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 (3FC), a remarkable place for those interested in a healthy life style, including mindful eating, exercise, and weight loss. More about the site, including how to register so that you can post, can be found here.

The books are available on Amazon through the 3FC store by clicking their names above; buying through 3FC helps to cover the costs of running this site.

You can find the list of previous (or more current) monthly Beck threads here on 3 Fat Chicks via:

List of Monthly Beck Threads for Support, Discussion, Buddy/Coach

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Did gym, CREDIT moi. Seems like the storm scared folks away from the gym; few people were working out. Watched the city workers grinding up the remnants of the fallen limb in front of our house. While this probably doesn't really qualify as serious exercise, I enjoyed it as much as the four year old boy who was also there. Someday I've just got to buy myself one of those grinders.

Food was good enough, CREDIT moi - exactly on plan except for extra Black Seedless Grapes during the evening when I wanted to be eating the candy we had for trick or treaters. The good news is that I ate exactly none!! Exactly zero miniature candy bars, including dark chocolate Milky Ways which were calling big time. An additional CREDIT moi for the candy alone. We only had about a dozen of visitors so now I have to get rid of a lot of candy. I have a place to bring it this weekend where there might be enough young adults who didn't get their fill already.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – Such a fun reminder: packing your lunch created the opportunity to have a lovely life experience by the lake. Sane living has benefits!

TeachMe - Yep, Kudos indeed for working to stay your path with angiogram level of tensions. Congrats to your DH for having a heart in good health other than its known problem. Sending supportive thoughts for patiently waiting until March for resolution.

HaleyJu - Like being reminded, "practicing them over and over again."

Readers -

Credit for going to the grocery store to get normal foods into the house for a normal routine. Credit for getting a salad bar while at the grocery store for lunch since it was going to be hard to get salad fixed that quickly in the normal way.

We had 4 trick-or-treaters. About normal. I gave out candy by the handfuls and have only a bit left. I pass out Ghirardelli dark chocolate because it's something I'm willing to write into my food plan. Food plan is written for today and I'm determined to follow it.

My ups and downs in October led to a November 1 weight precisely 1/10 of a kilogram above my October 1 weight. I'm extremely happy with that but would like November to be less dramatic on that front.

TeachMe: sending supportive thoughts while you deal with DH and the angiogram. Glad that it went well!

We did have a few trick or treaters....... less than in previous years, though. The result is that I have more than previous amounts of candy leftover. I have managed to avoid eating any of it so far. I suppose I should do as today's tip says......... make a plan for it. Right now, I'm glad the candy is at home and I'm not. For some reason I am super hungry today and I might weaken and listen to the siren song of the candy dish. I need to get my head back in control before I get home.

After a number of days successfully being OP I seemed to have fallen off the wagon today. I was hungry all day. I ate more than I should have and some things that weren't good choices. About the only credit I can give myself is that I did manage to stay out of the left over candy. Oh, and I did go to yoga this afternoon. Credit for that, too. I'm afraid that there won't be a downward trend on the scale tomorrow.

Hi Coaches!

I had some depressing "stuff" today and didn't eat in response. credit. I found out later I'll need to work on Friday for a coworker whose DH is hospitalized. credit for motivating both DH and myself (and pup) to head to Denver for a bike ride/walk and healthy shopping at WFoods. The combo improved my spirits.

Asthma, prednisone, exhaustion.
Can't figure out if I'm hungry, if it's the drugs, if I'm tired.
I seem to be eating reasonably, but not planning like I wanted to.
The kindergarteners were definitely suffering the effects of post-Halloween sugar and excitement overdose. Hopefully they are all tucked in their littlel beds now and Friday will bring less crying and more focus.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Gotta stop this double fruit in the evenings; I'm stuck with the thinking that fruit is OK since it's good for me. Ouch. Otherwise, eating was on plan, CREDIT moi. The leftover Halloween candy continues to call me - but it's a soft voice. I don't really crave it. It would solve tension or boredom for a few seconds. My thinking is that one of those little 'fun-sized' bars would merely waken the cravings for more. And more. And more. Sugar is a powerful drug. It's scheduled to be contributed to some defenseless folks on Sunday. Seems like it would be a true act of compassion for the world if I just fed it to our compost worms.

