Day 16 - Beck Diet Solution, Prevent Unplanned Eating

For those of us following Beck, Dr. Beck gives us another invaluable tool to keep us on our plans and not succumb to unplanned eating: NO CHOICE. There’s a lot of beauty in these words. They solve many cravings and triggers for us for the outset, because the decision not to eat is already made.

Beck tells us that drawing a line in the sand and deciding NOT to eat relieves the tension and anxiety over the food just as much as a decision to eat does. It’s like having a protective force field around us wherever we go, insulating us from the landmines of unplanned eating that exist in everyday life. Brownies someone brought into the office? Everybody having wine at a party? After a hard day, are you getting seduced by the late night pizza commercials? “No thanks, I’m good” (NO CHOICE)

These words can be as magic as you want them to be. Just add them to the list of non-negotiable rules we have in our lives every day, like brushing our teeth, taking required medicine, walking our dogs, and so on. Do we argue with ourselves about whether we have to follow these rules? Probably not, because they’ve become automatic for us. They’re just part of our daily routine and we probably don’t give much thought to why we have to do them – we just do.

BDS encourages us to also create other NO CHOICE rules for ourselves about eating, like the ones Dr. Beck made for herself:

1. Eat lots of protein, vegetables and fruit at every meal;

2. No junk food until after dinner;

3. Eat only raw veggies while preparing dinner; and

4. When eating out, you can eat up to 25% more than what you would at home.

These rules allow her to do things like leave afternoon receptions and still have room for dinner, and not gain more than a few pounds while on vacation. Try coming up with some of your own.

If we’ve let ourselves eat spontaneously our entire lives, this is probably what feels natural to us, not sticking to food plans. Yet both we and Dr. Beck have seen where that’s gotten us. The words NO CHOICE are actually liberating – they will free us of exhausting battles with food and grant us access to places we may have never been.

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