DAY 33

Don't eat for emotional reasons.
Do you eat when you are stressed, bored, angry,
guilty...or any other emotion?
Eating will not help you with these emotions,
in fact it only makes matters worse.
There is nothing wrong with negative emotions.
They are Gods way of indicating there is a problem to
go to him for.
Do you think you can't tolerate negative emotions?
You can! Just like hunger, a negative emotion is not an emergency!
When you are tempted to eat when not hungry or, when it is not
on your plan ask yourself, what am I feeling? Use the
techniques learned about overcoming cravngs.
Tomorrow we will discuss working on problems behind the feelings.

Chicken Wing Study

Source: www.youtube.com

Brian Wansink and CNN's Dr. Gupta explore the idea that people eat with their eyes and not with their stomachs.

DAY 32

Prepare for Travel
About a week before your trip create a diet strategy.
Remind yourself of it every day before you leave.
It is unrealistic to expect that you will be able to
keep to your diet as closely as you would at home.
But this choice is up to you. The important thing is to decide ahead of time
will you keep to your diet strictly, allow yourself a few hundred more calories per day,
or allow yourself a treat per day or per week?
Using any one of these strategies might cause a small weight gain
but it is better to plan and be prepared for this than be too strict, blow it and give up.
Write in your diet notebook the things you will allow yourself and the things you will
not indulge in. Drinks? Desserts? Grandmas cinnamon rolls?
Write up some sample eating plans with what you know might be served and stick
as closely as possible to them.

DAY 31

Decide About Drinking
This is your choice depending on what your diet says.
There are many reasons to limit your drinking
one being alcohol contains empty calories.
Another reason is that drinking weakens your resolve to stay on
your eating plan.
Choose today what you will do.
Limit your drinking to one a day?
One a week?
Eliminate alcohol all together?

I put this picture here just to break up the monotony of my boring blog. I seem to only have time to put the steps in these days! Well, how have I really been doing on this journey? I've had "setbacks". When I gained a few pounds I told Tyler I mostly feel bad because I already told my blog that I lost 5 pounds! He wisely replied

"Isn't that what your blog is all about, being honest about what this struggle is REALLY like?"

So.... right around DAY 20 I gained a few pounds back. I basically quit doing the "program" and ate too much. I did not plan on what I would eat. I am proud of myself for realizing this is a process and forgiving myself and getting back to planning what to eat. I listen to The Beck Diet on CD. It helps me to realize as i listen to this lady on the cd tell me about her life commitment to this and to all her experience in counseling hundreds of overweight people , that there are thin people all over who limit what they eat all the time...for the rest of their lives. I like imagining myself in the future (Not too distant cuz i only have 8 pounds to lose to get to my healthy goal wt) just living out my days as a thin person who still does this program! This is a different thought than the solutions I used to go after. I would throw myself into something with the thought that this is the answer to how this is gonna be EASY. No more work!! That is the biggest lie. It will always be work. I choose to take this one day at a time trusting God to strengthen me to live and eat in a purposeful way that pleases Him. It is for Him and for the purpose of living a glorifying life of service to Him. Knowing that this is long term helps me to keep going and not quit when I blow it. Blowing it is part of the journey.

DAY 30

Stay in Control When Eating Out
Plan to eat out.
Today you'll create a plan for eating out and set a date to implement this plan at a restaurant some time this week.
* Choose a suitable day and place.
* Go with a friend.
* Plan in advance how much you're going to eat (its fine to eat 25% more than
you usually eat)
* Plan what to eat.
* Plan to deal with sabotaging thoughts.
* Plan how you'll tolerate cravings.
* When your food arrives, portion off the food you can eat.
* Assess your success.

DAY 29

Resist Food Pushers

*You're entitled to work toward your goal of losing weight as long as you're not
maliciously trying to make someone feel bad.

*It's okay to disappoint others. Disappointment is a normal part of life. Their disappointment most likely will be mild and fleeting.

Make a plan of what you will say if someone offers you food that you do not plan to eat.

"No, thank you, it looks delicious, but I'm fine."

DAY 28

Get Ready to Weigh

You will weigh and record tomorrow because you have been dieting for 2 weeks.
Today prepare your mind for this. Don't starve yourself today in
preparation for weighing! It is what it is. It is info to learn from.

Prepare a pep talk for yourself for any senario you face tomorrow losing, staying t he same or gaining.

No matter what the # on the scale you can be grateful for what God is doing in you through this and grateful for your hard work so far. You have not been perfect
but that is life.

DAY 27

Master the Seven Question Technique

Now that you have identifies your sabotaging thoughts and the mistakes in thinking
that are typical for you, you will now address these thoughts with the answers to the following questions whenever they arise.

Make a truth card from the answers to the following questions that you need to remember for the next time you have each of your typical sabotaging thought.

1 What kind of thinking error could I be making? (mistake #)
2 What evidence is there that this thought might not be true?
3 Is there an alternative explanation or another way of viewing this?
4 What is the most realistic outcome of this situation?
5 What is the effect of my believing this thought and what could be the effect of changing my thinking?
6 What would I tell a close friend if he were in this situation?
7 What should I do now?

