Welcome to the discussion group, support group, diet coach group, diet buddy group relating to the two books by Dr. Judith S. Beck:and the first bookThe 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: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, 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.

Previous Beck threads on 3fatchicks.com:


Beck Diet For Life/Solution – January 2009 – Support, Discussion, Buddy/Coach
The Beck Diet Solution – December 2008 – Group for Support, Discussion, Diet Coach
The Beck Diet Solution – November 2008 – Group for Support, Discussion, Diet Coach
The Beck Diet Solution – October 2008 – Group for Support, Discussion, Diet Coach
The Beck Diet Solution – September 2008 – Group for Support, Discussion, Diet Coach
The Beck Diet Solution – August 2008 – Group for Support, Discussion, Diet Coach
The Beck Diet Solution – July 2008 – Group for Support, Discussion, Diet Coach
The Beck Diet Solution – June 2008 – Group for Support, Discussion, Diet Coach
The Beck Diet Solution – May 2008 – Group for Support, Discussion, Diet Coach
The Beck Diet Solution – April 2008 – Group for Support, Discussion, Diet Coach
The Beck Diet Solution – March 2008 – Group for Support, Discussion, Diet Coach
The Beck Diet Solution – February 2008 – Group for Support, Discussion, Diet Coach
The Beck Diet Solution – January 2008 – Group for Support, Discussion, Diet Coach
The Beck Diet Solution – December 2007 – Group for Support, Discussion, Diet Coach
The Beck Diet Solution - November 2007
The Beck Diet Solution - October 2007
The Beck Diet Solution - September 2007
The Beck Diet Solution - August 2007
The Beck Diet Solution - July 2007
The Beck Diet Solution - May/June 2007

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Stuck to the plan eating dinner at Wagamamas. Had grilled salmon with pickled Bok Choi and a very small portion of sticky rice. CREDIT moi. And Double CREDIT moi because the plate came with a huge (maybe a pint) of sticky rice, which I left on my plate in a rare act for me since I am a charter member of the clean your plate club.

And CREDIT moi for walking to the restaurant and back. It's especially satisfying to walk immediately after dinner. We always do that after Thanksgiving dinner, wouldn't hurt to do it every evening.


Jean (kuhljeanie) - Yay for a little more sleep and a good run with a record sprint. Kudos for choosing to marry a "BIG HONKIN' ENORMOUS blessing."

Robin (RobinW) - Kudos for "planning for next week." I can't hear that often enough. Planning, planning, planning. Methinks that's what makes the difference for me, and therefore, of course, everyone else.

onebyone - It's really interesting that you discovered that you've been below 240 recently. Kudos for acting in a Beck-like way to use that information to change your expectations of yourself, so that "I will live up to my own expectations!" takes on a positive promise. That's the kind of example that Beck should use in her next book.

Yay that printing went so smoothly; perhaps you're just getting more polished in your art. And, again you remind me that we need some Canadian Tire stores around here.


Anne (wndranne) - Ouch for the munchies and for tired. Kudos for recognizing them and then choosing a response rather than just reacting with your gut, weight-producing, old style responses.

And Kudos for having a plan in place for the restaurants where you'll likely head. Now that's good thinking ahead.


Lisa (LisaMarie71) - Yep, sharing your Advantages Response Card is a great way to open up to the group as well as bring some clarity to your own thinking in the process. And yep, it's been done from time to time and it's always time to do again. Either one by one or in a group - your choice. I suspect that if you start, some folks will follow.

davidette - Big Kudos for avoiding all samples at Costco's and BJ's. What a feat. You're my hero for that since my recent (first) trip to Costco was a sampling disaster. Will have to remember your use of No Choice. And Congrats for the stable sugars - no doubt in response to your actions like skipping samples.

ChinaMaine - Kudos for all your on-plan stuff to make a "Perfect Day." What an upbeat day to lift all our spirits.

I hope that someone scanning the net for Dr. Beck lets her know of your neat phrase, "righteous book." Neat phrase, hadn't heard that applied to a book before. Hope it can avoid LOLSpeak, LOL.


