Beck Diet For Life/Solution – December 2009 – Support, Discussion, Buddy/Coach

[ChinaMaine]

I’m still exhausted, although yesterday I only did enough exercise to make myself realize it would be a mistake to continue and I left work early (around 2:30). So today I slept in, and did no exercise. On a completely different ‘note’, I am quite pleased that, on the piano, I’ve learned the right hand for Charlie Brown’s Christmas Time Is Here. I love that tune and it makes me happy to be able to play it, albeit haltingly.

WI-down 1.9 lbs. Read my cards, but I didn’t make a plan until right before dinner. Food – op; Exercise – off-plan – (10m)

The Good
- Identified hunger vs non-hunger every time I ate – credit!
- Eat mindfully, enjoying every bite – mostly, so credit!
- Tolerated non-hunger without eating – credit!
- I posted here – credit!
- Used resistance techniques – credit! Well I did have on extra sliver of baguette with my evening snack, but only because I was still hungry after finishing what I had planned for.

The Bad,
- Spontaneous exercise – nope

and The Ugly
- Give credit throughout the day for every positive eating behavior – nope.

[Beach Patrol]

... I have the workbook, but I don't really use it. It was a buy-it-together-&-get-it-cheaper "double deal" with the book when I bought it through Amazon.

I use my cards (a lot!) and a regular spiral bound notebook where I record what I eat each day & rate my hunger from 1-10 before, during & after each meal.

[Shepherdess]

I did another short run yesterday. The weather is slowly warming up, although the wind has really picked up. I spent my run contemplating wind chill. I have never understood the science behind why moving air feels colder than still air, although I experience when I go outside. I actually have some very good wind gear and wound up a little hot on my run.

DH and I went to the Historical Society Christmas dinner last night. We were served a steak dinner, which meant that I ate potatoes and veggies and DH got to take home a second steak. I left part of the dessert on the plate, though probably not as much as I should have. But the dinner was pretty fun. There are a lot of cool people in the historical society. The dinner featured art work from several local artists who had painted Casper’s red light district before the Urban renewal program that cleaned up the area in the late 60s. There were a lot of people with some great stories from the pre-renewal days.

I did resist the urge to eat when I got home. I still felt hungry, but I just told myself that I had enough calories at the dinner, even if the portions were small. I did not resist the urge to curl up on the couch with DH and have a glass of wine. So I guess all in all it was a mixed success.

PrairieChick, glad that you are on the mend. Yay for kick-butt antibiotics. If jumping rope sounds like it would be a fun way to get exercise, I would just suggest beginning with only a few minutes and slowly adding to your time. Our joints and bones adapt and get stronger with movement, but you need to ease into it gently.

BeachPatrol, kudos for getting your exercise when the weather permits. Yay for the shrinking stomach. It is so much easier to stick to a plan when hunger is not a constant. Semi-stuck is always disappointing, but have faith that the scale will move again if you are doing what you are following your plan.

CeeJay, good job sticking with it, even with a setback. I find those types of situations difficult as well and don’t have any magic advice that would be helpful. My hope is that building good habits in other areas of life will eventually spill over into those difficult situations.

Bennyhannamamma, you’re doing well in a stressful situation. Kudos for practicing some skills even when things are tough.

BillBE, I’m so inspired that you are getting to the point where you are feeling a sense of control. That is my most important goal. I hate feeling like I don’t have control in so many food situations (my husband may have something to say about my need for control). In most of those situations, I don’t even enjoy the food because I just feel so much stress. Congrats for putting in all the hard work to gain control!

ChinaMaine, good luck on recovering. It’s good that you listened to your body and gave it the rest it needs. Yay for learning Charlie Brown Christmas on the piano.

[PrairieChick]

Originally Posted by Shepherdess

PrairieChick, glad that you are on the mend. Yay for kick-butt antibiotics. If jumping rope sounds like it would be a fun way to get exercise, I would just suggest beginning with only a few minutes and slowly adding to your time. Our joints and bones adapt and get stronger with movement, but you need to ease into it gently.

