185.2 A Little of This and A LIttle of That!

I found the apricot colored pointsettia at our local grocery store. I had never seen one that color and had to have it! Since our house tends toward more desert colors, it is perfect.

We had a great Thanksgiving with friends and are now looking forward to ten days in Hawaii. I know, I know I will have to stay conscious and mindful of the exercise piece. My back is healing slowly. When I hurt it, I actually lost all the strength in my core muscles so the road back is slow, but my back is steadily improving so I am counting on being fine.

My new goal to to keep my weight steady throughout the next month and then I am thinking about doing something totally different to get the weight off. I did come up with a great, easy, filling breakfast. About a third of a cup of low fat cottage cheese with or without berries and Splenda and I am good to go for several hours.

Since we will be gone for the trip and then our family starts arriving around the 20th of December, I have no idea how often I'll write a post for this blog. I appreciate so much that you are still reading Susan's Losin' so continue check in now and then.

Here's the latest picture of Zuzu for those of you who know my 5 month old granddaughter!

183.5 Never Sneeze Lying Down!

I did and threw my back out into a new and different planetary orbit! This is not a good time of year to sneeze lying flat on your back.

183.2 It's Simple But It's Not Easy

You know how on some days, disparate things come together? On Friday I attended a discussion at Paradise Valley Community College on using non-judgmental language in the classroom, and then I had a great phone conversation with Jennifer Scott. I hadn't expected the two events to have anything to do with each other, but they surely did.

During the non-judgmental discussion, the leader, a math prof and former therapist, talked about how she never tells her students that something is easy, because if they don't get it and she's said it is easy, it invites them to think that they are stupid. (The community college population is very different from that of a traditional four year institution. Often the students were not on a college track in high school, or they may be older and are trying to enter a college setting after being out of school for a while. In other words, confidence is usually not a strong suit for these students.) So she tells them that a concept is simple but it is not easy. She had many more great things to share with us, but this is the one that struck me as I was talking to Jennifer later that afternoon.

We were talking about the challenge that I'm facing in terms of maintenance and what she responded with is very simple, but for me it has not been easy. Exercise and consciousness...she repeated those two words several times during our conversation and the big click occurred when I realized that it is simple, but it is not easy. I love it when things like that occur because it is validation that I get it.

I wish I had had this insight when I was raising my children, this knowledge about how important language is on the listener's view of him or herself. Another example the discussion leader gave was to never tell someone that he or she isn't stupid. Research has shown that the person hears stupid (forget that you said not stupid) and the damage is done. One more thing she said that struck me is how special you can make a person feel if you simply say that you were thinking about them and wondered....

As you can see, I did get a lot out of this opportunity at the college. I'm so glad I went.

"An Encouraging Word" by Jean Fain

My daughter Alee introduced me to Jean Fain's "An Encouraging Word" site a few years ago. (At the bottom of the post you can read a short bio.) This morning I received this post and want to put it out here for you because it is timely and powerful as we try to find the confidence to eat and drink what we chose to rather than to allow ourselves to be talked into eating for others.

"An Encouraging Word, Vol. 39
Just In Time: Holiday Bill Of Rights
By Jean Fain / Published November 15, 2011

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Read on if you’re interested in losing weight without the deprivation associated with dieting. Feel free to forward “An Encouraging Word” to a friend.

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Pumpkin Pie For Breakfast….

With the holidays fast approaching, I’m reprinting some timely encouragement from Evelyn Tribole, an award-winning nutritionist and co-author of the mindful eating classic, “Intuitive Eating.” Even if you’ve read Tribole’s Holiday Bill of Rights in last year’s Encouraging Word, it’s definitely worth rereading right about now:

What if peace on earth could begin at the dinner table? Imagine experiencing an inner peace, free from incessant worry about what to eat. It's hard to enjoy the holidays when you are preoccupied with eating or worried about what to say to relatives who have an annual tradition of telling you what and how to eat.

To help you foster inner peace with food, mind and body, consider your Intuitive Eating Bill of Rights:

1. You have the right to savor your meal, without cajoling or judgment, and without discussion of calories eaten or the amount of exercise needed to burn off said calories.

