Thank you for the kind welcome! I recently rejoined MyFoodDiary and the book was mentioned on their Forum more than a few times. Since their Forum isn't that active, I think I used Google to find this forum.
Last edited by MorningPerson; 08-02-2023 at 01:39 PM.
Reason: typo
We tested positive for COVID this morning. We only tested because DH had fever symptoms. I've been convinced since Sunday that it was allergies -- which is what I told the doctor who I apparently exposed to COVID on Monday. Oops! We were wearing masks and he put one on, too. We talked about it, and he suggested that masks were probably not necessary at this moment. Shows what he knows. Ha!
We've been prescribed antivirals -- two different ones because DH has drug interactions with Paxlovid. Our pharmacy can't fill them both at the same location apparently. So, I'm going to have to pick them up in two different ones. Neither has drive-through. They suggested that I come in wearing a mask. I'm rather shocked that three-plus years into this, we still don't have a way for people to pick up antivirals, while testing positive for a virus, that doesn't risk exposure to others.
I was exposed either on Thursday when I took Dear Niece to the rheumatologist (which includes the possibility that she brought back whatever variant is in Ireland at the moment) or at the Barbie movie a few days before that, even though I deliberately went to a quiet theater at a quiet time on a Monday.
I set my August exercise goal lower than in recent months. Besides the COVID, I have a colonoscopy scheduled for a week from Friday. Although, that may get rescheduled due to the COVID, depending on how quickly my symptoms dissipate.
I’ve lost my diary, probably in yesterday’s beautiful but fairly gruelling adventure. This is pretty upsetting as it’s been keeping me on the right path during all the upheaval. We’ve looked everywhere or so it seems. Maybe it will turn up. Food has been all right today but nothing stellar.
MorningPerson, hello! Thanks for joining us. Lovely to see second breakfasts make an appearance in the thread. They’ve definitely got a part to play in lots of people’s lives.
maryann, credit for planning to putter. I remember this is one of your favourite things.
Bill, what a lovely evening in the park! Yes, I’m moving along with finding a car for the DD. I’m test driving another car tomorrow for comparison. “If you want something doing, ask a busy person,” people say. Maybe.
curlyjax, great news about your dad, and that you haven’t got Covid, and that you’re going on a trip on Friday. I like the sound of mown grass. All I can hear is the sound of the grass loving the rain and growing fast.
eusebius, well done for being able to tell the future about your friend’s food and taking avoiding action in advance. Does non-alcoholic wine have fewer calories than alcoholic wine? Non-drinker here.
gardenerjoy, oh dear! Sorry to hear that Covid has reared its head. I hope that the anti-virals work well for you. But all your herbal tea will count as fluids!
Thursday - Columbus sails from Palos de la Frontera, Spain for the "Indies" (1492)
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner on the patio included grilled salmon, kale sauteed with red wine vinegar which gave its bite a bite back, corn-on-the-cob, and my green salad. The gardener had urged me to add lots of cuke and lots of Sun gold tomatoes from our garden, "We're getting ahead of ourselves." What a joy - to be asked to eat more garden fresh cukes and tomatoes. I made heaping bowls. We chomped our salads until almost dark. Corn was sweet and tender despite being purchased the day before. I suspect modified genes that make it last longer.
Finally had to wrestle the conversation away from the block buster news. Just tire of talking about the same topic. Reflected on the prior night's concert that included a Nepali Sarangi - a four stringed instrument. It'd been explained that the outer strings were tuned to 'D' an octave apart. The inner two strings were tuned to 'G' between them; they were drones. There were no frets on the neck. One depressed the strings with fingernails - not fingers. Not surprised that the player had been doing it for over 25 years.
Conversation degenerated into my observation that the July 31, 2023 New Yorker had a short blurb that a recent study had shown that ice cream decreases diabetes! DW had questions. No, I hadn't read the study, in fact I had stopped reading the blurb itself after that first sentence. Thought that was enough to justify buying Ben and Jerry's immediately and to ask questions later. Fighting diabetes is good for me, I argued, enough so to justify Dark Chocolate covered almonds in vanilla RIGHT NOW! Didn't make the sale. Don't look forward to chasing down the study. It probably states that folks who walked four miles to a Dairy Queen for a kids small cone were healthier than couch potatoes.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Bummer that you and your DH got hit with COVID - you're about the most careful person I know in your caution. Wish you well for a fast recovery. Yes, one would think by now that getting the prescribed drugs to the afflicted without contact would be a high priority of the drug stores. Surprised that noone is out leading a crusade on that one.
