Beck Diet For Life/Solution – October 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 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

Friday - Karl Marx "Das Kapital": capitalism tends to self-destruction (1867, Berlin)
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies - DW prepared the pot roast that I'd bought at Costco. Its draw was being 2.5 pounds of meat that only needed to be placed in hot water in its plastic bag for forty minutes. What could be easier? Reality: that 2.5 pounds included the gravy and a great deal of fatty tissue leaving about 1.75 pounds of meat. And the picture of a platter with potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts, and rutabaga required you to prepare all the veggies separately. Because the stated weight was so large, we'd offered to bring half the meal to our DS and DIL. The good news is that DW didn't mind the work - she's facile in the kitchen. The results were superb. However, the amount of work required was about the same as starting with a pot roast from the butcher. The only advantage was the extraordinary shelf life of the refrigerated pot roast - about a month. Good experiment.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. My class on neuroplasticity covered vision again. So fascinating. If one doesn't learn depth perception as a toddler, a person standing far away is assumed to be smaller. And being able to tell that a line drawing of a square overlapping another square is just two figures isn't easy - a newly sited person sees the overlap as a third figure. Turns out that all those years of changing diapers our kids' brains were wiring themselves to understand the world. Makes me want to cheer for the cleverness of neurons.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Sending supportive thoughts for you and your DH "having to make final decisions with too little information." It's so hard to do for ourselves; painful to do for others.

maryann - So neat for the scale to be moving "like it used to in my twenties." Hope that you catch up on your sleep.

Karen (karenrn) - Gotta love the thought of fueling for the Grand Canyon trip. I drool each year before the Boston Marathon when they show the runners stuffing pasta the night before. I drool for the heaping plates of pasta, but have little desire to run 26.2 miles to work it off, LOL.

Penny. - So neat that you'll get back to the Alchemist - I loved that book. I'm not usually into allegorical fiction, but that one grabbed me. Kudos for continuing to walk with your DD on her journey.

Readers -

Good Morning, Coaches.

Final day of Prolon. Tomorrow will be a transition day. Lots of Veggies and healthy fats. Keep to 10 mg of sugar. I plan to go to the health food store and pick up some premade salad bar salads to keep things easy. The scale read 7.4 pounds down. My goal is to keep off half which makes me comfortably under the 170 mark. I slept well last night which was terrific.

BBE: Some of those prepackaged foods at box stores are amazing. I bought pre grilled hamburgers you microwave for 3 mins and the boys love them.
Joy: It sounds like very careful trudging. Family often feels like walking in a mined field.
Penny: I am glad you had a good experience with stitch fix. I really like shopping so although I would like a stylist's opinion, I would rather hunt for my own treasures.
Karen: Credit for listening to the Nutritionist. I'd love to get an idea of the food plan for the Grand Canyon since I am headed there in the spring.

Quick note today. I had planned to go visit my dad and aunt today anyhow and am running late. My aunt ended up in the ER yesterday because she was having visual problems and increased confusion which is a sign of a possible stoke. I think the symptoms are resolving, more info today. So that changes the shape of my visit. Probably won't be posting for a few days. I think things will be okay but its all a bit scary. Wave to all!

Good morning!

Yesterday was on plan and weight is holding.

My restaurant lunch is today at a Mexican restaurant. The veg options look bad so I'm going for the fish tacos. This is the second Mexican restaurant I've seen replace the meat with frozen mixed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots for the vegan options. Who wants carrots in a burrito? Not me. A fajita with beans would be good, but I do like to splurge on fish once in a while.

Have a great day, everyone!

Good morning coaches,

Food was on plan yesterday, weight is holding. I think I'm in the middle of one of those weight would be increasing due to more hiking, but actual fat loss is happening cause I'm really following my plan. If I weren't on a plan I would be gaining. I know this water retention or whatever it is when I up the exercise isn't really fat weight, so I just need to trust the plan knowing I'm doing what I'm supposed to. The dietician doesn't really recommend getting on the scale each day, but I'm so used to doing it and I like to put the weight in to my Happy Scale Ap. I really find it interesting when I see a photo of myself where I think I look good and know the date of the photo, then I go back to Happy Scale and see what I weighed.

