[maryann]

Quick Afternoon Check in. I came home on my prep to pick up the antibiotics and take the Tylenol I am alternating with Alleve for tooth pain. Drat!!! I hate taking antibiotics but I can't get into dentist until Monday. I have to go back to school for a student meeting and then watch some of my kids pay basketball.

Food is on track. Water is done for today. I am going to count steps for movement and work on exercise this week. I went to a restaurant last night and at soup as planned with a few pieces of garlic toast. Credit.

Wave to all

[karenrn]

Good afternoon coaches,

Food has been on plan and weight is down to the lowest since before Christmas. Not down much, but down is down. So often lately I seem to sabotage myself by seeing a lower number and then going overboard or having sweets. Today I've stuck to my plan. When I got home from the movie I was feeling a little hungry, but had a few grape tomatoes and water and then I was fine. Funny how that works. I've had a busy day with hiking, Costco, regular grocery store and the movie Women Talking. It was good but disturbing.

Maryann Bummer about the tooth pain. I don't like to take antibiotics either, but sometimes it is just absolutely necessary like for tooth pain.

GardenerJoy Oh wouldn't that be nice if everything in Whole Foods was just fine to eat. There is so much nummy stuff there I could go crazy.

Curlyjax I'm glad you and dd had a good conversation. I'm sure she's exhausted, but you have a lot on your plate too. I am gone from January 15th until January 31st. I'll take my computer with me though and I have wifi in my room there.

Bill The news about the woman missing in your area is just awful. Dh and I just watch the news and can't believe the horrible things that people do. A Baby Sprinkle is new to me too. Speaking of babies, dn has still not had her little guy who was due 1/1. So different from the first baby who was born so terribly early. They were thinking of a scheduled c-section, but now are talking about inducing her when they have enough staff. Horrible staffing problems at so many hospitals.

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Thought I'd optimize the situation by delaying plugging in my all-electric Nissan LEAF to re-charge because the temperature was below freezing. Successful. Then I had to go out and plug it in while a slight drizzle was falling. Just slight enough that I didn't wear a jacket or even a hat. So, I optimized to get my head wet even though I happen to own outer gear that's conveniently hanging right there in the front closet. Of all the stupid things I'm capable of doing, getting caught outside wearing inappropriate clothing is one of the dumbest. Lesson learned: None - I'm likely to do the same thing next time.

Eating was on plan for meals, CREDIT moi. Snacks were larger than necessary. Evening snack did include the small pear that was part of Christmas Eve stockings. Included because DW nearly forced it upon me. She hates fruits spoiling in the fridge due to being ignored. Dinner was a dish made from cannellini beans using a new recipe that included frizzled onions. Tasty meal, it was. And I get to claim vegetarian for the day.



Joy (gardenerjoy) - LOL that everything at Whole Foods would be suitable. I tried that attitude at Trader Joe's and didn't make it through the first aisle.

maryann - Neat that you could enjoy a restaurant and eat a planned meal.

Karen (karenrn) - I do hope your DN and "her little guy" come to agreement on when should be his birthday. Grape tomatoes are a terrific snack.

curlyjax - Congrats on "A long talk with DD which went quite well." I wish you both well trudging through this last year.

Readers -

Chapter 6 Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan

Generate a general holiday plan. . . . You might decide, for example, to use your Bonus Calories toward a glass of wine or small dessert whenever you go out to a holiday function. Beware of the dangers of having no plan (I'll just try to limit myself), too loose of a plan (I'll just have a little bit of some things), or having a plan but not following it (It won't hurt if I have this food I hadn't planned to eat . . . I can always start again tomorrow). These sabotaging thoughts are likely to result in gaining weight.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 156.

[curlyjax]

Unpleasant interaction at work with some employees from another department which I won't get into, but its settled. One of my colleagues whom I told was boiling mad on my behalf, which was so nice. I had already planned to have pizza for dinner and enjoyed it mightily. I indulged in birthday cake at work. I am determined to get back on track today with no sweets at work. TGIF. I didn't get much done after work other than opening all my dad's mail and tossing out the irrelevant stuff. I do feel I will be more productive once the kiddies leave, and look forward to having Monday morning for a productive paperwork time.
Karen- I have fallen into that sabotaging trap too.wow, your trip is in a few days, so exciting!
Bill- frizzled onions sound fabulous. That's so funny,I dreamt about owning an electric car last night, but it was a nuisance. I don't think I'm ready to do it for real.

