is served) and me. Lol at your DD weighed down in family heirlooms! Good luck, too, in starting the diet you chose. Sounds like you have a solid basis.

Oops maybe close to getting going. I'm a get up and GO and DH is a lingerer. It kept changing him to lingerie haha