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:

Diet Coaches/Buddies – Besides two walks, CREDIT moi, exercise was shoveling some mounded snow onto the warm street to melt. Street sweeping starts on April 1st but the sweeper will skip where snow is mounded in the gutter. So, I cleared away two areas near my house in order to get a clean street. In addition, DW wanted a little help getting the mounds off her gardens. Several bushes have been destroyed. What's appearing from under the nine feet of snow isn't pretty.

Food was 100% on-plan, CREDIT moi. It's great to have a busy day in multiple places where not one item of food was offered. I did notice a student concert in a couple of weeks that interests me - it comes with a reception. Wish the world didn't feel the need to offer food so often.


onebyone – Yay for Florida artists celebrating Spring, he said a tad bitterly. It is going to get here someday.

Joy (gardenerjoy) – Your garden work sounds strenuous. I won't tell my DW because that's exactly what she wishes she was doing.

maryann - I do enjoy the sound of your plan, "three meals with only life in between." [We'll celebrate Spring for you - should it arrive, LOL.]

spanky - Kudos for recognizing that your eating doesn't have to follow the difficult family emotions. Sending supportive thoughts as you help your DS work through this stuff.

nationalparker – Leaving food is a big challenge for me; Kudos for doing it so smoothly. [DW says we'll plant as soon as we can get to the garden.]

Violette_R - Recognizing that it isn't the process is a major step - Kudos. Neat stuff you're listening to.

p.a. - Super demo that Hunger is Not an Emergency - I never tire of hearing that one.

Ani (dailypractice) - Neat that changing meal times worked for you.

Readers -

Hi coaches!
Nationalparker- thanks for the shoutout. He has sent responses to various places and may hook up with a temp agency for the time being. We're taking turnings being depressed, lol, but it hasn't been that long yet. I'm just really worried that the age thing will keep him from getting anything permanent.
Spanky- I am sending hugs your way. that is a LOT to deal with and it is extremely hard not to have a break from it. I hope you can find support online at least from parents in similar situations.

I took a walk the other day finally- in a park where the paths are now clear, and notice there was a lot of dog poop. I'm wondering what other things will show up that have been covered by the snow for so long!! yuck!
Waving to all!

A stressful morning led to an unusual lunch, definitely a treat but not so out of bounds that it felt like a slippery slope. Aiming for back to normal today though.

And, wishing for an end to remodeling. Turns out modern LED light fixtures don't install back to front in the consistent way that old fixtures did. So, just because a light fixture fits in a place doesn't mean that you can install it there. That combined with a draconian return policy by the local "good" lighting store made for an unpleasant couple of days. I got what I wanted, but I suspect only because I have a large number of social media followers.

WI: -0.1 kg, Exercise: +30 1360/1300 minutes for March, Food: 80% op, Read my Advantages and Responses: yes

New month!
Nationalparker no they sell pop and treats there that I normally don't even look at.
Today is going to be spent getting ready for Easter
No aquafit tonite but I will get walking in
Curlyjax walking can help clear the head
Gardener joy I'm glad you got it straightened out
Bill I agree about food being the attraction for meetings etc....where I used to work we were encouraged to offer 'treats' to bring people to workshops etc. it worked
Have a good day everyone

Good Morning Coaches
Wow. A new month! First time I’ve witnessed the turning of the calendar on this forum. It feels celebratory like the dropping of the ball on New Years Day. I feel like I’ve know you all in the group for a LOT longer than half a month. But that’s all it’s been. I’m just past the 2 week mark on this return to the Beck program. And I’ve gotten so much benefit and support from you all. Thanks so much.

Yesterday was good. OP.

But tomorrow morning my weekly women’s group meets at MY house. We started out with a “no food” rule. But slowly over time, that rule has eroded to the point that it is now a contest of keeping up. Who puts out the prettiest, most varied spread of “healthy” treats. (At least the focus is usually on “healthy”, but unhealthy things show up too. A plate of cookies sitting next to the “healthy” muffins (why does everyone think muffins are so darn healthy?) on the coffee table in front of me. It takes too much focus to muscle through the 1.5 hours. I hate it.)

So pardon me for my grumpiness right now as I think of the duties that await me … drats, I gotta think up what to serve, when I’m trying to NOT think about food. But I gotta. better get the ingredients for some healthy muffins, buy some fruit that looks pretty or can be cut up to be pretty, yada yada yada…. None of this is what I want to spend my time doing.

