Diet Coaches/Buddies - A Nor'easter came over us. No snow, but enough rain and wind to blow barrels around the neighborhood. Boston got 1.82 inches of rain - enough to get just about everybody's basement wet. We did leave the house, but in a car, to review construction progress at my DS's place. They move forward - slowly. Plaster dust can outsmart any attempt to clean it up.

My food accomplishment was to AVOID a FREE event at a nearby food emporium that sells stuff at high enough prices that they can afford to conduct events with lots and lots of samples. I've gone in the past. Every time I've gone, I've eaten more than made any sense. Because it's FREE - a quality of food that removes any sane aspect of behavior on my part - I have to invent a workable strategy to survive. The great solution: I just didn't go. No decisions about having only "rare or unusual" or just one of each. Easy decision after the first step of avoiding the place.


Penny. - Love the image of Raggedy Ann and Andy costumes. I don't remember what era those characters are from. Do your kids even know who they are?

Readers -

Good morning!

Yesterday was on plan and weight bounced up a smidge.

The Halloween party was fun and the raggedy ann costume was quite comfortable. The host returned my Where's Waldo glasses that got lost in the yard last year, so maybe it will make a come back next Halloween.

Bill, we had a nervous drive home through buckets of rain in Portland last night. Can I blame the same nor'easter this far west? The kids probably smile and nod at our Raggedy doll costumes the same as we do for their game character costumes. Lol

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Standard Sunday walk, CREDIT moi, over the branches, twigs, and leaves downed by the previous day's nor'easter. The damage was limited even though widespread. We saw neither fallen trees nor electrical service lines downed. We escaped rather unscathed. We're pretty psyched that the Red Sox did the World Series thing. There'll be a parade and much back-slapping all around.

Eating was, again, OKish. I had nibbles at Happy Hour during late morning using the excuse that a person showed up who I hadn't seen in at least ten years. She's moved an hour away and just doesn't get back very often. Dinner was at a new restaurant where our guest was a naturalist who had led a local event in the afternoon. Fun to discuss his recent trip to Alaska. Naturalists seem to live on the margin of existence as they spend all their resources traveling to the far corners of the world. Wakes my wanderlust, it does.


Penny. - Not sure that you're allowed to call a storm a nor'easter on the West Coast. There are rules, you know. Neat that the Where's Waldo glasses have been found; not sure that "Where's Waldo's glasses" would be a bestseller, but it's a great one off.

Readers -

Hey coaches! Sorry I've been absent. It was a very busy weekend and I haven't had any time in the am, when I usually read and post. I went to pick up DD from college on Friday and returned her Sunday, not home until almost 10 pm, way too late! It was a busy weekend including coffee with a friend i hadn't seen in awhile, and going to a concert for the first time by myself- an accapello Boston based group called Five o Clock shadow (obviously men
One of DS's friends arrived to pick him up which shocked me- now these kids have licenses!!
I put off buying Halloween candy until yesterday to avoid getting into it too much.
Penny, I'm so impressed with what you have done, halfway there! I have a good 25 pounds myself to lose, i'm still amazed i have put this much on in the past 5 years, going the wrong way
Bill- good idea to vote early. The nurse question is confusing to me, I may not make up my mind until the last second. That Mozart concert sounded amazing!

Off to work a bit late since i'm staying late. Wow, i think there's another noreaster, its pouring out!!

Good morning!

Yesterday was on plan and weight is up another smidge, which is not unusual after a work weekend.

A lot of things have been checked off my long to-do list but, today I need to do more cleaning, cooking, and prep a room for guests. My visiting friend is a bit of a food addict, like myself, and I know will be bringing biscuits and the ketchup chips we liked in England. My plan is to just not eat it. The rest of my family will be eating, so it probably won't even be noticed.

Bill, kudos for the consistent walks.

Curly, I think a lot of us were getting the Halloween candy yesterday. The store was packed!
Solidarity for being in the 25 pounds to lose club with me. 20 will be even better!

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Resistance exercise, CREDIT moi, was hauling the detritus of the yard work DW had commissioned out to the curb for yard-waste pickup. She's found this group of amazing guys who can discuss with her what bush needs to be replaced then go out to their favorite nurseries to buy it, bring it back, remove the inappropriate bush that just couldn't thrive in that spot, and replace it. She has a somewhat perfectionist attitude toward her small garden so I'm impressed that there is anyone that she allows to muck about in our dirt. I've gone nursery shopping with her in the past. We drove an hour. Made our request. Then got driven in a cart by a knowledgeable salesperson to the right section of the acres and acres of wonder. Then selected a tree. Drove it back to our minivan. Then drove it home. Then worked for hours to get it into the ground. Alas, the minivan left us when the kids grew up and the dog died. I no longer have the ability to haul a bush or tree larger than a few feet. In my next life I'm going to own a pickup truck.

