[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 – Chase the DGD day, CREDIT moi. When I had to carry her out of the indoor play space, she didn't scream or wiggle; she just wanted to be forcefully removed. I put her in the car without coat or shoes for the brief ride home, but she generates more body heat than the car's heater. The phrase that hit me was, "I talked about that book yesterday." Did she really remember talking about the book that DW was about to read her? Where did she get the notion to announce that she'd talked about something in the past? It was demanded that I read about six books to her in our comfortable big chair - the very chair that was purchased for DW to breastfeed this little tyke’s mother. Reading that much in one sitting was new; making me read instead of Grandma was new. She changes each week.

Eating was good enough, CREDIT moi. There's not much snacking time when chasing a 28-month-old cyclone. I ate the leftover Mexican restaurant food from nearly a week ago. DW sniffed, waiting for me to fall over dead from food poisoning. Mexican food reheats well. The taco saved with the food was rock solid hard dead, although cold from its life in the fridge. Dinner was a rotisserie chicken; nothing gets cooked in this kitchen after a day with the DGD.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Yay for completing your high pressure meetings. Hope that it pans out: "Next week will be easier."

maryann - Yep, Kudos, indeed, for not eating during dinner clean up.

nationalparker – Good Grief! I'd forgotten that the Bush twins existed. Neat to discover e-magazines. [Whatever's coming our way is predicted to be here on Friday. Not looking forward to this.]

Beth (bethturnaround) – Really like, "H2o is my friend."

Readers -

day 5 Eat Slowly and Mindfully

eat slowly
Studies show that people do indeed eat less when they eat slowly. In one study conducted at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, researchers gave a group of overweight individuals a lunch of chicken nuggets and timed their eating pace. Then the researchers fed the same volunteers a series of lunches over a period of days, instructing them to take bites only when they heard a computer beep. Participants were allowed to stop eating whenever they felt full.

The researchers varied the pace of eating during each meal. For one meal, the computer beeped about twice as slowly as the participants' normal eating pace. For another, the computer beeped at the participants' usual faster eating pace. For a third lunch, the computer beeped faster for part of the meal and more slowly at the end of the meal.

The results? All of the participants ended up eating less whenever the computer beeped more slowly.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), Pg 79.

[curlyjax]

Quick wave to all. I now have my husband’s ashes which is wierd. I cried a lot the night after I received them. Some nights i’m okay and some not so much. There is so much to do, not only financial details but college stuff for DD, preparing for the memorial service, finding things for an accountant to do our taxes. You realize all the things your spouse does when it all stops.
I have GOT to start exercising and stretching. And stop eating all the chocolate people have sent us- really good quality too
Nationalparker- thanks for mentioning Cranford, that is a great series I saw awhile ago and would enjoy re-watching. I need to watch shows like that these days.
Bill- we ended up with about 4-5 inches, more than they said, but reasonable.

[maryann]

Good Morning, Coaches.

Welcome February 1st and a new start.

Yesterday was filled with "Oh wells." Confronted by a parent who is harassing me to give her daughter an A instead of a B. The parent is now using character assassination to my principal ("I know students who say she spoke sharply and was unhelpful) to achieve her purpose. I drove straight to the store where my planned snack was , bought two, and ate them both in the car. I NEVER DO THIS. It was autopilot. I know Beck says that if I analyze the situation, there was a moment I made a decision. So I will focus on breathing enough to find that moment. Back to School night (my least favorite day of the school semester) was last night. The shrink and I had a plan for the stress. But after the double snack, I felt I would punish myself a little more with some treats from the prize box which I have successfully avoided since January 16.

Emotionally down this morning, with a lost belt meaning I have very few pairs of pants to wear and everything feels tight. This is my boundary. No more. there is nothing more important than supporting myself with healthy food habits to get through today. " I can do things for one day that would appall me if I had to keep it up for a lifetime." (Paraphrase big book.) Also, there was a lot of credits during yesterday for which I need to give equal.

Set my ticker to reflect current weight. I will do this once a month. A return to a successful practice.

