Good Morning!

Coffee's on, and I'm ready to start the day. Got in some good walks/bike rides this weekend, and the missus and I put out some pansies and bushes yesterday to dress up the flower beds a bit.

Have a great day!

Dean

Betsy— I've been meaning to get back to you for some time about something you said about the slow belly breathing technique. You said that you did find it relaxing, but that it did not curb your appetite. This is an important point: the slow belly breathing is not capable of curbing your appetite, but it is effective in helping you make the right decisions when you're faced with food choices.

It may help if you think, as Kathryn Hansen counsels in her Brain over Binge, of the brain as divided (this is very simplistic, of course) into two areas: the lower brain, the seat of your appetites, your sugar and salt cravings, your impulses to eat the wrong things or too much of the right things, and the higher brain, the seat of your desire to lose weight, your ability to make the right food decisions, your ability to choose what you want for the long term, as opposed to what you feel like in the short term.

I won't repeat the involved explanation I gave earlier about why this is so, but scientific studies have shown that the slow belly breathing technique—in which you imagine your belly as a balloon you're sloooowly inflating and sloooowing deflating—in which you try to slow your breathing cycle down to about 15 seconds from the beginning of your inhale, then holding for a few seconds with your lungs full, down to the end of your exhale—activates the exact anatomical location (right behind your forehead bone) of your higher brain. It activates your higher brain from as long as 2-3 hours after you have practiced the slow belly breathing technique for just 5-10 minutes. So it can help you a great deal in making choices that are what you want for the long term.

But if you're not trying to make those choices, if you're not trying to think consciously about "I want this" versus "I feel like this," the slow belly breathing will not help you. It has no effect whatsoever on your lower brain, where your appetites and cravings originate, only on your higher brain. Does that make sense?

Good Morning!
Fi if you don't mind giving your opinion I was wondering if you think sugar cravings are more emotional or physical? (I know that may not be the correct word but you know what I mean.) Thanks.
Dean what kind of coffee today?
Terra is your pain from the cracked heel or something else? Did your laundry get put away?
shan congrats on the 3 pounds! Every .00000000001 pound down counts. Enjoy your vacation.
MissBB congrats on your 2 pounds down! No internet sounds like the end of the world, or maybe a vacation. Not sure about that.
Sam congrats on your 2 pounds! Keep pushing it!
Betsy I am so glad you are putting yourself first. I've stepped back from this last bout of toxic involvement and it is not easy but necessary. How are the sugar and salt snacks going?
Silent come on get back here! Can't we at least hear from you once a week? I just had my last social activity until December. What am I going to do without your social life to live vicariously through. Betsy and I might have to get creative and brave! (So not going to happen on my end.)
Well I went to a wedding on Saturday and had two small pieces of cake but I was still disappointed that I had to look like a pig and take two. I sat at a table with a woman who lost a lot of weight 30 years ago and has kept it off. I watched her for clues. She did drink more water but ate all the foods I did and only one piece of cake. I did not see a magic pill or wand.
Have a peaceful day.

Ubee It was a wedding, if you can't splurge a little then, when can you? I'm sure you didn't look like a pig. In the grand scheme of things, two small bits of cake isn't going to do much damage. Keep with the plan, allow the occasional splurge, you'll kill it!

No internet was crap - definitely not as relaxing as I thought it would be. Paying for it now in the catch up.

It's just gone 1:30 am and I'm up marking... as I always am it seems at the moment. It may be TMI but my time of the month is coming up in a few days and so it begins again - the three days before, like clockwork, I am like a ravenous idiot. You'd think I hadn't eaten in weeks. I don't know what it is about my hormones at this time that makes me starving. Drives me mad.

Consequently, all I can think about is the tray of veggie frittata I made for lunches the next few days... It's sitting in my fridge. Calling. Eeeeaaaattt Mmmeeeeee.... eeeeeeeeaaaaatttt meeeee *pulls hair out*

Afternoon Everyone!

I have some time at work to take a bit of a break so I can breathe so I thought I'd go ahead and post...

BB Great job on the loss! Keep it up girl!!!

Fi I always am in awe of your collages and how the ideas come to you...I haven't felt very creative lately..maybe I should try your technique

Shan Awesome job on the 3 lb loss!! I too have times where I am disappointed I didn't lose more with as hard as I've worked, but remember the average is 2-3 lbs a week so you're doing great! Your vacation sounds lovely, I can't wait to go on mine in December. I always take it at the end of the year because of the holidays and my birthday is the day after christmas so it all works out. I hope you have a great time with the BF and hope that you don't have another episode when working out...You can do this!

Terra Hope your foot feels better...I hate when things happen like an injury or illness that sets back everything.

Dean Bike rides sound fun! What kind of coffee today?

