Thank you very much, saef. The personal findings posts are the silver lining of my cloud that is Not Enough Work.
Some of my best work over the years has been of this kind: getting people to talk about attitudes, changes and developments; listening very hard to what they say and how they feel; then analysing and trying to distil it, bringing it all together under different headings. The good/best practice handbook. The toolkit. That kind of thing. Having the time to work publicly on myself in this kind of way, in the fantastic environment of 3FC, is really helping me and I'm very pleased that it's of use to other people too.
I'd urge anyone to give it a go. Sorting out your personal findings is a bit like sorting clothes. There's no right or wrong way. You can sort them by size, or colour, or type of garment. You can resort them. Sometimes you throw something away because it's no good any more. It's worn out or it's no longer 'you'. It no longer makes any sense or fits in. Sometimes you acquire something new. It might be a new garment or a new insight. You might search and find something (reading or asking, say), or something might just fall into your lap (say you come across a blinding insight on 3FC or your aunt just gives you a beautiful ... fill in the gap). And, I suppose, you might have things hidden in drawers and old wardrobes/closets.
I'll stop now. Oh! But just to say that my findings are definitely a work in progress.
- exercise 4 times per week
- 4 dessert-free days per week
It has been five days since then including 11/18 and today. I exercised 4 of those days so I'm fine there. Today will make 3 dessert-free days if I can keep it together tonight. Progress good so far. I'm not sure if I'll make 4 dessert-free days this week but we'll see.
Good wishes to all you Americans for a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow.
Weight up 0.2kg from Tuesday.
Sleep. I didn't have enough last night and so today has thrown up a few challenges.
Exercise: two and a bit hours in the garden, splitting and replanting some irises. It's so mild that I felt I should take advantage but I may have overdone it a bit.
Tiny goals: not startlingly good which I trace back to overdoing it in the garden and not enough sleep. But I am trying.
Food. A little too much today, I think. (See above.)
Hullo. Me again. The wind is roaring round the house tonight.
Thursday
Weight up 0.3kg from Wednesday.
Sleep. Not bad but a few odd dreams caused by eating something too near bedtime. This happens to me. If I don't want this to happen, the solution is plain, wouldn't you say?
Exercise. Nothing. I'll go to the gymn tomorrow.
Tiny goals. Good work here: only a tiny mouthful when standing up.
Food. Rather good as in no nibbling, two proper snacks and three proper meals. I felt no need to claim any of the chocolate bar given to the DB by his piano teacher after his exam today. "Share it with Mummy!" I donated my share to other 11-12 year old people at school who appreciated it, I gather.
Gah! My weight is up 3 pounds from yesterday. I had only one plate full of food and only half a slice of pie, but yes, too much wine. But everything turned out great and all the dishes are washed and put away. I haven't peeked in the fridges yet, so I'm not sure where all the leftovers went, so I'll have to do a bit of arranging to make sure everything gets eaten in a timely manner.
Up 2.5 pounds from last week, since I usually weigh in on Friday. No wine, no dessert. But my quads felt like concrete from yesterday's run. Also this was before a bathroom trip. So the jury is out on what this weight really means, but I suspect it does mean I am up slightly.
I've been on an upward trend over the past few weeks, actually since moving back here. But that was inevitable because I'd hit a really low weight while living in hotel rooms during the salvage operation and barely eating. I had the usual dilemma, when you lose weight through something unpleasant, like being ill or mentally tormented and unable to eat: You know you lost it unhealthily, you know things will even out again, but even so, you kinda want to keep the loss. Clearly I am not keeping it.
Ran out of time to post on Friday though I'd written most of my post. Here it is (Saturday morning here now).
Friday
Weight down 0.2kg from Thursday.
Sleep was OK but I need more.
Exercise. Didn't go to the gymn today as I had to do other health-related things. But I know that daily exercise is what marks out many maintainers and I'd like to be able to do it.
Tiny goals. Not so good. I overdid it today and ran out of time and energy.
Food. Was doing well and then I ran into the buffers.
The "Backfriend" has arrived and it's transformed how I feel in the car.
Saef, I know the feeling. After Carter's injury I got down to 131, which is the lowest I've weighed in years. But the reason was that I was so worried about him I couldn't stomach eating more than a couple bites of food per day, which is definitely NOT the way to lose weight. As soon as I got back to eating normally I gained 5lbs pretty much immediately.
