[BillBlueEyes]

Welcome to the discussion group, support group, Diet Coach group, Diet Buddy group relating to the two books by Dr. Judith S. Beck:

The Complete Beck Diet for Life

and the first book

The Beck DIET solution: train your brain to think like a thin person.

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:

List of Monthly Beck Threads for Support, Discussion, Buddy/Coach

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Walked, CREDIT moi, to a lecture about how anthropology was practiced a hundred years ago. It was difficult for folks to get away from the notion that other cultures were inferior. The good news is that some artifacts are slowly being returned to the control of tribes in the Southwest. When an entire civilization is prejudiced, it's pretty difficult to be otherwise.

Eating was on plan, CREDIT moi, with a larger afternoon snack than I'd planned - but good enough. Stuff left over from the potluck on Wednesday night had to get consumed. Oatmeal raisin cookies had been sent home with me. I accepted them. I consumed them. They're now gone. Oh, well!


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Cheering for those last 400 words. [I so have to get to Chicago's Field Museum. So many neat places in the world yet to visit.]

silverbirch – Yay for more work; Ouch that that means doing more work. Do keep warm.

nationalparker – Hiking IKEA is serious exercise. Hope your office party today goes well.

Readers -

day 2 Pick Two Reasonable Diets

Guidelines for a Doable Diet

Even if you lose all of the weight you want on an extremely low-calorie diet, you're unlikely to be able to continue following such a plan over the long term. Research shows that nearly everyone who loses weight in this way quickly regains it.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), Pg 65.

[silverbirch]

Morning, all. It's almost 11am and it's been busy, busy since 6.30am. My great achievement is to have worked out something new about my body which has lifted the gloom put there by my GP. She is good, in the main, but suffers from poor communications skills like so many in the medical sector. Too much colloquial language and not enough resources -> bit of a worry until after Christmas. All that has now lifted because I put in some time listening to my body. Doesn't work every time, I know, but I'm pleased it has this time.

But I've just arrived here at work without any lunch. I have been to the supermarket so it looks like it will be an orange, some lettuce and a chunk of either halloumi or feta. Actually, that's really quite gourmet! I know from Bill, though, that one shouldn't eat too much of gourmet food so I must remember that.

Exercise could possibly be the old hill sprints. I'll be back near the hill for the first time for ages this afternoon. I'll see what I can do.

Bill, anthropology is such a good subject. It's part of my chequered past and I use what I learnt so often. In fact, I'm about to dive into some bilingual remarks from people about their rural community.

Gardenerjoy, and now we're in December! Well done for getting here with all those words written!

nationalparker, glad to hear you got out of IKEA alive. They seem to be specialists in making punters walk miles and buy lots.

to all and I really must get on! I'll set the timer for 30 minutes for me to get up and stretch.

[gardenerjoy]

I finished NaNoWriMo and my exercise goal for November -- yay!

Today's drop is from stress and lack of sleep, not a sustainable weight loss plan. I had major frustrations with two people yesterday, neither of which feels resolved. I'm trying to not hide under the covers today, but that's what I feel like doing.

Weigh-in: -0.7 kg, Exercise: +40, 1200/1200 minutes for November

nationalparker: That was just the big sort of day that would trip me up, too. Over-hungry and over-stimulated.

BillBlueEyes: Thanks for starting us off on a new month!

silverbirch: I'm glad listening to your body worked for you. I forget to do that until my body screams at me, sometimes.

[nationalparker]

A mixed bag today! I wasn't the most productive at work, and then the holiday party was this afternoon, but it seemed that everyone was pretty burned out and spent a good bit of time catching up in each other's cubicles. Home and put away autumn decor and started pulling out my Christmas dishes of which I have a good number of small sets (four plates of this and of that, two of this, etc.) - I'm looking forward to setting a pretty table tomorrow when I finally get the misc. decor and packages being wrapped for shipment put away.