Rachel (helping rachel) - Kudos for choosing an alternative Behavior when faced with pizza and off-plan food. Thanks for the reminder that there are more options than sitting with the food and feeling sorry for myself.

Ouch for the dental implant; Yay for the dental implant since I assume this is a stub on which some nice permanent crown will soon reside. Titanium is one nice metal.


Readers -

onebyone
Interesting we were on the same mental path yesterday. The lightbulb lit up: I can change and live this way for life, all I have to do is believe it, at which point it's relatively effortless. It's integrating that belief versus knowing it intellectually that's key. I suspect we get there in baby steps, building our confidence skill by skill. That said, I'm going to put more focus on giving myself credit. I'm starting to take certain behaviors for granted; because some things are getting easier I've stopped really appreciating the effort when actually keeping it up is an even greater achievement. We will live up to our expectations, but our expectation will be of success.

Bravo for keeping up with Fitday and Beck on top of all the activity of your opening. It would be easy to let the anxiety take over but you are making time for your diet program first!

kuhljeanie Congratulations on the treadmill sprint - Awesome!

robin What is the brand name of the fat free yogurt with 14 grams of protein? Not eating meat, I'm always on the lookout for high protein. Most of the yogurts I look at are so full of sugar, and I'm trying to wean myself off that. Another trick is to mix a tbsp of high protein powder with the milk for your cereal. I use Almond Breeze milk substitute, which is sweet enough to compensate for the powder taste. That way I can enjoy different cereals rather than feeling obligated to stick with my high protein Special K every day.

Speaking of wheat allergies, I tried Shirataki noodles last night. Have you ever tried them? A little rubbery compared to pasta, but I found them completely acceptable, at least in stir fry.

Ann How did eating out go? Great job planning ahead. I'm already working on a strategy for Valentine's Day : Stay home! My visualization of passing over creamy soup, chewy bread and decadent desert is not convincing!

helping rachel Kudos for not allowing self pity to sabotage your determination. Great idea with the bathtub and CD: a distraction as well as positive reinforcement! I just checked Thin for Life out of the library. Is there an updated version, the one I have is from 1995? The CD sounds like a good thing to have in my car.

chinaMaine Don't tone down your joy, it's contagious! I suspect your happiness is well deserved self esteem for your progress. You'll be beating your husband up those trails by spring!

Bill Kudos on restaurant planning and follow through, especially with the rice! Here's to spring weather more conducive to after dinner walks.

Enjoy Superbowl Sunday!

Hey, I'm getting in the thread early this time!

Yesterday was a great day. I read through the Stage 1 stuff in the CBDL book again and focused on the success skills. I still haven't started checking them off on the skills sheets or anything. I'm sort of just giving myself time to work them into my life gradually, if that makes sense. I also did both planned AND spontaneous exercise, after no exercise for months! For spontaneous, I just did a lot of extra climbing of my stairs (thankfully, my ankle pain has mostly gone away and allowed this). For planned exercise, I'm pleased to tell you that I actually did a little running. I took a walk with three 5-minute jogging intervals. I realized I really do have to take it slow with the running. In November, I was trying to start back too strong, and I know now that I have to start back as if I were practically a beginner again. I also stayed well within my points range, resisted bacon again (why is my husband on a bacon kick?), and chose not to eat when I wasn't truly hungry and just wanted to munch. Yay--lots of credit! I weighed in this morning at 214.8, another two pounds down. Woohoo!

Bill -- you left sticky rice on your plate? You're a better man than I!

davidette -- the baby steps thing is so important. I'm such an all-or-nothing thinker, even though I know that gets me nowhere. By the way, are you the one who said she's in VA?

For those of you watching the Superbowl, enjoy! I plan on making a big grocery shopping trip around that time, hoping most people will be at home and the store won't be crowded!

