Beck Diet For Life/Solution – September 2021 – Support, Discussion, Buddy/Coach
 

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 our 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

Wednesday - Alberta and Saskatchewan become 8th and 9th provinces of Canada (1905)
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Our garden yield is 90+ cukes and 80+ large tomatoes plus uncounted cherry tomatoes. It's been a good year. Just saw a map of the US showing that half is in drought and half is suffering from too much rain. We have relatives in southern Louisiana who are without power and trying to clean up tree branches. They're among the lucky ones with little damage even with major inconvenience.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner on the patio was grilled salmon, corn-on-the-cob, red and yellow tomato salad, broccoli salad with sesame seeds currents and raisins, followed by grape-sized blue berries. Was one colorful meal. The blue berries were from Seattle; were the biggest I've ever seen. To our surprise, they were tasty. We were expecting compromised taste to grow that large.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Smart to set yourself up with low-key tasks during a stressful time.

maryann - Waving. Hoping the situation at Lake Tahoe is under control.

curlyjax - Yes, overcooked green beans have just got to be the worst - especially since it starts with such a terrific food. LOL at your DD taking off with your Swiffer.

Penny. - The 'ol Lizard brain should stick to controlling heart beats where it belongs, LOL.

Readers -

Credit for eating my lunch and not eating any candy at work. I think some nights like last night, I’m getting into a bad routine where I take a nap after work and then I can’t get to sleep until later. And then i don’t exercise. But I got myself up and going after the nap by listening to music instead of eating, so that was good.
DD texted me last night “don’t be mad but i got into an accident. Everyone one is fine. The car is at the mechanic” That of course had my heart racing until i discovered she had backed into a big rock and no one else was involved. My deductible is 1000 so we’ll see what the damage is. I’m grateful everyone is fine and I have money to cover this if needed, but ugh.
Gardenerjoy- yay for continuing the exercise streak. Hope the visitation was okay.
Penny- I hear you on the lizard brain.
Bill-hope your relatives get power soon; they’re saying it could be awhile. What a fabulous garden output.

Today's the funeral. We're skipping the procession from the funeral home in order to get DH a private restroom at his mom's house just before the funeral. His continued recovery impacts what and how he's doing things. All of this is a lot of forced social interaction that he hasn't done since his surgery. And, really, since the beginning of the pandemic. He's doing remarkably well, under the circumstances.

Given the pandemic, we probably won't hang around after the funeral unless we manage to get ourselves in a bubble of the vaccinated. There's no meal planned, even though the graveside service will end right at lunch time. We couldn't figure out a way to feed people en masse that felt safe.

If we end up at home for most of the afternoon, my plan is to exercise, make art, and play my ukulele.

This week, I've been listening to the Requiems by the famous composers in chronological order. I'm up to the War Requiem by Benjamin Britten -- that's a very weighty piece. So far, my favorites are the Brahms and the Fauré -- they seemed the most comforting. The next and final one on my list is Andrew Lloyd Weber's -- I was surprised to learn that he'd written a Requiem.

Exercise +45, 1450/1400 minutes for August

Good morning!

Another off plan day and weight is up. I did not get it together after grocery shopping.

have a good day!

September 1st. Day one of no sweets at work. It definitely had to be intentional. I reminded myself several times during the day. I also brought a piece of sweet fruit and made a deal I could get sugar free frozen yogurt on the way home. I ate my groat bowl and had some vinegar. These are all steps in the right direction.

The rock man came. Yeah!!!!!!! There is only one step left in my xeriscape. We will bring the dump truck from the farm and load a pallet of broken piece of rock the ro ck yard has. There are all different shapes and colors. I am going to outline the creek with them. I really love how it has turned out. Boy, this is two years in the making from cutting down huge trees, breaking the sprinkler system, grinding the stumps and removing all the grass. Once it is finished it should be much easier to tend.

The fires are relentless. We visited South Lake Tahoe the day before it was evacuated. The area is so pretty there. I am heart broken it will be ruined.


Joy: I have sung the Brahms and the Mozart Requiem. I prefer the Mozart.
BBE: We have had wonderful blueberries from Sam's club. The peaches and the cherries are still going. Yum
Curleyjax: It is tough having those easy free meals. It would be a dilemma for me.
Penny: that lizard brain is a real deal. The brain releases specific hormones to block weight loss in multiple ways and one of them is cravings.

