[Penny.]

Good morning!

Yesterday was a weightloss eating day. I'm going out with a new friend after work today so I'm not sure if I'll manage a second weightloss eating day but I'm going to keep it in mind and not go wild.

Karen, I traced the latch hook project onto the rug backing with a projector. Easy peasy. I'm sorry your car is still rattling.

Bill, lol at your Trader Joe's trip. The store is a battlefield for us overeaters. The rug project is staring at me now that the eyes are done. We get along okay.

Have a great day, everyone!

[gardenerjoy]

The dental appointment was more uncomfortable and longer than expected. I needed all of my yoga breathing experience to keep myself calm -- fortunately, that worked really well. I engaged in some eating that is only appropriate on a day when half my month is numb. That's fine as long as I have it clearly boxed in so that it doesn't slip out on other days.

Exercise +30, 1080/1600 minutes for July

Penny: I'm completely in love with that design. That's going to make such a great rug! I'm getting a kind of 70s vibe from the colors, but 2022 in the way it all works together.

[maryann]

Back in the USA! as Bruce Springsteen would say.

I began traveling about two days ago. Floreana was the final remote island we spent our last night in the Galapagos, Beautiful isolated water side rustic cabins. There is no fresh water or middle schools. Island children have to leave home to go to high school. We snorkeled and I swam with two sea turtles along with schools of brightly colored fish. Breathtaking and I wish I had planned to stay in the quiet for a week. Alas, when we started for our departure it took three boats, four buses and an airplane to get us back to Quito, Ecuador. SIL and I slept in late and then went to the Cafe Plaza Grande which has a Cucurucho deliver and specific ice cream ordered https://www.tripadvisor.com/Location..._Province.html. It is a form of penance usually reserved for Good Friday with the costumes usually purple for holy. These costumes were eventually stolen and slandered by the KKK. While wandering to catch our last little gift items, we ran into a performance from a school of teens practicing to perform Cirque de Soleil type art. Phenomenal. Heading out of Latin America our flight was delayed by 2 hour meaning I left at 1:00 a.m. I forget which day but after that all went well. I have no idea what time schedule I am on. DH missed me so he talked me into heading to Tahoe so he could have a break from work and feast in the cold evenings of 40 degrees Farenheit. So -- a quick round of laundry and I am heading out in a few hours.

The scale says 181. i will not freak. I will let it settle down and plan next week. I know I am dehydrated. lack of exercise was not an issue. I enjoyed local foods and felt in control. I have this week to finish my rigorous diamond grading coursework to be able to head to San Diego next Saturday to actually grade the diamonds. School begin Aug. 8 . I have been so blessed this summer.

I have tried to catch up a little and will work on personals this week.

[karenrn]

Good afternoon coaches,

I sure can't say food is on plan. Now if I had only posted first thing this morning I could have. I do wish they would have had the hearing yesterday early in the day. I guess better for me than some of you. I stayed up later than I would have liked and then woke up at 2:30. I left the house at 4:30 to hike and it was so hot I almost turned around. It must have been more humid and of course about mid 90's. I've been worthless all day. I even bought a couple of cookies and some dates at the store after taking Otis to the groomer's. I have really gotten not one thing done today except balancing the checkbook. My weight is pretty good, 135 even, but it won't be tomorrow. I'm just going to say Oh Well and I'm back on track now.

GardenerJoy Sorry about the dentist. My problem lately is that I seem to get more nervous. Not sure if it's cause I'm worried how big the bill will be or what. I always have to remind myself that we can afford the bill.

Penny I would never have thought of tracing the picture onto the rug backing with a projector. I guess you know how crafty I am not. Have fun going out.

Bill Sounds like you had a fun and productive trip to Trader Joe's. I have never purchased much there, but we are both addicted to the Spicey Asian Peanut salad dressing. It's in the case by the refrigerated salads and things if you ever want to try it. It's actually fairly low calorie especially compared to the habanero dressing that my husband was wanting for awhile.