Eating was OKish. I deliberately turned down an overwhelming urge to buy a snack at my class on the brain. Even had the audacity to entertain the Sabotaging Thought that my brain needed food to study itself. Cute - Duh! I did learn that when one uses Botox to remove forehead wrinkles, one loses some of the ability to read other's facial expression. Yep, the reading of facial expressions is accompanied by the brain sending the same signals to the muscles that would make those expressions! When those muscles can't move because they've been Botoxed, the brain doesn't make the connection. This gives rise to a new type of prejudice. If I think someone is insensitive, I can now think of them as over-Botoxed.


curlyjax - Congrats for getting yourself out to a concert. A Cappella groups are just amazing. Ouch for having to face the reality that your son and his buds can now drive themselves.

Penny. - Ouch for having to face some memorable foods with your friend with Super Kudos for planning to not eat them.

Readers -

Yesterday was way too much candy again. I have made a sign for myself "stop eating candy!!" at work anyhow.The disgusted feeling I have should help too
Bill, so interesting about the Botox, I had never heard that!
Penny, I have an out of town guest too! so i am taking off 2 days. Actually an old boyfriend we chat on the phone occasionally and have a lot of fun. I have a bunch of projects he is going to help me with. We'll probably hit the MFA too.

Good morning!

Yesterday was on plan and weight floating around the same. Lately, I've been doing just two meals, breakfast and lunch, and am amazed how routine it has become. Initially I missed the later meal, but for now it feels fine and I'm not hungry.

Several hours were dedicated to working on the giant perler bead project taking up the dining room table. We need the table for company and the kids like to spread out the Halloween candy for trade negotiations with friends. The art project will be finished just in time today! Woot!

Bill, that is so interesting about the botox. It probably needs to be included in the patient education and consent form.

Curly, I read "old boyfriend" and of course my mind went oh la la!!!! Haha! Sorry about the candy at work. Credit for continuing to fight the cravings.

Hi everyone.

At my weekend long Mensa event, I have one credit--a one hour walk with a friend through a nearby forest preserve. As far as eating goes--no credits at all--I binged for 4 days. I didn't read my cards, didn't read my diet books, didn't track my food--I ate as if I could eat whatever I wanted without consequence--to the point of not feeling well.

I have to come up with a plan--and stay with it--for the next two trips we're taking--one to visit my mother-in-law over Thanksgiving and the following weekend another Mensa weekend out of town.

In the meantime, my food has been back on track today and yesterday--DH is traveling for work so I'm going with the '5 products a day' while he's gone. That helps me get back on track. I haven't read cards today--but will start that back up again tomorrow. Trip, fall, get up, walk a ways, trip, fall....I am going to get this right--and the biggest plus I can say is that I don't seem to have gotten out of control for more than a few days at a time--certainly not as long as a week. That's better than I've ever done before--and it means that I'm treading water. I gained back several pounds this weekend--now it's time to get that back off.

I haven't yet found an inside place to walk near the new house--I'll have to search that out--I'll feel better if I start walking again. The hour long walk with a friend was wonderful--and beautiful, since the trees were all in color.

--Beth

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Unbelievable! In my class on The Gene, we were shown how to look up the human genome on our home computers. I've always known that it was made public, but never believed that I could just go look at it. Here's Chromosome 22. The great thing is to find the tiny sliding bar labeled '-' to '+' in the center. Move it left to '0 %' and you get an overview. Move it to '100 %' and you see the base pair sequence beginning "TCAGTTT..." for as many thousands of base pairs as you're willing to read. It's all right there. There is no practical use reading it in HTML with your browser, but it's deeply satisfying to know that it is right there for whenever you want. And you can change scale and note the genes, the large spaces between genes, and the introns and exons of the genes themselves. This would be useful background reading if you were a Messenger RNA (mRNA) trying to learn your job of copying a stretch of DNA to be used to make a protein. Hard to believe this all works without an operating manual.

Eating was OKish. I did skip buying a snack at class - again. CREDIT moi for the 'again' since I've been snacking of late. The challenge comes tonight when I give out Halloween candy. The old, "One for me, one for you" isn't a good idea.


curlyjax - I'm making a visual copy of your "stop eating candy!!" for myself tonight.

Beth (bethturnaround) - Kudos for seeing your actions so clearly; my take is that's the hardest step. Love the image of your walk with a friend with the trees all in color.

