Coaches,

Another on plan day yesterday for calories. Credit MOI. Challenge was attending an all day business retreat. The goal of these shindigs is to provide you with enough attractive food at breaks and lunch that you forget you are miserable sitting in a hotel ballroom all day discussing pretty boring things. You "get to eat" about every 1.5-2 hours to keep you from going crazy. LOL. Chose fairly well for lunch. Removed the hard-to-find thin slice of turkey from one half sandwich and placed it on other half of enormous bread. Left half the bread on the plate. Only break food-some cherry tomatoes. Said NO to chocolate chip cookies, brownies chips and cheese and crackers. Credit MOI for the choices and for laughing over the ridiculous amount of temptations.

Was not a workout day. Odd, because I am very tired and sore today. Not sure I can drag myself to pool. Maybe will feel better post coffee.

Official weekly weigh in: down 2. Should be ecstatic but not the lowest number of the week. Oh well, I know how it is. Scale bounces around. Four week average loss: 0.88 pounds per week. Met previous nonscale goal of wearing black travel jacket. New nonscale goal: having red wool jacket fit. Number of water work out days this month:16!

Reread Beck Day 3. Refected on purpose behind Sitting Down, ie having a "proper meal". It is important for you to see all of it spread out in front of you...so you are visually satisfied. Also must focus on what you are eating so you can account for every bite which you cant do if running around, and although she does not say this....doing other things. So what about those of us who sit down, but are multitasking during meals at desk, at computer, in front of TV? Methinks this is following the "letter of the law" for Sitting Down but not the spirit. Tough one for work because I virtually always eat at desk in front of computer.

BBE-Feel for you on that refrigerated cake with whipped cream brought by guest especially after you planned for Sue Antoinette style dinner. Fruit, cake and whipped cream....yum, yum and hard to resist. Bet you are flexing your resistance muscle today. Having guests surprise me with food is a big challenge for me too. Tough to say "No thank you" to a piece with them present, but then after tasting something really good, also hard not to want to keep eating and eating. Our last house guests from Kentucky brought "Derby Pie"...combo of pecans and chocolate. After indulging in one small piece, took the rest to the office the very next day.

freer-Ouch for the long hours, but sounds like you are onto something with that second grade teacher diet and exercise plan. Does sound like you can use this time of extra activity to a big advantage!

wanting to- to the Beck Board. Always happy to have another coach!

QuilterInVA-Glad you posted back and are ready to lead a new charge!

RobinW-WooHoo for another mouse! Reminds me we should think to get some traps as we head into the fall. Kudos for planning your strategy for the trip! Haven't viewed The Secret but agree with what I think is its basic theme that changing one's perception, focus, energy and thinking from what you lack to what you want makes a person more efficient at achieving goals. It is a life altering message.

Coffee, here I come ...and hopefully, pool, ready or not, here I come.

Happy Thursday to all out there!

flying by - hope everyone is having a good week! am leaving work a little early today - dh had a doc appt and i want to find out how it went.

just wanted to let you all know i'm still around but so squeezed for time at work. new project. it's all good there, though - very engrossing, the more interesting work gets the less time i have to dwell on my sweetie. and dwelling on his issues while i'm at work doesn't help him, oddly enough - so i'm doing well to focus on work when i'm at work. and focus on food when i'm EATING it (instead of, say, all the time.)

still having some challenges there. my workout schedule has been pretty well decimated. still looking to steady my sea legs - it will come!

thanks again for the stellar support!!!

Hi coaches

Progress on some fronts for me. The blue room painting is done. The room is still VERY much in disarray. I hope to get it in order this evening. I took the afternoon to relax after spending the morning at the school and settling the nerves of the other new ceramic teacher. Then I dropped off three prints for the school boutique that I framed this morning. I had planned to get some de-cluttering done early but getting my artwork ready for the boutique took up all my time and for the second time this week I found myself having to go without my breakfast or my snack ready. I grabbed some protein shake stuff and had that before I went out the door and hoped to be back before 3 hours were up. It was 4 before I was home and 4.5 before I was able to get some more food in me. Exact same thing as earlier in the week. I think I need to do some bulk cooking so there is always something substantial to grab and go. Will gather some recipes on this to avoid this in the future.

