Good morning, Coaches.

Back to yoga yesterday and I have the sore muscles to prove it. Weight up a little even though food was OP. I find exercise makes the scale move up temporarily for some (incredibly unfair) reason. Pilates today. Read advantage cards. Food Logged in to MFP.

My big house projects are almost finished. My newly organized guest closet was the perfect place to stash a few large toys that DS couldn't part with ("I would like to save them for my little boy or girl") Now all beds are clear underneath of mites, dusts and whatever other monsters flourish under the beds. I am saving the worst task, cleaning the garage, till after we come back from a family wedding near Los Angeles. DH has to help with that and it has to be cool.

So we will take today off and I hope to finish my book, The Woman Upstairs. After my last Goddard advising group, I requested from the library every book my peers were reading— now I have three waiting to be picked up on Wednesday. I'm usually a pretty fast reader but this might be a little too much.

Out of bread so I used my absolute favorite appliance, the bread machine, and whipped up some rolls to avoid going to the store. Stayed mostly away from bread rolls except bits cut off from DS sandwich (Drat!)

Lexxiss: Good Luck with the wedding crazies.

Sparks: Taking cookies and soda anywhere is dangerous business. Credit for reading advantage cards.

Beth: It is very tough to watch your child in pain. I am sorry you have to wade through this right now.

BBE: I just realized for the first time how lucky I am I don't like exotic, spicy, fried stuff. Think of all the food I would have to resist at restaurants.

Gardenerjoy: Do you have a set group you travel with or was the France group a kind of club?

I checked in here yesterday, but not sure why I didn't post the note. I did not do well yesterday, food-wise. Got tons of activity, working on the stone wall and then mowing the whole yard. But still, not a good day. Today aiming to do better. Will have an early dinner before heading out to a concert. Lunch should be light; ripe tomatoes and fresh spinach salad.

Did new response cards aimed at staying on track for Colorado trip next month. And then one for my birthday in September. I just haven't been focused on small smart choices that add up and need to set a routine to read them often.

DH says he's in it with me, but he's just like I'll add more veggies and cut back on snacks. But unless I'm the one buying and cooking and serving the veggies, that doesn't happen. So that is a good oomph for me to do that for both of us in advance.

Light gardening this morning before breakfast on the patio. Wanted to get onto the trail early before the heat hit, but I missed my window. Might just head out for a shorter walk with water and just GET IT DONE.

Hello there Coaches-
We are in the midst of our house cleaning extravaganza as well. I assigned each section of our house to a week of the summer that we are here for us to mainly focus on that area for a week. It s going well and I am in the mood to PURGE!!! I feel like a minimalist until I clean stuff out... argh!

Things are going well today foodwise and everythingwise. I am going to Zumba at 12:30 and getting stuff done before and after that.

Hi all,

I didn't make myself take a walk today :-(, but food was OP, so that's a good thing. I did get a lot more stairs in than usual, since DD is hanging out in the basement and needs ice packs, food, water, meds, all brought to her!

Making DD's smoothies and things without tasting them is hard--both because they really ought to be taste-tested to see if they're good and because I really need not to get in the habit of eating ice cream smoothies! So far, I'm doing well with that, and BFF is helping!

BFF also cleaned out my pantry, fridge, and baking cabinet. (She's a kitchen fairy) All expired items have been tossed, which is good. She found several boxes of chocolates that were hiding on the top shelf of the pantry. I had DH put them up there so they'd be out of my reach and mind, with the intent of bringing them down for a party--and forgot about them. I think I'll have him put them back up there--we won't be hosting another party until September, I think--and I want them "out of mind" and "out of reach".

BFF and I planned out meals for the week and went grocery shopping--everything is in place to have an OP food week. Exercise wise, I'll have to walk even if my walking partner can't!

Take care, all.

Today was much better, following my Small Steps again. The Small Steps were meant to reduce my resistance to doing what I really need to do: plan my meals. They were working but two weird days set me back some and my resistance built back up. I'm starting to think I need to just jump in, but I'm going to try adding one more Small Step in a day or two and see if that gets me where I want to go.

Today I followed these four steps (creditx4) and tomorrow I intend to do the same:

• Eat only in my eating places
• Eat only foods that serve me well
• Eat only at my eating times
• Eat only what I initially serve myself

maryann: Our France trip was organized by the Missouri Botanical Garden. A benefit of taking tours sponsored by a local cultural institution is future interaction with your fellow travelers.

Diet Coaches/Buddies – It was the day to make the dreaded trip to the furniture store, "to get out of this heat," teased DW who knew how much I didn't want to go. I promised myself a small ice cream as my afternoon snack - thinking of a small Dairy Queen - as incentive. The furniture store sold Large, Medium, and Small. And then I spotted 'Kiddie' - which I immediately ordered. CREDIT moi for doing better than planned. Well . . . Good Grief! . . . it must have been a half-pint of ice cream. The Kiddie size!!! I couldn't think of how to doggie-bag it home so, instead of ditching half of it, I ate the whole thing. Ouch. I made a token compensation by skipping my evening snack, CREDIT moi.

