Welcome to the discussion group, support group, Diet Coach group, Diet Buddy group relating to the two books by Dr. Judith S. Beck:

The Complete Beck Diet for Life
and the first book
The Beck DIET solution: train your brain to think like a thin person.

The 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:
With The Complete Beck Diet for Life you'll discover the 5 stages of successful dieting and maintenance. You'll learn how to motivate yourself, give yourself credit for every change you make, create time and energy for dieting, and handle hunger and cravings. Dr. Beck eases you into changing one step at a time. You'll master one task before moving on to the next. And you'll learn techniques to deal with challenging situations, such as sticking with ou plan at celebrations and dealing with "food pushers." With Dr. Beck's skills, you'll achieve a lifetime of healthful eating and lifelong motivation.

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 - Missed out on our weekly visit with the (3 yo) DFGD due to her family being tired out after some earlier excursion. It was also raining; little bit is happiest when she gets outdoors to run around a playground. I used the time to clean out the briefcase that I carry to my classes. In the past when I bought a cup of coffee there but didn't use one of the paper napkins, I'd carefully tuck it in my briefcase to use next time. Repeat, repeat, repeat. I was a walking napkin dispensary, LOL. And coins. I'd put some coins in the bottom for some terribly important reason and they'd sat there ever sense. I should do this every ten years or so, LOL.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner included chicken tenders because DW really didn't want to brave the rain to grill on the deck. Kinda nice since we don't have them often. It's a way to add a little oil to the chicken.

Was annoyed that I'd fallen for the first step of a scam. I was asked on Facebook to "FRIEND" a relative who I thought I was already friends with. "Yes", for whatever reason your software has a glitch and I need to do this again. Then I got a MESSAGE asking how we were doing. Not entirely out of character. After I responded the next MESSAGE asked if I'd ever heard about "International Development Foundation"? Now I was leery, so tersely answered "No." That was followed with "it is a special program for helping the old, retired and non retired with cash for paying bills, buying homes. i got $150,000 from them and you don't have to pay it back. are you sure you haven't heard about it.? Should I share you the agent link so that you can also apply for it." DING DING DING. I finally woke up. I checked my "Friends List" on Facebook and found that I was now friends with two accounts of this person. I'd just encountered a scammer on the prowl. "UNFRIENDED" the fake account and sent the relative (and his adult daughter) an email. Don't know where this was going; annoyed that I wasn't more suspicious on the "Friend" request.

Fun was encountering the old sentence: "English is a difficult language. It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though."


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Congrats for being able to make the decision to go along with no decisions being made. Continued Kudos for being a good Aunt.

Silverbirch - Good choice to donate your Kenwood Chef with the realization that you'd put too much work into cleaning it to satisfied with any price sold. My non-gardener brain is working on the phrase "temporarily cut branch" wondering if UK secateurs are able to un-cut a branch - an attractive feature, that.

maryann - Ouch for "the worst haircut ever". The good news is that the ability to regrow is strong in bushes. Congrats for being Geek enough to set up your mom's Amazon Fire stick.

Readers -

I've had a busy few days with my visitor. Friday we zipped off to Isabella Stewart Gardner Musuem, then took the subway to the North end and walked around. Bought pastries of course (for the non Massachusans, the North End is the Italian section famous for wonderful Italian food and dessert). Saturday we went to Newport Rhode Island to visit https://www.newportmansions.org/mans.../the-breakers/ and walk on the beach-well she did, I was tired and stayed put in the car. It's so nice to have a friend that is comfortable with doing her own thing while I do mine. Then we got dinner there, went home and visited my BFF. Yesterday we drove to Salem-visited the https://www.thewitchhouse.org/ and https://7gables.org/ plus a ton of walking in the rain. Pizza and fancy chocolates for a meal. We spent a little time chatting with DD about our high school days which was nice (she's my friend from high school). She is heading back to Minnesota this morning and I have a busy day of co-leading a workshop at work, and then my weight loss program starts tonight. I did not sleep well so its going to be a challenge to make it through the day. food hasn't been great but I've certainly gotten my exercise!
Wave to all and back to personals tomorrow.

The visit with DN went well. I was especially pleased with a conversation about a friend of hers who needs to choose between two sucky options but is refusing to do so. DN said, "She's going to find herself boxed in a corner." So, I got to point out that when there are two sucky options available, it's usually better to make the choice than to allow oneself to get pushed into a situation where there is no longer a choice.

Without my prompting, DN applied that to the decision that she most needs to make -- whether, when, and where to move -- in order to give herself a chance at a better mood next winter than this past winter.

