Dec 8, 2009

Day 7 – The Beck Diet Solution

7

Day 7 addresses managing your environment to make dieting easier.  Beck suggests doing a pantry and fridge clean out and getting rid of triggers and temptations. She also suggests some techniques for dealing with food in the workplace.

To a degree, I agree with her that removing temptations and triggers makes dieting easier, especially in the beginning. On the other hand, we can’t always control our environment and I think it would be smarter to learn how to deal with the temptations and triggers rather than try to control our environment and the people around us all the time (of course, she may address this later her in book and this is meant to be a preliminary step to make starting the diet easier).  I admit I do have some triggers, for some foods, it is easier to have NONE than to have one bite, or one piece and then try to stop.  I still have them in the house though because my sons and husband don’t have issues with these foods and although they are not the best foods for them to eat – they are occasional treats for them and they have no issues with control around these foods.

Since I’ve been working on this diet/lifestyle thing since February, I’ve pretty much got my fridge and pantry under control. I buy my own treats in single portions and measure/weigh out others as I eat them. At work, I have come up with my own strategies for avoiding doughnuts, chocolate and cookies – sometimes I am more successful than others – but I am more comfortable finding my own way than trying to rearrange and control my environment completely.

I made a new response card based a little on Beck’s suggestion, but modified to suit my needs:

“Once I make changes in how I react to food temptations and triggers at work, home and with friends, dieting will be easier.”

I’ll add this card to my others and read each day.

Giving myself credit for:

1. Tracking everything I ate today, even though I didn’t make the healthiest choices.

2. Sticking to two cups of coffee during a very stressful day.

3. Only eating while sitting down.

I haven’t asked my friend Shelley about the Diet Coach thing yet, I will be seeing her tomorrow after work for coffee and will ask her then. 

5 comments:

  1. Hmmm...
    While I understand your family does not have a problem with some foods, they should also understand that there may be things in the house that are not good to have around right now.
    If there are some trigger foods around that your family eats, I would suggest you talk to them and explain that those foods will not be around for a while.
    In the beginning it is much better to get rid of all the triggers in your house...it just makes things easier. As you modify your diet and get used to your new eating lifestyle, you may be able to introduce those foods into your house again.
    While I agree that you need to learn how to deal with environments that are not under your control, when you're just starting to change your diet, it is very helpful to at least control your home environment.
    Just my humble opinion!

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  2. I just noticed on the side how much you have lost so far-that is freaking awesome-keep it up :)

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  3. I'm with you, I decided to change my life, not everyone else around me, plus after a while, these changes sort of rub off anyhow. We can't control every one all the time!
    That's real life!
    Plus with WW you can still have all that stuff, it's about moderation, how can you learn that if you remove it all...?

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  4. Love that you are giving yourself credit. You deserve it.

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  5. This Beck Diet Solution seems to be really working for you! Keep it up!

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