Sorry that I have been MIA. Alot of things happening right now. Dh is going in for tests on him memory and I have a echocardiogram this week. Dh is going in because his memory is not all that great.
For his work...EEO is filing a formal complaint so now we restart the investigation again for EEO. We will make it thur this...I know that we will.
Still on the stage

Okay...I hit the enter button.
I am still on the stage 1 portion and really trying to incorporate it. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks

Good Afternoon Coaches

Well I thought I'd be very sick today but my body (thank you strong body) is keeping this bug at bay. I just built a coldsore and still have the sore throat but I've had that for a few days. It's not getting worse. Phew.

Foodwise my calorie count went up and over due to upping my intake of juices to battle my cold. I figure that's my focus right now; not to get sick that is so whatever it takes within reason. Of course I could have chosed zero calorie tea but I was craving the extra vitamins I think in the fruit and the fruit juice. Oh well.

I made a ham earlier this week and today I'll be making bean soup with ham bone in it again. yum. This is the best kind of thinking ahead I can imagine. We enjoyed the ham and now it gets to do double duty for another week as soup flavouring.

My first week of calorie counting/fitday recording ends tomorrow so I'll be weighing in. I satrted at 264 so we'll see where I am at tomorrow.

BillBlueEyes Kudos for letting the sticky rice stay stuck to your plate! I know this is hard for you... awesome. I love bok choy but have never had pickled bok choy. Bet it was good.

davidette I catch myself not expecting success. Like I thought, right after I wrote that I "started at 264", that "I'll bet I won't get to 260 or under it. Ever." I have been trying to eradicate this kind of thing from my psyche but haven't had much luck. the best I can do is ignore the weight #'s and do the work: count the calories, record them, strive for the optimum, work on higher quality, better food, drill down on the nutrient levels, up the exercise... there is plenty of work to do besides paying attention to a number on the scale, the amount of force the gravity of the earth exerts on my body for the split second I stand on a mechanical device. really. To be ruled by that is indeed to not see the forest for the trees! Thanks for your positive input

LisaMarie71 Yay for the weightloss and yay for getting back to exercise and for doing it in a way that will be safe and therefore doable over the longterm. And credit to you for working the beck program in a way that suits you!

angelmomma210 Oh my. Things are still up and down eh? Well each stage is one stage over and done with. youan re moving forward and you are facing things as they come. That's good. You could be coping with things much much worse and KUDOS for coming here to post. I'm glad you do.
I'm wishing for you both the good results you are hoping for on your upcoming tests...

Okay off to find a good new bean soup recipe to try.
Have a good day Becksters.

Hi all

Our power was out this morning for a few hour this morning....so Im very behind on food prep for the week. I should be ok for tomorrow, I still have some soup and cooked chicken. So guess what Im doing tomorrow night?

davidette~ I eat the chobani greek yogurt http://www.chobani.com/ It has added sugar, but its "sugar" not sweetener, or corn syrup or other crud we dont need. I love it....it tastes like used to taste when I was a kid. Its a bit expensive($1.69), but for what Im getting, its worth it to me.

Bill~ Kudos for your walking before and after your meal!!

onebyone~ feel better

I'll check back in later if I get a chance. Have a nice evening!

Coaches/Buddies Well. Well. Let me start with the credits for today, because it is a short list. I ran per plan. I also ran (same run) as a strategy/distraction so I didn't eat the entire Costco cookie pack DH brought home today. My food intake was not nearly as bad as it could have been. Today had the potential to be a metaphorical train wreck (as opposed to the literal one that got me about a month ago), and it was merely a bump on the road. Is that a mixed metaphor?

DS is sort of puking. It could be just BIG spit up from the teething as nothing else is really wrong. He is also not sleeping or eating well, and I'm just dog tired from taking care of him--and yes, DH is right in there with me. DD is going through something right now, and is pretty much in a perpetual tantrum. I have had just about as much of getting puked on and screamed at as I can take. (10 hrs until their little butts get hauled off to day care, not that I'm counting.)

