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 - Delightful evening entertainment was to watch the movie Apollo 11. It's compiled from NASA footage - all dialog coming from Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins themselves. A bunch of the footage has never been seen before. A student group at MIT managed to present it a week before it's due for national release. Was fun to hear other folks' memories about how it actually happened. If you're a geek, it'll be a fun watch.

My eating heroics was to NOT BUY the popcorn offered at $2, $3, $4, and $5. The $5 version was clearly the best buy and I wanted it badly for that reason. Then I, fortunately, remembered that I never buy popcorn at the movies - just don't like it. And, furthermore, I could never consume the gallon+ $5 size. Oh, well.


maryann - Thanks for "I am in this for life." I'll steal that for myself today.

Beth (bethturnaround) - Kudos for accepting a wheelchair at the airport. Neat that you have a clear plan for your travels.

Penny. - Yay for sore quads - a good sign.

Readers -

More than met my exercise goal for February. On to March! With a longer month, I'll set the goal 1100 minutes.

Eating wasn't that great, even though it was all from my own kitchen. Today will be a good day to practice eating what I write on my plan.

Exercise: +20, 1025/1000 minutes for February

Good morning!

Yesterday was on plan, with strengthening class, and I dropped another 0.2 pound.

I am so sore from the two classes, and supposed to do it again on Monday. Ouch!

Beth, kudos for making a plan. The wheelchair is better than aggrivating the knee more with long airport walking.

Bill, the movie sounds good. Credit for talking yourself out of movie popcorn.

Joy, credit for meeting your Feb exercise goals with extra. Good luck improving the food today.

Good Morning, Coaches.

I feel better today. I have been practicing writing a plan for 50 days. That feels good. Progress not perfection. The scale dropped 2.6 pounds. I am glad I am going into the weekend with that number. Yesterday I practiced allowing my stomach to feel empty most of the day. Maybe a better word than empty is neutral because I had had sufficient calories for the day. Neutral means no drama and that is what I want going through this family wedding.

BBE: Is there anything more exciting than a moon shot and the workings behind it?
Gardenerjoy: so nice to be ahead of the game in exercise.
Penny; lots of water for those sore muscles and maybe a bath in Epsom salts
Beth: We will be strengthening our resistance muscles together this weekend.

Good morning coaches,

Food was on plan yesterday and exercise was a hike with weight in the backpack since I leave for the Grand Canyon in 8 days. Today I started off the day with an omelette and some potatoes. I met a friend for breakfast about an hour away and although there were plenty of calories, I left quite a bit on the plate and have a written plan for the rest of the day. So last night I got up to email our wilderness permit applications . . . there was only one problem, I emailed at 12:01 a.m. my time. Luckily they sent a quick email response to let me know it was too early as it should have been Pacific Time. So, I was up for an hour and emailed again before going back to bed for a few hours. I was up early to walk Otis before leaving to see my friend for breakfast. She is staying with friends that are about an hour from me, but she is here from Seattle and I was happy to see her. We have known each other for over 40 years and walked the Camino a couple of years ago in Spain. I will try to take a short nap today when my houseguests are out to visit her son.
Maryann I'm so happy for you that the scale dropped. I'm writing a plan almost every day, although I've missed one or two, and I'm doing just enough off plan eating to keep the scale fluctuating up and down a few pounds. The truth is I'm a little too comfortable at this weight which isn't a bad weight.
Penny Losing even a little bit when your muscles are that sore is incredible. Good for you.
GardenerJoy I'm glad you're back in your own home.
Bill The movie sounds really good. One of my rules is no eating at the movie theater. At least it's one place I don't eat.
Beth It sounds to me like you're making progress figuring out what will work. It isn't easy. I hope your knee starts to improve soon.

Have a great Friday all of you!

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Triumph was walking out of the supermarket without the chocolate covered almonds that were calling my name. I recognized the I don't care Sabotaging Thought while being fully aware that I didn't care that I didn't care and that I could recurse that down as many levels as needed to not care again. Then I didn't buy them and concentrated on the Sumo Mandarins that were visible. They're pricey at about $2 each, but I remembered that my problem with food isn't that I can't afford enough to eat, but that I only think about price with healthy food - not with chocolate covered almonds. So four Sumo Mandarins went into my shopping cart and I was a happy camper.

