[maryann]

Good Morning, Coaches.

Tonite DH comes home! Yeah!!!!! He has been spraying for codling moth for four nights. He has to spray at night because it can't be over 85 degrees. He certainly has earned a break. We head to the coast tomorrow.

I feel like I am caught in quicksand with my food plan. While I continue to add healthy food and exercise, my weight stays put and I can't close the kitchen for the last treat. I am super glad Mrs. Calypso continues to meditate on the unending cycle of sweet to savory every night. Also, Mama Meli is right on about self discipline as a two edge sword.

Here is what I know:
1. Tomorrow I will be on vacation for five days. This is never a good time to start a new plan. I will do what I have done before and bring my weight scale so I can continue to weigh everyday.
2. I will focus on getting in shape for Ecuador. 2 hours of yard work. Yoga and arm weights. This week I will paddle board and hike.
3. I will honor red light, yellow light and green light food.
4. I will remember that on Thursday, an acquaintance at the meeting stop dead speaking and said "You look wonderful , Mary Ann." totally out of context. I stopped myself from saying a 100 refusals and simply said thank you. So, even at this uncomfortable weight, I look wonderful. TYhat should quiet some inner demons.

BBE and Joy: What are quarters? They are not native to California. (Hee hee)

Three cheers for all of us Daring Greatly.

[karenrn]

Good morning coaches,

Food was on plan yesterday. For dinner I had a hummus plate and a cup of minestrone soup. It was very good and dh had some of the pita and hummus and I left some hummus. I would say it wasn't the best hummus I've had but it worked well to be on my plan of foods that I eat and was healthy. The Elvis movie was pretty good but sad. Of course you all know I am now very critical of movies. Today I have plans to do some food prep and probably some pool time.

Mrs Calypso That's great that your food plan for the social event worked well. It's always good to know what will work and we can use that plan again. Sounds like you're doing a really good job of implementing Beck in a way that works for you.

GardenerJoy That's great the ice cream shop won't be a super temptation. I made some ice cream type frozen dessert this morning and I do hope it tastes good. I've purchased some non-dairy ice cream, but those seem to be expensive and full of sugar.

Curlyjax I love that "live like the person you want to be". I think I'll kind of be thinking about that too. I'm glad your younger brother is all set.

Bill The Chinese food sounds really good. I haven't had any in some time since dh isn't a fan. One of these days.

Nationalparker Boy I wouldn't worry about personals at all, we just enjoy hearing from you.

MommaMeli You're at the lake hopefully having a fabulous time. It's great that you're gaining confidence. Yes leaving food on the plate easily would be great.

Maryann Have a great time at the coast. So glad that dh is able to join you. I bet he really needs some relaxation. Compliments are so helpful. Dh told me last night on the way home from dinner that he was so happy to sit across the table from me instead of beside me so he could see how beautiful I am. Believe me, dh doesn't usually throw out the compliments, I usually have to ask if I look nice. I'm still beaming from it.

Penny I hope you're having a great weekend and not working.

Okay in to the kitchen with me to do some food prep. I'm going to be cooking tofu, roasted veggies, baking sweet potatoes, and making Cheez sauce and cutting up some veggies for a stir fry for dinner. I love having things ready to pull together for dinner and I've really come to love our food plan.

[Penny.]

Good morning!

Yesterday was a 10 hour work day and I had an extra sandwich afterward. Maintenance mode. I have the weekend off and plans to meet a friend for hiking tomorrow.

Karen, your story about the Kirby vacuum cracked me up! I love it!

Bill, the lunch with friends sounds like a good time- haven't had Chinese in a minute. I agree, the group is nice for having people who get the food difficulties. we can get it all out here instead of elsewhere, where people will probably get tired of hearing about it.

Maryann, you seem to have really coasted through covid quickly! I'm so glad you're doing well and feeling good. Yes, I paid off a second mortgage so we now have two paid off houses. Crazy that the amount we paid for both of them together would not be enough to buy one comparable single family home in our area today.

Mamameli, leaving food on the plate reminds me of the frustration I felt at looking over a menu and not seeing anything low enough in calories. My food addicted brain could not even consider the option to not eat everything on the plate. It was a light bulb moment that made me feel a little stupid. Lol Still, knowing is only half the battle.

Curlyjax, I'm glad you had a good visit with your dad. I'm sure it is emotionally exhausting and you needed lots of recovery. Hopefully the weekend will provide it.

