Good morning!

Yesterday was again not low calorie and you'll love my evening internal dialogue to justify it: when I reduce calories to lose weight I lose hair and am obviously deficient. Now is not a good time to be compromising my health and immune system. And yet, I'm not maintaining. I'm either gaining or losing.

My day was sabotaged with oven fries again and we are out of ketchup. While they were baking, I thouht I could whirl up a batch of ketchup in the Nutribullet, and found a recipe online. I got all the ingredients out and then discovered it has to cook for 10-12 hours in an uncovered crockpot.

I had to babysit the batch of ketchup all day (finished at midnight) and now I have ketchup but no fries.

Maryann, thanks for sharing the info from your book. Gaining weight is certainly not from a lack of information. Credit for the one week!

Karen, all of our state and local parks are closed and we are supposed to stay home, exercising around our own neighborhood. I feel for the people living alone. It must be very lonely right now.

Curly, good for you, standing firmin your safety at work. 50 people just walked out of a Purdue processing factory because the company has made absolutely no changes. The economy is just going to keep trying to get what it can get out of the working class and people are going to have to stick up for themselves.

Bill, I was wondering how the housing market and new mortgages have been effected. I'm sure glad my renters have not been left with half a bathroom. That project got done just in time.

Joy, the art project sounds fantastic! My overdramatic brain was laying in bed this morning thinking about tv running out of new content and us having to resort to people creating home videos. An art walk around the block would get me walking.

Good morning coaches,

I got an early hike in with friend who is also an early riser. We did a hike that is closer in so we wanted to beat the "crowd". There actually are more people hiking since kids are out of school and many are working from home. We didn't have any trouble staying far enough apart from people but it may be more difficult later in the day. Being outdoors and getting my exercise is wonderful and when I got home I took Otis for a walk. I've had three days on plan and no alcohol or sweets and weight is down the couple of pounds that it had been up. A friend dropped a half dozen chocolate chip cookies at the door yesterday and dh husband had one and I put one on my plan for today. They look delicious, but I almost don't want to eat it because it seems easier to stay away from sugar entirely. I'll see how it goes. I put them in the drawer so I don't have to see them in the meantime. I've been sitting at the computer getting the bills paid, etc, and have some classical music on Amazon Prime. All the things available on the computer are really just amazing. Who would ever have the time to even know what all of them are.

Penny Some of our parks are closing or closed too, but thankfully many are not. I hope the ketchup is darned good.
Maryann I always appreciate you sharing what you are learning. I'm glad you have a program that is helpful.
GardenerJoy Enjoy the art. I hope some others in the neighborhood also take part.
Curlyjax Hang in there. I'm glad you slept better. That has got to help.
Bill Yes, things are strange right now. I can imagine how awkward the situation with the neighbor felt. My friends and I are driving separate cars to the trailhead which seems strange too. I wonder how it will be when we revert to the new normal which may not be that far off.

Well I had a pretty early breakfast so I'm going to go fix some lunch. Take care everybody.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Another Wednesday without the (4yo) DGD. Ouch! We sent over the stack of floor puzzles that she likes to complete here. They're 24 pieces. Initially, they were hard; then she got good at it. Our DD emailed us a photo of her completing all four on their linoleum floor. When we offered to order some 36-piece floor puzzles, DD responded, "YES!" Would guess that this period of full time with her daughter is causing stress - along with the joy.

Walked, CREDIT moi, to the pharmacy for an errand. They still don't have alcohol wipes. "In a few days," they said hopefully from behind their face masks. I never came closer than six feet from any person, except for the pharmacy assistant to hand me my purchase. I Purell'ed my way out of the store. Among my zillion COVID-19 emails was the notice that the president of Harvard College and his wife have tested positive and are in self-quarantine. They don't know how they got it.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - That's a neat event to allow folks to walk around the neighborhood without getting close. We put teddy bears in our front window - something being done locally so folks can take their kids walking around for a "bear hunt."

maryann - National Agriculture Day is a good reminder to me to thank all of you farmers who continue to get food to the store shelves. I'm on the walnut phase of my breakfast fruit bowl, so think of you each morning. This is a whack upside my head, "I have taught my body to comfort myself through fat, salt and sugar." Wish my body was a bit better at forgetting.