Erika (eusebius) – Neat to see you moving through Beck's 42 day program. Sorta astounding that "chicken and fries, and macaroni salad" is a balanced meal for some - I've been there. Thanks for your mention that you couldn't see the posts by MorningPerson; that's what hit me upside the head that I had a problem to fix. Such fun that your little pie in the sky summer festival is growing legs.
Silverbirch - Good luck finding your diary - that's a pretty personal loss. Hope it turns up soon. Be careful of your DD around your new car; she might find it appealing.
maryann - Thanks for "when I don't feel like it, I can still work toward goal in an innovative way." My brain so strongly suggests the other option - to avoid. So glad that you had a touch of mild weather to enjoy.
curlyjax - Good news that your dad gets to go home after only a little hydration. Always worth celebrating "some healthy veggies."
MorningPerson – Good news that the MyFoodDiary forum and google search led you here. Your MyFoodDiary web site looks interesting.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 7Stage 4 - The Think Thin Lifetime Eating Plan
Develop a General Plan
You have decided to stick with three meals and three snacks a day, add snack food to other meals, or make snacks optional. You have figured out which menu choices work best for you and created customized meals based on the Think Thin Formula. Now it's time to write a general plan in your Diet Notebook. You will follow this plan most of the time, only occasionally making permitted exceptions, as described earlier in this chapter.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 179.
Yesterday was a lot of phone calls and texts about arranging my dad's discharge. This is all so much easier to do from afar with technology; I had his helper text the med changes to me which I then forwarded to his meds nurse (who picks them up and puts his pillboxes together every other week); I can communicate with his doc the changes thru his health portal (since there are two different systems) etc all from 5 hours away. We are sooo lucky to have such a great team caring for him at home-and frankly my dad having the money to pay for it is a big part as well.There is possibly some heart stuff going on so he's wearing a heart monitor for a few days.
yesterday was also getting ready for my friday trip-I'm going to Michigan for a few days to visit old friends. I don't like planning, I get very stressed about everything, but i'm very excited to be on a plane for the first time in 4 years. We'll be staying at a house right next to Lake Michigan which is so beautiful and vast.
I will probably be off line until weds as I don't remember my password and its hard to type on a phone.
Eusebius- I've never had non-alcoholic wine, I would be interested to hear how it tastes. yay for planning ahead and staying on task!
Gardenerjoy-sorry you have covid but it sounds quite mild thankfully.
Bill- I was wondering what was going on with your welcome That concert sounds fabulous-the perks of city living for sure.
Silverbirch- sorry about the diary, that is unsettling. Hope it turns up soon. Yes, the grass is growing super fast here, but at least everything looks lush and beautiful.
Morningperson- welcome! We are a great supportive group if I say so myself!
Hi folks, well I have no plans to travel immediately but this advice is going to be so useful in the future. I am saving up to possibly visit London during our reading week break in February. (Watch out silverbirch lol!! Just kidding I have no idea where you are in the UK! ) I'm hoping that by that point I'll have lost quite a bit of weight; in any case, I can walk for quite a long time right now as long as it's not super fast, so I hope to do a lot of that.
This weighing every day thing is good but frustrating. I've ticked up the last 2 days. Hopefully that signals a drop in my near future. I've certainly been consistent and I'm telling myself that these fluctuations are normal, and the Happy Scale app shows me I'm still in the green zone, so business as usual today with my eating plan.
Yesterday I had a great meeting with a friend/graphic designer who has all kinds of ideas for our festival. It was very exciting and it seems like there are already 3 people on our board!! Stuck to an oat milk latte (planned) and no snacks. Similarly today I am seeing yet another university friend from long ago. She lives in Bermuda. (Rough life! Her FB feed is full of gorgeous photos of her neighbourhood in Hamilton, which is a tropical paradise.) I once again will stick to my oat latte and enjoy her company. Also another rehearsal with the lovely young violinist in Oakville.
Oh, and I finally saw a few little streaks of pink on one of my tomatoes! Patience pays off right?
MorningPerson - that MyFoodDiary site looks intriguing! Do you prefer it to other calorie counting/nutrition tracking sites? I have been using MyFitnessPal because it's free and has a lot of entries. I also like how you can just copy the recipe ingredients into their recipe builder and find out the calorie content. But I'm curious about what makes MyFoodDiary worth paying for.
gardenerjoy - ouch for COVID!! I hope it does not hit you too severely. You're right! We should have some kind of system for distributing antivirals to people who have it. I agree that we don't take it seriously enough. I have a friend who has a son with Down's syndrome and she's still wearing a mask in public to protect him. She says people don't understand this. ?!?!
silverbirch - ugh! That is frustrating about losing the diary. Hope it turns up. Yes, non-alcoholic wine seems to average 15-25 calories for a 5 oz glass, as compared to 125 for regular wine, so once I start reducing my calories as I lose weight this could really be useful.
