morning all!

happy to report that those 3 lbs from the NYC trip and my weekend candy-a-thon are back off. that was FAST! thank you, body! so while i feel qualified again to get that new charm, i realized that i have no idea what happened to my bracelet in the move. must find soon!

also back to daily 60 minutes of cardio. yesterday did HIIT and for the first time, my high intensity speed was a 10 minute mile. for me, that's a blistering pace. i'm absolutely delighted that i was able to do it and not feel like keeling over. running is so much easier 10 lbs lighter - can't imagine how wonderful it will feel at 30 lbs less. or 50! a full marathon seems more inside the realm of the possible. very exciting, and credit moi for pushing myself a little harder, and finding out that i'm stronger than i thought. bistro MD food is still fabulous, still playing with my calorie levels to determine the right amount. this may take awhile, but that's OK. i got nuthin' but time.

welcome ronnie!!!

shrinkin, shout out to DD. i went through it myself almost exactly a year ago, and got some very good advice from one of our 6 sigma master black belts (a process methodology). she said to figure out what your top 3 values/priorities are for the wedding, and when things get sticky, go back to them and they'll tell you what to do. it worked really well - except towards the end, when MIL got out of control with the guest list, and then DH started adding to it, and my own mom wanted to know why SHE couldn't invite more people (since she was paying for it.) so much for my small, intimate wedding, and our budget. it was still the absolute best day of my entire life, no question. thinking of you and your mom. it's heartbreaking.

credit to you, bill, for studying botany! i've heard that folks who continue to learn tend to live longer and have healthier brains. good on ya!

go robin for walking! i just got a new purse - ought to have room in it for my cards, too.

cheers all!

Tuesday
OP Food
OP Supplements
Planned exercise at the health club
spontaneous exercise at campus parking lot

I think the Debussy presentation is about half way there. Not as easy as I expected, since understanding his work took a whole new vocabulary for me. Now, at least, I have a pretty good grasp of why he's an important musical figure and what I want to say about him. I even have a catchy title: Claude Debussy - Rebel Composer.

Today is our Chapt. 7 bankruptcy hearing. We have plans to celebrate getting through it afterward. Our original plan was to take a picnic in the nature preserve, but with the weather gone as cold as it is, we may have to come up with something else.

happy1025: for sticking with the plan even while you were away! (and welcome home)

Robin: for your walk! Were you already at the mall for other reasons or did you actually leave your nice cozy home to go on that walk? Either way, it's good exercise.

Ronnie: to the Beck thread! I do believe you'll find us supportive and encouraging, and yes, since we're all going through it ourselves, we understand the struggle.

I'd still encourage you to find a flesh-n-blood coach, if you can. And if the next one doesn't last, replace him/her. We on the board will help all we can, but there's just something special about a coach you can see eye-to-eye or call when you need an immediate "willpower boost." And there's no reason you can't have it both ways - share with us and with someone you know in person.

Bill: planned cheese-eating, walking and botany. I know squat about plants myself.

Oh, and me play a Debussy? That is never going to happen! My fingers just don't move that fast! I have no qualms, however, about finding some pro on Youtube to do it for me!

shrinkin: I'm very sorry to hear about your mom. My uncle is a victim of Alzheimers... so far he's still in the moderate stages, but... it's getting scary. If it were my mother, I'd be a wreck. Do something loving for yourself when you get back from the trip. :

I also have a thought to share with your DD. When Bruce and I were going through wedding preparations, it hit me why we go through weddings in the first place. Any couple that can go through all that stress and still want to be together can handle anything else that comes along!

Thanks for the udder balm tip! It's been years since it was last recommended to me, and it sounded like a good idea then too! It should not be too difficult to find in the middle of cattle country, even of our bovines are mostly beef steers.

:group hug:

Good Morning

Bill~ kudos for your walk, and cheese & bagel at its planned time!

shrinkin~ for your dd and your mom

kuhljeanie~ Kudos for the lbs that came back off, and big KUDOS for an awesome workout!! As much as I dread the HIIT workouts, they are awesome....I usually hit an endorphine high when I do those.

tera~ No I wasnt planning on going out at all last night. But after supper, I was sitting on the couch looking at the treadmill, feeling 1/2 asleep. I knew there was no way I was going to get on that thing. It was too dark to walk outside......and yes I was warm and cozy under my blanket. I did the small mall (1.2miles walking the perimeter) It wasnt very busy so that was good. Figured if I could get myself outside to the car, Id make it to the mall to walk. I wonder if I would have that same mentality if I rejoined my gym? I'll have to think on that!

