Diet Coaches/Buddies - Excitement was getting the two shots: flu shot in the left arm and COVID-19 booster in the right. Sitting right there in the open at the back of the local Walgreen's drug store. I arrived early; the pharmacist took care of me right away - good service. Few customers were in the store on that Sunday morning. None were near the pharmacy. So far, I'm neither sore nor tired, although I've kept my schedule to things done at home today just to be prepared. Almost everyone I've talked to experienced some degree of fatigue the day after. Walked, CREDIT moi, in an equilateral triangle path to the Walgreens then to another drug store for a waiting prescription then home. Spent part of the walk feeling smug that I'd saved time by combining the two instead of separate trips.
Bigger excitement was a visit from the DS, DDIL, and (2.5 yo) DFGD. The quality of sentences just keeps getting better and better. She built a tower with our fat leggos - the kind that are just right for little hands. Then, with much enthusiasm, "Now I knock it down." I couldn't help but quip, "Certainly proves she's DS's daughter," despite knowing the absurdity of that. Standard whirlwind. Standard desire to stuff all the cut grape-halves in her mouth at once then run off to chew them at will. Or spit them out somewhere to be found disgustingly later. Her two parents both made the rules clear: only one grape at a time; and eating only in the kitchen.
Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was the Trader Joe's shrimp Stir-Fry that DW loves to make because we both like it and it only takes five minutes at the stove. (She never counts the hour to cook brown rice since that only takes a minute to start and then she leaves the kitchen.)
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Continue to be impressed with your equanimity when facing the decisions being made by your DGN. Such a reminder of what we can and cannot control.
Karen (karenrn) - It's hard to imagine how your brain handles being moved from Washington State - where it always rains - to Arizona - were it just doesn't. Yes, we attend a concert by the Boston Baroque every year. We usually only do Handel's Messiah every second or third year thinking we don't want to wear it out. But after each Messiah, I think we should do it twice a year at least, LOL.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
Create a Social Eating Mindset
Read this Response Card before attending a social event:
Quote:
SOCIAL EVENTS RESPONSE CARD
I need to make social events be about the people
and not about the food. I have to face the fact that
every time I eat spontaneously at a social event, I
undermine my efforts by strengthening my giving-in
muscle. Every time I stick to my plan, I feel great and
in control.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 151.
I think I have a plan for the week that will allow me to proceed at a steady, relaxed pace, which is more the vibe that I intend in December. It will require staying off social media (including email) except when I really need it to accomplish something.
Today's venture into social media will include some behind the scenes finagling to make sure that we have precisely three school board candidates that I want to vote for. There are three seats up for re-election. If there are fewer than three good candidates, we give away a seat to someone who wants to upset the apple cart. If we have more than three good candidates, they'll split the vote in ways that may allow an apple-cart-upsetter to win. I feel like I should be in a back room smoking cigars.
My trip top Michigan was wonderful. I came back to school at 8 am to learn another of our students had committed suicide by gun. She was on the basketball team and part of the early college program. She would have graduate with the Associates Degree. She was a tall beautiful Indian girl.
I broke down in first period. My students gave me hugs. I got a partner to hop in the class and talked to the counsellors I made it through the rest of the day. I really have no words right now. I will take a bath and go to bed..
I'm on plan and maintaining. It feels good to be eating like a non-addicted person. Next will be working in some exercise but, with everything going on, I'm happy to just be eating well.
Maryann, that is heartbreaking news about your student. I'm so sorry.
Tuesday - Harriet Tubman escapes slavery for 2nd and final time (1849, Maryland)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was leftover 13-bean soup that covers protein, starch, and veggies all in one bowl. With the standard green salad itself with avocado, and toasted baguette coins. And then the genius idea: we had about two ounces of smoked salmon calling to be consumed. DW had proffered the idea of it over avocado toast. So, we mushed chunks of avocado from the salad, popped on the salmon, and had a super treat. Was pleased thinking that I was a vegetarian for the day until I remembered that salmon isn't a vegetable.
The day was designed to be low key in case I suffered the vapors from my two shots the day before. Nope. Only thought about it because I got asked if I was tired or hurting. Makes me fear that it isn't working for me.
Major accomplishment was to add the two shots to the medical sheet that I carry in my wallet that contains all the info that medical responders might ask if they have my breathing body but no idea of my medical history. Turns out to be the best sheet of paper I've ever composed because it contains the names of all my doctors (with phone numbers), all medications (with prescribing doctor's name and reason) and a half-dozen plausible emergency contacts. The contacts are important since I just assume that in one call they'll contact DW but there are cases where she's in another ambulance from the same accident. So, updated, printed, folded into my wallet. Done, CREDIT moi especially because it's such an easy task to put off until it's a burden because I forget what or when I had my last COVID booster. Then, feeling motivated, I did two bureaucratic things that didn't need to be done immediately but feel good that I don't have to add them to my long list of things that need to be done.