BillBlueEyes - yay for on plan eating and fresh cukes and tomatoes!! This Sarangi is getting more interesting the more you tell me about it. They press the strings with fingernails? Maybe my daughter should switch to that instead of violin - she just loves having long, gorgeous acrylic fingernails but this is completely incompatible with fingerboards Ice cream decreases diabetes? Um... ok
curlyjax - that's awesome that technology is making your dad's discharge an easier process. Also yay for a trip to Lake Michigan! Such gorgeous scenery. I feel fortunate to live near the Great Lakes and don't take advantage of it nearly enough. You're inspiring me to think about taking a drive down there!
Waving to all! VertOlive, I was thinking about you when someone posted a meme of a Barbie playing a tiny harp Happy Thursday!
The adrenaline rush that came with diagnosis and the need to collect our antivirals is gone. That means that I can actually take the advice to rest today.
I'm not good at resting. I made a list of 15 restful activities to choose from, ranging from reading in an armchair to writing blog posts.
Due to a lifetime of insomnia, I don't nap unless it's absolutely necessary. I'm guessing that won't be the case today.
My diary (date book? agenda?) hasn't turned up. No idea where it is, which is a nuisance. I test drove another car this morning. A nice car but it's too flashy for the DD. She needs something with more camouflage, we agree, to avoid attention. It was exhausting hacking over to the garage, through seaside towns and past a field where once, long ago, I saw an elephant grazing. Only later did I realise it must have been part of a circus! Exhausting, as I said. I’d carefully packed an apple and a small piece of cheese but this didn’t revive me enough and my back hurt. I bought some groceries and a bar of chocolate. I ate some chocolate and carefully put the rest in the first aid box I keep in the boot, removing and taking two ibuprofen to help my back. I like to think that this is a brilliant idea: that the chocolate will only be available in cases of emergency. The trouble is that I am pretty exhausted a lot of the time at present so I might talk myself into labelling lots of occasions as emergencies. We’ll see. Overall, not a great food day but not disastrous.
Bill, that ice cream and diabetes study could be the gateway to a slippery slope. It’s very good indeed to hear that your DW questions it. (I think my new car is safe from the DD for the moment as it’s a bit flashy and - see above - she doesn’t want that. Things can change fast, though, so thanks for the warning!)
curlyjax, very glad to hear that technology is making things smooth for you and your dad, five hours apart. Have a lovely time in Michigan. On a plane?? I’ve forgotten what that’s like.
eusebius, London in February could be nice. Not too many visitors, places to shelter if the weather’s bad, lots of things to do. Great news about your tomatoes. My sister’s are only just starting to ripen.
maryann, it’s always such a shock for me when you go back to school after the summer. The summer holidays are only just getting underway here, and they won’t be back until early September. Hoping your stomach thing gives up and goes away soon.
gardenerjoy, good luck with resting. 15 restful things sounds pretty good to me. I like crosswords because you don’t have to be solving actively all the time.
Friday- Russian expedition 1st circumnavigate Antarctica returns to Kronshtadt (1821)
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Walked, CREDIT moi, to the barber. Been going to the same woman so long we’ve got a familiar relationship. The kind where she makes it clear that I should have come two months ago. DW now goes to her also after years of hearing me rave. So she sends fond hello to my wife and tells me not to wait so long next time. Told her I only came because I have a doctor’s appointment and don’t want to be treated as a bum. "You would have," she continued to drive home her point.
Worked on a double sized box of ‘stuff’. It had contained my fond memories of being in the Volvo club back when I had a 1989 Volvo 740 GL station wagon. Was great for hauling kids and their gear. DW loved it on the highway because it drove like a smooth tank. Even my FIL admired its tight turning radius. Alas, that was many, many years ago. Tossed manuals, CDs of repair videos, and magazines. Even my Volvo owners' club membership card. All gone! We drove that wagon until my Mass DMV inspection place - the easiest pass in town - told me not to try to bring it back again. Hard to believe that I only paid $3750 back in year 2000. My difficulty trying to buy new cars is that I keep these old bargains in my brain for comparison.
Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner on the patio of gazpacho – our first for the year. Finally enough cukes and tomatoes to indulge. Tasted superb even though it was a tad chilly outside. We might be done with summer a bit early.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Congrats for actually giving your body a rest. Once you've settled in that arm chair, it'd be great to have your butler bring the fresh tea. And scones. And clotted cream. [Kindly ignore the last two, possibly added by the other half of my brain, LOL.]
Erika (eusebius) – So neat to have a trip to London to look forward to. Please stop by the British Museum and say hello to the Rosetta Stone for me. It's high on my list of one of the wonders of decoding past civilizations. Glad to hear that your tomatoes have a streak of pink.
Silverbirch - Wonderful memory of seeing an elephant grazing in a seaside town in Wales. Terrific idea to classify chocolate as an emergency ration.
maryann - Congrats for ending the summer a scale-pound down. A three-mile walk is a great way to celebrate going back to work.
curlyjax - Have a fun trip to Michigan. Enjoy splendid Lake Michigan - it is, indeed, lovely and vast. So interesting that the new patient portals do make dealing with the medical profession easier. I'd never heard of a "meds nurse (who picks them up and puts his pillboxes together every other week)" - what a terrific service.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 7Stage 4 - The Think Thin Lifetime Eating Plan
Develop a General Plan
Ginny recognized that she managed best when she added her midmorning snack to lunch and then used Bonus Calories for a second evening snack. She found it easiest to stick to the meals provided in the book for breakfast and lunch. She added a few high-protein snacks and customized some of her dinners, based on her own recipes, all of which she had already recorded in her Diet Notebook.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 179.
Hi folks, this is the one that got me over the years. I knew intellectually that I needed to feel my feelings and not quash them by eating but they were so intense that I couldn't do it. However, I think with all the stuff that's happened in the last four years I have been forced to do it. I do have very, very intense emotions. I will just be driving down the highway and I'll burst into tears. My family life has been chaos and so my brain offers me all kinds of really harsh thoughts about myself. But slowly I am learning that this is not insurmountable. In the past 2 and a half weeks of dieting I have been able to deal fairly effectively with these thoughts and feelings. It's not fun, but being obese is not fun either and so I'm choosing this path.
Persistence is paying off and after several days of upticks I saw a new low on the scale. 6.6 down now which is over 10% of what I have to lose. Today I'm getting my hair done and then I have the rest of the day to work on my practicing and web stuff. Quiet and peaceful. However I have asked my ex to call me ... I have now heard from two people this week that in order to see my daughter I need to physically show up where she is. (This is true; messaging and calling are completely ineffective.) So I'm going to try to arrange some regular coffee times with my ex at his house so I can see her. I hope he is amenable.
maryann - kudos for OP eating and exercise, and a pound lost! Ugh for the stomach thing though ... hope it's better today.
gardenerjoy - hope you had a truly restful day!
silverbirch - I love the idea of emergency chocolate. Like one of those fire extinguisher boxes, except with chocolate in it - "In case of emergency break glass!" I really feel you on the exhaustion thing. It's so difficult - I hope you are feeling a bit more energy today and your back is healing. What you said about London is exactly what I was thinking! All the classical music seasons will be in full swing and the place won't be crawling with tourists.
BillBlueEyes - glad you don't look like a bum anymore, lol!! Crazy to think of a Volvo costing $3750. It must be at least 10 times that now. Definitely will pass on your greetings to the Rosetta Stone.
I'm going to reschedule my colonoscopy, which was supposed to be a week from today. According to the CDC's isolation guidelines, I would be one day into the time when I could go in public without a mask. DH (my designated driver) would still be in the time when he should wear a mask, but he would, anyway.
The guidelines, though, assume no rebounds, or continued positive tests, or persistent symptoms. So, I'd still feel like we might have to pull out at the last minute. I sure don't want to go through the preparatory process only to cancel.
Mostly, I think the stress of colonoscopy prep would not be conducive to a robust recovery from COVID.
The coughing, sneezing, snuffling symptoms all seem to be winding down. DH doesn't have a fever this morning, but we'll want to check that in the late afternoon to be sure.
I still feel like I do on a bad allergy day. A not-entirely-unpleasant malaise suitable for calm activities -- especially boring ones that I refuse to do on days when I have more energy.
Exercise: 30, 70/1400 minutes for August
eusebius: Good for you for working with your emotions. Have you read Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown? Having a good vocabulary of feeling words has helped me a lot. I experience way more anxiety than stress and it turns out that it's helpful to use those two words differently.
