Going back to Planning: Roxanne

About five months ago, Roxanne made the decision to stop losing weight and start maintaining.  Since making that decision, Roxanne has been able to stop writing down a formal food plan each night and instead just has a general sense of what/how much she’s going to eat each day.  Like most successful maintainers, this has been fairly easy for Roxanne because she finds herself eating basically the same type of things for breakfast and lunch each day, with the only big variations being at dinner time. 

Although Roxanne is no longer trying to lose weight, she still employs many of the same techniques and strategies she did while she was on the way down.  She still consistently reads her Advantages List (discussed on Day 1 of The Beck Diet Solution) and Response Cards almost every day, and certainly whenever she’s going into a high-risk situation like a party or a reception.  She still continues to weigh herself each morning and consistently makes a conscience effort to eat everything slowly, while sitting down, and to enjoy every bite (Days 3, 5, and 21). 

Because she weighs herself every morning, Roxanne has noticed that for the past two weeks her weight has been up a little bit.  Rather than ignore the weight gain and hope that it goes away, Roxanne had decided to take steps to get herself firmly back on track so a small weight gain doesn’t turn into a thirty pound gain.  For the next couple of weeks, Roxanne is going to go back to making a written a food plan each evening for the next day, so she’ll know exactly how many calories she’s taking in.  With this strategy in hand, Roxanne is 100% confident that she will get back down to her Lowest Maintainable Weight (Chapter 11). 

This is precisely what will enable Roxanne maintain her weight loss for the rest of her life.  Whenever the scale is up by three pounds, she’ll just go back to writing down a plan and sticking to it – a skill she learned how to do well while following the Beck Diet Solution program.  Because she weighs herself each morning, Roxanne never has to worry about gaining back a lot of weight because she will always know when a small weight gain has occurred and the steps she needs to take to correct the imbalance. 

Lifestyle Changes: Roxanne

Roxanne, who was now reached maintenance, recognizes that she needs to use the skills she learned in The Beck Diet Solution for life. At our meeting yesterday, she told us about a women’s retreat she attended over the weekend in which all meals were served buffet-style.  Unlike some buffets in which the food isn’t very good and quantity is valued over quality, Roxanne reported that this retreat is known for having excellent meals.  So how did she tackle this situation?

Roxanne made it much easier by establishing certain rules for herself:

 1) She started out each meal with a salad regardless of whatever higher-calorie appetizers her companions were eating

 2) She did a complete survey of the buffet before deciding what to eat for her main course, chose whichever three things she wanted, and took one plate of food – no seconds.

3) She decided ahead of time that she would allow herself one desert one night, and the rest of the time would stick to fruit.

Following these rules made eating at the retreat a relaxing and enjoyable experience for Roxanne.  She said that she didn’t struggle at all over the things she didn’t eat, and instead felt happy and in control, knowing that she would rather be thinner than eat out of hand (Day 33).  Roxanne says that in the past, she undoubtedly would have gone for seconds at every meal and eaten desert every night just because it was there, even if it wasn’t something she particularly enjoyed.  Because Roxanne has truly made these lifelong changes, her weight is remaining stable and she is confident that it will continue to do so. 

More Birthdays!

Three of our dieters – Roxanne, Charlotte, and Diana – had birthdays in the past 2 weeks, and they reported that this birthday was very different from previous ones.  In the past all of our dieters have noted that they used their birthdays (and usually their friends and family’s birthdays, too!) as an excuse to overeat, telling themselves, “It’s ok to eat this because it’s a special occasion; I’m celebrating” (discussed on Day 19 of The Beck Diet Solution).  This year, however, things were very different. 

One of Roxanne’s friends thoughtfully baked her a cake, but knowing that Roxanne is trying to lose weight, she made a light angel food cake, using Splenda instead of sugar.  Roxanne was touched by the gesture, but because she hadn’t planned to eat cake that day, she didn’t allow herself to use her birthday as an excuse to eat unplanned food.  She took the cake home and enjoyed a piece the next day when she was able to work it into her plan.  In spite of her birthday, Roxanne lost a pound this week.

 Charlotte, a professor, had a similar experience.  One of her students baked a cake and brought it in for her department to enjoy.  Knowing that Charlotte was on a diet, the student made the cake healthier using applesauce instead of oil and left a section of it without icing.  Because of this, Charlotte was able to take part in the birthday celebration and still lose weight this week.

Diana, too, had a lot of people who wanted to commemorate her birthday.  However, she told everyone that she didn’t need a cake because she didn’t want to deal with having it around.  But this doesn’t mean that her friends weren’t able to find other ways to celebrate her birthday.  When she got home from work she found out that her coworkers had sent her a big bouquet of flowers – made out of fruit.

Our dieters this week handled their birthdays with ease and confidence.  We’re so proud of them!

Spreading the Word: Roxanne

Some of our dieters have been noticing an interesting side effect from their own efforts toward healthy eating and exercise: they are having a positive impact on those around them. Roxanne has noticed this happening lately.  Part of the reason she initially gained weight was due to eating eat big, unhealthy lunches with her friends. 

After coming to our group, Roxanne started monitoring her calorie intake and realized that she was spending way too many on lunch (discussed on Day 15 of The Beck Diet Solution).  She also became more aware of what she was eating and started to make healthier food choices so she could get the most satisfaction from the more limited amount she was eating (Day 16).  

Roxanne says that after she stopped ordering big hoagies and fast food for lunch, her friends in the office followed suit and instead started opting for healthier lunches (with more protein).  Now they turn to Roxanne to be the model for healthy eating, and she is only too willing to share her knowledge.  Roxanne says that her family, too, has started eating more nutritiously with her, and she is thrilled with the unexpected spillover effect her healthy diet is having on those around her.

Get Back on Track: Roxanne

Our dieters are doing well despite all of the added pressures of the holiday season.  This week, almost everyone lost weight.  In our group, we discussed how they had eaten differently during previous Christmases. One dieter, Roxanne, summed up the group’s general sentiment best, saying she used to: “Eat until I bust!” 

Roxanne, 47, has been struggling with dieting since the age of 25.  At one point, she lost 25 pounds and kept it off for about 2 years. Historically Roxanne’s biggest problem has been giving into cravings.  When she felt a strong urge to eat something, she usually did, telling herself “It’s ok to eat this because… I really want it; I’ll eat it eventually; I’ll have just a little; this one time won’t matter.”  Overcoming cravings and sticking to her food plans (a skill learned on Day 13 of The Beck Diet Solution) has helped Roxanne lose a total of 33 ½ pounds so far!

Roxanne is also becoming deft at making smart food choices.  She knew that last week she would be shopping and eating out a lot more than usual and had to be extra vigilant about not taking in too many calories (Day 30).  She made a rule for herself for this holiday season:  to order a salad whenever she ate lunch out. This rule eliminated a struggle about what she would and wouldn’t allow herself to eat. She stuck fast to this rule. One day, without thinking about it, she ordered breaded, fried chicken on her salad instead of grilled chicken.  But she didn’t criticize herself. She didn’t decide that she had blown her diet and therefore should eat out of control for the rest of the day.  Instead, she was able to get back on track immediately (Day 20).  She viewed the fried chicken as a momentary slip up and continued to eat normally for the rest of day, knowing that one minor mistake would not affect her weight at the end of the week.

Despite the holiday season, Roxanne lost 2 pounds this week.