Day 3 – The Beck Diet Solution

Day 3’s message is to always eat sitting down. When I read the first few paragraphs I thought,  “I never eat standing up!”.  Beck asked some questions and it make me realise…

Do you take free samples of food at the grocery store? Isn’t that the best part about Costco?

Do you taste food while cooking it?  Isn’t that what the best chefs do?

Do you sneak bits of food from someone’s plate as you clear the table? I admit I used to do this when my kids were little, but teenage boys don’t leave anything on their plate usually!

Do you spoon ice cream out of the container or reach into a bag of chips while you’re walking around talking on the phone? No, never.

Do you take a piece of candy or pretzel as you walk past the bowl on a coworkers desk? Isn’t the point of it being there,  for people to help themselves?

Do you nibble on something you see when you open the fridge to look for something else? No.

So, it seems I am guilty of some mindless eating.  The point of this chapter is to sit down every time you eat so that you are making a conscious decision to eat and pay attention to what you eat rather than eat mindlessly and not get the psychological affect of eating.  She uses the example that if you eat something while walking around, you don’t get the same satisfaction from eating as you do when you see the food on your plate.  I think there’s some merit in that. Food on a plate looks good, smells good and is easier to savour mouthful by mouthful when you pay attention to it.  Beck also makes the point that when you eat walking around or standing, that you lose track of what and how much you’ve eaten and then later will sit down to a meal, thereby increasing your caloric intake.

This was a short chapter and ended with making a commitment to always eat sitting down and to plan meals/snacks so that I can be sitting down when I eat.  This isn’t really that hard – I could carry a folding chair around Costco with me :)

Seriously, I did well again today. I read my two response cards, created another one to remember to eat sitting down ALWAYS and put it with the other two.

So far I’ve found that everything she has said is basic common sense and really does apply to more issues in life than just weight loss.

Stay tuned for Day 4 :)