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Day 8 - Beck Diet Solution, Create Time and Energy

To be successful in losing weight, we have to make time for it.  Subsumed within this objective come many necessary tasks, such as planning meals, working out, cooking, journaling, and so forth.  Today BDS has us take an inventory of our typical days and break them down into our specific activities. 

On a calendar, list all your activities for a typical week and weekend day – the next step is to prioritize them.  There are three categories: essential activities, highly desirable, and desirable.  For example:

 Essential Activities
  • Parental responsibilities
  • Work
  • Exercise
  • Preparing meals
  • Paying household bills
Highly Desirable
  • Long phone conversations with family or friends
  • Watching some TV
  • Relaxing in the bath
Desirable
  • Surfing the Internet
  • Volunteer work
  • Additional house chores or projects
After we’ve made an inventory of our typical activities, BDS tells us to cut back on the desirable or non-essential activities to make time for weight loss.  This is not a permanent change – we will eventually reach a point that the good lifestyle habits we’re learning will be more automatic and they will not require as much time, allowing us to add more desirable activities back in.  Don’t forget to ask others for help or delegate tasks whenever possible.  We can also talk to our diet coaches and get their feedback as to prioritize our activities.

So we make a revised schedule, specifying when we will plan meals, exercise and cook and do our BDS steps, together with our essential activities and such others as can be included.  Having everything planned out and giving up some spontaneity may be difficult to get used to.  But again, how important is losing weight and keeping it off to us?
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