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:
Saturday - Louisa May Alcott publishes "Little Women" (1868, Boston)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Our "Enrich Your Life" step was a real brick-and-mortar opera in downtown Boston, including riding the subway. About four folks of twenty wore masks in the subway; about half wore masks in the theater for the opera. The Boston Lyric Opera performed Puccini's La Boheme - an old favorite - with a twist: the last act was presented first so we suffered that the heroine, Mimi, died of consumption (all the while singing to the heavens). The performance ended with the joyful first act where the two lovers declared their eternal love is soaring health. As odd as it sounds, it worked. Of course, the audience all had seen La Boheme many times before and could anticipate Puccini's bel canto music whatever order it appeared. Great fun to be out as if times were normal. Was special to walk through the Boston Common after dark with its mix of crazies, teens on skateboards, and theater attending swells.
Eating was on plan, CREDIT moi. Still nibbling on the dark chocolate covered almonds for afternoon snack, but they'll soon be gone. Dinner was dahl, rushed so that we could get out the door to walk to the subway. We're suffering from a minor first-world problem: we had the new porch oiled again so we have to enter and leave the house through the back door. A tiny walk, but it does make me grateful that I don't live in Fort Myers, Florida where I might not have a front porch any more. Or a house even. We've stayed in Fort Myers and driven the causeway to Sanibel Island. Just boggling that the folks on Sanibel are now stranded until someone sets up a ferry service.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Ouch for the issue with a tooth. I'm in that small set of folks who want my wisdom teeth saved, even at some expense.
maryann - Sad to be reminded of how insensitive teenagers can be. I hate that every thing they do is posted to Tiktok or somewhere. Leaves so little room for the clumsiness of that age to be forgotten. I do wish that the community's first impulse was to support the teachers rather than to look for a scapegoat.
Karen (karenrn) - Ouch for the news of the COVID cases. We keep hearing of cases even though so many people are ready to believe it's all over. Yep, that four-year-old will exhaust you.
curlyjax - Good luck with getting a new crown. Yep, we dropped dental insurance after figuring out that it wasn't even insurance for catastrophe because it had a low yearly maximum payout. Seemed like a scam to me.
MommaMeli - Sending supportive thoughts to you and your family.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
Create a Restaurant Mindset
I want you to feel entitled to make special requests. If you had a serious health problem, you wouldn't think twice about asking for food to be prepared to your specializations.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 144.
Fun day at work, everyone was in a good friday mood. I got a check back from my auto insurance- not sure if I got a discount for paying it upfront or what, but that was awesome. A friend called and invited me out to hear a band, and we had dinner before where I did eat my entire quesadilla but it was an appetizer sized one so not huge. We joined a few other ladies and had a very nice time. The others were single as well and it was fun to laugh about the whole dating app process. My married friend commented she had a new appreciation for her husband now! Today I am zipping off to see my dad, aunt etc for a quick two overnights, so I probably won’t be back on here again until Tuesday. Nothing wrong, just an overdue visit. I wish it wasn’t so far away, 5 hour drive. I am determined to snack as little as possible on the way. Maryann- so glad its not malignant! Its amazing what people blame teachers for. Or parents for that matter, I’m sure most are horrified about what happened as well. Gardenerjoy- I feel your tooth pain Karen-I should look into dental insurance for just myself next year,it would be a little cheaper (can’t change anything until July). Baked tofu is good. I made some in the air fryer and it was nicely crisped. Bill-love the description of walking thru Boston Common at night.
Much different perspective this morning. A good night's sleep is a cure all.Happy 35 sobriety bday to me. I am so grateful to have been given the gift of sobriety so early. So many "yet's' left unsuffered. I will treat myself by puttering and then we have a great nephew 3 year old bday. Just the best.
