We did it - we cracked the century. And with room to spare - 103 points. Well done team. And now that I think about it it is an awfully long time since anyone was on zero :-)

My streak is at 21. I have had a happy day of pottering. The plan for the next couple of weeks is to spend an hour out gardening first thing in the morning while it is still cool enough and then spring clean one room of the house each day. my partner is a complete angel for cleaning far more often than I do but he does clean like a boy (all due respect to Bill and Mike and any other male participants I have forgotten about) so I am liking having the time to do the detail (skirting boards, dusting etc) that start to bug me after a while. Today I cleaned up one of the kiddie bedrooms. Extracted lots of clutter and some outgrown toys that they won't even notice are missing and reorganised the toy tubs. Never ceases to amaze me the way that the toys suddenly become exciting for them again when they are tidied up, rather than being a big jumble of stuff.

Also spent some time checking out the website Maryann sent a link to. Thank you for that - I think it will be very helpful.

My fella headed off on his travels this morning. I am enjoying the freedom of being totally by myself but it feels strange not to know how his day has been.

Ah - I realise I haven't given myself credit for anything yet - ummm - cooking myself interesting, yummy food even though it was tempting to 'slum it' with just me at home.

National parker - so sorry to hear of the scare with your Mom. You are doing such a good job of noticing what you are thinking and feeling through all these challenges.

SystemsAddict - thanks for sharing a bit of your story. It rang lots of bells for me - my littluns are 7 and 9, I also juggle full-time work with parenting and I had PND (though CBT didn't work for me in that context - mindfulness was my saviour there). I empathise with the challenges of eating sitting down - I still really struggle with that bit as life is so busy it is hard to resist just eating on the run.

Hi Coaches!

Kudos to all of you who have posted through the holidays, so far, and have come up with many successful strategies to stay OP!

I've done well, yet did not follow a plan yesterday after an OP breakfast because I didn't make one. Ouch. I could have done better and I could have done far worse yet I'm back to basics today. credit.

Sending support to those who have had to negotiate around painful family situations, especially NationalParker.

Our holiday negotiated around great sadness...my BIL(Brothers DH) passed away on Saturday. We could not be with our 2 brothers, who reside in KeyWest. I am grateful my DB has decided to have a memorial when we can all attend as many of us could not have left home at this time (me included).

So, today I get back on track with food and my project.

Take care, all.

My 100% OP streak count is 7.

I followed my plan well enough, but I've decided that I need a new response for meals out there: Just say no to desserts purchased from big box stores. They aren't special even if every one else acts like they are (I noticed that the nephew in wine sales didn't take any and he's the best arbiter of good taste in my life). Even a tiny portion is too much. Of course, I'll feel deprived if I skip dessert, but I can make a plan for that. They eat supper earlier than we do, so I always save a snack for later in the evening when I get home. I'll just make sure I have a good dessert-like snack available.

Credit for skipping the giant rolls, probably also purchased from the big box store. I probably would have enjoyed those more than the dessert, but they would have triggered cravings and I'm very happy to wake today without cravings.

Credit for doing a short workout when we got home so that I didn't break my long streak of days exercised.

WI: NA kg, Exercise: +15 1140/1400 minutes for December, Food: 100%op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

systemsaddict: if you're looking for a low-carb plan, at least one person in this thread does South Beach and there is an active group on 3FC for support of that: http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/south-beach-diet-110/. I've also been intrigued lately by someone I met on another thread who is doing something called The Slow Carb diet. She has an active thread about that going here: http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/othe...carb-diet.html

Hello all I am back after a much-needed break from the

systems addict. Glad to have you join this online Beck Diet Solution discussion group.

nationaparker My heartfelt empathy for your Christmas with the family. I went through this same scenario 5 years ago. Take care.

It sounds like everyone had a great time with family, friends and Santa as well.

gardenerjoy Thanks for the links. BTW, Medicare does pay for WLS and it is fast becoming one of the most performed surgeries in that age group. I kid you not!

Credit: a Major Major Credit for me this past Christmas. It was the first time in my personal history where I not only followed my pre-planned food plan but also stayed within my calories as well as monitored carbs. I was on and I am not joking. I felt so empowered, all I could do for the rest of the very long night (we went to Midnight Mass and got home around 2 a.m.) was This proved to me that not only can I exercise my resistance muscle but showed me a glimpse of things to come for 2014.