Ronnie~

Ok, I am NOT a marykay sales person yada yada yada....BUT, my marykay person gave me a goodie bag of free samples last week. Ive been using the timewise dermabrasion stuff and WOW!! I have very sensitive skin and can usually only use this stuff maybe 2x a month. Ive done it 2x in the past week, and Im really really impressed with how my skin looks after....and for the whole day too! How cool is that?!?!! I think she's made a sale

Im off to speed networking today. I need to remember to pack some sugar free hard candies. After the 1st hour, Im horse and can barely talk by the end of it.

Im on plan and down another 4lbs since the last time I weighed in (I try to stay off that thing)

Have a great day everyone!

Well....step 2 was a no so now it goes up another notch...hopefully that will come out better. Dh is now putting in another grievience against the possibility of being fired. Now that one is another wait. If they say no it goes to arbitration...hope that is good for us. Dh says thanks for the support and prayers. So do I.

I found out about Becks through a personal trainer. I did a google search on Beck's diet support groups and came up with this website. It looks like a great support groups. Thanks for the welcome.

Good afternoon. I hope to be here regularly again. The past several weeks have been difficult. As you know I suffer from depression. One of my friends died. It was rather bizarre. She was out at the mall and started feel nauseous so she thought she better go home. She continued to feel worse and decided to go to the emergency room instead of home. A passing motorist found her slumped over the steering wheel of her car. They called EMS. At the hospital they determined her gallbladder needed to be removed. She was fine after the surgery and they said she could go home the next day. That night she went into a coma, couldn't breathe on her own was hooked up to a respirator. She continued to get worse. Her kidneys failed and they started dialysis. A feeding tube was next. They flew her by helicopter to MCV and there they determined she had pancretitis and had probably had it for some time. She had fibromyalgia for years and took pain medication for it and they think that masked the pancretitis. Anyway, she started to improve after another week, could breathe on her own, the feeding tube was out. Her daughter fed her some applesauce and gave her some water. Instead of going into her stomach, it went into her lungs. Big rush to pump it out. She went back into the coma and died a week later. Her funeral was last Wednesday.

While I was struggling with depression again, I fell off the wagon and it rolled over me. I was attacked by gremlins that force fed me all the bad foods I shouldn't eat. By the time I fought them off and managed to get back on the wagon, I gained 2 pounds. The one thing I did good, was I kept up with my exercise through it all.

So here I am again, starting back at Day 1. Hopefully my medications are finally regulated and I can be in charge again.

Surprisingly you can get Bag Balm and Udder Cream at most quilt shops. We discovered it a long time ago for our hands.

I did notice that the new Beck book that will be out in January will contain a "suggested" diet she has come up with. It's in the description on Amazon.

I'm off now to locate my cards and plan my meals.

Diet Coaches - Discarded about a one foot stack of papers in my ongoing task to clean up my clutter. CREDIT moi. I do seem to be able to bring new stuff into the house as fast as I throw old stuff away. Gotta learn to use a Beck style No Choice when about to pick up some attractive item that I don't immediately need. Watched the end of the World Series last night. Was really nice to have a baseball game end in the early evening.

Jeanie (kuhljeanie) - It's great that you sound like you're rapidly recovering from your steroids issues. Yep, Big Kudos for "pushing myself a little harder, and finding out that i'm stronger than i thought."

Robin (RobinW) - Congrats for another 4 pounds gone. Hope your voice survives the networking.

angelmomma210 - Ouch that the process goes on and on. Continue to send supporting thoughts.

shrinkin - Sending warm supporting thoughts for your trip to support your mother this weekend. Kudos for keeping up with your pool exercises while under stress.

Tera (twilit tera) - Three cheers for "Claude Debussy - Rebel Composer."

Susan (QuilterInVA) - Sending my sympathy for the loss of your friend and supporting thoughts as you deal with the grief. Bid Kudos for continuing your exercises even while the food plan wagon "rolled over me."

ronnie - That's neat that a personal trainer knew about Beck and recommend it. Glad that you're continuing here with us.

