30lbs to lose... Started AGAIN yesterday (Darn Lockdown Snacking)

So yesterday was a side step with absolutely nothing achieved from all my tiny habits list - seriously I didn’t even take my vitamins, and had 3 glasses of wine for dinner ☹️.
Weirdly the last couple of nights I woke up because some animal is chewing the siding right under my window. The noise and vibration is horrible in the middle of the night, and my husband sleeps through. I investigated every morning and can’t find where it goes. I would chuck it at being a mouse, but last night it got spooked and the sounds I heard were not from a quarter pound thing.
My older daughter went back to school yesterday and my dog cried at her door last night. Give it a week and I’ll be next to him there.
As for the other things, I can’t go there, sorry.

Gabi, just be patient with yourself. Your world got tilted a little. It’s sad to lose a coworker and very unsettling to realize maybe we aren’t as safe as we previously thought.
As for missing your daughter, I’m right there with you. My daughter had to pick up the ashes from her cat after work yesterday. She called me from the parking lot crying. My heart just broke. Nothing is worse than seeing your child suffer, except knowing she’s suffering and you are 300 miles away!
Luckily, she just moved in with a friend over the weekend, so she no longer lives alone. Still, I worry. She’s 26 now and I was married when I was 26 and a mother at 27! But she’s still my baby. And my gut still clenches when she’s sad.
Awww, The poor dog crying for your daughter!So pitiful! When will your daughter come home next? I know a number of colleges did away with spring break this semester. Makes for a LONG semester without a break!
Have you seen any evidence outside from the scraping?

I had an interesting conversation with my 94( she turns 95 next month)year old aunt who lives in Fl. She’s just finished chemo for the second time as her lymphoma came back. She got together with lots of extended family on Christmas Day and ate with them at Golden Coral( her favorite!). And she had eaten there again the evening before I spoke to her. She said she can’t understand why this virus has gotten worse! It wasn’t so bad before the election! Her words. Just makes me realize people will believe whatever they WANT to believe and nothing anyone says will change their minds!! It also doesn’t occur to her that her behavior contributes. You’d think someone her age with compromised immune system would stay home. She’s like my mom, no one’s going to tell HER what to do!

I’m feeling all out of sorts too. I took some of my homemade cookie dough and baked one cookie to eat. If I’d baked more, I’d have EATEN more!! I have honey garlic chicken in the crock pot. New recipe. It better be good!
I made tacos with Impossible Burger meat last night and my husband was so excited. He wants to do “Taco Tuesday” every Tuesday.

I’m not letting myself look at the news any more today. I’ve kind of obsessed over it the last few days.

Catherine, I hope you and Katrina are doing well.

Gabi, my thoughts are with you! I know this is a very tough time for you! Please be gentle with yourself!

Catherine, you posted while I was typing!
It sounds like you have a strategy for cutting down on work stress after work is done for the day! Even being aware and acknowledging the problem is a big step in the right direction.
I’m come to conclude, there’s no magic off switch. It doesn’t matter if we are in maintenance, or have been for 5 years, when everything goes topsy turvy, it’s still going to be our MO to go to food for comfort. But if we can just limit it to a day, or even a week, depending how bad the situation is, we can still come out okay. We can still get back on track if we are gentle with ourselves and not berate ourselves. We need to treat ourselves like OTHERS treat us. They’d give us the break. Every time!
Going Protein heavy sounds like a smart move!!

Well I started the day off with veggies. I realized I had mushrooms and a red pepper I hadn’t used, plus an onion, so I made myself what would’ve been a veggie omelette if my omelette pan hadn’t been in storage. It ended up being just scrambled eggs( 1 egg + 2 egg whites) and veggies. Kept me full for HOURS! Didn’t even think about snacking.

How’s everyone doing? Gabi, are you hanging in there? I’ve been pulling for you!

Last night I dreamed I put on a ton of weight and was busting out of my clothes. I hadn’t weighed in a couple of weeks, felt a little bloated so got nervous. The scale was 126.25 so not much damage. I was SO nervous about stepping on. I did it about 3 times before I was satisfied it was accurate. It’s an old fashioned doctors’ balance scale, so it’s very accurate. I’ve had it for 25 years!

Exercise:✅
Tracked: ✅
Under:✅
2+veggies✅ Much easier when you start the day with veggies! When we went to Europe several years ago, most of the hotels we stayed at in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Czech Republic, Netherlands had salad bars at breakfast time! I loved it. I took advantage and then could relax a little more with what I ate the rest of the day.)

That is a great idea Barb, to load on veggies early on. I’m not having breakfast because I’m never hungry in the morning, but half veggies, half eggs, sound delicious. I got to get back on the mostly veggies train.
I know that dream. Is not a good one.

