Thursday March 17th

You are working on very powerful strategies! Stay the path!!!!

LOVE this!  I definitely think deprivation impacts sustainability.  That's why all of my life the more I tried to diet, the more I gained!  It's hard finding a middle ground, though.  Throw in old mind tricks and I cannot tell whether it's the devil on my shoulder or the angel.  

Paula - I gave up preparing homemade sweets/treats after surgery because I found it very difficult to stay away from them. I actually feel deprived if I can't have some, which is a rare feeling for me now. There's absolutely no holiday, bake sale or pot luck contribution that I will do that for. Everything is purchased, even if I have to pay a premium for it. Something to think about if you continue to have trouble staying away from such things. 

One of my favorite hobbies is baking, but I get into trouble every time I do it.  I can't help but taste the batter and the finished product, no matter what it is.  The time has come for me to stop baking completely, because it just interferes with my success.

I was in Georgia for two weeks with my granddaughters and baked almost every day for them and their mom and dad.  Mom, Kari is a LulaRoe consultant, and has parties in her house almost every week, so I made frozen cookie dough for her, that is ready to bake in an instant.  It was almost impossible for me to stay away from that cookie dough.  Thank goodness, I was so busy with the kids that I actually lost weight while I was there, but it was just by the skin of my teeth. I ate too many carbs everyday, but counted the calories and compensated by eating less of everything else.  Baking is my nemesis, and it has to stop.

One of the best things about this journey is getting to know oneself.  See, I'm the opposite.  I've enjoyed baking more than ever at holidays because I get some kind of weird satisfaction giving it away and watching people eat it.  Vicarious eating, I guess.  I do have to be careful what it is, and how much I save for myself.  It's really all about setting certain parameters, I guess.  Now the other side of things is that my office is right across from a grocery store and every couple of days someone will pick up cookies from there (yes, I did this last week once, too--this would be an occasion where I saw the line and jumped over it).  It's amazing how I can casually eat 160 calories of a pathetic little cookie and not feel like I've done anything.  At least with the baking there's the joy of baking!

Shel, great idea - travel = eating light! That is still a hard one for me. Flying is easier than driving long distances for me. I have years of driving long distances = eating stops to alleviate boredom and monotony. 

Paula, I ONLY bake sweets for school or pot lucks that must be delivered whole and in one piece! Never cookies or anything I can pilfer off a few without it being noticed. It's a strategy that works well for me. For example, if there is a request for my double chocolate brownies, they get delivered in the pan and cut at the event. I tend to bake pies or breakfast casseroles now, rather than sweets. 

Scale slow to come down. 199 today. Feeling much more like myself, meaning the ramifications of sugar in the diet are waning. 

On a field trip to an 1880s one room school house. Kids are dressed like Little House on the Prairie kids. One of the best field trips to learn about local history- completely engaging and interactive. Best of all I secured funding for the whole trip so no cost to the parents! 

Doing corned beef in the IP tonight. 3 pound brisket for 90 minutes at high pressure. Cabbage and carrots after for 3 minutes high pressure and quick release. There is a good recipe on pressurecookingtoday.com 

Happy St. Paddy's  everyone! 

But what about the batter?  I can't stay away from the batter.

LOL! Batter- not an issue. Blech!!!!! Not a huge fan of cookie dough either. 

Cookie dough is the BEST - prefer it to the cookie any day!

Agreed!  There is something so wonderful about the creamy taste of cookie dough that gets me every time.