michele, hope your tummy settles down. IMO, there is nothing cuter than a little kid excited about books and reading. Melts my heart. I will drop EVERYTHING to read to kid. Might have something to do with why DS14's vocabulary tested at post-secondary levels in 5th grade?
saef, it's all a cycle. Vacation refills the coffers of the spirit (or at least, it should!), and your normal everyday habits take care of your body. Nothing is ever a perfect balance forever. I picture it like a plate balancing on a pencil point; the typical everyday stuff is close to the center and the weird stuff is out on the edge. Everyday stuff keeps the plate on the pencil; weird stuff tries to tip it off. Getting back to balance slowly and carefully after something causes a tip is what I've been focusing on for a few years. I suppose the next chapter will be trying to replace the plate ...
silver, I'm right with you on holding the line at a higher level than I'd like. In the world of the balancing plate, I dropped a new thing into the middle with the swimming, and I don't want to do anything else different til I know where the new balance point is. I can say that I am beginning to see some shifts in my shape already; those are far more meaningful at the moment than a number on a scale. The picture was after our 4 mile "Run4Wine" - I'd already downed my glass of Cab and was feelin' just dandy!
My weight was not as bad as I'd thought, at 150.8. That mean just short of a pound added since this past Friday. (I'm just back from the grocery store and imagining the deli counterman trying to get .8 pounds on his scale.) I'll see if this will wash away after a few days.
This vacation wasn't fun. It was an act of duty, visiting my uncle at the assisted living facility. He's 83 and he has lung cancer, and is receiving hospice care, as the treatments for it are too invasive and he is too fragile. At present his quality of life is good, even though he's hooked up to an oxygen tank. His memory isn't so good.
Only one part of the vacation could be described as fun: I took a break from three days of visiting him and drove out to see Fallingwater and another Wright Usonian house, this one called Kentuck Knob. That was a gorgeous, gorgeous day.
Now I'm here with two full luxurious days in my apartment to use exactly as I please. This is very rare, and I am looking around at things that I never get around to doing because of working so late.
I have been taking T'ai Chi classes for the past six months. I've done martial arts and T'ai Chi off and on for many years--mostly off. But, evidently I have learned balance, grace, and proper form, even though my practice has been sporadic and haphazard.
I love doing T'ai Chi. While I'm doing it, I have no thoughts. It's moving meditation for me. Of course, I have to focus and be aware of the movements I'm doing--but I seem to have learned not to make this practice into just another opportunity to be obsessive and perfectionistic.
One of the many sayings in and about T'ai Chi is "no insufficiency, no excess." In other words, enough. Just right.
Saef: I'm glad you were able to find time for yourself to enjoy beauty during your trip, and that you have that precious time alone in your apartment now. Luxuriate!
Andrea: Like Silverbirch, I saw your sig and gave you an e-hug.
Shannon: The problem is that I fell off a mountain and ate a brownie... plus three more over the next few days, plus about a gallon of beer over the week. The mountain wasn't THAT high.
I am becoming a broken record on this thread, complaining about work stress and how it is drowning me. But it still is! I work constantly and still cannot keep up with deadlines and demands. Some of this I did bring on myself (agreeing to write a few book chapters that I had no time to do), but most of it is external and more or less mandatory. I am also becoming a fraud on this thread - lately I see my weight going up steadily and I only slightly care. When I occasionally surface from work and want to do something like go to dinner, that's when I care whether I fit my clothes. But I need to care all of the time, not just then.
Is it OK if I post here? I would like to drop 2-3 but I'm feeling like a balancing act. I willfully overate yesterday at a restaurant and then got a huge cookie (probably 500+ calories) to go, which I shared with BF but felt secretly annoyed he had a quarter of the cookie.
My sciatica is acting up, and running and doing any leg work or even hamstring stretches makes it worse. Not being able to do as much activity = not being able to eat as much = tension and bitterness that it's not fair.
Becky, you are so much younger and blonder than I imagined you. For some reason, I assume that everyone on this board is my age (mid to late 40s) though if I thought about it logically, I would have to acknowledge that it couldn't be (e.g. Paperclippy just had babies; Krampus came back from a post-college teaching stint last year, etc). Is the chlorine turning your hair green? I remember that was the bitter complaint of all my blonde swimmer friends in high school.
Silverbirch, you should have put that post on the "giving up a food" thread started by AnnRue. There is a debate going on there between the "all foods in moderation" faction, and the "give up your triggers" group. Good luck, regardless of what you ultimately do.
JayZee, I feel like we are spiritual sisters. I also feel wretchedly stressed out by trying to keep all the balls in the air, and then I get on the internet at 9 pm and do nothing but surf until 10:30 or so, which is almost as destructively counterproductive as eating a well-balanced 500 calories for dinner, and then blowing it with 2 bowls of granola and a giant handful of almonds for dessert (not tonight thankfully, but often enough).