Had a good start to the day, ate a lot of veggies and then... ate a lot of biscuits too. I'm cutting myself off after this box. No more in the weekly shop.

After all, if I don't buy it, I can't eat it!

Still, it means my shopping basket is getting healthier. When I first started doing a regular shop, it was pretty much all processed food. Now it's mostly ingredients (mostly veg!) which has got to be a positive change. Shows I'm cooking more, for one thing...

I actually made scrambled eggs today too with onions, yellow peppers and veggie sausage. Great minds! If I have mushrooms, I often chuck them in too. Scrambled in my home means 'anything I can find' chucked in a pan. Sometimes it's just eggs, but more often than not, it's eggs and a random mix of veggies!

Whenever I can remember what I was dreaming about, it's very easy to work out what was on my mind. In your case, I don't think there's much of an explanation needed either, Barb! Very clear what was niggling at you. You can't put on more than a few pounds a few days after your last weigh-in, even if you overeat like crazy, so you just need to remember to hop on the scales a bit more often to know that there's no way you've gone above a certain number and relax.

Have just remembered - I need to make some cauliflower soup in the next few days (mainly to check whether I like it or not, as made by me). Fingers crossed! I could always do with sneaking another type of veg into my diet.

As much as I hate deep cleaning, there's something very soothing about a freshly cleaned home. And a tidy home does help with a tidy mind... it might help you feel more in control. Here's to a productive day tomorrow, Gabi!

Katrina- oh my, you did have some stressful packed days!!!
Poor lady! And poor child when he’ll understand what had happened between his parents!
You and Barb are using the crockpot so often and all sounds really good. Every time I tried, I was disappointed with the results.

Katrina, what a week you’ve had! As if worrying about having an unreliable perhaps relapsing coworker weren’t enough to worry about, now you have to worry about safety from a coworker’s ex who should be in jail!?!

So you’re looking for some acreage to have a little farm!?! That would be very nice for you and Mat.

I’m glad you’re really trying to make sleep a priority.

So as for the crockpot, the last recipe my husband loved! Couldn’t wait to eat the leftovers the next day. I generally read a lot of the reviews before trying a new recipe. Most turn out very well. Just the one recipe was garbage. I love making barbecue chicken in the crockpot, super easy and super moist. Chili as well.

Catherine, did you make the cauliflower soup? If so, how did it turn out? I have a George Forman grill that I mostly use to grill fish ( I just sprinkle Old Bay seasoning on the fish and drizzle lemon or lime juice on it and it’s delicious!) or grill vegetables ( with a little balsamic vinaigrette drizzled on them). I love the grilled veggies( strips of zucchini, squash, red peppers, onions and portobello mushrooms) with cheese or hummus on ciabatta bread or a nice roll. Used to make that quite often when my vegan daughter lived with us( hers was without real cheese).
You said a George Forman, Catherine, but were you even talking about a grill?

Catherine, if you can get things set up to do some zoom dance classes, I think that would be perfect for you! I have to confess, I’ve only done 1 live zoom fitness class. It was a weights class a friend I’ve known for years was teaching. She moved to FL years ago. I really only did it to see what she was up to, to see if she was able to bring her energy to a class when she was alone. Plus she’d invited me and I didn’t want to say No. But I begged off for future classes because they were in the afternoon and I work out in the morning. I love working out in the morning, but if I put it off until the afternoon, I don’t like it at all. I think it’s more that I get cranky when I don’t get my morning workout in!

But there are so MANY free virtual classes to choose from. I have done a taped yoga class several times that my favorite gentle yoga instructor taped and put online.
What kind of dance is it, Catherine?

My husband is like a child, he gets so SAD when the Christmas tree has to come down. We have an artificial tree. So last year when I put away all the Christmas ornaments and lights, I put up pink lights and decorated the tree with Valentines ornaments. I did that again today. My husband was very pleased when he got home from work.

Exercise:✅
Tracked: ✅
Under: ✅
2+veggies❌ Not unless I count the tomato slices on my pizza as one of the veggies!
I’ve decided to try for Sunday-Thursday to hit the 2+target and relax more on Fridays and Saturdays.

Catherine - an online dance class it’s an excellent idea- exercise without feeling like fitness, fun without audience and you get to improve your overall flexibility and mobility . The furniture issue you can figure it out after the first class.
I went from what it felt like dancing all the time, to never dancing and than to just occasionally . Now I’m on pause, like many, but plan to wake up dancing one of these days.

Barb- you have a Valentine Day Tree? How sweet is that! Of course your husband loved it .
I like your green checks , keep on posting.

Katrina 5-10 acres farm does sound like something worth the wait, until you find the right one. I imagine farms are bought for life, or for several generations - so you are truly building from the bottom. That is so exciting!

