[maryann]

Good morning, Coaches.

Food was OP but too much dried fruit due to lack of planning and late day at school. I have brought fresh fruit today. I also need to get back to salads. I did defrost the last of last months BROL bowl. ( Buckwheat, Rye, Oat groats, Lentils.) I have made this last batch savory. I put fried eggs on top of it. If I am going to break maintenance I need to start downsizing portions. yesterday I had three eggs. Tonite I will have two. Salads and smaller portions, then for this week.

Eusebius: Wow, one soprano. Usually it is tenors that are an endangered species.
BBE: Little note about an extended screen. I daily work with two screens.. I remember pre-covid when a little chick teacher was using it and I asked him to teach me. It was nearly beyond my capacity to understand. Now it is my daily bread and butter.
Joy: Walking is a great base. I was just reading about training for Kilimanjaro. Outdoor hills no matter the size are a must. Maybe you should prentend your training for Africa.

[silverbirch]

Rough night, followed by exhaustion and tummy upset during the day. It’s still hot so that will be playing into it. The SO returned this evening. The DD has booked a removal firm. I managed to liaise about these two things all morning and make some food for tea (chicken casserole and plum crumble) so credit and credit. Most of the time I’ve been wiped out.

gardenerjoy, I’m sorry to hear that the DN is in crisis. You’ve got successful history with one another, though, so that will count. The unsettled feeling is grim, though.

Bill, so much CREDIT yesterday. I’m bowled over. Houses certainly do need a fair amount of upkeep, no argument about that.

curlyjax, much credit in managing to be productive at all at present. And well done in working yourself out of the sad/lonely place.

eusebius, very good to recognise ahead of time that sodium may make things drift upward.

maryann, ah yes, I recognise that dried fruit difficulty especially when you’ve just come back from being away. Good for you, nipping it in the bud.

[gardenerjoy]

I got a brief report from DN that a friend got her out of the house to get groceries. I hope that's a beginning of an end to this episode.

Our heat wave broke, so I'm looking forward to pleasant walking weather today.

My reset worked and my post-COVID weight gain disappeared as quickly as it appeared. I didn't expect that so I'm very grateful.

Exercise: 65, 240/1500 minutes for September

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Picked up the (7 yo) DGD from the end of her 2nd Grade day at school. Met her teacher who has to stand at the door and release kids to known adults. We are added to the poor woman's memory as grandparents. Walked around the whole school building to get shown the door where the hornets' nest was removed but isn't declared clear enough to be used for kids to exit. Residual hornets trying to rebuild or something like that - high drama for 2nd Graders. Exercise was minimal. Watched her do a few backward flips; she so limber. Then home to read and dawdle until we turned her over to her mom.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi, until dinner. I went to a patio dinner party of nine folks taking courses at the retired folks learning center. Some fascinating people. I was lauded for volunteering to bring a green salad. Folks liked the addition of roasted pecans and blueberries. I knew two of them from classes; met six new friends. Eating was constrained by dinner party standards, CREDIT moi for that. It did include an appetizer and a dessert, but didn't include seconds of anything including the well toasted, well buttered baguette that sat in front of me for the entire meal reminding me that it was killer good.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - A small step is good news for your Dear Niece. Yay for the magic of an unexpected scale reduction.

Erika (eusebius) – Congratulations for marching forth with one absent and one inaudible soprano. Are you the choir director as well as the accompanist?

Silverbirch - Do wish you well getting that tummy under control. Was delighted to learn the UK term removal firm: "company that moves the possessions of a family or business from one site to another."

maryann – Neat that you continue to evolve your eating plan; no getting bored there. I agree that using two screens daily is just the best.

curlyjax - Congrats for getting to enough energy to make it through a whole day at work. Satisfying to resolve an old library book.

Readers -

Chapter 7 Stage 4 - The Think Thin Lifetime Eating Plan

Accepting Your Maintenance Weight
What would you suggest to your best friend if he/she were in this exact situation? Would you offer the following advice?. . .

• Consider the relative unimportance of your weight. Think about it. Your weight is really so superficial. You have so many more important, wonderful attributes. List what they are.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 183.

[curlyjax]

A busy day at work. I told my colleagues I was at 60%, and then later on in the day at 40%. I did indulge in a small panini at lunch instead of my salad, but did it it later at home. I also indulged in dessert twice, ugh. BFF asked me to come with her on an errand and then we had dinner at panera- at least i brought one half of my sandwich home and will have it for lunch today. I also managed to return my overdue books at the other library system so I should be a moral library citizen again-unless i find any hiding which is a real possibility.
I don't have a salad or oatmeal prepared so its going to be a little heavy on the bread today but oh well.
Eusebius-great job staying on plan despite being exhausted-I find I can get hungrier those times and use it as an excuse to eat more.
Bill-what a fun dinner party and yay for the one who brings the salad. It's a good thing not to be able to have seconds for sure
Gardenerjoy- that is awesome your post covid weight disappeared so quickly.
Silverbirch-sorry for the rough night. Is your hot patch supposed to leave any time soon? that crumble sounds wonderful.
Maryann-good idea to downsize portions. That dried fruit is killer.