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Trip to the brick-and-mortar library was fun. Picked up Maus: A Survivor's Tale. Apparently, I'm the only person on the planet who hasn't read it since it was banned by the Tennessee School Board. It's a graphic novel, so hopefully will be a fast read. I'm at a familiar spot in my life when I see a sliver of free time and pick up a mountain of books to fill it. But I do feel an obligation to read banned books to understand our culture. One article says that it was banned due to nudity - nudity of graphic novel mice! Which doesn't explain why it was banned in Russia. I'll see.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was held dawdling on the patio in the pleasant cooled off weather after a day in the 90's degrees Fahrenheit. DW came home from our community garden with the last Sugar Snap that was almost as big as a small cuke. Maybe I'll slice it for tonight's salad, LOL.

Received a PM from nationalparker that she can't get even the main page of 3FC to load. I'll escalate my request for help from the techies.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Kudos for "one scoop in a cup as planned" - Beck strategies at their best.

maryann - Welcome to your five day vacation. Kudos for accepting a compliment.

nationalparker – Waving. Hope deleting cookies makes a difference. Thanks for letting me know.

Karen (karenrn) - Cutting up veggies for a stir fry is just the best.

curlyjax - LOL at your friend "sneaking things out past her 91 year old husband." I can see that happening around here at some point in the future. Thanks for “live like the person you want to be” - I can use that.

Penny. - Ten hours is a long day to be on your feet. Welcome to your weekend off.

MrsCalypso - Super Kudos for avoiding the snack bar at your party. That's a win. Neat plan to solidify what you're learning.

Readers -

Chapter 6 Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan

challenging situation skills

Before the Event
1. Change your mindset.
Copy this Response Card and add it to your others

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 132.

[maryann]

Good Morning, Coaches.

Up at 5:00 am this morning. The alarm wasn't set until 7:00 but I think it is the excitement of heading to the ocean waking me up. I have to do a load of laundry before I pack. The great thing about summer is I can take a nap if necessary later. I'll use the extra time to research easiest places to put my SUP Board in at Mendocino.

Yesterday's exercise was two and a half hours of gardening. I am very pleased how strong my hands have become with Yoga with Adrienne 30 day challenge and the hand weights I do while finishing my GIA lessons. I am also EXTREMELY pleased I put in so much time last year with a xeriscape in the front yard. The city is on water restrictions and everybody's lawns are showing the worse for it. Our landscape looks neat and tidy and interesting with a minimum of care. I will have to buy more potted plants because the last generation of non drought resistant plants have gone to the great plant heaven in the sky.

Food was better yesterday. I swapped out dinner for a frozen yoghurt with DH. Fine. I am down a pound.

BBE: Yesterday, my loading time is also very long.
Karen: Good job DH with the compliment.
Penny: enjoy your hike.

[curlyjax]

I went to see the musical Menopause myself yesterday afternoon and enjoyed it. Another production I bought tickets pre-pandemic and am finally seeing. It was a little challenging navigating getting out of Worcester afterwards with various streets shut down, but I managed it and am proud of myself.
Super hot here so not much done other than DS and I talked about some dinner ideas. He is very health conscious these days which is great, but I also don’t want to cook every night. He can help a bit but he will start work at an outdoor camp Monday and is also doing some physical work after that some nights, and is then exhausted and hungry, so I don’t want to overload him. Even with his company I ended up feeling depressed last night again. I think I’m just going to have to accept I feel this way at times and let it ride-it did go away after a bit. I called a friend who lives far away and we agreed we’re going to both declutter for 15 minutes today and then check in, so that’s good motivation. I’m spending mine on sorting out the clothes I can actually fit into currently.
Maryann-I’m so glad you’ll be having a break with DH. You have wise reflections as usual.
Gardenerjoy- yay for underwhelming ice cream
Mrs. Calypso- definitely keep what works from Beck and disregard the rest. Credits and recognizing sabotaging thoughts are important and really helpful. Great job staying on plan at your social event.
Bill- I haven’t read that either, tell us what you think. How cool to have such a big sugar snap!
Penny- wow that is a long work day. Glad you have the weekend off- have a nice time with your friend.
Karen- that was so sweet of DH to say that to you! Your meals always sound great. Do you have a certain menu you rotate?

