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:
Friday - Canada (Dominion) Day (1867, confederations and Maritimes joined Dominion)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Again, for the second day in a row, we picked up the (6 yo) DGD from her gymnastics summer camp. She just explodes with tales to tell when she gets in the car. Again, we went to her town's local playground where she joined up with a posse of buddies to form grand conspiracies. They pour so much energy into whatever they're up to that I fear for the world. She was so convincing that she didn't want to leave that DW was ready to call our DD and ask if she wanted to leave home to come to the playground so that the DGD could continue. No, it was staged drama. When forced to leave, she immediately went into what book to read mode.
Eating burst a bit out of plan, although no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Lunch was half of the leftover Beef and Broccoli from the Chinese restaurant takeout. Only half of the half - a good start. But, it needed something to go with it so I picked up a mostly-eaten bag of pita chips. You'd think that I was experienced enough to put some in a bowl to take up to my office with my lunch. Alas, "for convenience", I took the bag since I didn't really know how many I wanted. And, double alas, I finished off the bag as if I didn't have a boundary. Big Ouch because I know that pita chips fit into my "slides down without concern" category of foods - like oatmeal raisin cookies and dark chocolate covered almond ice cream. Lunch plan for today: will have the remaining beef and broccoli WITHOUT pita chips - just carrots and sugar snaps. I'm not starving; a lighter lunch isn't going to threaten my survival.
onebyone - Waving. Happy Canada Day. Hope you take a well-earned holiday.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Lifting 70 pound buckets is quite a show of strength; Congrats for being in such good shape. 140 pounds of wheat sounds like a lot of bread. (Is it about a pound of wheat per pound of bread?) Haven't read Neil deGrasse Tyson's Astrophysics for People in a Hurry - might have to add that to my list.
maryann - What a great story of folks on the beach shouting encouragement for your SUP adventure. What serendipity to find a young people's bonfire AA meeting on the beach.
nationalparker – Your resort does sound like a jewel. Did you know in advance that the movie The Phantom of the Open wasn't going to have any guns, murders, crimes or misdemeanors? Just noticed that it stars Mark Rylance. For that, I gotta put it on my Bucket List. I'd see a movie about reading a telephone book if it starred Mark Rylance. Hope things go well with your brother's labs.
Karen (karenrn) - Sorry to hear about your DS's wrist - hope he can continue to function.
curlyjax - Congrats on the progress with your dad's case manager. It's hard to accept that we're all headed to that place where managing our own case will be a challenge. Hope your ultrasound and testing went well.
MommaMeli - So neat to compare weight loss skill to pre-reading skills. Yep, we gotta learn the basics. It absolutely blows my mind how differently reading comes to different kids. Kudos for "I can accept where I'm at and patiently take as much time as I need."
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
challenging situation skills
Before the Event
3. Develop an eating plan. After you read the cards in your Memory Box and fortify your resolve, decide what you are going to eat at the event. .
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 133.
Copying the curlyjax post from before I remembered to start the July thread:
Quote:
Originally Posted by curlyjax
Dr visit went well. I did undergo an endometrial biopsy which was painful but the doc was reassuring and said I would get results tuesday, and everything was looking pretty good. I felt crampy afterwards so I decided to take a sick day. I did treat myself to a spinach/cheese croissant, and some cookies, and lolling on the sofa. Later on I made two types of chicken drumsticks in the microwave for DS’s dinner tonight, as I will be out with a friend, yay. I now have plans for the long weekend with 4 different people, it never rains but it pours. Today will be a very hot day; I’m taking it easy for a few days anyhow so fine to be inside. Nationalparker-I’m so glad you’re both having such a relaxing time! Thanks for mentioning that movie, it looks very fun. Mommameli- I like the idea of pre-weight loss skills. Gardenerjoy- wow, nice functional strength exercise! Karen- once a mom, always a mom! Yeah for some grey skies and a break from the sun. Maryann- that is awesome about the SUP! How nice to stumble upon a new uplifting meeting. Bill-Pita chips do indeed “slide down without concern”- yay for putting an end to that.
Today, I'm celebrating that I reached the six-year mark on my streak of daily exercise. I'm also celebrating two months of daily yoga. Yoga has been pretty easy to infuse into my exercise since it can mean anything from 10 minutes of gentle stretches with support to an hour of heat-generating and muscle-building poses. These practices are my best chance of getting through my 60s with a body that remains functional and (mostly) pain-free.