I call a win to my pantry challenge for September. I have a stocked freezer with items I cooked up. I spent 30% less than the summer months. My goal is the same for this month. I also signed up for a stunning Delta 65,000 pts. credit card. I will cancel the Hilton card after December's last use to avoid an annual fee. I made over $2000 with that one. I am very cautious opening credit cards but the money is incredible and I always use the feature that automatically pays off the balance each month. With my Every Dollar software i am always right on top of fraud.I suppose that is why I get such good deals. My credit score is sky high. Anyway, this delta is going to pay out over $1000 dollars with no annual fee this first year. There is a hub in Michigan where DS is. Too good an opportunity to miss with DS roundtrip holiday flights so expensive now.
Credit for a long yoga yesterday that my back is feeling. My gift to me is yoga everyday this month. October is my favorite month.
Curley: Hey, great idea to airfry tofu. I have just learned how to do Pillsbury biscuits and jiffy cornbread. My oven is so old that I am grateful to have an alternative.
BBE: Envious of what an easy trip is is to Boston square and its opera. I have often thought of a pied a tierre in Boston. I just love the city so much.
The dentist filled the tooth immediately, so my prediction was wrong. We talked about when it will make more sense to pull it than fix it and the answer was basically when the cost goes over the cost of a quick filling. Better to keep the tooth for alignment purposes, plus this fix may last a few years, putting off the more expensive extraction.
CREDIT for going so far over my September exercise goal that I feel obligated to increase my October goal. This is being helped by daily Yoga With Adriene (Here's October's calendar and playlist), by hiking at Shaw Nature Reserve every couple of weeks, and by getting DH to walk a bit more now that it's cooler.
Exercise +45, 1785/1500 minutes for September
maryann: I'm glad that you're doing better today (and sad for the reason that the school week ended on a sour note). Yay for weekends to provide a reset!
Sunday - Phileas Fogg sets out per "Around the World in Eighty Days" (1872)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - The newly-oiled front porch is now dry so I could go out the front door to pick up my newspapers as normal. Yay for little steps forward. The wood looks awesome although I'm not that fond of thinking of having it oiled every year. Fortunately for us, our painter keeps it on his calendar that it needs to be done.
Eating was on plan, CREDIT moi, with an unneeded afternoon snack that, fortunately, finished off the container of dark chocolate covered almonds. Wish that I'd had the courage to toss the whole container before I'd even opened it. I need some place populated by teenagers where any foodstuff can be donated to be gobbled. Dinner conversation pondered what we'd be doing if this was a week we were in an AirBnB on Sanibel Island in Florida - with the causeway to the mainland broken in four places. Read that a man wanted to take his boat over to the island to see how his house had fared, but the marinas were too jammed with broken boats to safely leave or arrive at either end.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Yay for dental good news. And Congrats on your September Exercise Goal success.
maryann - Happy 35th!!! Super Kudos for being able to relish that success and the good life that's come with it. Love reading that you're able to figure out the credit card benefits. Alas, I've many times dreamed of a pied-a-terre in Paris, in London, in San Fransisco, and . . . well in each city I enjoyed and pledged to get back to if it were convenient.
curlyjax - Good luck on your journey to see to your dad. Know it's hard to support someone from five hours away.
MommaMeli – Hope you and your family are doing well.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
Create a Restaurant Mindset
I had to do this for several years whenever we ate out with my son, who was on a special ketogenic diet for epilepsy. His diet required he consume a strict ratio of four parts fat to one part protein and carbohydrates.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 144.
I'm going to take a quick and early trip to the grocery store this morning. I try to avoid weekends, but we're out of onions. I was able to make a fairly small list to keep us going until Friday so that I can shop again before next weekend.
Otherwise, today is my usual Sunday planning with the unusual factor that I'm on a panel presentation tomorrow which kind of makes it hard to think beyond that. I think it will be good for my wellbeing, however, to remind myself that Tuesday will come and that it will be a better Tuesday if I have some idea what I want to do with it.
Joy: I have printed and posted on the frig the October Yoga with Adrienne schedule. I did yesterday's which was quite rigorous for me. My gift for myself is to follow the calendar religiously.