In any case, I survived Thanksgiving but I didn't make my 4 dessert-free days goal. Oh well. I still have half a grasshopper pie to eat (DH doesn't like it so it's all for me, which is good because then I don't feel like I have to rush to eat it all). Weight was normal the day after thanksgiving but up today for some reason. Maybe because my turkey mushroom casserole I made last night with leftovers had too much salt?
I have been getting plenty of exercise although my feet are not too happy about it. Went to yoga yesterday which was a nice change of pace. I paid for a 10-visit set so hopefully I'll be making it back there more. I think I'm not going to bother getting the cyst in my wrist removed because I was able to make it through yoga class without my wrist freaking out, so the draining they did last month seems to have reduced it enough. The main reason I wanted to get it out was because it was stopping me from doing yoga.
Jessica, that sounds promising about your wrist. And about the yoga.
I was feeling rather dissatisfied with how I did today but when I wrote all this down, I realised I'd done quite well.
No change in weight from Friday.
8 hours sleep? Yes! 8 hours +.
Focused exercise? Yes! An hour's work, focusing on my bottom. It was at home but it was focused. I'm pleased.
Tiny goals. Say about 70% compliance. I'm going to see how I can reframe my 'only eat when sitting down' goal as it just doesn't feel/sound like me but the idea is OK.
Food. Could have been better but when an 11 year-old boy says he's going to 'do more in the culinary department' and then makes a meatloaf, you eat it.
A short riff about size variability. I am a UK 12 (US 8) on top, using Marks and Spencer as a standard measurement. Yesterday I had to buy a new fleece half-zip in an 18-20 (US 14-16). I ask you!
Silver, hooray for Backfriend! Glad to hear that you are finding relief! I like what you posted about developing one's own personal findings; my only issue is that several of them change about once a decade or so as I build more context for the things I think I might know!
saef, I wonder if weight loss might be the only thing we would ever want to hold on to as a result of trauma or illness! It's a little twisted, isn't it? I consider myself blessed, however, that the only times in my life that I've been unable to eat were the brief periods in high school when my braces were tightened
Jessica, it sounds like maybe you are at least on a positive trend with the pain decrease - good news! One little victory at a time, and returning to yoga will be great thing.
Allison, I did quite well with the food on Thanksgiving too - same one plate of food (nothing touching), and the tiniest slice of raspberry pie. But the wine ... Way. Over. The. Top.
Moving on. I haven't been on the scale - it wasn't part of the tiny goals. I will say that two weeks of being able to check a bunch of little boxes has been a good thing. My abs are already stronger, and I'm getting closer to the toes. I'm going to tweak again. The new tiny exercise goal is to do enough to feel it the next day. I'll also get on the scale and update the ticker - I suspect it's time to add rigorous portion control back into the program.
Becky, yes, it's *rigorous* portion control that makes the difference, isn't it? This is the next thing I have to work on too. And I see no harm in changing one's findings - I see mine as very much a work in progress.
Up 0.4kg from Saturday.
8 hours sleep? Yes! 9 hours +.
Focused exercise? No but 45 minutes very good walking with my knee and foot in line.
Tiny goals. Say about 70% compliance.
Food. Pretty poor for me which usually (as it did today) translates as too many carbs and not enough veg.
Silver, I hear you on the size variability. I went shopping the other day and some shirts I had to wear an extra small. I am not a large person, but I'm not an extra small person either! Then I tried on two pairs of size 4 pants and one was way too small and the other was too big. At the same store, no less.
Scale up slightly today after a weekend of too much salt and dessert. But I ate the whole pie so there's none left to tempt me, and my goal is to be dessert-free until Saturday (when I have a cooking club holiday party to attend).
Today is my 6-year maintenance anniversary. I weigh essentially exactly the same as I did this time last year, so I count that as a success, especially considering how much I had to downgrade my exercise this year.
Today, I go back to my no alcohol vow. My weight, as expected, went up during this holiday weekend. I ate when it was time to eat, which rarely equated to my being hungry. Last night my BIL took us all out to dinner. While I didn't over indulge, the choice (tamales) wasn't the best, but it was one of the smaller dishes offered (as opposed to the baby back ribs or briskets that most ordered). I could have skipped eating all together, but didn't. I'm hoping that by the end of this week I'll be back down to pre-holiday weight...
Maybe because my turkey mushroom casserole I made last night with leftovers had too much salt?
Glad to hear that you are finding relief! I like what you posted about developing one's own personal findings; my only issue is that several of them change about once a decade or so as I build more context for the things I think I might know! 
It's a little twisted, isn't it? I consider myself blessed, however, that the only times in my life that I've been unable to eat were the brief periods in high school when my braces were tightened 