This morning my friend and I hiked Pinnacle Peak which is a shorter moderate hike, but with some good climbs. It is in a beautiful area of north Scottsdale with huge gorgeous homes and a golf course at the base. It's a daily hike for lots of people in the area so it can get a bit crowded, but not bad today. I'm meeting my old co-workers for a very late lunch today. There really is nothing I can eat there (it's a pizza parlor) so I'll probably eat at home and have a few bites of salad. It's really just about the visit and they have an outdoor dining area.

Curlyjax So sorry about your aunt. Things can get very confusing with our elders. Have a safe trip.

Maryann Holy moly that is a huge weight loss. Yes keeping half of it off would still be a bonus. I'll let you know what the dietician says about fueling for the Grand Canyon. We plan to have a 17 mile day and I think her plan is for me to eat a bit every couple of hours. I'll let you know the plan and then how well it worked.

Bill Interesting about depth perception. I had no idea. Well then there are so many things I have no idea about.

Penny Have fun at your lunch. I can't imagine frozen vegetables to replace the meat. Glad you can find something that sounds good.

GardenerJoy I appreciate my parents more than ever after reading your post regarding final decisions for your mil's estate. The real estate had been sold before they died and I just transferred their brokerage account assets that were in two trusts in thirds to me and my two brothers. I had better also think about this for us. I guess the tricky part is knowing when to move out of the house and sell it. Where is that crystal ball?

Well time to hop in the shower and see if I can get motivated to do something around here for the next few hours.

The morning got away from me and I'm not sure where it went!

I'll take credit for meeting my September exercise goals. Especially since it took some extra effort yesterday with a lot of driving time and a lot of sitting around and waiting time.

Exercise +35, 11415/1400 minutes for September

curlyjax: Safe travels and I hope things go well with your aunt.

karenrn: My parents' estate was also easy. They rented their house, so we just paid the rent for three more months while we got it emptied. And the accounts stated who the beneficiaries were (me and my brother, split evenly), so the financial firm basically took care of that. The only complication was that my brother works for a different financial firm and isn't allowed to hold investments in the competitors. I think that's an SEC thing. So, his employer had to help him work out how to take possession of his share.

Saturday - "The Twilight Zone" debuts on CBS (1959)
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Excitement was cheering the carpenters working our new front steps. Moving so slowly. They're perfectionists; the details are museum quality. As the $$$$s tick away, I'm growing to long for the notion of country style simplicity despite owning a Victorian style house. Methinks it's important to him to have a stellar product as a reference for future clients. Achievement was defeating the website of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) to renew the license plates of my Nissan LEAF online. The site is designed to be "helpful" by forcing me to guess what it's thinking. All done now. They'll send me the little square sticker to affix to my current plates and I'm good for another two years. I'm so old that I can remember hauling myself downtown to their offices to wait in line to do this. A serious contribution of the Internet.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was grilled chicken - eaten inside without debate. DW remembered that she'd bought a mango some days ago; almost forgot until it got overripe. Just got it in time. A fresh mango for evening snack is just the best. I wasted the first decades of my life believing that I didn't like mango. Wish I could go back and eat them all.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Yep, Kudos indeed for meeting your September exercise goal. I do suspect a tiny typo, though, in "Exercise +35, 11415/1400 minutes for September." Unless you really exercised six hours a day, LOL.

maryann - Congrats on a good night's sleep and for that whopping loss. You're on a roll.

Karen (karenrn) - Fun to be reminded that there are those who absolutely believe in weighing every day and those who absolutely believe in not. Kudos for planning to skip pizza yet still have lunch with your friends.

curlyjax - Waving back toward wherever you're visiting your dad and aunt. Ouch for your aunt's ER visit; hope she's doing OK.

Penny. - I agree; carrots have no place in a burrito. Yay for being willing to expand to pescatarian for the day so you won't starve at the Mexican restaurant.

