Review of "The Beck"!

[OMG! I finally posted something more interesting that a weekly update! :-D]

I finished listening to The Beck Diet Solution audio CD. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to finish it, because--as I noted in a previous blog entry--the reader's voice really bothered me at first. (Interestingly enough, I'm not alone: several of the Amazon.com reviewers also preferred the author's voice to the narrator's, saying that Dr. Beck's voice was more "real" and "personable" and that the narrator sounded too "peppy and Hollywood.")

As I kept listening, though, I found that I didn't mind so much. I'm thinking that one of the following happened:
A. The narrator warmed up to the material as the book progressed.
B. I felt ashamed of my intense reaction and got over it.
C. I realized that the narrator's voice sounded a lot like the narrator in the children's TV show Miffy, and that was somewhat less threatening. (The Miffy narrator sounds like she may have been Martha Stewart's preschool teacher....)

Oh yes! The content:

Likes:

• The book talks a lot about hunger vs. cravings vs. just feeling like eating, and it coaches you on how to develop mindfulness of and resistance to all three. I don't really like the idea of not eating when you're hungry, but it is something I had to do at first: I always felt hungry, because I was used to eating a larger volume of food than I needed and because hunger can be one of the signs of blood glucose levels that are *too high*. Anyhow, the way she talked about learning to distinguish the three and deal with them made me think that mindfulness training would be very helpful for dealing with the habit and craving part. (Especially if you're having a hard time distracting yourself: sometimes you just need to sit with a feeling.) I was reminded of Pema Chodron's works--a lot of her teaching has to do with addictive behavior--especially Getting Unstuck.

• Similarly to the Life is Hard, Food is Easy book that Juice is reading, Dr. Beck talks very sensibly about deprivation. There are some areas of our life in which we have "must do" and "must not do" behaviors, and we often don't give them much thought at all. What's the deal with food???
  

• I don't know why, but I liked the "oh well" as a catch phrase for accepting unpleasant circumstances. "I don't like this, but I accept that it's what I have to do, and I move on."

• Some of the sabotaging throughts/helpful responses were kind of hokey, but I think it's a useful technique to talk oneself down from a sabotage situation.

• Negative emotions are not an emergency. How often I forget that simple fact!

• I liked her maintenance advice. I've read it elsewhere (Hi Miz!), and it seems very sound. I like that she emphasizes going for a realistic healthy weight than an impossible-to-maintain goal weight, and that it might take some time for a person to figure out what that range is going to be.

Dislikes (very few!)

• Word choice. "Diet" and "skinny" and "thin," mainly. I suspect that Dr. Beck uses those terms, because "being thin" really does motivate a lot of people, and she's offering a more sensible way of "dieting" than crash diets and the like. This time around, I am much more motivated to be healthy than to be thin, and my end result may not be my goal weight.

• The "you can't have this" advice. I guess in some ways, I use it, but I tend to not make "always" or "never" type of rules. (Which, as I've noted before, don't work for me: they set up "forbidden fruits.")

• Contradictory, or common sense? There's advice later on to be flexible and to avoid the "always or "never" type of thinking...the context is that being too rigid can put too much stress on a person, and too much stress is unhealthy.

Book vs. CD
Aside from "the voice," I think the audio CD would be better as a companion piece to the book. There's a lot that didn't stick with me, and were I following the plan, I'd want to have the book around for reference and refreshing. I don't think I'd find the book alone as useful, either: I often have a hard time staying engaged with non-fiction material. And I liked the way that bits and pieces stuck around in my memory later, as sabotaging thoughts and behavior came up, "helpful responses" would pop into my mind. Which is undoubtedly why the program calls for people making response cards and reading them repeatedly. Kind of nice to have the CD do that for me. ;-)

Becking and Blogging
I found that very little of the material was completely new to me, especially since I've been reading numerous health and fitness blogs for nearly a year now and had been a Weight Watchers member in years past. Blogging really complements "Becking," because the online community is like having a whole bunch of diet coaches, and blog writing and commenting provide ways of working through the sabotaging thoughts & behaviors and figuring out helpful responses.

Weekly update, 4/28/09

Wow, what a week! Not totally to plan, but more "on" than "off." I think cutting back on the nuts and upping my veggies (and fiber) during the week helped more than I thought, especially since we had a date night on Saturday and I indulged. I think my only regret is not having fit in some more strength training.

