Girly, it sounds like you're doing some form of low carb plan. Maybe your compulsions are just carb withdrawals. I find the craziest thing sets me off when I'm first getting carbs out of my system. Like I'll see a Pepsi sign and all of a sudden start craving soda. I don't even drink soda! Just caffeine free diet soda about once a day, and that doesn't taste anything like the other stuff. And it won't leave my brain alone either. And it really is torture. It IS just like one of those shows on TV, like Intervention, where the person is shown as spending all their time in pursuit of their drugs or drink or whatever. I start out spending my whole day thinking about what I get to eat next and when. It's really awful until I get used to it, and that takes about a month.

I was pretty much deluding myself my first few weeks on South Beach because I was compensating with fats instead of carbs. I suddenly needed Sugar Free Jello with heavy cream, and coffee with half and half, and like 3-4 ounces of cheese every day--when I never ate that stuff before. It's a pretty incredible struggle.

Ursula, I admire anyone who can do *******. I tried it for one day but was so weak, I could barely keep going. I have such a busy job--I work in a public health clinic--that I just can't afford to be sluggish and brain-dead so I knew it wouldn't work for me. It produces great results though!

Karina, the one big meal and two skimpy ones might just do the trick in Philly! Especially if your friends think "just cutting back" is the way to go. They probably won't pressure you if you have small amounts for two meals and then something generous for the third. Actually thats how my son and I used to eat when we would go backpacking through Ireland while I was a college student (I'm a bit of a late bloomer, I started college in my 30s). We really couldn't afford to eat much so we had buttered toast at the hostel in the morning, a big pub lunch with Guinness in the afternoon, and then more leftover toast for dinner. I never gained on those vacations. Sometimes being broke actually helps!

Sue, I hope you're out there hangin' tough.

I did okay today. One CM, one RM and then a couple of bites of chili I was cooking for tomorrow, just to taste it. I feel a bit empty now but its bedtime so I don't care. I have a 10 hour shift at work tomorrow and I'm always tempted to nibble at the goodies in the kitchen, so it will be a test of my Beck skills for sure!

More later,
L

Ladies, I need help!

Sorry I've been MIA for awhile. Unfortunately during this time I haven't been doing my BDS either. I haven't gone crazy or anything but I haven't lost anything in a week or two either. I haven't been reading my cards, planning, or keeping up on the book. Ugh!

On the bright side, I've been pretty much keeping up on exercise. I even ran my 10K on the 4th (finishing in 1h9m)! I was pretty excited about that.

I just need some help getting back on track! And I definitely need to get back into this thread more!

Hi Stacy,Welcome back! I know you're discouraged, but dang, your ticker is really impressive.

Liannie, very good point about maybe it's carb withdrawal. I honestly hadn't thought about that.

I just noticed that the moderator locked the previous thread. She asked us to open a new thread every month since the thread was seeing more action, and to help new people to not have to read thru "42 pages" of information to get up to speed.

Yesterday, in the evening when I was conscious of being full (this is a victory b/c usually I don't feel full at all or I have no awareness that my stomach is full), but I was still wanting, wanting to eat more. And I was fighting, fighting, and then I had this realization that even if I gave in and ate, the voice wasn't going to go away. Eating would only make that go away till the next meal time. So why eat? It was such a cool thing to realize.

The bad news is that somehow, I am all the way back up to 180-181.. almost where I started. I thought I did really well yesterday, as I said with the realization, I ate low carb foods, I drank my water.....but I still went up. I ate 1.5 cups more cauliflower than I was supposed to, and I ate some salami, which is allowed but kind of salty. And a little mroe cream because I had decaf coffee at night for "dessert." I usually don't count calories, just carb grams, and I was around 30--max 33 or so, which yes, is over 20, but still--to gain back 3-4#s. Completely discouraging.

So I'm sad because I love Atkins food choices and how relatively simple it is, but I think I need to switch to a stricter low carb plan that limits calories more. I get to have unlimited low carb veggies, which is nice, and I get a serving of fruit, which is nice. It's just more work and it's so restrictive, and for that I feel just a big sigh. But losing is the most important, so if that's what my body needs to be healthy and a normal weight, then I'll do it.

I have been in this place before, so it's encouraging to know that i can use the Beck techniques to change my lack of success in the past.

STACY, you're back! Yay!
And good for you, running a 10K. WOW. I'm REALLY impressed! I'm still working my way up to 2 minutes in a row at 5mph on the treadmill... Cool beans, girlfriend!

