[gardenerjoy]

I've lost 10 pounds in the last 4 weeks. That explains some of the problems I've been having with hunger, fatigue, and general grumpiness. I don't need to be losing weight that quickly at this stage of things. I made three changes a month ago -- reduced my breakfast size, reduced my snack size, and limited myself to one snack. I think that getting my snacking behavior back under control had extra benefits -- I started being more careful all of the time since I was being so careful with snacks.

So, I want to add a little food, but not so much that I start gaining like I did in July and August. Given the problems I've been seeing in the late afternoon, I'm going to start having a second afternoon snack, but keeping both of them small.

WI: -0.4kgs, Exercise: +25 45/1000 minutes for October, Food: 100%op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

[Lexxiss]

Hello Beck friends!

Yesterday was a difficult day for me. I did make many good choices and stayed in my calorie range, even though I overate the SF cake I brought home from the church potluck. The remainder is now in the compost. *credit* I did manage to fit 10 minutes of intense pool jogging in before church. NO CHOICE, and engaged in a distraction technique by sitting in front of our church with 2000 pumpkins looking for new homes. I drank my water and resisted the candybars being passed around by the kids. I'm constantly reminding myself that I am entering a short time in my long life where emotions may be very intense as I try to assist my sibling, and am keeping MY program on the front burner.*credit*

BillBlueEyes, *credit* for not overeating sushi….I'm reminded, though, that it is possible to overeat almost anything.

Pam(atga), I'm excited about your walk outside by Thanksgiving goal and am reminded from my own experience how taking off more pounds makes those walks easier, too. *credit* for making a new WL goal, too.

maryann, belated Congrats! on your 24 yr sobriety celebration. Thanks for sharing your special moments both with your family and with your continued quest to maintain your healthy relationship with food VIA Beck.

Val(va1erie), I always love hearing the success of NOT eating something when it is just not suitable. *credit* for seriously modifying your Vietnamese noode soup. Looking forward to your post regarding the Beck workshop.

Woodland, thanks for checking in with a report about your continued Beck successes and your beautiful Colorado garden. I still have your salsa recipe...haven't made any this year, though.

Tazzy, great that you were able to get a hike in with your sister before it rained. With weather predictions, it might have been just as easy to stay home. *credit*

Robin(4EverLearning), I Bringing your cards to a Beck workshop just seemed right. *credit* for taking care of the minor details. Looking forward to your workshop report, too.

Lovely, I relate to your comment, "I feel as though when one thing is off in my world that everything gets a little shifted." Yes, and I am reminded by my yoga teacher...it's not practice makes perfect but that practice makes practice. I firmly believe we keep practicing our Beck skills and that it does get easier, as our habits are practiced day in and day out.

gardenerjoy, kudos for losing the 10# AND for recognizing the effect it had on other aspects of your life.

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - A good on-plan dinner last night, CREDIT moi, of hand-me-down leftovers, LOL. 'Hand-me-down' because a friend dropped off the contents of their fridge before leaving for the airport and they'd just been to a good restaurant - now I've gotta find out where.

Joy (gardenerjoy) – Congrats on those 10 pounds - Ouch that it's too fast for you. Hope you give yourself a reward anyway.

pamaga – Love your goal of "a long walk outdoors on Thanksgiving Day" - nothing feels better after a big meal.

maryann - Smiling at the image of your DS snuggled between the two of you (where he feels really safe) drawing imaginary friends. Neat plan for the big steakhouse.

Tazzy - Yep, Kudos for getting to that Zumba class even when you didn't feel like it. Neat idea to declare "no screen time" - kids need a little leadership from that sink hole.

Val (va1erie) – Ouch for those hotel breakfast buffets; I hate them also. They always seduce me to overeat to get my money's worth. The worst I ever did was to make one of those do-it-yourself waffles - it was just Wonder Bread and it held about a gallon of fake butter and fake maple syrup! Hope your Beck workshop is going well.

Robin (4EverLearning) - Waving toward the Beck workshop. Can't wait to hear about it.

Readers -

chapter 4
Stage 1 The Success Skills Plan

Success Skill 6 Overcome Hunger, Cravings, and Emotional Eating

experiment 1
Prove to yourself that you confuse hunger with other states.