After several hours of walking the floor with the puker, and finally got him down, I just sort of fell into bed last night, no plan for today, and I don't think I even brushed or flossed. I was up and down with him several times last night, and so was planless and exhausted today. DD and I went to the butterfly exhibit at the Tucson Botanical Gardens this morning, and then in the spirit of "no good deed goes unpunished" proceeded to just torment me the rest of the day. We put her to bed at 5:30 halfway through supper, we were so done. The screaming has just now stopped, 2 hrs later. DS puked all over himself again just after his bath, and I pretty much lost it, and DH let me go for my run right then while he started over. He's the best, except for bringing the GIANT package of cookies home from Costco. Anyway, I ended up about 400 calories over where I want to be, but it could have been way, way worse.

So, I have a plan for tomorrow, which includes some "me" time with no children about, menus planned, and core work for exercise. I'm not sure I want to do a Cheat Sheet on today. I think this falls into one of those "survival" days where you just do the best you can and sort it out later. Anyway, after posting tonight, I'm going to go read my cards, journal a bit, and then pass out. It is DH's night with DS, but I think the odds of me sleeping through are about 10%.

In other news, I bought a Wii Fit yesterday.

Rachel Glad your tooth implant base is done, and I'll bet you are looking forward to the tooth itself! I think you did a great job avoiding pizza, and will do fine eating out--look ahead to the restaurant section of your book for some tips.

ChinaMaine Hooray for happy days! Take 'em when you can get 'em.

Bill Thanks for starting us out this month! Is pickled Bok Choi good? Nice job on the walk! A lovely way to get to a restaurant. I did well my with restaurant experience last night, BTW, even though we had to leave early since the first "time out" didn't deter DD from behaving like a little brute. Sigh.

davidette We do indeed live up to our expectations. I learned to set mine high. I always managed to surprise myself and get there.

Good luck with Valentine's Day. DH and I don't do that one; something disingenuous about having a day when you are obligated to show your love with superficial crap. On the other hand, tomorrow is Ground Hog's Day, which I find a completely delightful holiday, second only to Halloween in fun, and thankfully, not a culturally mandated pig-out day, pun intended.

Lisa on that run! Nicely done on staying in your points range. I'll trade you a DH on a bacon kick for a DH with a GIANT FREAKING PACK OF COSTCO COOKIES fixation any day. Not that it bothers me or anything.

Chris/angelmomma210 Glad to hear the EEO is taking up your case. Good luck with your EKG and continued wishes on working those Stage 1 skills.

onebyone Love the groundhog! Get your cold taken care of and then worry about the juices. The truth is our bodies need more healthy food when we are sick, and you are doing exactly what you should be doing. Crssing fingers on your weigh in for tomorrow.

RobinW Glad you are powered up again! You are too organized.

Who's missing? kulhjeanie, Kim/bennyhannahmama, JenMusic, and all our other friends.

Anne

I had a good day. Food / Exercise – on plan, credits! Bill – Congrats for stretching a new muscle – leaving food on your plate!

davidette – Thanks for the fun imagery of me sprinting past my husband on a hiking trail. LOL He and I are the tortoise and hare, respectively. So the challenge will be to maintain my lead, once I have it.

LisaMarie71 – Wow – It sounds like you did have a great day! Credit! I totally understand how important it is to remind ourselves to take it slowly with exercise. I consistently want to go faster/further than my body is ready to take me. So EXTRA credits for having that insight!

angelmomma210 My best wishes and warm thoughts to you and DH. Take care…

onebyone – Good luck keeping the cold at bay! And yum on the ham soup... And 1 week of fitday – credit tu! Be sure to make the time to give credit to yourself for everything you do that deserves credit. That’ll eventually do more than anything else in eradicate ‘stinkin thinkin’. 

Robin Too bad about the power outage – but glad it’s back. Credit tu for ‘making do’ for tomorrow, rather than using this as an excuse to fall back on less healthful foods.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Was a good walking day with the warm weather; I ticked some 17,000 steps. CREDIT moi. That's a large number for me recently, more like what I'd do on weekends a year ago. Felt good. Walked to the supermarket to get my veggies for the week and found a zillion people buying chips for the Superbowl. So much high calorie food goes down on this day.