Exercise +60, 1630/1500 minutes for June
BillBlueEyes: Each loaf of my bread contains 1.5 pounds of wheat (you'll be happy to know that I had to convert from grams to get that number). We buy two types of wheat -- hard red for bread-baking and soft white for pancakes. Red and white are the colors of the grains (not to be confused with how we use the words 'whole' and 'white' to describe flours). Pancakes only take 0.2 pounds of flour, but we make them every day. Since wheat keeps for years, we started buying it in buckets at the beginning of the pandemic.
Food was on plan and weight is at the low number. Now if I could just get it to drop below that. I hiked a couple of hours with my friend this morning. It felt quite warm at the start but we got used to it and did the longer loop. Not much breeze, which does make a difference. I have my food planned for the day and it's logged in MFP, now I will have to change MFP if I make a change to the plan.
Ds did call when he was awake from anesthesia and told me surgery was about 3 hours and he has a plate and some screws in his wrist now and a cast to his elbow. He is still in the hospital. So far 2 nights, one of which was right after surgery was over. He told me on a message a couple of hours ago that they aren't in a rush to discharge people with Cadillac insurance, but that he will have to pay and then be reimbursed by his insurance. I'll be interested to learn what the bill will be.
I do think some of you might like the book I'm listening to, Beautiful Country. The writer is a Chinese-American writer and civil rights lawyer. Apparently she wrote the book on her iPhone while commuting.
GardenerJoy That is an amazing streak of daily exercise. Congratulations!
Curlyjax I'm glad the doctor's appointment went pretty well. It will be good to have your results to hopefully really put your mind at east. Boy do I ever know feast or famine with social things. Unfortunately it is famine time of the year for me.
Bill Oops about the pita chips. You are almost always spot on with your plan though, so oh well.
Nationalparker Actually dh and I saw that movie a couple of weeks ago. It was cute and we both enjoyed it. I'm trying to find another one that he might like for this weekend.
Maryann I would have loved to have been part of the crowd watching you with your paddle board. Sounds like a riot. That is so cool that the 23 year old was at the meeting with just one day sober under her belt. What an inspiration you must have been for her.
Waving to the others. I hope you all have a great long weekend!
Yesterday was a better eating day and major credit for going for a walk/jog instead of turning to food when hit with some stress. Yay!
Work should be pretty good today.
Bill, dgd sounds as delightful as ever. Those pita chips must be delicious. Good that they're gone and out of the way now.
Maryann, what a great story of strangers cheering you on! I love it. That sounds like a fun vacation you've been on.
Curly, your weekend is going to be fun with all of that connection! Are you an extrovert who charges up with socializing? Hopefully it's not too draining.
Joy, that's so cool you grind your own wheat! The (mild) prepper in me loves that. I bet it's both cheaper and fresher. I use exactly 1820g in my four loaves. Lol
Karen, a broken wrist will be a difficult recovery, unable to use one hand. Yowza! Was it his dominant hand? Time to leave all caps slightly loose.
Nationalparker, your trip sounds really nice. I always have a hard time with the combination of personalities I don't like and knowing they are going through a bad situation, but my dad told me "bad things happen to bad people too." Somehow that makes me feel less guilty about it. Ha! Sorry your SIL makes the time with your brother less fun.
mamameli, I hope your little one is feeling better with antibiotics. What a stressful situation! Also, fist bump to a fellow homeschooler, although my two youngest started public school for the first time recently. Three out of four kids were not ready to read until seven, so they just might need more time.
Back home. Apparently I missed a week of 102 plus days. It is a lovely 60 degrees this morning. Yesterday I got home early afternoon and sprung into action. I cleaned my SUP, the interior of my car and the rug we have in the garage. Our indoor carpet is from 1990. It is in amazing shape ( no pets and shoes off) but is wearing in the halls and door entrances. I ordered new carpet runners and mats for a few areas. So much easier than thinking of new flooring. I also ordered one 5 by 5 for the linoleum in the 'mud room." As a newlywed, I burned something in the kitchen and put the pan on the linoleum while opening the door. Oops. The new area carpet covers up the burn and some leak damage. Voila.
Weight is still high but I am happy with the amount of exercise I am getting. The SUP is unbelievable exercise. I have muscle soreness in my whole body. Today I am working through laundry and "to dos" I begin my trip to Ecuador in 10 days. In between I need to get up to Tahoe to wash the carpet and pick up traveling thing. I have a colonoscopy next week. a busy summer no doubt.