[gardenerjoy]

Things got out of hand yesterday and I didn't manage the Whole Foods run, but I got it done this morning. Note to self--no one is at Whole Foods on a weekday at 9:30am. Usually, I wouldn't get myself out of the house that early, but I have a hair appointment at noon, so I wanted to be sure that I had time to put groceries away and get some lunch.

I also have a phone appointment at 2:30pm.

That's at least two too many things on the calendar for me. But I'll cope with it plus two meetings tomorrow and look forward to a much more reasonable week for me, next week.

Reminders. Too many things on the calendar is not a problem that requires excess food to solve. Also, exercise is a good antidote to the kind of stress that develops for me in that situation.

Exercise +60, 690/1700 minutes for January

[karenrn]

Good morning coaches,

Food was on plan. My friend and I hiked a couple of hours this morning. We did a hike we've done many times, but did the loop in the opposite direction. It seemed so different. Some of the inclines were longer and less steep in that direction. We both enjoyed the change. When I looked at my phone I see that dn has had the baby. After over 24 hours of labor she had a c-section at almost midnight light night cause the baby was hung up on her pelvis and they couldn't get him repositioned. She lost almost 2 liters of blood, but apparently hemoglobin is still in range. I do know they let it go darned low these days though. Baby weighed 7 lbs 13 oz, which is 4 times + 1 oz more than Barrett (1 lb 15 oz). He looks like Barrett.

I got Otis out for a walk when I got home and I'm going to do some cooking today and phone a couple of friends. My friend in Vancouver BC may come out to the airport to see me on Monday when I have a layover. That would be nice.

[maryann]

Karen: I apologize that you must repeat yourself. Where are you going?
Curly: There are a few silver linings to empty nester. One is hours of quiet.
BBE: We use to go out and get wet on purpose as a kid. You were just expressing your youthful spirit.
Joy: Can't wait to be able to go to things in the off hours. Although admittedly teaching hours are still very flexible.

Pain is steadily worse and I am increasing ibru/act. Hopefully it doesn't get out of control before Monday. I was pretty short tempered with students today but a little bark and nip never hurt a kid feeling out boundaries. Plus it rained buckets and that is so unusual for us that the kids just couldn't focus.

Food was not great. imy head decided so much medicine required more food than necessary. Weight is up but I give myself some grace with the meds.

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating was on plan, CREDIT moi, with only a reasonable amount of snacks. Dinner was previously grilled salmon with green beans and brown rice. Don't know where the fresh green beans come from, but fresh veggies in January is neat. Have to remember that if I lived on the prairie, I'd be eating winter vegetables from our cold cellar. I'm already tired of turnips just thinking about them even though I haven't had any.

I did my duty for an organization I do work for by reading a stack of Proposals seeking money from the small fund we administer. Proposals always contain pictures of happy kids performing constructive tasks with a smiling, benevolent, adult in the background. There must be a chapter in photography books about how to take pictures that will appeal to folks who evaluate proposals. I never fail to come to admire how much good work is being done in the world using very little money. Unfortunately, we always have more admirable proposals than we have monies to hand out so that we're always reminded that there's more needs than we can ever meet.



Joy (gardenerjoy) - Thanks for the reminder that exercise is an antidote to stress.

maryann - Yay for raining buckets in California. Ouch for raining buckets in California. Do hope most of it gets to your reservoirs. Yep, a little "bark and nip" lets your students know you're real.

Karen (karenrn) - Congrats for becoming an Aunt again. Such good news that your DN and her son finally got the deed done. Reading stories with the phrase, "hung up on her pelvis" makes me cringe about home births.

curlyjax - Having planned pizza is terrific. Keep dreaming about owning an electric car - methinks its coming sooner or later.

Readers -

Chapter 6 Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan

General holiday rules. . . . Think about situations that have tempted you to overeat and feel guilty in the past. Then create reasonable rules, such as, "I will not eat any goodies that people bring into my office," or, "I'll use my Bonus Calories for office goodies if I want to, but I'll bring the right portion home and eat it with my evening snack."

