Credit for the water aerobics last night. It is cooold and so hard to get in- and get out of the water, but the actual exercise is great. It is such a workout but my muscles feel fine the next day. Plus its fun to be with a bunch of other middle aged ladies, everyone is laughing and in the same boat,body wise. I am out of shape with my cardio so this is a great thing to do.
Thanks for the reminder to get up and move every 20-30 minutes. I will incorporate the timer idea too!

Good Morning, Coaches.

Nearing the end of my "turbo week" designed to jumpstart weight loss. Apparently starting in two days I add add few"super carbs" and "super fuels" which we in the real world know as "healthy" (the cara orange, olive oil, whole wheat, etc. . .) Gotta love propaganda of Madison Avenue. Nonetheless, as with everything about this diet, I am simply saying "yes." It is important to put food in its proper perspective. Food is "fuel" per Beck. As Beth says, everything off program is just not about me and won't serve me well.

Beth: The stairs story reminded me of a two week conference I attended. Sitting all day, I decided to pack my lunch and eat during class. We had two 15 minute breaks and a thirty minute lunch. I walked up and down 4 flights of stairs for each break and then walked the river for the 30 minutes. I remember making a conscious decision to not care about the strange looks I received on the stairwell. To my knowledge I never saw those people again. In a similar vein, I have done yoga in the airport with a mat I packed, and balanced on one leg standing in the grocery line.

curleyjax: I imagine the exercise is so important for you not because of weight loss but because of mood and companionship. Certainly when I am low, a wlak is a must. Science says it actually GROWs cells in your brain which for whatever reason helps with depression.

silverbirch: great self care with ordering groceries. I love that my meals showed up on my doorstep.

national parker and BBE: wave to you both this morning.

Weight? Same as six weeks ago (seven)? Decided to IM the "ask an expert" and while she was friendly, no real advice other than stop worrying, move a bit more, eat a bit less.

A good day at work; busy but productive. Brought my lunch as always and instead of walking a bit around the building, I just read. I don't know why I didn't just get up and move. Tomorrow.

DH has it in his mind that a possible job opening at his company in Florida at some point this year is a great opportunity for us to start the transition to move to Florida when we retire. The issue is that i'd stay in our home here while he'd find a house down there that we want, etc. This is not a good idea in MY mind because we're paying for two households and I do NOT want a mortgage when we're in our late 50s/60s and we won't be saving money. I'm frustrated. He said this gets us where we want to be. I said I never said I wanted to be in that part of Florida. He's usually very much on the same page (not counting wild hairs like wanting a sailboat or a muscle car) financially ... he's like we can go back and forth visiting. Seriously - I can't even get home to my brother as often as I want. He said I can work on selling this house, etc. then as soon as I hit 55, I leave work and move down. Well, that's a few years and just not reasonable. i need to have us put it all out on paper so he can see the dollars involved. This job would be a lateral move, and I make about $15k more than he does so this shouldn't be a defining job. He said he's afraid to let this opportunity go. Well, it's not open yet. The pets would remain as my responsibility, etc. Thanks for letting me vent my frustration here now. One thing - I wouldn't be cooking as much HA. But I don't see this taking place because I do NOT think it's a smart financial move. I said if we did that, then it'd extend the years I need to work, well, that we both need to work, because we'd be spending 2x what we are now.

Hi coaches!

I was totally blindsided by something that happened at work. Shook me to my core. Feel like I'm getting back into a good, 1/2 time routine again.

Credit for going to open swim with our DS. We watched Big Pacific documentary together on PBS last week. So, we were pretending to be hammerhead sharks. Super fun!

Hope all is well!!!

Hi everyone.

My class tonight was on creating a healthy food environment. Everyone agreed work can be very challenging. I got some good ideas on how to handle keeping my shakes cold when I’m out and about.

Took my aunt to an outpatient surgical appointment and then the grocery store today—it was my first trip since I started my program. I did really well with it—helped her find what she needed and didn’t feel tempted. She didn’t realize that "I’m not eating" meant I really wasn’t eating—she wants to feed me—and I’m supposed to be taking care of her!

I’m staying at her house tonight. Stayed up too late talking but it’s been a wonderful visit and she seems to be recovering well.

I have my shakes and bars for tomorrow.

—Beth

Some good steps forward yesterday, here at my mother's. I ate some sweets to keep going which I'd rather not do, of course, but there we are. Food is otherwise good. A good amount of walking. The SO arrived late afternoon, which will be a big help.

beth, glad your aunt's recovering well. Tell us a tip about keeping a shake cold! I'm not a shake eater/drinker but it sounds as though the tips could be transferable.

orange123, lovely to hear of you being hammerhead sharks! The DB and I used to be otters. We probably could be still.

nationalparker, no weightloss could be stress-related. I'm coming round to thinking that it's playing quite a large part in my lack of movement.

maryann, I balance on one leg when I'm waiting too! You're quite right about the funny looks - you're never going to see those people again. In fact, some of them may be thinking they wish they could be walking the stairs too.

curlyjax, water aerobics always looks like such a laugh!

