[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 – Standard Sunday walk with DW, CREDIT moi. We also walked to an Irish Pub to meet friends and listen to their granddaughters play in a gathering of some 36ish Appalachian music jammers. Gotta admit, there was no way that I could tell which sounds came from their DGD's in such a large crowd. One cello was worn over the shoulder in a sling - no pointed tip to the floor. One fiddle was strapped to a guy's chest; some fiddles were held in the arm; others were held in classic violin style.

Dinner was Irish Pub food. We so rarely go to pubs, I jumped in to order Bangers and Mash since I'd never heard of that. Fortunately, I foisted one sausage on to DW's plate. It was a lot of food. I left behind all of the mashed potatoes; tried to focus on the scallions; overate sausages. The only redeeming note is that the table next to us had hamburgers and they looked to be about a half-pound serving. There's good reason not to order pub food.


onebyone – Your "persist in victory" always gets you back on track. [These are the King Oscar sardines that work for me. Because they're the most expensive in my store ($2.99) I experiment with others; nothing compares to my taste. I'm not into sardines mixed with anything - just sit quietly on a cracker.]

Joy (gardenerjoy) – Yep, Kudos for finishing your month's goal with "an ordinary amount of exercise." I knew that feeling last month when I went to my book club without having cram-read the end of the book that day.

Debbie (Lexxiss) – Sending supportive thoughts as you walk forward with your sister. Super Kudos for recognizing that you can't be the person to help everyone.

FutureFitChick – Yay for a 1 mile saunter. My take is that the body also likes mild exercise.

maryann - It's always encouraging to read success, "have learned to recognize hunger versus emotion" - Kudos for that.

Sandy (love2garden) - Neat that you took advantage of the sun to work outside.

Readers -

Chapter 4 Emotional Eating Traps

#2: The No Alternatives Trap

The following week, Elizabeth asked a couple of close friends and her sister what they did when they were upset. She was full of interesting information at our next session.

"It was really an eye-opener," Elizabeth said, as she pulled out her notes. "My sister said she tries to solve the problem, and if she can't, she focuses on getting things done around the house. My neighbor Isabella just tries to distract herself. My friend Tracy does deep breathing and mediation or yoga."

I asked Elizabeth to consider which of these strategies might work for her. "I guess I eat when I'm upset to distract myself from the problem, so distractions might help. I usually find it hard to focus on solving a problem when I'm upset, so I think it's better to try to calm down first."

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., Deborah Beck Busis, The Diet Trap Solution, Train Your Brain to Lose Weight and Keep It Off for Good (Blue book), pg. 70

[Lexxiss]

Hi Coaches!

Thank you for all the kind words. It means a lot! I will take the challenges one day at a time.

Lunch is packed, dinner is planned, snow is shoveled and just enough time for one more cup of coffee. I was delighted this morning when I found my quart smoothie jar fit in my lunchbox perfectly! Simple pleasures!

Loved this morning reading....working around the house has been a very rewarding distraction for me! (now Sudoku) LOL

[karenrn]

Good morning coaches,

Saturday evening I was sure I was getting a cold. Nose was dripping and I didn't feel well. I took it really easy yesterday as in I never left the house. This morning I'm okay. I don't know what the heck it was, but I am grateful. Just turned in my miles for the 2000 mile challenge and I did 175.4 intentional miles last month in spite of more than several "0" days, credit. I still need to sort out what the heck I'm going to do about weight loss though. Credit for maintaining a weight that is healthy, it just doesn't fit in my smaller clothes. Maybe I'll be inspired by tonight's Daniel Plan meeting.

Lexxis I'm thinking of you and hand it to you for sorting out what you can do and what you can't.

Bill Pub food is hard for sure. We went out with friends Friday night and dh and I find that sharing a burger is about the best we can do.

This morning I shall tackle a large basket of ironing, and complete it. After that I'm walking over to see the new home my friends purchased. On the GPS it says it is 3.5 miles one way. I like to have a destination when I'm not hiking and I'll listen to The Art of Hearing Heartbeats to make it even more enjoyable.