Methinks I'll have more days like this, not less, as I ramp up for the school session which starts Sept 9th for me.

So a big CREDIT MOI for my good carbup day yesterday! This is the day in my carb cycling program where I can have any carbs I want after 3pm including sweets, though they are not recommended until we've been on the plan for a full 3 weeks. It was this point in the cycle where I ate way too much fruit, and ate until way too full this past Saturday and then
felt awful the day after.

Credit moi for NOT repeating this behaviour! (wish there was an emoticon of an old dog doing a new trick to insert here...the dancing carrot will have to do!) I ate to a fullness but not over stuffed. Room for improvement but much better from Saturday.

Also, I passed by the stand with the fantastic cinnamon buns with the white and chocolate icing, fresh baked, in the mall as I was on my way home from the school. I could actually have this food, but remembered it wasn't recommended until after the end of week 3 so I said NO CHOICE (after running this scenario thorugh my head a few times f me buying it bringing it home and eating it) and instead opted to substitute and interesting fruit. Now, last carbup day I overdid the fruit, so as I shopped for it at the store I stuck to ONE type and chose something I have never seen before :teeny tiny champagne grapes from California. OMG were they good! I had the suggested 1 cup serving at meals 3 and 4. So to sum up: 1)No sugary cinnamon bun and 2) measured food on a free food day. Really. Wow. Credit moi.

And I've attached a jpg of the painting I sold at the last minute in the boutique. It's an 8x10 acrylic on canvas called "Come closer Bob... I'll tell you the real story..." And yes that's a rubber chicken she's talking too. Go figure. Apparently the customer got obsessed with it, returning at least 4x to see it and finally had to have it as she couldn't get it out of her head! Funny. I hear that often about my work. Love it.

Gotta go. Must try to get some order in the blue room and hopefully will send you a jpg of that tomorrow

hello to kuhljeanie, freer, shrinkin' RobinW, coastalsue, Billblueeyes, wanting to, hbuchwald, maryblu, quilterinva, goodnuff,
and those of you who happily lurk

Hi again coaches

Well it's just a beginning but this will be my workspace for the coming school year. My blue room. That's a new desk given to me by my friend and I am so thrilled to see how big it is! It takes up that whole corner. Awesome.
I feel ready to expand into the kitchen now. So much work ahead but it's great to see things happening. Maybe I can get this together. I have until September 9th to really focus on this... not everyday all day but off and on. I am sure I can make a huge dent in this.

So, there's a jpg of my blue room: Bermuda cocktail blue, pixie dust border at the top and down the side with acrylic black painted scribbles.

I think I can rest now. Credit Moi. (Boy do I ever have to replace that hideous "chandelier"... is this hard to do??

Diet Coaches – A little thing: At Bally's gym, for "Member Appreciation Day" they were handing out three FREEBIES. I love FREEBIES. NEVER refuse a FREEBIE. Jump though high hoops to get a FREEBIE. First was a Blast like 6 ounce can of caffeine and HFCS. Pondered that since I don't do liquid calories, have no use for extra caffeine, don't want the extra sugar, and don't believe in all the ginseng tea and other "healthy" additives. But pondered, pondered, and pondered before I finally put it down. Second was a "yogurt covered berry bar." Well, the last Bally's bar I owned took six months to finally eat, and only ate it because it was in the bottom of my back pack and I was at the shore in the winter cold and hungry. It was awful, but useful like a sea biscuit in a life raft. Pondered and pondered and put it down. Third was a pill to make the fat melt away. Now those infuriate me, so just a single pondering and I put it down. That means that I didn't take any of the three FREEBIES. CREDIT moi.