For all of you who are enjoying your long streaks, For me, I will take it when it happens. I got to change my ticker earlier this week. I have now been on my Diabetes weight lose food plan coupled with using BDS since December 20th. This is only the beginning.


Take care, Pam

Hi all,

Today was OP food wise, although I changed my dinner plans when I got home from the grocery store. DH was napping and I didn't want to cook just for me, so I made something quicker--but OP. (and counted out 17 grapes) (17 is actually a nice sized quantity of grapes) I also realized I had a grocery run failure--I'm out of hummus. I'll be stopping at the store again tomorrow or Saturday!

I've got tomorrow all planned and entered into MFP. I really do do best when it's entered the night before and my lunch/snack are already packed before I go to bed. I had a plan for tomorrow but learned that we're going out to celebrate a friend's 70th--so I looked up my choices on their on-line menu and adjusted my plan accordingly.

I keep thinking about the "dry drunk" "white-knuckling" image that pamatga shared--she's right--I'm definitely white knuckling through my days a lot of times. If I don't see something, I generally don't think about it, but once I see it, it can sometimes be hard to talk myself down.

No exercise today--but it's going to be warmer this weekend so that will encourage me to get out and about.

Take care, all.

Oh--recording streak is now at 16.

Hi Coaches
I was too exhausted to check in last night and have been running around this morning so in order to stay on track and on-streak I am checking in for yesterday.

It was not pretty is the summary - it was pretty good until I got home and had to make dinner and I had more carbs than I wanted because I was tired and hungry. Lunch was MacDonald's fries (I never eat those things) on the drive home out of desperation! And in the morning before I left I had a piece of Christmas cake - my sister had made 3 "because you like them so much" (not true). Anyway I caved and had some knowing that it was wheat and at that point every joint was aching anyway so...

The plan for today is to get back on plan and it is going well so far - will check in tonight with the outcome

BethFromDayton - Credit for continuing to log food and plan since the holidays. Enjoy that walk in the warmer weather;

Systemsaddict - I was surprised too at how much eating I did when I was standing - still catch myself. I wish you success in feeling good;

Pamatga - wonderful to read that you "felt so empowered" by staying on plan and within calories. Congratulations

Hello coaches,

streak for me is up to 22. 106 points for the team as a whole. Yay us!

I had another nice day today with an hour of gardening and then spring cleaning another room (the kid's play room this time - I wait with baited breath to discover which of the Happy Meal toys from 3 years ago that has never been played with will turn out to the precious thing I shouldn't have thrown away!) Tomorrow will be my study - which was the "dump room" for things we couldn't work out where to put when we moved in last summer. It might turn out to be a 2 day job.

Credit to me today for saying "No" to an extra evening snack. Arguably it would have been OK because today ended up being more exercise than I expected - but it wasn't on plan and I'm not really hungry.

I have started pre-planning again. Mainly because with my lovely away I was worried I would fall into the "why cook for 1 person" trap and not have satisfying interesting food. Discovered the "meals" function on MFP which makes it sooooo much quicker to plan ahead so I might just stick with planning for a while. Makes it easier to stay in calories to adjust before you eat it!

Spent a chunk of time this afternoon working out a schedule that can accomodate the extra time-consuming tasks that will be involved in my living frugally campaign. Really hurts my head doing that stuff - makes me realise how incredibly time poor I am when I am not on holidays! Oh well. Came up with some plans that I will help I think - making sure that Saturdays are a 'day off' so I can recover from the busyness of the rest of the week - and have a set weekly menu of things that fit with the demands of the day (eg: super quick meal the day I have to pick kids up from activities at 5:30pm and 'stick in the oven for an hour' meals for the days I pick them up at 6pm).

Pamatga - I could see the smile on your face all the way from Australia!

Systemsaddict - When I started doing Beck I was doing a low card diet - an Australian one developed by CSIRO (a national scientific body - something like Commonwealth Science and Information Research Office). I changed partly because it got too expensive (heaps of meat in the diet) but also because I wasn't getting the energy kick I expected when I had lost some weight (so I figured it didn't suit me). It is a great diet for the fact that the high protein means you very very rarely feel hungry! I can send you links if you are interested.

Hi Coaches

I am checking in for today to keep on track. Today I planned and bought food and stuck to my plan. I logged all food on MFP. I ate within an 8 hour window (1 pm to 8.30 pm) and had very low carbs which will have to continue for at least 2 weeks. I feel good that I stayed on plan and walked about 9000 steps today while doing chores.

