Beck Diet For Life/Solution – March 2022 – 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

Fat Tuesday - Mardi Gras - Laissez le bon temps rouler
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Afternoon tea as a diversion has become a habit. I now look forward to tea. Likely because I put sugar in it. But I'm not ready to go without that.

Unexpected excitement was a Zoom lecture on a new book about our ancient genome: Inequality: A Genetic History by Carles Lalueza-Fox. Turns out that our society didn't invent the notion that the rich prosper at the expense of the poor, as measured by success at procreation. Rapid DNA testing of ancient cadavers is yielding history of ancestry and wealth. And it turns out that no racial group or geographic group is 'pure' - our ancestors were mixing genes from everywhere. It just isn't useful to think of being, for example, of Egyptian descent. Regardless of where your ancestors lived, you descended from the genes of the family of man. 5% of males on planet earth today can trace genes to Genghis Khan. All so remarkable that it can be known.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Love that you redesigned the house as you took your tour. Getting good light is such an enjoyable feature of a house. Too bad that the Victorians, of whom my house is an example, hadn't discovered sunshine.

maryann - Yay for teaching your kids face-to-face without masks. I do hope the COVID transmission stays low.

nationalparker – Super smart to set a cut-off time for work at your MIL's. It's so wise to protect both of you from burnout.

Karen (karenrn) - Congrats for defeating the sewing machine. It amazes me that there are folks who use a sewing machine intuitively.

curlyjax - Kudos for a good workout at the Y. LOL that a gift of wine can ward off the snow for the year. I'll send out a bottle to make sure, LOL.

Ann (AnnC123) - Good idea to try to separate from the hourly pounding of news. I fondly remember that decades ago I'd read the weekly news in review to become informed. Not even daily - just weekly.

Readers -

Good morning Coaches
Happy March 1 to everyone. I am really glad it is March because I believe nicer weather is coming. (it may not be true but it is my belief). I decided that I would start a gratitude journal to remind me of all the things to be grateful for. I will continue to journal my food and exercise.
I hope everyone has a great day. I am posting here and I am off to new adventures.
In my gratitude journal - I am grateful for all of you. Thank you for being here.

I'm celebrating that I met my February exercise goal! I'm taking credit, as Beck recommends, even though it's become very rare for me to miss my monthly exercise goal.

Unfortunately, that didn't stop me from overeating yesterday. Sigh. I suppose it would have helped to fully acknowledge the anxiety that I'm feeling about meeting up with DH's Dear Niece for a hike today.

DN is the source of the family drama. I fully expect that she will pull herself together for me and we'll have a perfectly lovely time -- that's what's happened in the past. But it feels a bit like walking on eggshells on top of a land mine.

Fortunately, the family expectations of me aren't very high. Credit for doing what I could to minimize them. We agreed that if I give DN a couple of hours of calm in nature, that will be a service to her and the family. I'm not expected to do some grand intervention that I'm not qualified to do.

Exercise +60, 1400/1400 minutes for February

AnnC123: I'm also staying fairly disengaged from the news. I try to focus on things that I can change and those are much closer to home than what's showing up in the news.

nationalparker: DH and his sister had to set up an estate account for MiL and it took well over an hour. I know because it was during the Delta surge, and I waited in the car the whole time.

New month, old me. lol I think I was down three pounds the month before, now I'm up six.

Bill, your Volvo club card is probably my Volkswagen bug car keys I still have tucked in a drawer somewhere. Good memories.

Onebyone, I hope your arm feels better soon. Pottery does sound very physical, especially doing the kiln and the teaching.

Karen, I'm always wondering what time you go to bed with a 2am wake up time. I imagine it's early.

Maryann, I'll have to check the covid stats again. It's been coming down and I hope it hits similar lows it has before. With how much higher it went on the graph I thought it had come down a lot further only to realize it was still technically at the peaks of previous outbreaks. I still have coworkers getting sick so realized I can't celebrate yet. Can't wait for it!

Nationalparker, that's great you and dh are figuring out how to get through the day's work without hitting the wall of exhaustion.