Thursday - Last Julian calendar day in America. Tomorrow is (Gregorian) Sep 14 (1752)
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies - The remnants of Hurricane Ida are falling outside right now. Seems less than predicted here but the news has pictures of flooding in the subway system of New York City. If there were thunderstorms last night, I slept through them. I do hope it'll turn out that easy. DD sent pictures of DGD's first day of kindergarten. Such a little kid in such a big room. They're meeting in person wearing masks. Hope it works out.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was a frozen beef lasagna from Trader Joe's. Turned out surprisingly good. We'll get four servings, two meals, out of the $5.99 package. DW did like that her contribution was to turn on the oven and timer. Had a cucumber salad with it. The bounty continues.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Congrats for figuring out a path to accommodate your DH at his mom's funeral. I didn't know that Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote a Requiem. For anyone who only wants a sample, here's its 4-minute .

maryann - Congrats for your persistence with your xeriscape. (Love that google so easily shows that many examples.) Continue to be heartbroken from here about Lake Tahoe. Hope it stops.

curlyjax - Ugh, indeed, for a car backed into a rock. Super Kudos to you for not going crazy about it.

Penny. - But grocery shopping, itself, is an accomplishment.

Readers -

I broke down and had a brownie for lunch, then I got into those puffed mints that melt in your mouth. But I did start up my weights again and scraped mopped the kitchen floor, including some heavy duty scraping on my hands and knees first, so I feel good about that. Tried to buy textbooks online which was an exercise in frustration- we'll try again today. Agreed to spend 1225 out of pocket for the car as my deductible is 1000 so there goes that.
This morning is lovely and cool after the big rainstorm; the weather is definitely turning.
Gardenerjoy- good problem solving around the funeral. Nice that everyone can come anyone, unlike last year when funerals seemed to be so restricted.
Penny- I need to get it together too.
Maryann-I hope you can show us the finished product when its done. I will have to be intentional today too.
Bill-it will be such fun to hear about DGD's school year. That's a good deal for 6.00.

Good Morning, Coaches.

I am up early to pay the rock man 450 dollars before I go to school. It is well worth it. We tried to move just one and broke some plastic off DH pick up.

So my scale is two pounds above ticker. That reflected too much grazing. So I will continue the no sweets at work, add my box checker smoothies for dinner ,and then close the kitchen. I have written in 165 lbsf or Nov. 1. That will be 3 months. Greger's tweaks show accumulated weigh loss in three months. That is where I am headed. I have met my New Years goal of above 5000 steps a day. I use my phone so that doesn't reflect all my steps teaching.

BBE: The fires are only 50% contained. Our place is safe for now. It is humbling to be powerless in the face of nature. Smoke is better today.
curleyjax: It feels so good to do a little deep cleaning. I will post the project when it is done.

Wave to all.

My favorite part of yesterday was the walk from the church to the cemetery.

MiL's house is very close to both, so this was a walk that is very familiar to the family. During family gatherings, we often take a walk. Our usual route goes past the cemetery, to the church with a loop around the parking lot, and turn around to pass the cemetery again. We often stop at the cemetery since Rick's dad is also there. Then, back to the house.

The church's tradition is to toll the bell once for each year that the person lived -- so it tolled 85 times. That took long enough for the walk and all of the brief outdoor service at the cemetery. We could hear the bell the entire time.

Between the comfortable landscape and the bell tolling, it was a really special moment.

Exercise +45, 45/1400 minutes for September

Good morning!

Weight is holding and I've got two crock pots going- one for the garbanzos (hummus) and one for some bean soup. Lots of beans in the works.

Joy, that sounds like a lovely funeral for your mil, especially the walk with family.

Bill, mmm lasagna. It is wild one side of the country is flooding and the other side is burning. :(

Maryann, the landscaping project sounds so nice! Good job for seeing it through with so much diy involved.

Curly, sorry about the surprise car repair. Ugh!

