Reddit reviews The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person
We found 4 Reddit comments about The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Used Book in Good Condition
(Strap in, this will be long. PLEASE check out the tl;dr at the bottom for an awesome resource I found, though.)
Totally. You are so not alone.
I find myself ruminating on food when I’m bored, happy, sad, stressed, procrastinating, etc. There is simply no mood or situation where food is not on my mind or shortly-to-be on my mind.
If I’m not thinking about food, I’m probably eating food, and usually eating too much (and, like you, sometimes in strange, seemingly unpalatable combinations). I have no off switch, even if I’m feeling like I’m nearing my limit. (No, I’ve never eaten to the point of puking, but I’m sure I’m capable of it. )
My weight fluxes pretty wildly between ~160 - 190 (5'8" F). (160 is the high end of normal for my gender/height on BMI, but it’s where I’m happiest with myself aesthetically -- it’s where clothes fit well/I still have a feminine shape and look healthy/strong. At below 160, my collarbones and jaw protrude too much and my legs look sickly thin/disproportionate to my body (even when I am in a weight lifting phase, when they just look toned but still wildly disproportionate to the rest of me (stupid apple-shaped figure)).) Anyway, when I’m down on the lower end of my weight spectrum, the following factors usually have contributed to my success:
-Exercise. I’ve discovered that if I’m not capable of restrictive dieting due to the constant food rumination. So exercise helps me knock down some of my calories. I suck at exercise, but when I am able to maintain a 3 times per week minimum (30 min cardio + weights), I see results. I tend to do this in waves (hence weight flux). I recently bought a Fitbit, and I love it. I don't even usually make my step goal, but just the structure of wearing it every day and checking it at the end of the day is better than nothing/has built over time into motivation to improve.
-Purge the kitchen. Yes, I will sometimes go to the trouble of leaving the apartment to get a bag of Sun Chips and eat most or all in one sitting. But that’s better than having a bunch of other crap in the house, too, to munch on later that day when I’m hungry again. So damage is often done, but not to the worst possible extent it could have been. (Sigh.) Purging is not a once-and-it’s-done kind of thing. I have to purge the kitchen repeatedly (probably on a monthly basis), as I will often buy crap when I shop in a state of (legitimate) hunger or when emotional. (This does result in some guilt re: wasting food/money, but over time I've worked past that to give food away, and now it's actually become a bit of a deterrent from purchasing some of the worst foods.)
-Replace. I love both crap and healthy stuff (luckily, I guess). If I can, on average, consume more healthy stuff than crap, that’s a win for me. I tend to lose weight even more rapidly (not crazy rapid, but definitely noticeably quicker) when I replace the crap with, at least, a lower calorie version of itself. (e.g., buy FiberOne brownies (surprisingly good for handling a chocolate craving). You learn very quickly that you will be ill if you eat more than 2 of those a day …. )
-Plan. If I’m going to ruminate on food, anyway, planning my meals, to an extent, helps me avoid fantasizing about unhealthy food and focus on what I’m going to eat. I don’t always have time to pack an awesomely healthy lunch, but I’ll at least try to throw a string cheese, a yogurt, a cottage cheese, and a pre-packaged container of carrots/hummus or apples/peanut butter in a bag to graze on during the day at work (90 c + 80 c + 180 c + 90 c or 150 c = between 440 and 590 calories), and I find that having multiple items makes me feel like I have something to look forward to. If I combine that with a breakfast of ½ cup of kefir and oatmeal (70 c + 120 = 190) or a low-calorie faux breakfast sandwich (260 c for a Jimmy Dean frozen bagel/turkey sausage/egg/cheese sandwich), I wind up fueled by 630 – 850 calories (out of an 1800 daily calorie budget), and that seems to result in my not bingeing (or bingeing as much, if I’m going to have an emotional binge) when I get home. If you don’t have dietary restrictions (you may notice most of what I listed above contains some dairy protein, so I recognize that may not work for all), and are super-busy and just looking to kill some pounds with minimal effort until your life eases up and you can improve your diet and lifestyle more holistically, these kinds of single-serve pre-packaged items can be godsends because you can buy a week’s worth and store pretty easily/they travel well. If you check their stats carefully, you can find pretty low-cal options, so even if you wind up eating more than one, you probably won't do too much damage to yourself. (I totally get that it’s not a sustainable/healthy way to eat for the long-term. I have a goal of cooking with whole foods regularly. I just don’t have time to eat/shop right now until probably post-summer due to work/school/personal scheduling issues. As a student, you may in the same bind.)