KarenRN: DS gave me a call last night. He is struggling some. Growing pains I think. So difficult to keep my concern right size. Penny: Awesome to choose exercise over more food. I am going to do that today and thank you. Curly: I am afraid I will be looking at a biopsy when I start back to school. Drat! Joy: The yoga with Adrienne has really turned things around with me. I have begun to do all downward dog and planks on knuckles and fingertips. I am finally gaining strength in my hands. this is a biggie becuase my Dad sufferes from arthritis and I suspect I will as well. nationalparker: I am glad you had a nice vacation. You deserve it after the months of work on your in law's house. BBE: I am now timing my success on DuotriQuardle. I am thinking of making it into an Olympic event.
Decided to not read the book and just keep doing what I’m doing today. That may stretch into all weekend since my schedule is vastly different on a weekend.
Credit for eating full on plan yesterday. This is getting easier for now. I’m sure that as motivation wanes it will get harder (then easier) again, Credit for gardening exercise. The big tomatoes are finally turning red. I wish I could share with you all.
I went ahead and planned out the whole weekend’s worth of food. Last time I did Beck, weekends were my downfall, so I’m curious if last weekend went so well because I planned ahead.
Bill “They pour so much energy into whatever they're up to that I fear for the world.” I know what you are talking about here.
curlyjax Sorry to hear about the painful procedure. Glad the results are coming fast.
maryann Totally inspired by your AA meeting on the beach. Everyone needs to hear that they can change.
gardnerjoy 6 years of daily exercise! That’s quite an accomplishment.
karen Wow, that is surprising that they’ll keep your son 2 nights. Hoping he can start to heal.
penny Hello, fellow homeschooler. My older 3 were in public school until the pandemic. Online school was just not an option for us, and we found we liked homeschooling. But, they could definitely go back to public school someday if we find it is better for our family.
Saturday - Unidentified Flying Object discovered (1947, Roswell, New Mexico)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Lunch was the second half of the leftover beef and broccoli from the Chinese restaurant. This time, I had no pita chips, thank you very much, but just my standard small bowl of baby carrots. Felt better. Dinner on the patio was our first pasta salad and deviled eggs for the summer. Followed by watermelon, also first of the year. Felt so good. No extra shirt or jacket or desire to go in early due to the temperature. Dawdled and chatted. I asked DW to bring me up to date on the issue with her toe injury. This led to a long discussion with the conclusion that it isn't yet known if she's working on a cure or this is her new status for the rest of her life. There seems to be the notion that one pair of inserts can be used. That might work for prisoners or monks, but DW must wear at least six different pairs of foot coverings every single day: indoor slippers and clogs, outdoor boots, tennis shoes, and 'brief run' clogs. I've always been impressed how admirably she tends to her footwear. As we spoke, she was wearing flip-flops - her 90+ degree Fahrenheit choice.
Opened a can of worms by telling DW that Joy (gardenerjoy) uses 1.5 pounds of wheat berries for a pound of bread - and that I thought that strange since the bread recipe must also include water. She gave me that "sweet summer child" look and reminded me that wheat berries already contain water. Then I set out to ask the internet how much weight in wheat berries is needed for a loaf of bread. Got a zillion answers. Apparently, everyone in the world has an answer - and they all come with caveats upon caveats. I was looking for something like, 2.54 centimeters per inch. Think I'll get back in my lane, LOL.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Super Kudos for your six-year streak of daily exercise. You might live to be a hundred. Thanks for your response about what weight of wheat berries it takes to make a loaf of your bread. I just reread it; you don't say how much your loaf of bread weighs. My skills of scientific inquiry are slipping, LOL.
maryann - Carpet that lasts 32 years must have been pretty good quality - Congrats for making that choice so long ago. Easy to believe that the SUP is serious exercise.
Karen (karenrn) - Ouch - that's a lot of reconstruction on your DS's wrist. Hope you get the good news that he can go home. Your book, Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang does look remarkable.
curlyjax - Good to have the doctor visit behind you even though you have to wait out the long weekend for results. Sounds like a busy social weekend for you.
Penny. - Yep, always Kudos for a walk/jog instead of turning to food.
