Got some exercise in at work yesterday so that was good. I ate what was being served at lunch instead of my own-American chop suey-it was a big portion and i'm sure i overdid it on the carbs. I ate my salad later in the day, then for dinner an omelette with onions, arugula, tomato and cheese, and boy was that good. Day 4 in the books without sweets. I also did some weights at home finally. I didn't get much done productivity wise at home but ah well.
No plans for today yet which is fine. TGIF!
Silverbirch- I do that with Christmas lights too, it helps immensely. Good luck on the car shopping.
Maryann-your clothing solution sounds like a great plan to get a workout done.
Gardenerjoy- I like how you phrased what therapists do. Good luck with back healing.
Another night with less sleep than I think I need. But perhaps my body knows better.* I had a really good session at the gymn with increased weight on the cable pulls and a sudden realisation about moving my weight just a fraction in split squats to improve performance enormously. We were just finishing off when the door burst open and the older children from the local primary school marched in, led by a determined girl of about 8 . My trainer said “Hello. Are you all right?” (Plural “you” - we’re all speaking Welsh.) She replied, on behalf of everyone, “We are!” and stormed through to take possession of the other room. Last week they had the mats and benches out and had to move about not touching the floor because it was “made of hot lava”. Brilliant. I thought of DGD, Bill!
Moved some logs. Looked at a car (not for me, too claustrophobic and cut off from what’s happening outside on the road and in the world, not enough of a workhorse). I’ll probably look at a couple of others tomorrow.
*And I do need sleep. I fell fast asleep for an hour at 6pm.
Bill, you certainly do put in the time with the non-profit, and people benefit which is wonderful. St Patrick also put in the time and would have driven mastodons about if he thought it necessary, I’m sure!
curlyjax, doing weights at home is great! As is keeping up your no sweets streak.
Played hooky this afternoon and heading to the slopes. I did finish all my grades so I have a minor justification. That is the problem with short timers. Total rule breakers
I am off to xcrty. Food has been Meh!! consequently, weight is maintenance.
Saturday - Frederick Douglass appointed marshal of Washington, D.C. (1877)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Delight of the day was discovering Daffodils at Trader Joe's for $1.99 for a bunch of 10 stems. Daffodils mean that Spring is nearly here. And nearly FREE at Trader Joe's is a cherry on top. Brought three bunches because that's what fits in a vase on our kitchen table. When they all open, they're a glorious site. Kitchen, indeed, looks like Spring. Each was a sealed bulb; each has begun to unfurl. Can't imagine what kind of farms in Ireland can produce these so regularly, with such quality, for such a low price - especially since they must have been flown over the ocean. Will be a great disappointment should I discover that they're farmed by an enslaved bunch of Gremlins, LOL. (Ouch, Wiki says that "gremlins" aren't Irish; "gremlin" is a word made up to describe malfunctions in aircraft. Oops, I see the problem. The word I meant was leprechaun. Avoid that last link if you're likely to get sucked into the etymology of words.)
Exercise was drooling over all the sweets being sold by Trader Joe's. After getting my stash of healthy almonds, pecans, and coarse mustard, I did fall victim to their almond mini-biscotti. We serve them with tea to guests. I like that they're small so, when I put my mind to it, I can eat rationally for the day even with a biscotti for a snack. But a handful brought up to my office isn't exactly being restrained.
Eating was on plan, CREDIT moi, although with daytime snacks. I have some stuff to do that I'm trying to avoid and continue to try to use snacking as a way to make it happen.
Silverbirch - Love the image of a determined girl of 8 answering for all the kids. Next gen world leader, there. Good luck with your continued quest to replace your car.
maryann - LOL at "short timers. Total rule breakers." You've earned your right to be a rule breaker.
curlyjax - Always Kudos for another day without sweets. Sounds like a good omelette.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
Before You Move On
As you work on your Stage 3 skills, don't forget to keep adding more movement to your day. Continue to increase your planned exercise, including cardiovascular and strength training.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 165.
