Diet Coaches – Walked to the gym wearing only a t-shirt and gym shorts; yea for warmer weather. Did 2 extra reps of my chest press. That's important just because it shows me that I'm still working at improving. It does feel great to work to the point that I was unable to do 3 extras. I had worked my muscle to fatigue. That justifies that I drank a protein shake to regrow my damaged muscle. CREDIT moi.

Sue (CoastalSue) - Kudos for avoiding the bakery goodies at your board meeting. And Kudos for continuing to avoid sweets and wine. I've wondered how long it takes for the body to reduce its metabolism after one begins eating too few calories; I hope a knowledgeable person answers your question. I've always thought that 1200 calories would prevent that though.

Heidi (hbuchwald) - Sending healing and supporting thoughts.

onebyone – The three windows with your paintings are really neat. How long do you get to use that space? Can you sell your art from there? LOL at your polite response to Sabotaging Thoughts, "Thank you for your input." It continues to astound me when my immediate response to a feeling of embarrassment is to eat mindlessly. It was so consistent that there was probably a conversion factor that would calculate the number of feelings-to-be-eliminated that I'd had by my pants size. You have an interesting insight there. Thanks.

amy (gahundy) – Waving. Hope your week is going well.

Nessa (ladybugnessa) - Howdy. Sounds like you're about to do the Hunger exercise - Good luck.

Robin (RobinW) - Ouch that you're on Sue (CoastalSue)'s The Stomach Flu Diet. Maybe it's contagious. LOL at your "Ive moved up..." description - that's really low. Hope you get that fresh air and are feeling better today.

Lori (elkfordian) - Interesting to think of the challenges you face planting a garden just below tree line. It's a tribute to hostas that they thrive there. My DW has some 40 hostas, maybe 12 varieties, in our small yard which is mostly shaded. Despite the shade she has to dig them up every few years and divide them to keep them in their allocated space. She has a hosta giveaway with no difficulty finding grateful recipients.

redballoon - Kudos for continuing to recognize and wrestle your Sabotaging Thoughts. Good analogy; I think of you as that sharp defense lawyer shouting, "Objection!"

Kathy (tresor) - Glad you asked for the steel cut oats recipe; I've got to try those. Hope all is going well with you.

Readers – "…Yet, once the dieters I’ve counseled learned to expect these rough patches – and to plan for them ahead of time – they were able to persevere and get through these temporary difficulties. …” From the Introduction, Beck, pg 12.


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Completed Beck Program-day 42. You’ve met your goal. Congratulations!

hi everyone!

another quickie, unfortunately. fortunately this is the LAST WEEK of school and this weekend marks the end of another herculean effort - my masters. i walk for commencement this saturday, my birthday. yay. it's over!

sunday is mother's day, and this year i actually FEEL like a mom. el nino has started repeating words in earnest; the one we heard early and often is "cheese." yep, that's my kid.

hi sue - for pictures, i've just been going to the "advanced" edit open for writing posts, and down below the icons there's an option for managing attachments. if you browse and attach, they come up as those great little expandable thumbnails.

on that note, here's hoping i have another pretty cake picture soon! i just got a started kit of cutters and veiners to make all kinds of things out of fondant and gumpaste. my first project is phalaenopsis orchids. just love them, and it would be wonderful to make them out of sugar so they never drop or die (although they might get eaten.) i mentioned what i'm doing to my marketing instr. last night, who apparently does something with wedding vendors for one of her clients. asked me to email her a picture so they can put me on their website. it's wonderful - synchronicity, law of attraction, all that - i just want to make sure i don't dive in and get sucked under another wave of TOO MUCH. seems to be my pattern and a great reason to put off losing weight, doing Beck, the hard stuff, which is why i'm looking at another birthday 50 lbs too heavy. hmm.

this week, though, just putting a bow on a major piece of effort. credit moi for sticking with my program for so many years and FINALLY being finished. feels good!

happy thursday, everybody!

yep Bill... working on hunger cravings and desire... hard stuff for me... so i keep working it. I have that hunger is not an emergency so i'll skip that.

i need to work on overeating...

glad you had a good gym day!

Hi everyone,

I was going to post last night but while I was waiting for my turn on the computer I read some books to my son and feel asleep with him. Woke up this morning.

Sorry I don't have personals for you all, life just seems so busy. I need to find balance. I have been helping others out and then it becomes so time consuming and then someone else needs help and so on and so on. I will work on this one.

I hope everyone is doing well and taking care of their selves.