Readers -

Morning coaches,

On plan yesterday for calories. Not a scheduled exercise day. Have to get to the pool this am. By the way, discovered this week that I can wear a dress coat that was previously too little! Just in the nick of time too as DS wedding in Nebraska may be quite cold.

BBE-WooHoo for clutter clearing! Yup, if you turn your back for a moment, the clutter wins.

Robin-HIghfive for the 4 pounds.Wondering when is next mall walk....or the dreaded treadmill?????

angelmomma210-sending you some positive vibes as you and DH deal with tough issues.

Tera-Love Debussy's music, but have no clue about the Rebel part of the story. You are doing so well staying with your plan even with the stress of school and the hearing. Awesome!

Susan-Sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. Ouch for falling off the wagon and being attacked by food gremlins. Kudos for maintaining your exercise. Would not have thought about looking for Udder Balm at a quilting shop. Reminds me of the time when DS proudly stated that he would not use Udder Balm; said he used Bag Balm and it worked well. I asked him what he thought bag referred to. He had a blank look. I think he thought Bag referred to luggage. LOL. Growing up in the city, what do you expect?

Ronnie-Glad you found Beck and us! Keep on coming back!

kuhljeanie-for being back to charm weight! A 10 min mile pace..way to go! Pushing self a little harder and being stronger than recognized...wonderful!

Off for a quick and then to the pool. Great day to all!

Good morning, Becksters!

Wednesday
OP food
OP supplements
spontaneous exercise for about 30 minutes downtown before the hearing

Getting our hearing was a lot like going to the dentist. You stress and dread and then when you get up there, it's like, simple and over before you know it. We had no idea what problems we might have finding the place, so we were about an hour early "just in case." That led to a nice walk in the sunshine to the public library and back.

Afterwards, we hit the polls for early voting, then picked up a burger and onion rings at Topz to eat in the park. We went home and watched Dancer in the Dark, which is a fantastic film, if you're into artistic things that don't end happily.

Jean: So glad to hear that Bistro MD and the exercise is going well. You do a 60 min. workout each DAY? That's serious!

Robin: Well, the fact that you coaxed yourself out to do that walk is even more impressive to me. Way to go!

angelmomma: s and prayers for you both. Sorry this is getting so drawn out!

Susan: Welcome back! Thanks for the tip! I don't quilt myself, but I do know where a quilting store is!

I'm sorry to hear about your friend. Losing someone would send anyone into a tailspin, even the most stable personality. I'm glad you were able to recover your equilibrium.

shrinkin: congrats on fitting into that dress coat! Regarding Debussy's "rebel spirit," he was trained in the classical style - diatonic scale, emphasis on consonant harmonies and storytelling/picture painting melodies. He was told by his teacher once that he should avoid "courting the unusual." One of the reasons he left the school was that he found the rules too restrictive. He thought the diatonic scale was a bunch of baloney - notes are just notes, not major and minor. He was quite impressed with Wagner, another impressionist, but in the end he struggled to break away from his influence as well to write pieces that were thoroughly unique.

Yeah, I think I have this presentation licked.

Thanks for the kudos too. It has been a pretty frantic time. I did NOT feel like getting up this morning to go work out. did anyway. go me.

Morning

I had a little episode yesterday. This is the 2nd time in a week. It's either a hot flash, or low blood sugar. I ended up leaving the speed networking because I thought I was going to be very sick. Went home, had something to eat....drove with the windows down all the way home.
By about 8pm last night I was feeling like my old self. So........I need to change my diet again Seems just when I get going again poop happens to make me have to change things up. My own fault for not eating properly. By properly I mean more balanced. I was eating on plan, just leaving out things that level out my sugar. This getting old really really stinks!!

Quilter~ Im glad to have you back here. Im so sorry to hear about all that has been happening in your life.

Bill~Kudos for clearing the clutter!!! Did you shred it all?! Our big thing is cleaning out the shredder

shrinkin~ for the coat that now fits

tera~ Kudos for your walk in the park....sounds nice

ronnie~

No exercise yesterday, but I will get out today with the sun shining and at the very least get around the block.

Im off to get some work done.....have t-shirt emergency 400 for monday morning

Have a great day everyone!

Good morning, everyone!

Scale showed a little less of me this morning so that is incentive to keep OP the rest of the day. I've been saying "NO CHOICE" over and over. Works for me.

BBE ~ Congrats on being a clutter buster! Isn't it sad we have to shred everything these days.

