I’d like to present my new doorstop!

I know many of you were waiting to hear about my experiences on week three of The Beck Diet Solution, but after putting off the entry for longer than it would have taken to complete the first three weeks over again, I realized I have no desire to continue the plan. I think it has some merit, but I don’t want to spend that much time thinking about my weight, my food, and my fitness every week. Not right now, anyway.

Beck burnout seems to have occurred to other people before. It makes me wonder if there is a secret chapter in the middle featuring a wonderful surprise. I heard of a software company that offered a free $100 bill to the first person who actually read their terms of service to find the offer. Dr. Beck might give away free ponies in chapter 32! I’ll never know. If you’re looking for someplace to discuss the book, it looks like Prior Fat Girl has a discussion page set up.

After ditching [...]

• Continue reading "Bye, Bye, Beck and other realizations"

PastaQueen goes to Applebees, but doesn’t eat any apples.

• Continue reading "Review: Applebees and the Under 550 Calories menu"

For those of you just joining us, read the following text like those recaps before TV shows that summarize previous episodes:

Previously on PastaQueen.com!

PastaQueen regained fifty pounds during a period of chronic pain and depression, but vowed to lose the weight one more time in 2010. She bought a copy of The Beck Diet Solution, a cognitive therapy program, and is reporting on the results each week. Unfortunately, due to thee days of nausea induced by the H1N1 vaccine, she put off Day 8 of the plan for three days, which ironically is called, “Create time and energy.”

Day 8 – Create time and energy

Once I finally found the time and energy to read this chapter, I was tasked with writing a schedule for when I would exercise and complete other activities necessary for weight loss. As a freelancer, my schedule is pretty flexible, so it wasn’t hard to schedule time to exercise. I also decided I can spend two hours on Saturday or Sunday planning and preparing dinners for the week to get it all over [...]

• Continue reading "PastaQueen does the Beck Diet Solution: Week 2 – Get Set: Prepare to Diet"

The Beck Diet Solution is a six-week program of cognitive therapy which aims to make you change the way you think, which in turn helps you change your behavior. Cognitive therapists believe that all actions start with thoughts. You think about scratching your head, so you scratch it. You think about eating a bowl of cereal, so you eat it. Our thoughts and behaviors are a bit more complex than that, but if you can change the way you think, it is believed that you can change the way you act.

I will be following the Beck Diet Solution for the next six weeks and blogging about it every Monday. I’m actually at the end of week two right now, but I’ll try to catch the blog up with my real time behavior in the next few weeks. The book assigns you one task a day, letting you gradually change your behaviors little by little until you’ve changed the way you think about food and exercise. Dr. Judith Beck says it’s sometimes ok to do two [...]

• Continue reading "PastaQueen does the Beck Diet Solution: Week 1 – Get Ready: Lay the Groundwork"

A Nutella Panini. Crepes with ice cream and chocolate sauce. A Cornish pasty. A custard filled donut with chocolate icing and white chocolate flakes. A Kit Kat McFlurry. A McCrispy. Pain au chocolat. Fish and chips. A whole pizza. A praline tart.

Those are the things I ate on vacation.

When I stepped on the scale Wednesday morning, I held my breath, stared at the nail hole in the closet wall in front of me, and dreaded looking down when the scale beeped. Then I exhaled and smiled because I had lost four pounds. I suppose all that nonsense about French women not getting fat was true.

Even though I ate all those scrumptious, delectable foods listed above, I also walked so far that my feet hurt at the end of every day. I walked and walked and walked because I knew something old and/or magnificent was hiding just around the corner, like a Metro stop leading back to the hotel. I probably walked 6 or 7 miles every day. I got blisters. I walked and walked and [...]

• Continue reading "French women don’t get fat"