Onebyone, I live about an hour and a half southwest of Ottawa.
I was in Ottawa earlier this week as a friend needed help with something.

Hello to everyone and have a great day.

Ann

Quick post off topic--elkfordian, see if you can find some hot pepper wax spray for your hostas. It's a miracle for keeping critters off of plants.
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/repellent.html

I picked up my Beck book and opened it to Day 1. It's as if I'd never read it before. It seems to me I didn't do half of what is only on page one. I never did rip the advantage cards out of the book, nor did I post my reasons for losing weight anywhere, never took it out of the book either. I hate ripping pages from a book but it's not liek I can't make my own cards and my own text file to print out... or scan and print out. I'm starting again, using the book. So I am off to scan pages and print them out for me. I need to get on the bandwagon in all ways again. I saw 257 on the scale this morning. *sigh* Hormones or no I am tired of all this up down up down up down. Gotta start somewhere to help myself out of this rut.

redballoon Yes, the windows in my avatar are my first solo show! It's street level and it's just a wall with three door, one into each window, and it's made just for displaying art. Very cool. My work is there until the end of June, 2 months. It's really a great feeling to have my stuff there.

Newlifestyle Hey neighbour! Hope you are having a great day today... weekend looks awesome weatherwise!

Ladybugnessa Hello. Hope your day is good as well.

kuhljeanie When I started my art business 17 years ago it all just unfolded in front of me the way you are describing it happening to you now. As I did one step, the next one appeared. Glad to hear you are following through. Just let it lead you and you'd be wise not to overcommit to things before you find out just how much work and how many costs are really involved. I wish you all the best!

Billblueeyes To answer you question my work is for sale in the window display and interested persons contact the school for my prices. There's a letter posted in the window along with my artist statement. It was hard for me to price my stuff... I always underprice (take note kuhljeanie; artisans notoriously underprice their own work. Get a second opinion)... I decided not to underprice this time so I have fair market value on them based on how long I worked on them. Congrats on working out until your muscles failed. Did you have a personal trainer at one point or just learn what to do on your own?

coastalsue Hope your back feels better soon. And congrats on staying away from the sugary things on the table. I am into the sugar again and need it to stop. At one time I abstained from sugar for three years. I can't even imagine how I managed that now. Do you follow a calorie counting plan for losing weight?

elkfordian Wow, you're near the treeline?! You must so appreciate it when you can grow things and your season must be supershort but your days must be fairly long... are they? I remember when I went to Arizona for the first time in March a few years ago. we went downtown and they had pansies in planters. Pansies were their winter flowers I was told. Winter flowers? Wow. Pansies are summer fare around here and one of my favorites. You must be able to grow them right?

hi onebyone! also off the wagon, and i'm planning on restarting on page 1, day 1 too. is anyone else in the same boat?

thanks for the advice! NOTED! michael o'neil wrote about this - something about how common resources move towards rare resources. we usually think of ourselves as common and money as rare. if you think of money as abundant and make yourself the rare resource, the money will beat a path to your door. i like thinking about it that way. it sure worked like that when i was dating! took what seemed like forever to figure it out...

Kuhljeanie/onebyone-- I am in the same boat as well. I seemed to have lost my mind for a while. I feel like I am purposefully hurting my body by gaining even more weight. I don't like the way I look or feel and I have tools at my disposal and, yet, I keep blowing it, I bought the Beck workbook today as a mothers day gift to myself. I am going to start working from day one again. My husband has been fired as my diet coach. He likes the Dairy Queen as much as me. So... if I may use all of you as diet coaches, I would be most appreciative!!

Hi there everyone,
I am still here but haven't been reading or posting until now. I have been thinking about you all and it feels so good to be inspired by all of you and your thinking/processing. THANKS.

Henry's diagnosis is cirrosis -that bout of leptospirosis/hepatitis took its toll on his liver and now it is irrepairable. The doc thinks that I will need to put him down within a few days. I am giving him fluids, syringing food down his throat since he is not in the least interested in eating and just loving him up. I was a MESS when I first got the grim news. I am still devastated and scared that I won't KNOW when to euthanize but trying to just enjoy him and live normally and watch closely and trust myself that I will know.

I have been turning to food for comfort or because I "deserve it". It doesn't feel good. I have been eating fairly normally until the end of the day when I dig into the candy jar. What is the thought that precedes it? It is a little more vulgar version of "who cares..I will get back on track again..." and a dose of "I deserve to eat whatever I want". Today there were donuts in the staff room and I indulged. I am going to pack a load of veggies for tomorrow to snack on when I get the munchies or think that I deserve to eat. I can respond to the sabotaging thoughts with "I deserve to take good care of myself". I still come back to something that Sue said one time about listening to her body and not just her brain (loose paraphrase).