Thanks! I will definitely be looking in many different ways of getting my body on the MOVE!!! And YES, gradual is the KEY!

The program that I am on not only confuses the body into using it's fat stores, but it confuses it with different types of workouts - the KEY - get your body to a point it doesn't know what is coming NEXT!

IT's a WAR!

Have a GREAT evening!
Couldn't log in earlier today - but glad I can now!

~ Kim

[Nuxmaga]

Hi All,
I am working toward regular check-ins again--it really helps! Tracked food today, credit. Went to the gym with dh to walk laps, credit. I think Bill is right on with the craving for volume and quantity rather than the taste of something. The potato chips that I got on Wednesday, where I ate 5 out of 6 servings, were dill pickle flavor, and the first chip reminded me totally of the taste from my childhood, and then rest were just about quantity. The dill pickle coating actually eroded the skin at the corners of my mouth, so I'm still dealing with that aftermath. The name "screaming dill pickle" is pretty accurate, and surely should've served as a warning to stay away. . .These lessons take awhile to stick, which is frustrating. Well, off to bed.

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Incremented my months along my journey today; CREDIT moi. I do like to celebrate this each month since that great joy of watching the scale reading drop is gone (or at least transformed into a tension of watching it vacillate around a bit). My goal is to reach five years on my journey which, using Meg's notion that we are all maintainers after the first pound, I will think of as 5 years of maintenance. Then I can decide whether or not to return to buying Kentucky Fried Chicken by the bucket and snarfing Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies by the sleeve, LOL.

At my gym there was an additional 30% off a five pound jug of Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Protein - just about the time that I need it. Pure joy. Got it for $25 compared to its $55 list price and $41 Amazon price. Ecstasy. Better than FREE food. I also did my gym stuff, CREDIT moi, including adding 5 pounds to my dumbbells.


ChinaMaine - Yay for "Charlie Brown’s Christmas Time Is Here." And Yay for any sentence that contains "albeit."

Margaret (Nuxmaga) - Interesting thoughts about your "screaming dill pickle" episode. They must have packed a bunch of vinegar into those to do in the corners of your mouth. Kudos for tracking food and gym.

Beach Patrol - Neat that you continue to rate your hunger; what ranges are you seeing? Have you detected any patterns?

Shepherdess - LOL at "contemplating wind chill" as a distraction while running in Wyoming's cold. Kudos for extracting a vegetarian dinner in a steak and potatoes world and Kudos again for not eating when you got home. Methinks you're on track with a goal to feel in control around food - it does seem so odd that so many of us have slowly lost that over the years.

Kim (PrairieChick) - LOL at "IT's a WAR!" All hands on deck. Man your battle stations. Take no enemies. Don't shoot til you see the whites of their eyes. Getting into the mindset a bit.

Readers -

day 12
Practice Hunger Tolerance

If you fear hunger, you might routinely eat to avoid the feeling. You might never have learned that it's okay to feel hungry, and you might never have developed skills to help you withstand hunger. Purposely skipping a meal will prove something to you. You definitely don't have to eat when you're hungry. Just because you want to eat doesn't mean you always should. This is one of the most important things you need to learn to lose excess weight and keep it off!

The Beck Diet Solution, pg 121.

[Beach Patrol]

Originally Posted by BillBlueEyes

Beach Patrol - Neat that you continue to rate your hunger; what ranges are you seeing? Have you detected any patterns?

You know what I find interesting, Bill? That no matter how hungry I appear to be at times, I never rate above a 7 at "before". Usually, I rate something like this:

Before - 6
During - 4
After - 0

or Before 5
During - 3
After - 0

Once in a while I'll rate a 7/5/0 but it's rare. And for all those times when I thought "Gosh I'm starving! Can't wait til dinner!!!" - I still never rated above a 7. And that's kinda funny! - cause I'd have thought (before I started BECKing) that I'd rate myself as an 8, 9 or even 10 during "before" meals. But... nope. Never!