Plus as long as I’m on a rant. (sorry folks) I hate being put in a position of having to field statements like “Oh come on, Ani, one little cookie isn’t going to hurt you”. Or “Come on, Ani, you don’t have to be a saint all the time” or “these muffins are really healthy. They’re made with honey, not sugar” Which lead to my OWN sabotaging thoughts.
- “Wouldn’t it be nice to look so ‘normal’, so ‘one of the fun gang’ if I’d just give in a have a cookie with the rest of them.”
- “If I had a muffin, they’d shut up and quit badgering me”
- “I don’t want them to think I think I’m a saint or ‘holier than thou’”…

Grrrr. I need response cards. NOW.

After I post this, I’m going to compose responses to those…

Thanks for listening and understanding.

Maryann: I LOVE your phrase the "three meals with only life in between". I am glad for that reminder. It helps me to remember to continuously look for ways to enrich my life and put meaning into it, ways that don’t involve food. Thank you. Kudos on hitting Day 11 OP!

P/A Kudos for recognizing hunger but holding strong, bypassing the snacks and the fast food and staying OP.

Nationalparker: Kudos for Day 2 on plan. Don’t say it’s “not much”. It HUGE!!! I’ll be interested to learn how your early “test” turns out. And kudos for the two walks, in spite of exercise resistance

Bill: Jeepers. Still shoveling snow. Yikes. What a winter you have had! Kudos on shoveling, walking, gardening and eating OP. I know what you mean about valuing days with no food temptations and I also wish the world didn't feel the need to offer food so often.

OK, some responses to my sabotaging thoughts.
Okay, I’m calmed down from my rant. And realize there are reasonable, measured responses I can make to all these sabotaging thoughts … and I also realize it helps to plan IN ADVANCE for responses, because on the fly is too challenging.

Ideas:

1. I can adjust my breakfast portions such that a muffin and fruit at a 10:30 meeting is IN PLAN, not out of plan.
2. Searching for recipes for healthy muffins is a USEFUL use of my time, NOT a “waste” of time. Maybe I’ll find some real winners. And thus begin building a repertoire of tasty items I can make easily, thus no longer requiring such mental energy in the future.
3. By actually partaking in the snacks, I won’t be the “oddball”. I will be “one of the gang”, thus no reason for anyone feeling the need to praise or censure me for abstaining. Because I won’t BE abstaining. I won't be the oddity on trial.

p.s. coaches… I’d appreciate your ideas for tasty, easy, healthy mid-morning snacks that look pretty and look like you put in a effort LOL … (like that TV commercials for boxed baking goods where the mom is hiding out in the kitchen reading a book. But the family thinks she’s slaving away at the stove. They call out to her from the other room, so she dusts flour on her face and walks out of the kitchen carrying a beautiful plate of cupcakes. LOL

curlyjax: Kudos on the walking … and wishing you and your DH the best in the job search.

GardenerJoy: Good that you found a treat that satisfied without becoming a slippery slope.

P/A: I so agree. It IS too bad that it’s become a strategy to offer food at events to encourage participation. Grrr

DailyPractice - Quick question in what turned into a long post...(sorry) Do you want to eat at the meet-up or not - I guess that ran through my mind. If you do, and I guess most of us would sounds like you have a solid plan to succeed with modification of breakfast and ... if not, though, please don't be pressured into taking more than fruit or whatever you are comfortable with. Or just agree that it looks wonderful and will have something later or save something for later when you DO want it. Heck, freeze it if need be.

I've done a savory bite to offset it when I make sweets for brunch that is made in muffin tins (sprayed with cooking spray) just hash browns spritzed with a bit of oil and baked for a bit and then some diced up turkey breakfast sausage and egg and a sprinkling of cheddar cheese and then baked until set. They USUALLY pop out - be generout on the cooking spray But when you divide it out per piece, it's not bad. If interested, I'll look up the specifics like temp, etc. Here's one example from the web that I've not tried:
http://www.marthastewart.com/1043841...egranate-seeds

Otherwise maybe a gorgeous fruit salad - or a frittata? Martha Stewart (i KNOW!) had a beautiful one that I want to make this spring: http://www.marthastewart.com/1043841...egranate-seeds
the sliced pumelo as the base is so, so pretty

I'm drooling over this quickbread and want to make it but not enough people to eat it so it'll be gone quickly: http://tutti-dolci.com/2015/03/toast...ut-lime-bread/

There's a part of me that is quite envious because a dream of mine has been to own a B&B and love this line of thinking! ha ha

Sorry, all - I tried to PM but not linked just yet for that.

