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The Beck Diet Solution: My Experience (Week Five)

Though my schedule has been steadily ramping up in preparation for the holidays, I did manage to work through all of the readings and tasks this week for The Beck Diet Solution. It’s hard to believe that there’s only one more chapter remaining – I must say, I am very proud of myself for making it this far!

In addition, this week I give myself credit for:

Balloons
  • Setting an alarm as usual, even though it was my day off, and getting up in the morning to exercise.
  • Planning a vacation strategy.
  • Passing on dessert, even though I wanted something sweet, because I wasn’t actually hungry at that moment.
  • Exercising for 15 minutes every day.
  • Using distraction techniques when I felt hungry but had used up my allotted calories for the day.

If you’d like to catch up on my experiences to date with The Beck Diet Solution, my previous posts are here:

Week 5 (Chapter 9 – Overcome Challenges)

There were days this week when the particular lesson being taught didn’t particularly resonate with me. Although all of the points made were informative, and very likely helpful to others, I found that a couple of them were less relevant in my life than previous lessons had been. For example, one was about resisting food pushers… because in my case, the only person who ever tries to push food on me is me! Another topic covered was making decisions about alcohol consumption, which for me isn’t really a significant issue as I’ve never been much of a drinker anyway.

Apart from the above examples, however, the rest of the week’s lessons were very useful and applicable to my life, and in a couple of cases addressed some very timely issues.

Once again, I thought I’d share a handful of the Response Cards I made and used throughout the week, to give you an idea of a few of the things I’ve been learning throughout this chapter.

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In addition to Peter and I dining out on occasion, I am part of a dinner club that tries a new restaurant every month… plus, my group of girlfriends often adds dinner to the schedule either before or after another event. Successfully navigating restaurant meals is something I need to both learn and continually put into practice. Planning a strategy in advance (including researching the restaurant’s menu beforehand), and then sticking to the plan, is the way it needs to be for me.

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Interestingly enough, I have a vacation coming up, so this lesson was particularly relevant to me! As I worked through the reading and tasks I identified the various challenges that might face me while I’m away, and worked out a series of strategies to help me both enjoy my time and also arrive back home without having gained a significant amount of weight. I’ll keep you posted as to how they worked!

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Emotional eating is a problem for many people, and I am certainly not exempt. For me, the emotions that tend to trigger overeating are boredom and anger… yet when I stop to think about it, it’s not the slightest bit helpful to address either emotion with food! So that has to stop.

This chapter covered problem-solving using the Seven Question Technique introduced in the previous chapter to help you find productive, non-food ways to address a particular issue. I haven’t really had a chance to put this into practice yet, but will keep it in mind for the next time my natural inclination is to solve a problem with food.

Now, on to the last week of the program!

NaBloPoMoDecember2013

Laurel Storey, CZT – Certified Zentangle Teacher. Writer, reader, tangler, iPhoneographer, cat herder, learner of French and Italian, crocheter, needle felter, on-and-off politics junkie, 80s music trivia freak, ongoing work in progress.