The Beck Diet Solution is a psychological program, not a food plan. It provides a step-by-step program to learn specific techniques to stay on our diet, lose weight, and maintain our weight loss for life. The program is based on Dr. Beck's clinical research in Cognitive Therapy (CT).
The Complete Beck Diet for Life expands the earlier work and includes a food plan with suggested menus. From the cover:
With The Complete Beck Diet for Life you'll discover the 5 stages of successful deiting and maintenance. You'll learn how to motivate yourself, give yourself credit for every change you make, create time and energy for dieting, and handle hunger and cravings. Dr. Beck easues you into changing one step at a time. You'll master one task before monving on to the next. And you'll learn tehcniques to deal with challenging situations, such as sticking with ou plan at celebrations and dealing with "food pushers." With Dr. Beck's skills, you'll acheive a lifetime of healthful eating and lifelong motivation.
This is a place to discuss the Beck strategies and our daily efforts, to receive and provide support, and, for some of us, is where we serve as on-line diet buddy (coach) to each other.
If youve arrived from a search engine, youve landed at the site of 3 fat chicks, a remarkable place for those interested in a healthy life style, including mindful eating, exercise, and weight loss. More about the site, including how to register so that you can post can be found here.
The books are available on Amazon through the 3FC store by clicking their names above; buying through 3FC helps to cover the costs of running this site.
Coaches/Buddies I think I got July started OK in the best tradition of our absent BillBE. Hoping he's having a great vacation and finds his way back soon.
Yesterday was a great day plan wise for me. Today I was OK until dinner, when I was overtired and overhungry and ate too much pizza. Oh Well. I ran this morning and it was a horrible run. I just wanted to quit, but did in fact finish. Credit moi.
I have a memory card to make from Sunday night. We took the kids to a birthday party at the jumping castle place and I was able to jump and climb and slide with the best of them. Hooray for not being obese any more.
Margaret Glad to hear you found a new tool for calorie tracking. That should be helpful for accountability.
Tera I hear you on the motivation thing, as evidenced by my now every other day posts. I should start reading/doing again. Uh oh. I see a should. Lemme think about whether I will or I won't.
Robin
ChinaMaine Sorry about the intermediate weight jump. Even though it is to be expected, I still hate it.
ARC is "Advantages Response Card." The Big One. With the list of all the reasons why we want to lose/maintain our weight. An "intermediate goal" for me is a 5 lb goal. Not sure where I want to end up, but I know it is more than 5 lbs from here. Both are Beck concepts.
onebyone Sorry to hear about your reaction to the photos. BTDT.
I was able to jump and climb and slide with the best of them. Hooray for not being obese any more.
That comment just made me smile
to everyone!
My dd and I have been talking and I asked her if she wanted help getting her sugar under control. When I asked if she felt a little bit crazy in her head because of the sugar, she very shyly nodded yes.
I explained that it isnt about her weight, its about getting that crazy feeling back under control. If the weight comes off...thats cool...if it doesnt, its ok, because she will feel more in control and feel better about herself.
It sure was a hard conversation, but she was all for it. She has her new pretty little note book to log her food and feelings. Her and I will start full on tomorrow morning. She even asked me to make her a strawberry chocolate protein shake for breakfast. Im so proud of her!! I hope I can help her now! I dont want her to suffer with this for the next 30yrs before she figures it out. We'll get it figured out now, and she'll have the tools to deal with it. Hopefully she will be able to remember and keep using them.
As for me, its been an interesting week!! But I think its going to be ok.
Hello, All. It's good to be back. My computer completely crashed a couple of days ago. It has taken until now to get it working again. I'm just happy I'm back up and online.
Not much else going on. It was kind of a stressful day. My mother's car broke down, and I ended up running around all day trying to help her at the same time trying to get deadline stuff done at work.
The diet is going well. I've been 100% onplan. Credit me. The scale has been going up and down the same lb for almost a week now. I'm not very happy about it, but I'm hoping for a big drop soon.
I went shopping in my closet tonight and I could fit into several things that I couldn't just a week or so ago. So, I know I'm losing weight. I can't wait for the scale to catch up.
It's a Major Holiday here and I don't think the weather's going to be very nice. The temperatures are very comfortable but it's going to pour rain for sure. I hope it doesn't last, nothing worse than a rained out Canada Day. DH and I have plans to hop the bus in an hour or so and head to the AMC theatre in the west end of the city to see an 11am matinee showing of Public Enemies! Johnny Depp *swoon* PLUS $6 pricing with small popcorn free for members on Wednesdays (that's today and that's us!) DH should be getting up soon so we can reach this lofty goal today.
So I did go over calories yesterday. I decided to have my planned dinner and nip the obsessing over should I? shouldn't I? in the bud. The scale is up once more. another pound overnight. It's all salt and water. Time to get back to basics again = cooking.