[eusebius]

Hi folks,

Yep, my weight went up due to the sodium. Well, to be expected. Stayed in calorie range and exercised. Today is my first day back at the university and I’m happy to be meeting some new students. It'll be weird not being at choir rehearsal but it is extra practice and website work time I'm happy to have. I have my lunch packed with soup I batched on Monday so that’s good.

maryann - some really good food planning there. Hahaha well yeah, tenors are an endangered species for sure and in fact I have the 1.5 sopranos, 4 altos, one tenor who is gone a lot of the time and one bass who has a gorgeous voice but is also struggling with some dementia and kind of comes in whenever he wants to. Lovely people, but I won’t be doing Messiah with them anytime soon …

silverbirch - sorry to hear about a rough night; impressed that you got so much done regardless! Hope tonight was better.

gardenerjoy - great news about DN, the end of the heat wave (I think that’s happening here too) and the reversal of the weight gain!

BillBlueEyes - aww so nice to pick up the DGD from school. Well done with your food restraint at the party and so nice to meet new like-minded friends!

curlyjax - waving; I bet you’re posting right now lol!

Waving to all! Happy Thursday!

[maryann]

Good morning, Coaches.

Helped clear a fight site at school yesterday. It is strange the power I have over very tall and tough looking students because I knew them way back when, because my age and appearance can never be justified as threatening, because I have perfected a 'teacher's" voice for 35 years. I wish I could bequeath that voice to a newbie when I retire. It will be a loss to the community. Also interesting that I will not automatically carry the same influence when I am just a gray haired woman in the normal world. Good reason to keep physically fit and mentally sharp.

Food was OP but not smaller in portions. OK time to clean it up today. Today I want veggies and to go to bed slightly hunger. I have set my intention. I did so strength and stretching in my locked classroom during my prep since I had and after school training I couldn't miss. Finally my tailbone bruise is healing.

Wave to all.

[gardenerjoy]

Since my blood pressure is high at home as well as the doctor's office, I've been working with ways to bring it down. Early days, but so far halving my caffeine and daily walks haven't done the trick.

Another obvious possibility would be to get back to a daily yoga routine. Although I'm also aware that if I demand daily writing, daily walking, and daily yoga that it may turn the rest of my life into a stressful blood-pressure-raising mess.

I'm also starting to think about coming to peace with the notion that I might need medication for it.

I was on blood pressure medication for about a decade when I was younger. After my initial successes and lifestyle changes at 3FC, I was able to stop the medication in 2010 or 2011. That felt like a huge achievement for a healthy lifestyle.

If I go back on medication, now, I need to remind myself that it isn't an equally huge failure. Because aging is a factor. I can look at in these ways:

1. My healthy lifestyle meant that I didn't need blood pressure medication in my 50s.
2. My continued healthy lifestyle means that I can keep my age-related high blood pressure in control with a minimum amount of medication.

Exercise: 50, 290/1500 minutes for September

[silverbirch]

A quiet day here as it’s been so close and I’m not on top form. I’m working a system where I do a round of four things for about 15 or 20 minutes each: 1 x exercise, 1 x something in the house, 1 x something in the garden, 1 x reading my book. This means I can push forward on all fronts without wearing myself out or getting bored.

gardenerjoy, I’m glad the heat has broken at last with the promise of pleasant walking weather. And very good news that the DN has got out of the house with her friend. Also that you’ve lost that Covid weight gain. Doing something daily is an easy and possibly helpfully mindless routine to fall into but it’s not the only frequency you can use! I brush my teeth twice daily. I go to the gymn twice weekly. Actually, I find I rebel against daily routines after a while, possibly because I need to freewheel a bit to allow other options to emerge. (Did we talk about this the other day?) Anyway, good luck with making it all work for you as you consider blood pressure medication.

Bill, reading and dawdling at the grandparents’ sounds pretty good to me! Good work on taking a green salad to the patio party. You can do that in your sleep, I should think, with all the home-grown veg and the practice you’ve been getting in recently. Once again, divided by a common language, this time in the case of a removal firm!

curlyjax, I think the weather here is going to break next week which will be very welcome. There were a few spots of rain today but it didn’t amount to much. No real sun either, just overcast. But now it does smell of rain so perhaps something will happen overnight. Very impressed at telling your colleagues how much you had in the tank. Great feedback for everyone.

eusebius, staying in the calorie range and exercising is obviously worth a Double Credit!

maryann, great work putting the ‘fluence on the tall and tough students. There may well be a place for your powerful voice out there in the normal world. Opportunities may open up!