Penny. - Takes a professional to think of "the patient education and consent form" - you're right, I don't think this is widely known. Good luck recovering your dining room table from the giant perler bead project. I know a family with a huge home that has a project room with a large project table in the center. I do long for that. (Although my DW would tell you that I'd need a table for each uncompleted project that I'm dawdling about.)

Readers -

The healthiest salad in Excelsior Springs, MO is at Willow Springs Mercantile, near the Hall of Waters -- the WPA project, Art Deco design, center for the city's provision of healing waters from the 30s to the 60s. Now, it's a visitor's center with helpful historical plaques.

The tastiest salad is at Dubious Claims Brewing Company -- grilled chicken, complete with bbq sauce, with lettuce, green peppers, cheese, and ranch dressing.

"Dubious claims" is what killed the clinic and sanatorium business in Excelsior Springs almost over night in the early 1960s. A tell-all article from a reporter, claiming he was promised a $39 a week experience in Excelsior Springs, but was out over $400 at the end of two weeks. That was followed by a report from the Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation casting doubt on the effectiveness of all water treatments.

The Dubious Claims Brewing Company's tagline is "forget the water, drink the beer."

None of the original water is available, now, for either bathing or drinking -- all the 40+ wells are capped off. But the water is still there with its interesting and varied mineral content -- in case anyone has a couple of million dollars lying around and wants to start a bottling company. There are also numerous old buildings ripe for renovation. Old boarding houses that didn't get converted to apartments are crumbling away. The oldest of the three hotel spas has a tree growing out of a third floor window. The other two still have life -- one is where I stayed and the other was rehabbed for senior living apartments.

Credit for surpassing my exercise goal while I was gone.

Credit for weighing for the first time in more than a week.

Daily weighing streak: 1, Weigh-in: -1.3 kgs, Exercise: +35, 1235/1200 minutes for October

Good morning coaches,

I had a great backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon. The weather was just fantastic the entire time and the scenery, as always, was magnificent. I took just the right amount of food and if I over ate at all it was at the dinner we had at Phantom Ranch. I ate both the corn bread and half of the chocolate cake, but I did give half of my steak to our male companion. I hadn't put my backpack on since the last Grand Canyon trip in the spring and haven't really hiked all that much, but it was like riding a bike. I enjoyed a ranger program about the water in the southwest as well as how the Grand Canyon is supplied with water. It all comes from Roaring Springs, not the Colorado river. The pipeline is way too old and has needed to be replaced for years. We'll see when that happens. Now that I'm home I'm back to the routine until company arrives on Monday morning. I have an orientation at the new gym on Friday morning and I do need to get back to some strength training. Today will just be laundry, getting the backpacking gear clean and put away and of course the never ending grocery shopping and meal preparation. It was delightful to get back to dh and Otis and sleep in my comfortable bed.
GardenerJoy I am sure I would like the Dubias Claims Brewing Company.
Bill It is just crazy how much information is available. It is overwhelming to think of it all.
Beth It seems like you may have some of the all or none thinking that I also fight. I will say I have gotten better as I have gotten older, but not always. Good job getting back to your plan quickly.
Penny I am such a creature of habit and my habit is 3 meals a day. I guess I also enjoying fixing that third meal and eating it with dh. Good for you for finding something that works for you.
Curlyjax Have a fun visit with your friend. I'm glad he'll be able to help you with some things that need to be done. I'm buying the candy today and won't open the bag until right before the kids begin to arrive. I am not going to eat any of it and I am saying that so I can report in tomorrow. Any left over will go to dh's office where there are young guys who can eat it without a problem.
Now I will make my 24 hour plan, which has been helpful lately. Happy Halloween to all of you!

Good morning!

Yesterday was on plan and weight is up a smidge. I joined a cardio dance exercise class with a friend and it feels a bit out of my comfort zone, but I need that friend accountability so I'll stick with it.

The perler bead project is completed as far as putting the beads down. Now it is taped, flipped over, and needs a little hole poked through the tape for each bead, so heat can escape during ironing and not explode the bead out. 16,800 holes to poke takes a bit of time! At least it can now be slid off the table a moved out of the way.

Bill, credit for avoiding the snack. A dedicated craft room would be so nice. Maybe my living/dining rooms look like a dedicated craft room right now.

Joy, that sounds like an interesting vacation! Credit for losing weight too. That is no easy task while traveling.

Beth, I feel your struggle and hope you can find your food control again. In the past, I have found myself to lose it after a big stressful event instead of during. Maybe that is what happened, since your move was finally completed.

Karen, welcome home! I'm glad it was a successful trip and fun was had.

Hi everyone.

Day 3 of back on 5 products--that's going well. DD's leftover pizza smelled wonderful--but I stuck with my products. No credits today for reading--cards or book--but tomorrow is another day.

--Beth

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