What does Beck say? Back to basics...I will join the crew of rereading from the beginning to solidify the first 14 days. I will weigh in on Sunday and try to slow down and relax in the meantime..no need to be impulsive with food. It will nourish me and help me be strong during a time that I need to be extra strong. There is a new response card in there..


About the steel cut oats. My dad makes them from breakfast when we go out on his boat in the summertime-he puts some sour cherries in the oatmeal for the last few minutes of cooking-yum! I also read somewhere and tried cooking them in milk instead of water and DD and I loved it. I also have been using stevia and less of other artificial sweeteners-it is good stuff and a little goes a long way.

Keep up the hard work everyone-personals another time... thanks for keeping us in your thoughts. You are in mine as well. H

Hello All,

Dear Heidi -So sorry that dear Henry is so ill-you will know the right moment to let Henry go-Tell him- he has fans here also that know how much he is loved by you and your DD.

Right now I am in one of those rare times where I am so focused limiting my eating-Looking forward to a "skinny" 299 in a week or two. Still going with no sugar, white flour and alcohol. Really don't know why this week has been easy and other time it is constant fighting of sabatoging thought to follow my plan. It is a mystery-kind of worried that suddenly once again all I'll think about is fighting impluses to overeat. Believe me have restart the Beck many times-Always learn something new re-reading the book.

I was doing some studing on the internet about diets and l liked one bit of advice-finding a diet is like find a friend/partner-one should try dating different diets and than decide which one you want to live with for a long time-

BillBlueEyes-you guys have the market on spring-very nice-here is cold and so windy-could hear teeth chattering in the pool.-even our cat is complaining about the windy cold days. I would like to better undertand about what is my correct amount of optimium cal reduction. My last Doc yelled at me that 1500 cal was way too low and I was going to stop losing weight at rate-go figure doing better at 1200 cal now.

Onebyone and KulhJeanie-much success on your adventures-been reading your posts on pricing. DH and I are making functional birdhouses and will do our 1st fair this year in May-what a pain it is to price our work! The job market in our rural area is bleak and hoping with some travel we can be successful in the handcraft. Plus really enjoy making and decorating them with recycled objects. KulhJeanie-much congradulation on graduation!

OnebyOne three years of no sugar-wow I'm glad to make a week. Yes I count cals as it gives me the most flexibilty-Plus I found it was great to really learn the cal cost of foods I ate-sort of like 1 tbs of PB and I cup of "light" soup are both a 100 cals-started eating more soup and less PB when hungry.

kidlibrarylady-My skinny Dh loves to eat-he can be become such an enable with me to overeat. while he burns off all those cals I just get bigger and bigger-I am with you love this spot for diet coaches

Best wishes to all
sue

Diet Coaches – Still have a few more stressful days to go at work; am getting those thoughts that eating something will reduce the stress. It never has before, but that doesn't lessen the attraction. It helps to invoke No Choice. CREDIT moi for remembering to use my Beck strategies and for avoiding the nibbles. Took my bike out after work today. It was warm enough to enjoy the wind blowing through the helmet. Was passed by a young dude in spandex from head to toe going twice my speed. Wondering how much faster I'd go wearing spandex, LOL.

Sue (CoastalSue) - It's awesome that you are "Still going with no sugar, white flour and alcohol." kudos for that. Did your ticker just tick another pound toward twoderland? From what I understand, 1500 calories per day at your weight should drop some 3-4 pound per week, which, as your doctor noted, is "way too low." When it's not dropping that much weight, it seems to me you're doing the right thing with your period of 1200.

Heidi (hbuchwald) - Ouch for the reality of Henry's liver. Sending supportive thoughts for you and DD. As Sue noted, you will know the time. I, too, wondered if I would know when our beloved Australian Shepard reached the point where her life was no longer a real dog's life. But the day came when we knew that extending her misery was not the way to love her. Kudos for staying focused on what you have to do here; staying focused can help you avoid the desire for that false comfort we attribute to food.

Jean (kuhljeanie) - One more day !!!! Kudos for keeping sane during this last week.

onebyone – Good show to re-organize yourself during this great transition. Reading Beck from the beginning is a great idea. I'm getting refreshed also by reading the Preface and the Introduction while I am typing them for the daily notes to the Readers. Re: trainers. Yep, I bought a stack of 12 training sessions when I first joined the gym 2.5 years ago. I use my guy for education, "training" in my mind, as well as checking and adjusting my form. They all wish to be used as workout buddy where they hold one end of the rope and count the reps for you. It's certainly motivational, but a bit pricey just for motivation.