Karen (karenrn) - Ouch for a friend who drops off chocolate chip cookies. Kudos for those three days on plan.

curlyjax - This is a really positive trait, "I've never been good with blindly following orders." Kudos for those two salads.

Penny. - That's some dedication to make your own ketchup. I've never known anyone to do that, even my friends who cook thier own tomato sauce for hours. Ouch for the comforting taste of oven fries.

Readers -

Wave to all. Today is the work at home day i've been granted to try. My immediate supervisor is on board, the manager seems to be focused on can i fill my 7 hours, grr. I am SURE that a lot of folks working at home aren't fully productive, but i'm trying to let that go and be grateful again I have a job, and can try it today. It may not work out great because DD is now taking online classes and she claims normally I talk too loudly, and i'm talking to folks who don't hear well so....if its nice out I may take my phone outside and walk while I talk. But it's so nice to cut out the commute which adds almost 2 hours to my day, and be able to use my lunch hour to pay bills etc. I'm going to go run and put some laundry in now, don't tell
Penny- I am very impressed that you made your own ketchup! Too funny about the fries. I was not happy to find the supplies of sweet potatoes gone initially, i realize how much i rely on those!

Hi everyone!
I have been lurking from time to time and it is lovely to see you all.

I myself have been okay, have lost another few pounds since I last checked in mostly by sticking to my 8 hour eating window during the day. I was magically hoping I would start counting calories again and being more strict with myself, but I guess magic only happens on TV (grin).

I was still doing the twice per week personal trainer up until March 8 when I stopped because of virus fears. The gyms and all “non-essential” business have since been closed in our town, so the galleries where I show my work are closed also. I agree with this decision. As of yesterday, they have put checkpoints on the two roads into my small town, can't get in unless you live here, are delivering goods or own property.

DH and I are walking around town quite a bit. The most I have been able to do is 2 miles on flat ground. Not going to the gym has really set back my hip/leg pain issue, and I have not been totally disciplined in doing my “at-home” physical therapy exercises. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?! I need to review the Beck book for an answer.

Bill - I am now subscribing to the NYTimes, the Washington Post and my local paper. Plus FB and the internet. Heather Cox Richardson is my go-to FB first read.

Karen - you are an angel for planning a cookie. I am definitely a cookie addict and simply cannot have them around.

Penny - that is concerning that you lose hair, have you figured out what might cause that? I do have a friend that went on a very strict diet where she ate specific foods very frequently and she had a hair problem also. Your body is trying to tell you something.

Maryann - I found your most recent post highly interesting. Thank you for sharing.

Gardenerjoy - if we could post pictures on this site, I would love to see your art!

Curlyjax - the fewer people we come in contact with, the better for all of us.

Good Morning,

A much shorter post. I have to hit the road. I am staying at my mom’s for two nights.

Another day sugar free. I think the thought of being at Mom’s made me a little hungrier yesterday ( my body’s physiology.) But now that I now that is a automatic neurological trick to make me maintain my current weight, I was able to say, “Goodie, I must be losing fat if my hypothalamus is trying to make me hungry when I have already had plenty of food.” The body wants me to maintain because the goal of my ancestors was to retain any fat it could in the face of food scarcity and stress. My strategy worked. The metacognition worked and I went to bed with no refined sugar.

CJZee: you scared me with “checkpoints.” I have to able to go from my house to my mom’s freely. We haven’t had this in California that I know of.

Wave to all.

Today, we'll make decisions about groceries. Deliver or do it myself? One store or two?

The only thing I'm certain of is that I want a plan and a list that keeps us from having to make these decisions again for two weeks. And, even that, I'm realizing may not be realistic given limits on purchases and the shelf life of some of the produce that works well for us.

