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 dieting 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 eases you into changing one step at a time. You'll master one task before moving on to the next. And you'll learn techniques 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 achieve 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 you’ve arrived from a search engine, you've landed at the site of 3 Fat Chicks (3FC), 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.
You can find the list of previous (or more current) monthly Beck threads here on 3 Fat Chicks via:
Sunday - Clocks "Fall Back" one hour (except Arizona)
Diet Coaches/Buddies – For exercise we climbed a 'mountain' CREDIT moi. It was actually a hill - a little hill that we frequently climb for the local view and the birds. Atop we saw a pair of Red-tailed Hawks hanging out - making the climb special. Not many other birds because we were out about noon when the temperature was perfect and the sun out. Eating a peanut butter sandwich on a mountain tastes better than anywhere else.
Some two dozen costumed trick-or-treaters showed up. My plan was to have a modest sampling of our candy. Seems that modesty got lost and I sampled along with the giving throughout the evening.
Debbie (Lexxiss) – Hope you were able to finish the rental unit yesterday as planned. Kudos for restrained eating at a potluck.
maryann - I cheer the reality of this: "I am an attractive, accomplished, kind woman." Kudos for all the folks who love you and signed your card at that special meeting.
nationalparker – I too was fascinated by Houdini as a kid. Ouch for clothes signaling body changes. New month is a fresh start.
curlyjax - Kudos for the series of little changes to the diet. Yep, the added salt and sugar can go and surprisingly not be missed.
Sandy (love2garden) - Fourteen Kudos for those two weeks without sugar.
SuzLen - My condolences to you teachers who will watch the candy playing out all week. LOL at the only vegetable at munchie day.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 2 Foundation Strategies to Escape Your Traps
Foundation Strategy #5: Weigh yourself daily.
Many people find it problematic to weight themselves only once a week because the number on the scale does not always correspond to what you ate the day before. Has this happened to you? You were "perfect" on your diet one day, but you find your weight has gone up by two pounds the next morning. Maybe you had hormonal changes, retained water, got less sleep, or experienced some unidentified physiological change. The truth is, the scale should not go down every day - or even every week. Weight loss just doesn't work that way. But if your weigh-in day was the one day all week when your weight was temporarily up, you might feel discouraged and put yourself at risk for giving up. Weighing yourself daily allows you to get accustomed to the scale's normal fluctuations.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., Deborah Beck Busis, The Diet Trap Solution, Train Your Brain to Lose Weight and Keep It Off for Good (Blue book), pg. 32
Bill Thanks, envy your climb and seeing the Red-tailed Hawks. I have never seen those. We have one that comes here but DH knows the name and it is different than your's. I know he was furious when it took one of our chipmunks and threw rocks that were, obviously, ineffective.
Credit: hour at gym and bit disappointed how much strength I've lost by NOT going.
Tonight as I watch World Series I can move more, and certainly glad DD and I went today with a friend. Good conversation made the exercise easier to do.
Hope all are ready to make November a healthy one so we can be thankful when Thanksgiving comes.
Marking yesterday down as a success. Got a lot done yesterday and today and looking forward to kicking back here in a while and just reading/journaling. Got meal plan set for the week and only need to pick up 1-2 more things that my market didn't have. Last night I enjoyed one mini almond joy bar out of the whole bowl and was satisfied with that. DH said I'll need to hide/portion out the remaining candy, so I hid it in my closet behind purses. I passed on many to Goodwill, so there's ample room behind them!
In planning ahead, instead of making such a huge variety of cookies this Christmas, I'm thinking about ONLY making the iced cutout cookies, which to me are so closely tied with Christmas, along with toll house, DH's favorite. Will do biscotti as well, because I use those for gifts, but when I have such a wide variety - snicker doodles, sugar, coconut balls, molasses creams, cinnamon crescents, lacy Florentines, etc. it's just too much temptation to think, I'll have this and that.