Nessa (ladybugnessa) - Kudos that you keep "working on hunger cravings and desire." Desire is the big one for me. It's just seeing some food and wanting it like my life depended on it.

Ann (Newlifestyle) - LOL at, "I read some books to my son and fell asleep with him." BTDT. Now I can fall asleep reading books to myself.

Lori (elkfordian) - Hope you are right with your comment, "We are finally realizing we have to care for our lovely planet."

redballoon - Waving west to Tokyo. Do you really ride a horse in Tokyo?

KidsLibrarylady - Accepting the mutual contract to be one of your on line Diet Coachs. LOL at firing your DH for his attraction to Dairy Queen. My DW is not a candidate for Diet Coach because I would bore her to divorce with the minutia of what I'm thinking about while trying to incorporate the Beck strategies into my daily life. Kudos for buying the Beck workbook.


Readers – “… I equip the dieters I counsel with many preparatory tasks and skills – before they ever start dieting. …" From the Introduction, Beck, pg 12.

__________________
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Completed Beck Program-day 42. You’ve met your goal. Congratulations!

Good Morning coaches.

I'm not moving on to Day 2 yet as I never did copy out my list of reasons to lose weight, nor my response cards. I did read my reasons to lose weight this morning, and last night. It sure is helpful to be reminded why I am trying so hard to lose weight when I constantly undermine my own efforts every 4-6 weeks or so. The scale was down 3lbs overnight so I am back to the regular 254 for me.
A good starting point

Otherwise it's a heavy work day for me today. I have lots of brooches to get done and paintings to finish up and we have to complete setting up my booth tonight at the Carp Market. Both markets start up this weekend and I follow this schedule now until the end of October. A 6 month committment of weekends. I'm looking forward to having pocket money though. I've had 6 months of scrambling for funds. Ugh. Hate that. I was chuckling as I was cutting out the pieces for my brooches (I work in a modelling plastic material that I can cut and then I melt the pieces together into one solid piece) imagining making cat people and bird girls and dog faced boys. Not sure if I am going to mix animals and people. Haven't done that before but feel a nudge to do it. Fans of my work look for the odd ball desing and the over the top whatever. Been a while since I was inspired to do that in my plastic. It's a good sign. Think I'll do it.

BillBlueEyes Hmmm. Spandex. I would love to be fit enough to wear a spandex cycling jersey and look hot... not even sure if these are spandex come to think of it. I've never touched one! They are thin and light though... think that'll make it to my "reasons to lose weight" list.
Awesome you resisted the first bite. Good going to reach for Beck instead of nibbles just cause they're there.

coastalsue With regards to calorie cutting all I know is the body responds to being shook up. If you don't lose weight and you're exercising the same way and then change your routine, you lose weight. If you alter your calories after holding steady at x and do y, you'll lose weight, until the body adjusts. For me this would be the only concern. That my body would no longer lose weight at anything over 1200... though you know many things I have read say to eat for the weight that you want to be. And then you read that we should only cut 300-500 calories a day to get that 0.5 - 1.0 loss per week. And as you can see by my body I don't lose like that at all. I go in fits and starts. Big losses and then nothing... also equally big gains. So long as the food you are eating is nutritious I'd hold the 1200, but no lower. I think that'd be trouble. It'll be good when you can finally get back to exercising. That's the real key to all of this.

hbuchwald So sorry to hear about Henry. I've gone through that with two beloved cats, one who died right in front of me, another who died in my arms at the vet. Of the two, the vet death was much more peaceful. You really will know. When it was time, my pet was disconnected from the world around her. the breathing was laboured, no energy, it was really over. It's the last great thing you can do for your beloved pet. Sorry you are at this point but happy to hear you are such a great person to want to take care of your pet to the very end. Not all animals are so lucky and that I don't understand at all. to you and Henry.


KidsLibrarylady Yes! Diet coaches. There are none better than the folks here. In spite of my backsliding I truly look forward to checking in here daily. It keeps me circling the wagons until I drive off on one of them again. I'm climbing onto the step to get back in as we speak! haha!


kuhljeanie I did a wholesale trade show in las vegas last spring. I kept picturing the flow of money going into that city, moving around that city and re-distributing itself. There's a lot of money in the air there (and everywhere). I kept picturing a butterfly net and holding it up into the air to catch a bit of that money flow. That show wasn't a great show and I can't say the net metaphor actually worked to catch me lots of money (perhaps the mesh in the net was too wide?!) but I liked the idea and it helps me even today recognize that all things flow and change including income levels. Best to go with the flow in all areas of our lives. Gee? did that make any sense? Hmmm.

