Day 3 - Beck Diet Solution, Eat Sitting Down

And the Real Beck Dieters too!

The task of the day? Sit down to eat! A simple enough concept, but sometimes hard to put into practice, especially if you're in the habit of standing up to eat. Eating while standing up might be the product of such unhelpful, sabotaging thoughts as these:

I don't have time to eat while sitting down.
It doesn't matter if I just have a few bites on the go.
I'll sit down to eat next time, cross my heart!
I like the freedom to just graze - I don't want to be restricted.
Food eaten while standing up contains no calories.
It doesn't matter if I just ate some celery or carrots while standing up - my diet allows me to eat as much of them as I want.

Using the Beck method, we contradict these Sabotaging Thoughts right back - here's a few examples, you can customize your own:

I make time for doctor's visits, picking up prescriptions, taking medicines, and doing treatments, don't I? This is no less important. I'm going to look at how I spend my time and reorganize it to make sure I take the time to eat sitting down.
I know full well that every calorie counts. I'm not going to kid myself.
This time I might have only eaten vegetables standing up. But it's the behavior which I need to change. I need to make sitting down to eat a habit. If I keep the habit of standing up to eat, eventually it won't be just vegetables, it'll be bars of chocolate.
That "next time" where you sit down to eat may never come, unless you do it now!
I have to choose my "hard." Which "hard" do I want - the burden of restricting myself so I don't walk around mindlessly grazing, or the burden of carrying the extra weight and possibly never fulfilling my "whys"?

You might also ask why it's so important to eat sitting down. Beck focuses on the concept of "mindful eating," which will be discussed in more detail later. The point is that we want to be aware of and appreciate every bite that enters our mouths. To diet successfully, we have to do away with the mindless eating, where we don't hold ourselves accountable for what enters our bodies, think that what we eat doesn't matter, and end up gorging ourselves before we feel satisfied. Beck is training us to be satisfied with a reasonable, healthy diet, and a crucial component of that is to eat sitting down, where we are more aware and mindful about what we are eating, and thus become more satisfied by our allowed portions.

Comments

Pariah

so burnt out looking to socialize i take a few sips of the libation my senses heighten i just listen to the sounds of the room frenetic chatter all around me right next to me within inches of me the drink feels like my only friend that's how i know i'm going into a dark tunnel triggering all the worst in me people jabbering on like robots not talking to let people in but to keep people out like me how different this is from the days i wandered through Demarest Hall at Rutgers vibrations all around were pulling me in urging me to make merry with them with no alcohol in sight just love proliferating.... everyone was welcome everyone was celebrated and then there was tonight the chattering all around me me just sitting there invisible i tried to reach out tried to connect tried to feel like it felt when there was no barrier just acceptance no judgment but they turned away back to the safety of their own whatever that means so i put a stop to it i put my drink on the bar i walked...

Day 22 - Beck Diet Solution, Say “Oh Well” To Disappointment

Inigo Montoya: Who are you? Man in Black: No one of consequence. Inigo Montoya: I must know... Man in Black: Get used to disappointment. Inigo Montoya: 'kay. The Princess Bride (20th Century Fox 1987) Just as Inigo shrugs off the disappointment of the Man in Black’s declining to reveal his identity and gets right back into the duel, so too must we shrug off those discouragements that go hand-in-hand with losing weight and keep truckin’ down the weight loss trail. It’ll go easier for us if we do. What if we just lay around bellyaching about how horrible it is that we can’t have that donut, can’t eat/drink exactly what everybody else does at parties, can’t just open the fridge and eat whenever we felt like it? How much would we really accomplish that way? Even if we do stick to our plans for a little while under that mindset, we’d be fighting an exhausting battle with ourselves every day and eventually give in. Even the patience an...

Day 18 - Beck Diet Solution, Change Your Definition of Full

Sacha Chua via Flickr Naturally-thin people are usually good at the skill of eating to the point of normal fullness. In general, this means being just as able to take a brisk walk after a meal as before the meal. Eating past fullness doesn’t feel normal to thin people – it feels uncomfortable to them, says BDS. But for people with weight problems, this overfull sensation may actually feel normal for a number of reasons – wanting to prolong the eating experience, taking advantage of food being around, wanting to load up to avoid being hungry between meals, and so on. If you’re worried about getting hungry before your next meal, just remember what we’ve learned about hunger – that it’s never an emergency and that we can withstand the sensations. We have plenty of distractions and anti-craving techniques at our disposal to deal with cravings as well. If you’re triggered to eat more because there’s food sitting around, like at a dinner or party, you c...

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