I think this will be the first Christmas that I might not make it home to Florida at all. Last Christmas was the first without my folks and DH and I still drove down. His schedule this year just doesn't look like we can go unless we fly down for 3-4 days after Christmas since he has to work immediately following the 25th... I'll keep my eye on flights but it looks slim. And after I typed this I remembered I'd not retrieved yesterday's post and there was a beautiful handmade card from brother and SIL with a artistic homemade request for us to be there. That's a sign
So far, so good today. Dinner for DH is pork chops - I've never bought them/cooked them for him before, but have chicken for me and these were on sale and said from local farm. He'll be shocked.
November 1st . . time to apply myself again and try to head in the losing direction instead of maintaining. It would be a near miracle to actually not have a New Year's Resolution that says "Lose x pounds". We'll see.
Dh and I hiked this morning and he did well. No pain and he didn't even take any Ibuprofen. He's thinking the discomfort last week was from lifting too heavy at the gym, not necessarily the hike. Time to schedule the birthday trip. Yahoo, something to look forward to.
Of course the house remains quiet, but I think the pain isn't as bad as it was earlier in the week. I was telling dh I feel like I've lost one of my roles. I'm not "Momma" anymore. Of course I do have a grown son, but I'm "Mom" to him and I referred to myself as "Momma" with the pup.
Nationalparker I was known for my Christmas baking, but have nearly given it up. I know some people really miss it, but I don't miss all the weight I gained every holiday season. My friend who recently lost 45 pounds at WW was one of the recipients. I bet she won't miss it either. I guess each of us has to work out what works for us and what is important.
Bill Thanks for getting us started yet again for the month of November.
Loves2garden Good for you for getting to the gym. I am committing to a strength training class Tuesday and Thursday at 9:30.
I decided I really needed a "reset" so I went on a 24 hour fast. Then I broke the fast with a green smoothie. It tasted so delicious. I feel like my system is cleaned out and I can start fresh.
love2garden: congrats on the "no sugar" - that is a huge accomplishment of which few can obtain.
maryann: I loved your post, focusing on all of the good really makes us grateful - and that is a good mental place to be. Glad you survived Red Ribbon Week - boy am I ready for the new month to begin.
BillBB: your mention of how good the peanut butter sandwich was on top of the mountain reminded me of how good food taste when I camp. Something about eating in the fresh air, and the smells, I just love it. I miss camping.
nationalparker: I used to be a huge baker at Christmas - I just loved it. A lot of the joy has gone out of baking since DS was diagnosed with celiac disease, and the fact that I just can't eat like I used to. But I wax a bit nostalgic when I reflect on what "used to be."
Have plenty of green goodies in the fridge to make more green smoothies this week. Just wish I could have someone bring me one for lunch!!
The job hunt for DH is not going well. Age, location, pay range, experience....all of those things work against you at a certain point. Age did indeed creep up on us.
I hope everyone has an awesome start to the week/month. It will take a lot of willpower - it is the start of the "weight gaining" season for me. I will need Beck now more than ever - my first holiday with my new bag of tricks. I hope for success - in one way or another!
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Standard Sunday walk, CREDIT moi, with a mini-umbrella in my jacket pocket as the sky looked a bit threatening. It remained a delightful day.
My goal was to have only a small snack at fellowship hour; I tripped over some unusual homemade cakes to have a larger snack so I counted it as part of lunch and compensated when I got home.
Joy (gardenerjoy) – Waving. Congrats to the KC Royals for a decisive win in baseball's World Series.
nationalparker – Seems like fate is lining up for you to find some part of the holidays in Florida. If I recall, visits with your brother seriously bolster your spirits. Kudos for only "one mini almond joy bar." (That's a long enough list to count as Cookie Porn, LOL.)
Karen (karenrn) - Yay for your DH's hiking success. Does that mean Machu Picchu is possible?
SuzLen - Kudos for doing a "reset" to get back on the path. Ouch for the difficulty of job hunting; I hope the diligence pays off soon.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 2 Foundation Strategies to Escape Your Traps
Foundation Strategy #5: Weigh yourself daily.
Weigh yourself each morning before breakfast. Get on the scale just once and that's it! You can decide whether to record your weight in your notebook (or using an app) on a daily or weekly basis. Just make sure to be consistent, whatever you choose.
If you're tempted not to weigh yourself at all, you can make a reminder card with some reasons why this skill is essential.