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 156.

[curlyjax]

I indulged in shrimp scampi at work but didn't have any sweets. dinner was various things cobbled together. It was too icky to walk outside. DD was grumpy having slept late and feeling frazzled about getting things done, so the evening was long. I know she was up late and will be operating on very little sleep today, so the trip to getting her and her tons of clothes back to Boston won't be fun. I am sneaking out to get coffee with my widow friend this morning while DD is doing something else. I'm going to pull out my notes from my therapist after writing this, and remain calm. Wave to all.

[gardenerjoy]

Family drama surfaced at just about the worst possible time, with today being one of the most important meetings that I'll facilitate all year. Sigh.

CREDIT for taking a step back this morning to examine my particular sources of stress. I got pushed into making a plan during a brief phone call last night and this morning I woke up with all the ways that was likely to fail. I could feel myself being drawn in as a pawn and placed between two opposing forces. Yikes!

So, I'm working out a different plan. It requires me to do more, including making a trip out to the country tomorrow, but at least I'm making moves more like a queen and I'm choosing how to insert myself into this game in a way that is least likely to put me in the position of being used by one party to hurt the other, and vice versa.

There are still plenty of sources of stress, so here's my reminder (two days in a row) that food doesn't help stress and exercise does.

Exercise +45, 735/1700 minutes for January

[maryann]

Good Morning, Coaches.

I am determined to have a happy Saturday. I had a mini meltdown last night. Too many meetings on too many high risk kids, too many pain meds, too many family contacts in one month. Sigh. DH did well with the comforting/teasing balance. I woke early to keep up the med regime but now I am successfully puttering.

I did some micro- organizing that pleases me silly:
1. Used an empty spice bottle for my black cumin I grind myself ( Greger box checker) . It has been in a tupperware and every time I take it out I see myself dumping it everywhere. I didn't want to buy a new shaker. Voila.
2. Went through all the apps on my phone and reorganized and deleted several. I didn't realize the band on the face of my iphone is for the four most used.
3. Made coffee in an insulated cup and realized I never drink out of that cup because it tastes metallic-y . Cleaned, taped the lid to the cup and threw into the donate basket.
4. Used a new fashionable power surge protector in my kitchen so I don have to keep replugging appliances when I want to use a new one. Rather than remembering what to unplug when I am away.

Total time saved: maybe four minutes a day. Total accumulated peace from continuing to mentally and physically decluttering: Priceless.

I scored tickets to the Scavi tour under St. Peter's in Italy. They are not easy to get. Yeah. Also, pre-bought fast train tickets to Naples to see Pompeii. This saves about four hours in traffic to and from Rome.

I have decided food today can be too much but only Greger food. I am not getting down on myself for timing eating because of the requirements of the meds.

[karenrn]

Good morning coaches,

Food was a tad off plan yesterday and I had a few drinks with dh for Happy Hour. This morning I hiked with my friend. We did a shorter steep one. I think we're getting rain starting tomorrow, so we figured we had better get out there. I've got some vegetable soup on the stove to use up the vegetables that I'm sure dh won't eat while I'm gone. I'll eat some for the next few days. It's just about calorie free. I ordered some silicone rings this morning that are supposed to be delivered tomorrow. A lot of people wear them when they work out and I think I'll just leave my jewelry home except for the hoop earrings that I always wear. I lost my wedding band last summer and the other band I used to wear was my dm's which is a wide gold band with diamonds. It is kind of big on me now, but I don't want to have it sized or get any kind of permanent fiix until I'm at a stable weight (and a little lower). The other ring I wear with it is an antique diamond and sapphire ring that is very old and I don't want to lose it. I often don't wear or take jewelry especially when traveling to less prosperous places.

My suitcases are packed and each one is just under 50 pounds. One has 4 wheels and the other just 2 wheels. I wheeled them around the house to be sure I can handle them. If I have far to go I'll put them on a cart. I also made sure I could lift them easily, which I can.

Maryann It sounds like the weekend came just in time for you. I hope it is a good one and stress free. I'm going to Thailand to see my son. He'll be in the states in a couple of months, but if I really want some time with him it's better for me to go there.