-Record. I track all of my calories (I love loseit.com, but of course there are tons of other sites/spreadsheet templates out there) as I consume them. Sometimes, if I’m in the right frame of mind, this will deter me from bingeing past my calorie budget for the day. Not always, but sometimes is better than never.
The closet eating story from one of the comments + eating multiple single-serve meals resonated so much with me. I have never been able to cut those behaviors out completely, only reduce them slowly over time. I have periods where I do well (like right before my wedding, when I not only reached my goal weight, but somehow lost more than my goal and my dress + underthings were too big on me (yikes)), and periods where I do terribly, and rather than letting myself feel discouraged, as time has gone on, I've been coming to terms with the fact that I will always have to be mindful of this issue/work harder than others to be/stay healthy. Please get help with this part, because self-compassion has been the biggest help to me in staying positive and being able to get back on the wagon/not let things get too out of control. As a college student, if you can get a head start on this, you will be doing so much better when you're my age (close to 30 :)).
I totally adore the idea of a mantra that helps you to be mindful of the moment versus the long-term (of a cute outfit or someone you're interested in, etc.). I have absolutely tried this in the past. For me, it has never worked :( It’s like the part of my brain that should respond to that goes into a zombie mode and just busts past reason.
Interesting related note: I just started taking ADD meds (diagnosed a few months ago), and when the medicine is active in my system, I do not impulsively eat, nor do I ruminate on food. I still wind up consuming about the same amount of calories (just later in the day), but I’m not distracted by food from moment to moment. This has been crazy for me, because for the first time, I understand what life is like for people who don’t have obsessional thoughts about food (like my husband, who routinely forgets to eat when he’s engrossed in something). I am capable of not compulsively eating and not ruminating on food. BUT at this point, only when aided by my medicine. This doesn’t mean I’m not capable of learning from this and building on this for the future, but it does take a load off, including some of the shame/guilt I feel. My psychiatrist explained the neurochemical issues related to this when describing how the ADD meds work in brains like mine, and I can’t dredge most of it up from the recesses of my brain now, but the gist was, for some of us, our brain chemistry is different, and we need to work with/around the differences related to how our brain manages neurotransmitters to achieve some of the same things that others may not need to develop behavioral or cognitive or medicinal workarounds for. (And that’s fine, other people may need help with other areas where they may have deficits or excesses that result in a need for developing their own workarounds to manage things we do effortlessly. Chemistry is weird :)) So bottom line: everyone’s different, and it’s important to keep on keeping on with trial and error and acceptance when dealing with this issue.
tl;dr:
For more professional resources:
Check out the Beck Diet Solution book (I super-recommend it (if your college library doesn't have it, you may be able to find a cheap used copy on amazon.com))
http://www.amazon.com/Beck-Diet-Solution-Train-Person/dp/0848731735
She provides the worksheets for free online: http://www.beckdietsolution.com/free-cbt-worksheets/
Also check out healthmonth.com (it's a health behavior improvement online game that you can play it for free -- it's cute :)).
I think that reading The Beck Diet Solution might really help you. I got it out of the library but am seriously considering buying a copy.
It sounds like you've been self medicating your depression with food for a long time and have come to think of this as being the most effective treatment. But really, proper nutrition and exercise is better. Didn't you feel less shitty when you were working out and eating right?