Ubee Don't worry about the 2 pieces of cake. It was considered a special time so it's ok to indulge a little bit. Just remember to tell yourself that it's only allowed for special occasions. I am having to smack myself back into that when it comes to the sugar. I had a dark chocolate bar last night and starting today I'm stopping with all of the unnecessary sugar and go back to eating fruits when I want something sweet. I'm going to push to be 100% this week...

So as I told Ubee, this week I am pushing for 100%, all A++, gold stars, whatever you want to use ....I spoke to my friend and "coach" who does beach body coaching and told her how I'm tired of doing this to myself. I know I'm not eating anywhere near as bad as I have in the past before losing weight, but for some reason I've been telling myself it's ok to have sweet here and there and expect it not to hinder my weight loss since I'm working out...I know if I don't stop it completely that I will just end up back where I was and I have worked way too hard to let that happen to myself. So this week, I'm going to take it day by day and keep a count of how much water I intake, no sweets or chips or anything that I shouldn't have, 100% on plan, and will make sure that I get all of my workouts in. I did really well last week and did reach my target of 5 workouts so I'm proud of that. I didn't go to the gym at all, did all my workouts at home but any workout is better than no workout. I also have a goal to get more cardio in my routine. My plan is to do cardio 3 days, and strength training 2 days a week. I just need to find that right amount of cardio and strength training that will work for me. Hopefully this will give me a boost in my weight loss that I need.

I hope everyone has a great day! I'm going back to work. Thanks everyone for being here and listening when I need it

Sam that sounds like a solid plan. I'm currently on 3 days with a minimum 45 minutes cardio (though, that might involve a longer but slow paced walk with the dogs) and 3 days with 20 mins cardio and then strength sessions. It took a while to work up to that, but once you find that sweet spot, just power through.

You'll get there hun. Just remember to enjoy yourself and have fun with it! You got this.

Good morning all. I'd give a weather report, but since I can't see the weather, we'll just say the sun did come up. Very, very foggy out there this morning.

MissBB -- Sometimes it really irritates me that I've become so dependent upon the Internet for.....EVERYTHING! (phone service, stream just about all TV viewing, information gathering, etc.). But then I realize that it's no different than when we couldn't imagine living without something else 20-30 years ago (I'm old enough that I can remember much longer than that!). I well remember the urges to eat everything that literally wasn't moving at TMI. Can't say I miss those days.

Ubee -- First, love, you did not look like a pig. Part of this journey/battle is having a more positive image of ourselves. OK, yes, two pieces of cake should have been limited to one, but watching the lady who took off weight and kept it off is a great idea. Heck, if she's open to it, ask her how she does it....and why. Haven't done the snacks yet but I'm going into town today to do shopping and will get stuff I need. The pictures of me looking squeezed into the 4X clothes are helping not to mention the sign I put on the fridge that says: DO YOU WANT THIS MORE THAN ......... Now I just need to make about 20 more of them and post them everywhere until I get out of these food habits. I'm trying to work on substituting activities for the mindless eating habit -- I haven't had an evening snack for days now since I bought the ipad and have resumed knitting.

Fi -- First, love the new collage and love the fact that you're on such a creative streak right now because it also means that the depression pain is not rearing its ugly head right now. Also, thank you, thank you, thank you for that explanation about the deep breathing. That makes perfect sense and I'm going to add it to the arsenal of tools I'm trying to develop to overcome this mindless eating and making bad choices. It has dawned on me (really, I'm smarter than this will sound) that most of the time the constant eating was probably initially started as an emotional coping mechanism way back when in my 20s/30s. But it became habit both in terms of basically constant eating and poor selections. Instead of trying to break these old, ingrained habits, I'm trying to replace them with new habits including sticking to healthy eating for more than a day or two at a time.

Dean -- Bet your pansies look pretty -- they've always been one of my favorite flowers with their little faces. Sounds like you got in a lot of exercise this weekend between the walks/rides and the yard work. Good for you.

Terra -- Where does your foot hurt, Terra? Is it in the heel area? I ask because my first thought was plantar fasciitis. Sorry you're having problems as that's miserable feeling.

Shan84 -- A 3 pound loss is great! Hope you and your BF are able to have a really great vacation time.

Sam -- Getting 2 of the 4 pounds off is great. There are going to be bumps in the roads. You hit a little pothole. I seem to have fallen into a sinkhole and am having to climb out. Keep up the great work.

I'm off to town today with a stop at the bank first to sign the paperwork for the new home equity line of credit. I have always had one since I bought my first house -- it's my emergency fund. My grand nephew's birthday is Wednesday so we'll be going up next weekend to celebrate -- he's turning 4. My BIL will hopefully be released next week and I can stop going over there to put on the hose and driving him everywhere. Then I plan on going into a total focus of getting me back on track. Enough of this already. It dawned on me yesterday that I have been trying to lose weight for 2 years in January, and I'm currently at the 40 pounds lost and still off point. That's better than having gained another 40 pounds from my starting point, but definitely not where I thought I'd be. Time to take care of me as well as everyone else.