Sabotaging Thought: You are such a wimp to give yourself credit for refusing three evil manufactured food products.
Helpful Response: Ya done good to refuse a FREEBIE, any FREEBIE. Stay the course, the day will come when you can even refuse, say, a FREEBIE pint of blueberries just because you aren't hungry.


Jean (kuhljeanie) - Yeah for interesting work to put one part of your mind at ease. Continuing to send supportive thoughts.

onebyone – The blue room is outrageous - love it. Kudos for persevering to get it done. Gotta admire the swirling line even more when remembering that it came into existence to solve a paint shortage. And Kudos for the sellar carbup day with extra Kudos since that included passing the cinnamon buns. Just moving on and moving on.

shrinkin - Big Kudos for surviving an all day business retreat with its incessant junk food. Congrats on the continued, slow but steady, weight loss, with Big Congrats on "wearing black travel jacket." Thanks for the reminder from day 3: Eat Sitting Down, so you are visually satisfied. It does set a helpful bit in my brain to survey and note the whole shebang before I start. RE Computing while eating: I read the newspaper with breakfast and do my email and Internet stuff with lunch at my desk. I agree that an engaging conversation with friends has some advantages, but for me, that's a dinner time treat. I work at adding mindfully while eating and call that success.


Readers – "Well, the good news is that your eating is not automatic." Beck, pg 26.

Coaches,

A mediocre day to report yesterday. Over calories by about 200....all off plan food after returning from pool. Off plan items...extra blueberries, tiny amount blue cheese, walnuts and 2 oz wine. Was not really hungry, seem to have thought I deserved it.

Had to drag myself to pool mostly by the NO CHOICE method of thinking. So, guess I get extra credit for going. [Anything that is a real fight, deserves extra credit in my book.] Feel a bit down though about it. Many trips to pool in past few weeks viewed enthusiastically...guess I was beginning to think it would just be that way in future. The struggle continues on all fronts.

BBE-Yup, ya done good...three freebies all at once! WTG!

Onebyone-kudos for completing that Blue Room! Credit for getting clutter control achieved! You will enjoy your new work space. WOW for the great control on carbup day and for the cinnamon bun walk by! Sounds like you are on a great plan. Congrats on selling "The Bob". You must be feeling very proud of all of your accomplishments this past week. Take a pat on the back.

kuhljeanie-Happy to hear thngs are looking up for you, even if slowly. I can tell you will be back to your usual full force very soon. Credit to you for staying aware of your plans even while taking some relative down time "from the craziness".

Pushing myself to have an OP day today...not really sure I want to, guess I need the ARC. Trying to get back on track after small slip..tough.

Happy Friday...and Happy holiday weekend!

Good morning coaches.

I'm just checking in. Today's agenda was busy again: unload/reload kiln, take down ceramic moose exhibit, return THIRD 3.6V Mastercraft Lithium-ion cordless compact screwdriver for an exchange. I got this little tool as a gift from friends who cannot afford to give gifts and the first one died when I tried to charge it once, the second one at charging #2 and now the third one died right as I needed it to assemble the new desk, charging number three. I was so sure I was out of the woods with this product. I half expect them not to take it back as I actually tossed the packaging materials thinking "no way I am going to get THREE lemons in a row". HA! Wrote a clear and concise letter of complaint to Canadian Tire via email (never as effective as snail mail, however...maybe that method is growing in credibility...they will get the snail mail one too if this doesn't work out again!). Hmm. Not sure I am going to get here today... maybe if I go now!

The goal with the clean up today was to get the kitchen cleared enough so I can a) put up my new archetypal kitchen curtains: white cotton, like 1940's type cotton, really, (made in China) with gingham yellow scalloped edge and embroidered daisies with leaves above the edging. SO VERY KITCHEN-Y! and b) start to paint. The yellow in the curtain goes exactly with the paint chosen for the kitchen called, appropriately, morning sun. Getting excited to keep going. It was garbage day today and few extra bags of clutter are gone gone gone... but get this. I brought my garbage can to the curb and THEY THREW OUT MY GARBAGE CAN! i saw them just toss it into the back of the truck Can you believe it? I don't think I'll replace the garbage can.