Progress last week

7-day blood glucose average: 101 (met goal of less than 120)
7-day fasting average: 95 (met goal of less than 120, 100% of days)
Weight goal: -2.4 lbs (met goal of maintain or lose; new "official" low)

Food goals:
- Consumed 4 meatless, low-fat meals and 2 fish meals. (missed meatless meal goal by 1; met fish meal goal)
- Met goal of 30 grams of fiber or greater 6/7 days last week; the one missed day I got 25, the minimum recommended. Upping my fiber has been challenging, but I feel like I'm making better food choices to get there.
- Sugar-free candy removed from the car. The car has long been a place of mindless eating for me, so gum only seems to be a better way to go.
- Met coffee goal 4/5 week days.

Exercise goals:
Met goal of 30 minutes/day for 5 days. Did 1 run and 2 half-runs, one spin class, one swimming workout, and one walk. Missed strength by 1 workout (made my BodyPump class, missed my home workout).

Misc. goals: Got adequate sleep all but one night. I didn't always brush and floss right after dinner, but will leave that on the goal list.

Monthly measure

I'm happy to report some progress here! Bust is down half an inch, waist is holding steady, and hips are down half an inch. Thighs are down 1 inch. Woo hoo!

Goals for this week

7-day blood glucose average goal and fasting numbers: below 120.
Weight goal: Maintain or lose.

Food goals:
- 4 or more meatless, low-fat meals and 2 or more fish meals.
- Keep the good coffee habit going on week days: 1 coffee/day, with 2T fat-free half-and-half and 1/4-1/2 cup almond milk. Switch to tea and plain water after that first cup.
- Track fiber. Minimum 30 grams fiber/day and work up to consuming 50 grams fiber/day. (Include both insoluble and soluble sources.)

Exercise goals:
Minimum of 30 minutes of workout 5 days/week. Workout to include at least 1 bike, 1 run, and 1 swim per week, plus 2 strength training per week.

Misc. goals:
- 7 or more hours sleep/night.
- Brush and floss teeth right after dinner!

What took me so long...

...to do a lunchtime swimming workout? It felt *fantastic*!

I've always loved swimming. I remember taking swimming lessons when I was four or five years old and loving it! We had a park pool that was open only during the summertime when I was growing up, and I remember pressing my face to the bars in the late spring and watching it fill, anticipating when I could go. And when it finally opened, woo hoo! I would go for swimming lessons in the morning, then spend entire afternoons at the pool.

When I was a teenager, I moved in with my mom and step-dad. We had a pool in the condo complex, but no lifeguard, so I didn't feel comfortable swimming there alone. But we did live near an excellent beach for swimming, and I'd be out there paddling around while my friends basked in the sun (booooooring!). We didn't have a community or school pool, so no swimming as a sport. Bummer.

When college rolled around, I kind of lost interest in swimming. Oh, I still liked it for recreation, but I just wasn't interested in exercise in general, so I never thought to figure out a way to make swimming happen regularly. (Perhaps it was my thing about locker rooms. Which was why I didn't really take to gym workouts back then, either. That, and too much jumping up and down in aerobics classes. This was before they started making heavy duty sports bras for the bountiful ta-tas.) I did a little aqua aerobics after I graduated and got a job, but then I got married and moved to yet another beach town with no obvious place to swim. (Ocean waters are much colder and more hazardous here. I didn't know about Master's swimming or know that we did have a pool in town with lap swimming during the summer months.)

Anyhow, fast forward to the present. I finally thought to myself, "Okay, I can get in a lunchtime workout at the gym, and I've gotten over my mild locker room phobia. Surely there must be a place around here to go swimming!" I researched online, and I found a community pool that's only 6 miles from work. For a long time, it seemed too far to go for a lunch workout, but now that I'm training for the triathlon, I knew I needed to get off my duff and just try it.

So today was the big day: I drove to the pool. The locker room was pretty much empty, except for a few swimmers who'd finished their Master's workout. I suited up and hopped in the water. It was wooooooonderful! It hardly felt like working out! I swam for a half hour, lost count of the laps. I'm guesstimating at least 20 lengths (I was swimming a length in 1-1.5 minutes), so even now I'd be able to do the swim portion of my sprint tri in less than a half hour. I alternated between freestyle and "recovery" strokes, like breaststroke and side stroke, with a few elementary back stroke lengths thrown in for fun. Strength and distance on the freestyle will come, I figure. I'll also need to find an opportunity for doing some open water swimming this summer.

I found, though, that I am no longer a human flotation device. I used to be able to lay completely horizontally on the top of the pool and totally relax, hands behind my head, like I was laying in a hammock. Now my legs sink right to the bottom. I know it's a good thing--more muscle--but I did have a little twinge of nostalgia for floaty-me.