Did I tell you guys how thrilled I am grad is over? how thrilled I am things are calming down and falling into place? How pleased I am to be getting my own routine back? Here, I feel like this --->
I'd better go. Just wanted to check in and wish you all a good day today.
Yes, you did; you started us off in the fine tradition of BillBE, though it does look weird to see your name there instead of his.
Kudos to all for your efforts. Just one observation:
From a posting on another thread, some one was puzzled about the scale going up in a day rather than down after a perfectly on program day. While studies show that maintainers do better with daily weigh-ins, for those of us with significant amounts of pounds to lose, just stop the madness. If we have to weigh in daily, then just do it and fogeddabout it.......one day's fluctuation is what it is..just that...use the Beck tools you have in your box and don't worry about the scale's #. It is such a trap.
P.S. Easy for me to say. I am still too sad to eat. :-(
maryblu I'm sorry you are too sad to eat. I hope the loons and the gardening is getting you through... oh and I hope your dawgs waggle their tails at you and lick your face the way dawgs love to do...
Greenville Beth Kudos for staying on plan! That pesky scale can do whatever it wants you know. So long as you stick to your plan you are doing all you can do. Keep going! And also kudos for not turning to food to get through your stress. This is true Beck real-world resistance muscle-growing-progress.
RobinW Kudos for having a relationship with your daughter where she can ask for help and you are there to give it. No, on second thought, not kudos but KUDOS for this. I was reading your blog last night and almost posted to it. I may yet. I just wanted to say I see all the work you are doing to change things and I fully believe things will change for you and I am sure they are changing right now as I write this. to you and your daughter.
wndranne Thanks so much for getting us off to a roaring July 2009 start! BBE will be relieved to find us all here still posting. We all need each other. I seem to do well until lunch/dinner, which is written like that cause I seem to crave HUGE amounts of food mid day and then I eat over my calorie allowance for the day before it's even 5pm. Oh well. It's getting better. Nice ARC about the bouncy castle. I am reminded I need to do a new ARC as well. Thanks.
onebyone--I grew up in Canada, so I always notice when it's July 1st! Congrats on eating your planned dinner! I know the temptation to skip a meal if I'm off track, and it usually leads to more eating later. Yay for being graduated!!!!
maryblu--I'm sorry to hear of your sadness I just put up a sign I found at a handmade craft shop, "Gardening is an instrument of grace"--hope you are gardening.
GreenvilleBeth--Glad you are back! Congrats on 100% on plan. I don't have a plan yet. . .but I'm getting there.
RobinW--Very cool for talking to your daughter! Writing things down really helps me, and I hope it helps her, and I like the idea of focusing on the emotions and thinking, rather than on whether she loses weight.
wndranne--yay for the bouncing! I never went on one of those because I was too shy as a child, afraid of hurting myself, very anxious.
I tracked all my calories since I last wrote--credit. It's interesting how just knowing how many calories I'm eating is shifting my behavior. Nothing radical, but leaving a bit on my plate, contemplating if the calories are worth it etc.
I checked Beck's Think Thin For Life book out of the library, since I haven't read it. Looks good.
Got my new pedometer in the mail today--broke my old one and lost half of it somewhere in Ikea.
Been talking to dh about what I'm doing with the Beck stuff--I think he gets sad that if I watch my weight we won't do fun snacking together, but he's starting to get the idea about small changes, eating less, being strategic. He has been underweight most of his life, so it's hard for him to imagine needing to pay attention. . .
I have felt great for almost a week. Ive felt better than Ive felt in 7 months, maybe even 3 or 4 years. Im hopeful Ive turned the corner on the thyroid issues although only time will tell.
NSV I did 2 sets of girly push-ups this AM. Ive been doing push-ups almost every day for months now and havent been able to meet this goal before today. If I can keep it up, Ill move onto more manly pushups soon.
WI-down .5 lbs. Read my cards, made a plan. Food op. Exercise op. Fatigue 1.3 (1=Felt Great, 5=Extreme Fatigue).
Anne for not being obese anymore! for being able to jump and climb and slide with the best of them! Credit for being op until dinner. Anything you can do to keep from being over-hungry at dinner? With all the distractions you must have at dinner (dd and dh), itd probably be better if you werent over-hungry when you sit down. (just a thought )
Thanks for the definition of intermediate goal Ive always called them mini-goals. I thought maybe it was something different than that.
Robin Thats a very touching story about your dd. Its wonderful to hear about a warm, supportive relationship like that. And who knows, you acting as a role model in this process will probably help you a lot too.
Beth Ouch for the computer! Mine went down 1 month ago and Robins did about 3 weeks ago. We seem to be unlucky in computing!
Credit for being op when things have been so crazy.
one by one Credit for calorie counting and, yes, cooking will be better for your waistline and your health. for having grad behind you!
maryblu Sorry you are still too sad to eat.