Curly, your yoga class sounds great. I miss group exercise classes! Spin classes are a lot of fun after the butt soreness is over. Lol

Ann, little glimpses of the news are overwhelming. I'm still emotionally wrecked by the USAs treatment of immigrants and taking their children away. It just piles on and we learn that no matter how out in the open the corruption is, nothing is done about it. They are still separating kids from the adults they come with if not the parent btw, because grandparents might be human trafficers. Better cause real trauma just in case. Sorry, not helping here but I commiserate.

Good afternoon coaches,

Food has been on plan and we had a great hike this morning. It's only about a five mile hike and an hour drive to get there, but it is very beautiful and about 1400 feet elevation gain so what I would call moderate. I was with two friends and we all enjoyed it and tomorrow we're going to see Death on the Nile. One of the gals and I will hike a short one in town in the earlier morning. I feel like I had better hike as often as possible before it's hot this summer. It actually worked pretty well for me last summer not to worry too much about forcing myself to hike in the heat as long as I leave the area for four weeks or so and get some out of town hiking in.

Penny Yes I do go to bed early. I often head in there by 8 and am asleep by 9 or earlier. 4 a.m. is our wake up time and when we get coffee and watch CNBC (the financial news - even when it's ugly). Dh is getting ready by 5 and out the door at 6. Pretty much I keep to his schedule. I'm hoping once he retires we might adjust to a couple of hours later, but we'll see. I've always been an early morning person, but preferably not much before 4.

GardenerJoy You bet you should take credit for meeting your exercise goals. Good habits like that are more important than almost anything except maybe never quitting. I hope things go okay with your niece.

Ann Yes gratitude is so helpful and so is a sense of community. I am very grateful to have this group also.

Bill My husband was so impressed with my sewing that he gave me another project. Luckily this one only entailed seam ripping. I thing I am an expert already. After hearing about all of you and the tea I decided to have an iced coffee this afternoon. I put some almond milk in it and it was delicious.

Nationalparker It sounds like you had a very productive day yesterday. Great plan to set a departure time. As far as going on about it . . . I say if it helps to vent just vent away. Besides it is kind of motivating to be sure I don't leave for my son what your in-laws have left for you and dh.

Maryann Hopefully your meeting and grading won't make your day too long today.

Curlyjax I think Sunday afternoon is difficult time for many single people. I can see how it doesn't seem like a great time of the week to make a social plan because of needing to get ready for the week, but maybe that would help. I hope your week is off to a good start.

Onebyone How is your arm doing?

Well I think I'll go sit on the patio and watch dh throw Otis's duck for him to retrieve. It's a daily event for an hour or so and it's 80 degrees out this afternoon . . . perfect.

Good Afternoon, Coaches.

Credit yesterday for food journal and gym. I did have bouts with compulsive eating. I wonder if my subconscious is viewing the food journal as a "set up" for food restriction. It is not. I am simply gathering information. No sweets at work.

Super tired. I tried to read At the Blackbird Cafe but I am just not into anymore multiple narrators - alternating every chapter. I think it is a cop out for good writing. Ok maybe that is harsh but it does seem every book now has different names at the top of each chapter and keeping track breaks the flow for me. Enough. I am moving onto a book I have been waiting for: Katherine Center's Bodyguard,

Wave to all.

Happy March! It seemed like February just zipped by in a gray haze. A sunny day here, which is not common in the winter, and warm temps. Just beautiful. I was in a cleaning mood this morning and really tackled things from kitchen clean up to car vacuuming/armor-all-ing - new verb, to plenty of laundry. Found someone on Craigslist who was giving away moving boxes, so we connected and DH and I picked them up at 7, about a half hour north of town. DH is strongly convinced I/we took much more than we need. I do not agree, and pointed out that I've YET to see their cellar. He conceded that point and I believe I am the victor at this point, haha. There were so many, not room in our garage, so left them in my car overnight and I KNOW that will stink tomorrow, but ... one challenge at a time. I'm SO EXCITED to not be slowed down by lack of boxes now. I'll drive out tomorrow and drop them off and do some work alone there, and also go into their town and drop off paperwork with the tax guy if DH has it ready to go as planned. It's so easy but the one hook is an estate paperwork form that had DH puzzled on some of the entries. Otherwise, it's a no-brainer, and it bothers him to pay for it to be done. I'm like, just hire it out and no issues hopefully.