CREDIT for eating what I planned. Unfortunately, the plan was too much. So, next time, I'm going to come prepared to take half of my lunch home where the best thing to do will be to throw it away.

I've been out of cottage cheese for a couple of days. Without that source of creamy protein goodness, I end up eating way too little protein and way too much fat. That combined with yesterday's overeating means that I'm feeling bloated and icky, which impacted last night's sleep.

So, today's plan is to get back on track by shopping at two different grocery stores and making some of the things that I need in the house to feed myself well. Also, I'm starting my 100-plant challenge today, so that will help with both the shopping and the food consumption.

CREDIT for making sure that I met my exercise goal in April, even though yesterday was a weird day to fit it in.

Exercise +35, 1605/1600 minutes for April

A bank holiday here to mark May Day. It’s been lovely weather. In the morning I went to a talk about glass through the ages, came home and fell asleep for an hour. In the afternoon I continued with the fence panel preparation. Digging up bramble roots is hard work, and so is most of the rest of the stuff here. I’ve just done some of the jigsaw, I’ll post here and then go to bed. I’ve been very hungry today.

Bill, many congratulations on decluttering your briefcase of paper napkins and coins. From your telling of it, it sounded fairly painless which is most encouraging! That scam is horrible. But the old English sentence is very good. (Temporarily cut branch was very poor phrasing on my part. I meant that I’d cut part of it but couldn’t cut all of it at once because of angles and things. So then I came back to it and made it safe, after I’d unsafely slipped and hacked my shin open. I’m working on the UK secateurs uncutting feature now you’ve pointed out how attractive it would be.)

curlyjax, you’ve had a busy time with your friend. It sounds great. (That Vanderbilt mansion reminds me that I had a pair of pink Gloria Vanderbilt trousers back in the 70s. I’d forgotten them.) I’m looking forward to hearing about the weight loss program. Good luck!

gardenerjoy, credit for work with the DN. It does sound promising. Thanks for mentioning cottage cheese. It’s such good protein and I don’t have any. I’ll buy some tomorrow.

Good Afternoon, Coaches.

Sunday was a nice combination of productive and lazy. The yard is shaping up. the weather has changed 30 degrees between yesterday and today. Crazy. Food was good until I did my second weigh in of the day. It showed no loss, I was disappointed and ate my way through it. Drat. Today has been OP but we are having dinner with friends. My plan is no dessert. I can eat anything I want tomorrow but no dessert tonite.

Wave to all.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Excitement was a trip to the brick-and-mortar library to pick up a book they had on hold. I may forget how to browse the stacks since it's become so common to click online and have the librarians bring the book to the hold section.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi.

I'm racing off this morning. Hope to be back.

ETA: (Back from an early morning bird walk.)

Joy (gardenerjoy) - Great news that your DN caught on to the point of being the one to choose between two sucky choices rather than to let the system do it for her. I'm excited about your 100 plant challenge; hope you post a running tally. Thought of you yesterday when I had "two frogs to swallow." The biggest one was resolved with an email. The smaller one with a brief phone call with a secretary. Then I had my day to myself.

Silverbirch - Good luck with your bramble roots removal. Around here it's the raspberry plants that strive to take over. There's a different use of the word Brambleroots in St. Louis in case you need a hair cut.

maryann - Love the Beck-like thinking, "I can eat anything I want tomorrow but no dessert tonite." Productive and lazy is a good combination.

curlyjax - Terrific tour of Boston area for your friend - and ambitious to span the Breakers to the House of Seven Gables. Hope your DD wasn't shocked at how much simpler your high school life was from hers.

Readers -

I was really tired yesterday after a poor nights sleep but made it through the day, and took a short nap in the parking lot of the grocery store. I avoided the sweets at work;had one of their paninis but it was sized well, and I opted out of the potato chips. I had a salad with chicken for dinner and some other odds and ends, then zipped off to the 'y. I was scanned by a styku machine that told me I have a lot of body fat (yes, I know that) but the chipper nutritionist was confident that I would see change in 10 weeks as long as I worked out and stuck to the eating program. She is very good and will tailor an eating plan to me, plus email recipes etc. The workout portion was 8 folks, most of whom have taken the class already, and all but 2 my size or larger which I was pleased to see. The trainer worked us for 40 minutes with a lot of core strengthening and some flexibility, some of which I couldn't do because of my hip. Different exercises than I usually do so that was good.
Silverbirch- I remember those pants too! In fact I still have some GV jeans I think. I wish I could hire you to help with my fence- parts of it have fallen down and I think you would know how to fix it
Bill-hope everything is okay!

