Jewish Musings, Monday 11/13

[lee058]

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 (hopefully)?
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy


And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE! Please pray for Israel.

Today's topic: I'd like for us to talk more about our weight loss journeys (WLJ). What are your current feelings and thoughts?

For me, I am feeling pretty happy. I've been losing weight with the help of my Ozempic and some food changes (more about them tomorrow). I've begun feeling like my WLJ is not hopeless. I'm still not convinced that I will be able to reach my goals, but I am feeling better so that is a plus.

My face looks a bit thinner. My clothes are fitting better; I haven't tried on my cold-weather clothes yet except for one pair of pants (which felt loose). I feel good about these.

I still have a very long way to go to reach my ultimate goals. I would like to be a lot thinner and in better health, and I would like to be able to get knee surgery. I also would like to be able to climb stairs more easily right now. I'll be going to my GYN tomorrow, and getting up on the examination table was quite difficult last year; I'm hoping it'll be easier now that I've lost some weight. Also, I'll be seeing my orthopedist next week, and I plan to ask him for more information about when I'll be eligible to get the knee surgery. The hospital has a policy about patients having to be at a BMI much lower than where I am now.

So all in all, my thoughts and feelings are positive about my WLJ! How about you?

Have a peaceful day, Lee

[gazelle18]

I’m sort of in neutral. My weight seems stable, although I don’t have the desire to get on the scale to test that theory. As I have said before, the scale is not a happy friend for me. It tends to be very controlling and judgmental, and those are not the kinds of friends I need right now.
I tend therefore to assess my weight by how certain items of clothing fit. This is of course not reliable methods, but I don’t get nearly as bummed out by tight fitting pants as I do by a number on the scale.

My food consumption is under reasonable control. However, I’m certainly not restricting my consumption enough in order to lose weight. These days, I just can’t seem to get enthusiastic about eating changes. Perhaps talking about it this week will nudge me in the right direction!

[peachymom1]

At the moment I'm feeling optimistic. I lost weight last week, I'm doing well with my eating this week, and I've been exercising regularly. I changed up my weight training recently according to the physical therapist's advice, and that's going better too.

Of course, when things go wrong and I screw everything up, I get angry with myself and think I'll never get my weight down again. But giving up is just not an option. I have to keep trying, and keep learning about myself so I can do better. So I get up and start over.

A year ago, I weighed about 15 pounds more than I do now. Now, I can get frustrated that I haven't lost more in that time. Or I can be glad that at least I've made progress, and remind myself that I'm not 25 anymore and not to expect things to be easy.

My gym is on a major street, and there's a billboard right across from the gym that says, "Am Yisrael Chai!" (in Hebrew), and "Los Angeles Stands With Israel." It cheers me up to see that.

[louise]

I keep trying different things - I think my food is pretty much in control and then I have a crazy day. Net effect on my weight (if not my psyche) is neutral. I think I am learning a lot. I am hopeful that as I increase my consistency IF and WW will work for me. Sometimes it feel like nothing works but there is no reason for that to be the case. I could definitely be more consistent with exercise. I feel sure I would have less pain if I weighed less and am seeing the real need to do some yoga - I'm not very limber. People tell me I look thinner - I think it's just that I'm projecting improved mental health, and that's a pretty good thing!

In the end my masada kippot triggered $1250 in donations - I feel really good about that. Today I have a lot to do. Will need to get up around 4:30 or so tomorrow to get to the bus for Washington. A number of things I would like completed before I go and also need to plan food to bring with me.

[hollygail]

First, yesterday's thread:
1. I went more than 2 lbs over goal and hovered around there on and off for about a month a little while ago. Then I took control again and within two weeks, was back within the 2 lbs. Recently, I've been hovering about 1 lb below goal, so all in all I'd say I'm doing well staying in my "Lifetime at Goal" status with WW.
2. Lee, YAY! Let's hope your Scrabble-playing buddy does notice and more importantly, says something!
3. Louise, there's an old saying from when I first joined Weight Watchers: Work the plan and the plan will work for you

Today's:
Sort of like and somewhat differently from how Lynne "measures" her weight, instead of how clothes fit me, it's how easily my rings can come off one hand to move to the other. I put on t'fillin in the morning and the instructions are to put the leather on the skin with nothing between (so removing rings from the non-dominant hand, left, in my case, where I wear my wedding ring, is normal for me in the morning; I just move it to my right hand, whose fourth finger is "fatter" than the ring finger on my left hand).

All in all, I'm okay with my journey.

Louise, best of luck with all the plans for tomorrow. I remember getting up early to get from Queens (where I lived) to get to the chartered bus taking us to Washington, DC way back in the 60s. (I don't, however, remember preparing food, which I must have done at least the last few times I participated in a demonstration in DC...)

[brgmsn]

We're going tomorrow too, and were just informed our bus is leaving an hour before we were originally told and the lot is probably 2 miles from the Mall, so we had to put the local train app on our phones and put money into the account to buy tickets, which I don't see us being able to use as it will be too crowded.
I see a huge mess at this point, with far more folks going than they anticipated or planned for.