Now, to deal with your plateau frustration....have you been counting calories at all? Sometimes those little "extras" add up to more than we think (extra mayo on a sandwich, full-fat lattes, stuff we don't think is harmless at the time) when taken all together. I find it helps me to log my intake into Fitday or The Daily Plate when I need feedback on why I'm not doing well. Does any of this sound plausible to you? What about salt consumption? Possibly water retention is the problem.

And yes, please do rejoin us. If anyone will help you introspect, intuit or thoroughly analyze your eating behavior, it's this bunch! We have two new members too: Ursula and Princess Sara.

GIRLY,
I've been having to reconsider my diet plan too because of carbo binges the week before the holiday. When I deny myself something completely, it seems like that's the one thing I fixate on and crave. And then when I finally give in, it's with a binge. Even though South Beachers decry calorie counting, I'm doing it now anyway because calories DO matter.

And I'm actually back up to 177 myself, so I guess I'll change the ticker and stop denying that it's only water. I too struggled with the wanting, wanting, wanting last night and almost came here to post a "somebody stop me" message, but then just gave up and drank a bunch of water instead and went to bed. I kept telling myself "NO CHOICE", like Dr. Beck says, and it reminded me of the revelation I had back in 1989 when I went from above 230 to 150 in something like 6 months. I remember sitting on the couch the first night of my diet feeling like I was starving to death, and looking down at my fat rolls knowing they would never leave if I caved in. It was like a lightbulb went on and I recall saying out loud, "I'm never going to lose this weight if I don't learn to go hungry sometimes." I suppose I need to just re-realize that now. There's simply no convenient and completely painless way to do this.

So onward we go, ladies. Have a great day all! Shouts out to Karina, Sara, Ursula, Sue and all the other Becksters out there!

L

PS: I had my "reward meal" already today and will see how the cravings go. My carbs were 2 slices of rye bread (on the low-fat reuben sandwich I made).

I'm new here, just registered, and just bought the beck diet book so went looking or a support group. I just started the book and am unsure what plan I'm going to go with... I'm thinking ww cor but Im not sure yet. hope to meet you all

tracy


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Hello! I just bought the Beck book a few days ago as I saw it mentioned on a vegetarian thread here and didn't realize it was for all ways of eating. I am just getting into it and not exactly following it from first to last, just jumping around and absorbing some of the ideas, making cards, actually to emergency aid me in my binge eating problems, trying to call binges "overeating."

Great book. I've been carrying it around with me.

If no one minds, I'll chime in here every now and then.

HI everyone,

I have enjoyed the honest and helpful postings on this site.

Welcome to the new folks

I have just written two long postings and both times they were lost when I hit repy. So this my last but very short attemt to keep in contact.

Good luck to all tomarrow I'll try again.
sue

Thanks for the ecouragment girly and liannie. It really feels good to belong to a support group. I'm hoping between some extra salty foods and TOM that by next week I'll definitely have a loss. I do count calories using fitday but when I go off plan I tend to quit. Bad habit, I know. I have some family coming out to visit in August so I really want to give it my best for the next month and see if I can get in the 160's. I'd love to impress my sister!

girly, that's an awesome realization! I still struggle with the whole "feel full=stop eating" thing. Have you thought about counting calories for a couple typial days? Maybe even if your carbs are good your calories are a little high. I'm not familiar enough with low carb diets to offer any other advice, I've never even tried one. I don't do well with restrictive diets.

liannie, thanks, I was pretty proud for finishing the 10k. I've only been running for 3 months so I was just happy to finish but my time, 1:09:12, wasn't too bad either! Great job just having water and going to sleep. Too bad we all don't do that everytime!

amarantha and popcornfeet! The more the merrier!

, Tracy and Amarantha! Want to post your reasons for your weight-loss quest? It's great to get that theme going in the thread because then a lot of us restate our own, and it helps us remember them.

Sue, I'm sorry to hear about your posting problems! Your input is so valuable here. I've come to really depend upon you ladies as like a "group therapy" or something. I've been on so many other boards where we chat about our lives and what we're doing and oh by the way, here's what I ate and how many pounds up/down. But over here, we address the psychological stuff that's behind all the eating. Maybe if you typed your post into a word document then tried to copy the text on this board and send it? In case the post didnt go through, you'd still have the stuff to repaste and send again. Just a thought. Also, I heard there was problems with the Quick Reply option. Someone said to Go Advanced instead.

