Making Friends With Food– An article in SHAPE Magazine

In the October 2009 issue of SHAPE magazine (see p. 70), a dieter tells readers how Dr. Judith Beck (and The Beck Diet Solution) is helping her develop strategies to target her emotional eating, boost her confidence, resist unhealthy temptations, and continue to lose weight.

In the article, the dieter mentions a favorite strategy that’s been helpful to her and which Dr. Beck emphasizes with all dieters:

Identifying and reminding oneself of the advantages of losing weight

She explains that when she becomes tempted by a bag of chips, she runs downs her list of why that bag of chips is NOT worth it. She also talks about how Dr. Beck has taught her the importance of giving herself credit—and that she deserves credit EVERY time she proves strong enough to resist and stick to her plan.

Beck Diet Solution Workshops

We’ve received questions following our last blog about the nature of the workshops we gave in California last week. These were one-day workshops that we’ll be repeating in Portland, Seattle, Houston, and Dallas in early February (see http://www.iahb.org/html/beck_diet.html for detailed information). Health and mental health professionals, diet and life coaches, and consumers attended.

The workshops taught participants the essential ideas from The Beck Diet Solution and The Beck Diet Solution Weight Loss Workbook. They were lively and interactive-lots and lots of questions, contests (e.g., who can come up with the greatest number of sentence completers for “It’s okay to eat this food because……”), and role-playing. A number of people played themselves or role-played someone else so we could demonstrate how to work with particularly difficult problems (cravings, emotional eating, ambivalence about dieting, a sense of unfairness, and giving up too easily, to name a few). We were so pleased that a number of people flew to California from many parts of the country to attend the workshops and we got a chance to talk to so many people who have been losing weight as a result of the book or workbook.

If you do attend one of our workshops, please come up and introduce yourself!  We always love meeting people who are using TBDS with themselves or others and hearing about their successes and challenges. 

Beck Diet Solution Workshops

We are very excited because Judith Beck has now committed to giving a number of workshops about using the Beck Diet Solution. All are geared toward professionals, but the public is also invited to attend the workshops at the bottom of the following list: 
 

June 20-24, 2007 – Indianapolis, IN (for health and mental health professionals)
American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) Annual Conference
Workshop:  Cognitive Behavior Treatment for Weight Loss and Maintenance
Website:  http://www.aanp.org/Conferences/Conferences.asp

July 11-15, 2007 – Barcelona, Spain (for health and mental health professionals)
World Congress of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies
Workshops: Cognitive and Behavioral Techniques for Weight Loss and Maintenance
Website: http://www.wcbct2007.com/

October 7-9, 2007 – Washington, DC (for health and mental health professionals)
National Nursing Centers Consortium – 6th Annual Nurse-Managed Health Centers Conference
Workshop:  Using Cognitive Behavioral Techniques for Weight Loss and Maintenance
Website: http://nncc.us/conference/NNCC_2007conference.html

November, 2007–Philadelphia, PA (for health and mental health professionals)
The Association for Behavior and Cognitive Therapies
Workshop: Cognitive and Behavioral Techniques for Weight Loss and Maintenance
Website: www.abct.org

Workshop: The Beck Diet Solution: Teaching Dieters Cognitive Therapy Skills for Lifetime Weight Loss and Maintenance (geared to health and mental health professionals but interested consumers are invited to register)
Institute for the Advancement of Human Behavior
Website: http://www.iahb.org/html/beck_diet.html
Date:                              Place:          
October 5, 2007              Towson, MD (near Baltimore)
October 6, 2007              McLean, VA (Washington, DC area)
November 27, 2007       San Francisco, CA
November 28, 2007       Concord, CA (an hour east of San Francisco)
November 30, 2007       Woodland Hills, CA (Los Angeles, CA)
December 1, 2007          Los Angeles, CA
February 2008               Chicago, IL
February 2008               Minneapolis, MN 
March 2008                    Portland, OR
March 2008                    Seattle, WA

Philadelphia Daily News: Maria

We are so excited that one of our wonderful dieters, Maria, was featured today in an article in the Philadelphia Daily News.  Maria, who has currently lost 57 pounds, credits her success to true changes in her thinking and behavior.  She now consistently does so many things that she never used to do, such as:

1. She always makes sure that she has the right foods in the house that she needs to stay on her diet.

2. She doesn’t worry about spending a little extra on the food she needs, because she knows it’s worth it to be thinner. 3. She always eats slowly while sitting down, and tries to enjoy every bite.