2. You have the right to enjoy second servings without apology.

3. You have the right to honor your fullness, even if that means saying "no thank you" to dessert or a second helping of food.

4. It is not your responsibility to make someone happy by overeating, even if it took hours to prepare a specialty holiday dish.

5. You have the right to say, "No thank you," without explanation, when offered more food.

6. You have the right to stick to your original answer of "no", even if you are asked multiple times. Just calmly and politely repeat "No, thank you, really."

7. You have the right to eat pumpkin pie for breakfast.

Remember, no one, except for you, knows how you feel, both emotionally and physically. Only you can be the expert of your body, which requires inner attunement, rather than the external, well-meaning, suggestions from family

In addition to seeing clients in private practice, Jean Fain teaches behavioral medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and she writes for O, The Oprah Magazine, among other publications. More information about Jean Fain’s therapy services, audio CDs and new book, The Self-Compassion Diet, is available on her website (www.jeanfain.com)."

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The Duh Factor

This morning I "ran" (those of you who know me know I can't run) into Starbucks for a cup of coffee. A younger woman, maybe 40 to 45, held up a packaged egg salad sandwich and asked me if it would be a good choice since she had just learned that her cholesterol was too high and her doctor wanted her to watch what she ate. She probably heard way too much information in response to her question. (TMI, as my girls used to warn me). And here is where the duh factor come in. It is not about her, but shouldn't her doctor have educated her about good food choices. Wasn't there a list of good food choices available to the doctor to give patients, or even a web site the doctor could have shared with her to get this information? It was a funny encounter because every food choice I suggested to her, for example turkey, fruit, she immediately said she hated those things. Finally I told her I had been to a hypnotherapist to help me want to eat healthy food. That just about put her over the top. I did show her how to read the nutrition label on the package. Maybe the duh factor applies to her also?

183.2 Asking Questions

Asking questions is always a good thing...I think. As I've continued to work on losing a few pounds after trying to maintain my 80 pound loss and then regaining some, I have been trying to figure out why things took the turn that they did. I had to have my thyroid level checked (I had my thyroid removed about 3 years ago) so decided to talk over the situation with my PCP before having the blood draw. I really like this doctor because he listens carefully and responds with care. In other words, he doesn't trivialize my concerns. He checked my last lab results and noticed that the TSH was on the high side although not quite abnormally so. The end result is that because it came up so high or higher again, I am on a higher dose of synthetic thyroid replacement. I've only taken it for a few days and don't have the jitters or other side effects that he warned me about, so we'll see. I joked with a friend that maybe I'll become a Type A personality. Now that would be something new and different!

Home Again!

We are home again after having a great time in Kansas City with my sister Priscilla and her husband Phil. It was wonderful to see their new home, get a private tour of the Nelson Art Museum where Priscilla is a docent, go to a concert at the newly opened Kaufman Concert Hall, and eat the most delicious food at a variety of great little restaurants. We even got to eat free at a Seasons 52 restaurant where the employees were in the process of being trained.

No, I haven't weighed myself and won't for a couple of day to let things simmer down. And yes, I did try to order wisely (it's pretty automatic now). But every bite was worth it, and I'm learning how to deal with all of the ups and downs involved in travel. So thanks again Prill and Phil for a great time. We'll be back!

183.4 Kansas City, Kansas City Here We Come!

My sister Priscilla and her husband Phil live in Kansas City. We haven't visited them there in several years and so we are on our way tomorrow. I know it is going to be fun. KC is a great city with lots to do and see and it has some great restaurants. My biggest issue is what to bring in the way of clothing. Since we moved away from Boston and the weight loss, I have no warm coats, hats, boots, etc. I almost bought a very cute jacket yesterday. I was perspiring just trying it on, and then couldn't part with the $ for it because I couldn't imagine how much I would wear it. Maybe I shouldn't be such a tightwad, and maybe I'd travel more in the winter if I had the jacket. Oh dear, now I'm thinking I should have bought it! Life is pretty good when that's all I have to worry about! Remember "heart, head, heart, head"? Here I go again!