And a big CREDIT moi for not taking a single Cape Cod potato chip from a giant bowl offered me yesterday. I love those chips, but I felt the need to work my Resistance Muscle a bit since I feel I've let it slip a bit lately.

Fun thing for me was to cook spaghetti squash to go with my red beans for lunches this week. Planned to do it during the boring parts of the Superbowl, but I remained glued to the TV as the score went back and forth at the end. So there I was with a fork scraping the strings of squash into a bowl as the Steelers caught an impossible pass at the end of the game. So CREDIT moi for cooking squash from the living room, LOL.


Jean (kuhljeanie) - Waving. Sending supportive thoughts that you're threading your way through the stuff.

Robin (RobinW) - Hope your power was promptly restored. Apparently in Kentucky it's still pretty grim with the National Guard delivering food to stranded homes without power.

onebyone - Ouch for the cold. Drooling here for the ham followed by bean soup made from the ham bone. Yep, that's good planning.

Anne (wndranne) - Kudos for planning some "me" time to recover from your survival day. Ouch for the bump in your railroad tracks. Double Ouch for the mix in your metaphor. Kudos to your DH for being a player through the kiddies going through their somethings at the same time.

Yep, the pickled Bok Choi was a treat - whoda' thunk. DW points out that being cold doesn't necessarily make it pickled. But either way it was a new way for me and rather tasty.


Chris (angelmomma210) - Good luck on your tests. Continue to send supportive thought for your DH's work situation.

Lisa (LisaMarie71) - Congrats on another two pounds down. Neat that you're inserting brief jogs into your walk.

davidette - Methinks you got a good summary of the whole book with "I suspect we get there in baby steps, building our confidence skill by skill." Kudos for giving yourself credit.

ChinaMaine - Kudos for working strategies for the time that you need a distraction to avoid eating. Good Beck stuff there. Those "scallop skewers" sound tasty. And Congrats to your body for choosing to drop some weight before getting an official notice from you to start, LOL.

Readers -

LisaMarie That was a great day! And the best part is knowing it will get easier and easier (as long as you don't hurt your ankle, so keep up the good work listening to your body )

Yep, I live in Portsmouth, VA, which is practically tropical compared to some of the snow stories here. (Tell that to my mom when her heat's off.) Are you in VA too?

angelmomma Kudos for keeping diet behavior in your thoughts. Good luck with the echo and the EEO

onebyone
is going on a response card! What a great way to redirect that energy and eliminate that helpless feeling. If that mechanical device doesn't reflect all your efforts today, keep your focus on the forest! Good luck with the cold bug.

Robin Thanks for the info on the yogurt. Looks like I can't get it around here, but I should be able to find it at Whole Foods in D.C. next time I visit. Looks delicious.

Ann Sympathy on the stressful day... and to think someday you'll look back and only remember how adorable your children were. For now some "me" time sounds like the best prescription. Great job finding energy to read cards, fight cookies, and handle eating out. (Throw the cookies out - that'll teach him to buy them. ) You're going to like the Wii Fit. I can't wait till my daughter comes home for spring break and brings hers back for a week!

ChinaMarie So glad to hear the scales are reflecting all your efforts. Kudos for finding good snack choices.

Bill Bravo! Working out resistance muscles as well as leg muscles! Spaghetti squash with red beans sounds good, do you add a sauce or spices?

That "good sore" of a few months ago has become monotonous. As soon as I start working out, my leg muscles start screaming "What, AGAIN?" But as long as I'm not particularly sore during daily activities, I'm choosing not to listen to the whiners. My concern is more of a mental burnout than physical, so I keep trying to pace myself for the long haul. That said, I hope to start back with weights Tuesday. I found in the past it really helps with my endurance and stamina. Finding my current calorie allotment is probably just right for now, the struggle is in staying on plan. I keep wanting to make substitutions but I know I need to practice longer following the plan.

Here's hoping Phil doesn't see his shadow!