Boss Joy (gardenerjoy) - Love the image of Boss Joy with a fat cigar choosing the election lineup. Upsetting school board apple-carts seems to be the new way to . . . to . . . to . . . sorry, I can't figure out what they're trying to do.
maryann - That's just awful about the student. Sending supportive thoughts that you find some counsel so you can counsel your students. On an upbeat thought, I thought of you while listening to the Messiah knowing that you were at that very moment listening to your DS in concert.
Penny. - Yes, "with everything going on, I'm happy to just be eating well" with the plate so full it's worthy of Kudos just for being sane.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
social event skills
To handle social events with ease, you will use many of the skills already presented in this chapter.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 151.
Yesterday's accomplishment was writing a book review for a book that was overdue at the library -- and then, returning the book. I managed that without any extra food. We also took our longer walk on what we anticipate was the best weather day of the week. No extra food required for that, either.
Exercise +55, 265/1700 minutes for December
maryann: So sorry about the news that you came back to. Since I've been on the edges of schools in recent years, I've been much more aware of how devastating student suicide is to the whole community, from classroom to administrative office to school board and beyond.
BillBlueEyes: I'm going to steal your format for a sheet in case of emergencies. I used to keep an ICE (In Case of Emergency) number in my phone contact list thinking that was going to be of some great use. I only recently realized that since phones have passcodes, these days, the emergency responders will only experience my phone as a brick.
Penny: My goal for this month is just to keep eating well and stepping on the scale to make sure that things don't get too out of whack. Anything close to maintenance is a success in December.
I had a snack of cashew brittle yesterday so I've made a plan to finish the baking this week and get the sweets out of the house. Sometimes I can handle it being here and apparently right now I can't. I purchased a couple more ingredients for baking and will make 4 pans of seven layer cookies and 6 dozen pecan tassies on Thursday. I used to make a much larger selection, but I don't feel up to being around all that right now. I've got 8 or 9 people to distribute to on Thursday and Friday. I might ask my hiking friend to keep a couple of things in her freezer for dh and me for a treat on Christmas. I'm not sure if it was the grey skies, intermittent holiday sadness or what that has made resisting sweets difficult right now. I guess the main thing is that I need to do whatever will work because I am not gaining weight over the holidays.
Yesterday I took Otis to the vet who thinks the spot on his nose is healing and fine. Dh wanted me to ask about joint supplements so the vet moved his joints and doesn't think he really needs anything right now. I also got a refill for his Xanax that he takes for the groomers. Then I took him to the groomers at noon only to find out his appointment is on Thursday. Good thing our friend who is coming to take our Christmas photo was already planning on coming on Thursday. I finished the Christmas cards over the weekend and will have some photos printed at Walgreen's to stick in the card. I send quite a few cards to our friends and family in Washington.
GardenerJoy It's good to know someone intelligent and rational like you is involved with the school board. I've listened to some interesting podcasts about who is getting involved and it doesn't always sound so good.
Bill I'm so glad you were feeling fine even after two vaccines on the same day. I was to chicken to do that, but it probably would have been fine.
Penny I need to get a day or two away from the candy to feel like a non-addicted person again. I had a good visit with my friend on our hike this morning. She is a 22 or so years sober person so totally understands my not being able to leave sugar alone and was a good person to talk with.
Maryann I'm so sorry to hear of your student's suicide. I can only imagine how sad and overcome you must have felt. I hope a good nights sleep helped just a little at least. I am glad you had a good visit in Michigan. So hard to go from high to super low in such a short time. Life is so terribly fragile.
Curlyjax I hope things went well with your Dad and that you had a safe trip.
Thank you for all the supportive thoughts. I am climbing out of the blues as well as can be expected. My focus has been on teamwork and games to remind us all of joy. The kids had a great time today. I pitched in in beach volleyball in the class room and landed on my face which was the highlight of the game. It is all good. I did break into bliss point foods at school so my streak is over. It is just one foot in front of another right now. I walked 10,000 steps in the airport while waiting for my flight. I will try to walk above 7500 today. Water is still on the ball as is low carb breakfast,
I join Joy and Penny with a grateful heart for sane, non-addictive eating in December.
I have a facetime call with my counselor at 4:00 so hopefully it will be a centering time.
Wednesday - Apollo 17 launched, the final manned lunar landing mission (1972)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - I'm so glad that, with the conclusion of the Georgia Senate runoff, the mid-term election is over. OVER. Looking forward to hearing some other news. I so wanted to put it all behind me that, when I woke up at 1 am, I turned on my computer to get the results. Still have to read today's news cycle telling me the results over and over. My congratulations to all who felt that they won last night; my condolences to all that felt that they lost.