Wow. Better to go. Will check in again later maybe! BTW I took a sneak peek on the scale this morning and it's down 2.4lbs. Not my official weighin but I will take the encouragement...

Bye for now.

Have a great day.

Hi coaches,
I am here...reading sporadically and still dragging behind my wagon. It is BUSY now of course with school starting on Tuesday and dd starting Kindergarten too. My head is full fledged around the fact that I will have LOTS of the desired structure very soon and I am actually looking forward to it now.

I am REALLy grasping to try and find things to credit myself for.... here goes: I cooked up a pork roast and some "guilt free mashed potatoes" (potato and cauliflower...SO good)...leftovers for tomorrow and the next day too. I also have a recipe chosen to make for lunches next week (healthy pasta dish-delicious too so that helps). Kudos to me for eating mandarin oranges for a "midnight snack" with dd and the 2 girls she is having over to spend the night. Credit for doing a few moments of refocusing and semi meditating during the day-helps me stay grounded and not get too caught up in the surrounding chaos and stress (so much to do before I have no time to do it all...).

I love the sound of those *****eny curtains onebyone-seriously so cool! I just painted my kitchen an avocadoee green and am going for black and cream toille for the curtains (also in the adjacent rooms which are light butter yellow and terra cotta-you cannot say that I am afraid of color!)-I also plan to integrate in some black and cream checked pillows and chairpads here and there... so fun! I LOVE the blue room and the twirly lines.... what an artiste you are...

kuhljeanie: HUGS to you my friend-hang in there. You are doing well by focusing on work while at work, etc.. and also by taking something off the plate (even if that was driven by the toe injury...). The cake is GORGEOUS-those flowers look REAL... you are so talented.

BBE: the jazzercise idea is genious. You really kill me my friend! Your unwavering ability to maintain is so awesome to hear about.

Tomorrow I swim with the girls -will tread water as much as possible and maybe even swim a lap or two. I got my pictures back from the triathlon-I was told by a friend ahead of time that photographers are there and that she wished that she was SMILING in her pictures. I waved at one of the photogs and in all of the pics, I look like I am taking a Sunday ride... fashion sunglasses, easy attitude, not hardcore biking outfit, etc... I am still so thrilled that I did it and that my team did so much better than we expected to. I am getting lots of exercise with the dogs and also parking far away at school. Every little bit counts.

Singing..."take it easy, on yourself...take it easy, there ain't noone else...".......

PS BBE asked if teaching the prepubescents is as hard as teaching 2nd graders... I am SCARED of teaching the little guys! Most younger grade teachers I know are scared of my kids..it works since there are some of all kinds of teachers.. I have no desire to wipe noses or zip pants at school (other than my own)...love the older kids who can attend longer, get involved in higher level projects and get my sarcasm. Hail to FREER........

Diet Coaches – Pleasant walk in near perfect weather. Corn was only 25 cents an ear and I was kinda sad to realize that I couldn't eat any more than I was eating. In fact, if it was FREE I still couldn't eat 10 ears a day like I think I want. Oh Well. A major meeting was by telecon so I didn't have to face anybody's gratuitous offering of foods. Seems like I'll have to stretch a bit here to meet my goal of giving myself credit; for not buying more corn just because it would be off plan to eat it, CREDIT moi.

Heidi (hbuchwald) - Yep, still BIG Kudos for that triathlon; that was a sweet deal. Kudos for moving along with your wagon, albeit "dragging behind." And Kudos for giving yourself credit for the neat food prep stuff. My mind boggles here thinking of your DD starting Kindergarten - remembering some remarkable ideas about school and teachers she conveyed in a "play school" like game you wrote about that included buying tickets or something like that. Some teacher has to face her imagination, LOL. And you have to face that, from now on, whatever her teacher says is her new truth, displacing whatever you have said.