[silverbirch]

Quick mid-afternoon post. Lunch was OK. I ate slowly and, just like yesterday, felt I needed more food an hour later. It's not meant to be like that, is it? But I am still a learner, and I have to practise. Thanks for the readings on this subject, Bill.

Bill, oh those hours of breastfeeding the baby in a comfortable place. Such an oasis of peace and calm. Thanks for making me think about that again.

curlyjax, even a couple of minutes of stretching would be good (and might lead on to more ...)

maryann, could you use a scarf as a belt? I always think it's a confidently smart look when I see people doing it.

Till tomorrow.

[nationalparker]

Plans are for dinner at Panera and movie (Phantom Thread) with a friend tonight. I can order wisely and nearly always do at Panera, so that's a bonus. Happy Weekend Eve and Happy February! I'm ready - oh, so ready. (for the weekend...)

Credits for eating on plan today so far, even to the point of heating up green beans and eating those as my snack this afternoon. With dinner right before the movie, no temptation for popcorn for me. I say that NOW to avoid it! Got in a lot of water; good on that front as well. Will not be getting home until close to 10, so figured an early check in would work. Will be a cold drive home as temps are dropping to single digits this evening. I've started an audiobook that I'm enjoying "While We Were Watching Downton Abbey" (I'd like a dollar for every time through the past years that I've spelled it as Downtown instead of Downton on first version. )

[bethturnaround]

Hi everyone!

Things were on plan today, including changing the timing of what product I had when since I knew I'd be away from home when I normally made soup.

Credits--weighted today (no change), checked sugar (no change). drank lots of water.

silverbirch: Have you tried tracking whether being hungry later changes based on what you eat?

So glad tomorrow is Friday!

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Walk, CREDIT moi, included the library where I picked up The Day the Babies Crawled Away (thanks maryann). The weather predicted for today is so dire I'm afraid I might not get outside, although there's only a dusting of snow so far this morning. The big achievement of the day was to clean out a corner of my office that had slowly accumulated into a pile. Two boxes of books are now at the front door to go somewhere: maybe by the handful to the nearby micro-library; maybe to Goodwill. It was difficult because it includes a dozen new, hardcover fiction by Baldacci that were given to me by a relative. I'd read one and fell for it. Unfortunately, the second seemed just like the first with a change of names and scenes; I didn't want to read any more. It's nice to see free space.

Eating was OKish, CREDIT moi. The evening event was a lecture about evolution in birds driven by beauty by Richard Prum based on his book, The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World - and Us. In his view, the females drive evolution by their choices. And those choices aren't just for robustness, they're also for beauty. So, thanks to all you of the female persuasion for getting us where we are.


silverbirch – Yep, sloooooooooooly, sloooooooooooly, sloooooooooooly! It's a challenge.

maryann - Ouch for helicopter parents lobbying you for their kid's grade instead of lobbying their kid to work harder. I'm so old that when I was a kid I got blamed for unpleasant grades - not the teacher.

nationalparker – Neat that you always order wisely at Panera - I sometimes have a problem with their FREE item.

curlyjax - Those are seriously emotional tasks to face; beaming my best supportive thoughts as you slog through them. Chocolate sent by loving folks to help with grief is a super challenge.

Beth (bethturnaround) – Welcome to Friday! Kudos for planning to change your timing to fit the day's schedule.

Readers -

day 5 Eat Slowly and Mindfully

How to Slow Down

If you habitually eat quickly, switching to a slower eating pace might feel unnatural at first. You might need to remind yourself to put down your utensils several times during the meal and to wait 10 to 30 seconds before picking them up again.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), Pg 80.