Curlyjax I hope you like the movie, I really did. Yes dh's produce tasting days are long gone, but he still doesn't want those fruits. I hear you on the once you get started you just keep going. I am that way too. I'm just glad that I can control my environment as in I don't have to go to the office. I used to have a rule at work that I only ate things I brought. At the hospital where I worked there was always food all over the place.

Waving to Nationalparker and Maryann and continued prayers for MommaMeli and family.

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Excitement was the arrival of a book that I'd ordered from Amazon, The BlueEyes Family, of my family tree. An absolute jewel. Some guy I don't know dug up our family history all the way back to . . . wait for it . . . Great (nth) grandfather Thomas BlueEyes who left Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England in 1690 for the Colony of Maryland. Traces Thomas and his two brothers down to my dear grandmother who I knew as a child - where my brother has done the tedious work to cover the current family on ancestry dot com. The book then continues to trace our roots in that same section of England back to Nicholas BlueEyes in 1520! That's the reign of King Henry VIII! All clearly documented in print. (The book was a one-off fast print book; one of the super neat ideas of modern electronics.) Worse news: there are wiki-like web sites with sections about each of my ancestors. This stuff is addictive.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was recovering from the disaster of leaving the door to the freezer part of the fridge slightly ajar. The two frozen dinners - the shrimp and veggie stir fry purchased the day before - were cooked immediately; some frozen ham was moved to the refrigerator section to eat tomorrow. A few things were lost. Don't know how we did that, but it's a bummer. Glad that we only had very minor loses.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Yay for using yoga to survive a visit to the dentist. Eating with a half-numb mouth is no fun at all.

maryann - Welcome home. Love the notion of swimming with sea turtles.

Karen (karenrn) - We, too, suffered from staying up late glued to the hearings. Hope you get some sleep. Kudos for "Oh Well and I'm back on track now."

curlyjax - Ouch for the discovery of chocolates at work. Yep, a few stickies might serve as reminders. Do hope your DD starts getting some desired COVID test results.

Penny. - Yay for continuing to make new friends. LMAO at "We get along okay." Your DS's picture does impact.

MommaMeli - Thinking of you and your family. Do hope you've found a way to survive the extra burden of this heat wave.

Readers -

Chapter 6 Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan

challenging situation skills

At the Event

9. Use Resistance Techniques. At the event, if you are tempted by unplanned food, do the following: . . .

• Deal with disappointment: Oh, well, I wish I could eat this but I can't, so I'm going to accept it and enjoy socializing . . . I"m really going to enjoy getting and staying thinner.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 135.

[curlyjax]

I had a fun time going to the outdoor event last night. It was an outdoor artisan fair at a center for arts. There were 4 other folks there from the meetup and I had a good chat with two of them. At one point some youths put on a large Chinese dragon costume and pranced around, they were just wonderful. I’m going to be a host for a meetup event of some kind with this group-could be a good way to meet folks and get myself out there a bit. I ate reasonably well there but treated myself to ice cream on the way home.
I have the house to myself a bit this morning so I’m going to focus on tidying up a bit, getting trash done and then maybe take a walk in the heat. I’m going to the movie at 6ish which is perfect for me, I’m more motivated toget things done when I have something to do in the evening.
Penny- yay for a new friend outing.
Gardenerjoy- great job using yoga breathing at the dentist.
Maryann- so fun to read about your travels. Interesting about the KKK slandering the costume.
Karen-some days it is hard to get anything done, that’s for sure, especially in the heat.
Bill- so fun to have your family history in a book! DD is doing better and tested negative fortunately.

[gardenerjoy]

We canceled our usual Saturday event due to the heat. It looks like that was the wise choice. The current prediction for noon is 96°F with the heat index taking that to 103°F. Our fourth Saturday location has no shade.