GardenerJoy Good luck with the family drama. I hate drama.

Curlyjax Getting into the shrimp scamp at work sounds like a good thing to get in to. I'm sure looking over your notes from your therapist is a very good thing to do.

Bill I don't think I've ever had a turnip. I must try one some time, along with a rutabaga. I know I do like parsnips.

Waving to Penny and VertOlive!

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Was a good step forward to get some of the data that's needed for Federal and State Income Taxes, CREDIT moi. I'm ready to vote, once again, for simplifying the tax code. But every "simplification" ever passed by the US Congress added hundreds of pages signaling, "You should NEVER try to do this yourself." I have a friend who, many years ago, had HR Block do his taxes. He was so annoyed that it was so easy that he applied for a seasonal job with them. Got the job with no background in accounting or tax law. His selling point was that he's one of those rare guys with a natural presentation that's feels credible. Said that to him it was like an overpaid data entry job because he'd just type in their data and a big chunk of software would spit out the tax returns ready to be signed.

Eating was on plan, CREDIT moi, with fewer snacks than I've been having. Dinner was dahl made with red lentils with Bok Choi on the side. A comforting meal for a winter evening. Read the label on the Pita Chips we had with it to discover that the bag has a "Best if Used By" date rapidly approaching. Hard to imagine what's in them to spoil; I just thought one could buy all that they could lift when they were on sale. Apparently not.



Joy (gardenerjoy) - Terrific thinking to find a way to least allow yourself to be inserted into a squabble between two opposing forces.

maryann - Congrats on your successes planning your trip to Rome. That train trip from Rome to Naples to see Pompeii is a nice ride; we took it seven years ago on our trip. And BIG Congrats on your SF 49's football victory yesterday.

Karen (karenrn) - Smart to wear those silicon rings on your trip where you won't be able to avoid looking like a 'rich American.' I continue to be impressed with how well organized you are.

curlyjax - Hope your drive to Boston went OK despite the flurries of snow. Kudos for your goal, "remain calm."

Readers -

Chapter 6 Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan

General holiday rules. . . . Having such rules makes avoiding unplanned food so much easier and less painful because, when confronted with such food, you never have to go through the struggle that makes dieting so difficult: Should I eat this? I know I shouldn't ... But it looks really good ... But it's not on my plan ... But it's so hard to resist ... .

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 156.

[curlyjax]

I had a nice bagel breakfast with my friend. I'm glad we did that as instead of zipping right out to Boston, things dragged on at home. DD and I finally left at 6 pm, to discover that her street was blocked off due to a road repair project on the top of the street, and we couldn't park anywhere near her street. Boston has lots of one ways and bumper to bumper street parking which I'm terrible at-even more so at night-and it was such a mess we gave up and came back home. But we had some good talks and held it together which was great.
So today we will enlist the help of DS and try again (as she has a lot of stuff to carry). Then I have to drive DS to his college which fortunately is about 45 minutes from my house. Then I have the house to myself for one day at least
In other exciting news, I received an email from the RMV informing me that my annual inspection is expired and I need to deal with it ASAP. That feels a bit like big brother is watching you. I've been aware of this but put it on the back burner so I guess its moving to the front one now!
Gardenerjoy- family conflict is never fun. Good idea to take the proactive approach.
Maryann-micro organizing is always very satisfying. that train trip sounds wonderful!
Karen-that's a great idea about the silicone ring. At work I bump into the town paramedics/firefighters and they do the same, it makes a lot of sense. I'm impressed by your organizing too!
Bill-Interesting about your friend working for HR Block. That does sound like a nice winter meal.

[gardenerjoy]

Yesterday's meeting went well. We had a lower turn-out than in the past, but still managed to accomplish the goal -- assigning one or two volunteers to talk to each school board candidate in five school districts. It was also a relaxed and fun virtual meeting.

Today's adventure is a drive out to the country to address the most current source of family drama. If all goes to plan, there won't be added drama today. However, there are many other potential sources of drama that may or may not surface in the process. I'm going to work on breathing and centering. I can't help anyone else if I'm off-kilter.

Exercise +50, 785/1700 minutes for January

curlyjax: I'm so glad that you and DD were able to work through the problem together in a reasonably positive way, especially in an unreasonable situation.