I could have swam for the rest of the day, but I had to get back to work. I know it probably won't be this quiet during the summertime, but it was just heavenly. (And I got a whole lane all to myself!) On the way back, I was pondering it all. I know I get busy with work, but I've made time in the past for shopping during lunch (recreational and necessity), and library runs, and eating out. (And, after I started exercising but before I joined the gym, lunchtime walks.) What on earth took me so long to go swimming?

Weekly update, 4/21/09 and thoughts on "The Beck"

I'm back on track this week, and I'm feeling very good about it: I kept my log filled in, and while things didn't go perfectly, they went good enough.

I've also been listening to The Beck Diet Solution. (Got the older version on a book on CD from the library, after seeing it mentioned on several blogs.) My reaction? Hmmm. I'm really trying to keep an open mind with this one and listen for the valuable nuggets. So far, a lot of it has been tips I learned ages ago in Weight Watchers (which, *cough*, were floating back in my subconscious for a long time and not being applied). I don't really like the word choices: much emphasis on the wonder of being "skinny" or "thin" (as opposed to "healthy"), although the practical advice is very sound and healthy. I think this would probably also be my reaction in reading the text of the book, but I have to admit: the voice of the woman who reads the book really raises my hackles. (It's not the author. She read the forward, and I preferred her voice.) With a book like this, I'd really prefer a warm, empathetic voice. The voice that was cast alternates between infomercialish enthusiasm and a rather snotty, condescending tone. (Can you picture a real or fictional person, who has never had a problem in maintaining a stable weight and can't for the life of her imagine how others could be such losers at it? That's her. Reading this book! Yeah, I know! Come to think of it, though, the person reading the book is probably a lovely person, and my karma is tanking as I type this.) Anyway, I'm on disk 2 at the moment, and it's at a point where I'm amused enough at my reaction to the voice to be a bit less bothered by it and more receptive of the message.

Progress last week

7-day blood glucose average: 94 (met goal of less than 120)
7-day fasting average: 95 (met goal of less than 120, 100% of days)
Weight goal: -2.6 lbs (met goal)

Food goals:
- Consumed 5 meatless, low-fat meals and 1 fish meals. (met meatless meal goal; did not meet fish meal goal)
- Got over 50 grams fiber 1 day last week; >=40 grams of fiber 3 days, >=30 grams 2 days, and <20>=30 minutes, but missed one of my workout days. Did 1 run and 2 half-runs, and one spin class. Only 1 day strength training, but it was BodyPump and I felt good-sore this week.

Misc. goals: Got adequate sleep all but one night. I didn't always brush and floss right after dinner, but will leave that on the goal list.

Goals for this week

7-day blood glucose average goal and fasting numbers: below 120.
Weight goal: Maintain or lose.

Food goals:
- 4 or more meatless, low-fat meals and 2 or more fish meals.
- Keep the good coffee habit going on week days: 1 coffee/day, with 2T fat-free half-and-half and 1/4-1/2 cup almond milk. Switch to tea and plain water after that first cup.
- Take the sugar-free candy out of the car. Use gum instead.
- Track fiber. Minimum 30 grams fiber/day and work up to consuming 50 grams fiber/day. (Include both insoluble and soluble sources.)

Exercise goals:
Minimum of 30 minutes of workout 5 days/week. Workout to include at least 1 bike, 1 run, and 1 swim per week, plus 2 strength training per week. (I'll probably be focusing more on the running with the 5K coming up at the end of May; during the summer, I'll be switching to triathlon training for September.)

Misc. goals:
- 7 or more hours sleep/night.
- Brush and floss teeth right after dinner!

Weekly update, 4/14/09

I sure do appreciate everyone's feedback on the scale thoughts! Like a lot of other things in life, there doesn't seem to be a single right answer. Except, maybe, 42. Or perhaps, "Put down the chocolate egg and step AWAY from the basket." Unless, of course, you don't like chocolate...then it might be, "Put down the Peep", etc.

Going without the daily weigh-in turned out to be a pretty good experiment. I found that I really do like to be more in touch with the scale-compass more often than weekly. I think there were only 2 or 3 times that I felt tempted to step on it, but the urge wasn't terribly strong. But not knowing didn't make me feel uneasy, either. I felt a little too at-ease, actually, and relaxed my vigilance quite a lot. (Being a HUGE Harry Potter fan, I usually imagine Mad Eye Moody barking "Constant vigilance!" at me...dude seems to have been on hiatus this week....)