Improving the food in the house helped me improve my eating. CREDIT.

DN got notice yesterday that she failed a blood test. She’s been referred to a specialist for a possible diagnosis of lupus. I think she's feeling simultaneously freaked out and a weird relief about how much that explains worsening mental and physical symptoms. No cure but there is treatment. Her next step is to make an appointment with the specialist, which requires making a phone call -- one of her least favorite things to do. She asked me to "gently prod" her to do that today.

Meanwhile, I'm struggling to get back to last week's level of productivity. I didn't do my usual planning on Sunday and didn't manage it yesterday, either. So, today's the day. Pep talk: I will feel more motivated when I've done this and that's how I prefer to feel.

Exercise: 50, 50/1600 minutes for May

silverbirch: You're making steady progress with all the hard work.

maryann: A change of 30 degrees is spring in Missouri, but I'm surprised that you experience that in California. A no dessert plan is a helpful approach to dinner out.

BillBlueEyes: I rarely browse the stacks, even with knowledge and experience that there's good reason to do that. They've made it too convenient to just pick up what I requested. Also, I usually pick up at the tiniest library branch in the system, so my justification is that they don't have that many books anyway.

curlyjax: That's great that you'll get a tailored eating plan from this program.

Day 1 of 100 Plants in 100 Days

1. Black tea
2. Cacao
3. Peanuts
4. Hard red winter wheat
5. Soft white winter wheat
6. Romaine lettuce
7. Green pepper
8. Yellow pepper
9. Walnuts
10. Cranberries
11. Potato
12. Tempeh (fermented soybean)
13. Corn
14. Oats
15. Edamame
16. Onion
17. Zucchini
18. Acorn squash
19. Sweet potato
20. Green beans
21. Okra

I went to the gymn which was quite good and I was very tired and hungry afterwards. I also pottered round the garden doing different jobs but didn’t do any more on the brambles. Tomorrow is another day.

maryann, no dessert - credit!

Bill, lovely to have an early morning bird walk today. They are singing madly here. Yes, I do need a hair cut so I might think about going to Brambleroots in St Louis. Gardenerjoy and I could eat a few plants together. And thanks for your headline about William Herschel which prompted me to read up about his sister, Caroline, who worked with him and was a great astronomer in her own right.

curlyjax, thanks for your belief in me as a fence expert! It’s fun to think about a new career as an international troubleshooter of fences.

gardenerjoy, good to hear of more movement in the DN situation, even if the information is challenging. Credit for sticking with it. And good going on Day 1 of 100 plants. Thanks for recognising the hard work here!

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Outing was a bird walk in the early hours when the warblers passing through would be active and visible. Rain was predicted. At the time the walk started, blue skies were visible with no wind. Ideal day. Unfortunately, the birds didn't cooperate. All the trees, specifically the Crab-apple trees, that attract Orioles were in high bloom. No Orioles appeared. And few warblers showed up - only the ubiquitous Yellow-rumped Warbler that's a delight to see but is too common to be appreciated. I left when the rain started. DW stayed with the group, in the rain, sure they'd see an Oriole. No joy.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner was Tuesday grilled salmon served with corn-on-the-cob, a thin baguette with sesame seeds atop, the green salad, and a combination of four different green veggies from our garden that have grown enough to be picked for our first fresh greens of the season. One was kale that added its bite to the mix without overwhelming, can't remember the names of the other three. One was new to us this year.

Shopping at the supermarket was welcomed as boring. Could have done it in my sleep except that I switched in an Orange bell-pepper for my planned Red bell-pepper when the orange one called my name. It was huge, firm, and just gorgeous to observe. Tiny changes to my list like this makes me leery of Instacart style ordering of groceries.

The wording of the reported solar eclipse from 1374 BCE is delightful: "On the day of the new moon, in the month of Hiyar, the Sun was put to shame, and went down in the daytime, with Mars in attendance."


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Fun to look at the start of your list of 100 Plants to realize how many places it has to grow. For example, you start with only Romaine lettuce; looking forward to how many varieties of lettuce your local farmers' markets will provide for you. And varieties of potatoes. Sorry to hear of DN's blood test; hope you can "gently prod" while staying in her good graces.

Silverbirch - Such a treat to be directed to Caroline Herschel. What a powerful woman to plow through so many of society's barriers.

curlyjax - Kudos for avoiding both sweets and chips in the same day. So neat that your class has other folks your size; I've taken a class with a bunch of trim people and felt discouraged.