[onebyone]

Coaches

What a rough ride. Finally I feel gathered enough to come back to the fold.
After disappearing from here to focus day and night on getting work ready for the wholesale trade show, and giving myself the green light to spend the money/buy the supplies/make the work/order the support materials for the trade show/start the promoting/mess up the house/work at home cause studio is too cold in January. After missing my best friend's father's funeral in Ottawa due to that long list I mentioned a moment ago. After failing to dissuade DH from going out with the boys to see an MMA fight on a big screen two Satruday nights ago in a lousy sportsbar with a giant group of people in an enclosed space in winter (=recipe for infections/colds/flus etc) DH came home from that evening saying "I thought the bartender looked really tired but I think she was sick." I said to msyelf "Oh f**k. Great. I have three days before I get "it" (unknown thing)". I was correct. Three days later DH is "not feeling good". He caught Flu B, The Flu of the year with a bonus side order of a "small pneumonia" in the bottom of his left lung, diagnosed at the hospital, at 6am after arriving at 3am early last Saturday morning cause he could not stop coughing every 5 minutes. Treatment began in hospital at about 9am and by 3pm we got word he was being admitted due to low oxygen levels. Never ever has he been so sick. Never. I had by then fought off the virus, morphing it to a cold level of nuisance with a lot of exhaustion plus worry plus plus plus. I was unable to do my show. I lost all the money spent on it. No refund for a cancellation the day before. There was no choice. DH was released from hospital on the 31st. He has a squirrel mind: relentless. Thinking thinking overthinking. STOP THAT I had to say to him CALM DOWN. He worked himself up into panic attack range several times. His humour seems to be completely gone. Understandable but so unlike him. A measure of how ill he was and still is. Lists and lists of demands. All of a sudden I saw us as an old couple. Way too early for that. This sure sounds like a woe is me passage and at the risk of sounding like that I will continue to write and post this anyway. OMG. Anyway he is on the mend. He is breathing unassisted which is why he was released. He has slept. Oh blissful sleep. He couldn't sleep in the hospital at all. I am still dealing with the cold. Oh yeah, after his second day at the hospital, I stayed until 9pm and then went to the grocery store and grabbed the last rotisserie chicken. I got food poisoning. Leveled me out the next morning like I was a Mexican traveler who drank the water. wow. I could not visit him the next day. And the day after was iffy. Guild members brought me a care package. All were concerned. It took three days to get over the poisoning. Oh and when I went to go visit the day after the poisoning, the car wouldn't start. So, I used The Eliminator from Canadian Tire, which we bought a month ago cause the car was dead. Thing worked like a charm. Love it.

So now I'm in the aftermath. My apartment is chaos on wheels. My finances are a complete ruin. My plans for the year need re-jigging. I will no longer do a big show. Not ever again. There must be some other way and I think I know what it is. DH is determined to get full lung functioning back and to improve his general state of health. He mentioned swimming and that suits me fine. I would love that and we'd go together. He is off until next Wednesday. His Tamiflu is done and antibiotics continue into next week.

Foodwise I did very very well, not once turning to food for comfort or solace. But, as is the case with me, after the immediate crisis has been lifted, and I see things settling down, I ate bigtime last night. I brought home a large pizza and ate all but 3 slices. I felt and feel so sick from that. My weight reached an all-time recent low of 252.3. I am close to leaving the 250's behind. Yesterday I made a quick pit stop to buy new pants to wear teaching and I am down one size to a 16. Same brand which were 18's for a long time. 20's before then. So I am getting smaller. The 16's will quickly get too small if I don't curb the food back. Everything about the pizza was off-plan.

So that's my update. January super blue blood moon. Once in 150 years. Let's hope so. Do not want to re-visit this particular set of events ever again.

Thanks for reading.

[onebyone]

Curlyjax I am so sorry to read about the loss of your husband. I remember what it was like to lose my mother last summer also after a long illness where I was preparing for her death for some time as she passed through the stages of her disease. Compared to the sudden heart attack my brother had in 2013 it felt like the grieving was very much done all along the way. It's truly not what others think and that's neither here not there. There is no choice but to move forward and to live as we are alive for ourselves and our families who need us as we need them. I am thinking of you as you move forward at whatever pace is required. May you be able to set that for yourself.

[maryann]

Good Morning, Coaches.

onebyone: I agree with your new avatar. We are on the road to success.
Beth: It has helped me to think of you following your more stringent plan. Today I am going to be much more stringent since I am at the weight where I say, "Here and no farther." If Beth can do it so can I.
BBE: Yeah for early spring cleaning of books. Space is filled with light which is a good thing in winter.