Coffee is/was half hazelnut/half autumn blend... Mmmm... Good way to start the day!

Dean

Ubee ~ No, I dont think its from my cracked heel, I'm not sure why it hurts when I walk back and forth on the pavement.

Sam ~ Thanks, I hope it stops hurting soon.

Betsy ~ Its on the bottom of my foot, from my toes to my heel

Terra— I'm thinking plantar fasciitis, too. When I got plantar fasciitis, the whole bottom of my foot hurt, from my toes all the way to my heel. If you have been walking on concrete or asphalt (sidewalks or roads), that could well be the problem. Some people get plantar fasciitis simply from walking on surfaces that are too hard: I, for one, can only do long walking on trails (softer surfaces). But other people get it because their feet are pronating too much and they need arch support.

If I were you, I'd get a professional opinion from a podiatrist. We cannot do the diagnosis or come up with the right treatment for your foot pain.

Ubee— I think sugar cravings are both biological and psychological. Often, but not always, the pattern goes like this: you crave sugar because you've found that it temporarily relieves psychological tension or pain, and then after you eat the sugar, you crave more of it for the biological reason that you have too much insulin in your blood stream, which makes your blood sugar levels drop. The best book that explains sugar cravings, I think, is that one you were reading last fall: Gary Taubes's Why We Get Fat: And What to Do about It.

Sam— If you really want to do something about becoming more creative, I highly recommend Swap-bot. Swap-bot can help you be more creative in any form of craft or art you choose, because such a wide range of swaps are available—and most importantly, because when you absolutely have to get something in the mail to a swap partner, it makes you get off your butt and be creative! Swap-bot is how I got started making collages. I would not be the artist I am today, were it not for Swap-bot. My last collage, the zig-zag one, was made for a Swap-bot swap.

Betsy— Just remember: that sloooow breathing technique got me up off the couch and doing the BERP, some 40-60 hours a week for four months and more. If I could use the slow breathing technique to pull off working like a fiend to de-clutter my poor paper-choked house, think what you could do with it! =grin=

Evening/Morning all!

The attack of the killer hormones continues. Beware: I Might Eat You.

Hot, hot, hot day. Are any 300+ers anti-summer like me? Just can't stand the heat. Then again, Australia might have something to do with it. We whole weeks of 42 degree heat (that's 107 fahrenheit).

So I was a lazy McSlob today and was just to hot schlepping around uni. Came home and not even my dogs wanted to walk. So under the fan it was. Oh well. Will make it up tomorrow - finally a cool change coming!

Good morning all. We've definitely started with the fall weather here -- cooler and overcast a lot. It's always a challenge to get the yard ready for winter in between the rain drops at this time of year. Plus, when it's a sunny day, we all want to go play. OK, in actuality, playing is always preferable to yard work!

Terra Sounds like a full day. Hope you have a good time with your nephew -- they're adorable at that age.

MissBB What are your winter temperatures like? An Australia vacation is on my bucket list, but 107 would do me in. Is air conditioning prevalent? Hope the hormones subside -- so many joys to raging hormones.

Fi Since I am an emotional/stress eater, I'm trying to calm down in all areas of my life. I'm hoping the deep breathing will have a de-stresser impact on me. I was supposed to have a HELOC closing yesterday that got messed up. Instead of getting irritated and snapping at the poor guy who was at the tail end of the screw up, I literally asked myself what Fi would do and sat in the car and spent about 3-4 minutes just breathing in and out with my eyes closed. It was just enough that it made me realize that world peace was not involved in my having to reschedule for next week.

Dean Mmmmmmmm.....can smell your blend out here.

It dawned on me yesterday that I need to be more extreme in my thinking because what I'm doing now isn't working. I had decided that I wouldn't have any forbidden foods and that I would learn to have portion control. Well, that resulted in a 30 pound regain that is still coming off. Then I fell back into my old bad habit of once I'd gone off plan, I might as well have a binge day and get it out of my system. See note about 30 pound regain. In the meantime I started cataloging my health/lifestyle issues. A fib, arthritis in both knees and hips, high blood pressure, can't walk more than 20 feet without being out of breath, and can't really go anyplace if it's going to require walking any distance at all.

In the past I've set goals for such things as being able to go to Zoo Lights at Christmas time with the boys, walking to the gym and back, etc. But setting them as a goal definitely wasn't doing it. So, I finally accepted that I was kidding myself that I was getting healthy. In actuality, if I don't do something and get my eating under control on a permanent basis, then I won't have to worry about whether I'll be able to outlive my IRAs because I won't live that long. So, morbid as this sounds, when I want something to eat that is either not on plan or is just stress/emotional eating, I literally ask myself if I want it enough to die from it. This is definitely extreme thinking, but in all honesty continuing down this path is going to result in a shortened life span.

Fiona ~ Yeah if it doesnt get better after I get my new shoes then I will go see a podiatrist

Betsy ~ Yes I love my nephew, He is really cute