Hi all...time for another of my infrequent check-ins.
Things continue to go well. I got through the obstacle course of last weekend pretty smoothly. It was all a lot of fun, though part of me was very happy to get back to weekday eating and my planned, simpler foods. This weekend has a couple of events -- a potluck lunch Saturday and mother's day dinner at my brothers, but both should have good food choices for me. I'm bringing marinated tofu and veggies to the potluck to be sure to have some simple protein.

Credit me for a 2-exercise day yesterday. I went to Curves in the morning, and then it was so gorgeous out in the afternoon that I took a 1.4 mile walk. I'm still working on my willingness to spend more than 45 minutes exercising 2-3 days a week.

DH got a new bike a couple of weeks ago and I got mine tuned up. One evening this week (I think it was Tuesday) we went for a ride together before dinner....I'm pretty pokey and huffy up the hills, but it felt good to be back on the bike (no spandex for me, yet).

BBE: glad you got out and enjoyed the weather. I hope you enjoy the indoor exercise you'll be doing most of the next week. I hear we're in for a lot of rain.

Onebyone: good for you for going back to day 1. I think we all have a lot of intuition about what we need to do, when we are able to think clearly enough to key in to it.

Hbuchwald: So sorry about Henry. Pets give us so much love and joy....but it's so hard when they're sick or the end is near. I too have put down a cat and had one die in my arms...now I have an aging dog that I totally adore.

sue: Sometimes I think it can be easier to get sweets and white carbs totally out of your system than to try to eat them in small quantities....other times I think that cutting them out can lead to feelings of deprivation and backfire....glad it's going well for you now.

elkforidian I love reading your posts...your insights and mindframe are really an inspiration.

Jeanie: Glad you're posting here, while you're getting through your very busy time.

Nessa:

Good Morning

Getting better daily....but wow, this one has clung on

On the plus side, this bug has helped me loose enough weight to get back into my jeans I can toss the stretchy pants!!

Today is the first time since last sunday (I think) that I have any sort of meal plan that I believe I can stick to. Its been toast and cup-a-soup for the last week.

I plan to walk down to the walgreens some time today. Im still sweating like crazy and Im still very hot, but getting out and walking and getting the fresh air on my face feels so good. Good thing its cool out there. Hubby insists my having the fan on all night directed right at me is making me sick, and will make him sick! he hates being cold! Nothing like a fan blowing right in your face to dry up the congestion!

Lunch is planned and packed, but Im going to let supper fly by the seat of its pants. I'll see how Im feeling.....might be more soup.

I rescheduled my appointment with my personal trainer for next friday, so that should give me enough time to re-coop.

Have a great day everyone!

Hi coaches,
Thanks so much for everyone's well wishes..we are hanging in there.

My veggie stash worked today at work-kudos to me! I also said to several co workers, "just because I am in a classroom that has a bucket of licorice in a cupboard, does NOT mean that I need to eat the licorice"... it really did help to remind myself that I was not hungry, did not plan to eat candy and that I was trying to make myself feel emotionally better. BIG kudos to me for that Beck thinking!

I am cooking a chicken, onion and barley dish. Easy and smells delicious so far! I made it through the whole day without digging into the candy or cookies or ice cream. It feels good to take good care of myself. I also have bouts of eating right coming easy and others where it is not. I really do feel like though, during this past tough time keeping on track, I had those ideas in my mind about how to deal with it. I am equipped and knew that I really did want to do the right thing for myself and today I did. In my attempt to fight "all or nothing" thinking in regards to snacking on sweets at nighttime the last several nights, I must remember that I continue to cook healthy foods and am excited to eat them for meals. I also read my advantages each morning and night, drink water and do unplanned exercise. I must also remember to be gentle with myself since it took a LOT of years to build up the habits that led me to be so overweight. Change is possible and is happening-I can feel it!

Weekend challenge: going out to dinner with my dad and his girlfriend and my daughter and her daughter. We are going to a Seattle Sounders soccer game afterward. I have no idea where we are eating... I will allot a certain number of calories for the meal and eat slowly and drink water and stay relaxed and have fun!

Happy weekend everyone!