Beck Planning and Fuhrman Challenging

Did you know that Dr. Fuhrman is running a six-week holiday challenge? Well, he is. Here are the challenge rules:

For the next 6 weeks, promise to…

• Eat at least one large salad every day
• Eat generous amounts of cooked green vegetables, mushrooms, and onions
• Eat beans every day
• Eat at least three fresh fruits every day
• Avoid white flour
• Avoid sugars and artificial sweeteners
• Use oils sparingly

As a benefit of accepting the challenge, you get a FREE six-week Gold Membership to the Dr. Fuhrman website (you can also upgrade a lower level membership for free). Loads of recipes and nutritional and health information free and at your fingertips. Interested in finding out more or signing up? I did! Click here 


Which brings me to my next point. Planning.


I haven't talked Beck in quite a while now. For those of you who have read this far and are saying to yourselves, "What the heck is she talking about?" Beck is shorthand for The Beck Diet Solution. You can check it out on Amazon here:

The Beck book, along with a plant-based, no-added-oil diet, pretty much saved my life. One without the other would have been a wash. Which is why Beck reappears on this blog from time to time, in varying degrees. For a while I was hot to trot, talking about Beck every few days. Some of you thought that was too much, and it kinda took the wind out of my sails. But, inevitably, I must talk about Beck again, because, like I said, one without the other doesn't work for me. And some of my dear readers actually ask me to write about it!

So, once again:
Plant-based, no-added-oil diet = for my body
Beck = for my brain

Day 14 of The Beck Diet Solution asks us to write a food plan that includes everything you are going to eat, either in the morning for that day, or in the evening for the next day.

Feeling resistant? That's totally normal.

So let's talk about why planning what we eat is so important for people who suffer from compulsive overeating. For me, it simply comes down to one thing and one thing only. I do too much spontaneous eating. My three meals might be gloriously Nutritarian even by Dr. Fuhrman's exacting standards, but what's not so pretty is the snacking that I do in between meals and even after dinner. And it's that snacking, even on healthy, no-oil, Vegan food that gets me into trouble.

So you can plan what you are going to eat for an entire day. But the key to this having any affect at all is to say to yourself every time you are tempted to go off the plan, "That food is not on my plan so I am not even going to consider eating it." Then walk away.

That builds a resistance muscle.

There are many systems for planning. You could write everything on paper in a notebook. You could use your computer and do it on http://www.peertrainer.com/ or http://www.sparkpeople.com/ or use one of the many smartphone applications for logging your food.

My experience was that this method was extremely powerful for me the first time I tried it. I have tried it since with less positive results, but it was still worthwhile. Because I have committed to the Dr. Fuhrman Six-week Challenge, I thought to myself,  "The only way I am ever going to be able to stick to that plan is if I plan and log my food for the day in the morning and then stick to that plan," it seemed like the perfect time to get back into Beck and to go for it!

Wish me luck!

Have you ever tried Beck's planning method? Did you have success? What worked and what didn't? How long did you do it for? Please tell us about it!

If you have never tried it, does it seem like something that you would want to do now that you are aware of it?