Once you learn to differentiate between hunger and non-hunger sensations - and what to do when you notice them - you will be better able to stick to your plan. Over time, you may recognize that you tend to desire unplanned food at certain times of the month, at certain times of the day (especially when you are tired, bored, or procrastinating), at certain events, when you're feeling negative emotions, or even when you're happy. If you can figure out your triggers, you'll be better pre-pared to stand firm and stick to your predetermined plan by telling yourself, No wonder I want to eat ... I usually do at this time ... But it doesn't matter; I'm definitely not going to eat now ... It's worth it to me (and my diet) to resist.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), pgs. 73-74.

[BelovedK]

Hi Coaches

I am way behind, so I will just update on me. I have been in bed with a sprained ankle and skinned (bad) knee, foot, and a bunch of scrapes on my leg. Plus a skinned hand and it feels like I wrenched it No exercise for me

I did stick to eating well though.

[va1erie]

report: read my cards, weighed (down 1.4 to my lowest weight so far, 110.6), which puts me into the range I kept myself at from freshman year of college to my first pregnancy at 31. Definitely a fun number to see on the scale, but I'm not expecting it to stick. Ate very mindfully, though not particularly slowly, and made very good choices. I had breakfast and lunch with Robin (amazing how eating with another person watching her calories carefully will keep you on the straight and narrow!) while attending the Beck workshop. Had dinner alone here in a restaurant in Lancaster PA, had half an excellent cheeseburger, two of my onion rings (good but not good enough to overeat), one bite of cole slaw (not worth eating) and a glass of Sangria, so very reasonable dinner. Counted calories for the first time in months -- ended up with 1253, which is ~200 under my maintenance goal. Got no exercise -- we'd been planning to walk to and from the workshop, but it was cold and rainy and we were in "business casual" which for both of us meant heels, so we drove instead. Contacted my diet buddy, but I don't think we actually ever gave each other a formal report.

pamatga -- Bummer on the injury! Knee injuries are my bane. Right now one of my main goals (and anxieties) is to avoid injury. I hope your knee feels much better soon! Good for you for declaring holiday season NOT "open season." 25 pounds is a LOT in three months -- that's nearly 2 pounds per week for 13 weeks, which is a very big number for ANYONE. Since your normal pattern is to gain 10# during that time, losing 25 means that you'll be eating 35 pounds x 3500 calories = 122,500 calories LESS than you normally would during this time. That's 1361 calories PER DAY less than you "normally" would for the next 90 days. I'm just sayin'. Be gentle with yourself. Remember that it's not a race.

Tazzy -- Omron pedometers are also on Amazon -- that's where I got mine! Love it! yay, you for the long hike! What is calorie cycling? Was that discussed here and I missed it?

Woodland -- I'm so bummed that the tomatoes will be over soon! This is the only time of year I eat them. I take them off salads and burgers the rest of the year -- bad tomatoes just ruin it for me.

BBE -- I have to laugh on sushi being impossible to overeat -- I should introduce you to my 20-yo son! He has been known to order four or five sushi dishes and finish them all. I don't know where he puts it. Fortunately for his future weight issues, sushi IS the only thing he overeats! He has the healthiest eating habits of any kid his age I know.

maryann -- yay, you, for planning your steakhouse meal! You're right, I need a red coat!

gardenerjoy -- Yay, you for refining your maintenance plan so well! Yes, 10 pounds is a LOT to lose in 4 weeks, especially when you were only eleven pounds from goal!

Debbie -- Good for you for dealing with stress by reminding yourself it will pass.

BelovedK -- omigosh, did you have a fall? I hope the sprain feels better soon!

The workshop...well, it was okay. The workshop was tag-teamed by Beck and her daughter Debbie, who is an LSW and does diet counseling, and both did a good job. It was aimed at both diet counselors and dieters, so that sort of diluted the helpfulness for me. And there were numerous people there who clearly had not read either book, so it actually was pretty basic, a lot of explaining the program. I really wanted to hear what new learnings they'd had since the most recent book, etc. There was some of that -- in response to a question, Beck discussed sleep and weight control. They discussed at length the National Weightloss Registry statistics and their implications for the Beck program ideas -- for instance, people who eat consistently, eat breakfast, had a medical trigger (such as a diagnosis of diabetes), limited their food variety, watched less than 10 hrs of tv a week, limited fast food were more likely to maintain. Those who eat for emotional reasons, eat quickly, eat until full, don't get enough sleep, or eat while distracted are less likely to. Increased meal frequency does NOT promote greater weightloss. Most successful maintainers get to a low point, regain a little, don't return to the lowest point, but don't regain further.

