Beck Diet Solution

I started a weight loss group at my therapist's office two weeks ago. The group uses the book, The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person by Judith Beck as its curriculum. The Beck Diet Solution uses CBT techniques to teach you how to stick to a diet. It's not a diet plan - there are no instructions on what to eat or how much. In fact, you're told to choose two diet plans.. one to start with, and then a backup in case your first choice isn't a good fit for you. The Beck Diet Solution involves a lot of writing things down, whether it's your reasons for wanting to lose weight, reminders to give yourself credit, or ways to answer sabotaging thoughts. The idea is that if you practice these thoughts, you give your 'resistance muscle' more strength and weaken your 'giving-in muscle."  Personally, I think it's working great. It amazed me how much it helps to actually write things down versus just telling myself things in my head.

So for my eating plan, I'm following a Paleo/Primal diet. I've modified it a bit, which is fine.. because even Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy (Primal Blueprint Series), says that you should aim to eat Primal 80% of the time. 

Wish me luck! I'll try to post here more often about my path to health and weight loss. We're finding some fantastic recipes, so I'll be sure to include those, too.

Tangled Hair Accessories

Fiona has decided that she wants a Tangled birthday party. I think Tangled is a great movie, so I'm thrilled. Looking forward to a party, to me, means crafting.. so here's what I made.




They're both different - one has an alligator clip, and the other has a ponytail holder. I listed them in my Etsy store and sold two over the weekend. I'm thinking of bringing them to some local boutiques to see if they'll carry them.

Dream Sea Designs

I recently completed a custom t-shirt through my Etsy store. I wasn't sure how well it would turn out, but it came out great.



I hadn't done a shirt this size before (I usually do children's sizes, and this was an adult 5XL), so I was worried that I wasn't using enough dye, but apparently I did. I used my Silhouette to cut out the freezer paper stencils and used gold fabric paint.

Not bad, huh?

A New Hope

(yes, I am a geeky Star Wars fan)

Things are going well with my husband, Doug, and I at the moment. We're coming off a two month long really sucky period, but I feel like we're finally on the right track. He's in with the right people who will help him become the person he wants to be, and I also have a great therapist who is helping me work on my own issues.

We read a great book that helped cement my decision to give our relationship a real shot: Too Good to Leave, Too Bad to Stay: A Step-by-Step Guide to Help You Decide Whether to Stay In or Get Out of Your Relationship. It's a quick book to get through. There are about 30 questions (followed by elaboration and advice to help you come to your answer), all designed to help you decide whether your relationship is worth saving. It reminded me and Doug that despite the troubles we're having right now, there are a lot of really good things about our relationship.

Of course, this is just all around a hopeful time of year, too, isn't it? The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous, and it's amazing what being outside does for my mood. We've been working on sprucing up the back yard, going to parks, and taking our dog to the beach.

The beach is especially fun. Niall (22 months) is really into Blues Clues. Well, with all the dogs running through the wet sand, there is a veritable treasure trove of 'Clues' for Niall to find. He has to point out every single one.



And here is our wonderful dog, Maddy. We got her from the Sterling Animal Shelter back in 2002. She turned 10 last November, and is definitely showing her age.. but she still has a great time playing with the other dogs at the beach.

Why..

Why should I ever post about my success? Time after time, I have to follow a post of "Woohoo! I'm awesome" with "Okay, nevermind, I suck."

Totally blew it this past weekend, but that was sort of to be expected, I guess. But then today, I've had an indecent amount of sugar. Ugh. The book I'm reading, Breaking Free from Compulsive Eating, says that after a binge is when you need to be kindest to yourself, and I can buy that. I know why I'm eating, and I know it's not helping any.. but I'm not doing so great at stopping myself.

I mean, really.. between accepting my life, trying to heal and grow.. and eating a handful of cookies.. why should't I choose the cookies? ;)

I will go to the gym tonight, I will.

Success!

Last Monday (1/23) I weighed in at 265.6. This past Monday, I weighed in at 262.8. And this morning, I weighed myself, and the scale read a beautiful 261. I'm feeling pretty good about myself today!

I've been eating well for the most part, staying within my ranges for calories, fat, protein, etc. I did splurge on Saturday when my husband and I went out to dinner, but that's part of the plan - stay on track all week, and enjoy myself on Saturday. I've also been going to the gym as much as humanly possible.. last week, I overdid it and had to take a day or two off, but so far this week I've been Monday and Tuesday. Hopefully I'll make it every night this week.

And in other news, I was productive this weekend, craft-wise. I made these adorable onesies and listed them (and a bunch of others) in my Etsy Shop.

New Goals

I have two new goals to work on this year. I'm not calling them New Year's resolutions, because we all know those always fail.

My first, obviously, is to lose weight. This time it feels right. I can't really explain it, but I feel good about changing my eating habits and increasing the time I spend at the gym. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but I do think this is *my* time. I'm tracking calories on Spark People, but not otherwise doing a specific diet. I picked up the book, Breaking Free from Compulsive Eating, by Geneen Roth. I've heard wonderful things about her. I'm not very far into the book, but it's great so far. I may request some of her other books from the library if I really like it.

I'm also going to the gym as often as I can. Unfortunately, I only have about an hour and a half window in the evenings (after my husband gets home from work and before the kids go to bed), but that should be plenty. It takes me about 45 minutes to do all the weight machines, and those I should only do every other day. The rest is slated for cardio. I also have high hopes to work out at home during the day, but we'll see.. I've never had much luck with that in the past (mainly due to the kids constantly interrupting me).

My goal is to lose 100 lbs in 51 weeks - in time for our next planned vacation to Disney World. I'm pretty excited about this. You may know that Disney World is actually completely friendly to overweight people, but I would love to be able to enjoy our vacation as a much thinner (and fitter) woman.

My other goal is to work on my marriage. We're on the brink of divorce. I've thought a lot about whether I want to write about this here, but I may as well. Without going into too many details, my husband revealed some major issues last summer, basically opening my eyes to the fact that he was not the person I thought he was, and that much of our marriage was also not as I'd thought. After five months of fitful progress and astounding setbacks, we've both recommitted to working on us. We're both working hard and putting our efforts into concrete actions. We've read a lot of books on this subject, some of which I may review here. Most recently, we both read Getting the Love you Want, by Harville Hendrix. It was recommended to us by my individual therapist. The plan is to resume marriage counseling soon and work through the exercises (there is an accompanying workbook, too) together, guided by someone experienced with the method.