While north of town tonight, I refueled at our cheapest gas station, saving $0.20/gallon over those near us, and went to Trader Joe's, and stopped at a local cajun spot for mardi gras dinner. They have one vegan option and we order it with half the amount of rice, and I still left some, so feel a little virtuous about that. :) It's just white bean chili. I don't serve my chili on rice but DO like to put baked sweet potato chunks in our bowls when I serve it.

Karen - WOW that is an early wake-up call, though sometimes I just fall awake then (like this morning). Does Otis get up with you or continue to snooze for awhile?

Maryann- My hold came up on the book you recommended, Healthy at Any Size, and I was able to download the digital book. I keep calling it Hungry at Any Size. Now I wonder if I checked out the wrong book. I cracked up at the scale you linked to a few days back. Some, no, many days I could use that positivity. I am to a point that I am 3/4 through a journal, but want a "fresh start" and have others I could use, but am plodding along with this one. But the new ones call.

Ann - I join you in writing a few things I'm grateful for each day. I DO think it resets our mind to realize our fortunes. Yesterday's notation was having such a diligent, friendly bank rep who helped us along. When we left, I rapped on the bank manager's door and told her what a great job our rep did and she thanked us and said she agreed. Made us enjoy the process, in a way. A little news goes a long way nowadays. I limit it as well or I'm sleepless.

Bill - You are such a phenomenal student of nearly every subject, aren't you?! I'm impressed and amazed. I think my circle of interest in learning new things has shrunk to arts and languages.

Penny - I think I've added six pounds this new year! Maybe March is when we make our move downward. Maybe I nix the "maybe" ...

Joy - I really (!) hope your hike with your GN went smoothly. I just don't get the drama some people seem to thrive on or revel in. Hope you enjoyed great weather as a bonus, too.

CurlyJax - I hope your day was a good one! You sound like you're in a groove with planned healthy dinners and working out. Credits to you!

"So, what if, instead of thinking about solving your whole life, you just think about adding additional good things. One at a time. Just let your pile of good things grow." ~ Rainbow Rowell

Wednesday - Territory of Washington separates from Oregon Territory (1853)
 

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Excitement for the isolated: three separate package deliveries in one day. One was a book that DW had asked me to order for her; another some binder sheets that will hold all my business cards, idle credit cards, and infrequently used membership cards so I can find them rapidly when needed; and the last a replacement cartridge for my laser printer. Hard to believe that in the olden days, I'd have left my house to go hunter-gathering for these.

But major excitement was a visit to a real-life, in the flesh, brick-and-mortar, hands on, dermatologist. I hadn't seen one in many years because appointments had become hard to get and only via reference from a Primary Care Physician. Since I was a teenager, I've been told by doctors in very serious tone to "Watch those moles on your back." It's hard to see my back, and I've never figured out what I was watching for. This visit was so neat! I was ordered to strip into a johnny and was scanned from scalp to toenails by an enthusiastic dermatologist with a hand-held brightly lit magnifier. To examine my face, I was directed to remove my mask and, "Don't speak." Felt like I was being taken care of. "You have no skin cancer," was music to my ears. Followed, of course, by "Watch those moles on your back."

Pondering the situation, I'm, again, feeling grateful that I have access to medical care when not everyone does. That I didn't wince later when I paid for their prescribed magic elixir at the pharmacy.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Kudos for being a person with whom your DN can find a few hours of calm.

maryann - You raise an interesting issue: novels should have a label on the cover stating "Only 6 characters" like some recipes are advertised, "Only 6 ingredients." I suspect that Dostoevsky kept creating characters because he, like me, couldn't remember all those he'd already created.

nationalparker – Kudos for armor-all-ing you car - a terrific transitive verb. Yay for enough boxes when that's what's needed.