Good morning coaches,

A little over on the food yesterday. Better get that reined in. Walked for an hour an a half yesterday and again today, credit. Yesterday I napped the day away. I think I just needed some extra rest. Today I have a hair appointment in the early afternoon and I'm looking forward to that.

BBE Seems like you've been 100% on with your food for the longest time. I want you to know that the Snickers are nearly gone. I guess I could throw the last couple in the garbage. Luckily they are quite small, 80 calories each. I never have stuff like that around and I guess I know why.

Ani I don't care for the functions with food either. It's so much easier when there just isn't any when it isn't mealtime. And finding something healthy that people really want to eat is not easy. I mean come on, what's the difference between a muffin and a cookie.

Curlyjax Thinking of you and hoping something good comes along for dh.

Gardenerjoy Oh the joys of remodeling. We still need to do our master bath and kitchen, but as much as they need it we just aren't up for it yet.

Waving to everyone else, with my left hand, since it's the arm I can raise.

Karen

Ate a doughnut. It's not the end of the world, I just get back on track.

I told myself that I ate it for someone else. She brought them in for her students, they didn't eat them all and she said "Oh, please don't leave these doughnuts around a pregnant woman! Please eat one!"

That's baloney. I ate a doughnut because doughnuts taste good and I can't blame anyone else for "making" me eat.

Finally got here today. Last night I did my late night prowl in the kitchen and went off plan. I went over my day's calories by 150. What pulled me out of it before it veered into the hundreds of calories overeaten was the little post-it note that said "Sit Down" stuck right where I stand when I do this. Considerably less damage done than normal.

My new Response Card says: "Do you have any calories left? If 'no', you're DONE!!!"

Tonight I'm still on plan. Tomorrow will be another stressful road trip...sheesh!

We have catered lunch meetings every week with ridiculous amounts of rich foods. The nice thing about being middle-aged is I can say no to all the carbs, mumble something about being "pre-diabetic", and get away without the 2000 calorie lunches. They're used to it now...

Wore my pedometer for the first time in ages after I "needed" it eight weeks ago. Totaled 16,880 steps for the day before I took it off. Was happy since I didn't put it on until I'd already walked in to the office from the parking garage. Not that it's MILES but still

Crazy day with a lot going on. DH and I just finished a trail walk under the star-light sky with a nearly full moon. Just beautiful. Wonderful temps but I still wore a light coat since I prefer to be warmer than cooler.

Food planned and OP. Scale at ticker (was a pound up a few days ago, so I'm happy with that I guess). Did a little marketing on the way home and picked up a treat for each of us - sabra individual hummus with pretzel chips. With some fruit, that'll count as a fun quick meal in the running around this weekend. I'm too cheap to buy that often ha!

Day 3 = SUCCESS! Tomorrow's challenges are complacency as I so often think, I've got this and kabammo right off the rails. Bill, I continue to be impressed with your 100% OP days!
Spanky - LOVE that response card. I need to count DOWN not UP on my calorie tracker ... a lot easier to keep adding than to actually put down negative numbers.

Coaches

Hi. A phone before bed check in. I've been avoiding you all day. Tomorrow I go to the Weight Watchers meeting and tonight the inner saboteurs are ganging up on me. I am wondering why I am bothering to try again at Ww at the same time as I wonder how I can be in such bad shape which also, tonight, feels like the worst shape I have ever been in. It's all so very teen-age angsty of me. So much drama. I do feel extremely out of shape. I used to walk everywhere cause we never had a car but since we got one, and since I stopped taking the bus, my minimal fitness level has fallen year after year. All of a sudden today as I griped to myself about walking across a parking lot to get some groceries for dinner I just thought what the heck happened to you anyway? Really. This cannot go on. It just won't. I sure hope I can make the changes before I am forced to. I truly hope I can make that deep daily commitment.

So, WW meeting and weigh in in the morning, writing class in the afternoon, more stuff for print exchange gallery set up tomorrow night and Friday. I gave myself a break and moved our show opening to Saturday. Still have a bit of that cold dragging me down as well.