I've made mind maps that are essentially worksheets to go through with DH so we can make decisions together with the buy-in from both of us so that we know what we're committing to. He'll laugh, but I think it will work better than what I did last time -- I took advantage of an early morning to zip off to the store, thinking that was the right choice. It wasn't and it meant that he didn't have any input at all on the list.

Exercise: +45, 1010/1300 minutes for March

maryann: The thought that my body doesn't cope well in the current environment has been so helpful to me. I try to live more like my grandmother, an active farm wife who cooked and ate fresh whole foods while getting plenty of exercise, than my mother (her daughter), an overweight office worker who bought into the notion that Tang was health food. Grandmother lived to be two months shy of 100 and Mother died at 68. It seems clear that I have longevity genes, given a good environment, and obesity genes, given the wrong one.

Good morning!

Yesterday was actually on plan. Credit! What worked was announcing the end of my eating window and asking dh to support me in not eating again later. Then, giving the internalized rage face when he dismissed my concerns about helping our daughter get a snack. "That's right, I said I would be supportive" and off he went to the kitchen.

Karen, my son has me making cookies on Thursday, if I can get butter. I hope I can be strong. lol

CJZee, good to read your update! Stay safe!

Bill, sorry you are missing DGD day. That's pretty good she can do a 24 piece. Puzzle work is apparently a good prerequisite skill to reading. Non-essential Amazon orders may take a couple months to arrive now. I've been avoiding shopping because the poor workers and now at least six packaging warehouses have had confirmed cases. my brother works at Amazon and comes home to our mother every time.

Curly, yay for working from home. I put out an email to my boss asking about what PPE is being used for asymptomatic patients. If she says nothing, I have some decisions to make.

Maryann, I hope your two nights with your mother go smoothly.

Joy, sending you good shopping wishes. Hopefully you can find everything on your list.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Had a Google Hangouts computer-screen chat with the (4 yo) DGD. It went a little longer, a little more contact. She was excited to tell us that her dad was teaching her how to do a cartwheel - a big deal to her. She has a friend who "has already learned." Love the perspective that life is learning one new thing after another. Doing a cartwheel is just something you learn, gently ignoring that you also have to be old enough and have enough other skills. She's never boring.

Eating was on plan, CREDIT moi, including omelets for dinner made with farm fresh eggs. They were really good. We had them because a friend dropped them off - leaving them on our front porch. She got them from the farm near where she has a place in the outer suburbs. Don't know if I'm ready to make the effort to get out to a real farm to get more. After dinner snack was fresh pineapple; DW grabbed one on sale for $2 - a good price around here.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Good luck with the shop or ship decision. I so carefully choose items by expiration date that I'd be annoyed to get a box of washed lettuce with a two-day use-by expectancy when I know that there's a ten-day package sitting behind it.

maryann - Yay for outthinking your hypothalamus. Yep, you don't need to fatten up until the next Mastodon is killed.

curlyjax - Yay for working at home. Kudos for surviving DD's evaluation that you talk too loud. I remember when I had one at home and got stuff like that.

Penny. - Yay for a tiny stint of male training with your DH. We're slow, but studies have shown that we are capable of learning.

CJZee - Ouch that they're shutting down the art galleries; it's hitting everybody. Kudos for sticking to your plans.

Readers -

Bill - I love your DGD updates. You have instilled in her the thought that learning is natural and continuous, and that is a lifetime gift.

Penny - announcing the end of your eating window is brilliant! And your DH sounds lovely, LOL the “internalized rage face.”

Gardenerjoy - my DH keeps wanting to go to the grocery frequently even though we have plenty of food. The only thing he absolutely requires is cream for his coffee (and of course, coffee, but we can stock up on that). Unless he sneaks out without me, we will be waiting until he needs cream again to go food shopping. He doesn’t know this yet.