Friday - Frederick Douglass escapes slavery disguised as a sailor (1838, Baltimore)
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Out for an errand in the sunshine when I expected to be out braving the rain and wind left over from Hurricane Ida. Visited a 93-year-old friend who is recovering from a stroke. To my surprise, I was let into his house and seated in the living room. In a few minutes I heard shuffling and he appeared on his walker - the first time that I've seen him out of a wheelchair since his stroke. Was absolutely wonderful to hear his clear thinking and recognizable speech. The most noticeable remaining symptom was a delay before he spoke. Some of that is the same as all of us have as we age. Was so encouraging to see a guy recovering from what had seemed to be a stoke that was sending him on his way.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner of previously grilled salmon was eaten inside because it was unpleasantly chilly outside. A small serving of MONSTER blueberries were part of the meal. Feels so funny to eat grape-sized blueberries.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Heartwarming story of walking for 85 bell tolls through very familiar territory.

maryann - Congrats for making your New Year's goal of 5000 steps per day. So neat that a rock man exists who can do the heavy lifting for your dry landscaping.

curlyjax - Ouch for the hit for the car repair. Current auto construction seems to make any damage a large expense. Congrats for getting on your hands and knees to scrape your kitchen floor.

Penny. - Neat to be working two crock pots simultaneously. Congrats for having your kitchen wired sufficiently to do that.

Readers -

I'm kicking myself for letting my foot pain get so bad. I have new tevas which should help for support, and i'll start wearing shoes inside too (ugh). I'll treat it as plantar fascitis and see what happens. I did go for a long walk yesterday, stretched and iced it so we'll see what happens today.
I got a long email from my aunt's friend and basically I need to get going finding a geriatric care manager that can help manage things that I can't from a distance.Her friend who is helping sounds overwhelmed which I understand, I didn't realize how much she's relying on her. She's still in an assisted living but the plan is she go home maybe in October. My aunt will have to realize that she needs this and will need to pay for it as well. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. Fortunately i'm having dinner with a good friend tonight and a walk so that will be something nice to start the weekend with.
Gardenerjoy- glad the service went well, that bell sounds lovely.

It's time to regroup on everything. Especially serving sizes that are too large -- today's mantra "count and measure."

Exercise +50, 95/1400 minutes for September

Good morning coaches,

I can't say I've been as careful as I should be with my food plan. In fact there have been cookies the past couple of days. I have gotten out for walks each day and I'm loving the cool weather. Today is mil's 91st birthday. She is actually doing better than I thought. I was afraid her mobility would be worse, but it's not. She should have had knee surgery and shoulder surgery years ago, but it's too late now. She is bent over sideways and has lost a lot of height. She was only about 5'1" to begin with and now maybe 4'9". Yesterday we took her for a ride to see her house (which was sold last year) and the neighborhood. Her house looks really good and has been painted a color that is much more attractive. We were driving past one neighbors house when mil said "I don't know if she is alive anymore". Then we saw her pushing her garbage can down the sloped driveway when all of a sudden she fell. We spent the next half hour getting her up and carrying her in the house on her walker. Miracle of miracles she only cut her knuckles on the concrete. I stayed with her while dh drove to her son's house to get him since he was not answering the phone. We were surprised at the reaction of her son who barely seemed to care. Mrs. Moses is going to be 99 on November 15th. Her mind is still as sharp as a tack and I was so glad she wasn't badly hurt. Nobody wants to go to the hospital these days unless it's absolutely necessary. Anyway, the timing was incredible. If we had been a couple minutes earlier who knows how long she may have lay on the driveway. It is not a very busy neighborhood.

While we are here I've learned my niece and her husband will be flying down for 5 days in October. I think she and I may hike the rim to river to rim in the Grand Canyon. We'll see what the weather will be. My sil will watch their little boy who they won't take on an airplane of course. We did see Barrett (the premie) the other day. He is doing very well and will be 3 on December 6th.

GardenerJoy It sounds like mil's service was very nice. I hear you on the regrouping. I think most of our group is in the process of regrouping.

Curlyjax I hope you can get your foot better soon. I hope you find a geriatric manager who can take a load off your plate. No reason for you to carry the load if your aunt can afford the help. You have enough in my book.

Bill I'm so glad to hear your friend is doing well. It certainly is encouraging. I think you may be the only one of us who is not needing to regroup. Good for you.

Penny I think I can hear toots coming from your house all the way in Aberdeen. That's a lot of beans.

Maryann I'm glad the smoke is better. We are so glad it is clear here. In Chelan where we are headed next there has been a fire, but I think it is fairly well contained.

I am trying to remind myself that I do have control of what goes in my mouth. We have been at my brother's and dh's brothers and they both keep so much more food in their homes than we do and a lot more of what I consider "junk". Why do I feel the need to eat it? I think as much as anything I'm a bit bored. Today is a new day and so far I've had some Cheerios for breakfast, so I'm going to try to get back on track right now. I really don't want to get home with a weight gain.