That gives me a rare free Saturday. I'm hoping to catch up on writing some book reviews. Here's my reminder that writing is not an activity that requires extra fuel in the form of food.

Exercise will be a dance workout. Probably this one:

You Tube

You Tube

Exercise +75, 1155/1600 minutes for July

BillBlueEyes: What fun learning about your ancestors! I had German ancestors in Maryland in the 1720s. A whole different branch started in Virginia from England a century earlier. The branch I have traced the least far back is the one with my birth surname. I keep hoping to connect with someone who has solved my brick wall on that line.

[karenrn]

Good morning coaches,

I took 1/2 a Costco sleep aid last night and slept a full 8 hours. I had already decided I wouldn't worry about getting up to hike this morning. I will be sure to do my PT and other indoor exercises today. Our weather is changing and we may end up with rain within the next few days. I did go right back on track with my food plan. I have a haircut appt early this afternoon and will hope just to get the ends nipped. I really prefer to have my hair long enough to pull it back.

Curlyjax That's great that you're meeting some new folks from the meetup. I'm glad to hear dd is testing negative. My friend is also testing negative but still has a bad cough.

Bill That is very cool that you have the book of your family tree and that it goes back so far. My Dad worked on our genealogy a lot and my Sil took over the job and has done even more work. I guess I should learn a bit more from her. What a bummer about the freezer. Our appliances have a very annoying alarm if a door is left open. I guess I should be glad about that.

Maryann I guess we were posting at the same time yesterday. Your trip sounds just awesome and even better that it wasn't too many time zones to recover from. You truly have had an amazing summer.

Nationalparker I hope you're having a great visit with your sister.

Have a great weekend everyone.

[maryann]

Good morning, Coaches.

I slept 14 hours last night. Wow! I woke up at 11:00 am. Dh is very good natured about it. He is feeling relaxed because he is teasing me. That is always a good sign.

Stupidly I left my paddle board in the car down at the house. That is off the table up then. DH has committed to a bike ride either today or tomorrow. This afternoon I again want to try The Shirley lake canyon hike which is super tough but I get to ride the gondola down.

curleyjax: Good thinking hosting a meet up. It has really helped me to meet new people doing favorite activities.
BBE; Our seal on our refrig is tricky. We don't have that much food saved up.
Karen: There are days that are just hungry! that is the way of things. Congrats for not beating yourself up over it.
Joy: Oh how I wish writing burnt calories.

[Penny.]

Later check-in.

I had a nice time out with a new friend. We checked out a new bar and both my drink and the appetizer was yucky, so I ended up just having a different cocktail and that was it. So not bad!

Today I made a huge batch of pesto pasta salad for the fridge and had a little too much of it before calling it a day. It's not bad as long as I keep out of the kitchen until breakfast now.

Joy, thanks for the nice comment on my son's art. I like the 60s-70s feel of it too and plan to hang it over the fire place in my 60s house when I move into it.

[nationalparker]

Hello! I have had some very full days with my sister and DGS, who was taken home this afternoon. She and I have played many word games, and we'll break out Rummikub and Sequence in the morning I'm sure. Main activity tomorrow is the DGS's birthday party (5yo) in the afternoon, about an hour away. His first tball game was the other evening, and to see his lack of interest in participation or ability/interest to follow what the coach wanted them to do, was concerning on my end. I remain very frustrated at my stepdaughter's insistence that he's her best friend and then sits and watches movies with him all day long, exposing him to pg13 and way too much killing. While he can't count, doesn't know ABCs or how to spell his name. I have cried to myself over it and my sister is shocked so that bothers me more too. He is a sweet kid, smart, but doesn't know what he isn't taught. I had asked dh for gift ideas and he offered not one, but I researched and chose gifts while asking several more times if any input. Today as I'm wrapping gifts, he's like his parents won't play with this educational game with him. I'm like NOW you have a suggestion!?! I was so stressed about other things that was my straw and I actually, absurdly, cried. So decided to keep it here and I'll play with him.