Another day in the books without sweets, credit. I did end up eating clam chowder and haddock with a delicious crumb topping instead of my own lunch, and then brought home some extra foods that would just go to waste, which I had for dinner. It was two small sandwiches which I ate open faced, and some egg salad. The only problem with fasting and letting myself get quite hungry is that I can overdo it when I do let myself eat. Credit for taking a 20 minute walk after dropping off some overdue library books, and today I need to drop off the other overdue books from a different library system. I'm also going to go see a friend from church who called me last week; she's in her 70s and we used to chat at various functions. I will stop at Trader Joes to get some daffodils for her-thanks for the info Bill! Otherwise its a day of paperwork,bills etc I've been putting off.
I'm thinking of doing a 10 week program thru the Y for losing weight. It's about 500 dollars and a commitment of going 2-3 times a week for group workouts etc, plus you have a personal trainer once a week, and meet with a nutritionist twice during the 10 weeks. It starts in a week so i'll think about it; it would force me to get to the y anyhow, and it would be fun to work out with others potentially.
Silverbirch- yay for the gym and moving logs,that's a lot of working out. Fun to think of you speaking Welsh.
Curly : That is awesome the without sweets part. Excellent. I am thinking of seeing a nutritionist as well. I need to start losing.
BBE: Do people grow Daffodils in you neck of the woods or is it still too cold. Ours are out in full glory in the yards.
Up skiing this weekend. absolutely beautiful. I am up here by myself. I really am quite a loner. I can go weeks without talking to a sould. I have sent DH to out pickleball lesson at the club. He is to report back and teach me. He is NOT allowed to sho up in his farming uniform. I don't know. You can always tell my husband but you can't tell him much. Buh da bum!
Food was better today. First thing, the SO (non-driver) and I went over to look at a couple of cars and then we went to a restaurant overlooking the sea to talk it over. He had the full breakfast and I had a bacon brioche (never had one of these in this country before but there you are, and it was OK). The upshot is that I’m going to test drive one of the cars on Monday (I held off the salesman who was pushing for this today, as I want to take my time about this) and may well buy it. The points in favour of this car outweigh the cons and I do need another car pretty soon. One of the pros is that it’s red with sports styling. I see this as part of the Silverbirch Pushes Back Against Old Lady Sterotyping Programme.
Bill, having daffodils in the house is lovely. They are the national flower of Wales and people wear them on St David’s Day (1st March). Some years they’re struggling to be out for the 1st but this year they were out well in time. The place is awash in yellow! I have small ones planted under the washing line.
curlyjax, I do like the sound of that clam chowder and haddock. So good for the brain! I’ll join you in paperwork tomorrow.
maryann, wonderful to hear that you’re still taking advantage of the snow. Cross-country is such a lovely thing to be able to do.
Our daffodils have loved this spring. I can take no credit since every bulb in our yard was planted by a previous owner or the flowers have naturalized. We have more daffodils this year than I ever remember seeing and they don’t seem at all phased by the several nights of frost that we’ve had since they started appearing.
We had our first take-out in months last night. It was Japanese, so not too damaging to any of my goals. DH has expressed boredom at our current repertoire of four meals. Not too surprising, but I could have hoped for a couple of months longer since it made planning and shopping so easy.
I may try a meal kit service again for a couple of months while we get through the cataract surgeries. That's what rejuvenated our recipes the last time. So, I could hope it will do it again. We'll stop it as soon as it gets warm, because we've had some bad luck with food arriving that is no longer safe to eat.
Sunday - Massachusetts Bay Colony granted land by England (1628)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Weather was so pleasant that DW went outside and pruned some bushes. The cut daffodils make the kitchen glow. I asked why we only have snowdrops blooming in our yard and no daffodils. Turns out that our gardens don't get enough sun. "I used to plant them; the first year would be good enough; the second year less so; and the third year a struggle." My congrats to all you people who get ample sunshine in your gardens.
My accomplishment was to get more tax stuff done by the technique of working hard for thirty minutes then taking a break. Worked well. My brain doesn't like looking at money numbers. And I hate, hate, hate filling out my accountant's form with a box to check if I want to "Treat all assets acquired after May 4, 2007 as qualified Kansas Disaster Zone property?" I'd rather be asked to check a box "Have you ever been to Kansas?" And a box "Did you stuff yourself during a BBQ restaurant walk-about?" which, although embarrassing now, would bring back a fond memory.