Walk, CREDIT moi, was good enough. I got distracted when I stopped at Whole Foods for peanut butter where I wondered why it's shot up in price from about $2 per pound to $3.69. It's not a consequential item in my overall budget but it annoys me. Whole Foods is taking orders for their Thanksgiving turkeys suggesting to me that holiday eating is near. Time to think about sane portions when seated at a large, chatty table where second and third helpings are happening.


Joy (gardenerjoy) – I second the motion for "less dramatic." Wish I'd quit drooling over the thought of your Ghirardelli dark chocolate hand outs and remind myself that I could just go buy some if I really wanted it.

Debbie (Lexxiss) – Kudos for proactive activities to stave off the neggies from "stuff." Hope your co-worker's DH recovers.

Nature Girl – A buddy took his young kids to see his office and a co-worker gave them candy. He had to leave in five minutes as they went off the walls. I can only imagine a room of 18 sugar drugged kindergartners. Good luck finding your center despite exhaustion.

HaleyJu - Yep, Kudos for avoiding the candy - a really unnecessary glob of sugar calories. After reading Beck's tip to make a plan for leftover candy, I wrote my plan in my check-in today.

Readers -

Hi Coaches!

I forgot to weigh this morning, but fortunately it's not habitual. Yesterday OP and I have remembered to set out my work lunch. I'm quite organized this am...cognitive therapy seems to be working in my life right now. credit for persistence.

Credit for meeting my exercise goal for October, mostly thanks to that three hours of walking in Eureka Springs on Monday. Credit for making required adjustments to my food plan due to my kitchen supplies not being quite up to par, and not letting that derail me.

I had my trifecta of writing, exercising, and eating on plan yesterday. Not bad for the second full day back from vacation. But I need to acknowledge that I'm feeling behind on everything else, some of which I need to jettison and some of which I need to punt. I'll try to get some of that done today so that it doesn't start weighing me down.

WI: +0.5kgs, Exercise: +55 55/1600 minutes for November, Food: 90% op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

HaleyJu: one of the things I've been surprised to learn since I stopped overeating is that some days are just hungrier than others -- no rhyme or reason. It helps to know that hungry days happen and that they pass. Eating a little more on a hungry day doesn't need to derail you, just get right back to planning and doing all the other Beck tasks and you'll be back to less hungry days soon.

Lexxiss: good job taking care of yourself on a tough day!

BillBlueEyes: yay for having a plan to dispose of excess candy.

Nature_Girl: take care of yourself! I find a food plan most useful on days when I'm not sure I'm assessing my own hunger well (which is most days, still). Eating by the plan and the clock works for me.

Good Morning, Coaches.

Happy November. Checking in after a long absence telling the truth. If I stop checking in it is most likely because I can't face what I am eating. I have had to change my ticker up by four pounds. I still had to battle the voices in my head that said, "Wait another week before you say anything. You can lose that weight in a week." Weight is just information. The information is telling me I am not putting first things first - which is health. I have never suffered so many physical ailments of stress - my neck and back are killing me. I am having indigestion problems, sleep is difficult. Crazy.The good news is everything I am working on( MFA, job, family) is going well. The bad news is I am paying the physical price.

I am so far gone, I can't even remember what I am suppose to eat! I had three eggs and an apple for breakfast. that sounds pretty good. My stomach is very tender ( never in my life has that been true) so I have to put in sometime today to figure out what food plan will help me get through. But time, then is the issue.

Glad to have this blog here to help get back on track. Best to all.

Today's thought: It's hard, but it's worth it.........
Back later with comments on the day.