MommaMeli - So jealous that your tomatoes are already turning red. Ours are still barely visible. Kudos for making a whole weekend eating plan.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
challenging situation skills
Before the Event
3. Develop an eating plan. In Stage 4, you will learn how to be more flexible with your eating, adding your snack calories to a special meal if you like. But for now, I would like you to figure out what you are going to eat based on the Think Thin Initial Eating Plan and your Special Event Calories rule.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 133.
Dinner last night was very good and great to catch up with my friend. I had a shrimp pasta dish with 5 jumbo shrimp, assorted vegetables and fresh pasta. I even left some on my plate to take home- but dumped it ultimately as we ended going out for ice cream later and the leftovers sat in my hot car. Caloric starbucks drink earlier too,but still experienced some hunger during the day. Today I am going out for lunch with a friend at a chinese place- I’m determined to bring some of that home unless its a tiny portion. Rest of the day is dump run, groceries etc. Feeling a little crampy so taking it easy still. Along with minimal mom, I’ve been watching Clutterbug on youtube; she has four types of organization and supposedly I’m a butterfly (there’s a quiz you can take), which among other things means you like having things out where you can see them. There’s some truth to that- I took the door off my small bedroom closet for easier access and don’t mind seeing the clothes. I enjoy her and am also impressed that she underwent a gastric bypass for weight loss, not an easy decision to make. Gardenerjoy- that’s interesting about the wheat. How do you keep it from getting moldy etc- I imagine you must get a lot of humidity where you live. Karen- that’s so interesting about DS, I would think in the US that would be day surgery and they would kick you out a few hours later. Penny- I am definitely an introvert, but ¾ of these interactions are one on one which nourishes me, and all folks I know quite well so it isn’t exhausting Maryann- you have such amazing energy! Plan for the flooring sounds wise. Mommameli- great job planning the whole weekend food. Bill- we women do like our choice of footwear! I have multiple inserts in various shoes, it makes life easier.
I successfully did indoor exercise, including following a YouTube dance routine that got my heart rate up as much as climbing the hills in our neighborhood. I like Improved Health on YouTube (Improved Health - YouTube) -- lots of senior-friendly routines. Some are too gentle most days, but terrific when I'm recovering. She makes a nice variety. Also, she's a pretty terrible dancer (I'm better -- and I'm not very good) so it's more about the exercise and less about the moves.
Today will be cooler but possibly with waves of thunderstorms, so that will be interesting to navigate for exercise and other activities.
Exercise +75, 75/1600 minutes for July
Penny: The taste of freshly-ground wheat was a revelation. Sweetish and nutty with no bitterness. The grinder was pretty expensive but I've had it for 10 years now and use it every day, so it was a good investment. I use an electric one, so not that great of a prepper tool. I had a hand-cranked one, first, that someone gave me, but it broke after about a dozen uses.
curlyjax: The layer of bran is still intact on the wheatberries and is very protective against water. I used to have to fiddle with every loaf when I used pre-ground flour because our humidity changes so much. The flour might be more or less moist on any given day, changing the amount of liquid needed by a tablespoon or more. With fresh-ground wheat, my recipe works the same every time.
I have to draw a line in the sand. I am at 179. I was fighting 169 two months ago. I suspect maybe Prolon fasting worked against my metabolism? I have thrown Greger's daily dozen out the window? Something has changed and I can't get back to even the low 70s. I know traveling is difficult but I must put first things first. I have successfully put away Bliss point candy and dessert after dinner away. I will now focus on other Bliss point foods No more Starbucks Chai Teas or cereal. They have crept into my program. I have successfully avoided bread. The next to go is replacing cheese with legumes. Three servings a day. If I wasn't just starting to travel again I would start the pink book over. For today, I will close the kitchen at 4:00. Frustrating. I am really tired of this battle but just because I am tired of it doesn't mean it will go away. Onward I trudge.
I also must admit I am concerned about a call from DS. Not an emergency but I have called my shrink and set up an appointment with my counselor. I want a few pairs of eyes on my assessment of what I think is teenage angst. I might be eating a little more with that but I know it is not the major problem. I have dug out my old advantage cards and will look for a zoom OA meeting.
Food was on plan thank goodness. It wouldn't have been because I was already thinking of the last of "ice cream" type food in the freezer and eating it when dh went back to work after lunch yesterday, when lo and behold he didn't go back to work. Boy did that ever work in my favor. I then got distracted, remembered my plan and my goals and forgot about it.