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Won half a victory with Amazon. My order for two Combination Smoke Alarms and CO Alarms worked – except that I managed to have ordered two extra Smoke Alarms. I don’t need those. Long time spent on the Amazon site going through the mechanics of a RETURN that ultimately looped me back into an online problem diagnostic panel that was only suited for folks who hadn’t put the batteries in. Didn't result in the magic QR Code that one can show at Whole Foods to have them take the item off your hands. Overcame the "helpful" site and found the secret way to have a text “conversation” with a Bot. That quickly got upgraded to a person. Nearly immediately they told me that they’d refund my money but I wasn’t to return the unneeded. "Keep it or give it away," they directed. All done. Easy peasy. Only problem is that right now I’m not in need of a $33 refund as much as I am in need of getting rid of two Alarms. Getting rid of stuff is my challenge. Hoping one of the free cycle web sites will work for me. They're new, boxed, shrink wrapped, pristine.

Also spent time dismantling three more boxes of books, CREDIT moi. Gets harder as I fondle books that I cared about. Trying to think that I’m letting someone else read them. Moved most to the give-away stack. Some are decades old. Many will get taken by folks happy to get them. Some may have no takers. That thought makes it even harder for me to give them away - they were good books and deserve a graceful end. I try to remind myself that many books are like old telephone directories that have no use after the new edition is published. Many of my science books fit that model - new authors with updated information just make them no longer worth reading. [Seems like I still need to coach myself to let some stuff go.]

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was eaten inside to avoid 95 degree F temps. It included a Mediterranean couscous because it cooks rapidly giving minimal heat into the kitchen. We don't have couscous often just because it isn't on our minds.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - I find it hard to accept that my body ages into the need for a blood pressure med. My sense is that doctors want to get us all there for prevention. Thanks for the notion that your diet and fitness gave you a chunk of extra years before you had to use them.

Erika (eusebius) – You do sound prepared for your first day back at university. Congrats for working with a choir of the folks you have - not the folks who'd win the competition to be in the Messiah.

Silverbirch - Neat idea to do tasks in bursts of 20 minutes "without wearing myself out or getting bored." Might just try that. It would also address that I'm most productive in the last few minutes of whatever I'm doing.

maryann – So interesting that you can defuse a fight site using your "teacher's voice." What a power. Share your thought that it'll be a loss to the community that you can't will it to a new teacher.

curlyjax - Yay for being a "moral library citizen again" - love reading of your successes with books. Glad that you can continue productively at work even when not feeling 100%.

Readers -

Chapter 7 Stage 4 - The Think Thin Lifetime Eating Plan

Accepting Your Maintenance Weight
What would you suggest to your best friend if he/she were in this exact situation? Would you offer the following advice?. . .

• Put your weight in perspective. Look at the other positives in your life. Give yourself credit for all of your other accomplishments in life. List them, too.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 183.

[curlyjax]

Made it through another work day with nap after. I feel like I am finally slowly feeling more energetic. Had a chat with one of the more dedicated workers my dad has, about swelling in his feet. A challenge to know if something has really changed or if it's his body getting worse. Eating wasn't great but at least i'm not gaining weight. I'll need to really think about meals and healthy foods for the coming week, and spend time prepping them. Its going to be a rainy weekend so it will be convenient to do so.
The exterminator is coming today because DD swears she hears a mouse. It's embarassing because the house is such a mess and I have a bunch of empty boxes lying around, it looks like a hoarding situation.Ah well, he's probably seen worse.
Eusebius- that sounds like a very challenging choir to work with; I had to giggle about not tackling the Messiah anytime soon.
Silverbirch- I like your system of 20 minutes per each task; I should try that too. Would help with focusing and resting, especially now.

[eusebius]

Hi folks,
Well, I am going to make some changes. I have been eating too many junky sodium things - within calorie range! - and drinking 1 glass of wine every night and I just don’t feel good. So the wine is going, and I am reducing my calories by about 150-200 because I just don’t think my body needs them. The meals I eat every day are super healthy and satisfying, and naturally lower calorie because they are vegan. I have to stop using this as an excuse to eat a bag of potato chips because I have 360 extra calories.

First day at school was pretty good. My schedule is going to be nuts and eventually some money is going to come in, but I’ll have to wait for it. This is not an easy period for me and it’s not helping that my daughter is incommunicado again. I will meditate today, take some time to knit and read, and eat healthy; hopefully this will improve my general state. I have a wedding rehearsal tonight and will be bringing dinner with me to avoid the drive-thru.

maryann - the power of the teacher voice is undeniable! I like your intention for eating and your creativity in getting exercise in.

gardenerjoy - I think you have a very healthy way of looking at the blood pressure medication issue. I’m on it myself and hoping to get off eventually with my diet changes, but if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.

silverbirch - I really like this 15 minute rotation you have developed! Very doable.