Readers -

Good morning coaches,

Yesterdays luncheon gathering was good. I had my afternoon snack at lunch time at home and then had a little salad with some chicken on top at the restaurant. We always order the same thing and share it, bruschetta, a large thin crust pizza and a salad that has lettuce but also some beans, pasta and chicken in it. One gal is vegetarian so the pizza is veggies and we have the chicken come to the side of the salad. Dh was very happy because I brought the leftovers home for him. Two of my former coworkers are about ten years older then I am, one is same age as me, and two are about ten years younger. The age differences are a bit startling as far as mobility goes. It is a good reminder to me to keep moving and ensuring I am flexible and strong.

I had a good nights sleep but woke up early. Today's exercise will be housework. The trails are always busier on the weekend, so it's a good stay to stay home and do this. Besides our niece arrives Thursday morning and I want everything done before then. We are still enjoying Ted Lasso and last night Otis wasn't squeaking his duck all through the program, so it was easier to understand them. Their British accents (except the lead who is from the south) are sometimes tough to understand.

Bill How well I remember standing in line for the license tabs. Our online service is just great. We do have to have an emissions inspection every other year, but even that isn't bad. I love mangos too. I used to eat so many of them, and dh doesn't like them so I was eating the whole thing.

GardenerJoy You do so well with your exercise goals. Congrats!

Waving to everyone else and hoping you all have a great weekend.

I finished my month-long exploration of dolphin pose by repeating the routine that got me started on it. The exploration didn't lead to vast improvement. It did lead to acceptance that my expression of dolphin pose doesn't need to be as exaggerated as this one teacher's is -- where she moves her feet close to her head. I get plenty of benefit with a dolphin pose that is more the shape of downward facing dog, but on my forearms.

I'm really pleased with how strong my shoulders feel. I never expected that in my life.

Here's a biography of my shoulders.

During my senior year in high school, I sustained a soft tissue injury in my neck and shoulder muscles trying to learn an overhand serve in volleyball.

In the fall after I graduated from college, I broke my left collar bone in a bike accident. My arm was in a sling so long that my muscles atrophied and I ended up with identical pains in my neck and shoulders on the left side that I had on the right side from the old volleyball injury.

The pain flared up periodically, occasionally from doing too much and (just as often) from doing too little. Eventually, I figured out that if I stretched my neck and shoulders, often, that I could prevent the flare-ups.

Years later, I encountered yoga. I was able to do all the twisty arm poses quite quickly after years of stretches.

It never occurred to me until the last few weeks that I could actually strengthen those same muscles. But, here we are. I feel strong in exactly the places that used to feel like the most vulnerable parts of my body.

Exercise +60, 60/1500 minutes for October

BillBlueEyes: Yep. That was meant to be 1415. After several months in a row of beating my 1400 minute goal, I'm aiming for 1500 in October.

Happy Saturday!

Ta Da!!! I completed the five day fast. I lost 8.4 pounds which is incredible for me. I was well hydrated for the most part and slept very well. I functioned at school well. I did not have constipation which has happened before on package food programs. The hardest day was yesterday afternoon. I had to cook DH's dinner. I was never really hungry in my stomach but the "mouth hunger" that Beck talks about was very apparent. I will use that new attentiveness to the difference going forward into this week's food. Day six we are to introduce lots of veggies and some plant based protein. I am going to celebrate yesterday's 34 sober anniversary with sashimi and seaweed salad. The next Prolon round will start in 25 days. Until then I plan to use Greger's tweaks and try to stay away from wheat. We are heading up to Tahoe so I am going to the health food store to pack up some salads so I don't have to bring groceries.

Joy: It is so great to challenge the limits of our bodies in a systematic and smart way. It seems the aging process is constantly trying to limit us.
Curleyjax: Thinking of your aunt.
BBE: Three cheers for you finding an actual craftsman. Many jobs are slip shod these days.
Penny: Good Luck with the Mexican restaurant.
Karen: It is sooooo frustrating when you start to work out and the scale goes up. That will happen to me today when I do a few hikes this weekend. Oh Well. We know what is important to us.

I am going to mow the backyard and rake some leaves. But first I am going to spend the 25 dollar gift certificate my friend sent me for the ETSY shop. I love Saturdays.

Good morning!

Yesterday included a restaurant meal of fish tacos, rice, and beans. I did not feel the need to stress eat when I got home and weight is up .8 pound. Not too bad!

Back on plan and carrying forth toward my goal.