Maryann - I really like your metacognition thought process. Re the checkpoints - they are just to keep tourists out for the time being so they don’t keep re-infecting the local population.

I thought being forced to stay home would allow me to tackle the various projects I have going, but so far it hasn’t happened. So, today I commit to cleaning off my files sitting on the couch.

I’m also thinking of sending my nieces and nephews the historical information I’ve been tracking and keeping on our mutual relatives and ancestors. It’s not in very good order as I just write down new info as I learn it, so I will have to organize it in some way. I want to give them basic “family tree” information - but also add context and info on particular ancestors. Any advice on organization would be appreciated.

Good morning!

I managed two days on plan, and of course weight is down the initial whoosh. Still in the "bad" zone.

So, I found out my work is rationing out the PPE and unless patients have symptoms, most nurses get nothing. If you have been reading up on Iceland mass testing residents you will know a lot (50%?) of positive tests had no symptoms at all, and can be contageous for several days. We are just supposed to take one for the team, I guess.

Bill, the video chat sounds lovely. Credit for staying on plan.

CJZee, good luck with the organization. I was thinking weekly groceries would cover things like creamer, but I want to see if we can stretch it to two weeks.

Hi Coaches

I'm at the car dealer getting my summer tires installed. I'm antsy as I feel I have been sitting here too long! I wonder.... where's the virus? Is it there? Or is it there? An I sitting on it? Did it float past me on the invisible air currents. I know I know its not airborne. I know it gets in by touching my face. But I am unnerved sitting here so long.

Nevertheless, there is hand cleaner and plenty of empty space and I have been careful to keep my hands to myself. My phone stays in my hands or in my pocket. This is all very stressful.

Anyway, in other news, my kitchen has been declared clean by DH. So much so that he says he could participate in the online work pictures that employees are posting of their kitchens. He said he would be able to post a picture of our kitchen which was the ultimate vote of approval, though he said he doesn't do that kind of stuff. Last week they were posting their office setups. He said he was surprised so many co-workers don't have a dedicated office space or desk.

Last night I began the bedroom clean up. I set up my new small bedside bookcase and cleared off my bedside table. Caesar the cat was thrilled to start pulling things off of the shelf to make me get up at 5am to feed him. So, a re-ordering of the shelves will have to happen to outsmart a kitty. I was thinking of the phrase "top shelf" as I prioritized what to place on the most accessible level of the bookcase. In spot no. 1 I have Poems that Make Grown Men Cry I completely forgot I had this book. As a reward for catching up on the dishes and sorting through two bags of clothes, I will read some of this book.

I hope all is well with everyone here who posts and who lurks.

Bye!

I decided to shop for myself. It's happening tomorrow. It feels like we're preparing for a battle. We want to make sure I have a list that's going to provide what we want. And, we want ways of handling the groceries that feel safe. Or, safe enough, there's a constant question of what's prudent and what's paranoid.

I already moved the hard ice packs in the freezer to the cooler -- we aren't going anywhere with a cooler for a while so we don't need ice packs. That will give us room for frozen veggies.

Our refrigerator has reconfigurable shelves. We took out the cheese drawer (no longer useful since DH quit eating dairy several months ago) and now we have a lot more room for other fridge items.

There is an element of adventure to all of the above and I'll focus on that instead of some of the darker ways I could approach it.

Exercise: +40, 1050/1300 minutes for March

BillBlueEyes: I'm glad that you were able to connect a bit with DGD.

Good morning coaches,

After several good on plan days I went off my plan yesterday and mixed up a little sweet concoction. I have since thrown the brown sugar away because that is in any sweet concoction I make. One of the gals in my Saturday morning group let us all know that she is struggling as her dh was laid off on Friday. That made things seem more real to me even though it might not have even had anything to do with the virus. Mostly my friends and family are doing fine. My niece who had the very premature baby who is now 15 months old has taken a leave of absence. She is a nurse on an orthopedic floor in Washington state and since elective surgeries are cancelled, it is a medical floor. Her husband is a lieutenant for the fire department who has taken their travel trailer to the fire station and will stay there so he doesn't bring germs home. The baby is doing well, but they just don't want to chance anything. I did have a nice walk with a friend yesterday and then a walk with Otis. Today I'll walk Otis and then my plan includes going thru the cupboards in the laundry room to be organized and also in one of the bathrooms. I decided not to overwhelm myself with too much on one day. I'm just going to look into each cupboard and drawer with fresh eyes. I don't know about you, but I can easily overlook a messy cupboard after awhile.