Food has been so/so. Could have done better, could have done worse. Ordered Thai last night and have gotten four servings from my entree alone (2 for dh and 2 for me yesterday and today, and still another serving and a half left. So I don't feel that I indulged too much with it.

Dropped my sister at her hotel, came home and snacked.

Two more days here and then we drive up to Cleveland with her for a couple of tourist days.

Bill - how interesting about your family heritage! That is amazing. Someone in my family researched and we go back on Mom's side to Joan of Arc times in France. Her town not her. Supposedly.

Penny - LOVE LOVE LOVE that rug design. How cool is that. Do you cut your own yarn for it?

Glad it was a wonderful trip, Maryann!! Would love to read more about it. What an experience!

Waving to all! Will be a sporadic poster here for a week...

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Spent the day hiding from the heat. One outdoor thermometer read 105F - but it was in direct sunlight; in the shade it was 94F. Everything is wilting. DW is out there watering constantly. Today it the predicted peak day. I hope everyone is finding a way to survive the heat.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner, eaten inside, was cool potato salad, cool previously-grilled salmon, three-bean salad, and green salad. Summer eating at its best. Like every year before, I declare that this year's cukes are the best we've ever had.

Spent the day chasing the genealogy. Discovered a relative with two dates of birth in the 1752 era - a few days apart but in different years. What? Well, the author explained that he was born in England before they'd switched to the modern Gregorian Calendar from the Julian Calendar when the Colonies had already switched. Should have only been an 11 day difference - and that in the month of September 1752. Don't know how that became two different years. Becoming aware that the notion of "Unreliable Narrator" doesn't just exist in Faulkner novels. The author of the book I'm reading resolves disputed spellings by accepting the spelling engraved on the tombstone. Suspect that a tolerance for ambiguity is required in this business.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - LOL at "writing is not an activity that requires extra fuel in the form of food." Need to quit debating in my head if good writing would have consumed more calories than sloppy writing. Maryland seems to have accumulated quite a few immigrants in the 1700s; neat that your German ancestors were among them. It's painful to read the split in my family history as brothers moved from Tennessee to Kentucky to remain in the Union at the time of the US Civil War. And to discover that the African-Americans with our last name might have chosen the name of the plantation owner when they were emancipated. Family is all sorts.

maryann - You win the sleep award with 14 hours; it's easy to suspect that your body really needed that after your full excursion.

nationalparker – Wish you well figuring out how to contribute to your DGS's education without causing family trauma. It's super that you and your sister can have so much fun together. It's so fun to thing of our own relatives at the time of Joan of Arc in France. What would they have thought of the situation? What would they known?

Karen (karenrn) - Yay for eight hours of sleep. Glad that you have good air-conditioning to do your exercises indoors.

curlyjax - Neat to hear you having fun at an outdoor fair - especially the kids in the dragon costume. Glad that your DD is getting the negative COVID test results.

Penny. - Super Kudos for deciding that an appetizer was yucky and skipping it. Pesto potato salad sound yummy.

MommaMeli - Supportive thoughts for your family; thinking about your 13 yo who needs his friends and must miss his siblings.

Readers -

Chapter 6 Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan

challenging situation skills

At the Event

9. Use Resistance Techniques. At the event, if you are tempted by unplanned food, do the following: . . .

• Breathe deeply; relax.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 135.