SHRINKIN ~ Credit you for sticking to your calories yesterday. Your hard work is paying off as shown by now fitting into your dress coat.

TERA ~ I'm glad your hearing was less stressful than you thought. Credit you for the unplanned walk in the park,

ROBIN ~ You're right - getting old stinks. I've decided I won't get old. The calendar may say I'm 67 but I refuse to be a part of it - I think I'll be like Jack Benny and stay 39 forever. Hope you get your issue with sugar resolved.

Have a good day!

Hey all....will not be here starting tomorrow night. Monday is the 6th anniversary of Kathy's death (our dd). We now celebrate it as her holiday...she is free from pain. We try to do something so as it is on a monday we plan on going to the ocean from friday night until monday pm. We both need this too. Will check in then. Have a great weekend. Thanks for all the thoughts.

Diet Coaches - Couldn't get to the gym on Wednesday, so got there Thursday. CREDIT moi. Feels like a single day missed is a setback that requires a few days to catch up.

Tonight's challenge is to hand out Kit-Kat bars and not eat them myself all evening long. DW's notion to give out Clementines and Gala Apples never came to pass as the thought of good food being tossed by anxious parents was too painful. So, CVS Pharmacy had a good sale on Kit Kat bars and that made the choice for me. Arguably, I can feel good that I'm not handing out something that claims to be healthy, LOL. Hope we get the right number of trick-or-treat'ers since we no longer have me as the backup consumer of the left overs.

Robin (RobinW) - Ouch for the "episode." RE: "This getting old really really stinks!!" I'll watch out for that in the future, LOL. Good luck, four hundred times, for your t-shirt job. There used to be a t-shirt printing place near my office that sold the misprints at a steep discount; some really wacky mistakes as well as funny misspellings.

angelmomma210 - Sending warm thoughts this weekend and on Kathy's Holiday on Monday.

shrinkin - Congrats for fitting the dress coat in time for Nebraska winter. Yup, "Nebraska may be quite cold," LOL.

Tera (twilit tera) - Kudos for the spontaneous walking. Congrats that the hearing is behind you.

Susan (QuilterInVA) - Kudos for No Choice. Just amazing the power of that statement.

Readers -

Morning, coaches,

Probably OP day yesterdy for calories. Had to do a lot of estimating as I had lunch and dinner out. Did well though. Had chicken wrap for lunch along with green apple. Dinner: minestrone soup, grilled salmon and broccoli. CREDIT MOI for all of those good choices. Did 35 min in the pool and then went to PT. Very slow progress on the arm. Oh Well, just keeping the faith.

Twilit Tera- that hearing over, kudos for voting and horray for sunshine walk and movie. Must admit life has so many challenges, that my movie tastes have definitely gone to preferring happy endings. I think your presentation is ready to go!

RobinW-Don't like the sound of that episode. Good luck on those t-shirts. Hope you get the walk squeezed into your day in spite of need to get the t-shirt load off your back.

Susan-Glad that you are back on the board. Nice that scale is helping you out with staying OP. 67 does not sound that old.

angelmomma-Have a great weekend at the ocean and a great Kathy's day. You deserve some R and R.

BillBlueEyes-Yup, missing a gym day feels bad. When my schedule gets messed up, like it will this weekend, I have this anxiety that I wont get back to exercising and will be "starting all over". Part of the slippery slope feeling. Kudos for reminding self that you are not the backup kit kat consumer. Those k-k bars are not about you!

onebyone-We're missing you. ing for the sound of your footsteps and fingers on your keyboard!

jeanie-hope all is well and you are rocking along OP wiith bistroMD and workouts!

I am off to mom's late afternoon today; back Monday night. Will try to post, but we'll see. Stress load over weekend likely to be off the chart. Oh Well.

A great weekend to allI

happy friday, my coaches! had several exciting Beck moments yesterday and wanted to share. so:

1) had a business lunch in lieu of my bistro meal. account exec chose a fancy lunch buffet with a pasta bar, lots of bread, and a table full of exciting-looking desserts. i had 3 oz of fish, 2 c of broccolini, some fruit, and three bites (total) of the two best-looking desserts on the table. total calories and macro ratios about what i would have gotten from my bistro lunch. GO ME! '

2) lunch meeting went way over schedule, and realized on the drive back to work that i wouldn't have time for my treadmill hour. thought through the rest of my day and KNEW that there was no other time to do it, since last night was trick-or-treat night in Kettering and i was leaving work early to get the pumpkin carved and El Nino in his "Melmo" costume, hitting the neighborhood. got very PO'd that i'd miss my workout and lower my cal deficit for the day, when it occurred to me that while an hour was out of the question, i could still do 1/2 an hour. DUH! ran that 1/2 hr pretty fast, too. total calorie burn for the day: 2900!