I had to have a tire looked at and repaired yesterday. The front door of the shop was kept open and the chairs were outside spaced at a distance of six feet for one another It was pleasant sitting outside for the 30 minutes or so. Not only that, but each customer drove their own car into the bay or the garage and I law lots of gloves and spray disinfectant in use.

Probably the biggest thing that happened yesterday is that I received an email from the Arizona Board of Nursing asking whether I would reinstate my nursing license and what I could do. I passed. It has been 8 years since I've worked and my last job was a palliative care consulting nurse. If it had been the critical care nursing that I did earlier I might have felt better about going back to work. Meanwhile I'm 66 years old and don't want to kill anyone. If it gets horribly desperate in our state I will reconsider. I could always take vital signs and help with end of life care.

GardenerJoy There was a good video on YouTube that a family car physician did showing how to safely bring the groceries into the house. He used a large counter/island and had half as dirty and the other as clean. It was similar to how we would do a sterile technique in nursing. He even showed what to do with take out food. I'm making the cabbage salad today.
Onebyone I guess it is easier to sit outside at the tire shop in Arizona. Good to see you here.
Penny I am appalled by the PPE situation. Take care whatever you do.
CJZee I thought I would have gotten more done around the house by now too, but then again I'm home plenty even before this. I'm hoping that setting small manageable goals will be the ticket.
Bill I'm glad the video visit was longer and better. Probably something she just has to get used to. So different from your usual weekly visit where you are all just out doing fun things all day.
Maryann I hope everything is going well at your Mom's. I must say I don't feel as good today after all the sugar I age yesterday. I hope I can leave it most of the time.
Curlyjax How's it going? I'm sure many people are so productive at the office either, not just at home. I think our country is in for a big change in how we do things as we learn how much can be done differently. I hope you can continue working from home.

Take care all of you and stay healthy!

Good Morning, Coaches.

I am at Mom's. She is still hazy and I am not sure what are next steps will be. I can obviously not stay here as a long term solution nor can my brothers and sisters. So we have started the process of getting long term care. We can always cancel it. Meanwhile I am making myself comfortable. I must set a schedule for myself or the day will get lost in small moves and I will feel frustrated. So here are my musts:

1. Attend virtual mass with mom. (Done.)
2. Post here.
3. Write a food plan for the day.
4. Write on my steps.
5. Set my clock and do 1 hour of school work.
6. Walk.
7. Do one more hour of school work.
8. Lead AA meeting.
9. Go visit boys after dinner and then return to Mom's. (They are only 1/2 hour from here.)

In between I will of course be helping Mom. I am still OP and feel so grateful for sugar abstinence. Sticking to a plan of unrefined foods. Changed beef to chicken last night and will have the beef tonight. Changed stats so I am one pound under when I came to this site years ago. That feels good.

Penny: That is ridiculous that you will not be given the necessary tools for your trade. I know it probably won't help but Joanne's is giving out free materials and pattern for masks I heard. I think of you and your forward thinking toilet squares. You are a visionary.
Gardenerjoy: Looking forward to your report back from your shopping trip. Frozen veggies roasted in the oven is my current pleasure.
BBE: Glad DGD is getting use to tech visits. I know you miss her.
CJZee: Yes, I definitely want to use this time to organize and clean. I'm done with the garage. Now the car which I can do down at Mom's.
Onebyone: It is a big deal your kitchen is clean. I know you struggle with these things.