WEEK 17: Progress Report

My first goal (reading my ARC and Response Cards) is going well -- I've read them every day this week so far. I'm pretty impressed with myself that I'm finally doing it after meaning to for the last 10 weeks!

But now all those cards don't seem as relevant as they did in the first 6 weeks. In the beginning of the Beck Diet Solution program, my ARC and Response Cards were what kept me motivated and strong. Now I'm reflecting on how my reasons to lose weight have mostly been satisfied, which is why the ARC lacks some of its original punch, but also I don't suffer as much from sabotaging thoughts, so the helpful responses aren't as momentous anymore either.

Of course, I've had cause to reflect that if I'd been reading certain Response Cards all along, I might have avoided last weekend's disasters.

It was reading all of my Response Cards every day of the first 6 weeks that kept me so strong and focused on the program. Even if I didn't have a particular sabotaging thought on a given day, reviewing the helpful responses over and over and over brainwashed me into "thinking like a thin person". And that's what stopped me from having those sabotaging thoughts in the first place! Kind of like preventive medicine, I guess. Well, it's good to be self-medicating again!

And if my ARC and Response Cards seem meaningless, reading them still seems to be working. I haven't been feeling the need to overeat, nor am I worrying as much about the scary consequences of being a thin person. Still, I should work on my other goals for this week (using the 7-Question Technique and Mindset Technique) so my weight doesn't get away from me again at future weigh-ins...