They discussed some sabotaging thoughts that they'd come up with additional responses for. For instance, the sabotaging thought: counting calories and planning meals takes too much mental energy. Helpful response: Being overweight takes mental energy, too -- you worry about how you look, how other people perceive you, about whether you have anything to wear, about your health, etc. Which would you rather spend your mental energy on? Sabotaging thought: It's counterproductive to feel deprived, so no diet can work. Helpful response: You're going to be deprived of some food occasionally or all your ARCs all the time. Which deprivation would you choose? Sabotaging thought (or message from food pusher): I just want to be able to eat normally/When are you going to start eating normally? Helpful response: I'm eating normally for someone who has my goals.

They shared a few study results that were interesting -- the more people you eat with, the more you'll eat. You'll also reflect the eating behavior of those you eat with -- if they order dessert, you're more likely to. There's some evidence that binge eating disorders actually develop from too-low-calorie diets.

Re: giving credit: Estimate is that we make 2000 eating decisions A DAY. That's 2000 opportunities to give yourself credit.

They shared a few new ideas they're incorporating into their counseling sessions. For instance, they recommend dieters take a 5 minute "fitness walk" (not just parking five minutes from your destination -- a planned walk that is JUST for fitness) EVERY DAY no matter what other planned/spontaneous exercise you're getting or can't get for whatever reason. It helps develop the habit.

One attendee, a teacher, noted that she tells her students to read aloud to themselves when studying because it puts that content into the brain in an extra way -- she suggested reading our ARCs aloud rather than silently.

I'd have liked to see a workshop aimed at people very familiar with the program. But this one was okay.

I did ask about the 1600-calorie bottom of the range. She said that there was evidence that people simply couldn't stick to 1200 calorie diets (even small people -- it has to do with mouth feel and some minimum bulk of food, maybe? Robin?) long term, even if that was what they needed to do to maintain, oh, say MY weight. Her response to my question about the calorie needs calculation (my calculated maintenance calories is 1450) is that I should not be trying to lose weight. Which I'm not, but my maintenance calculation when I WAS trying to lose weight was only slightly higher, which meant my dieting calories calc was about 1279, and I would definitely gain on 1600 unless I burned 500 calories a day in exercise. I got the feeling she'd had the question before and found it tedious.

The thing I would have liked to ask: How many calories do you eat? Because she is tiny -- maybe 5'1" -- and 57 years old and quite slender, and she mentioned at one point that she works out twice a week and has only started doing that in the past few years. Maybe she's a runner or something, but I can't imagine she could maintain on 1600 herself unless she's exercising like CRAZY.

Edit: they just posted a video on youtube of Beck's introduction of the workshop -- I'm in the front row in the white, Robin's beside me in black with her red coat hanging on the back of her chair: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGqP6lEXHe0

[maryann]

Good Evening Becksters,

Steakhouse dinner went well. Today was a struggle. I had to convince my principal to let me do some painting with my eighth graders. His position was it was a frill we have no time for. It just hit me as so sad. I got blue and dived into a half a big cookie and a couple of small chocolates. Still low. But OP for dinner and I think I'll just go to bed after I read some. There is nothing I can eat to make me feel better long term. There is no miracle bite. There is no problem that a compulsive bite can't make worse.
Thanks, Valerie for the info. It is terrific to get the updates and I appreciate your taking the time to write them down.

[4EverLearning]

Wow, no posts since Val's this morning! Where is everyone?

My flight home last night was delayed (at one point it looked like it would be cancelled completely, which was making me very nervous, since I had to be at school at 7:45 this morning and am scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning), and I didn't get home until almost 2AM, so I am very, very tired this evening. Fortunately a long meeting I was supposed to attend this afternoon and evening was cancelled, or I would have been in sorry shape by now. The good news is that I think I am tired enough to sleep tonight and not toss and turn with anxiety.