Walked with DW for some exercise, CREDIT moi. We took a route I hadn't walked in years past some big homes being renovated. Saw some magnificent work restoring a home back to its nineteenth century look.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Yep, Kudosx4. It's interesting that it only takes "two weird days" to begin to get out of whack.

Debbie (Lexxiss) – Yay for Beck skills for organizing stuff in your life. Thanks for the reminder to give ourselves credit for "a far better choice than it used to be."

maryann - LOL at, "three waiting to be picked up on Wednesday" - books are a great opportunity to overindulge without negative consequences. Kudos for that exercise despite the temporary scale jiggle.

nationalparker – Kudos for "just GET IT DONE."

Beth (bethFromDayton) – Kudos for having placed boxes of chocolates so far away that you forgot about them. Your BFF sounds like a magic fairy indeed. Hope your DD continues to heal.

Rosebud170 – Yay for "I am in the mood to PURGE!!!" I love it when I feel that way. Unfortunately for me, that feeling is rare.

sparks17 – Hope you survived the all day party - that's a lot of opportunities to make decisions about food.

Readers -

Happy Monday Morning Coaches,
The weekend wasn't as challenging as I feared it would be. I stayed on plan, exercised a little more and still had a small planned treat. The scale showed the benefits this morning! Yaaayyyy! All this despite baking bread (twice) this weekend and entertaining on Saturday. Got a 45 minute walk in on Saturday too (credit). I joined the YMCA on Friday and took an aquafitness class on Sunday (credit). I really enjoyed the class. I'm going back this afternoon too. I hope to get a few laps in before the class - I haven't been swimming in a long time.

Beth (from Dayton) - I hope your daughter is coming along well. Face pain is the worst.

Have a great day everyone.

Good Morning, Coaches.

Like Nationalparker, my food was messy. I thought the extra calories would not justify a weight gain but my body did not agree. I was angry and felt it was completely unfair. Took a while for me to declare "Oh Well." Back OP this morning, step class and a nice discovery. My club stocks bananas. I bought a few and forestalled one more store run.

$4.00 left for 3 days but DH bought yoghurt for us so that is a little cheating. Nevertheless, I did resist the presale Nordstrom goodies, movie tickets and several boxes of tic tacs (my favorite) so the point of the game remains valid.

I have to stop in at work today so a wave to all!

Back at it today ... the weekend was a challenge for me on all fronts, it seemed. I realized I'm holding onto stress with a few things - folks' health, pets, projects that I've let frustrate me, etc. I got out and walked the trail in the heat and took my water, which was smart as I needed it. We went to Paul McCartney concert last night and had a phenomenol time. Got home late and both of us went to work on little sleep so it will be an early night tonight. Parked about 1.5 miles away (free) so got in another workout. I will walk miles for free parking

Love your sticking with the limited funds project, Maryann ... have suggested to DH that in saving up for our vacation for his 45th, that when we skip a planned dinner out, that we take about the amount saved and put it straight in the funds for the trip. We take out of each paycheck a small amount for our trip account ... but traveling so much keeps it fairly low. But that's a win-win with the travel done, I believe. I find myself wanting to use up everything in the freezer and pantry and just buy fruits/veggies/milk but I get sidetracked and honestly, I would struggle to find all healthy meals one after the other.

Watched the movie Angel in the House and it was time well spent. I like Toni Collette's acting.

Hi all,

Back to walking at work today, which is a good thing. Food was basically OP although I swapped the original planned dinner for one planned later this week. There are 3 extra meatloaves in the freezer, though--that'll be convenient for future busy days.

I planned this week based largely on what was already in the freezer and pantry, so as I'm winnowing that stuff down, it's time to fill it up again, too. I want to get the standalone freezer emptied out so I can defrost it!

Up until now, I've been replacing pants but mostly continuing to wear the same tops and sweaters/cardigans/jackets. I'm starting to have to put some of the tops and jackets in the "giveaway" pile now--they're too oversized to wear.

DS called tonight--I didn't get to speak with him yesterday (left voice mail), because he was out celebrating his 21st birthday with a surprise visit from his girlfriend. It's amazing how my children's milestone birthdays affect me more than my own!

I packed my lunch, so it's time to record tomorrow into MFP and call it a night!

nationalparker: Stress does make everything else harder--I hope the walk helped--and the concert, even more!

maryann: Your $10 saga is keeping me interested! (What is it with everyone here and bananas? All of you have me so focused on bananas that I had one for breakfast instead of my usual strawberries.)