BBE: Bring any sweets to any teacher's staff room at any school in any state. It will look like locust have hit the container by the next day.
I validated Hungry Brain's experiment of rats insatiable appetite with any highly palatable food ( sugar, fat salt) playing the rat myself and homemade ice representing palatability. Sigh. I will continue to read the book and continue to eliminate highly palatable foods from my repertoire.
Today will be yard work. I will set the timer for an hour. I have avoiding it for weeks. Usually I end up going a little over.
Monday - Elvis Presley's 1st public performance, at age of 10 (1945, Tupelo)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Visit with the DS, DIL, and (2.5 yo) DFGD was a delight. So much fun to be answered in full sentences every single time she speaks. Was the opportunity to give our DS his birthday card, "To buy enough Cumin Seeds for your needs," with enough bills enclosed to buy more than he could lift. "Might have to split this over other Indian spices," he wryly noted. My kids do appreciate cash as a gift and I enjoy making up an absurd reason it's to be used for. DW can get away with giving them a shirt at Christmas - after they specifically choose it from the website.
Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Felt good to be back in the grove of avoiding snacks which I simply don't need. Dinner was dahl - finishing off the pot. I feel like a responsible resident of planet Earth when I eat grains for dinner. The green salad included some cherry tomatoes from our garden; clinging to the growing season as if our lives depended on it.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Good luck with your panel presentation today. As my grandmother would say, "Gris-gris on you." But not that many folk recognize voodoo well wishes any more.
maryann - LOL at a teacher's room looking like locusts going after sweets. Ouch for the duplication of the experiment that shows what rats can do with processed foods.
MommaMeli – Thinking of you and your family.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
Create a Restaurant Mindset
We had to ask for his food to be prepared in a special way. We had to bring his beverage and a food scale to restaurants and then weigh every gram he ate. I never felt embarrassed - not at a fast-food restaurant, not at a fancy restaurant - because it was simply what we had to do for his health.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 144.
Today is the big day of my panel presentation. I'm ready -- which is both true and the mantra that I keep repeating as a pep talk. I wrote a healthy food plan and an exercise plan for morning yoga before the event and a walk after. That should keep my energy level on a reasonably even keel.
Exercise +65, 115/1700 minutes for October
maryann: Saturday's yoga had balance poses that I pretty much fall out of immediately, but I do see a second or two of improvement each time. Yesterday's was a challenge, mostly because I took every invitation to do the Sun A vinyasa (plank, chaturanga (half push-up), up-dog, down-dog). I practiced that a bunch in the spring and I'm just so proud of being capable of doing it. Today's brand-new video, Intermediate Power Yoga, will be a challenge, too, but it's only 20 minutes. And tomorrow's Couch Potato Yoga will be fun and easy!
Food was better today. I am telling myself just as I am frugal with spending, I need to stay away Bliss point foods which signal my body to burn less calories. Not a good bargain.
BBE: Congrtas for avoiding snacks. That is a big deal.
Joy: I actually did couch potato yesterday because I was quite sore and had done lots of yardwork. i plan to catch up today.
Tuesday- The Orient Express departs on 1st official journey: Paris to Istanbul (1883)
Diet Coaches/Buddies - Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. "Your dinner is on the hot table at Whole Foods," DW declared - so off we went. It's neat that the hot tables are open again; our closest Whole Foods has some three hot tables and one cold table, all kept looking fresh and desirable. I fell for BBQ meatloaf, thinking it'd taste like the roadside diners of my childhood. Good enough. Took a heap of an appealing cuke salad with black olives and feta cheese. Got dragged over to a rack of handmade cookies, "Maybe split one?" she offered. Heroically, I led us away, Was nice that there was little cleanup after dinner.
I was the family hero when folding laundry ended one sock short. I ran the path of laundry-making quickly finding it in the dryer. Good to get a minor hero award. Watched an excellent documentary film about Zora Hurston, "Jump at the Sun," on YouTube, via kanopy. Had to register for kanopy using my public library card. Easy peasy. Might dip back into that resource again. Hurston was a complex person fighting for recognition; tough to be the darling of The Harlem Renaissance. Would have loved to have dinner with her; would not want to have been one of her husbands.