The very best part of the weekend was finally getting to meet Val and to have all of my wonderful impressions of her from all of our online conversations confirmed. Val, I would have used virtually the same exact words to describe you as you used to describe me (slender, pretty, and fit-looking), but you beat me to it! And, no, you can not have my red coat, although it would look adorable on you!

I was a little disappointed in the workshop itself since, as Val said, it was directed primarily at therapists rather than dieters, and so much time was spent going over the basics of the book, which of course we are already more than familiar with. But it was still good to have all those lessons reinforced. I think that while I am lounging on the couch for the next few days recovering from surgery, I will reread the Beck books and take note of tasks that I still need to work on. There may even be a few I never did at all.

I did not like the way Beck responded to Val's question about the 1600 calorie minimum she recommends. I agree with you, Val; the tone of her response definitely indicated that she has been asked that question many times before and doesn't like defending her stance on that issue. She really didn't explain WHY it is so hard for people to stick with a lower calorie level long-term, so you didn't miss anything. She simply said that the empirical evidence indicates that it is nearly impossible to stay on a lower calorie diet indefinitely, and therefore she doesn't recommend doing it even temporarily, since you would then inevitably regain when you can no longer stay at that low level. (But I have been staying under 1500 calories a day, and averaging probably 1250-1300 a day, for over 2.5 years now and think I could do it forever if need be. And the benefits of being thin are legion--so much so that eating very sparely is TOTALLY worth it to me. That being said, I am still ever-so-slowly creeping down the scale and am hoping that I can level out at something like 1500 daily calories, which is a lot easier to do than 1200.)

Oh, I remember one thing from the workshop that Val did not already say--Beck said she periodically "eavesdrops" on online groups that are using her program, including this one. So everyone be on their very best behavior!!

my report: My weight was unchanged from 2 days ago--YAY!! (Didn't take my scale with me since I was flying.) Did not read my cards. Did eat slowly and mindfully. Had an awesome session with my personal trainer during my lunch hour (don't normally try to squeeze a session into the middle of a work day but did today because I won't be able to do any more exercise for the rest of this week). The session was also very amusing. Until recently, I had never tried to run, ever. I was too fat and uncoordinated to ever run or play when I was a kid, and I was excused from most gym classes. But my trainer has had me run several times, and so I thought, well, that I was running!! But today he announced that now that I am over my fear of trying to run, it is time to start working on my form. He ran alongside me and counted out his strides, telling me to listen to my own feet hit the floor in relationship to his counting. I discovered that I was taking about 4 teeny "running" steps to every one step of his. He has been trying to work on coordination with me in a variety of ways, which is always a terrible struggle for me. For instance, I am never able to move my arms in opposition to my feet when I try to run. Today he told me that that is because my feet are moving SO absurdly fast that my arms can not possibly keep up! He demonstrated for me what I look like when I run, and I practically fell over laughing. I can not believe that he has managed to keep a straight face all this time, watching me do something that is so ridiculous-looking! And now that I realize how fast my feet were moving, it is no wonder that running is so incredibly exhausting to me! But at least my way burns up a lot of calories!!

OK, I still have a lot to do tonight, so I need to sign off. Tomorrow is my 57th birthday. Having surgery is not the way I wanted to spend it. But I still feel happy and grateful for all the wonderful things my weight loss journey has brought me, and I have lots to look forward to in the coming year. Life is a gift!

Robin

[Woodland]

Thank you to the ladies who shared their Beck workshop experience. I'm heading over to watch the youtube clip.

My experience with managing food intake has taught me that it is a balance between portions (or calories in my case) and exercise frequency/intensity.

So for me the journey continues, as I figure out how to regularly fit helpful exercise into my week, which then impacts how any set calorie level will raise or lower my weight over time. I watch the trends, and adjust the plan based on results.

Tomatoes are going into my scrambled eggs lately. The last few batches will probably be frozen, as they are coming in more slowly now and don't add up to a batch of canned salsa anymore. I think I got about 30 pints of salsa made this year - it was a good garden season !

Woodland

[Tazzy]

Evening Everyone!