I learned my lesson about cookie dough (even non-UPF) Enough said! Moving on.
I snuggled into my classroom yesterday. I Welcomed some peers back and brought my mother dinner after I had some blood work done. A big day for someone accustomed to hours of no structure. Today's plan is to counteract the cookie dough incident with a few eggs for breakfast, a groat bowl for lunch and a smoothie for dinner. If it is cool enough I will take a walk this evening.
I went ahead and bought the audible for Ultra Processed People. I can read the hardcover from the library when I get it but I need inspiration now. the author reads it himself and he has an lovely English accent. (or no accent if you are silverbirch, I imagine.) I am enjoying it.
BBE: LOL at your scientist wife asking if you have read the study. Joy: hope your symptoms are mild and fade soon.
I’m buying the first car I test drove. (This is a car for the DD, needed for her job.) To be collected on Tuesday. The prospect of squaring this off is very pleasing indeed. And they also found my diary at that garage so I’m delighted about that too. Despite this, but perhaps because I was woken at 5am, I’ve eaten a lot of carbs today. You’ll remember my fledgling hypothesis that when I eat more carbs than usual in the day it's to send myself to sleep when I haven’t slept enough in the night. Here’s more evidence in favour.
Bill, I do like the sound of your no-nonsense barber. And such great work by you on that double-sized box of “stuff”. Fun to remember that Volvo 740 GL station wagon! Fwiw, I think that giving oneself time to go through the memories that appear makes for more successful and satisfying sorting / downsizing / decluttering.
eusebius, much credit for success in dealing with strong emotions over the last few weeks. That’s no mean feat. (Re London in February. Many schools have their half-term holiday from 12th to 16th, so children will probably be around in force in museums etc from Saturday 10th to Sunday 18th.)
gardenerjoy, good thinking about how to ensure a robust recovery and deciding to reschedule the colonoscopy. I’m glad some of the Covid symptoms are winding down.
maryann, that’s a great plan for food and exercise today. I hope you carry on easing back into teaching smoothly. You made me laugh about Chris van Tulleken having no accent to me! I don’t have a television (apparently he and his twin are well known on the box) so I looked him up to hear his voice. He has a bit of an accent, reflecting his education etc*, but definitely English. (*You know how tuned in we Brits are to class etc!)
Saturday-The Beatles release single "Yellow Submarine" with "Eleanor Rigby" (1966,UK)
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Exercise, CREDIT moi, was trimming the wild growth between our house and the next. The neighbors are indifferent. The bushes grow long, lean over into our driveway, and scratch our car when we pull in or out. DW used the long-handled loppers making the decisions who lives and who dies. She shows no mercy. I was assigned to grab that which fell and chomp it into right-sized pieces putting them in the bin that will go to the curb for city pickup. The city grinds it up and makes it available to anyone who wants mulch. Feels like contributing to a sane relationship with nature. But got a taste that gardening work doesn't have a "done". It merely has a "that's it for now." The stuff is still growing behind our backs as we turn away.
Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner on the patio included green beans and white beans harvested from our garden. DW said they tasted so much better than the supermarket variety we have regularly. Maybe. Beans don't have the obvious taste of 'fresh' to me. But felt special to be eating off the land. My salad was even stacked higher with our garden cukes and Sun tomatoes.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Good news that the COVID symptoms are winding down for both you and your DH. Smart to reschedule your colonoscopy. Everyone says that the prep is the worst part but for me thinking about the prep was the worst.
Erika (eusebius) – Super Kudos for facing thoughts and feelings head on. Such a challenge when food calls saying that it will make everything OK. I wish you well arranging a coffee time so that you get to see your DD.
Silverbirch - Congrats for reaching a decision on your DD's car - that was quick. So glad that your diary was found.
maryann - Welcome back to school. It does seem so early for those of us who think it shouldn't happen until September. Kudos for moving on past the cookie dough.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 7Stage 4 - The Think Thin Lifetime Eating Plan
Develop a General Plan
Over time, Ginny found that she tended to eat many of the same foods day after day. Ginny could have potentially created countless different meals using the Think Thin guidelines, but she discovered which foods and meals she liked best, were most convenient to prepare, and kept her feeling full and satisfied.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 179.
MorningPerson 
Thursday - Columbus sails from Palos de la Frontera, Spain for the "Indies" (1492)
and its hard to type on a phone. 
) I'm hoping that by that point I'll have lost quite a bit of weight; in any case, I can walk for quite a long time right now as long as it's not super fast, so I hope to do a lot of that.