Bill, that printer is leading you a merry dance!

I'd better get on with the day. More investigating of a new mattress, I think, so I'll walk up into town. It's market day so it will be busy.

I'm down two pounds this week. I guess the going to bed hungry is working, not to mention dealing with hunger at other parts of the day. I ate over some stress yesterday but i still work up hungry. I still view the Easter candy as a "rare" treat which it isn't but soon it will be gone. I have to do some errands today so I will get in some exercise at the mall!

Nationalparker- good luck with DH. Maybe he's feeling the desire to get to Florida sooner because of the long winters? Or wanting a change. Putting it on paper is a good idea. Sometimes men really need to see things concretely to get it (no offense to all the men out there!!).

Diet Coaches/Buddies – The saga with my HP inkjet printer continued. After printing four perfect pages, it reverted to half-printed pages when offered the List of Future Book Choices that I need to bring to my Book Club meeting tonight. By jumping through hoops, I got the four pages done, one by one, with extra 'Clean Print Heads' procedures. DW took the four pages to be copied. In the olden days, like a year ago, I'd just print a dozen copies of the four pages as if that's what printers are for.

Eating was OKish. I did well during the day but had extra oatmeal raisin cookies at an evening lecture: Cruising Svalbard for Mammals and Birds. Svalbard is a group of islands north of Norway. It's city with an airport, Longyearbyen, lies at 78 degrees 15 minutes North Latitude. The Russian built ice breaking ship took them above 80 degrees. That's way up there - about 570 miles from the North Pole. They were lucky in that they saw some healthy Polar Bears. Some cruises only see the skeleton ones that aren't catching Harp Seals because the ice has retreated so far. Alas, one more place to add to my bucket list.


silverbirch – Kudos for those aspects of eating that you keep sane while visiting your mother. [Yep, "a merry dance" well describes the printer and I right now.]

maryann - Thanks for the reminder, Food is "fuel" per Beck. Just don't need that much extra fuel in the evenings.

nationalparker – Ouch for being confronted with an option that may or may not be a wise one. It might not feel that great shoveling snow while a spouse is on the beach in the sun. Sorry that your expert only offered, "move a bit more, eat a bit less" - that's not such a new approach, LOL.

curlyjax - Yay for the joy of water aerobics with everyone in the same boat.

Beth (bethturnaround) – LOL that "I’m not eating" meant I really wasn’t eating - the world is slow to catch on when we're serious.

orange123 - Love the notion of playing hammerhead sharks with your DS. Hope work resolves itself.

Readers -

Hello, coaches! Food was on plan again today - dinner was just tids and bits. I cooked up some chicken apple sausage in medallions and had that with toothpicks, almonds, veggies and hummus, cheddar, small crackers, etc. I chose well and it was a nice change for us for a dinner. I couldn't think of what hot meal to prep. Didn't get on the scale this morning - wasn't even on my mind.

This rainy morning I went looking for a nice jacket that I got as a gift through work last year - that was about two sizes (if not more) too big. I went rummaging through the bin of off season/too small clothes. No luck - I think I divest myself of too large clothes WAY FASTER than I do with clothes that are too small. I'll hold onto something for a decade to fit back into it. If it's too big, apparently I pass it on in record time. Argh.

Bill - Oatmeal raisin cookies sound like they go well with a talk on Norway. Or north of Norway. Did you decide on what future books your club will be reading - or was it just when everyone was submitting their ideas.

Hi everyone!

Okay, I know I started out giving myself daily credit for weighing and checking my sugar. I haven't been mentioning it every day because I've been doing it every day. Since I stayed at my aunt's last night, I didn't have access to my scale this morning. (She told me hers is about 15 lbs light so I didn't even step on it) It has bothered me all day that I didn't get to weigh this morning. It just occurred to me as I'm typing this: "Oh well". "Oh well". Practice it--oh, well. (I'm calmer about it already)

I just kept putting and putting it off and didn't go exercise. I did lots of productive stuff tonight--but not exercise :-(

nationalparker: I wonder if it'd be useful to count calories for a few days or a week to see how the points/calories match up in terms of reaching your weight loss goals? (I love chicken apple sausage)

BillBlueEyes: That is what printers are for. You get to go to so many cool talks!

curlyjax: Congrats on the 2 lbs. We talked about special occasions at the food environments class. The problem is that it seems there's a special occasion every week/month. And somehow, we're all conditioned to celebrate those special occasions with food.

silverbirch: One woman told me she froze hers (they look like little juice boxes) and then just takes them with her. 3 hours later, it's thawed enough to drink, but it's still cold. Someone else drinks them over ice, which I hadn't really thought about. I obviously didn't do that in Mexico :-), but no reason not to stateside. Several people mentioned coolers, of course.

--Beth

Dear Coaches:

Thanks for keeping the home fires burning here. I have had one of the worst winters in a long time. Illness galore all around me, and everyone, including the cat, got sick in our house this winter. My usual remedy, making things, completely failed me as I was blocked on all levels. But today I started to paint. I will have something for Monday's juried show submission. I have an idea brewing for a local artist in residence submission due next Thursday and my ceramic work, which has an mid April deadline, is starting to get done.

