Jewish Musings, Wednesday, Aug 9

[louise]

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:
Frieda
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne

[louise]

In the opening of the upcoming parshah, Re’eh, God tells the Israelites God will put before them a blessing (heeding the 10 commandments) and a curse (not heeding them). They were passing through a valley (city of Shechem, now Nablus) between Mt Gerizim (associated with the blessing) and Mt Ebal (associated with the curse). There are many aspects about the 2 mountains that are exactly the same but Gerizim is greener and thriving compared to Ebal. The thought is that Ebal, being higher, shields Gerizim from some of the harsh weather. There are a lot of ways to go here but I did not really prepare a study of this and I would surely get lost in the weeds. I bring it up to talk about thriving environments and those that do not promote thriving.

Yesterday was a bust for me. The short of it is that it was a crazy binge day. I ate and ate. I didn’t study torah. I didn’t clean. So to get myself back on track I will take a moment at least about what I did get done. Early in the morning I participated in a SWAT practice at my synagogue. There were 60-70 police, EMTs, SWAT team members, and so on participating from the town the synagogue is in and surrounding towns. My volunteer job was to be a congregant with a shooter in the synagogue, I had to wear a helmet/mask thing to protect me from being hurt by paint bullets (was hot and uncomfortable). There was an announcement and gun shots were heard. I was sitting in my normal seat and hid behind a wood partition. After a while I was found by the police and “rescued”. I had to put my hands up, answers questions about whether I had any weapons, what I had seen/heard, etc. Pretty exciting maybe but they also served donuts and bagels afterwards and I ate it all – was actually still in my fasting time and should not have been eating at all. Went downhill from there.

So what else was happening? I have a new bike that is still in my car because I don’t have a place to put it yet. I made an appointment to go look at new cars tomorrow. I need to finish buying the stone for my mother (long overdue). This is too much at the same time as HHD preparation. I actually recognize it – it was TOO MUCH. Rather than berate myself further, as I did last night, I will acknowledge that I did get my suitcase back down to the basement and attend (and was productive at) a synagogue board meeting.

So easy to let a situation change from nurturing and productive to crash & burn! And often, as in my case, we are the determiners, at least to some extent, of which mountain we are on, of where to shift ourselves to get a better result. I also realize that often it may not even be the actual circumstances but our perception of them.

So says the Drama Queen. I did btw cancel the car appointment – that can wait until I can give it my full attention.
As usual, it is my hope that my stories will trigger something for you!

[gazelle18]

Here’s what gets “triggered” (interesting choice of words after your active shooter rehearsal at shul!):

When I do something major (even had it been “only” an active shooter rehearsal), and it is over, one of my reflexes is to eat. It is a way to mark the end of an achievement, or an event, or a day. I find that as I unlock my door to let myself into my house after a long day, the urge to eat something often bubbles up, even if I am not technically hungry.

I have some reasonably healthy eating habits when I am going about a routine day. But I have noticed that when I travel on planes (which we do a lot because of our passion for travel), and I am out of my routine, it is suddenly perfectly ok for me to eat potato chips and peanuts and cookies. It’s kind of like my mind does this trick where it thinks that calories consumed over 30,000 feet don’t count.

[lee058]

Good afternoon everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE!

Re today's topic: I can really relate to stress eating, or being in an unfamiliar situation and thinking I could have foods I ordinarily wouldn't eat. I am working on overcoming this though, by having healthier alternatives available, and keeping the splurges to a minimum. Today, for instance, I had pancakes at IHOP, which I hadn't had for quite awhile. You know what? I enjoyed them tremendously and consciously, and now don't feel like I need to go out and buy ice cream or some other not-particularly-healthy foods. I feel comfortable with my choices today. BTW, I skipped my usual afternoon snack because I just wasn't hungry enough to eat. This would have been unheard of not too long ago. I wish my food changes resulted in faster weight loss, but I am happy that I am progressing. It may be slow but it is steady.

Have a peaceful rest of the day, Lee

[peachymom1]

Wow, Louise, that is an awful LOT you have on your plate. I hope you can be kind to yourself. I was going to post much earlier today, but I got slammed with an urgent and major project at work, and once I had completed it, my boss's boss was so happy with my work that he asked me to do the exact same project for him. UGH! I worked an hour and a half of overtime to get everything done, which is fine with me, because I get paid for overtime, thank God.

Louise, do you use a car-buying service? Do they have them where you live? My credit union provides this as a service to all its members. When I bought my current car, I went shopping and test-driving to decide what I wanted (after doing my homework with Consumer Reports), then I called this service and told them the make and model that I wanted. And the features and color too. They found me one and delivered it to me. They did the haggling and all the paperwork. I loved it and would do it again.

I'm tired, and DH is starting to make dinner, so I'm going to go help. Or maybe I'll just let him do all the work and just have a glass of iced tea! BBL!

[hollygail]

Out of the 54 weekly portions in the Torah, Re'eh is one of my all-time favorites. I'm reading the first aliyah at the Conservative shul that actually does use me as a b. mitzvah tutor (as opposed to the local one I attend during the week... grrr). I chant this aliyah loud and proud! as if I myself had personally been at Sinai (or in the wilderness, listening to Moses deliver his ethical will).

I'd like to chime in about something I read a very very long time ago. It was from a book I'm going to look for to get you the exact quote, but the name of the book had something to do with chocolate. It's one of those little ones, like maybe 4"X4" with lots of illustrations throughout. The one quote I may mangle reads something like this: Chocolate is afraid of heights, so if you store it on top of the fridge, the calories get scared and fall out. It can also be applied to being on an airplane, Lynne. (The one I'm more likely to quote is about chocolate chip cookies: when you break the cookie, all the calories fall out. And yes, chocolate chip cookies are my favorite cookies.)