Weighing yourself daily
Helps you disregard unexplained weight gain on any given day. It can be difficult to avoid feeling discouraged when your weight is up, especially if you're accustomed to weighting yourself once a week. You'll quickly learn to take the long view when you weigh yourself daily because you will have seven times as many opportunities to confirm that fluctuations are normal and that the scale does go down over time.
Makes you more accountable every day. You'll find it much easier to stick to your eating plan when you know that deviating from it could show up on the scale tomorrow.
Helps desensitize you to the number on the scale. The more often you weigh yourself, the more opportunities you have to recognize that your weight is just a number - and not a reflection of who you are.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., Deborah Beck Busis, The Diet Trap Solution, Train Your Brain to Lose Weight and Keep It Off for Good (Blue book), pg. 33
We didn't finish our project but made great headway! I resisted any thought of going up either before or after work. Credit. Instead, I'm getting caught up on my home projects. Food is good. I didn't eat at work yesterday and enjoyed MY meal much more when I returned home. I resisted my second snack and went to bed. It was a good call not to buy Halloween candy until the "day of". As I traveled home from the project at 5:30 the kiddos were already out. I decided to pass for the year. Our block was absolutely WILD. Kids everywhere, a party next door and cop cars with lights flashing, I think to protect the kids. Our block sure knows how to do it right (except for me). LOL. Scale inches down. Credit.
nationalparker, I'm actually contemplating gifting which does not include food....most of my acquaintances are also trying to cut back.
hi coaches-
Demerits for eating way too much halloween candy. Ah well, moving on.
It was a very long weekend filled with too much family time, as we are preparing for a party for DD. It should be a fun, exciting time to plan this, instead lots of fighting and tears, sigh, due to our rather dysfunctional family interactions at times, and DDs personality. I just want this to be over, and go well.
I feel better this am- nothing like a good long cry, and going to work does give you perspective. I am running late but wanted to check in.
I will try to do personals later- but yikes, you guys are thinking about Christmas already! I am in denial!! It is good to plan though, some good ideas floating out there!
Blessed rain yesterday. DH was singing and doing a little jig.
I am with Suzlen. It is a new month and a restart. I also like what KarenRn said. What would it be like to not have a New Year's goal to lose weight?
It is a two smoothie day. I also have a knee X-ray, physical therapy, gym, and work with a fellow alcoholic planned. These all all good things. Yet why did I wake feeling I am not doing enough? This is a bad habit and it has negative food behavior ramifications. Somehow I have signals in my brain that when I start to relax and cruise, I am not doing enough. it doesn't matter that last week I was on a on overload doing service work. This needs to be addressed. Guilt over not being enough is a direct lead to comfort food.
OK how about an advantage card. " I am enough sitting in a chair feeling gratitude for all the gifts in my life. God does not expect me to earn those gifts through actions. They are mine by just being."
Love2Garden: I know how disappointing it is to feel like you have lost so much strength. I am three weeks on the other side of reintroducing the gym in my life and I am feeling much more successful. Keep it up.
nationalparker: It is a "different" Christmas this year for me as well. Most of the changes are not something I have control over. So I am going break a few traditions on my own that might make me happier. I am not going to over schedule. I will add no more events to my December calendar. I will not over plan Christmas day trying to make up for the absence of people. I will not bake.
curleyjax and BBE: Looks like I won't be the only one detoxing from mass manufactured sugar chemicals.
Agree - New Month! Yay! I think for me to not have the New Year's resolution of losing weight, it'll have to be a full year from now. But a bit at a time. It weighs so much more on my mind if I have to lose more.
Going right back against the thought of weighing just on Saturdays, and going with the Beck-suggested weighing daily again. I thought I'd be better served by not getting into mind games, but then thought, "I don't want to work hard all week and have a brief nudge up and set myself up for failure..." so weighed yesterday (174.4) and today (174.2) ... so ticking down from 176.
Prepped healthy smoothie for breakfast, packed up OP lunch since on Mondays have to work through it most weeks. Then realized I forgot one key component phooey. DH is picking up salads from a local spot where he works for our dinner... because everyone else will be sitting down for Monday Night Football with salad. HA. I'm going to try to go light in case he picks up a small thin crust cheese pizza (it's just a bit larger than a single serve, and splitting it is a nice treat), but I'm not going to bring it up.