So there was a pretty substantial gain this week, and of course I can't blame it on how often I stepped on the scale. Yes, some of it totally worth it items I rarely have: Easter food, work tea party (lavender scone, *swoon*!), daughter's birthday. But then, some of it was not totally worth it, bad-habit-creep items: Oh, sure, a couple of sugar-free candies during the commute is okay, but the amount kept getting a little bigger every day. *sigh*. Really, what was the matter with a nice piece of gum? And why did I keep eating the very bland Go Lightly candy? I overate, I didn't write anything down from Friday night through Monday morning in my health log (other than blood glucose numbers, which did quite well, considering), and I exercised less. The usual culprits.

This got me thinking. So many of us who struggle with developing healthy bodies long to feel "normal," to not have to be vigilant about food and exercise. The thing I'm finding, though, that this perception of "normal"? Isn't. Those that never have to keep an eye on their eating and activity--and still have good health--are rare marvels of nature, with their super metabolisms. Most people I'd look at and feel a twinge of envy about probably are as concerned, or perhaps even more so, with their habits. How are they different from me? Maybe they are back on track a little sooner, or perhaps haven't let the good habits go for as long, or maybe even have had a lot longer practicing good habits. Maybe they worked out more and/or ate healthier, lower-calorie choices the rest of the week so that they could splurge at lunch. That sort of thing.

So...*sigh*...(pause to gird self)...back to normality. I've got a shiny, fresh health log printout for the new week, and it's ON!

On the plus side, I roasted a whole bunch of veggies over the weekend and we've been using them in different ways: roasted beets in borscht and in my leftover grilled peppers/beets/sweet potato/roasted garlic/black bean dish for lunch yesterday. Roasted Brussels sprouts weren't as tasty as I'd hoped, but the eggplant was heavenly. And good news about spin class: you really do get used to those horridly hard bike seats if you go regularly.

Progress last week

7-day blood glucose average: 94 (met goal of less than 120)
7-day fasting average: 95 (met goal of less than 120, 100% of days)
Weight goal: +3.2 lbs (did not meet goal)
Food goals:
- Consumed 6 meatless, low-fat meals and 0 fish meals. (met meatless meal goal; did not meet fish meal goal)
- Ate >=40 grams of fiber 2 days last week, >=30 grams 1 day, and >=20 grams 4 days. (Not exactly progress, but met goal partially.)
- Met goal of scaling back coffee, but splurged on Easter weekend with real 1/2 and 1/2.
Exercise goals: Partially met goals. Had 3 workouts >=30 minutes, 2<=30 minutes. Did 2 runs, and one spin class + 18 minute treadmill run after class. Only 1 day strength training. Misc. goals: Got adequate sleep all but one night.

Goals for this week

7-day blood glucose average goal and fasting numbers: below 120.
Weight goal: Maintain or lose.
Food goals:
- 4 or more meatless, low-fat meals and 2 or more fish meals.
- Keep the good coffee habit going on week days: 1 coffee/day, with 2T fat-free half-and-half and 1/4-1/2 cup almond milk. Switch to tea and plain water after that first cup.
- Limit commute-time sugar-free candies to 2 pieces/day. Stick with the hard candies and not the taffy-based ones.
- Track fiber. Minimum 25 grams fiber/day and work up to consuming 50 grams fiber/day. (Include both insoluble and soluble sources.)
Exercise goals:
- 5x30 cardio (include 1 run and 1 spin)
- 2 strength training
Misc. goals:
- 7 or more hours sleep/night.
- Brush and floss teeth right after dinner!

"Before and After Party"

We interrupt this Mantra Monday for the Baby Tea Leaves "Before and After Party." If you're coming here from there, then you know the story: Christie O. is doing the March of Dimes' Walk for Babies, in honor of her son (3 years old now, but born prematurely) and for other families dealing with the premature birth of their babies. She chose the "before and after party" because the walk happens around her son's birthday, and it's a reflective time for her. She explains it a lot better than I do, so I hope you'll head over and check it out!

I thought I'd share my web album of photos of my health quest. There's a lot of "before," but there will never be an "after," since this is an ongoing process. Milestones include my before-and-after for the Baby Tea Leaves "Hot for the Holidays" challenge, my "arrival in Onederland" photo, and my two 5K races (of which I'm especially proud).

I'll have to verbally share the "before and after" of our Easter egg hunt. Because Easter weather is kind of iffy and we don't want our dog to find the chocolates first, Mr. Cottontail's tradition at Case de la Pubsgal is to leave the eggs for Mr. Handsome-and-Handy and myself to hide. This year, while the kids happily played with their basket loot, we did the hunt-before-the-hunt: picking up the "lawn sculptures" left by our creatures. "Well, this is parenting, alright" I chuckled to myself. "The kids get to hunt for brightly colored eggs filled with candy. We grown-ups get to hunt for poop." And, of course, it's worth it to see another year of excitement and fun...although we'll have to find harder hiding places, they found 39 eggs in no time! There was one egg unaccounted for, and we grown-ups (who hid them) must've searched for 10 minutes before we found it. In plain sight, on the hose reel. We should have called the kids back out to find it, but we were a little unsure that there was a 40th egg.