Tracey: What a great sounding weekend--credit for it not being as challenging as you'd expected--that means you were prepared for it. Thanks for your good thoughts for my daughter.

gardenerjoy: Your small steps seem to be working--I hope the two weird days are just a blip. Would it be helpful to write down your meals for a week (not planning) or two, and then use those as the basis for planning?

Rosebud: What is it with summer cleaning? There are a bunch of us doing it. Did we all get the seasons wrong?

BillBE: Your banana stories are fueling the group. We're all getting our potassium in! I hope your ice cream isn't as contagious :-).

sparks17: Credit for triumphing over fast food--and credit for you and DH for making that work!

Take care, all.

Hi Coaches!

The "busy" continues as we enter the final week before the "wedding" trip. I continue to follow my food plan, weigh in and contact my Beck diet buddy daily. Credit. The scale reads low and it's an absolutely fantastic feeling to fit into all my clothes and not have to scurry around shopping for something that fits. In addition, I realized that all of the nicer comfy tops I used to take with me are gone...they no longer fit and I decided to part with them along time ago. Yay!

This morning I looked at my "Think Thin Beck for Life Plan" I had written over a year ago. It sits on my desk and is a large flower with petals. The center is "Balance" and each petal has a Beck theme. I am pretty consistent in following my plan on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. I feel the balance. Credit.

BBE, credit for picking the kiddie cone. It leaves me thinking what the other sizes are in actuality. What furniture are you buying now?

Beth(from Dayton), yay for downsizing your tops. I had some beautiful items which I hated to part with. I would have gladly replaced some in smaller sizes, but to no avail. It is great to accept that the "too big" stuff just isn't attractive to wear. Credit.

Nationalparker, yay for a long walk to your fantastic concert. Glad you keep persisting despite peripheral stress.

Maryann, interesting that your club stocks bananas. Lol. Banana is my go to healthy snack...much better for me than a "bar" of any kind.

Tracey(on a journey), great that you found your weekend not as challenging as you'd perceived. Perhaps your aquafitness helped, too. Credit for joining the Ymca.

everyone else!

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Exercise was walking to dinner, CREDIT moi, at a favorite Thai place. I arrived with my plastic container so that I was ready to stash half my meal to take home. Was so pleased with myself that I left my hat in the restaurant. So, exercise again was walking back to get it. CREDIT moi again since Beck suggests taking credit without consideration that it was exercise taken for stupidity, LOL.

Food was on plan, CREDIT moi. It continues to be blueberry abundance time around here. When I watered our veggie garden, DW had told me there wouldn't be any cukes. My delight was finding two - those suckers hide so well. Such a huge joy to find an unexpected cuke.


Debbie (Lexxiss) – Monster Kudos for heading to a wedding and being comfortable with your clothes. Now that's thinking like a thin person! [DW wants a rug for our bedroom. The ones that I'd like cost in the $9k range - which we're both too cheap to even consider. We found one at the low end of our real price range that we both liked, so it'll be shipped directly here.]

maryann - Yay for a club that stocks bananas - what an unexpected way to stick to the subject here on the banana thread, LOL. I'm holding my breath at the $4.

nationalparker – That's an exercise plan, "I will walk miles for free parking" - jealous of that Paul McCartney concert.

Beth (bethFromDayton) – Congrats on the progress represented by giving away clothes. I'm amused when we set out to empty the freezer portion of our fridge - we don't keep much, but what's drifted to the bottom is so very old.

Tracey (Tracey on a journey) - Kudos for aquafitness - I don't think I've seen any exercise where the participants were having so much fun.

Readers -

Good morning!!

rosebud - your home purge is inspiring!

gardenerjoy - I do have a hard time with one of your steps - eating only what I initially serve myself. I love my seconds

Bill - your tiny yet giant ice cream made me laugh!

lexxiss - credit credit credit for a year of balance!!

Beth - I have not been giving away my oversized clothing. I am still too afraid

nationalparker - Paul McCartney?? Woohoo - how awesome!

maryann - I can' believe how long you are holding out with your $10. - amazing!

Tracey - I almost melted when I read that you were baking bread...but I see you are in Canada so I felt better!!

This weekend went well. The heat helped, as I just was not too into food on Sunday at the party. So I was able to enjoy the ice cream cake and homemade cupcake in the evening after eating reasonable portions of only healthy options. I guesstimated my calories at home that evening and, even if I was off by a few hundred calories it would still be a manageable number. And probably half of what it would have been last year this time!!

Today is stock up in fresh stuff at the store day. I was going to walk over to the store first thing before it got hot, bu I got an email from he library that I have a book in. So I am not going till 10 when the library opens. It will be hotter so I won't be as brisk, but I will still be walking - credit.