Bill - You are exactly right - I treasure my time with my brother and his family and want to figure out how I can make this work without spending hundreds more than usual. Unusual homemade cakes has piqued my curiosity! And even more so that you enjoyed a bit!
Lexxiss - I only do the biscotti baking for the in-laws and my brother's family as they both love it and let me know what ones they especially like, so I know it's a gift that won't sit around ... Brother's family is large as the next generation all have kids now, so they put it out for gatherings and I add wines to this part of their gift, and it seems to be savored and doesn't hang around. I am ALWAYS impressed that you so rarely eat at work.
CurlyJax - I do not at all envy you the teen girl drama. I am not tolerant, having grown up in a military family and the desires of the stepdaughters to embroil every encounter with drama was not indulged and therefore, I was very mean. I even pulled a Frasier tv show line, "Confucious called - you are not the center of the universe." Sadly, it was "huh?"
Maryann - Credits to you for planning what you will be happy with for your December/holiday schedule instead of just letting things happen or over-scheduling. With it just being DH and myself, and with our work schedules not meshing very often, I'm trying to plan a few holiday theatre outings, movies, etc., but we don't do a great deal. A tradition of ours is to commit a night each week in December to just us, a classic holiday movie, a fire in the fireplace and no projects/outings planned. Catch up and enjoy time. I try to start that right after Thanksgiving
SuzLen - Hope this is a great week for you - how many more weeks until your holiday break? I am almost counting down the weeks, even though I have a big work weekend on Thanksgiving to get through. Credits for smoothie-planning and enjoying. Will join you in not snacking this evening when I get home.
Last edited by nationalparker; 11-02-2015 at 01:49 PM.
WI: NA kg, Exercise: +30 30/1200 minutes for November, Food: NA op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes
BillBlueEyes: Have you read Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene? I took that to read in Cuba, but DH picked it up and read it, instead. He hardly ever reads fiction, but he enjoyed it. I just finished it today. We both laughed out loud at the same place, a joke that particularly appeals to engineering types.
Ate according to plan yesterday, credit. Hiked 12 miles with 2877 feet elevation gain today, credit. The hike was strenuous and I remembered half way thru that I need a little more for dinner the day before a hike this long. I did okay, but I definitely felt I could have used more fuel even with the PB&J I ate along the way.
It was good to have a really great food day and no beer. The new plan for the beer (we'll see if it sticks) is no alcohol unless it's a social occasion with friends, not dh and I home in the evening alone. I had no problem with not drinking when I was diligently wanting to get some pounds off pre-backpacking trip. I need to just plan make it a habit.
Tomorrow and Thursday I'm going to the Y for the strength training class. It's not just strength training, but that is the focus rather than a focus on aerobics. I would love to get this going and also to feel part of a group. It's not very social for me to go and just do my weight workout alone.
I heard back from the company we will do our trek with and lots of dates are available. Now I need to sit down with dh and really just pick dates and put down a deposit; then airline tickets and other plans.
Dh is still grieving so terribly. He was tearful over the weekend and looking at sites to find a new pup. I think being pupless will be a temporary thing. He can't stand the house being so quiet. I am sad too, but really feel I am doing better than he is at this point. I think perhaps I have had to cope with more loss in the past and I know from that experience that I will eventually be okay. We have spoken with a woman with pups in Colorado, but I told her we don't want one yet. I'm hoping we can wait some months to a year to get a few trips in together. Cockers are not near as popular as they used to be and the cocker rescue sites I've looked at don't really have cockers.
Gardenerjoy I really like that card of yours. I need to write my own.
Nationalparker I hope you get to see your brother at Christmas. Mine is coming at Thanksgiving and I'm really looking forward to that. Family is so important, crazy and dysfunctional some of the time, but important.
Maryann You do so much. If you followed me around for a week you would feel productive even while sitting in a chair doing nothing. Grant it I need to work on getting a few things going besides exercise and I know it.
Curlyjax I got into the Halloween candy too. Then this morning I had to run out to stop dh before he left the driveway to hand him the candy to take in to the 20 year old guys who can eat it. So glad to have it out of the house. Hoping you have a successful party for DD.