> How do I stay motivated?
If you could find a definitive answer to that, then there would be no diet industry. Everyone is different. Some things I've found that help:
>How do I keep my mind from focusing on my failures?
Every time you have a negative thought, fight back with a positive one. Here's an example from an anonymous dieter (cough):
Bad thought: "I ate everything in sight this weekend, and I binged twice last week. This is the beginning of the end..."
Countering thought: " I didn't drink at all, like I decided. And I'm already planning how I'm going to get back on track! It's so great that I can get up again when I fall down."
im late! there is a TON of helpful advice already out there! but i feel compelled to share what worked for me (i wanted to lose weight for my wedding, and then i had to keep it off until the big day. augh!). herere a few tidbits that helped me achieve my goals:
-first go back to your doc for a physical + lab work in order to establish a baseline for yourself.
-then, get an idea of how many calories you should be eating, more or less. use a free online calorie calculator like http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm or http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/calorie-calculator/NU00598. this is so, so individual, so if the calculator is giving you what you consider a drastic result (i.e., you try to only eat xxxx calories, and you wind up bingeing), i would start off by logging what you normally eat for a week, and cutting 100 back a day from that. if you want to get fancy, you can zig-zag your calorie cutting (e.g., 100 less/150 less/50 less/none less/100 less, etc.) to trick your metabolism. i think one of the free calorie calculators will do this for you. might need to google around for it, though. increase the calorie cutbacks at a pace that feels comfortable to you.
resolve not to beat yourself up over exceeding your daily allowances -- that can lead backsliding. if you go over, you go over. that doesnt mean the rest of the day is ruined, so you may as well eat ice cream :) (i am so guilty of this, if I'm not mindful!)
-next, sign up for something like loseit.com -- its a free web site + app for logging calories and exercise. (it also contains a calorie calculator, so if you choose loseit.com, you can skip my previous paragraph). it can be as involved as you want it to be (i dont participate in the forums, for example. all i really do is log.), and it has all kinds of nifty little helpful motivators. i mostly use it on my phone, since i do a lot of my eating at work. ive tried a lot of these kinds of apps, and this has my fav logging interface. my fav aspect is that you can get email reports sent to you daily or weekly. (i was doing this the hard way with, first, a little notebook, and then an excel spreadsheet, and this app is sooo much easier!)
-if you have some extra money (between $11 and $16 for new, and you can get it used for way less), invest it in a book called 'the beck diet solution.' [or get it from the library.] http://www.amazon.com/Beck-Diet-Solution-Train-Person/dp/0848731735 the author is a psychologist (impressive pedigree -- her dad is the beck of the 'beck depression inventory,' which is a widely utilized instrument for determining depression severity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beck_Depression_Inventory.) with a cognitive-behavioral orientation, and she takes you through how to train yourself to think and act in constructive ways that will help you stick to a healthier lifestyle. its not magical, but its got a lot of great ideas, and i found a lot of it very helpful. its divvied up into days and weeks, so week one is called 'laying the groundwork,' and some of the days include 'arrange your environment,' etc. week 2 is preparing the diet. week three is starting the diet. week 4 is about how to respond to sabotaging thoughts and people and other challenges. it goes on from there. if you have a friend or someone online interested in going through the book with you, youve got accountability built in right there :)
-i hear you on not liking fruits and veggies. i love veggies but really dont care for fruits. you may surprise yourself by developing taste for one or both later on, as you progress through improving your lifestyle, but if not, who cares, as long as youre getting your vitamins and minerals? (yes, its best to get them straight from the source, but its probably more important for your overall health to just start improving the diet + exercise, and you can tweak all that later. obviously please dont do this, but I'm sure you remember this dude: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html.) there are a few ways to approach this:
--one way is that if you do not find meal planning/preparation too overwhelming, embrace it! if you're not currently studying, maybe you can utilize that extra time (maybe an hour a day, broken up into 15 minute increments, if you find devoting that much time to one thing challenging (i have no attention span, so this is how i am able to get anything done)) and put it toward researching diets and nutrition and meal planning.