Joy (gardenerjoy) - Neat to have a mantra, "I'm ready" - help the brain along.
maryann - Was saddened to read the story of your football players' slave auction in the national press - without using the kids' names. Kids deserve the right to be stupid in a small world with small world consequences. Losing the remainder of a football season is a harsh penalty; having it as a record that comes up anytime someone googles your name is too harsh. Hope you can help them mush through this.
MommaMeli – Hope you and your family are doing well.
Readers -
Quote:
Chapter 6Stage 3 - The Challenging Situations Plan
Create a Restaurant Mindset
Are you thinking Yes, but you had a legitimate reason to make special requests? If so, I remind you that your goal to lose weight and to be healthy is legitimate, too. You're also entitled to send food back if it's not prepared in the way you ordered.
Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., The Complete Beck Diet for Life (Green book), Pg 144.
Just a quick check in before I get moving. Food has been mostly on plan. The extra snacks I have had included just extra fruit and air popped popcorn which thankfully doesn't lead to wanting more and more. This morning I'll head out for a hike and then I need to take the car in to the shop and I'll walk home from there. It's only about a mile away.
Our niece's little one has a bug and they're taking him to the doctor today. They will let us know after that if they'll need to change the plan to fly her for a weeklong visit on Thursday. I'm glad I didn't purchase the groceries yet because the things he eats are not things we eat.
Maryann I was sorry to hear about the football team and consequences. I'm so glad there weren't cell phones and videos of the stupid things that I did as a young person.
My trip went well and it was nice to see everyone. I also got to see a highschool friend and took a 30 minute walk with her in the morning yesterday before I left, which is a great thing to do before a long car ride. I let myself have one candy item each way and then munched on popcorn and pretzels. My dad seemed upbeat and I met the person who is cleaning his apt now, and she is very kind. I forgot how hot it is in those apartments but fortunately I brought some shorts and a tank top. Next time i’ll bring a fan for my hot flashes! Tonight is my line dancing class then dinner after with my friend who is also taking it. I did hit the grocery store on the way home so I have some salad fixings etc for lunch today. Gardenerjoy-hope the panel presentation went well. Maryann-congrats on sobriety anniversary, that is awesome!! Had to laugh at couch potato yoga.
OMG, I just read about the football team hitting the national news. I'm so sorry that's getting even more attention, that's going to be so hard for your school. Bill-yay for a visit with DFGD. too funny about cumin seeds.
Karen-nice to be able to walk home from the garage.
I was pretty unaware of my body for the full two hours, but right after we ended, I realized that I had a burning acid sensation in my stomach. I remembered learning from here or somewhere that is an indication that my body is having a saber tooth tiger kind of stress response. But instead of running away from a carnivorous beast, I sat for two hours. I immediately got out and walked for an hour. That helped.
The other help, then and later, was conscious breathing. I got that from yoga. It turns out that conscious breathing eases the body's stress response because it knows that if we're paying attention to our breath, when we don't have to, then there can't be anything very dangerous in our presence.
All of that -- the body awareness and the knowledge and the determination to apply the knowledge is new for me in the last three years or so. It felt good to be able to make a diagnosis and apply an effective treatment.
Today, I'm going to celebrate the completion of the panel presentation -- and ease my transition back to normal life -- by taking a couple of hikes at Shaw Nature Reserve.
Exercise +85, 200/1700 minutes for October
BillBlueEyes: Our most recent missing sock was found in front of the dishwasher. Our best guess is that it fell out of DH's shirt, where it got stuck, when he bent over to put something in the dishwasher.
Beck Diet For Life/Solution – October 2022 – Support, Discussion, Buddy/Coach
Saturday - Louisa May Alcott publishes "Little Women" (1868, Boston)