My last class reading Black authors finished with a passionate reading from each of us from an author that moved us. I chose to read from "
" by Zora Hurston because every page in that book grabbed me. Was surprised that some three of us out of seventeen chose to read from Hurston. Even more surprised that several chose Audre Lorde who strongly identifies as Black, Lesbian, Feminist, poet who is hard to read. I did enjoy reading a discussion between Audre Lorde and James Baldwin. She made Baldwin sound old even though she's only ten years younger. The generational difference is large. Makes me wonder how much I'm missing because I don't understand the oncoming generations.
The tradition is to share something sweet after the last class. The leader's wife brought in a top shelf pumpkin-something coffee cake. I knew it was coming; planned to eat it; ate it with joy. Eating was on plan despite the extra snack, CREDIT moi. Trip to the supermarket saw Christmas spiral hams stacked high. I'd better get used to it. I'm under pressure to announce what I want to receive; my mind is blank. Gotta get my act together and invent something that I want.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Congrats for finishing a book review from an overdue book. But Super Congrats for thinking through that your phone might not be of use to a first-responder if you're not awake to tell them how to log in.
maryann - So neat that you can laugh with your students when you fall on your face playing the beach ball game. Continue to wish you well healing from the loss of your student.
Karen (karenrn) - Glad to hear that the nose of Otis is healing just fine. I hate that pets, like small children, are terrible at telling us what's wrong with them.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
social event skills
Here are some additional suggestions: . . .
Bring food with you when you can. Depending on the type of event, you may be able to bring foods you can eat. Jacob planned to take turkey burger patties and a salad with him to a barbecue. Another time, he brought two desserts to a dinner party: fruit that was on his plan and a cake he didn't particularly like.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 151.
Hello coaches! So glad to be back home. It was a successful but hard trip. Dad is doing better physically but worse cognitively, he is confused much of the time. Last night he called me 3 times to ask where the laundry detergent was. He gets very anxious and then mad when he can't find or do what he needs, or what he thinks he needs in the moment. I have him set up with 6-8 hours of help each morning, but he may need more ultimately. I have met all of his aides now and they are all very nice. It's going to be a challenge managing this from afar, plus medical appointments etc, but we are very lucky to have found any help at all. My aunt is doing well and I had a nice visit with both her and my disabled brother. My daughter was being needy while I was away as well. I feel very exhausted by it all, and am glad to go back to work today which is much easier than all this!
I did go see my widow friend last night to destress and laugh. She had made a very healthy tasty dinner which I invited myself over to and it was a great way to re-enter my home life.
On the trip home I listed to Corinne Crabtree's losing weight podcasts- I enjoy her cussing, and it helped me get motivated to maintain and not gain over the holidays.
Gardenerjoy- I echo your desire to stay in maintenance over the holiday season, that's a good goal for me too.
Maryann- I'm so sorry about that student, how awful. Nice that you can do teamwork and games with the kids. I'm sure the students are glad to know how much you care about them.
Penny- yay for maintenance. you are doing great with moving out slowly, that's a lot of work.
Karen- I would not be able to keep that brittle around either. I hear you about the grey skies and intermittent holiday blues. I'm glad Otis's nose is okay. I wonder if dogs get the blues? My friend's dog is on Prozac, she is such an anxious dog.
Bill-yay for planning for a treat. It does get more complicated each year to figure out what one wants to receive.
Doing well and it's my week to cook for the kids. They requested a broccoli cheese soup and a greek pasta. I made them do the shopping for it last night.
I have one more day of work today before my stretch off and am looking forward to continuing my audiobook in the car. The Mysterious Benedict Society series is great, and right now the Extraordinary education of Nicholas Benedict is my fav so far.
Curly, that does sound like too much going on. I'm glad you have it all taken care of at the moment, and hoping your dad does okay for a while.
Karen, good luck getting all of the holiday sweets made and out the door.
Mary Ann, the falling on your face sounds terrible but you seem like it wasn't too bad. I'm glad your day went well.
Yesterday's big project was sorting and clearing out Christmas decorations. I'd hoped that it would be a one-day project, but no such luck. Now, I have everything in a mess and no end in sight.
The worst parts were the bittersweet memories of times with my parents. The best parts were giving away some items on our Buy Nothing group. It helps to know that these things that were appreciated by my family in the past will be appreciated by other families in the future.
CREDIT for not overeating over all of this. The thought definitely occurred....