I agree that fluctuations in weight are absolutely normal and we need to have emotional distance from them. That is, stressing about it is non-productive. But most of us are on a diet to lose weight, so its not surprising that many folks are focused on their how their weight changes. Beck recommends daily weigh ins, and for me its been beneficial. Its allowed me to actually develop the emotional distance to realize that daily fluctuations are absolutely normal. Because I graph it I can see my weight goes down over time, but not in a straight line.
The pattern I see in newbies is that they start out focused on each pound and that the focus shifts to other aspects of our road (exercise, etc) after a month or two.
Margaret Credit for tracking calories, and making small changes in response! How many steps do you normally walk a day?
I have a houseful of people arriving tomorrow Noon-ish, so I'll be in and out until Tuesday of next week. Have a great 4th everyone in the US! (And happy belated Canada Day to our Canadians!)
I'm still not back on track. My buddy came over and brought the BDS with him, so when I get back home rereading is part of the plan.
I'm at Mom's house til Sunday. Alternating laying on my side on the sofa with sitting back in the recliner that sadly doesn't go back far enough. Current pain level is a 5 already.
On the brighter side, I've just successfully printed up all 4 of my decal designs and they look fantastic, I've put up a facebook page (after discovering the White House's facebook page) and made an update to my health reform website linking to information on HR 676.
Im so proud of my dd! We went grocery shopping, and I gave her some choices, and explained what would happen with some of the choices, and what would have to be eaten with other choices to balance out her emotions.
She made very smart and clear choices for a 12 yr old. She even wanted to know if she could come to the gym with me. So....we stopped in on the way home and asked. Unfortunately she has to be 14. She was a bit crushed, so I offered to do some pilates dvd's with her. She doesnt want to do anything that involves coordination. Her and I are too much alike for that kind of stuff But I think she'll like doing this with me. Next week we are off to buy a bike so her and I can go biking together.
Her biggest thing that she "knows" she needs to work on, is her sugar/crazy emotions and she wants to loose her belly. We went shopping for summer cloths today and she was quite upset that she had to buy xl juniors because that's what she needed to fit her belly.
She "gets it" all on her own, and is really eager to get it fixed. She even asked me to talk to her dad (which I hate doing) but she wants me to explain it all to him. So that when she is with him for "his turn" he can help her keep with the program, and not buy the "easy" stuff to feed her.
Tracked calories--credit. Got my 10,000 steps with the new pedometer--credit. Resisted the snacks at work--credit.
Ate out--that was a challenge. Vietnamese food, which is tasty, but wow, adding up the calories of what I chose. I need to beware of the word "crispy."
ChinaMarie--I aim for 10,000 steps on the days I don't have Zumba, and over 5,000 on the Zumba days. But if I don't consciously plan time to walk, it's really hard to get 10,000.
Twilit Tera--Glad you got your Beck book back. Credit for asking for your friend to return it. Sorry to hear about the back pain at your mom's. I used to lay on the floor if nothing else worked. I wonder if there's some way to temporarily import some piece of furniture that is more comfortable for you?
RobinW--That's great that your daughter is getting a listening and supportive ear from you. Good luck with the whole talking with Dad thing.
Still at mom's. Pain creeped up to a 6 yesterday. I've found that by taking up the entire love seat I can lie on my left side and get more comfortable. I can't do much in that position, so I alternate. When people are over, I won't be able to do that, but when it's just me, mom, and Bruce, it works.
Robin: Yes, your daughter is really smart! She's got a smart mom, too!
Hello all,
Just wanted to pop in and say hello and that I'm going to start following Beck along with my diet plan tomorrow. I have the first book and read it a while back but never got down to really following the plan. Now I have a lot of changes (good ones) coming up and I feel this is the time to start getting at the heart of my issues with food and work on my relationship with food that moves beyond just going on one diet after another. I'm so glad that you all started this support thread! I am, unfortunately, quite isolated at this time - I work from home and live in a small town where social events and places mainly focus on family-oriented stuff (and I am single) and all of my friends have long moved on (I did my grad school studies here a few years ago). I am working now on my job and financial situation with the goal of moving out of here at the end of the year and going back to the city that I love and where I have a lot more support with my brother and his girlfriend and some friends in the area.
I'm still in the process of rereading Beck's first book but I've got a bunch of cards all ready to go and my menu plan for tomorrow and I'm going to keep up with doing the exercises she suggests daily. I'm a little scared but I know this will be worth it!
Beck Diet For Life/Solution July 2009 Support, Discussion, Buddy/Coach
But I think its going to be ok. 
Happy Canada Day Everyone!
personals
WI-down .5 lbs. Read my cards, made a plan. Food op. Exercise op. Fatigue 1.3 (1=Felt Great, 5=Extreme Fatigue). 
for not being obese anymore! 
for being able to jump and climb and slide with the best of them! Credit for being op until dinner. Anything you can do to keep from being over-hungry at dinner? With all the distractions you must have at dinner (dd and dh), itd probably be better if you werent over-hungry when you sit down. (just a thought 
But I think she'll like doing this with me. Next week we are off to buy a bike so her and I can go biking together.