Food was OK today - the story of the week - could have been better, could have been worse. Just kind of maintaining the status quo. Lunch out was one small slice of pizza - as in only a few bites, and a large salad, so a score on that.

Aiming for time for personals SOON.

[silverbirch]

Good morning. Such a dreary looking day out there. Is it low cloud or is it mist?

I have already had (and enjoyed a larger breakfast than usual). I told myself it was because my ankles were cold. Is that a sabotaging thought? Probably.

I have three areas to work on today. Food (I have to make a few things for us to eat), work (just a little more would take the project to the next stage), junk shop (can I find or do I have to build a new kindling store?). Writing this out has shuffled them into a priority list. So I'll put some proper clothes on and make a start. Oh! I forgot serious exercise. I think that can go in between making food and going to the office.

nationalparker, you're sounding busy. I remember when you were losing you were sounding much more relaxed - evenings reading a book by the fireside, walks in the moonlight, that kind of thing. Any chance of reining the busyness in a little? Can anything wait for a few days so you have time to yourself? (I do know it's hard when there seems to be lots that has to be done.)

gardenerjoy, oh dear, 'major frustrations with two people'. Sorry to hear that. One would be quite enough! I try to use exercise to help me in avoiding going under the covers. It's got that grounding feeling and sometimes I talk to myself about dealing with annoyances when I'm doing it.

Bill, I hope I've slipped in under the radar this morning but I know that we're sometimes working on our posts at the same time.

Don't overdo it this weekend, everyone! (This is a message to me as much as you!)

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies – With some initial reservations, saw the movie Loving Vincent last night. Am so glad that we went. As a visual work of art it's just over the top. Striking! Such an ambitious goal to paint an entire movie in oils. It's worth reading how it was done. The story, itself, is rather brief. Van Gogh was a tortured soul. His brother, Theo, a saint for supporting him for his ten years of painting. He produced 800 paintings in his 10 years; sold one. He did or did not have a romantic interest. He did or did not take his own life. The movie has its own score, but does, of course, end with Vincent (Starry Starry Night) by Don McLean. The theater had oversized seats with electric reclining and HUGE holders for drinks and popcorn. I didn't participate, CREDIT moi.

Eating was on plan, CREDIT moi. Shopping at the supermarket required seeing Christmas cakes. Each season has its own sugar hits to be thrust out on the innocent shoppers. Having no evening snack is easy when we go out. I'm less tempted by commercially offered foods than I am by my own kitchen. We're still eating mac and cheese left over from our potluck Wednesday night. Boy, is that stuff good reheated. DW sautιed some spinach to eat with it in an attempt to make it a healthy meal.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Super Congrats for making your NaNoWriMo goal. Have you ever wanted to convert that into a published novel?

silverbirch – Does indeed sound like a gourmet lunch - especially since it's just knocked together. Love shopping at a junk store when I actually need something. I'm a disaster when I just wander in to 'look around.'

nationalparker – Yep, the day of a planned party at work seems to just dissolve. Anytime one limits themselves to a single slice of pizza is a good day in my book.

Readers -

day 2 Pick Two Reasonable Diets

Guidelines for a Doable Diet

Rather than basing your diet selection on speed, consider these factors:
You diet should be healthy. Because you'll be following this diet for a long time, you need to select one that promotes good health. Choose a diet that allows you to eat a reasonable variety of foods. Be wary of any diet that unduly restricts healthy food choices. You might be able to lose weight on a diet that isn't nutritious, but eventually your body will rebel - and you'll start to gain back the excess weight.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), Pg 65.

[curlyjax]

Hi coaches! Yesterday I was surprised by the news that DH is coming home today instead of Monday. There was much hustling around by the discharge planner, to get all his supplies ready for today. He looks much better, although still will be hooked to 24 hour stomach suction tube thru his nose to keep him from vomiting, and nutrition thru his veins. We have done this before so i’m not worried. They finally got some chemo going and hopefully it will kick in soon. My wonderful brother and sister in law will be looking into cannabis oil for us, with our oncologists blessing, because i can’t read up on it all now. Its supposed to help with symptoms, and some folks swear it helps with cancer, so we will try it.