[curlyjax]

I got a lot done around the house yesterday. I took an early nap and felt like taking another one but I pushed thru. I had pbj for dinner and had a nice time at the movie which I enjoyed. Such beautiful dresses! My friend suggested ice cream after but I resisted stating i had it the night before, so we went to house for fresh blueberries and a tiny amount of wine. She’s going to the 10 am yoga class at the y so I have a reason to force myself to go. Afterwards is grocery shopping and some kind of hot weather dinner for tonight as its going to be 97 here today.
Gardenerjoy- you’re so good about getting exercise in even when its hot. I will have to check out some youtube videos.
Karen- great you got a full nights sleep, that is so helpful in feeling good.
Maryann- you got a great nights sleep too, wow!
Penny- ooh, pesto pasta salad, I keep meaning to make pesto. Glad the evening was fun.
Nationalparker- I’m so sorry about DGS, that must be hard to see. At least you’re exposing him to all sorts of things at your place.
Bill-we have some brown lawns around here for sure, I do hope its the peak day today. Yay for summer eating.

[maryann]

Good Morning, Coaches.

Great hike in the evening in the mountains and lake around our place.I ate only two meals since I woke up so late. Both were moderate. I have lost a pound. Today I will bike down to old town with DH. That will be great exercise.

I finished two of 20 Diamond Grading lessons that must be completed by Thursday night. I will do at least two more today. Very interesting history about the "diamond pipeline" and single channel marketing that dominated the market. That was blown up in the 1990s when Russia, Australia and Canada developed mines. I hoped this helped alleviate the "blood diamond" violence. Also interesting is that in the Great Depression, diamond value plummeted to the extent that De Beers closed its mines to not flood the market with low cost diamonds. Lesson: People stockpiling diamonds right now for a hedge against inflation might think twice.

I am working through some pain of an email my one time best friend sent me regarding the Canada trip I felt compelled to cancel because of refusing to meet COVID expectations ( not state or local regulations - her expectations.) - expectations others of the group also didn't meet but had chosen to remain silent. She framed the email as a way of moving forward and then began cataloging all my faults and ended with a diatribe on my hypocrisy of championing women's and immigration rights yet not falling into line with her political leanings. I wrote back that it was the most hurtful email I had ever received. She replied she had reread her message and that I couldn't have possibly been insulted by her words. So obviously she also gets not only to choose the right answers to the political chaos we are in but whether or not my feelings get to be hurt. Ironically, I consider myself very much a centrist. I have voted across the parties over the years including a green party candidate and a one time Ralph Nader nod. I work for social reform and teach about responsibility for our most vulnerable in my classes. I ended my message wishing for all the best for her. In AA we have "forgiveness work" that we do so that we are not in bondage to anger or resentment. I am doing that. I will not contact her again until I feel I can interact with her with acceptance (not necessarily approval) but acceptance and love.

These things make me very hungry but food will not solve anything.

I am remembering that as opposed to just not picking up a drink to remain sober, we with food issues have to unleash the tiger everyday. Three cheers for our courage facing it.

[karenrn]

Good morning coaches,

Food was back on plan yesterday without even feeling like going off plan. Luckily most often I feel that way. I got up and hiked this morning and it was 89 to start and 83 to finish. The wind came up and I could see a dust storm in the south, but luckily it stayed in the south. We're supposed to get some rain at some time today. I hope so.

Curlyjax Sounds like you had a good day yesterday. I loved the dresses in that movie too.

Bill Sounds like a day spent chasing the genealogy is a good thing to do in your heat.

Nationalparker I'm glad you're having a good time with your sister. That has got to be frustrating to see your dgs falling behind where he could be. It's a shame especially cause he sounds like a bright little guy. Hopefully he'll have some good teachers to get him started on the right foot, but oh my.

Penny I'm glad you had a nice time out and good for you for not eating something just because you paid for it. The pesto pasta salad sounds nummy.

Maryann You are a good sleeper for sure. It's a good thing. Your hike kind of reminds me of the Grouse Grind in Vancouver B C. I don't know if we'll get to that one when I'm up there or not. It is nice to ride the gondola down though.

GardenerJoy Sounds like a good decision to stay out of the heat yesterday. I hope you'll get some cooler temps soon. There was a nice segment on CBS This Morning program today about Libraries. Did you happen to see it?

Well I guess it's time to get the PT exercises completed and move on.