Emotional meeting after work today - lots of personal "attacks". Good support from colleagues but still rough. My reaction was to leave wanting to solve that problem and ease the feelings with a giant pizza or treats from the store across the street. Resisted and drove home with only a dozen almonds and a cliff bar hitting my mouth (hadn't eaten in 5 hours). One measured mixed drink later, I am preparing leftover healthy chili to feed my actual hunger instead of trying to fix feelings with food.
What a victory!!!

A victory indeed naturegirl!

Today was one of those days that Gardenjoy said would be less hungry. Yesterday was close to 1600 calories. Today was back under 1300. I was completely surprised this morning that instead of the expected weight gain there was a .5 loss from a bounce earlier in the week. This weight loss thing is a strange process. How is it that I ate more and the weight went down. Darn I wish I could make that work more often . I may need to get up and go to bed to keep avoiding those lovely little packages of M&MS calling from the kitchen. So far, credit for being deaf to their call.

Hi Coaches

*credit for two days weighing in and weighing the same: 249.8. My goal is to be 249 or less on my 49th birthday, which is tomorrow, so it may just happen. I'll resist the philosophizing I want to do on this right now, (probably a factor of popping awake at 2:26am and posting here), and save it for my actual birthday-day. For today I am to attend an all-day arts conference, paid for my the potters' guild, as I am their public face at events in the region. No one else wants to do this kind of stuff and I am always happy to go find out about stuff.

Like naturegirl I've had lots of tummy issues these last few weeks as well. Raw carrots always make my tummy hurt for some reason. Usually I just ignore it and have the carrots anyway when I am looking for a mid-day snack/fill-up. I still haven't nailed down my mid-day meals on my Eat What My DH Eats plan. His lunches are provided by his work and so far I don't feel guided by his choice at mid-day. So, I'm floundering on this front somewhat.

I do think it's going to resolve itself this week as I have MY NEW STUDIO now and if I am going to be working there most days I'll need to pack a lunch. To celebrate receiving the keys to my studio, and admiring the work done on my behalf by the owner of the industrial space it sits in (WOW) I drove down the street after the key/rent money exchange and the surveying of my new space, and went to the Winners store. In there I was SUPER-tempted by the strange and exotic varieties of sweet things.
I looked at them all.
I thought about them all.
and *credit* I put all of them back, opting to take home two (this was my indulgence-buying 2, not 1) packages of flavoured coffee beans: creme brulee and butterscotch toffee. I will be back for the moonpie chocolate mint and the moonpie vanilla this week. My studio needs coffee and a coffee maker and I forsee, with a Winners at the corner, a large variety of coffees there. Just so you know, any of you Becksters can drop by the studio for a cup at any time.
That's a standing invitation.

So HUGE CREDIT for having a zero-Halloween candy October (and therefore November aka leftover candy). I've had maybe two other zero-candy Halloween's in my life. This was good. CREDIT for just saying no, over and over and over and torturing myself and thinking and wondering and imagining how the _______ thing would taste and how could I have it (but not feel bad), and in the end just walking away and not bringing it home. It seems I must indulge in the AGONY of deciding that no, once more, I cannot have the _______ because, for me, it is a "gateway drug" and the wheels will come off my wagon very fast and I never, ever, know how long it will take to get me back on the road again. So for today, I will call up the feisty iron-willed spirit of a 1980's Nancy Regan and her Just Say NO campaign. She seems like someone who probably was pretty strict when it came to sweet indulgences and probably watched her figure like a hawk. I am sure Kitty Kelley's book tackled that pithy aspect of her character. A book I did read back in the day but all I can truly recall are the parts about Mrs.Reagan's choice of china patterns and her hate for Jane Wyman, Mrs. Reagan #1. Oh no, now more of the book is flooding back. Must-change-topic.

I am moving the first things into my studio on my birthday this Sunday.

(excuse me as I need to about that again)

I am just so grateful and feel like my life is doing a re-start once more.

Ok must get back to bed. Just needed to check in. Will check in again as I face the challenge of 2 free meals at the conference today, both of which I am looking forward to, and both of whch will have all of you guys there watching my back.

G-night.