Hello! Realized that our camping trip is now looming ever closer, which is good in the sense that I'm excited about it ... but nowhere near where I wanted to be. I am realizing that this "want to be" must completely be supported by choices and actions that "make it" happen. We'll see what I can do in the time remaining. And then I return to an exceedingly busy work time for three months, so I want to be in a healthy groove by then so I still take the time to shop, prepare, and follow through.

Got changed as soon as I got home and hit the trail - was 88 and hot/no breeze. I've been having foot pain and we've finally determined that it's the beginning of a bunion and painful with each step on the walk. Not as bad today/comes and goes ... and so now I'm a bit mentally down because I've always said I could walk forever as long as it's not major inclines or steep drops. Now ... ? Tried different hikers and socks and those weren't the magic key. Will try different ones today. Having always thought a bunion was like a cyst, I'm trying to learn a bit more, since I've learned that was wrong. Apparently 20+ years of high heels much of the day and for working media at sports events has come back to bite me in the bit toe joint. I keep reading to take ibuprofen but I don't medicate often, so ... anyone who's developed this, fill me in!

I found an old food journal from when I lost 60 pounds YEARS ago and was disappointed in a way to see that I'm really struggling to lose anything now, and yet am eating SO much healthier - or what I perceive as healthier. No fast food - maybe twice a year I pick up a chicken sandwich ... no beef/pork, fewer combined meats (what I call turkey sausages/turkey pepperoni type things - now used more as flavoring to other things than the main), more fruits and veggies, trying to include dairy. So need to figure this out. Methinks it's the snacking.

Bill - LOVE the double credit for retrieval of the hat AND the to-go container from the start. We don't have a Thai restaurant here that we've tried, but we do in Florida, so I might just see if DH wants that one night in the next few weeks. He LOVES it and I'm trying to branch out. I LOVE spicy food, but I'm too picky on what it is.

Sparks - I just don't understand how people don't feel like eating when it's hot. I wish you could send me that trait! I just want to eat different things, but not less. Great to see that perfection isn't necessary, it's the improvement. Great job!

Lexxiss - Envious of your freedom with clothing fitting fine and the positive reinforcement from your scale readouts. Good luck with the prewedding action!

Beth - What a great accomplishment to be moving clothing into the "no longer fits/too large" pile. You are doing stellar!

Maryann - What's the challenge today with the remaining $3? Will you do this again? I'm enjoying! We do movies from the library for free instead of redbox sometimes, just because they ARE free and a decent enough selection. Especially if I put a classic on hold. Our popcorn is kernel corn popped on the stove for further cheap (and much less contaminants compared to the microwave kind).

Tracy - You are doing GREAT - good job for signing up and following through on YMCA classes. How are you enjoying the aquafit class? What do you find to be your biggest challenge?

Good Morning, Coaches. Today is the last day of my $10 buck and and change for 10 days. I have $4.00 left because my cleaning tizzy uncovered lost quarters (YEH!). I plan to blow the wad on fresh garlic and TicTacs (Ironic, I know.). The challenge has been fun. DS has been enthralled with it. "How much money do you think we have saved?" We wanted to go see Despicable Me today but instead I am going to teach him how to make pancakes with my KitchenAid. He was happy.

And that is the great truth about kids— what they crave is successful experiences with people they love, not entertainment.

Like nationalparker mentioned, there is nothing better than a good old pantry and freezer clearing. The trick is having enough fruits and veggies (I still have plenty frozen). I am clearing out the big "space sucker" for dinner tonight—an 8 pack of pork chops from the FFA pig we bought with BIL. (Hence, the fresh garlic.) After that, I only have a pork loin and some pre made burrito and taco fillings. WOW! When is the last time I saw the bottom of my freezer! On my hunt for free things, I came across a terrific ap that helped me in the challenge— "How to Cook Everything." Normally $10.00 it was free this week because of the ITUNES anniversary. I just typed in the name of an ingredient I needed to use up into the ap and it spit out recipes. Super cool. The recipes emphasis the basics which is what I really needed. I have never been trained as a cook. I am exicited to try tomorrow's "Boiled Water" I kid you not. The recipe is alledgedly the basis for all soups — garlic, salt and pepper, olive oil etc. . .

Tomorrow I have shell out for a regularly scheduled haircut. (I have a whole new perspective on that $40 expense, let me tell you.)

Food was OP yesterday but the specters of "standing while eating" and "tasting while cooking" haunted me. I am so proud of BethFromDayton stopping herself from tasting the milkshakes, etc. . . That is a triumph.

gardenerjoy: What a fantastic way to experience Paris, through its flowers!

sparks: Credit for planning exercise. it really does triple duty, doesn't it? I am not eating while I am walking. It burns calories and, most importantly, it makes me not feel like eating after I have walked.

Lexxiss: It continues to be a thrilling feeling for me when I go into my closet and everything fits and is becoming.

I hereby declare a temporary unilateral moratorium on banana talk. (Do you wish to sign my treaty, BBE?)