I remained emotionally down all day but continued to act as if I wasn't. I attempted a new tech project with my creative writing class. I created a google slide show and made a share link so that everyone worked on it together adding their pictures and descriptions that they had found on a tactile scavenger hunt. We then set it to music and had a little performance with everybody reading their own work. It is one of my goals to teach for the 21st century. So credit. Also, credit for going to the gym last night when I didn't want to go to the gym. Finally credit for believing "Martha" will take a holiday and I will feel like Mary again.

Today, the seniors have earned Friday Fun Day. They have voted to play Capture the Flag outside. They are large kindergarteners.

[nationalparker]

A brief check-in. Two meals at restaurants. One on plan and one not on plan, but not too far off. I'll take credit. The not on plan part was a bit of white rice instead of brown, and about a tbsp of queso on the chicken. Maybe more if I'm under estimating... Chose veggie chili at lunch and have to say, it was a waste of money and looked like tomato soup with a few beans. I was more focused on staying on plan, but should have ordered a large salad that would have been more filling and more nutrients, I think.

Three family members in Florida have had the flu this week - one who is going through chemo is having a really rough go. I'm worried about his recovery.

OneByOne - Good to see you back here, but sorry to hear about your month. Hope your DH continues to improve.

[bethturnaround]

Hi everyone,

Although I'm getting used to having an evening (around 9:00) snack, I don't think it's going to be a permanent habit. I eat because I'm supposed to, not because I want to. DH thinks that's funny, because he tends to overeat at night but that's not my danger zone.

Credits for today--weighed this morning (down), checked sugar (slightly up), did 10 minutes of resistance band exercises, drank lots of water.

I made two new cards for building healthy habits--that I am going to walk 20 minutes two times a week and do 10 minutes of resistance band work two times per week. I feel good about these goals--they don't feel too daunting to me and I feel confident I can make them happen. I'm going to try and manage it this week (only two days left) and next week my commitment begins (I treat Monday as the beginning of my week)

[silverbirch]

I am in bed with a hot water bottle because I caught a cold at the doctor's on Wednesday. The waiting room was full of ill people, coughing and sneezing and wailing (that was the babies).

Beth, tracking what I eat and whether I feel hungry later is a very good idea. I've also realised that I've changed my exercise routine which traditionally makes me ravenous.

I think I should ask myself:

• snack after exercise? If so, what?
• what was lunch?
• mid-afternoon snack? If so, what?

I'm going to have a little sleep now. It can't do any harm and I just don't have time for a fully fledged cold.

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Did the trip to the supermarket; CREDIT moi for normal chores. Picking up a fresh bunch of bananas feels like a new start. Can't imagine using one of those shopping services for fruits and vegetables. It was cold and windy, as predicted, but only hit with a dusting of snow. Sure is neat when the weather predictions are off in our favor.

Eating was OK, CREDIT moi. DW served me a larger piece of chicken than I needed; I ate it anyway just to avoid doing something about it. That was lazy. It wasn't very good chicken. Sometimes leftover rotisserie chicken is dry. This was one of those times. There's more to go. It was a big chicken.


onebyone – What a journey with your DH's flu. Kudos to you both for surviving that. Congrats for the body letting you know that you needed a smaller pair of pants. Oh, and Super Congrats for having that Eliminator from Canadian Tire ready to bail you out from a dead car battery.

silverbirch – Hope that remains a cold and doesn't develop into the flu.

maryann - Yay for teaching in the 21st century. Happy holiday to 'Martha.'

nationalparker – Two restaurant meals in one day is a challenge. Hope your DB and family get through this flu thing.

Beth (bethturnaround) – Lucky you for not having the evening snack cravings.

Readers -

day 5 Eat Slowly and Mindfully

How to Slow Down
Practice the following strategies until you naturally eat more slowly.

Change something in your eating environment. For example, use a cloth napkin instead of a paper one. Use different dishes (or paper plates) or a new place mat. Change the flatware you usually use. Put a vase or another object directly in front of your plate. Every time you notice something different on the table, remind yourself, Oh, yes, this means I'm supposed to eat slowly.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Beck Diet Solution (Pink book), Pg 80.