Food was perfect yesterday and boy it feels so much better to stay on my plan. Today I went out for a good hike alone and listened to part of a Beck book. This afternoon I've made 4 pans of 7 layer cookies and tomorrow I'll do the little pecan tassies which are both tasty and look nice or at least like I went to some trouble. I've let people know that I'll be delivering on Friday and I'll also mail a little to my mil. I thought dh might want me to save some stuff for us, but he said no just get rid of it. So there you go, that will make it easy.
GardenerJoy The sorting Christmas things would be a big emotional job. I have many ornaments from my parents and some even from grandparents. I have gotten rid of some things, but not the ornaments yet. What I have in the closet are David Winter cottages and some Hummel miniatures as in a whole Swiss village and a few other miniatures. My Dad was quite the collector. I know they aren't worth anything anymore but I can't quite bring myself to give them to the Goodwill since they take up so little room. I guess it's a bit emotional too. I applaud you for doing the job without eating over it.
Penny Great job sticking to your plan. With as busy as you are I bet it is helpful to have the shopping help. How many days will you have off?
Curlyjax Oh my, you have so much going on. You are really pulled in a million directions. I hope your Dad settles in to some kind of routine now that he's home. I'm glad to hear your aunt is doing well.
Bill I join you in being so glad the Georgia election is over. We still have crazies trying to overturn things here, but I don't think anything will come of it. I wish I had Kari Lake's email address so I could give her a piece of my mind. Not really, but I like to think I could.
Maryann You do such a great job with your students and helping to focus on what is good. I will join you all too in doing my best to have sane, non-addictive eating in December. I started listening to a book this morning about sugar but it was too restrictive. I think the only fruit allowed was lemon and limes, luckily I had the Beck book to switch to.
Well now on to some batch cooking of tofu and vegetables.
JOY; I forgot if I asked what strength training you tube you do. Karen: You might have a suggestion as well. Curly: Wonderful to have friends with whom you can invite yourself over. Those are the best kind. Penny: Yeah for your off stretch. What a fabulous feeling. I have two more days. BBE: I have to come up with two gift ideas in Dec. The first is easy - a laser printer. My inkjet is not helpful with my crafts. it can move up to Tahoe. The second is a Jackery Explorer power station for my dream car camping trips. Dh loves explicit instruction.
I am another step up out of the blues basement. Treating myself with care. Haven't had a complete abstinence day of BlissPoint Foods but have had lots of water and a low carb breakfast. It is what it is.
I hate to promise "on Saturday I will start." because that leads to the last supper kind of eating. But I will watch it and reset then.
Thursday - John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields" published anonymously (1915)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - My information theory class presented the oft-told story of the statistician called during WWII to predict where armor should be added to fighter planes by showing him the tattered, shot-up planes that had returned to base. "Wrong data; show me the planes that didn't return," he famously replied. Class was spent discussing how we easily track the wrong data and ask the wrong question. Nice to be humbled after a few weeks of feeling like we were super powerful knowing about the Bayes Rule of statistics.
Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was quickly prepared since it was reheated bean soup. I wish DW would just make a few gallons of the stuff so a quick dinner could be prepared anytime. Excitement was, one more time, receiving a phone call from a young man's voice, "Grandpa?" I've already gotten that phone call asking for money for bail from "Your favorite grandson." Would be more convincing if I had a grandson. I just yelled into the receiver, "Don't call me again until you pay me that $100 you owe me." OK, wimpy, but best I could do under time pressure when my brain was annoyed.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Yep, that's the thing. Giving away items feels to me like I'm giving away the memories. We have some cheaper-than-cheap Christmas tree ornaments that had meaning to the kids a few decades ago. No one wants to see them on the tree; just want to know that they're being saved.
maryann - Congrats for a BlissPoint Foods day. Going to a laser printer was the best computer move I've ever made. We were suffering from ink-buying fatigue and were getting tired of yelling "I don't care if cyan is low, just print the black" as if it could hear us. We don't miss printing color.
Karen (karenrn) - Continue to admire that you can bake so many cookies yet keep your hands out of the cookie jar. Our newspapers still give us daily reports about lawsuits from defeated candidates in Arizona - but, good news, they're drifting off the front page.
curlyjax - Good news that you had a successful trip getting your dad home from rehab. Congrats for staying sane with all the stuff on your plate right now.
Penny. - Neat that you have your kids culinarily trained to ask for broccoli cheese soup. Yay for some time off.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
social event skills
Here are some additional suggestions: . . .
Eat smaller portions, if necessary. What do you do if there are no options that are on your plan? Eat less than you ordinarily would eat at home. You're already proven to yourself that hunger is not an emergency.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 152.
Monday - The French Franc is created (1360)
and it was a great way to re-enter my home life. 