More Scale Thoughts...

I just finished reading MizFit's "The Power of the Scale" and accompanying comments. Good discussion! An earlier discussion on that topic led me to shift my weekly reporting focus from how much weight I'd lost to how I'd done with my health goals. It felt good to make the change.

One commenter, Tricia, said the scale was currently serving as a compass for her: "...I need it to help me to head in the direction I want to go. When I get there I think that may not so much be the case, but now it is." I really liked that analogy, and I feel the same way about it. That said, I do weigh in daily but track weekly in my health log. In a way, having other tools is pretty helpful...for me, the scale number pales in obsession-worthiness to a blood glucose level. And the monthly tape measure can be comforting that there's other good progress when the scale is standing still.

But the post got me thinking: do I actually have a secret obsession with the scale? How would I feel if I only stepped on it once a week? On the one hand, I remember from my WW days that the weekly weigh-in was fraught with much angst/anticipation. Would I be giving the scale more power? Or would the anxiety just prove that I'm too dependent? (Do I have the uncanny ability to overanalyze things? ;-) On the other, knowing I wasn’t going to have that particular bit of datum every day might inspire me to be more careful with my food & moving habits.

How often do you weigh in? How does that frequency affect your habits?

Weekly update, 4/6/09

Thing 2's 5th birthday was great! Lots of her friends' moms stayed for the party, so it was fun to get to know them a bit better. The birthday girl loved her party, although she got waaaaaay to tired at bedtime and had a major meltdown...fine after a good night's sleep, though. Mr. Handsome-and-Handy and I were pretty wiped out the next day. I even took a nap!

Progress last week

7-day blood glucose average: 98 (met goal of less than 120)
7-day fasting average: 98 (met goal of less than 120, 100% of days)
Weight goal: 0 lbs (met goal of maintain or lose)
Food goals:
- Consumed 5 meatless, low-fat meals and 2 fish meals. (met meatless & fish meal goals)
- Ate >=40 grams of fiber 3 out of 7 days last week, >=25 grams 7 days. (making progress toward the 50 grams/day...gradually.)
- Did well in eating more veggies and fewer nuts during the afternoons.
- Did not meet goal of scaling back coffee. We got some fat free half-and-half, so that should help.
Exercise goals: Got 3/5 cardio workouts last week, although only one combo spin class + 1.2 mile run on the treadmill. Strength trained Wednesday and Monday. (missed cardio goals, met strength training goals)
Misc. goals: Registered for the "See Jane Tri." Got adequate sleep all nights. Still struggling with post-dinner munchies.

Goals for this week

7-day blood glucose average goal and fasting numbers: below 120.
Weight goal: Maintain or lose.
Food goals:
- 4 or more meatless, low-fat meals and 2 or more fish meals.
- Scale back to 1 coffee/day, with 2T fat-free half-and-half and 1/4-1/2 cup almond milk. Switch to tea and plain water after that first cup.
- Track fiber; work up to consuming 50 grams fiber/day (25 grams insoluble, 25 grams soluble)
Exercise goals:
- 5x30 cardio (include 1 run and 1 spin)
- 2 strength training
Misc. goals:
- 7 or more hours sleep/night.
- Brush and floss teeth right after dinner!

Monday Mantras for 4/6/09

Today's mantra: "DON'T PANIC"

According to the Wikipedia article, "Arthur C. Clarke said Douglas Adams' use of 'don't panic' was perhaps the best advice that could be given to humanity."

But I am panicking. Because HOLY BLEEPING BLANK, BATMAN, I REGISTERED FOR A SPRINT TRIATHLON!!!! Yes, the one I've been mentioning, the "See Jane Tri". They posted the registration form on their web site; I printed it, filled it out, wrote them a check, and put it in the mail this morning. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
*Ahem*. Okay, I'm fine now. Really. Now I've just got to put my mouth where my money went and train for the darn thing. Oh my....

So, there's today's other mantra: "Alert Mind, Calm Body"

I will be using this phrase a lot, alternating with "DON'T PANIC." This is the phrase used in the technique "Quieting Reflex." Our HR director sent this to us the other week (she learned it during her time as a flight attendant and has used it often since). It seemed like a good thing to try:

"The QR is a six second technique used to elicit a state of alert calmness....The technique attached was adapted from the book and is most effective when repeated regularly throughout the day."

I found a link to the text of it here: "HC Tip 437: Quieting Reflex"