My teaching ends this week. Another class may begin for another 11 week session April 11 and I have been trained by my fellow studio/garage co-habiting neighbour, who has a fire extinguisher servicing business to be an extra fire technician for him whenever I am around the studio. I now know how to re-charge and service a 5lb fire extinguisher. This gives me extra money on the side needed to help pay down credit card debt.

Weight wise and foodwise I have fallen back into old habits. Bad habits. While DH has kept the weight he lost during his bout of pneumonia off ,and is continuing to lose more. I regained all, no not all, I am in the 260's, the low 260's. I was on the cusp of 250. Oh well. I know why I am where I am and I am not happy and must change it again. DH is turning 50 on July 3rd and today over dinner he said to me that we would never have a nice house like his sister has. That it will never happen. This was an oblique reference to the clutter still in the house. My boxes bins and bags. I got really mad. Stayed quiet and went to the car. Tonight I thought "for DH's birthday I will clear out this space come h*ll or high water". His birthday, July 3rd, is my deadline. I work well with a deadline. I was feeling jealous of his weight loss and feeling grumpy of my weight gain and I can commit to changing back to what works for me to lose the weight for the same time frame. Tomorrow to July 3rd. Back on plan with decluttering and food. I can't take this always facing the same issue. DH is obviously depressed about the state of the house and sees it as all my stuff and all my fault and responsibility and feeling hopeless. When I change this he will see his part but not before, so I need to change this for me and for him. It may look like a birthday gift for him but really it is my own early birthday gift. I would love to get this monkey off my back. I need to see myself do this. I will commit to trying. Step one is reporting in with my coaches. Done.

Thank you so much for being here. You guys mean the world to me and make me feel like it is possible to accomplish this goal which is a commitment to 1) decluttering the house by July 3rd and 2) committing to my foodplan from now to July 3rd and allowing my body to do with my efforts what it will and 3) to get some exercise. I feel weaker and creakier and just OLD which is really not like me and not healthy for me body mind or soul. Time to try some physical activity and see if I can find sometihing I like.

Bye for now.

Quick post to keep myself on track. Still at Mum's and will be here until Saturday. Food is reasonably OK but I was reminded yet again that shop bread does not agree with me. It makes me cough and almost wheeze so that's not good. I keep forgetting as eating it is such a rare event and I foolishly bought some rolls for the others and ate one. Lesson learnt - again.

onebyone, good to see you. I'm impressed by your fire extinguisher sideline.

beth, thanks for shake info.

Must go. I'm walking the SO to the station and then going to buy a bed base. As Mum has got shorter in recent years her bed is now too high and it's a slip hazard getting out of it.

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Exercise was chase the (2.5 year-old) DGD day. On her own, she spews out 'stuff' she knows. During a discussion of time, she recited, "Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty." Good enough for me. As we were getting out of the car after the day was over, she offered, "I'll ask daddy if you two can come tomorrow." Clearly, she understands authority, asking permission, and that grandparents are fun.

Food was OK. Dinner was the potluck before our book club discussion of The Homing Instinct: Meaning and Mystery in Animal Migration by Bernd Heinrich. I never tire of stories of long animal migrations, wondering how they navigate. It makes me jealous that some seem to be able to perceive the earth's magnetic field. I'd love to infallibly know which way was north any time of the day or night. Dinner was all vegetarian to make me a vegetarian for a day. My take is that that's good for my heart.


onebyone – Ouch for a winter full of illness. Congrats for getting back in your stride to start painting again. Love the thought of a specialty business recharging fire extinguishers.

silverbirch – I also know that thought of buying stuff 'for others' - that then becomes 'for me'. It's sobering to be reminded that we get shorter as we age.

nationalparker – Neat to have "just tids and bits" for dinner. [Next book is The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester.]

Beth (bethturnaround) – Thanks for reminding me that I can just set my scale 15 pounds lighter and stop worrying about these pounds that won't go away. Kudos for weighing and checking your sugar every day.

Readers -

Good Morning, Coaches.

Credit for self care yesterday. I was reacting poorly to the new medicine. Thoughts of self harm were plaguing me. So I called the shrink and then called my mom to come and stay with DS and me last night since DH is out of town. Both ideas worked well and I will do the same tonite if necessary. This is a super credit for me because I never take myself seriously and I hate asking for help (especially because I really feel I don't need any meds.) But the scoop is this. I have a precious boy who needs his mother. I will do anything to protect him.I believe this too will pass. ( Well sometimes I act that I believe this too shall pass.)

On the food front I finish turbo week. If i maintain the loss I will change my ticker downward in two days. This is a big deal because many say the meds I am on ALWAYS put on weight. Period. So I have proven to myself that that is not the truth. Good. On to the next thing.

Gratitude list:
dozens of people I can call anytime.
Flextime at work.
The means to pay for the incredibly expensive shrink
a God of my understanding
a place to post this

maryann: I sent you a private message