Made a stop at the library to drop off a DGD book, The Three Billy Goats Gruff. I love hearing DW read that one to her because she does all the sounds. I offered (to DW) that I just buy one since we'd run out of library time, but DW reminded me that the little bean changes favorite books just as fast as we bring in new ones. So I picked up three new ones. I do enjoy this process.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Yes, February does come to an end rather abruptly. Congrats for making your goal, anyway.

maryann - Neat definition, "Neutral means no drama."

Karen (karenrn) - LOL at being up an hour early in the middle of the night. California does insist on doing it's own time thing however inconvenient to the rest of us.

Penny. - Love hearing that you continue to work hard enough to make yourself sore.

Readers -

I was unsuccessful in following my written plan. Partly for structural reasons -- we still aren't fully functional from our adventure. It feels very much like returning from a trip and I want to allow myself some grace and time for that. But, it's also a lack of willingness. Huh. That also frequently happens to me after a trip, so, perhaps, I can allow a little grace and time for that, too.

Exercise: +35, 35/1100 minutes for March

Good morning!

Yesterday was on plan and weight went down another 0.8 pound. Very unusual after a work day. That makes my usual five pound monthly loss but three of them were just in the last week. We'll see if the strength training is giving my weight loss a boost.

Maryann, credit for the big weight drop. I hope the wedding drama is minimal.

Karen, I'm glad you got your late night permit requests in. I am loving that you walked the Camino!

Bill, credit for talking yourself out of the almonds. Lol at the frugality only with healthy stuff. You could go wild and get a dragon fruit for $6.

Joy, credit for being mindful of what's going on with yourself and making adjustments. Getting back into the healthy routine is the hardest part.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Saw a strange performance last night, Endlings. First, I learned that endlings are the last of a species - new word. The endlings of the play are three elderly women on an island in Korea who still dive for shellfish to make their living. The most striking part of the stage setting was the installed 500(ish) gallon tank of water with a glass front for us to view them underwater.

Exercise was, again, getting rid of a few inches of snow. It wasn't that bad, just one more time. Got reminded why everybody wants to move to Arizona.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Seems right that you feel like you're returning from a trip even if it had just been to a local motel.

Penny. - Yay for strength training giving you a weight-loss boost. Often folks complain that strength training does just the opposite.

Readers -

Good morning!

Yesterday was on plan and weight is holding.

One more day of work and then my long stretch off.

Bill, that sounds like a great set for the play! Kudos for getting your snow shoveling exercise.

Good evening coaches,

I haven't been good about even making a plan the last couple of days. Food hasn't been horrible, except Friday night when I had two cookies and one of them was really big. Exercise has been good with a hike wearing my backpack again today and long walk with a friend and a hike with sil yesterday. Tomorrow is my day to hike with the new group, but we're heading to Tucson so see our friends. He wants to get out on the golf course one last time and I'll help my friend do some things at their home while the guys are gone. I know my husband is really nervous about the whole thing, but we'll do the best we can. Last night the four of us watched Free Solo, which I had seen before. Tonight we watched Nero, also very good with Jimmy Chin. I love the adventure movies and the photography is superb. I'll get to personals in a day or two.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Exercise was standard Sunday walk with DW. There were only a few ice patches and a few puddles. Did note that a bunch of cars still had their cap of snow. Perhaps we have some neighbors who've fled to Florida for the duration. There's snow accumulating outside right now; I know what today's exercise will be.

A friend pulled me aside, "Thanks for the tutorial about electric cars a couple of weeks ago; we just bought a Chevy Volt." Wow, there exist folks who just go out and buy a car. Gotta love that.


Karen (karenrn) - I'm looking forward to seeing Free Solo.

Penny. - Welcome to the long stretch of not working.

Readers -

Yesterday's exercise was shoveling snow. Much less than they were predicting on Friday, so I'm happy with that and happy that getting out and about today won't be a problem.

Exercise: +60, 115/1100 minutes for March

Back from the wedding. I made a plan on Saturday which was ignored by the end of the day and I blew off Sunday. I am disappointed in myself for failing at self care in the presence of my extended family. Nevertheless, drama was minimal so that is a win. Weight is as high as it was at Christmas. I’ll change my ticker when I have time to hop on computer.

Loved BBE’s quote about disappointment. I am freely making the choice to diet. Everyday I learn more about myself and nobody has it easy in this life. Everybody is working on something.

So for today I have made a food plan and will go to yoga. I will be gentle with myself since the few days after seeing my family are always rough. I have lost this weight before. I can do it again.

Thanks for posting, Everyone. I always appreciate this site.