I decided not to hike today and am doing some housework instead. I will also do my arm/shoulder exercises and plank. I started with the vacuuming and the beater bar portion of the vacuum quit on me. I started taking it apart, but it will be a bit time consuming. I'll see if dh wants to look at it. He probably will. I do have another vacuum that I use for the hard floors and it will work well enough. At least I got two carpeted bedrooms finished.
Maryann You've had a lot of travel and things going on. That makes food plans difficult to be sure. Why are you throwing the Daily Dozen out the window? I guess if I wasn't plant based I would never get the beans in though. I'm sorry about the worry with ds. I hope it is something that will resolve for him soon, and for you too. Glad you're going to see your counselor.
GardenerJoy Isn't it great that there are so many exercise programs available on You Tube. Heck I'm just so glad to have You Tube. Today I'm hoping they will help dh with the vacuum.
Curlyjax I'll have to check out Clutterbug. I always like to see an organizing program. Yes here in the states ds probably would have been over one night only because surgery ended late in the evening, but never two nights. He told me the whole cost was $10,000. That's not bad for an ER visit, surgery and two nights in the hospital.
Bill I hope dw's toe heals completely. I'm with you on eating the baby carrots. I've been buying them at Costco and it's a pretty large amount, but we've been going through them. Hopefully we won't be turning yellow.
MommaMeli Yes I wish we could share your tomatoes too. There is nothing better than a home grown tomato. Good idea to plan the whole weekends food. I'm at least doing the day in writing/typing.
Penny Have a good weekend. Yes, ds broke his right wrist which is his dominant hand.
We made it home this evening. The trip was several hours longer in total over the two days, but we arrived safely and in good moods, so that's always good.
Looking forward to catching up with everyone's notes tomorrow instead of rushing through. We'll see where my weight lands in the morning. I suspect I gained weight. Much bread was eaten as part of pb toast for breakfast. I eat that here but it's the only bread of the day, which it wasn't on the trip. Maryann, I'm with you on the refocus for what might work.
That golf movie isn't even playing here so I'm glad we caught it on the road. I'm going to try to talk dh into going to see the minions one for a few laughs before we get back to his folks house work ...
Sunday - Pony Express arrives in San Francisco with overland letters from NY (1861)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was an exact repeat of the previous night's pasta salad and deviled eggs - "Deviled eggs are best when eaten right away," DW said to justify back-to-back identical meals. With trays in hand poised to head outside to eat on the patio, thunder rolled in. Ooops - it was an eat-in-the-kitchen night. Since watermelon came with dinner, I skipped the Cara-Cara orange of my evening snack.
It was sticky hot all day after starting out with heavy rain - where "heavy rain" means that it came down hard for a brief time. Not enough to satisfy gardener DW. The closest I came to doing something useful was to examine the two outdoor faucets that both leak. Neither look like an easy washer replacement. One will be easy to remove; I installed it to be easy to remove. The other will require some plumbing. All at an odd angle over my head. Would be a good time to be flexible. It's become more common for me to encounter a task that I know how to perform but find myself a tad stymied by the body contortions required. Fun to remember that I used to do that without thinking about it.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - It's so neat that you've already gotten ten years out of your wheat grinder. That's a lot of use. I do like hearing that a video can be made by someone who isn't a stellar dancer.
maryann - Sending supportive thoughts for your support of your DS from a distance. It's difficult to know when it's the symptom of a real problem or some of the tons of angst that's age appropriate.
nationalparker – Welcome home from a very successful trip. Glad you were driving - the reports from folks stuck at airports around the country are disheartening.
Karen (karenrn) - LOL that you were saved from the "ice cream" by your DH not going back to work. Ouch for a vacuum cleaner that quit - hope it's an easy fix.
curlyjax - Smart to throw out the restaurant leftovers that sat too long in your car. Love that your errands for the day often include a dump run since I've never lived in a place where we did that and have always been jealous of folks' "dump finds".
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
challenging situation skills
Before the Event 3. Develop an eating plan.
If you can, find out precisely what will be served and write down a specific plan. If you can't find out ahead of time which foods will be available, you will have to make a more general plan.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 133.
Beck Diet For Life/Solution – July 2022 – Support, Discussion, Buddy/Coach
Friday - Canada (Dominion) Day (1867, confederations and Maritimes joined Dominion)