Quick check in tonight, still need to get lunches and such done for tomorrow. Plus dealing with a sick child who has graciously decided to share his cold with me. Think I'll head to bed early to try and ward it off.

Only got a 10 minute walk in today for exercise. Credit for that. Also stayed OP for food, it is a lower calorie day for me. va1erie the calorie cycling that pamataga sent me a link for basically takes the weekly amount of calories and divides it up differently each day so you have low days and high days and in theory it should shake things up. I try to stay with 1500 per day so it gives me a breakdown of the following: day 1 - 1546, day 2 - 1400, day 3 - 1856, day 4 - 1546, day 5 - 1400, day 6 - 1701 and day 7 - 1546. It's on the 1400 days that I really need to plan well and get good filling foods in there.

pamataga Love the new avatar!

BBE Hand me down leftovers. Nice gift to you, I always seem to get things like a half a head of lettuce or half jug of milk!

Lexxiss Credit for 10 minutes of pool jogging and passing on the candy bars. I resisted buying Halloween candy while grocery shopping yesterday, it's much too early to bring those into the house. I figure about Oct 29 or 30 will be a good day to purchase them. Then I try to get ones that I don't like so they are not so tempting.

gardenerjoy congrats on your 10 pound weight loss and recognizing that a second afternoon snack is necessary.

4Everlearning and va1erie Thanks for the feedback on the Beck session.

Hello to everyone else!

[pamatga]

I began reading the earlier posts around 2 p.m. this afternoon but my DH came home earlier than I expected and my "plans" were changed at the drop of a hat. I ate out again (we said we would only eat out once a week "moving forward") but I was very pleased with my choices. I am sorry you all don't have some of the restaurants that we routinely go to: the food is fresh, nutritious, huge endless variety and yes I can follow my food plan while dining there. I had a huge salad today: fresh spinach leaves as the base, piled with red onion, green peppers, fresh mushrooms, ripe red tomatoes, topped with some medium rare sirloin steak strips. I built the salad myself. I put the dressing off to the side so I dipped the tip of whatever was on my fork into it. Then, I had baked white fish, one small piece of corn on the cob (no butter) and 1/2 slice of No Sugar blueberry pie (which is the best!). The rest of the day was mostly fruit and about 7 raw almonds.

A small store very near us is doing a major facelift and they now carry a full line of organic foods at much more competitive prices than either Trader Joe or Whole Foods with recognizable brands like Bob's Red Mill. Finally, I am going to try steel mill oats. That was also a "big hit" over on the SBD thread here. I always used to shop at this store when I wanted to try something really unique that I couldn't find anywhere else. Now, I have another good reason to shop as well.

I stopped at our organic garden. Our "baby sprouts" are up already. I spread my banana peels in between the rows and under the tomato "tree". I have at least a dozen green tomatoes that I could count. (the banana peels are absorbed by the soil and provide lots of good nutrients--not chemicals --for the emerging plants--they also annoy a certain tomato bug from doing any damage to the tomato plant--I guess, that bug doesn't like the color yellow although these peels quickly turned black).

I had to rearrange my kitchen cupboards again since I brought home some of this new largesse. I need to expand my pantry. That is on my weekend "to-do" list.

Well, the left knee and leg is getting better slowly. I did walk on it today very slowly but I was able to put my weight on it as long as I used my cane.
Yesterday, I did a "work around": I did my lower, upper and neck strengthening exercises.

Thank you Val and Robin for sharing, in such detail, your experience at the workshop. By the sound of it, I think I would have been frustrated by the tempo of the talk. I haven't read the green book yet although I have the pink one. Is there somewhere in the green book that talks about maintaining our end weight on 1600 calories per day??

In the past, I have always heard that when you get to your end/goal weight, you continue to eat the same reducing food plan for 2 weeks, check your weight and then add 100 calories per day for one week, keep checking your weight to see if you are continuing to lose weight. If you are continuing to lose weight, then you keep adding another 100 calories per week until you see what your body will "allow" to maintain and then that is what you continue with. Of course, if you are a person whose life and schedule is erratic then you might have to be even more fastidious about doing this since you may have to see how your body responds to more "ups and downs". This is the only thing that I have ever heard about making the transition from a reducing food plan to a maintenance food plan.