Stacy, the 160s are a great goal. You've done so well already, I know you'll get there. That would be the icing on the cake for the family to see though come this August. And how encouraging to go from "couch to 10K" in just 3 months! I'm afraid my aged knees would protest that much running, but I am trying some high-intensity intervals on my treadmill. If I could run a whole mile, I'd be ecstatic.

As for me, today I am again revisiting hunger tolerance, no unplanned eating and eating sitting down from the earlier days of the book. I also have an exercise session planned (Workout #27 since starting TBDS on May 20), and I've already read my reasons once today.

And you know what else...I've decided. I'm really going to do this. NOTHING is going to stop me. I discovered another reason yesterday: I'm tired of dieting! I'm tired of the deprivation, the scale obsession and the relearning of lessons forgotten. If I don't regain the weight this time, I'll never have to do this again. I WILL have to be a mindful conscious eater for the rest of my life, but with Dr. Beck's lessons handy I'll be able to do it. And then NO MORE DIETS, as long as I realize that every time I eat, it counts. Because it does.

Happy Monday All!

L

Hi everyone,
I'm in Philly as of yesterday afternoon, but I've done really well so far with keeping on plan, and I think I'll be able to keep it up! We're all pretty much doing our own thing during the day, so I don't even think they'll notice I'm eating very differently. I know I shouldn't care, but I feel like they've seen me be on a ton of diets over the years that have failed, and it's just embarrassing.

Welcome to all the new people! We have a wonderful group here, very supportive, and everyone has great ideas for overcoming some of the past obstacles we've all faced.

Liannie, Great job on your exercising! I completely agree that this group is invaluable to my success. I just don't really have anyone else to help me out with it, and I need the encouragement. I also love seeing everyone else be successful--makes me realize it is really within all of our grasps.

Stacy, I'm so impressed that you ran the 10k, especially only running for 3 months! That is so encouraging for me, since I'm still kind of a beginner at it. Do you have any tips?

Sue, I'm sorry to hear about all of your problems with posting--I'd hate to lose you as part of this group. Maybe it is the length of time that you spend writing that's the problem? I don't think anyone would be opposed if you wrote multiple short postings instead of one long one. Hope you are doing well!

Girly, how is the new diet going? Did you start today? Did you check to see if the scale went back down? Good luck with your new diet!

Talk to you all soon, hope it's not as hot where you are as it is here (98 heat index)...makes it hard to get out of the house and do anything!

HI amazing folks,

You all are that increditable 2% of people who lose the weight and keep it off-Liannie over 18 yrs. My Doc feel I should lose most of my extra weight then he wants to band my stomach. I hope to avoid that even.

Thanks for the suggestions about postings if things keep failing I think I will do a number of short ones.-You folks are my support group. THANKS

I had absolute food amnesia for three days. Result a 5 lb gain-some must be water due to higher carbs. Anyway now I trying to figure it out.

I think there were my major factors were which lead to overeating
1-stimulating-sight or smelling food in my own home.-Even at a party some place else I have more control because I am a guest-got to have some manners and not pig out. My house guest brought many yummy caloric treats.
2. Exhaustion- Who can plan-plus making meals for 4-6 people for three days is all I could do. Another big plus did my 1st craft fair with our decorated birdhouses on Sat.
3. The sense of Party-let go and laugh, snacks and wine in front of me for hours. I feel rude removing all the food, not offering more wine, snacks ect.
4. Exercise-never thought of that concept for 3 days.

I don't even have any sabotaging thoughts-I just reacted and ate, ate, I had so little impluse control. wow I am amazed how little regard I had for my health. In TBS she deals with sabotaging thoughts nicely-How do you handle it when you so overwhelmed by food?

Karina- that sounds very, very hot-bet it is muggy also. Any chance you can swim-either laps or aerobic? It seems evenings are going to be the tough time-what is your game plan for that time?

Kiddos to all you exercisers. Stacy- running 10K amazing.

Girlythin-good luck on find the right eating plan that works for you. I gone to counting cals because of the flexiilty. It is hard trade off-cals more types of food and usually smaller amounts. VLC more food but limited selection.

Today I am rereading TBS, preplanning and recording and riding the bike-I find that I sometimes go days with out studying the book even though I still losing weight(up to this weekend)-any one interested in doing specific lessons and working on it together?

good cognitive changes to all

sue

p.s.-Liannie It was quick reply that was losing them-went advance and it worked. Thanks sue

Karina, thanks! Yea, I guess I would have a couple tips. First would be to get fitted for a good pair of running shoes. Second would be find some softer surfaces to run on. Dirt > asphalt > sidewalk. And third, start slow. I started out huffing and puffing and barely being able to do 10 minutes at 13:20 pace. Just by keeping at it and being consistent you'll find yourself being able to go farther and farther.

sue, sorry about your gain. I think we all have these setbacks whether they last a day, a week, or even months. The good thing is that your getting back into the book and recognized that it was just a mistake and you can move on. As far as the sabotaging thoughts, If there are certain ones you find yourself repeatedly thinking try making some response cards and/or post-its that you could read frequently so that when it comes time you may be able to deal with it easier.