So I feel very encouraged. Food and exercise have been on the back burner, I haven’t even been doing my stretches which I did so faithfully. Now that things have calmed down I can at least address some of this and eat better.

I can hear turkeys clucking to each other as I write this. I rather enjoy their presence on our street, they are so funny to watch.

Personals soon. Enjoying reading you all as usual!

[gardenerjoy]

Neither food nor exercise nor my day went according to plan. But the problems were all structural. That's much easier for me to solve than emotional eating.

The first Saturday is the day that I have about fifteen minutes to eat lunch between an event and a meeting that I often lead. We've decided that today's meeting can be very casual. So, I think I'm going to make the healthy choice of a salad and let someone else take the lead at the beginning of the meeting while I finish eating it.

Weigh-in: -0.05 kg, Exercise: +15, 15/1200 minutes for November

nationalparker: A few bites of pizza and a large salad sounds like a great lunch out plan.

silverbirch: good idea about the exercise -- I'll make a longer walk a priority today. I also created an opportunity to talk some things out with other impacted people and that really helped.

BillBlueEyes: I've always put me NaNoWriMo novel away for December with the idea that I'd ask myself in January if I was interested in doing a rewrite. So far, I've never been interested in January Now, I'm thinking that I have no basis for making the judgment about whether a project is worthy of a rewrite until I've attempted to do one, so I'm seriously considering making that my project for the next year or so. It would be an interesting one. Lots of research because I didn't have time to do it in November.

curlyjax: I'm glad your husband got to come home for the weekend. I can see how that would be quite the production> I'm glad you've got some help for the research.

[nationalparker]

I've been on the go since 8 a.m. and ready to ratchet it down now and hit the sack soon. I'm weary. I accomplished more than I planned - but no big ticket achievements. Finished the marketing at 11:15 p.m. and then drove home, unloaded and put it all away. Ended up with a snack of some cheese and crackers at midnight. I was truly hungry and it was simple.

Tomorrow plans include seeing Wonder and hitting Trader Joe's. Dinner is supposed to be chicken, well, turkey pot pie.

Joy - If you haven't read/heart it before, Stephen King's "On Writing" was a fun, interesting read. I was on hold for months and was glad I got the audiobook version to hear him read it. Congrats on your two cumulative achievements for November! Persistence and discipline!

[silverbirch]

Sunday morning and I've slept in. That's because it was a late night yesterday and a coolish morning today.

I think I found a temporary kindling store in the junk shop late yesterday afternoon. The shop won't be open today so I've got a bit of time to think about it. We really do need something so I can move the kindling out of the wood shelter and get a load of logs delivered. Realistically, I don't have the time to make one myself. Unless something else occurs to me, I think I'll go and buy it on Monday morning.

Probably too much food yesterday (not far too much but too much). I am focusing on eating slowly which is nice and I stop earlier than I usually do. I'm not sure this shows that I don't need as much at meals; it might show that I just get bored with eating or I have to go off and do something else.

nationalparker, nice to go and see a film tomorrow (today!).

gardenerjoy, great idea to let someone else start the meeting so you can eat! Delegation is great when it's possible.

curlyjax, such good news that your DH is coming home! Good to be old hands at dealing with the supplies and set up - that must help. Yes, a few stretches really help!

Bill, shop-bought Christmas cakes are just not worth it. I did buy half a dozen reduced mince pies recently (I used to make all ours when the DB was small) but I think that's going to be it in this household unless someone else buys/makes anything. We're not that keen on them so why bother?

Hope your Sunday goes well.

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Eating was on plan, CREDIT moi, including an after dinner serving of canned peaches topped with Penzeys Pico Fruta. The spice was a gift - a new one for us. It added some heat and mild flavors. Haven't had canned peaches in a zillion years, maybe since I was a kid. Sometimes different things happen. Lunch was a peanut butter sandwich on focaccia bread - another different taste. It's amazing how small can be the new things in life, LOL.