A few times, I catch myself at a -1 for After. That means I did, in fact, overeat. But the more days pass by, the less I do that. I really think that rating system is a big help for me.

[ChinaMaine]

Yesterday was a long, sluggish day at work. I had a lot of brain fog, so I stumbled through the day, every 10 minutes trying to remember what I was trying to get done at the moment. If I worked in an office, I’d have left for the day and gone to bed. Probably would have been better for me if I had. Oh well…

WI-no weigh-in. Read my cards, but when I logged all my food this AM, I was right at my max calories for the day. Food – op; Exercise – off-plan – (no exercise)

The Good
- Identified hunger vs non-hunger every time I ate – credit!
- Eat mindfully, enjoying every bite – mostly, so credit!
- Tolerated non-hunger without eating – credit!
- I posted here – credit!
- Used resistance techniques – credit!

The Bad,
- Spontaneous exercise – nope

and The Ugly
- Give credit throughout the day for every positive eating behavior – nope.

[maryblu]

A lazy Saturday morning for moi, an indulgence I can ill afford with Christmas prepping to do around a pretty fun and full social schedule that is unfolding. I will feel better after getting 5 batches of home made noodles rolled out and frozen and ready for Christmas Eve family tradition. No apparent relation to what passes for noodles out of a bag. To die for, if you have never experienced them.

Am firmly back on solid ground. I fell, but I got up quickly. Have not weighed, but will do so on Wed. when I have the opportunity to use the balance beam scale I always use. I love those! It is so much more fun than watching a digital display settle in. I went shopping yesterday and realized what a motivator that really is. Size small is fun. Taking something off the rack and knowing it will fit is fun. Giving it back to the sales person for a smaller size is fun.

Chinamaine, great job on the mindfullness you are documenting..Beachie, I see you have given some real thought to this as well. I am back on the edge of hunger thing, which I like so much better than that full feeling. I feel more energetic and alert; it is my sweet spot. Not sure I will ever know why I let that slip. I knew it, obviously, but let it go on for a week or ten days. And it was not fun..it didn't feel good and I did it anyway..I would love to sort that out, what emotionally was going on, but haven't been able to pinpoint anything..could have been several things, I guess. I doubt it was some primal winter-is-coming-put-on-fat thang. Oh, well, I stopped the madness.

Shepherdess, OK, I concede. WY is cold enough; anything below zero is insane, and wind counts, too. Only we country girls could get into a p***in' contest about who has it colder! *laffin' And as for this:

"I did not resist the urge to curl up on the couch with DH and have a glass of wine. So I guess all in all it was a mixed success."

I have read nothing in Beck that says you can't enjoy a special moment. We all know the benefits of a happy marriage. Just consider it a Covey moment; you were filling *his emotional bank account. Lucky you. *smile

[AnneWonders]

Coaches/Buddies My parents are visiting and I'm done with 2 of the 3 events I have today, two parties and a gymnastics showcase. I'm doing well, but exhausted. Looking for sanity to return in about a week. I may be sporadic until then.

Anne

[CeeJay]

Quick check in. I am going to try to do a check-in every day because I need to focus on what I am trying to do. Last week I felt I was sliding down a slope that I do not want to go down. With Christmas and all the eating challenges that are coming, I need to be extra careful. One of the response cards I have says somthing like your body dosen't know or care it is the weekend. Same goes for holidays.

Giving myself credit today for weighing in, riding exercise bike, eating OP and healthy, doing weights, and planning meals for next 3 days.

It is horribly cold here, wind chill making it feel like -30 today. I have committed to the exercise bike when I just can't make myself go outside. I don't mind walking in the cold but the wind just makes it too miserable.