Eating was on plan, CREDIT moi, with daytime snacks. Dinner was the second serving of the corned beef and cabbage; that stuff seems to last forever in the fridge. I had my new jar of coarse mustard from Trader Joe's - my favorite mustard of all time. Between the mustard and the corned beef, I've certainly had my minimum amount of sodium for the day.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Naturalized Daffodils is what I have just assumed everybody had. Mesmerized by the tale of the Missouri Leviathan. London's Natural History Museum is already on my list of must-see places.
Silverbirch - I do like your membership in SPBAOLSP (Silverbirch Pushes Back Against Old Lady Stereotyping Programme). Maybe start a movement. Love the image of you tooling about in a red sports car. Thanks for the fact that Daffodils are the national flower of Wales - what a brilliant choice.
maryann - Congrats for getting out skiing. Our newspapers are still printing pictures of too much snow at Lake Tahoe. I'll look around the neighborhood to see if daffodils are growing in the yards with more sunlight.
curlyjax - Would seem hard to refuse clam chowder and haddock readily available. Kudos for another day in the books without sweets.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
Before You Move On
You will know that you are ready for Stage 4 when you have faithfully followed your Think Thin Initial Eating Plan and have implemented your Stages 1, 2, and 3 Success Skills consistently for a few weeks in a row.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 165.
I went to see my older lady friend- I didn't realize she is 78. She has a beautiful house with lots of light, but its up a complicated stairs system outside and seems like a lot to take care of. She is very intelligent and analytical, and its always interesting to talk to her.She knows manfriend and remarked that we had seemed like a good couple; I informed her that he was the one who chose to note be in a relationship with me. Then a few hours later I went to the house of a widowfriend who invited me to a spur of the moment dinner and art making at her house, and that was lovely. I did end up eating a few small biscotti and a chunk of the banana brownies i made last week, that tasted very dry and stale,but back to no sugar today. The scale bopped up 2 pounds again from its dip down. I must be eating too much still, or too many carbs. Still I remain motivated.
I'm zipping off to yoga at the y today finally and will have to figure out dinner for the week after that, groceries etc.DD and I are being very cool to each other after our fight which I'm secretly enjoying a little as it gives me more free time.
Maryann- too funny about DH's farm uniform. It would be awesome to play pickelball
Silverbirch- yay for pushing back against stereotypes!
Gardenerjoy- jump starting some new meals sounds like a good idea.
Bill-glad to know i'm not the only one who hasn't gotten my tax stuff ready. Too funny about the BBQ walka bout.
Discretion was the better part of valor and rather than ski today I hopped in the car and made it home by 10:30. It will be snowing/raining all day.DH successfully learned pickelball and did not wear his "uniform." He enjoyed it. three cheers for our side. I wrestled with my waxed skies which still remain possessed. Way too fast. As the snow slushed I had more control.
On the way down I listened to a decluttering podcast. She inspired me with linen bench 10 min fix. 2 sets of sheets for each bed. That is it. If I wouldn't use extras for guests because they were shabby out, they went. Two big bags for Dh to use at the farm or I will donate to an animal center. I have a huge linen closet in my bathroom. I do not fill it up. Why? I just folded the doubles of towels. Put the right towels with the right mats in the bathroom. Looks great. After I post this, i am going to use her other tip on the spice drawer. Test for potency in your hand and then toss if old ( which I know mine are.) save all the bottles, clean, de-label and use to organize paper clips, safety pins, ect. . . I did her car declutter and found the backing to my Ecuador earring and the clip that holds the extra garage door opener. Yeah puttering.
Food is still too much. I have successfully increased my exercise and water. I will work on proportions this week and no sweets at work.
I may have bragged too soon about our daffodils. We didn't reach freezing yesterday and got down to about 20 degrees last night. All the daffodils are drooping this morning. We'll see if they perk up this week -- we expect higher temperatures and lots of rain for the first week of spring.
After two weeks with external pressures (a panel presentation and leading book group) and knowing that DH's surgery is March 29, I'm planning a low-key week today, focusing on things that I enjoy without stress or pressure. I can get back to my ambitions in a week or two.