I am not going to log weight until the new year and hope that I can by then reach the weight on the tracker as I am slightly over

have a good day coaches

At in laws at the moment who eat very sensibly - 2 balanced meals a day and no snacking - so the eating sitting down is much easier here! Home tomorrow and I plan 4 days toy sorting before back to work on 2nd, so am inspired by ForMyGirls' adventures! I have also set a schedule for meal prep and exercise which is feasible, so I am nearly ready to start actually eating well. Thanks for the links to low carb plans, I'm planning to start with a version of the one I did successfully in the past which was the Carbohydrate Addicts Diet, which basically means eating carbs only once a day. Fallback plan is Primal eating.

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Streak goes to 37, CREDIT moi, which makes me uber happy because the holiday eating season is traditionally where my wandering hand dips into bowls of stuff. A family tradition is nuts in the Christmas stockings, along with the tradition of the kids being excited to find the nuts, then to put them in our nut bowl since they have no intention of cracking them when shelled nuts are readily available. The last step of the tradition is that I shell and eat all the nuts for the family. Good news: They all sit in the bowl untouched by me. Bad news: It annoys DW that I insist on the nuts tradition even though I no longer fulfill my part by disposing of them.

Exercise was gym, CREDIT moi, walk to the library, and walk to the subway around 6am for a Day-After-Christmas excursion to Macy's department store. Good Karma continues. At a Christmas brunch the English muffins only toasted on the bottom; we had to flip them for a full toasting. The toaster oven had died after some 20+ years of faithful service. But the Macy's ad had their $45 Black and Decker one on sale for $19 for early morning shoppers. We were so happy because it's smaller and more convenient than the do-everything table top ovens that are more commonly sold. Before DW came down for breakfast I had returned with our new toaster oven. Yay for being happy with the little victories of life.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Neat to take clues from your nephew. I might just adopt your "no to desserts purchased from big box stores" - fake goodness, them.

Debbie (Lexxiss) – Sending supportive thoughts for the loss of your BIL and for the pain of not being able to be there. But Super Kudos for giving yourself credit following your eating plan for "I could have done far worse."

Cheryl (seadwaters) – LOL at your sister's "because you like them so much." Reminds me that for the first three years of visiting DW's mom she served razor thin pork chops burned to a crisp because DW "always loved them." Which DW denies adamantly.

Pam (pamatga) – Absolutely Thrilling, "I felt so empowered." Kudos, Kudos, Kudos.

Beth (bethFromDayton) – It's inspiring to picture you actually counting your grapes. Kudos.

ForMyGirls - Yep, Special Kudos for attentive cooking for yourself alone instead of 'slum it' since no one else cares. I do remember the times we discarded a tiny detritus that one of my kids discovered missing months later and went inconsolable. And Kudos for working on a schedule.

systemsaddict - Kudos for selecting to marry into a family with in-laws "who eat very sensibly." Kudos for setting a schedule for planning. I wish you well for "4 days toy sorting" - cut yourself some slack that that might raise up the I deserve to eat Sabotaging Thoughts.

Readers -

My 100% OP streak count is 8.

Today's challenge is a carry-in lunch and nice supper out with the nephew in wine sales. I'm skipping both snacks to make up for the specialness of the meals.

WI: NA kg, Exercise: +45 1185/1400 minutes for December, Food: 100%op, Read my Advantages and Responses:

Lexxiss: so sorry for the loss of your BiL and the distances and other life challenges that mean you can't be with your brother right now. I'm glad your family dynamics work in a way that you can observe the loss together at a later time.

Been lurking for a while. Everyone is doing so good on staying on plan. I have not since Monday I have been off. With the kids home I have a terrible time staying on plan. Cooking for others is really hard. And staying away from all my hard work is really hard. But credit I have tracked my calories even with the huge overages.

The difference this year is that I have a Beck mindset that it is not the end of the world and getting back on track is what is important. So today is back on plan. I am scared of being hungry. I hate being hungry and I forgot how nice it is to not be hungry. But I will live with it.

You guys are an inspiration to me. Reading everyday is what keeps me grounded. Even the terrible family stories help me feel that I am not alone since I have similar problems. Poor health in parents. Their home situation and planning the sale of their home and finding a place that will fit their situation. My inlaws finances are so bad they can not get a new loan to move into a new house. Their house is sold for a new highway coming through and they are just waiting until that have to move. Everything is up in the air for them. And my parents are stuck in an old big house they can not take care of and are too scared to look for a new house to downsize to that they can physically get around in i.e. no stairs, wheelchair equipped, and so on.