3) after trick-or-treating, DH and i were examining DS's take. (DS still isn't sporting too many teeth, so most of it wasn't appropriate for him - tho he enjoyed the HECK out of a lollipop.) i had 200 calories left for the day, and had earlier thought to use them to enjoy some halloween candy. i sat there for maybe 20 minutes looking at it all, reading ingredients (booo - scary!) and trying to find something in there to get really excited about. the more i looked at it and imagined eating it, the less interesting it got. finally decided to have an OP bistro snack instead (and ended up under cals for the day.) DH also asked if i wanted him to take it all to work the next day (i.e. did i need it out of the house.) said, nope, for now we'll put it in a baggie in the "fun" shelf (where we keep DH's caramels, chips, popcorn, etc. - it's really high in our kitchen and requires me to get a stepstool to reach, so i don't go in there often.) i honestly think i'll be okay with it there, if he wants some. most of the time i forget we even have that crap in the house (DH forgets about it too sometimes.) if i even have one moment when thinking about it starts becoming appealing, i'll ask DH to take it to work. but i actually think i'm going to be OK with it! if i'm going to indulge, it better be fabulous, and coaches, a hunk of high-fructose corn syrup covered in partially hydrogenated palm kernal oil with denatured whatever just doesn't strike me as fabulous enough to put in my body. it also occured to me that i'd prefer not giving that crap to El Nino. he's happy with a lollipop every once in a while - i can live with that. i'll bake him a wonderful cake for his birthday (real butter, sugar, whole wheat pastry flour, italian merengue buttercream) so it's not like i'd never feed him anything processed. i'm just not feeling the nestle's junk today. who knows how i'll feel the next time PMS swings around? but today, for the first time EVER, halloween isn't making me feel compelled to eat a bunch of crappy candy. so. WHOA.

4) had a recruiter call yesterday (no idea how she found me) and told me about a job, closer to home, that i'm qualified for, and that pays significantly more than i'm making now. hmmm... wasn't actually in the market for a new job, but why not consider? so i'm thinking about actually going to a job interview, and just for s&g last night, i tried on a bunch of suits i've had in my closet for years but was only thin enough to wear for about 6 months in 1998. i VOWED that someday, some far freaking day, i'd be able to wear them again. coaches, that day was yesterday. and with the exception of one really great jacket (that i need to find pants for because the skirt disappeared at some point) they aren't flattering at all. WTF? i've been dragging these clothes around - three different houses i've lived in during this time - and they don't even look good on me. criminy! dump, dump, dump. there's a charity that provides business clothing for underpriviledged women, (i think it's called bottomless closet or something?) and i'm going to donate. for someone about 6 inches taller than me, i think they'd be awesome. however, i'm going to wait until i'm closer to goal, and then i'm going effin' shopping. however, i WILL NOT buy anything that doesn't make me look and feel fabulous. that's my new rule. course if i do end up interviewing for this random opportunity, i'll find a pair of pants to wear with the killer aubergine jacket.

shrinkin, excellent work with eating out! it feels good, doesn't it? sending some reiki to the arm. tera, love the unplanned exercise, and glad that the hearing was so simple. agree with bill - you sound prepared. debussy has no secrets from you. bill, i bet there are all kinds of people and places that would be happy to take leftover candy off your hands! we went with pretzels this year, which DH loves but i fell "meh" about. angelmomma, thinking of you. what a wonderful thing, to celebrate DD as free. i can't imagine anything more generous in love. susan, big kudos! no choice is pretty powerful. let us know if you need more support or suggestions for tactics. you've got to be feeling pretty tender right now. robin, ouch and YICKY! really does seem unfair that right when we think we've got it sorted, everything changes. pulling for you and your pancreas.

waving at onebyone, ronnie, coastalsue, maryblu, and all the others (lurking or just hanging!) have a great weekend!

PS: found my charm bracelet! now i just need to find the stupid little pliers to attach the new charm...