--another way is to find some frozen or prepared foods that you like, find a good sale, and stock up! as long as you stay within your calorie limits, mix 'em up however you want. (you may find as you start losing weight, that you are actually interested in trying other ways of eating, and this is when you may surprise yourself with developing a taste for fruits and/or veggies. its like an awesome slippery slope :) this totally happened to me and i would have looked at you like you were a crazy person had you suggested it to me earlier :))
--im just throwing this out there -- for some people, making a drastic change is what actually propels them further and acts as a marker between the past and future accomplishment. in that vein, i know someone who went raw cold-turkey, and she made absolutely no allowances from her previous diet life, and this totally worked for her.
what works for you depends on your psyche -- you know yourself best!
-related side note -- check this out with your doc first, since he alerted you to potential future liver damage, but if a paleo-style diet might appeal to your palate more than, say, a raw diet plan, it could be worth checking out with the md to figure out a way to follow the principles without increasing the odds of organ damage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_diet
-re: exercise -- i hate exercise, too. i hate getting sweaty. i hate dressing for exercise. augh! but you just have to do it :( few ideas/anecdotes:
--to echo a lot of folks -- walk as much as possible. if you go to the grocery store, use the old park toward the back of the lot trick, and when youre unloading the bags from the car, walk them into the house one at a time. theres a few extra steps. maybe consider a pedometer to motivate yourself. depending on your phone, you might even have access to a pedometer app!
--if youre shy about exercising in front of people, consider working out to some exercise youtube videos at home for a while. i know a dude who was too embarrassed to run in front of people, so he literally ran in place in his basement (gradually increasing his time) before finally taking to the road, so he wouldnt feel embarrassed by not being able to go far/long. hey, whatever works for folks :) my version of this was to start running at night. i couldnt even go a half-mile the first time i went out there, but within months of thrice-weekly night runs, i was running a 5k at my goal time (<30 min). (if you go the night route, make sure to read up on safety and wear reflectors, carry your phone, etc.)
--try some body weight exercises. i did a boot camp that featured these kinds of workouts, and my running endurance improved drastically (which was a crazy surprising awesome side benefit :)). the beauty of them is that all you need is a small, clear space to do them in -- no accessories required. caution -- DO NOT over do it. seriously. if you are sedentary now, feel free to do what you can of them (e.g., i have bad knees, so there are some exercises for which i do a modified form), start at 5 or 10 reps of anything TOPS, even if you feel good in the moment. i promise you that you will feel it the next day (and the day after). learn from my fail: my first boot camp class took me a week to recover from. i literally couldnt work out for a week after that. stupid pride. now i dont care. i recently took a yoga class for the first time, and the teacher was trying to get me to do something way longer than i knew i could, and i was like, i promise you that one day, with practice, i will be able to do this for a full 6 minutes, but today is not the day, and im cool with that. yikes.
--you said you like gaming, so what about the wii fit or equivalent for your system?
finally, re: goal setting -- so many people have said brilliant things about goal setting, so i hate to be redundant, but: small + achievable goals! each day wake up with the goal of sticking close to your plan, and each week and month have an achievable goal + associated (non-diet-breaking) reward. e.g., if you walk x miles this month, you can go see a movie, or buy a game you want, or whatever floats your boat.
tl;dr: 1) see your doc; 2) make a calorie intake plan; 3) join a free web site that will allow you to log food + exercise; 4) buy or check out the beck diet book and read it all the way through; 5) exercise however works for you -- play around with this until you figure it out!; 6) do not get discouraged, and if you do, reach out for support!
best best best of luck!
I've heard a lot of good things about Beck's Diet Solution.
It's basically Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / behavior modification techniques which can be quite successful in the treatment of binge eating.