Speaking of renewals at the department of motor vehicles, my driver's license is expiring. I can renew it easily online but I am quite fat in the photo and would have liked to take a new photo. I'm trying to decide if it's worth the effort. :lol:

Joy, that's great you have been able to strengthen your weakened shoulder muscles.

Karen, good job getting through a pizza lunch successfully.

Bill, a perfectly ripe mango is the best! Hopefully you can have your porch back in use soon without too much more work.

Sunday - "The Maltese Falcon" with Humphrey Bogart & Mary Astor premieres (1941, NYC)
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Exercise was hauling suitcase, pillows, backpack, and whatever out to the car for DW to take off for a long weekend with a friend out to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. She doesn't pack lightly even though staying at an Inn. She and her friend are both gardeners and speak only Latin names for three days; if I were there, I'd understand nothing.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Lunch was a kale salad served to DW's friend before they left. A fine ladies' lunch it was; I supplemented with a few slices of cheese on my baguette coins to constitute enough protein to survive. Dinner was the leftover pot roast with winter vegetables - still good reheated. And there's one more serving I can have tonight. My brain appetite drools for huge servings of pot roast. In reality, I'm pleased with a modest amount. I get the taste that I crave in a few ounces that's a reasonable serving.

Today I uptick my counter of years on my new journey that I show in my signature. Long ago I decided that I'd track the metric of being on the journey; my weight has gone up and down and my exercise more and less. But here I am. CREDIT moi for showing up.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Kudos for the strength in your shoulders; great to know that it's possible.

maryann - Congrats for completing the five day fast of your new program. I do know about that "mouth hunger".

Karen (karenrn) - Thanks for, "It is a good reminder to me to keep moving and ensuring I am flexible and strong." I so admire my friends who are active in their 90's.

Penny. - Interesting to want a new photo on your driver's license. Maybe you can combine it with a trip with your DD who must also want a new picture. Someone to chat with during a long wait.

Readers -

Good morning coaches,

Food on plan yesterday and housework was my exercise. I got even more done than I had on my list, so I added those things to my list so I could check them off. I even went through some books and kitchen utensils and took them to the library and the Goodwill. Today I'll finish more housework, some of it kind of spring cleaning things, so I don't have to do any until after my niece leaves, except the usual kitchen and laundry which I don't mind.

Today is Otis's 5th birthday. The time is flying by and I just hate that because dogs just don't live so long. Hopefully we'll have him for ten more years. I remember so well the day we learned he was born. I was in Spain walking the Camino and then could look forward to picking him up in Denver in December.

Bill I guess I'm kind of like your wife. If I'm going in the car I figure I can take as much as I want even though I already know I won't use half of it. Yes credit for showing up and doing all you do to keep the thread going. I think showing up and never quitting is the key.

Penny Good job on not stress eating when you got home. I vote that you get a new photo. I know I need one when my license expires due to the change of my hair color.

Maryann That is an incredible weight loss. I have to say I don't think I've ever lost that much in that short of time, even as a 20 year old. The best part is that you felt good while you were doing it. Have a good weekend in Tahoe.

GardenerJoy It's wonderful that you have rehabbed and strengthened your shoulders the way you have. I broke my shoulder or way upper arm in 4 places about six years ago and with lots of physical therapy my ranch of motion is as good as ever. I always need to work on strengthening though, which is my least favorite exercise.

Curlyjax I hope your visit is going well and have a safe drive home.

I've logged off Facebook and email for the week. So, y'all are my social media for the next little bit. I didn't even really tell anyone, except the person that I usually check-in with on weekdays to keep each other on track. People who really need to get hold of me usually text or call -- or they will, eventually, if other methods aren't working.

My goal for the week is to come up with an outline for my NaNoWriMo project. A couple of times, I've gone away for a few days in October to do that. For a variety of reasons, that's not an option this year. My theory is that it's not so much the going away that works, it's the lack of social media. So, we'll see.

It will take a little more structure than just staying off social media to meet my goal, so I'm working on designing the structure today.

Exercise +40, 100/1500 minutes for October

BillBlueEyes: Congrats on your anniversary. A 16-year journey, complete with ups and downs, is worthy of celebration. I really appreciate your dedication to this thread.