In my own personal experience(as recent as 2007-2008), I have noticed that when I exercise, like walking on the treadmill for 30 minutes 5x a week, if I stop exercising (which I have done for one reason or another) I can "maintain" that weight I was at the time I quit the exercising for about two months before I begin to regain some weight. To me, this experience clearly shows me the importance of metabolism and its relationship to both losing weight and maintaining a weight lose.

Val, are you maintaining a recent weight lose or are you working towards a lower body weight? I know you mentioned awhile ago that a dr. you had seen told you that you could "never be too thin". There is a theory "out there" that believes that if we are 10% less than our lowest weight for our height, etc that we will increase our longevity. I have seen programs on tv where the scientists who believe this have given their argument to that outcome. It was interesting although I have no opinion one way or the other regarding that. I guess, I just feel like I need to be at a much lower weight before I seriously consider that "theory".

The lowest weight I have been at this current height was 119 lbs. I conceived my only child at that weight. As I gained weight, I became infertile. It wasn't intentional but it was one other unfortunate outcome of being obese. Although I have only lost around 43-45 lbs I have also noticed some interesting changes in my reproductive cycle. I have 135 lbs as my goal or end weight. The insurance charts has a normal range for me between 121-165 lbs. As I get closer to those numbers, I will see how I feel. For now, 135 lbs was the median weight I maintained during my "normal relationship" with food.

Again, thank you for sharing your in-person experience at the Beck Diet Workshop. I had read the pink book when it first hit the shelves back in 2007 but I only read the first couple of chapters and thought it all seemed so "simple". However, like many profound truths in life: easier to read about than put into practice.

Pam

P.S. I am doing a Buddy Challenge over on Biggest Loser Club(which I also belong to) and I am incorporating that 5 minute "gotta move" into that. For me, it really helped me build a work out plan that was not only doable but has lead to more strength and stamina.

[gardenerjoy]

Getting ready to go out of town on Wednesday -- today was food day, food for DH while I'm gone and food for me to take with me to minimize the restaurant meals. Credit for not eating while doing all of that thinking, planning, prepping, dishwashing, and more prepping!

WI: -0.05kgs, Exercise: +0 45/1000 minutes for October, Food: 100%op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

va1erie: love your report from the Beck workshop -- thanks! Sorry to hear that it was boring at times to people who actually read the book before they went. Some of those responses to sabotaging thoughts are really helpful. I always love seeing data from the National Weightloss Registry, too.
My response to the problem of volume of food on lower calorie dieting is more salad! It's not uncommon for me to have a 3-cup salad at lunch and another at supper.

4EverLearning: something doesn't seem quite right about wishing you happy birthday and a quick recovery from your surgery in the same sentence. I hope you plan to find a way to celebrate our birthday properly after the surgery!

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Happiness is typing on my own computer, hard wired instead of wifi'd, running at the speed of light, listening to a rain so hard that Noah would have been impressed. Eating was just OK, CREDIT moi, because I got into DW's trail mix again - but I stopped instead of eating the whole jar, the thought of which sent me a signal that this probably wasn't hunger but desire per Beck's quote today.

Our new bathroom medicine cabinet opens wide with side mirrors to give 3 views of the head - kinda freighting in the early morning, LOL. I now know that I'm well past the point of needing a haircut - closer to looking like the guys asking for spare change.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Yep, Big Kudos for "all of that thinking, planning, prepping, dishwashing, and more prepping!" It's so much more fun to celebrate it than to whine about it.

Debbie (Lexxiss) – Kudos for SF cake to the compost; may your worms thrive on it. And Kudos for maintaining your perspective per, "a short time in my long life" for the emotional stuff you're dealing with.

pamaga – Interesting data point on your experience with exercise, metabolism, and maintaining. Sigh, I'd love to have access to the fresh foods available in Atlanta.

maryann - Kudos for eating well at the steakhouse. Big Ouch for the difficulty of sneaking the arts into kid's school time. Locally, teachers are bristling from being rated on their students' scores on standardized tests.

Tazzy - Yay for making calorie cycling work for you. [LOL at your "half a head of lettuce" - I've gotten those with the statement, "Feel free to throw any of this away, just don't tell us."]