Posted here, very fast by phone, as the phrase came into my mind. Please, I'd like you all to ask me about it, from time to time, as it is central to my efforts. We used never to have butter (back when I was not as fat as I am now) which suited us all. Then we started having it as it is real food (and a little can do no-one any harm) and because the SO finds it is the best thing for greasing bread tins. And then I started having more than a little ... and you will all know the rest. Carnage, as I think people say about having too much to drink.
Andrea, I suspect we have a normal distribution of age on this thread. Yes, mostly in the 40s but a few at either end. Krampus is in her twenties, I think, followed by Jessica and Megan. Mudpie and I are in our late 50s. I think Jay may be a little older than us. I think Bargoo may be a shade older than Jay. We are united by all having fabulous hair (wigs or natural).
Oh dear, the bell curve. It's related to my hips in some way, I think.
Birchie Just curious - what exactly is late 50's? I've always wondered if they start at 56 (my current age) or a bit older. I know 59 is called "pushing 60" here so that's definitely late, late 50's.
Your comment about butter is interesting. I use it in cooking and for greasing various things like pans. But I also use non-hydrogenated margarine (the soft kind) in sandwiches. We have to refrigerate butter here and I can never remember to take it out to let it soften ( mostly I make the workday lunches at 6:30 a.m). I know it's marginally "food", as are the process cheese slices we eat, but it doesn't seem to affect me like other "non-foods" do.
I should really stop posting in this thread until the move is over. I am in no way attempting weight loss right now, nor even maintenance.
Birchie Just curious - what exactly is late 50's? I've always wondered if they start at 56 (my current age) or a bit older. I know 59 is called "pushing 60" here so that's definitely late, late 50's.
I'm 58. Clearly, I am not pushing 60. How rude of people to talk like that. Let them say that to our faces and we'll show them.
By this I mean to say that one should welcome and embrace whatever age one happens to be. They are all different and all fascinating. Being the person one is, at the particular age one is - and how it is for each individual - is part of happiness. Do not fall prey to generalisations about people at certain ages! /sermon over.
Dagmar, I think you're doing brilliantly with shedding possessions. It's all part of Shedding avoirdupois will come when the time is right.
Last edited by silverbirch; 10-18-2013 at 05:44 AM.
andrea, what you're seeing in that pic is not blonde - that's full-blown, genetically blessed, unadulterated whitish silver that goes whiter by the year. So far, not green! Heck, hair color won't stick to it, and apparently neither will chlorine. I am 46, for the record. But thank you much for the comment! I need to remember that a low number of pixels in low light is flattering.
Krampus, of course you are welcome here! I had to laugh a bit about your resentment about parting with a piece of the mega-cookie - I feel the same way. DS14 has even wondered aloud if his mother might have a bit of a savage streak (he's very perceptive!). Sorry to hear about the sciatica. It sucks to have the body not on board when the mind is ready to exercise.
JayZee, I have had a lot of things (some of them pretty important) fall through the cracks recently, which dealt a major blow to my self-image of always being reliable. I tried to make a list of what had to be done so I could prioritize it and it got so big so fast that it had me close to hyperventilating. I currently am operating in amoeba-mode - I just go about whatever's at hand until some external stimulus causes me to go somewhere else. As a field biologist said, "It's the four F's : Feeding, fighting, fleeing, and um, er ... reproduction."
Butter is on hand at my house. I found a spread that is essentially butter whipped with olive oil, and I can live with that for things like toast. It is very easy to go overboard with it, agreed!
Last edited by ICUwishing; 10-18-2013 at 08:30 AM.
And while I don't swear off butter, a pound of butter often lasts an entire year! (except for holiday time when I need a pound or so for the various recipes--depending on the number of people I'm serving.) I've been making panini sandwiches from time to time and don't grease the bread with butter but spray it with a little Pam. Saves calories and it isn't nearly as greasy to handle the panini.
Like standing on it with both feet, stomping, LOL.
Staying the path last night was challenged when DW came home with a cake and, rather ungraciously, offered me a slice. I ate one. Didn't need cake at 9:45pm. Ouch.
Might have something to do with why DS14's vocabulary tested at post-secondary levels in 5th grade? 
and 
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Clearly, I am not pushing 60. How rude of people to talk like that. Let them say that to our faces and we'll show them. 
I have had a lot of things (some of them pretty important) fall through the cracks recently, which dealt a major blow to my self-image of always being reliable. I tried to make a list of what had to be done so I could prioritize it and it got so big so fast that it had me close to hyperventilating. I currently am operating in amoeba-mode - I just go about whatever's at hand until some external stimulus causes me to go somewhere else. As a field biologist said, "It's the four F's : Feeding, fighting, fleeing, and um, er ... reproduction." 