Don't know if I said it Saturday, but I saw the movie Brooklyn and enjoyed it. I'm just about caught up on the movies I wanted to see.

Have a good start to the week everybody!

[curlyjax]

hi coaches!
once more, sunday whizzed by with church, groceries and other errands, and kid stuff. Exercise was scrubbing the grimy kitchen cabinets with baking soda and water-wow, that stuff is powerful! It does fade the wood a little but it looks waaaaay better. I have also scrubbed walls, washed various throw rugs, and DH cleaned inside of oven so we are moving along with our "clean up before company" plan. Funny how its much more satisfying to do that stuff which will stay clean for awhile, as opposed to dishes which get dirty a few hours later!!

I went to look at drinking glasses since we don't have enough and the ones we do have are pretty cloudy from the dishwasher which is old. All the cheapie ones I saw in TJ MAxx were 16 or 17 oz. That is a lot of liquid which is fine is you're drinking water but often its filled with much more caloric stuff. Another example to me of the supersizing that is going on these days, foodwise.
Dinners this week are going to be quick and not so healthy ie grilled cheese, spaghetti, since I want to keep deep cleaning and don't have time for lots of meal prep. I have made peace with that and will continue with salads and watching portion control at any rate.
Lexiss- sorry to hear about your sister. Glad you have sewing now as a nice activity to enjoy (which I learned from the other loop!)
Maryann- I had a nice chat with someone whose life really changed because of meds (had taken some ineffective ones for years) and wow does she look happy now. I know what you mean, I don't like taking them either (and I keep debating, should I do this for my occasional depression) but good for you for trying it, they really can help.
Futurefitchick-I am trying to increase veggies too. I am pretty good about making salads a few times a week for lunch, and this am I plopped them into my eggs, so I figure that's something!

[onebyone]

Coaches:

This morning marks the beginning of my new foodplan which is written down and recorded in the Atkins Workbook. It is a daily food journal that I will use this month and is part of my new foodplan which is low carb.
In addition, to foster consistency and habit formation, I am committing to 10 min of intentional exercise every day this month.

Workwise: I have replaced the pages of my daytimer and will now begin the task of hunting down and marking down the various deadlines I want to be aware of. Deadlines for art submissions, deadlines for art shows to visit, deadlines of the Guild and the gallery space I look after.

Home: I am going to schedule basic cleaning. I've noticed it takes about 2 weeks for things to get disordered and dirty looking. I am going to try to avoid the place getting to that state this month.

Studio: I'm just going to make notes of what I may need, what needs work, what I wish. Would like to keep working on the studio space until it is to die for! Will also schedule my work/days hours in there so I know it's my job to be there and work.

OK better go!

[maryann]

Good Morning, Coaches.

Credit for another OP day despite spending most of it in the kitchen with DS who was working on his cooking badge. I taught him how to use the defrost in the microwave, tear lettuce for salad, and panfried chicken breasts with butter and olive oil. He decide dessert would be a fruit salad I make that has pumpkin spice and maple syrup. Credit for influencing his healthy menu choices.

Grateful for my little family about me. DH knows I really want to keep exercising as I adjust to everything. He agreed to take a Sunday walk with me. Then DS volunteered to come as well. It was so nice to enjoy each other's company. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by my feelings of inadequacies as a wife and mother. But I must be doing something right if we all love to be together after all these years.

FutureFitChick: I hear you about intentional addition of veggies. I have just a few meal guidelines. One of them is to count 5 fruit and veggies everyday. They are much more filling than the other stuff to which I always default.
onebyone: There is a lot of satisfaction in getting the new calendar pages ready. It is a wonderful start to your new program.
Karen: Super congrats on the miles logged. It is very inspiring. I know I have written this before but buying clothes I love in my size has been a wonderful investment even if they only served me a few month before I released them to a lower size.
curleyjax: Thanks for the vote of confidence on the meds. It is very difficult for me to accept having to take them. But so much of my journey has been characterized by a willingness to do what is suggested by people I respect. So I am willing to be uncomfortable for today.

[gardenerjoy]

A better late than never check-in.