Got some work done that cost me the entire day - an email with four attachments. Felt like a week's work. Some days are more efficient than others. DW helped me set up folders for two tax related tasks that have to be done before the end of the year. A few minutes ago I saw the full moon - a Supermoon (meaning "a full moon that happens at perigee"). Yay for the little pleasures in life.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Fifteen minutes for lunch is compressed - particularly for a salad. [Interesting indeed that you have to upgrade your NaNoWriMo work to a finished novel to know whether you can do that. Sounds fun - and a huge amount of work.]

silverbirch – Kudos for "focusing on eating slowly" - it's so easy to drift into mindless eating. Hope that kindling store works out.

nationalparker – That was a long day. Kudos for getting out of Trader Joe's without succumbing to all their goodies.

curlyjax - Welcome home to your DH - what a great surprise. I, too, have heard good stuff about cannabis oil. LOL at your clucking turkeys; we've got those, also.

Readers -

day 2 Pick Two Reasonable Diets

Guidelines for a Doable Diet

tip! Show the diet you
plan to follow to a nutrition-
ist or to your health-care
provider to make sure it's
nutritionally sound and
appropriate for you.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), Pg 65.

Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs human heart transplant (1967, Cape Town)

[gardenerjoy]

I followed my plan yesterday, so I'm blaming the bump up on the scale as a blip. It was artificially low the last couple of days due to stress, so I suspected that the low scale reading wasn't real. I'll re-frame this as good news that the stress is dissipating which will be better for my health in the long run.

I have a plan for today -- credit! Time to implement it.

Weigh-in: +0.7 kg, Exercise: +40, 55/1200 minutes for December

nationalparker: I hope your get more relaxation today.

silverbirch: Eating slowly is a struggle for me and a hard habit to develop, but I've been getting a bit better over the last few years.

BillBlueEyes: The moon was very bright last night!

[maryann]

Good Morning, Coaches.

Some rough waters to sail through. Again, I have weekends commitments. To continue the analogy, I am ship not built for constant travel. I must have weekends free especially. when I have so much work to correct. I woke up in tears of frustration.

I have made a goal to finish these research pares in three hours - 68 of them. I have a rubric I will highlight. I will go easy because the cum assessments coming down the pike are hard. The truth is my mental health is more important that this stack of papers. Next spring, with one class and a prep I will be more thorough.

Weight is four pounds from ticker three pound jump. I have no idea why but it contributing to the blues. Reasonable choices at a wedding. All in all I feel lost.

[FutureFitChick]

Hi, Coaches and Buddies.

I'm out of town and ready to get back home to my own ability to plan meals! Visiting family, especially older family that relies more on convenience than cooking, is tough. My goal today is to avoid the coconut bars and to take a walk, like I did yesterday. I also want to track my food.

Bill Blue Eyes, it is so neat to read your reports of watching your granddaughter. Glad you avoided the Christmas cake trap. I have to remember, especially when at my parents' house, that Christmas is actually a day, not a month of eating free-for-all.

Curly Jax, sending prayers for the ease of discomfort of your husband's pain! Don't forget you need some extra care during this stressful time too!

Gardener Joy, congrats for getting to your NaNoWriMo goal AND your exercise goal! That is exciting. I love your idea of admiring pastries as a work of art. I hope your situation resolves itself with the two people.

Mary Ann, the successful application of all of your students to 4 year colleges is indeed exciting! Congratulations and thanks for being an encouraging mentor to them.

National Parker, you sound like you've been quite busy. I hope your holiday party was enjoyable.

Silver Birch, as always, I am in awe of your hill sprints. Dealing with kindling and obtaining wood for fires is something I never think about here. It sounds kind of nostalgic/romantic from here, but imagine it feels a bit different when you are relying on it for heating.