Karen (karenrn) - Yay for iced tea - especially because that implies it isn't cold outside. LOL at the image of your DH tossing the duck for Otis.

Penny. - You remind me of all the journeys I've been in someone's Volkswagen Bug - even though I never owned one myself. I remember when Volkswagen distributor parts were sold in every supermarket.

Ann (AnnC123) - Yep, once February is dispensed with, Spring can't be far behind.

Readers -

Monday I ended up having a fight with DD at the end of the day, and got into chocolate chips. Tuesday morning I poured soap on them as I learned from Maryann and tossed them out. Yesterday was an interesting day at work, complete with a 3 alarm fire in walking distance of my job, and two doors down a friend of mine. Fortunately no one was hurt, but the house is a big mess. I got into the candies again just because they're there and good. TODAY I resolve to not eat sweets at work, and to eat my packed lunch.
I went to my first belly dance class last night and it was really fun. A good mix of ages. The teacher wasn't very good at explaining things, she's just demonstrated, but she is a marvel at aged 80. My arms are killing me today so i'll have to plan other exercise around it ie no weights M or W. At this point i need a prize to work for, so when i lose 5 pounds i'll allow myself to buy a new tote bag for work.
Bill-great news from the dermatologist, I worry about the stuff i can't see too. too funny to keep an eye on it.
Nationalparker- i've stepped out of my groove foodwise, but i'm getting back in. You are accomplishing so much at your MIL's house.
Maryann- interesting idea about subconscious sabotage. Too many narrators is definitely distracting.
Karen- too funny that your husband gave you another sewing job. Sounds like a nice morning routine you two have.
Penny- the covid stuff is exhausting. As is the news about how others are treated.
Gardenerjoy- nice that you can help with family drama without getting too sucked in.
Ann-gratitude journal is great idea. I'm so grateful for you all too.

Good morning Coaches.
Yesterday was a day full of gratitude. I think I am finally starting to stop and smell the roses. Yay.
I realized I was so focused on controlling my eating, I wasn't relaxing except with DGDs
Plan is. I will write in my Gratitude journal and what I eat and my exercise. See if I can do it in a relaxing manner instead of I have to do this. I am work in progress.
Walking was good, it was cold so I walked fast. It is a beautiful sunny day.

BillBlueEyes - Yay for seeing a dermatologist and it being a good visit. I too remember how I used to go to a store to shop, now I can just get it from my friend the amazon delivery man.
Curly Sorry to hear you and DD had a fight and even sorrier to hear the chocolate chips became your friend over it. Yay for throwing out the chocolate chips. Oh my goodness Belly Dancing sounds fun.

Joy -How wonderful your DN has someone she can talk to. You are a kind person. I thank you for your suggestion about staying off social media. I got the idea from you. If I post early here and shut my computer down it is a success.

Maryann - I am enjoying Health at Any Size. Thank you for suggesting it.

Nationalparker – Yay for getting boxes. One less thing to worry about. Oh white bean chili is so good. We had pancakes for Shrove Tuesday. Great you had a helpful bank employee.

Karen - .Here I am complaining about the cold. I didn't even think how awful it would be to exercise in the heat. It is usually cool enough in the morning in the summer here. Or I can swim for exercise. Thoughts to ponder.

Penny. - Oh my goodness. That is awful that they separate children from the adults they cross with.

Onebyone How is your arm? Have a great day.

Everything went well with DN. I was able to give some of the advice that I know at age 59 and didn't know at age 34. Some of it about the importance of sleep, exercise, and eating right -- and that it takes an unexpected amount of work to get all that working well.

The trail was so muddy! I slipped and took a fall that wrenched my knee. That was about 3/4 through a two-and-a-half-mile hike. I walked out with just a couple of twinges now and then, so I thought it was going to be fine, but it stiffened up on the drive home. I did RICE with naproxen last night.