[karenrn]

Good morning coaches,

Food was on plan yesterday including a little bowl of homemade non-dairy ice cream which wasn't sweet enough. I used some coconut milk because it was in the cupboard, a little almond milk, 3 bananas and some PB Fit (dry peanut butter) and a dash of maple syrup. I'm sure we'll eat it though.
I just got home from my morning hike. Listened to a couple of podcasts including The Ezra Klein show which I like. It stayed the same temp from start to finish, 85 degrees. I wore my wet towel around my neck which helps and there was some cloud cover. I just can't take too many days off and still feel good. I used to use 83 as a cut off temp and didn't want to hike when it was above that. Now it seems I wouldn't be hiking much if I used that temp in the summer. When I drove home dh and Otis were just getting home from Otis's walk. They looked so cute coming down the street. Now dh is out for his walk. I feel so fortunate that he is just as invested as I am in staying healthy and strong as we get older.

Yesterday I watched Cha Cha Real Smooth on Apple TV. It was pretty good and sweet. Today I'm going to try to find the documentary You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Trail about the author Howard Zinn. I think it might be available on Prime and was mentioned on the podcast this morning.

Curlyjax That's great that you got out for the musical. I need to start looking for some in person performances including the symphony and just getting a ticket for myself. What kind of foods does ds like? There are a ton of food prep videos on You Tube that might help so you are only cooking once for the week or part of it. We seem to have Buddha bowls maybe 2 or 3 times a week, bean and rice burritos a couple of nights a week, and then a couple other recipes. Like last night we had a stir fry that had baby bok choy, onion, a little garlic, carrot, red bell pepper and mushrooms over brown rice noodles. We had a couple of pieces of baked tofu on the side for protein. The recipe calls for a peanut sauce made with peanut butter, lime juice etc., but we both like the Trader Joe's Spicy Asian Peanut salad dressing just as well for fewer calories, so we use that.

Maryann I am so envious of your front yard. We are going to have to do something. We still have lawn in the front yard and a section of the back yard. Some sound here are using artificial turf, which is another idea. I feel very guilty when the sprinklers come on.

Bill You'll have to let us know about the book. Dinner on the patio sounds so nice. We are spending some time out there in the late afternoon or early evening when it gets a little stormy. The thread loads quickly on my phone, but on my computer the site loads quickly and everything loads fine until it gets to the Beck Diet Solution, then it's like molasses. I just wait because I don't want to have to type on my phone.

Penny That's a long work day. I'm glad you survived that. Tell us about the hike.

Waving to the others.

[Penny.]

Good morning!

Yesterday included three bowls of broccoli cheese soup and a 30 minute cycling video. So, not perfect. This morning I head out to do a fairly close hike with my lifelong friend. I'm ready to finally get back on the trails!

The forum loads fine for me on my phone but when I hit the reply button it gets hung up with the list of emojis open and blocking the reply box for a bit. By the time it loads, I hope I still remember enough for personals.

Curly, good for you, taking yourself out for a show! I'm sure it helps keep the blues down a little more than it would be. You're good about seeking out socialization too.

Nationalparker, I hope you make it back in soon.

Bill, I haven't read the Maus book either. I love graphic Novels and am currently reading El Deafo -about a child who lost her hearing. My 11yo had it in her stack from our book store trip.

Maryann, congrats on getting through all of your gem classwork! Enjoy your trip and your afternoon nap. I woke up at 5 too and was not happy about it.

Waving at Karen, Joy, MrsCalypso, and mamameli. Have a great day!

[nationalparker]

Only one more day here at my brother's. I'm really looking forward to the next visit when my SIL is visiting her sister. She's so critical of everything and everyone, from drivers, to neighbors, to Netflix shows we're watching, to everything. I just can't now. I know the pressure of my brother's cancer is very hard. But she's getting harder to take and last night in a squabble, my brother said, "this is my life now" and I felt bad. I am ready to move on from her but not my brother on this trip. She has been very accommodating in our plant based eating, and got that I am appreciative. As well as her caring for my brother but it seems to be frustrating for her now.

Food has been fine! But meals are wildly different times, dinner ending at 10-11 p.m. like back in Europe.

I'm getting eaten up by mosquitoes down here. I'm sporting at least 18 bites now. Close to a vacation record for me, but that was camping in Maine. My DH, none. 🙄

Will be driving out to my parents' graves tomorrow. I don't get there every time I get down here, but try to when I can. That continues to be hard for me despite the years that have passed, now 8.

After trying to access off and on today, I found a link in my history that allowed me to access but no ability to see PMs. Odd.

Bill thank you for your assistance!