A productive day at home has left me feeling more relaxed. That’s even though I had to wrestle with online banking which seems to be working according to rules they haven’t told me about. I’ll go into a bricks and mortar bank tomorrow. I packed up some boxes of books and put them under the stairs, ready to move to the other house. I still have half a dozen things on the go but I’ve managed to push one or two in the right direction which is very pleasing.
Bill, good to hear you’re making progress on the taxes. That 30 minutes and then take a break approach makes all the difference to me. I’ll soon be doing my annual accounts but Kansas won’t feature at all.
curlyjax, great to hear that you’re going off to the yoga session at the Y.
maryann, I had to look up pickleball, apparently the fastest growing sport in the US. Will you and DH be playing together?
gardenerjoy, a low-key week sounds very attractive to me. I hope the daffs perk up a bit.
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Wind was a bit much, leading to the excitement of chasing down the recycle-bin trash of the neighbor across the street when his bin blew down and open. I caught it once and stood it up right with no lost trash. The second time the contents were distributed through the neighborhood. I wonder if he'll notice that the trash has his name and address on it. And then wonder if he'll respond to that by picking it all up. I carefully tucked our two bins from the sidewalk to right next to my car where the wind won't hit them. Now I have to remember to wheel them back to the street before pickup.
Lunch was made from the last bit of leftover corned beef - a rather elegant lunch by my standards. Corned beef on toasted whole-wheat sandwich bread ends with too much Trader Joe's coarse Dijon mustard.
Exercise came from a visit from the (3 yo) DFGD bounding about. Got to hear tales from her birthday party last week. Much went on among the 45 guests that I missed. I had missed that our DIL and a buddy had done the face painting for the kids. How did she come to know how to do face painting? "I stayed up til 2 am practicing on myself with the mail order kit," she told us as if that were a sane thing to do. Apparently, a professional would have charged a bundle so she just learned how to do it. As I suspected, her ability to track which gift came from which giver wasn't helped by the four year old boy who collected all the cards from the gifts and put then in a stack, LOL. We had our gifts for the DFGD yesterday, correctly figuring out that the party was confusing enough. But, still leaving the DIL with the embarassing question, "Did you happen to also give X, Y, or Z?" which she hasn't been able to align with a guest yet. So glad that I don't have to write those thank you notes.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Maybe your daffodils will notice that Spring is here and perk right up. External pressures make it hard to focus on our own plans.
Silverbirch - Yes, the banks seem to work "according to rules they haven’t told me about." Must be an international trait of banks. Interesting that a productive day makes you feel more relaxed.
maryann - Good news that pickleball remains a possible shared sport. Am impressed with your decluttering. Spices is one place where DW keeps us up to date. As many as we have, they're all current. She has no qualms at discarding dated spices.
curlyjax - Well, that's a tad awkward to be told "You're a nice couple," when you then have to tell her that you're not a couple. Can imagine that banana brownies can get stale and old in a week. If your DS were about, no brownie would last a week, LOL.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
Before You Move On
You will also have changed your basic attitude toward food and eating. You will have gone from, This is so hard ... This requires so much effort, to, This is pretty easy most of the time ... And even when it's more difficult it's so worth it to me to stay in control.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 165.
The yoga was fabulous, I felt well stretched out. Afterwards I used one of the machines for 20 minutes, then went to get a few groceries. I noticed there is a pickleball clinic coming up at the 'y this friday morning, and am tempted to sign up, although I would have to use one of my precious vacation days to do so. I did sign up for the 10 week weight loss class: hopefully enough others will sign up too so it will happen. Back home things were better with DD until I managed to say the wrong thing and it set off a big argument again. This time I did eat over it, getting into the choc chips.I feel very sad about our relationship. All you can do is keep working on it I guess. I ended the evening with watching an episode of Endeavor, which was very satisfying.
Bill-too funny about the boy collecting the cards. That sandwich does sound fabulous.
Silverbirch- ugh, I hear you aobut online banking. What is the other house you're moving the books to?
Gardenerjoy- yay for a low key week.
Maryann- yay for all that decluttering.
Saturday - Frederick Douglass appointed marshal of Washington, D.C. (1877)