Lexxis Glad you realized that it would be okay not to have candy this year. I'm sure the kiddos got plenty and you got some rest.
Bill I will admit the cakes sound great. It would be hard to resist food as often as you have it at functions.
Suzlen Good luck with your restart. I try to remind myself that the holidays are really only a couple of days, not the whole season. If I go off a tad on a couple of days, no big deal. I hope it works this year.
My green smoothie today was soooo good. Why don't I drink them more often?? It is probably why it is so good, I haven't had one in a while.
I am swamped in the evenings - still need to cut DS hair, clean bathroom, exercise, and spend some time with DH.....time goes by so quickly!!
karenrn: so sorry your DH is having a hard time. Sigh....transitions of all kinds are so hard.
gardenerjoy: What?!?! My goal is not to see what I can get away with?? Boy, have I been going about it wrong. Thanks for the reminder!!
nationalparker: I, too, was tempted to just weigh once a week, but I am back on track to every day. I need the reminders. I have training the last week of school before Christmas break so I only have 5 weeks left!!
maryann: I think we all need time to sit and "be still" and just "be". We all need time to refuel emotionally and physically.
curlyjax: support from afar for teenage drama and hoping the party is a success.
lexxiss: y'all know how to throw a party!! Good for you for avoiding that second snack.
BillBB: I often justify eating the "homemade" stuff - somehow it just feels "healthier"
Okay - I'm off to finish what I need to. DH jokes about how fast I am out when I climb into bed to watch a show with him. I am usually out before the opening credits. (hem, hem) Must be the time change.....
Diet Coaches/Buddies – Walked, CREDIT moi, to my classes and back. I'm getting closer to understanding the Neutron Star and how to measure the distance to stars that are 100 million light-years away. Astronomers do amazing analysis using only faint arriving light.
Food would have been on plan except that leftover Halloween candy was prominent in two places. I am capable of forgetting that I have a food plan and that I'm not really that fond of candy - but am ever so able to waddle about in it if I get started. The two kids next door collected 136 pieces between them which they combined to have 68 pieces each. The only benefit of mounds of sugar is that a precocious 7 year old can show off her math.
Joy (gardenerjoy) – That "get away with" feeling comes up so often. Kudos for the neat response card. [Immediately ordered Graham Green's Our Man in Havana from our library network that had dozens available. I've been a fan of The Heart of the Matter for decades.]
Debbie (Lexxiss) – Yay for a crowd of Halloween kids so large that they draw a protective police car - we've never reached that stage. Kudos for resisting a second snack.
maryann - LOL at your farmer DH doing a jig for the rain. Kudos for recognizing that any form of negative thinking can lead to eating.
nationalparker – It should be allowed to watch Monday Night Football with a salad. We need to rescue football from its guy-food image. [The "unusual" homemade cake was just a gooey topping. It made it difficult to take a one-bite piece without a major hand cleaning. It was only OK.]
Karen (karenrn) - Strenuous once again - Kudos. Good luck working our your puppy plan.
curlyjax - Kudos for hanging in there with your teenage DD. It's a tough journey for both.
SuzLen - I think it neat that guys can get by without haircuts for a long time. (Or so I tell myself.) Yay for a green smoothie.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 2 Foundation Strategies to Escape Your Traps
Foundation Strategy #6: Build up your "resistance muscle." Here's a common sabotaging thought that often precedes a dieting mistake: It's okay if I make an exception this one time. It won't matter. The implication is that there won't be any consequences for eating something you weren't supposed to eat.
But there is a consequence - a major one. Every time you make an exception, you make it more likely that the next time you'll also make an exception - and the time after that and the time after that. Each exception strengthens what we call your psychological "givin-in muscle" and undermines your confidence in your ability to stick to a plan. To succeed at weight loss and maintenance, you need a very weak giving-in muscle.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., Deborah Beck Busis, The Diet Trap Solution, Train Your Brain to Lose Weight and Keep It Off for Good (Blue book), pg. 33
Beck Diet For Life/Solution – November 2015 – Support, Discussion, Buddy/Coach
Sunday - Clocks "Fall Back" one hour (except Arizona)
Boy, have I been going about it wrong. Thanks for the reminder!!