I feel a bit better for writing my fears to you. Thanks for reading.

Diet Coaches/Buddies – After my walk, CREDIT moi, DW and I started our community garden plot. Posts and fence for the Sugar Snaps are in; Sugar Snaps are planted one inch deep, one-to-two inches apart, close enough to the fence that their little tendrils will reach it. I asked DW if it was our impoverished state that required us to use the same rubber coated fence year after year long after the key links have rusted away making attaching to the posts difficult. She says it's because she only thinks of new fence when we go to put it up. Methinks it's a gardener's thing about never wasting. The Sage Bush was huge as it is every spring requiring that it be cut back. In it, DW found a birds nest from last year with an unhatched egg! Hard to believe that we never noticed. The Curly Kale was green after outlasting nine feet of snow. Green, but not attractive enough to eat; off to the compost bin with its thick roots.

Eating was 100% on-plan, CREDIT moi, including sustainable [sic, Whole Foods' words] swordfish grilled on the patio (but eaten inside). With each bite I thought about telling my grandchildren that oceans once held fish.


onebyone – Kudos for facing your "teen-age angsty" and moving forward. Hope your journey to Weight Watchers works out today.

Joy (gardenerjoy) – Kudos for beating your goal, "Exercise: +30 1360/1300 minutes for March" and Kudos again for using social media to get fair treatment. I don't understand "LED light fixtures don't install back to front."

spanky - Yay for the power of a post-it note that said "Sit Down."

nationalparker – 16,880 steps IS miles - maybe 8 miles. Kudos for an active day.

Karen (karenrn) - Yay for walking despite the recovering arm.

curlyjax - Yep, the mysteries beneath the snow will soon be revealed.

Violette_R - <sigh> ... donuts happen. Kudos for accepting responsibility and moving forward.

p.a. - Kudos for getting to this place, "that I normally don't even look at."

Ani (dailypractice) - Enjoying your thought of celebrating the new month - perhaps you've invented New Months Day. Kudos for fighting "Come on. One cookie isn't going to hurt" - the insistence of food pushers never ceases to amaze. For snacks, I like Red Bell Peppers cut up in a bowl next to humus. It's probably not as low calorie as I pretend, but it is healthy.

Readers -

Hi Coaches!

I'm having tough emotional days but am doing my best to take care of myself. Our reading today indicated trying to solve the problem instead of eating over it. Unfortunately, I am being seriously affected by others' problems right now so that's not an option, and keeping busy is my best strategy. Moving forward with things I can(while repeating the Serenity Prayer). Yesterday I did both an indoor project and an outdoor one. Inside, I did my once a year -clean the tops of the kitchen cabinets (and all the prettys' that live there) and outside I hard raked my West lawn and weeded in two flower beds. Both activities were not feasible at my higher weight so I always find some gratitude. Food OK-ish, especially with added exercise. My plan included a small ice cream cone from McD and I parked the car and went inside to get it….got me thinking that one of my new rules is "No Drive Thru-even when a stop is planned." Our McD is attached to a convenience store which I walked through without a peek. I made a run to Costco/Wh Foods and took time to peruse all the aisles (and get a bit of walking in). Passed on all samples, excepting 1 sushi, made by a real sushi guy. They are promoting a new line. It was good but not good enough to buy. In addition to my veggies, I bought a 100% Raw Coconut Water ($2.79)….supposed to be really good for you...with 58 cal. I could chance it. Credit.

BBE, yay for your start to a productive gardening season! Continued kudos for OP food!

onebyone, credit for posting when you'd been avoiding it.

Violette R, kudos for taking responsibility for the donut. That's a really sane way of thinking!

karenrn, kudos for self care which included lots of rest and for your mindfulness with your food choices.

nationalparker, 16,880 steps is "indeed" miles. I walk about 6-1/2 miles at work. It counts, you betcha! Credit. Glad you got a trail walk in, too.

spanky, kudos for a new response card! LOL at middle aged responses to catered food.

dailypractice, kudos for thinking through the agitating food event at your house. Loved your 1-2-3!

p.a. what are your Easter plans? Kudos for walking when aquafit wasn't planned.

gardenerjoy, credit for noticing that slippery slope and aiming back for normal.

curlyjax, yay for enough snow cleared to enjoy walking. I'm sure lots more "stuff" will show up...Sending support your way as DH investigates a temp agency.