Thanks for the welcome and hello to everyone.

Re my reasons for the weight loss journey, they probably number into the thousands. I made a card today with some of them.

I've been on a weight loss journey for a long time and it took a long time to lose the initial major amount of weight. This isn't a new thing in my life, so the reasons have changed over the years. I bought Beck at a time when I've been struggling again with the same old demons and my desire to conquer these demons, including the diet ones, is the reason I am fighting so hard to get back some control into my weight management life. It's like at one time, I did Beck things instinctively to lose more than 100 pounds, but now I seem to need to see it all spelled out and quantified.

The cognitive therapy approach really resonates with me. Diet methods are just mechanical. It's the mind that has to change before weight loss is possible.

I listed a lot of personal things on the card, but a few of the more obvious reasons right now are I simply want to feel in control of my weight loss again and reach my ultra goal (just 'cause it's there).

I listed a couple of things about my desire to be a runner (not to lose weight, I just want to be a runner for some reason and do a marathon when I'm an old person) and losing just a bit more weight would take pressure off my knees and joints and make running easier. I also just generally want to be a fit and healthy person. I want to look good in jeans, frankly. I have a good physique that I like. I just want to like it even more (sorry, sounds arrogant and shallow, but I am proud of my efforts so far and want to continue feeling that way).

I want to feel more in control over all this, not feel that everytime I am on deadline or someone says or does something to me I don't like or I am worried or anxious or it's hot out or I go out to lunch for business or somebody I love has a problem or the computer isn't working right and, again, it's deadline, or ... whatever ... that it has to translate into overeating.

I've stopped saying "binge" since reading this book. I now say "overeating" ... very different thing.

Anyway, that's me for now. I am just off deadline two hours and I want to eat, eat, eat. That's how I cope. But I feel empowered by Beck tonight. I've been reading it in snippets all day, so I will definitely not eat any unplanned food. I have planned a snack after midnight (my eating day turns over at midnight due to my crazy work schedule) and think I can hold off.

In fact I am going to bed.

Good Morning All,

I'm running out the door due to an extra-early day at work today but I wanted to at least drop by and say hello.

Karina, good job in Philly! It's easier than you thought! Sorry about the heat. Illinois is like that right now. My 2 little air conditioners are working overtime and it's still icky inside.

Sue, you're going through what happened to me the week before July 4. I did fine up to the last Thurs. in June when, after a meeting at work, I was confronted with a tray of sweets. I went absolutely nuts. That night, I stopped at McDonalds for dinner. The next day I just ate and ate. Over the weekend it was mojitos and barbecue. And on and on, until the infamous vodka-spiked Margaritas on July 4 before I finally got a grip. I gained 8 lbs total. 6 are now gone, so clearly they were water, but it's astounding the damage you can do in such a short time. And I just couldn't stop. The cravings were intense and none of the Beck lessons could outshout the cravings. So I guess my answer to being overwhelmed by food is: I lie down and open my mouth, then just let the food march in. Maybe that's the first lesson to all work on together.

What do the others think? I'm game for going over specific lessons together. No matter how far you get in the book, some of those early lessons just need repeating!

Stacy, how did you get started with the running. Did you do that "Couch to 5K" thing that's so popular these days? Or some other program? Were you always a runner or is this brand new? Your story is so intriguing. I'd like to be an old lady who runs sometime too! Please tell us more.

Jana of the Jungle, your post resonates with me so much! I have always responded to stress with food, and in the health-care-for-the-poor business there is always more stress: more need, less money, sadder stories, longer hours for lower pay. I also have to learn to respond to life's little (or big) bumps in the road without self-medicating with food. It's the lifelong maintenance that we are striving for, and that's where the lessons come in handy, so we can be in that incredible 2%.

Well, I'd better go. I have to be out the door in 20 minutes or so. I'm redoing my same lessons today because I haven't had time to read the book any more: hunger tolerance, reading my reasons, no unplanned eating. Dont know about eating sitting down today. That may be impossible at work,but I'll try.

Hey Ursula and Princess Sara, where are you?

More later....

L