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - A minor disaster: Set out to make tuna fish sandwiches for lunch. DW and I make separate lunches every.single.day EXCEPT when I offer to make her a tuna fish sandwich. Doesn't make sense - it's just our thing. Pulled out two cans of tuna; but they weren't tuna - they were crab meat. "I got those to make crab salad but they aren't chunks; they're just slivers of crab." "Shouldn't matter as a substitute for tuna," I optimistically responded. Well, matter it did. It was the worst sandwich I've ever eaten. Hardly tasted like crab at all. "Maybe more pickle relish, mayonnaise, salt, and pepper," DW suggested. "I'm sorta at the limit," I objected. DW also gave it an 'F'. Maybe it had the advertised protein. Maybe not. But a warning: Don't buy canned crab meat unless the word CHUNKS is highly visible. Silver lining: the cans are gone.

Fun was a visit from the (2 yo) DFGD, DS, and DDIL. We sat on the patio with the kiddie pool set up. She jumped right in and did all the age-appropriate splashing things. I did not make the heroic sacrafice by getting in myself as nationalparker has described. But I had no cookies or nibbles, so it was an on plan day with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi.


maryann - Such fun that you can enjoy that you did your xeriscape before mandated by the city. I suspect that we're all headed there. And Yay for an afternoon nap.

nationalparker – Kudos for keeping your cool in a difficult family situation. Sending supportive thoughts as you visit your parents' graves today.

Karen (karenrn) - Congrats for doing your hike even though a tad warmer than your upper limit for comfort. That's one complex set of ingredients for your non-dairy ice cream.

curlyjax - So neat that your DS is into healthy eating, albeit in age-appropriate volume, LOL. Are guys allowed to see Menopause?

Penny. - Love it that you're picking books from your 11-year-old's stack. I've always enjoyed broccoli cheese soup.

Readers -

Chapter 6 Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan

challenging situation skills

Before the Event
1. Change your mindset.
Many dieters initially feel they have to "get their money's worth" when they eat out. Or they have a hard time turning down free food. If you also have trouble with this way of thinking, make the following Response Card:

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 132.

[MommaMeli]

Good morning coaches

We had a really good time at the lake. Credit for staying very close to plan. My only slip ups were eating a little too much fish and a handful of chips as a snack that I had not planned. I even managed to leave food on my plate twice. Overall, I think it was the best I ever ate at the lake. And I laughed out loud when one parent hauled out the mac and cheese.

Came home and discovered that my 2 year old DD has something stuck up her nose. Way up her nose. At least I think she does. I can't see it. Anxiously waiting for the doctor's office to open. I expect they see this all the time, but surprisingly, I haven't dealt with this before. I'm feeling my anxiety pretty high today. This is my child that had open heart surgery at 7 days old. I know what it is like to watch her suffer, and I'm dreading it again today. I expect I'm going to have to hold her down, and I really hate that. I always tell my children that love means doing what is best for someone else, even when it is not what is best for you. So, I'm going to love her very much today. Being a parent is really hard sometimes, and this is but a small thing.

Trying to plan meals, but I know I'm going to have to be flexible depending on when they can work her in and how long the extraction takes. So grateful for my good relationship with our pediatrician.

I'm going to get a few chores in before calling the doctor, so no personals today. Thank you all for your supportive comments for my eating at the lake!

[gardenerjoy]

I had a somewhat distressing family phone call last night. For the last several months, I've been mentoring Dear Niece (age mid-30s) who has never successfully navigated into adulthood. We have had some modest success together, if slow and uneven. Last night's call was from her mother, my sister-in-law. She simultaneously appreciates that someone is working with DN and resents that I have an ongoing relationship with DN while she's completely estranged from her mother. The resentment mostly won out last night. Sigh.

This is my reminder that I have tools to process distress and to re-establish my equilibrium. This is my reminder that hunger is the only problem that food fixes.

Exercise +55, 1355/1500 minutes for June

nationalparker: I'm commiserating in dealing with a critical SIL, right now.

MommaMeli: Sending warm thoughts to you and your daughter, today. Good for you for anticipating what's going to be hard in a way that will make it work a little better.

[curlyjax]

I stayed up super late Saturday night but amazingly wasn’t tired yesterday. Eating sparsely probably helped. At dinner I was going to have seconds on pasta-broccoli-cheese, then realized what I really wanted was the cheese, so I stopped. I also stopped at one popsicle, credit me. Exercise was groceries and puttering around the house; 93 yesterday, too hot for outside. I did get my 15 minute declutter done with at night with my friend, so my bedside table looks a lot better. I also went thru my warm weather clothes and was realistic about what fits NOW, and put away other things or donated. I’ve hung on to two skirt suits for eons, but I will never wear them again plus they don’t fit, so out they go. Plan is to get to savers sometime this week to donate.