DAY 26

Recognize Thinking Mistakes
It's important to realize thoughts are just ideas, not necessarily truths.
The thought, I have to have some, is not true.
There are 9 common thinking mistakes people make when dieting.
1 All or nothing thinking, ie
*Either I'm completely on my diet, or I'm off it.
*Either I am 100% successful or I'm a failure.
2 Negative fortune telling, ie
*Since I gave into that craving, I'll never be able to tolerate cravings.
3 Overly positive fortune telling, ie
*I'll be able to eat just a little of this...I don't need to measure.
4 Emotional Reasoning, ie
*Since I feel like a failure...I must be.
*I feel like I have to eat this.
5 Mind reading
*They'll think I'm rude if I don't eat this.
6 Self-deluding thinking
*It won't matter if I give into my cravings.
7 Unhelpful Rules
*I can't waste food.
*I need to feed my family other foods.
8 Justification
*I need this because I'm so stressed out.
9 Exaggerated Thinking
* I have no willpower

Now compare this list with your list of thoughts from yesterday.
What mistake corresponds to each thought?

Day 25

Identify Sabotaging Thoughts
Eating doesn't happen automatically. Before you take that first bite of
something you didn't plan to eat, you almost always have a thought or series of thoughts. Once you identify and respond to those thoughts, you'll be better able to
control your eating.
For a few days write down your sabotaging thoughts as you identify them. If you
notice that you're tempted to eat something that you're not supposed to eat ask yourself,
What was just going through my mind?
What was I just thinking?
For now just try to list these thoughts and we will discuss what to do with them in the next few days.

DAY 24

Dealing with Discouragement.
To deal with the discouraging thoughts that inevitably come
as time goes on, re-read your advantages truth card. In
fact rewrite it. Also, focus on what you can do today. Thinking too far into the future is NOT helpful. Every time you find yourself thinking
I can't do this anymore..I can't continue for weeks or months!
Tell yourself:
Forget the long term..focus on today I know I can continue what I
I need to do today...if its hard tomorrow I'll deal with it then.
Matt 6:34
Don't worry about tomorrow, today has enough troubles of its own.

Day 23

Counter the Unfairness Syndrome
-----------------------------------------
Dieting might not be fair, but I have 2 choices:
I can feel sorry for myself, stop following my plan,
never reach my goal, and continue to be unhappy
with myself. Or I can sympathize with myself but
go ahead and do what I know I need to. Everyone
experiences some kind of unfairness in life. This is
one of mine and god is sovereign. Besides, the greatest
unfairness to me would be if I let this excuse prevent me
from reaching a goal I strongly want to achieve.

DAY 22

Say Oh well at disappointment.
At some point you will get discouraged. Either at your lack of "progress" or that
you even have to do this at all. Why can't we just eat like everybody else!

Dr. Beck wants you to say..."Oh well"

I think it's another way of saying ,.."God is sovereign"

This is the situation He has given me and He is good. He will work it for my good and His glory."I don't get to eat more cake, Oh Well"
" I was stressed and over ate, Oh well"
"I'm hungry, Oh well."
"I don't feel like writing down my food plan for tomorrow, Oh well."
God will help me and he knows what's best for me. This is what He has helped me decide to do and commit to...so I will trust Him.

before and after

This is my friend who introduced me to the Beck Diet Solution. The" before" is somewhat before she started the diet and she had recently had a baby... she lost some wt and then she lost 15 lbs in 3 months on the diet.
Quoting my friend
"They (pictures) also don't say that the biggest changes have been in my relationship toward food. Even at my heaviest non-pregnant weight, I didn't think of myself as overweight (though now I can see clearly that I was), so being a healthy weight now doesn't feel all that different in my head. (I can sure run a lot faster though.) Then I didn't really believe that I could lose weight or would be that much healthier if I did. I thought that 'people like me' just inevitably gained weight as they got older and there wasn't much I could do about it. I was a serial snacker and ate for comfort. I've learned through this process that food is for nourishment (both sustenance and pleasure), but isn't the best thing for solving my boredom or depression. That, to me, is a whole lot more important than the body part."

DAY 21

Weigh in. If you haven't already, you will step on the scale in this step. It is important for you to start using the scale as an information tool that provides data you can use to guide your eating. The main point of this step, is to ensure that your attitude about weighing is right. Otherwise stepping on the scale can discourage you and derail your efforts entirely.
If the number on the scale is not as low as you were hoping tell yourself that this is merely a tool to help you learn. The goal you are striving for is living for God and not yourself..and you have not failed at that. Perhaps other factors joined to give you a higher number. It could be any number of physical variations, time of the month, sodium intake etc... Also perhaps you ate more due to stress you were experiencing. You have not blown it...you are not a failure. God wants you to trust HIM and boast in the cross, putting no hope in your own efforts. He will use this number on the scale to teach you about Him and your relationship to Him. Its all good. Continue to weigh on a regular basis and record your weight. Its also fun to put your weight on a graph.