I met my exercise goals for January yesterday: 1200/1200 minutes, 8/8 Strength Training sessions, and 23/23 days of at least 8000 steps. February is shorter, but I set the same goals anyway to make it just a little more challenging!

I continue to eat without a food plan, but eat what I would have written down. That's good enough until I get things in a bit better order for myself.

[millie56]

Hey Coaches,

I am jazzed on my program I weigh in once a month so today was the day. I weigh 157.8!!!!!!!!!! I haven't weighed in the 150s since 1989!!! I am so happy and we went to Disneyland in mid-January and I stuck with my eating plan.

[FutureFitChick]

Hi, Coaches and Buddies.

My day was "meh". It started out with a -2 pound bump down on the scale, which was unexpected. Eating was mostly on plan, except I forgot two things I intended to eat, so added an extra snack after dinner. I increased my distance for my walk this morning. It went well. Work was the meh part. I felt super low in energy and could not get myself to do what I was supposed to be doing.

I find myself being driven nuts by the habit I have created of not typing in this forum in complete sentences... That is never the case outside of this forum, so I don't know why I have taken it up here!

I am headed to bed, as I am having trouble keeping my eyes open. It is early and I hope I am not getting sick.

Bill Blue Eyes, great job getting your walk in yesterday.

Curly Jax, nice work at putting that effort in to your kitchen. You sound like you have a good plan in your portion control and salad efforts.

Debbie R. (Lexxiss), great job getting your lunch and dinner taken care up and exercise of some snow shoveling. I am sending you more supportive thoughts.

Gardener Joy, congratulations on meeting your January exercise goals!!!

Karen, RN, you did an excellent job with your hiking! I am very impressed.

Mary Ann, congratulations on "another OP day". Your fruit salad with pumpkin spice and maple syrup sounds interesting. How much spice do you add per cup of fruit? Your family is heartwarming!

Millie 56, tremendous congratulations for your weight loss and hitting the 150s! That is terrific!

One by One, how did the first day of your new food plan work out? It sounds like this month is getting off to an organized start.

[flower1]

I am new here and just bought the Judith Beck book "The Beck Diet Solution" (pink book). I see that she has two other books that are mentioned at the start of this thread. Does anyone know which of these books I should be using or does it matter? I have skimmed the book and plan on starting the program this week sometime. I bought my index cards but still need to get a notebook.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions regarding the Beck Plan, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts. Looking forward to being part of this thread.

[BillBlueEyes]

flower1

And, in case you didn't get one of these two months ago,

How did you learn about the books by Dr. Judith Beck?

And how did you find our forum here on 3 Fat Chicks?

[BillBlueEyes]

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Walk, CREDIT moi, included the library to drop off two books that hadn't been terribly satisfying. I did better than usual with both by skim reading the last part after I'd lost interest. I still suffer from a childhood feeling that I'm required to completely read any book that I start. The best part of that is that I'm now reading a book that I find compelling. I can't get to the books that are right for me unless I skip the zillion others - even if they're award winning and popular.

Dinner was lentil soup again, so I get to be vegetarian for a day again. After Sunday's Irish Pub meal I should be able to go a week without the need for meat. I'm still struggling with snacks.


onebyone – That's an impressive plan for the month. Getting a daytimer up to date is great start.

Joy (gardenerjoy) – Kudos, indeed, for meeting every one of your January exercise goals. DW is anxious to order our vegetable garden seeds, "Before they run out."

Debbie (Lexxiss) – Sudoku, coffee, and a jar that fits the lunchbox - so much joy from that which is right here, right now.

FutureFitChick – LOL at the tension about complete sentences on the Internet. I share the aversion to butchered language, yet find it easy to give myself the latitude to type what I'd have said in person. I know that language evolves bottom up but I have my own issues that we seem to dwelling at a lower bottom than I'd have chosen.

maryann - Yay for raising a DS who wants to walk with his mom and dad.

millie56 - Congrats on that scale reading. Making it through Disneyland while staying your plan is Kudos worthy.