I just have put it out of my mind so I can enjoy time with my kids and DH. Husband is back to work today. Sad holiday is over so fast but will be good to get back on track.

Have a good OP day.

Hi all,

Food was OP today (just as planned). At dinner tonight, the birthday honoree ordered apple pie with a ton of whipped cream. I was sitting across from her and used glasses, beer bottles, and table clutter to block her pie so I couldn't see it. It's much easier for me to be firm with myself when things aren't in sight!

These are good friends so they laughed with me--and moved more things to make the blockage more artistically interesting while still blocking my view! And my friend totally enjoyed her pie!

I've still got to write down a plan for tomorrow, but I think I have it figured out, so I just need to enter it into MFP. We're going car shopping tomorrow, but since the first 3 dealerships are very close to our house, we'll be coming home for an OP lunch rather than trying to eat it while out and about.

Recording everything streak is now at 17.

LoseToAll: Credit for tracking and checking in with us--I hope that helps you get back on track.

[b]

110 points for the team - with my personal streak at 23.

Another day of gardening and spring cleaning and a nice afternoon cuppa with my folks. My fella came home early - had his fill of camp stove baked beans and swimming in the rivers. Lovely photos from his travels - I might just be tempted to convince him to go back with me in two next week once I have finished pottering :-)

I have been having a fun time exploring the money saving forum Maryann suggested and have started a thread about my adaptation of Beck for money problems. I have called it "learning to think like a frugal person". Thank you again Maryann for the recommendation. I think it is just what I need to help me stay on track on that front.

So - a credit or two - left food in my plate twice today. That is really unusual for me. With the spring cleaning and gardening I am doing a lot more exercise than normal so that means I have a lot more calories in my food plan for the day - but at breakfast and dinner I was full before I are everything so I stopped. Well done me :-)

It has also been a bit of a day for noticing changes in thinking. This morning when I was dealing with the "but I don't want to" response to doing my morning health activities I realised I wasn't thinking "but you better do it because otherwise you will break the streak". Instead I was thinking "you may as well do it now because if you don't do it now you'll be doing it later, and you know how you hate doing it later". Suddenly not doing it wasn't one of the available options - not even in the argumentative part of my brain. Maybe this is what it feels like when a habit is forming :-)

Also did some reflecting back today on my earliest posts to 3FC - before I found you all - and noticed how utterly different my thinking was to how it is about the money stuff. Back then my first posts were a "I don't know if I can change this but I have to try". But here I am facing my next big challenge and my earliest posts in that world are "OK - I know I can fix this so let's get on with it". Very cool. Thank you Judith Beck - and thank you all of you.

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Tested the new toaster oven on my sandwich thins for my peanut butter sandwich lunch. It works. Yay for successes in small places. Food was OP, CREDIT moi, and snacks within plan as I skipped morning snack, substituted a FREE sample of clam chowder at the supermarket for afternoon snack, and split an orange with DW for evening snack. The chowder wasn't necessary, but it was handed out at a supermarket that has never had a FREE sample of anything, ever. I applied a different interpretation to rare and unusual, LOL. And I accepted that my streak is about staying within my snacks plan - not always exceeding it by having no snacks. So, streak is 38.

Exercise was a folk dance class last night - that got cancelled. Ouch. I did finish a worthless who-done-it that I picked up at the library and couldn't put down. I have got to become more disciplined in what books I start since I have no will-power in the quitting before the last page department.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Yay for special meals approached with confidence.

Beth (bethFromDayton) – Love the visual of your "blockage" of the pie with whipped cream. You've got good friends to help you through that time instead of making fun of you or demanding, "Just this once."

ForMyGirls - Gotta love the attitude, "I know I can fix this so let's get on with it" - what a good start on your new journey. Exercising by cleaning and gardening is just the best.

LoseToAll - This is what wiggles my sane thinking, "I am scared of being hungry." My brain is capable of acting as if I grew up during the Great Depression without food even though I've never worried about missing a meal in my life. The hunger exercise helped me face that. Kudos for tracking your food even when you're not in best form. Sending supportive thoughts for the housing situations with the elders in your life.

Readers -