Readers -

I stayed OP at work;looked at the candy longingly but avoided it. People commented on my eating a plain yogurt to which I truthfully stated, there's not much in the fridge I do prefer to put something in the yogurt.Quick nap at home then did a few errands including ice cream for DD, and I broke down and got some for myself as well. Dinner was a whole bag of gnocchi, yikes, but I added a ton of greens to it. Today I have to get the winter tires finally pulled off the car; exercise will be lugging them to and fro. I need to get some packing supplies for DD as well, and may just pick up a quick dinner out. I can really feel the workout we did on Monday now in my abs, whew!
Gardenerjoy- I know what you mean about productivity- I didn't get anything done over the weekend with my friend here and now i'm quite behind with dinner ideas etc.
Bill- sorry you didn't get to see much on your birding trip. I like to pick out my groceries too.
Silverbirch-you seem to get to the gym often, that's great!

Continued gradual improvement in my eating. CREDIT. Today's goal is to follow my ideal plan. We'll see how it goes.

The first two days of my 100 day challenge are done. I'm off to a strong start -- except that I've now consumed all the plants that I normally eat. It's Day 3 and I might not get a new plant until I go shopping again, next week.

I made a decent plan yesterday. It pretends that I'm going to do more novel work than I will do, but I couldn't quite give up the pretense. It's a good plan for getting caught up with some things that are going to be a problem if I don't take care of them.

I have a meeting this morning at 10am -- one of a couple of things on the calendar that is going to disrupt my creative work. But this is a good meeting and one I look forward to.

Exercise: 30, 80/1600 minutes for May

Day 2 of 100 plants in 100 days

1. Banana
2. Strawberries
3. Blueberries
4. Blackberries
5. Raspberries
6. Millet
7. Brown rice
8. Buckwheat
9. Amaranth
10. Quinoa
11. Leaf lettuce
12. Sweet gem lettuce
13. Boston lettuce
14. Carrots
15. Broccoli
16. Garlic

I had a strong post gymn feeling today so did ‘active rest’ to keep the blood going round. In this case, it was pottering about, doing small jobs to make the new place run smoothly. It included a stint cleaning the Kenwood Chef - oh yes! And cleaning a cupboard, and cleaning and lining a drawer. It all helps. I listen to podcasts when I’m doing it.

Bill, the natural world sometimes just doesn’t play ball, does it? I am glad you liked reading about Caroline Herschel. It’s so impressive that she achieved so much with the cards stacked against her. I’m envious you’ve got the first green veg of the season.

curlyjax, good to feel the workout in your abs! Yes, I go to the gymn twice a week. I’ve had a personal trainer for two or three years now and it’s made a lot of difference to me. (I’m not a class person at all.) Now I’m trying to find the right trainer in the south. I’ve seen someone a few times but she’s not as qualified and structured as my northern one. I might try the battleship grey and blue place.

gardenerjoy, it’s wonderful to hear of ‘continued gradual improvement’ in your eating. I could do with a bit of that.

Diet Coaches/Buddies - Picked up the (7 yo) DGD from 1st grade. Her prime interest is to get home to check on her "dog." Alas, our DD gave in and bought her one of the obnoxiously adorable fake dogs, perhaps a - there are a bunch of different ones out there. Fortunately it doesn't poop. Methinks it a waste of batteries. They have two cats but this kid longs for a dog. Hope this suffices.

Eating was on plan with no daytime snacks, CREDIT moi. Dinner conversation got sucked in to thinking how one could possibly get 100 plants in 100 days. Realized that there are some easy cheats. For example, our DS and DIL attend an apple festival in Western Massachusetts each fall that might have 100 varieties of apples. If I picture walking through a large Whole Foods, I'd encounter maybe ten kinds of potatoes. So figured that the plants are out there. Getting them into a sane eating plan over 100 days would be a challenge. What a fun challenge to ponder.


Joy (gardenerjoy) - Such fun to watch your plant list growing. I'm impressed that you got so many berries already. DW reminded me that we don't eat raspberries because they're expensive and have to be eaten right away - can't stretch them out because they're good for RIGHT NOW.

Silverbirch - Converting it into your own space - one drawer at a time. Sounds smart to me. Your reference to a gym as the "battleship grey and blue place" makes me disdain it from here, LOL.

curlyjax - Adding a ton of greens is a terrific idea. Love the notion of getting resistance exercise by lugging winter tires "to and fro."

Readers -