Karen- those menus sound great, and nice that DH doesn’t mind repeats. DS will eat all sorts of things except ham and we rarely do red meat. I asked what else he needed for a snack; he said grains and greens. I said- that is a meal dude, i’m not cooking snacks He’s trying to get more veggies in which is great.
Penny- at least you’re getting broccoli in! Hope the hike was nice.
Nationalparker-I’m sorry you and your brother are going thru that. Hope the gravesite visit was okay.
Bill-too funny about the crab sandwich! I will keep that in mind for sure
Mommameli- great job eating at the lake! Being a parent is very hard indeed, hope the extraction goes quickly and smoothly.
Gardenerjoy-sorry you're going thru that with your SIL, but its great your niece has you.

[karenrn]

Good morning coaches,

Food was on plan yesterday. I'm trying to be more mindful of my portions and snacks have been baby carrots. We had a little monsoon action last might. Mainly the wind started up and was up to 30 mile gusts, then we had a short bit of hard rain. It makes for a little late afternoon fun to watch. I got up early and hiked a moderate hike with my friend. The air was so beautifully clean and the skies are blue. It was 78 (cool) and a bit humid but delightful. Otis and I just got back from his walk. He was happy to go this morning which is always nice.

I ordered a new suitcase which should arrive today and I'm going to start setting things out on the guest bed (staging area) for my trip. It isn't for a month, but it's kind of long and I'll need regular clothing and then stuff for the hiking trip. I'll get out the packing list they sent so I have most of what they want. I know they want us to have waterproof boots, which I won't buy cause it would be the only time I would wear them. I won't wear boots at all. I'm sure my regular Salomon hiking shoes will be just fine.

Curlyjax, good job on the decluttering and not taking seconds. I know when I start having things decluttered I get motivated to do more since it feels good to have things neat. I need to go through some of the kitchen things and get rid of items I don't use.

GardenerJoy I'm sorry about the family upset. Thank goodness your niece has you and it would be nice if her mother appreciated that as well.

MommaMeli That's great that your eating at the lake was so successful. Knowing you did it will help so much next time. It's great to have a strong resistance muscle. I'm sorry about your little one and hope it won't be too bad for her.

Bill I love crab, but that crab sounds awful. Maybe it should have just gone in the garbage before wasting the mayo. I bet that was so fun seeing the little one play and splash in the pool. We used to have some great? grand? nieces and nephews that came to play in our pool and my brother (their grandpa) would get it no matter what the weather to be sure nobody drowned. It was such fun to watch.

Nationalparker I'm sorry your Sil is being so difficult. That would be so awkward. Yes it will be so nice to be able to visit without her being there. It is great that food has been fine, even with the stress.

Penny I hope your hike went well. It sounds like you are feeling good.

Maryann I hope you're having fun.

Mrs Calypso Were you able to try the after dinner strategy? If so, how did it work?

Well I guess I had better get cleaned up and see what I'm going to do for the remainder of the day.

[maryann]

Good Morning, Coaches.

Beautiful here in Fort Bragg. DH is relaxing into it nicely with naps and cool weather. I can tell he is feeling better because he gets very silly and teases me when he starts to relax. it is good to see.

We went scouting for the best paddle board put in for a newcomer around here. Big River was the winner and we will go there this afternoon. https://www.visitmendocino.com/big-r...-enormous-fun/ Great to have a hobby that doesn't require crack of dawn departure. Many of mine and Karen's do because of weather. We watched Top Gun last night at the tiny movie theatre here. Tonight Jurassic Park. It is a treat to DH to sit in a movie theatre. I had many issues with Top Gun. I am not as forgiving as Karen. Number 1 was no helmets on the movie stars while driving motor cycle. Number 2: Tom Cruise gets to be 59 but his love interest has to be 51. GRRRRRRR. I began to continue the list but enough. The world is changing and the movie is reflecting it. At least there were people of color in and gender amply represented as opposed to the first movie. I believe the world is getting more and more inclusive. Yeah!!

Food was average and I did have dessert. If I do anything this trip it is to NOT have dessert. I will anything I want today except dessert and manufactured sugar. I know I can stay within those parameters.

Wave to all.