Ok, yesterday was not quite as good. I exercised my giving-in muscle, I'm sorry to say, and ate a piece of my husband's stupid bacon. I stayed in my points, but I ate some unhealthy stuff like pizza and mint M&Ms! The scale was up this morning -- WAY up! I was 214.8 yesterday and (drumroll please)...219.6 today! Definitely the queen of huge fluctuations. I decided to take my mini-goal ticker off because it's too hard to keep up when my scale can fluctuate by a whole mini-goal every day! (Off-topic: every time I hear the word fluctuate, I think of a student who used it this way in a vocabulary sentence: The dog fluctuated up the tree. Huh? Vocab sentences are both comical and tragic for English teachers...) Anyway, I'm trying REALLY hard not to freak out about the scale and just remember that I'm doing fine and the scale IS moving down overall.

I didn't take a walk or run yesterday even though I probably could've. Not good. It felt good to be sore from the previous day's run, though, so that was a good reminder that I do need to keep going. I'm still a little sore today.

I'm going to try counting calories instead of points today, because obviously that will be more precise. When I count points, I'm very haphazard about it, so I never know exactly how many calories I'm getting. I need to be more careful now because I have a feeling my milk supply is starting to decrease a little, and I can't have that. I bought some of that nasty Mother's Milk tea that tastes like black licorice, but if the calorie-cutting drops my supply, those calories are going right back up, weight loss or no weight loss. Nursing my baby is far more important. But I think I can find a calorie level that will allow me to lose weight slowly and still nurse. I think maybe it's just because I had a big drop the first few days (as we often do when we first start cutting back on calories), but everything should even out.

Sorry I rambled so long about myself!!

angelmomma -- Sounds like you have a lot of stressful things going on. I'll keep you in my thoughts, and I hope things go your way.

onebyone -- I'm glad you wrote about how we shouldn't live by the number on the scale, because that's what I need to hear today after seeing that big jump on mine! I hope you feel better soon!

RobinW -- Hi! I'm jealous that you even DO food prep for the week. I haven't got it together enough to do that yet!

Anne -- I'm so sorry to hear about all the puking and screaming (and the giant box of cookies too). Lack of sleep is BAD. We finally gave in and started bedsharing and even though Henry wakes up a lot still, it's much easier to get him back down. I'm sure I'll regret it down the road, but oh well. It's working for now. We need to have a phone chat -- it's been a while! I keep meaning to call you and then something happens like the baby starts screaming or well...that's usually what happens.

ChinaMaine -- Congrats on your good day and for seeing a good number on the scale!

Bill -- Good job on resisting the chips and for taking those 17,000 steps!

davidette -- Yep, I'm in VA -- halfway between Richmond and Charlottesville, somewhere in the boonies!

Have a good day, everyone!

hello my coaches,

in an hour, i head off for my last yoga class with kim (the best yoga teacher in the whole wide world, i'm pretty sure.) the DVDs arrived saturday, so i got a taste of living room yoga. it's a fair-to-middlin' substitution, except when el nino decided that yoga was more fun on mommy's back than just raising one's arms and flopping down. the good news: just the mention of the word "yoga' gets him all excited now.

couldn't run this weekend - the weather was GORGEOUS, sunny, blue skies, and much warmer, but all the potential surfaces were still covered in ice. i've got the gym here for the rest of the week, and my treadmill arrives in two days, so i'm covered.

also making strides weaning off bistro MD. had a "doh!" moment saturday in the store, when i found a bottle of low-fat vindaloo sauce. i didn't have anything indian on my to-make list, but realized that i'm not restricted to re-creating bistro meals, if something else appeals to me, and i can work it to where it meets all the nutritional/caloric criteria. so this week, i'm going to try a chicken vindaloo with saag (no paneer) and rice. wish me luck! this week, we're putting all the weekly bistro meals in the chest freezer and living off "jeanstro" meals to see how it goes. another week or two of success, and i'll cut the cord. scary but OK.

other than that, i was still feeling the need to feed yesterday, and put away an additional 1/2 bag of microwave popcorn and some cookies i made for el nino. today, i'm down a lb. apparently i DID need to up my calories to get the scale moving again. crazy, because i started at about 1750 a day. the body is wise indeed! (just fixed a typo - had "body is wide indeed." caught it almost immediately.)