BillBlueEyes - nice job figuring out how to get a refund. I am sure the alarms will get used by someone. Your ongoing journey with culling books makes me think about how attached we get to our possessions.

curlyjax - glad to hear your energy is returning. I feel you on the house being a mess. It’s a constant struggle for me.

Waving to all! Happy Friday!

[maryann]

Good morning, Coaches.

Credit for meeting some important goals yesterday:

1. I increased veggies with a carrot soup for lunch. I chose eggs over cheese on my toast which is more protein and more healthy fat.
2. I followed through with a yoga for Adrienne video which i really did not want to do. I forced myself to do it before i finished an English mystery on TV
3. Scale drifted back to ticker after vacation.

It is a low buy month by decree. I have successfully ordered two items that I had convinced myself were necessity and then cancelled the orders. Good for me. One was a pair of work shoes. Instead i organized my current mess of shoes and found the missing orthotics that allowed me to wear another pair. Shoes are incredibly important to me but iI can at least go another month. The second item was a rabbit hole I went down trying to find an ottoman bed (convertible) to take a nap in my classroom on days I had to stay late. I ordered a bed in a bag from Amazon. I was resoundingly teased at work lunch with highly inappropriate barbs ( good natured) . I cancelled the order and decided instead to bring a second yoga mat and sit pillow. Now I can lock the door, draw the shades and can either nap for 30 of my 90 min prep or actually do a yoga youtube or just stretches. Many more options and free.

BBE: I do a unit on Amazon returns and its effect on the environment. It is such a love/hate relationship for me.
JOY: I have had to make peace with a medications I didn't want to be on - Lexapro and Moneprezole for the reflux it creates. It makes my life better. So does exercise. So I do both. I did get off an additional sleep aid which makes me very proud. I went down the rabbit hole researching the new weightloss drug Ozempic injections. I decided I can continue my non UPF challenge and trust that is healthier. Clearly meds are a gray area.
Erika: Beginning of school is always hard but also has lots of collateral exercise as well.
Silverbirch: Nice plan to incorporate exercise and outdoors.
Curley: Good thoughts for dad.

[gardenerjoy]

Groceries today wasn't quite as uneventful as usual, but the quirks were weird and fun.

My favorite was the 3-day sale on 10-lb bags of potatoes. The sale price was about $1.50 less than their 5-lb bags of potatoes. There's a bargain. They looked fresh, so it wasn't a matter of trying to get rid of produce before it goes bad. Some weird supply issue, I guess.

We were completely out of potatoes. We go through most of a 5-lb bag in a week, so I took them up on the offer that paid me to take a 10-lb bag.

Exercise: 60, 350/1500 minutes for September

curlyjax and eusebius: I'll also confess to not having housekeeping where it seems like it should be. Like curlyjax, I tend to assume that professionals have seen worse. They seem to go by "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." The worst was a guy who asked if we just moved in. Uh, yeah. Just a few years ago. I think I said something like we were moving things around. For friends and family, I've started saying, "We treat our house as if its sole purpose is to store projects in all their various stages." People seem to accept that as a good reason that we don't invite them in.

silverbirch: I like the round of four things method. That might be a partial cure for some of my all-or-nothing thinking around how I get things done.

BillBlueEyes: The Buy Nothing group that I use frequently has refunded but not returned Amazon items. They usually go pretty quickly.

maryann: I did Yoga with Adriene yesterday. I ended up with a beginner 20-minute routine called A Little Goes a Long Way. At the end, she challenged us to do the same routine for seven days in a row. Since that was much easier than what I was originally thinking I would do to introduce daily yoga, I took her up on the challenge.

[silverbirch]

A good session at the gymn but the heat is really addling my brain. The coming week brings the DD moving out of her flat and 150 miles away to a small house. It also brings the driving test which is in a different small town three hours from here. Passing the test is necessary for her new job which starts at the end of the month. So lots of travel round the country for the DD, the SO and me, alone and in combo. Lots of liaison about this today. I don’t recommend lots of liaison and an addled brain.

Bill, I do welcome your thinking “out loud” here about sorting your books. I find those out-of-date books very trying. Once upon a time, I learnt some of the facts in them so carefully and now - pouff! - they’re part of yesterday’s theories so the books aren’t really needed but they used to be so valuable … Love the observation that you’re “most productive in the last few minutes of whatever I'm doing”.

curlyjax, you’re right, the exterminator will have seen worse! Glad your energy is slowly coming back.

eusebius, credit for taking time to knit and read. And for planning to take dinner with you, rather than going to the drive-through.

maryann, good work on the low buy month!

gardenerjoy, “not having housekeeping where it seems like it should be” - yes, same here!

Wave to all!