DAY 21: To-do List

My progress at the halfway mark:

I read my Advantages Response Card, NO CHOICE card, and It's Not Okay and Get Back on Track Response Cards at least twice.

I read other Response Cards as needed.

I ate slowly, sitting down and noticing every bite: Every Time

I gave myself credit when I engaged in helpful dieting behaviors: Every Time

I did spontaneous exercise: Some Times

I did planned exercise.

I monitored everything I ate in writing.

I wrote out a food plan for tomorrow.

I ate only to normal fullness.

I made my weight-loss graph.


CREDIT ACCOUNT: $16.50

Once I created my weight-loss chart this morning, there wasn't much else to do on the program today. Instead I reflected on how much my life has changed in just 3 weeks of being on the program.

I've already noticed how I'm thinking like a thin person for the first time in my life. It is truly amazing. After only 3 weeks, I really feel as if I've changed 30+ years of thinking like a fat person. I don't crave bad foods, I miss exercise when my schedule prevents it, and I'm hardly eating but I never feel hungry. For instance, today I skipped lunch and a snack, but I was always satisfied:


This way of life feels normal to me now, and I'm encouraged to believe I am finally going to lose the weight this time.

I couldn't have done any of it without the Beck Diet Solution, and I realize that even if the steps aren't affecting my life right now, today, they absolutely will in the future.

That first week, when the program was revolutionizing my way of life, I guess I started to think the entire program would be one huge change after another. That set me up for disappointment when later tasks were things I already was doing or that I already had stopped doing. Without the novelty of an obvious difference in my life, the last 2 weeks have seemed unimportant, but I've changed my thinking about that too.

I've decided the Beck Diet Solution is either like a VCR manual or a math textbook. With a VCR manual, you read it to fix your current problem: how to set the date, how to record a show, how to set the clock. With a math textbook, you read it to learn for the future: how to solve for X, find the cosine, or write in base 12. You don't necessarily need to know those things now, but you might need to know them someday, so you read your textbook and work the sample problems.

Some people need a "VCR manual" for their diets; they need to learn how to fix the problem they have right now -- being a couch potato, binge eating, letting their disappointment get the better of them.

So far, I've got a handle on all the basics of my diet, but I do need to study the skills that could help me in the future. Right now I may not be able to imagine the day I'll need to "find the cosine", but I want to be prepared just in case, so I'm going to stick with my "math textbook" and get an A+ in the Beck Diet Solution!