Going to volunteer tomorrow at a community children's Christmas party- should be fun.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

[PrairieChick]

Originally Posted by BillBlueEyes

Kim (PrairieChick) - LOL at "IT's a WAR!" All hands on deck. Man your battle stations. Take no enemies. Don't shoot til you see the whites of their eyes. Getting into the mindset a bit.
Readers -

Bill! I'm GLAD you GET it! Whew!

Do'n GREAT! Hang'n in there!
BTW - I'm STILL winning! (that burns calories TOO!)

[Nuxmaga]

Hi All,
Tracked food, credit. Walked 6100+ steps, credit. Got my 120 workouts in at the gym to get my rebate through my insurance, yay! For some reason I was thinking about the giving ourselves credit conversation, and how difficult that can be for me and others. I try to focus on the fact that crediting what I do makes me more likely to do it--probably building good neural pathways. I avoid thinking about whether I "deserve" the credit because that always ends badly. I have surgery on Monday, and feeling anxious, but at least I have some practice with tolerating hunger, since I can't eat after midnight Sunday night.

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Broke out the thermal base layer (long johns, LOL) to walk to Trader Joe's (CREDIT moi) to get another pint of their blueberries. Found myself in the aisle where they keep the dark chocolate covered cranberries and noticed that they have some dozen different dark chocolate covered items: soy nuts, raisins, almonds, blueberries, ... . I could feel my passion dim as I saw the entire lot - I can't crave them all at once, so it was easier to just keep walking. Reminds me that as much as I loved reading Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to my kids it didn't appeal to me to go there. Perhaps I need to arrange a visit to the giant bakery where Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies are baked to quell my lifelong desire for those evil little cookies.

It's fun to have clothes warm enough to enjoy walking in the cold. Thank you to all those ducks in China who gave us your "goose down" for modern outdoor wear.


maryblu - Yay for indulging in the joy of "Size small is fun." Drooling over those home made noodles. Five batches sounds like a lot of noodles. Are you able to consume only a sane volume yourself?

Anne (wndranne) - Yay for those consecutive minutes when grandparents are distracting both kids at once. Ouch for a house full of parents for which "I may be sporadic" would be the normal 24/7 response, LOL.

ChinaMaine - Ouch for not making your "eighteen inch commute" to end your week early when your brain wasn't cooperating. Kudos for "Identified hunger vs non-hunger every time I ate" - wish I was consistent in doing that.

CJ (CJZee) - Now that's a great Response Card, "your body doesn't know or care it is the weekend." Gonna steal that. Cringing at the thought of -30 with wind chill factor.

Margaret (Nuxmaga) - Neat NSV to earn your insurance rebate by your 120th gym workout. Good idea to drop the "deserve" evaluation around giving yourself credit; I can see that that's a great place to get blocked. Sending supportive thoughts for your surgery on Monday.

Beach Patrol - Thanks for those hunger numbers - they are interesting. If I were recording mine, I might observe that on those evenings when I wish dinner would hurry up and get here, I'm not really hungry as much as just looking forward to dinner.

Kim (PrairieChick) - Yep, calories burned by laughing consume the same amount of fat as calories burned by jogging. Presumably belly laughs lead to six pack abs, LOL.

Readers -

day 12
Practice Hunger Tolerance

did you know?

It's important to distinguish between "need" and "want." People have gone for more than a week without eating and haven't died. So, precluding a medical disorder, we definitely don't need to eat on any given day.

The Beck Diet Solution, pg 125.

[PrairieChick]

Originally Posted by BillBlueEyes

Kim (PrairieChick) - Yep, calories burned by laughing consume the same amount of fat as calories burned by jogging. Presumably belly laughs lead to six pack abs, LOL.
Readers -

I L♥V my NEW WAY OF EATING


Thanks for the GREAT advice
and this FANTASTIC Thread!

See ya Lighter!

Kim