Woodland - It continues to delight me reading about how much you've canned from your garden. Tomatoes with breakfast is one of the great ideas.

BelovedK – Ouch for the injuries, with Kudos for eating well anyway. Hope you heal quickly.

Val (va1erie) – Congrats on reaching your Freshman year of college weight - may it stick. Thanks for the summary of the Beck workshop. Love the Helpful Responses to Sabotaging Thoughts, particularly, "I'm eating normally for someone who has my goals." [LOL at your son taking down 5 sushi dishes, recalling watching that kind of eating when my son was a teenager and his friends visited.]

Robin (4EverLearning) - Wishing you well with your surgery. Thanks for your observation on the Beck workshop. Love your story about discovering that you've been running with tiny steps; what a gift to learn that there's an easier way. Oh, and Happy Birthday.

Readers -

chapter 4
Stage 1 The Success Skills Plan

Success Skill 6 Overcome Hunger, Cravings, and Emotional Eating

experiment 1
Prove to yourself that you confuse hunger with other states.

What is That Sensation?
Hunger = The gnawing feeling in the pit of your empty stomach
Non-Hunger = The desire to eat when your stomach is not empty

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), pg. 74.

[va1erie]

Report: Read my cards, weighed (no change), ate slowly and mindfully – pretty easy since I ate every meal alone – and got little exercise. Contacted my diet buddy.

maryann – the slip is past; what matters is what you did after, and you stopped. Yay, you!

Robin – oh, bummer! 2am! That sucks. Yeah, I didn’t understand the part about not doing 1200 even temporarily either. I wonder if it’s because of the way her plan works – she backs you down slowly with fewer calories each time you hit a long plateau until you reach some balance of how thin you are vs. how little you have to eat and decide to stay there, rather than dropping low to start with and then building back up for maintenance like practically every other diet plan in the world. And I really do buy into that plan vs. what other diets do. It makes absolute intuitive sense to me. But, still, why can’t I drop to 1400 and just lose REALLY slowly, then stay there if that's what I need to do? I don’t really care how slowly I lose.

Maybe the ban on 1200 even temporarily is because of the evidence that a very-low-cal diet is implicated in the development of binge eating, too? Though I'd still argue that "very low calorie" for a 5'2" 52-yo woman HAS to be different than "very low calorie" for a 6' teenage boy. THAT's the part she didn't really address, and I'd really like to see the research that says one size fits all when it comes to "very low calorie."

LOL on having to work on your running form! I’ve never heard of that! ☺ Your PT sounds like a gem! You have a habit of finding gems -- your doc, I remember, is also a gem. And of course there's MOI.

Re: the eavesdropping – yep! They said they like to listen to what dieters are saying about how the program is working for them. So ALL: if you have any feedback, they might actually see it here!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! The best thing about this birthday is that when it’s over, so is your surgery! If you’re seeing this, you’re DONE!

Woodland – yum on your salsa! I made tomatillo & yellow tomato salsa a few years ago and after a year still had jars of it in my pantry. My kids didn’t want greenish-yellow salsa. They wanted RED salsa. So Iprocessed ANOTHER bushel of RED tomatoes, opened all the pints of tomatillo salsa, added them to the toms, and recanned. These, they went through in under six months.

Tazzy – oh, I do that with WW, with points plus! I do 27/33/27/46/27/33/27. It really does work.

pamatga – Beck does the opposite. You start at a high level of calories, JUST low enough to allow you to lose. She wants you to lose as slowly as you can – like a pound a week or so. Then when you plateau, you decide whether you’re willing to drop down another 100 calories or if you’re happy where you are and with what you’re eating. So when you reach a plateau and are happy with your weight, you just stay where you are and eat at the level you've been eating at while losing. You don't add calories back in to attempt maintenance. You've already figured out what level of intake you need at this weight, because that's how you got to this weight. If you still want to lose more and think you can give up another 100 or 200 calories a day (or step up your exercise a 100 calories a day, as long as it's a level you can maintain forever), you give that a try. I really love this idea of losing very slowly and making the decision each time that it’s worth it to you to give up more food and lose more rather than starting everyone at 1300 calories and adding calories back in when maintenance starts. Beck’s plan seems much more organic to me.