4. She doesn’t let her husband or children distract her from getting her exercise done.

5. She reads her Advantages List before going into a situation she knows could be difficult.

6. When going to a party or celebration, she always plans ahead what food she will eat, or how to get the food she will want to eat.

7. She checks restaurant menus online before going out to eat and decides ahead of time, so she doesn’t get tempted by other things on the menu.

8. She understands that she is making lifestyle changes. She recognizes that she isn’t on a temporary diet.

9. She doesn’t make exceptions in her eating, such as eating more because it’s a special occasion.

10. She doesn’t have ‘good’ foods and ‘bad’ foods, because she knows she can work anything into her diet, as long as she plans it.

11. She consistently gives herself credit for all of her positive diet and exercise-related behaviors, so that she continues to build her confidence and sense of control.

We are so proud of Maria and look forward to following her continued success!

Celebratory Splurges?

On our post about Lori’s Busy Week, one reader asked whether she would be able to celebrate special occasions like birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries with food. Here was Judith Beck’s response, advice which you’ll find in different parts of The Beck Diet Solution.

I’m so glad you asked. What I suggest is that you plan in advance how you’re going to modify your diet on occasions like your birthday. It IS important to celebrate. However, if you want to be able to keep off whatever weight you lose, you do have to accept the fact that you just can’t eat whatever you want, in any quantity you want, without planning it in advance, even if it is a special day. So perhaps you’ll want to plan to eat an extra 500 (or even more) calories that day, knowing that you may not lose as much weight that week. But that’s fine! I don’t suggest that people overly skimp on food the day before or the day after, though, because doing so can trigger overeating.

You might also want to think right now about what other days fall into the special occasion category of eating more than usual. One trap people fall into is their idea, “It’s okay to always eat more than usual if it’s a special day.” Unfortunately, they put lots and lots of days in that category, not only their birthdays and anniversaries, but birthdays and anniversaries of family members and friends, parties, eating at other people’s houses, picnics, showers, family reunions, receptions, all holidays, and receptions.

So, absolutely, splurge on your birthday but plan to do so in advance. Then eat your birthday cake guilt-free! I know it’s hard to accept the fact that you need to change your eating, and not only while you’re actively losing weight. That you just can’t forget about your diet altogether on special days. That you still need to plan and restrict yourself. But I’m just being honest. And the payoff is that you’ll be able to enjoy the advantages of weight loss EVERY DAY: looking better, feeling better, being more self-confident, being healthier, having more energy, feeling better about yourself, etc., etc., etc.

BDS Buzz

Lots of exciting things are happening here with The Beck Diet Solution.  This has been an especially big day for us!  We were so excited to be on the Today Show this morning, especially because the segment had a few shots of the entire group.  The reporter also went home with one of our dieters, Maria, and filmed her at home with her family.  Maria looked wonderful and was so articulate!

We were also on NPR’s Morning Edition today and it was great to hear our dieter, Lori, talk about how she is able to work planned indulgences into her diet (Day 2 of The Beck Diet Solution).

The Beck Diet Solution is also starting to gain a following on the web.  Several people have blogs devoted to following the Beck Diet Solution Program and they write about their experiences daily.  You can check out these dieters’ experiences, too:

My Pet Fat

Southern Fried Fatty

Cup of Stars

We’ve been getting lots of positive feedback from the Newsweek, O—The Oprah Magazine, and other magazine articles, and we are so pleased that the book is starting to reach (and hopefully help!) lots and lots of people.