Other than going for longer walks, I don’t think I have much to say. I got fairly cold and sat with a blanket over my legs for a while, and my cheeks and ears were burning , but I got to catch up with the messages, so all is good 😌

The Valentines tree sounds adorable, Barb.

I was indeed talking about a George Forman grill - the size I'm interested in is out of stock, but I'm keeping an eye on the website. It's good to know it's come in handy and might not just get relegated to the back of a cupboard!

Yesterday I was so tired I crashed out at 8pm. Of course, this meant I then was wide awake at 2am, but at least I got a solid 6 hours at some point! Still a bit tired, so this is going to be a very quick check-in.

Finally made cauliflower soup (added a little potato for texture). I can't say I love it, but... it's palatable. I can taste why so many people like to drown that vegetable in cheese! Palatable for a vegetable I don't like is probably a decent victory.

Gabi, it sounds like you're more flexible/mobile than me. Great job with all the walking.

One more sleep until the inauguration - honestly, I don't think we've taken this much of an interest in another country's leader in such a long time. Hoping for a smooth transfer tomorrow and lots of positive things ahead.

Catherine, I’m sorry the cauliflower soup didn’t taste more appealing. Sometimes I tell myself the food doesn’t have to taste great to do good things for my body. But it sure helps! I hope you are able to catch up on some rest!
Yes, I know what you mean about really being interested in the politics of another country. Some good friends of mine are Canadian( although they lived near me for years when I lived in S FL). They keep up with EVERYTHING that happens in US politics better than probably 98% of those of us who live here.
I am with you, I am looking forward to seeing a peaceful transfer and the nation getting on with healing and facing the issues at hand( the virus, race relations, economy etc, etc).

Gabi, it sounds like you had two big wins in one day! What a healthy attitude-will this bother me in 2 years? Unfortunately, when I’m in the thick of something, I don’t think long term, but I need to!
And you’re back in the green again! Awesome!

Katrina, hope you are having a good week!

Exercise:✅
Tracked: ✅
Under: ✅
2+veggies✅

Tomorrow is a planned day to be over on calories! 🎉

It was much easier getting back on track today after taking a Pass day yesterday. Maybe because I was proactive and brushed my teeth as soon as I ate lunch and ate my salad early before my husband got home for dinner.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Exercise:✅
Tracked:✅
Under: ✅
2+veggies✅

You crack me up, Gabi-“What if my norm is annoying and the regular work flow is the exception?” Was that like an ephipany?
Hopefully, you got all of the annoying issues out of the way for a while and next week is smooth sailing! But then, would you chance getting bored at work?
I had a work dream last night even though I don’t work any more( at least until the pandemic is over. Then I WANT to work again, part time anyway). I dreamed it was the first day of school and all my little kindergarteners and their Moms were swarming into my classroom, and I had failed to set it up properly. In fact, the classroom had 3 exits and kids were randomly leaving. And I forgot to write and print my first day letter to the parents. At the end of the day I promised the parents I’d be more organized the next day and then realized I’d be up all night making that happen! This is funny because I was SUPER organized and prepared as a teacher.
I guess I dreamed it because things started sounding a little hopeful or at least we have a plan for the virus, and I thought it might be nice to have a meaningful job again.
Wow, major stress dream and I haven’t even APPLIED for a job yet!!

Nice dream, interesting and dynamic , but what is impressive to me is that it lines up with your last work. I like the opposite version of your organized self. Mine, if I remember them, are just random and weird. For example I was really upset and called my friend to meet me for coffee and when she came, it was Jennifer Aniston. Not even a fan, I might add. Or weirder: was in the middle of leaving an out of office message ... in a language I do not speak .

I like your check marks and I think I’ll start too, considering that this weekend is mine and should mean something 😁
Friday:
Exercise ❌
Under ❌
Veggies ✅

Gabi, ooh that’ll be nice if I’m not the only one making check marks each day!
So...leaving an out of office message in a language you don’t speak- interesting dream!

Catherine, a 4 hour hike is impressive! So you all can’t sit outside at all? What happens if you get caught sitting?
We have a mask mandate here but absolutely nothing happens to people who ignore it. Store managers are too afraid of being assaulted.
I know you’re disappointed with the scales this week but knowing you’ve been logging accurately, I’d give it another week or two before changing anything. Sometimes when I was losing, I’d be so excited to step on the scale because I’d been so consistent, and then little to nothing. Then the next week I might not be so consistent but a 1 1/2 - 2 pound loss! The loss doesn’t always show up on schedule!

We went and looked at neighborhoods and lots today which is stressful for me. So I ate more chocolate than I needed and barely stayed under.

Exercise:✅
Tracked: ✅
Under: ✅
2+veggies❌