I’m maintaining, although I’m still very very slowly losing. I’m not AVERSE to losing more, but I’m not trying to. My weight goes up and down about two or three pounds, and it’s right now at a low point. If this means I’m still continuing to slowly lose, that’s okay. I don’t know if I would be able to maintain much lower, though, so I’m not actively trying to lose any more. But I’m not actively trying NOT to lose, either, as my orthopedic surgeon would probably say that another ten pounds off would be fine. (I need two new knees, and he says the less I weigh, the longer the knees I have will last – the “no such thing as too thin” is specific to my condition, not a generalizable pronouncement.) But I’d be really, really thin at that point, and I seriously doubt I could maintain it. WOW, 119 at 5’7” is REALLY slender! Yes, I’ve heard of those folks who restrict their calories drastically in aid of longevity – I am not sure I could follow their path long term! ☺

gardenerjoy -- I’m a big salad eater, too! And broccoli and other veggies added into things. Whatever the recipe, I’ve developed a habit of halving the meat and fat, tripling the veggies. TOTALLY works for practically everything!

BBE – Hooray for having your own computer back! And hooray for recognizing the desire to eat vs. hunger with the trail mix. Does your wife –make- this trail mix?

I’m off to the Lancaster Public Market, the oldest public market in the country! It’s the reason I stopped in Lancaster on the way home from Philly and stayed two days – it’s not open Mondays, and I really wanted to see it. Then the 8-hr drive home.

Have a great on plan day, everyone!

[Lexxiss]

Hello Beck Friends!

I'm swamped with stuff, but it's important for me to keep up with all of you as best I can. I continue to keep my own needs a top priority. We went out to dinner last night with a good friend. *credit* for making a good choice, passing pasta to DH, leaving some on my plate then passing on dessert. Travel tomorrow so lots to do and think about today.

BillBlueEyes, great that your own computer is up and running. I love that notion of changing a behavior when I remember my Beck quotes.

maryann, sorry for your struggle with an unenlightened principal. Great that you could analyze and make a plan to get back on track right away.

Pam(atga), yay for working around your left knee and getting a workout anyway.

Val(va1erie), thanks for all the great info regarding calories, and such. Have a great time in Lancaster! Thanks for the workshop review.

Robin(4EverLearning), Happy Birthday and best wishes for your surgery and recovery!
Thanks, also, for the Beck workshop info.

BelovedK, I hope your ankle is improving daily.

Woodland, I'm always working on that balance between exercise and calories. It reminds me to exercise every day . A trend I've definitely found in Colorado is adjusting for the seasons. Yay for such a great garden season!

Tazzy, I hope you are on the mend soon. Glad to hear you've implemented calorie cycling.

gardenerjoy, safe travels tomorrow. Credit for getting all your food planning accomplished without eating

[Beverlyjoy]

Hi Becksters - company left last night. I had a wonderful visit with my family - especially my GS. He brings me so much joy.

I did not stay on my plan very well at all. I have a very difficult time with my plan being 'right on plan' or 'totally off plan'. I've struggled with that my whole life. I told my SIL she didn't need to bring anything - foodwise - for her visit. However, she brought two pies and a huge peacon coffee cake. I was feeling kind of 'shaky' about food in general. But... thought at least I wouldn't have to deal with pies/pasty. I had bought some ice cream and sprinkles (for my GS!) to have for a sweet treat during their visit. My 'taste' of things really went out of control. I was mad that my SIL brought the goodies when I asked her not to - but, ultimately, it's up to me whether or not I eat something.

My SIL had lost 80 pounds and she is gaining them back (sadly - as many folks do) I don't think she would have brought all those things has she been in a 'healthy eating' mode.

I got on the scale and gained three pounds.

So today I am going to hop back on my plan:

breakfast - 2% swiss on a rice cake
snack - pumpkin with cinn., smart balance margereine, sfsyrup
lunch - egg white salad, toast, cauliflower with t parm. cheese , grapes
snack - cereal, fruit, milk
dinner - turkey burger, 1/2 cup potato, veggie
snack - pnb on rice cake, sf pudding,

I'll be back to catch up.

Ya know... we/I can never stop trying because ya just don't know when it will 'take'.