Jewish Musings, Tuesday, 8/9/2016

[savtele]

What’s on your mind – how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.


Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:

Angelika

Holly

Lee

Louise

Lynne

Peachy

[savtele]

Boker Tov All! I love that many of us are playing with the avatars - Holly - you are a wild and crazy woman!

I spent much of the day with my mom. She had a Dr. appointment, then I took her shopping. We compared Olympic notes & then she wanted to talk about both political primaries, which she watched in their entirety! WOW!

Today I would like to veer away from the Olympics for a bit. I had mentioned a few weeks ago that I tend to misread my body at times - and my default reading seems to be hunger, even if that is not a physical possibility. Some of my misread cues:
Thirst. I can be dehydrated, and feel like I need to eat something.
General malaise. If I'm not feeling quite up to par, my 1st thought is often that food will make me feel better.
Anger. Instead of finding a positive way to deal, I may tend to go find a snack.
Grief. Grieving has always been hungry work for me. Some people have to force themselves to eat - not me.
Boredom. That's sort of self explanatory, I think.

I am learning that a cup of tea is a good stalling technique. Making and then drinking it gives me time to get my mind in gear & figure out what I really need.

How about you?

[happysavta]

Tomorrow I am going back to the dentist again. I'm not looking forward to it. I had the full denture implant surgery way back in October and no problem with that part, but the prosthodontists (there have been 5 of them; they seem to come and go) are not able to adjust my dentures so I can speak clearly. I'm really frustrated. I should have been done 4 months ago. I'm still wearing the temporary denture, which means I can't eat and chew any raw or hard foods. I go there every 2-3 weeks and they do another adjustment and another and another. The prosthodontists are fixated on the esthetic beauty of the teeth, while I want the practicality of being able to speak clearly. Every time I go, they give me a hand mirror and want me to sign their form saying I'm satisfied with the outcome and they can go ahead and make the final. Not by a long shot! I'm not going to settle for being speech impaired.

[louise]

Frieda - what a story and ordeal! Of course you have to be able to eat and speak! You are absolutely correct not to settle. You have had to deal with a lot - kudos to you!

Holly, you ARE wild and crazy. I kind of suspected the color purple would work it's way into your hair but never would have guessed HOW! I love how everyone is expressing themselves.

To the matter at hand. Angelika I should probably print out what you wrote and add it to the "Read this before eating" collection. Not surprising in the light of the few weeks (months, actually) that I have been eating nonstop. I've been using the cup of tea as a pause while I figure out what to devour next. I can change this but I need to do this in a careful nurturing way - my temptation is to yell at myself. Not a good process.

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well today. I am enjoying looking at the new avatars!

Re eating when I am not hungry: I try to take pauses and drink water. This helps me ask myself what is really going on in my head.

More later. Have a peaceful day, Lee

[gazelle18]

the avatars are fabulous! I GOTTA do this, which will be a total challenge for me, tech wise!

re: the issue of the day, I am like Angelika, and will use any feeling as an excuse to assuage my "hunger."

just now, I was feeling bored and a bit lonely. I actually thought about going off plan, at 9 AM, which is just completely not necessary! Know what I did instead? decided to post on our thread!

other things that work for me:
1. at night, a cup of lo-calories hot chocolate
2. distraction , often achieved by running an errand
3. human contact, like calling a friend

what does NOT work:
1. carrot sticks
2. celery sticks
3. my personal least favorite: raw broccoli!

[savtele]

(((((Louise))))) One thing I am learning is that yelling at myself is counterproductive. Both the me yelling & the me being yelled at are about 6 years old. The 67 y o me is kinder & less prone to pouting.

As a child, I know I was rewarded with food. That probably plays into this. To this day, my mom tries to slip me a goodie when I've taken her shopping. It's to the point now where I just say thank you, put it in my purse for later, & then throw it out or give it to John. She's 90 - she's not going to change for me!

[gazelle18]

i just tried out the avatar maker and got fairly far into the process, but couldnt figure out how to access hairstyle, as opposed to color. anyone know what i am doing wrong?

[peachymom1]

Unexpected triggers that come up when I'm at a weak point. Yesterday I was doing fine with my eating. Until we stopped on the store on the way home, that is. DH took his car to the shop yesterday, so he picked me up in mine. I was annoyed that he hadn't bought what we needed during the day, when he had time, because stopping at the store on the way home, when I'm ready to go home and have dinner, is a trigger-time for me.

I also had had a very stressful day dealing with the Delta Airlines chazzerai -- my boss and three directors were due to fly home on a Delta flight, and I scrambled to get them on backup flights just in case, which turned out to be a good idea, since their flight kept getting further and further delayed as the day progressed. By the time DH picked me up, I was pretty frazzled, and when we stopped at the store, I just gave up. I bought Ruffles and some Circus Animal cookies and ate a generous portion of both when we got home. I wanted to start eating them in the car, but I did show SOME restraint. Oy! I don't usually react that poorly to stress. Maybe it's the length of time I've been dealing with high stress. My boss and directors are doing a ton of traveling in a short time, and I've been scrambling with travel arrangements, meeting details, and a zillion expense reports. Last week I worked 11+ hours of overtime, and I'm not 21 anymore. I'm tired and my reserves are wearing down.

For the first time in many years of studying and reading Torah, last week I felt it was a burden to be reading 5 aliyot last Shabbat, when the week was so hard for me already. But no way was I giving it up. I didn't want to let the ritual director down, when he was counting on me to do so much. And the experience gave me a different perspective; I was so stressed about other stuff last week that I didn't have any energy left to be nervous about the Torah readings! And I did just fine and felt good that I'd hung in there.

I have no wish to eat any more Ruffles or Circus Animal cookies. I meant to throw the leftovers out this morning, but DH was in the kitchen making his breakfast, so I just skedaddled off to work. I think I'll text him and tell him to toss them before I get home.

Can I just have some chicken and steamed vegetables for lunch? That sounds good after my pig-out last night.

[happysavta]

I'm sure you all remember H.A.L.T. Don't let yourself get too hungry, too angry, too lonely, too tired.

[savtele]

BTW, for those of you who feel you want to play with the avatars, but can't quite get it all together in 1 swoop - I've changed mine a little bit every day. (yesterday I changed my mouth, today I changed my chin) Just play with it - at then end, if you don't like it, don't Save.