I am so unable to guess what 5 letter word got censored by the automatic 3FC software for the 5 asterisks in "*****eny curtains." My favorite is when people typo shiitake mushrooms by leaving out one 'i' and getting "****take mushrooms," LOL. [Experiment: onebyone typed "KITCHEN-Y", I'll try without the hypen, KITCHENY. hmmm... Not censored by the preview post, will see what happens when this posts.]

onebyone – Congrats for the scale loss. Ouch for three bad Lithium-ion batteries - what are you doing to those poor guys, LOL. Hope Canadian Tire continues to be responsible. Kudos, with a touch of envy, for a "few extra bags of clutter are gone gone gone." Sounds like another day on plan.

shrinkin - No question about it, Double Kudos for going to the pool under No Choice. Noting that your small off plan is all super healthy foods - that's a positive step in staying on top of eating choices. That can feel so much better than off plan with a Krispy Kreme donut, whose spelling is as insulting as its ingredients, LOL.

Readers – "… Automatic processes are involuntary, such as the beating of your heart or the digestion of our food. You don’t decide to let your heart beat or to set off your digestive processes. You do decide to eat, however. …" Beck, pg 26.
--------
Edit: Yes, Indeed it is Saturday, the original title of my post did not, in fact, cause it to be Friday again, it was just wrong.

Hi Coaches

I'm back from the market. Had a stellar day. Had several people waiting patiently in line to buy things. Nice. Very nice. I even had a painting, finished just this morning, (I paint some of my paintings in full view of the public as I pass the time at the market. I quite enjoy doing that.), of a very odd-angled horse get snapped up, the paint having just dried on it. Very nice indeed.

Today is the carb-up day on my carb cycling program. Eat lots of carbs for the last two meals, but some say earlier is better. I think it sort of matters but we'll see as I had a burger and fries at meal 3 at home after leaving the market. I am really feeling TOM pressure and just cannot face making anything in the kitchen. Once a month for this stuff is alright. I think I am going to go relax very soon. Another market day tomorrow and I should be working on replenishing stock but I can't find the energy. Maybe later.

Oh and I didn't want to return the screwdriver today. Will wait until Tuesday morning as we have the car until 2pm. Will also wait until that time to go to IKEA...it'll be a ZOOthis weekend (3FC doesn't have the greatest zoo animal selection does it?).

Billblueeyes I had to check and recheck that it is Saturday today as your post's title is Friday. Why this confused me so is unclear but there you have it! I just believe everything you say here! And yeah I am still on plan and on plan for today as well. Sometimes I get sad i can't eat everything I want to too. I had to choose my fruit for today, carbup day. I chose the local plums again. they were *cheaper* this week and there were more...oh i guess that's why. Got local blue plums (ate those already) and local red plums, the bigger ones than the tart ones from last week. I still cannot believe we can grow plums here. Wish I had some land.

hbuchwald Wow. Makes me wonder what risque thing I got for my kitchen to have it censored! Perhaps I still am cutting edge.. but how gingham and daisies can be radical is very interesting. I hope you get a chance to post a jpg or two of your new kitchen and adjacent room. Would love to see it. Do you have the names for the paint colours you used? I always find them very amusing. I'm glad you liked the blue room.

shrinkin Glad to hear you made it to the pool. I am always glad I went after it's over! And yeah, enthusiasm wanes...this is when Beck really kicks in to keep us going until we get excited all over again. Glad you're here posting about everything! Kudos on the pool...

Good afternoon! I'm sticking to my plan and on Day 41 so right on target. I'll start again with Day 1 on Monday. I'm happy with my progress but think it'll take 3 or 4 times thru to cement everything into my daily life and make it more automatic.