anne, my heart totally goes out to you. i have so been there except with one child. we're getting ready to start trying for #2, and DH is sort of freaking out because he's anticipating days exactly like the ones you're having now. any words of wisdom about how quickly they pass? or that you will at some point get your nights back? or something? i've counted hours until daycare time too...yipes. a smart lady told me a few days ago that the best thing i could do was get as much rest as possible and take care of me. right back at you!!! and maybe DH could take the cookies to work if you asked? i think that's where our candy went when i told DH i was having a problem with it. and yes, agreed, yesterday was a "survival" day. you do what you gotta do. congrats on your wii fit! i'm getting one for my birthday. in may. i'll live vicariously through you until then.

hi davidette and onebyone! i had a lightbulb moment too while reading your conversation about setting expectations for yourself and meeting them. i realized that i've changed my expectations for myself. i don't expect perfection, but i do expect myself to think and act like a grown-up. i expect that the way i'm eating now is normal and forever, and that i'll continue to lose at a snail's pace until i'm at a healthy weight. i expect that things will come up that will force me to adapt, but i also expect that i'll be able to. what a difference from a year ago...onebyone, how lovely that you didn't get full-blown sick! also glad your focus isn't really on the scale anymore. that's huge!

hi lisa! congrats on your run! i'm a huge fan of starting slow. i recall walking an 18:30 min mile when i started. it's definitely better to stay uninjured. you go, girl! i'm a calorie counter myself, and LOVE it. hope it works well for you!

hi robin, good that you didn't get stuck without any on-plan food! what a crazy difference it makes, huh?

yay china for sorting out one pattern and what you can do to improve it! may i humbly recommend ostrim jerky? they're half beef, half ostrich jerky, about the size of a slim jim (big!) and 80 calories of almost pure protein. i like the pepper ones - eat them with a babybel light and i'm good. sounds like you've got some great ideas already in place! cheers!

bill, wonderful step count! i also love that you chose to work your resistance muscle because it seemed to need it. i don't know that i would have thought of that (before you wrote about it, that is. )

Coaches/Buddies A quick check in since last night was so awful. I'm pleased to report everything is wonderful this morning. I got a decent amount of sleep, the children are behaving, and I'm planned out and packed and ready to head to work. Scale didn't punish me as badly as it could have. All in all, good reminder that a bad day is not a bad life. I'll check back in tonight with progress. It'll be late and short--I have my triathlon club meeting.

Trashing the cookies is a great idea, but would start a giant fight. He's training for a marathon (Boston--Bill we're up your way in April) and needs to pack in calories. Personally, I think his choices could be better, but I'm not his mother. I settled for putting them in an opaque bag so I can't casually see them. That'll kill 90% of the random issues for me, and I'll work through the rest. Yay, problem solving!

ChinaMaine Congrats on your weigh in! Regarding overeating after dinner, one of venerable strategies is go to bed early. Can't eat if I'm sleeping! Plus I get more rest.

Bill I think it is awesome that you can walk to the market and restaurants and stuff. I think the country would be a lot less fat if we could all do that. Nice work on the Super Skinny Bowl!

davidette Are you mixing up your workouts a bit to give your legs a break? Sorry bout the groundhog news! We have definite shadows here, but more winter is only good for us! Thanks for your kind thoughts on my lousy day!

Lisa I still don't see one single credit in your post!! I am also a fluctuator, so I know how that goes, and it is worse when nursing. Glad to hear that cosleeping is working for you, and there may be issues later sure, but doing what you gotta do is a perfectly good life choice. I'm off on Friday, in and out a bit, but I'll try to give you a buzz.

Jean Mmmm, Indian food.

As you know, not all days with children are good ones, but the good ones are WAY better than the bad ones. My only words of wisdom on #2 is that the first child doesn't serve as a good example of what to expect with the first. Ours are night and day, with DD being (usually) pretty high maintenance, and DS (usually) about as mellow as they come.

Back tonight!!

Anne