A bit of google research this morning and I'm self-diagnosing as a Grade 1 LCL (outside of the knee) knee sprain. Self-care of RICE is appropriate for a couple of days, plus monitoring to make sure I don't get any of the Grade 3 symptoms that would call for a doctor's visit. The upside of a doctor's visit might be that I could get PT, which I suspect would be useful at this stage of life. I found a good website with exercises to start in a couple of days. If it's Grade 1, it will be better in a week or two (which is longer than I hoped)
.
Here's my reminder that food doesn't fix knee pain or any of the fretfulness or grumpiness that can accompany injuries like this.

Exercise +85, 85/1500 minutes for March

Good morning!

Yesterday was off plan. I'm certainly in an uncontrolled eating stretch, but will keep fighting the good fight.

I did a lot of cooking and baking with our frugal goals last month and I think I burned myself out on that. The fridge is empty and I asked H to take a turn and let me coast for a week.

Have a great day, everyone.

Good morning coaches,

Food has been on plan. Last nights dinner was Lo Main with Peanut Sauce with a side of tofu for extra protein. It's the second time having it and dh says he could easily eat it once a week. Dh is losing weight. ha ha.I mentioned a few weeks ago how quickly the peanut butter was going down (it was his supplement) so he quit eating it entirely. I should have kept my big mouth shut. I obviously am eating a little more than needed for weight loss. I will still give myself credit since I haven't had any alcohol in 177 days, I've lost 15.6 pounds since 9/21 (my birthday) and I've pretty successfully transitioned to a whole food plant based way of eating. This morning we did a fairly short but steep hike that is nearby. After that I came home and walked Otis and have put some vegetables in the oven to roast. I had planned to jump in the shower and then waited too long, so I had better wait to take the veggies out of the oven first.

Since I'm leaving to go to the movies before noon, I'm not sure how much more I'll get done but hopefully sew the hem around dh's jacket. I did get the seam ripping job completed yesterday afternoon. Luckily dh is so easy to please.

I'm starting to think about what plans I want to make for this summer. I'm pretty sure I'll go camping with my cousin in Sequoia if the campground opens. Then my Banff trip is in mid August (I previously thought it was in July). My friend would like to go to maybe Colorado for some day hikes. I also want to visit my friends in Washington and Vancouver B.C. I need to start with the Banff trip and then decide what else will happen. It's a balancing act between not being gone tooooo long and not being miserable in the heat and wanting to move. Right now is our absolutely most beautiful time of the year.

Penny Glad you can take a break from the food prep duties.

GardenerJoy I'm so sorry about your knee. I hope it truly is the mildest sprain and heals quickly.

Ann It surely is true that we are all works in progress. I'm 68 and I just feel like some of these things are just going to need to be lifelong habits. I'm okay with that.

Curlyjax Great idea to have a reward to work towards. Wow the fire sounds scary and big.

Bill Glad you've jumped through yet another healthcare check up hoop. I need to get to the dermatologist too. Dh just had to have a little something scraped on calf of his leg. Neither of us had even noticed it.

Nationalparker I wish someone would get in the cleaning mood at my house. It is always very neat and things put away but I'll have to get with it soon. I'm glad you found a good supply of moving boxes. That will be really helpful. I know from my experience a person always needs more than they think. Otis gets up with whomever gets up first and we take him out to do his business, then he gets a very small treat with each cup of coffee we make.

Maryann I give in to food urges sometimes too and although I try to discover the reason I am kind of at a loss. Sometimes it's boredom, sometimes frustration and some times who knows. I used to eat a Yasso bar for dessert every night and I think that was helpful, but now I'm not eating dairy. I think I might find a non-dairy ice cream type treat to see if that would help.

Well the veggies are out of the oven and time for a shower.

Hello, All.

Food Journal and gym tonite. Weight down a little and I was very relaxed at school. I started to get into the "stinger" cookies again do like national parker, I poured soap on them.

Karen: Summer sounds like a blast. We better get our traveling in while we can. Prices for airplanes are soaring along with gas. Off to finish Health at Every size.

Wave to all