BBE - I bought 1 ear of corn. When you live alone there's no point in buying extra because it's just an invitation to overeat. I'm having that and a hamburger on a lite high-fiber wheat bun with a big salad and fresh blackberries for dinner tonight.

Hi there peeps!
1. Okay onebyone...I was reading your post a little too quickly and ready about your curtains and how they were "kitcheny" and b...well, I took that to be kitcheny and "kitcheny with a b instead of a k". I thought they DID sound "kitcheny with a b".... of course I see that you were listing your points-I apologize for zipping through too quickly-I definitely got the big picture!!!

LOVe the visual of people lining up to buy your work. And to see you paint right there-soo cool.

2. BBE: what a memory you have (remembering a play session that I described of dd's). Now is the time when so many more influences come into her life. Scary but also a very exciting time. '



Kudos to me for planning my food today (ouch for not following it for the second half of the day)..... I am getting back into the thinking of "what recipe shall I make with x ingredient in the fridge?". I cooked for friends last night and then we had their 2 girls spend the night here and I made them some eggs and turkey bacon-feeling very domestic. I made a sandwich out of mine-with an apple and coffee side..YUM.

Took dd swimming and did some kicking on the side of the pool while she was off playing at different times-yea for spontaneous exercise.

I am stretching it with my self kudos but I do feel like maybe more than my fingernails are on that wagon today.

Diet Coaches – Had to replace the 3-foot plastic rod from some inexpensive venetian blinds. It can't be done. You can replace the whole set of venetian blinds, but not the one part that breaks. Not much money, but a violation of any sense of conservation of the planet's resources. Well, Bingo, a local hardware store felt sympathy and found a broken set and just gave me the rod. CREDIT moi for one tiny contribution to a green planet.

Oh yeah, about Beck: motivated by shrinkin's comments, I concentrated on my breakfast. Noticed that I had more than a fair share of the almonds in my bowl of granola - they seem to crawl to the top of the jar during the night. But I don't have the faintest idea what to do with that marvelous insight. When serving myself when the jar is nearly empty, I just add a few nuts so that I'll get my tree nut nutrition for the day. hmmmm... so not all insights from concentration are earth shaking, LOL.

Heidi (hbuchwald) - LOL at "kitcheny with a b." Now I understand the censor. [Test: Itching twice a month is monthly*****itis. Wow, the censor dug right into the middle of that word - rather thorough.] Kudos for giving yourself credit even when you have to stretch; BTDT.

onebyone – Congrats on the stellar sales day. Yep, "Very nice indeed." Does that put you nearer to committing to the gym contract? Thanks for the reinforcement, "Sometimes I get sad i can't eat everything I want to too." Thinking about that I recall that my Desire for food while sitting at the table is less now - not drooling about seconds or wishing there was more. And less Desire when walking past an ice cream vendor or even past the local hardware store that gives out FREE popcorn. But, the Desire still flares up big time for buying food, like the corn at a good price. And thanks for noting my error in day of the week. [hmmm.... Dragonflies in a zoo???]

Susan (QuilterInVA) - Kudos for finishing the 42 day Beck program. Looking forward to the crowd starting from day 1 again. Drooling over "fresh blackberries for dinner." They are so good, wondering why I don't buy them more often. Might have to go out and fix that now that you put the buy in my ear. And Kudos for buying only one ear of corn. The very day after waxing eloquent about only needing so many ears even if they were FREE, I encountered corn at 6 ears for $1.00. Gulp, resistance fell, bought three more ears and re-planned so as to have corn twice a day over the long weekend, LOL.

Readers – "… And here’s the other good news. You can learn how to take better control of your eating decisions. Beck, pg 26.

Ver quick check in to say I am mostly lurking today and tomorrow...just think of it as a long overdue break from my long and often boring posts. LOL. Will post back soon...sounds like everyone is having a great weekend...even though we got disoriented from BBEs days of the week..see how much we count on you BilleBlueEyes?