Karen (karenrn) - Yay for a walk with a destination. I do like being freed from the nagging thought that I could quit early.

curlyjax - Super Kudos for cleaning the stuff that eats on the brain that it has to be done "some day." Baking soda is indeed vicious.

flower1 - It's a terrific start that you're carefully gathering your materials. One of the hard aspects of Beck is working the skill set before starting the diet. My take is that any of her three books make a good book to start with. I started with the Pink Book back when that was the only one. Others have started with the Green Book; the Blue Book (that's being quoted currently in each of my posts) is newer than any of the regular posters on this forum. Glad that you've joined us.

Readers -

Chapter 4 Emotional Eating Traps

#2: The No Alternatives Trap

Elizabeth and I made a list of distractions she could try the next time she was distressed. Watching television or reading a book hadn't diverted her attention enough in the past, so we left those off the list. Instead, we tried to think of activities that would be truly absorbing. After some discussion, Elizabeth made the following list:

Distracting Activities
When I'm upset, try one of these distractions. If I still feel the urge to eat, try others until the urge to eat goes away.

1. Call a friend (Alice, Robin, or Neil).
2. Write an e-mail to someone I haven't connected with in a while (Rob, Jonah).
3. Clean out a drawer in the kitchen.
4. Drink hot tea and watch the birds outside.
5. Listen to classical music.
6. Read the newspaper headlines until I find an article that interest me.
7. Pay a word game on the iPad.
8. Accept feeling upset without trying to distract myself.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., Deborah Beck Busis, The Diet Trap Solution, Train Your Brain to Lose Weight and Keep It Off for Good (Blue book), pg. 70

[curlyjax]

super quick check in coaches, I have got to get to work on time today!
Credit for more house exercise, scrubbing floor on hands and knees etc- my arms are sore today, that is the best workout ever!
credit for not snacking after all of that as a reward. actually i was a little too full, that's why i stopped probably, but hey, at least i stopped that train of thought!

nationalparker- thinking of you since the weather sounds bad out in the midwest! hope you're okay!
Flower1- Welcome! I find the pink book is the easiest to follow and lays it all out very concretely, but everyone has their own way of deciphering things. I do love a good self help book so I have all three, not that i am doing very well with it currently! Anyhow this is a great group, so glad you have found it!

[onebyone]

I faithfully followed my Atkins Workbook.I dutifully filled in all the blanks, answered all the questions and committed my food to paper. I did my 10 min of exercise and I put some chicken into the crockpot last night (a lot of chicken) so I have on plan food/ingredients when I don't get to making food on some days.

What I did wrong was during my studio visit with my friend Hendrik he passed me a Kind fruit and nut energy bar and I took it without a thought. Ate it. No thought. It wasn't until I was in the grocery store getting an on-plan salad that I remembered even eating it! Wow.

Another stumbling block: drank no water but could count coffee as water up to 2 cups so that was my water. Not great. Also book suggests drinking 2 cups broth daily during phase 1 of atkins to help mitigate the symptoms that sometimes come with drastically cutting carbs-headache, low energy etc. I thought I had broth and I did but it was open so not knowing how old it was I tossed it. I still consider Day 1 done despite the nutbar incident. On Mondays when we meet I need to make sure I have a full lunch with me otherwise that will happen again.

Loved writing in the workbook. I had great resistance about that but it is the best way for me to bookend my day. The workbook goes for 16 weeks. I even bought a tape measure for measurements (wow. that was an eye-opener.) and I had DH take an ordinary picture of me in black tshirt and pants for the place in the book with the space for the starting day photo. I am just following the rules as best I can.

I have to say I *love* having a clear program, clear guidelines and this workbook. It all feels like real life support. I also feel much peace and calm around this.

So, after unconsciously/robotically eating the nutbar via Beck I know the best thing I can do is not allow the deviations to overshadow the positive actions of the day. I need to always self-correct so I am more on plan than off, thus making being on plan my "normal" baseline. That's what I am going for, a new normal-a person who chooses what they eat and who is active daily. Only doing those things consistently, day after day will make that a reality.

Day 2 today. Better get it in gear.

flower1 My favorite Beck book is the pink workbook. But the new one Billblueyes is quoting from is really speaking to me, but I don't feel the need to buy it. This group is worth 1000 Beck books. Glad you joined us.