My life has been transformed by using Beck's post-op

I posted on the main Forum in early January that I am a sugar and white flour addict and a junk food junkie.  I'd had RNY twice:  original on 11-14-2000 and revision due to staple line disruption on 01-21-05.  I had been a compulsive overeater before WLS but could no longer overeat following WLS.  But, I snacked almost constantly on addictive foods.  I have been a food addict for over 40 years.  I asked if anyone knew of a book I could use that would provide behavior modification.

A woman who is a food addict in remission and a behavior therapist suggested that I get the Beck's Diet Solution.  It is available in both hardcover and a workbook.  You only need one or the other.  I didn't know that and I got both.  After reading and working with them, I feel that the hardcover is more suited for pre-ops and the workbook would be better for post-ops.  They both cover the same material but the hardcover goes into more detail.  I feel that most post-ops don't need all of that detail--just my humble opinion.

I got the book.  The author suggests not starting a diet until Day 15 of the 42 Day program (6 wks X 7 days/week =42 Days).  I prefer to think of the Days as steps in the program and the author only asks that we follow the program in order.  Note that the actual program doesn't start until chapter 5.  I feel that anyone who is already on a pr-op or post-op diet should continue on it but to refrain from criticizing yourself for mistakes until Day 15.   You'll be surprised what happens by then. 

I started the program on 01-29-09 and haven't had any addictive food since then.  I know I could have made eating mistakes and recovered but the fact is that I haven't.  Amazing!  I've lost 35 lbs since that date.  But, what's more important is that my whole life has been transformed.  I am bi-polar and thought that the best I could feel was just OK.  However, now I am happy.  I actually like myself!  I've gone from basically just getting by or being pessimistic to being openly optimistic.  I do realize that I will be bi-polar for the rest of my life and must stay on meds.  But, I like the personality changes.  I told my shrink about this and he said it was like a Eureka moment.  He only wishes he could get this accross to his teenage bi-polar patients.

I usually post on the Men's Forum and I do try to help people out on the Main Forum  But, subjects and posts just seem to go by to fast there.  So, I'll be coming here more often.  If you have questions about Beck's either before buying it or once you get it, you can send me a PM.  I'm not a professional.  I'm just a little further along on the program than you.

I now keep a daily food log as well as write down any exercises I have to do.  I suggest that anyone who wants to follow the program write a food diary in spiral notebooks and do the written exercises in the same books or in the same type of books.   It has worked well for me to be able to go back and look what I was eating and thinking over the course of the program so far.  Bob

could you please explain more.  What does the diet consist of , how expensive is the book?
I am in big trouble because I can not control my snacking.  I can not afford the phyciatrist, co
pay because my husband lost his job, So $ is really tight. But  I will do just about anything
to get this under control.  Thank You.....

The beck's Diet Solution is not a diet.  It is a program of behavioral changes and works with any nutritious diet.  That's why I suggest that we use our WLS diets.  Let me give a little background about the author.  Her father, Aaron T Beck, MD is the psychiatrist who developed Cognitive Therapy in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a treatment for depression.  It is commonly known as "talk therapy," and has generally supplanted Freudian Psychology.  As a matter of fact, it basically made Freudian psychology a thing of the past.  Using Cognitive Therapy, many therapist can lead their patients to talk through their problems.  The therapis doesn't just listen to the patient, rather they interact and challenge any thinking mistakes.  The author, Dr Judith Beck, is a psychologist and is the Director of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research at the Univ of Pennsylvania.

The Beck's Diet Solution  uses Cognitive therapy and just about every other proven behavioral method that help dieters.  One of the basic premises of the book is that we fail at diets because we don't know how to follow a diet.  What I mean is that we don't know all of the strategies needed to stay on a food program for life.  We will initially go on a weight loss diet and she even guides us how to transition over to maintenance.  I'm a long way from that since I weight 356 lbs after losing over 200 lbs.  I have lost 35 lbs since 01-29-09.  I have kept spiral notebooks with my food logs and the written exercises proscribed in the book.  In going over them, I saw that I actually started on the program on 01-09-09 and that I stopped snacking on 01-29-09.  To me, that's a miracle.  I refer you to link onto my Latest Posts since I write about this almost every day.

The hardcover version of the book costs $24.95 and I think the Workbook is a little cheaper.  As I've mentioned before, you only need buy one or the other.  Since I didn't know that, I got them both from Amazon.com .  From reading both of them, I feel that pre-ops would be better served by using the hardcover and post-ops can get by with the workbook.  That's because the hardcover goes into more detail whereas I don't think most post-ops need all of that info.  However, both books follow the same introduction, the same beginning chapters, and begin the program on chapter 5 with Day 1.

All of the techniques described in the book are either based on cognitive therapy or on behaviors common to successful dieters.  Don't let the word diet throw you for a loop.  A diet is simply a way or method of eating.  And, there are many diets that do work over the course of a lifetime such as a diabetic diet, a heart diet, a food addict's diet, or a WLS diet.  I am following a food Addict's diet taken from the book "FOOD ADDICTION-The Body knows by Kay Sheppard and copywrighted in 1987.  My copy was revised in 1993 but I have tried it in the past and was never successful until I used the Beck's Diet Solution.

I bring this up only because many people who end up having WLS are able to end their bad relationship with food following WLS.  I couldn't and I was cheating within 3 months of having my RNY.  If you are a food addict, you are not at fault for having your addiction.  You can learn how to control it.  Beck's offers a way, but, as a food addict, I could not just stick to a WLS diet that would occasionally allow me to have addictive foods.  That's one area where I disagree with DR Beck.  She allows people to occasionally eat foods they really want.  I spoke to a behavioral therapist who is also a food addict in remission and she agrees that that sort of planning is not an option for us.  It would be like telling an alcoholic to have a drink if he really felt like it.  However, if we do make a mistake and eat food that we shouldn't, we forgive ouselves immediately and get right back on the program--either with that meal or the next one.  Do not give yourself free reign for the rest of the day. 

Dr Beck talks about us having sabotaging thoughts and learning to counteract them with helpful responses.  Before I was using her techniques, I felt that, once I was tempted to eat, I had to eat.  I didn't recognize that I made a conscious choice to eat.  I would have said you were crazy if your thought I could choose.  Now I know that I do make a choice on what I put in my mouth and I do not eat automatically in any cir****tance.  It seems like what was an infitestimally small time between temptation and eating has now slowed down immensely and I can think about what I am doing an use strategies I have learned to stop me from eating food I shouldn't.

Once you get the book, feel free to PM me with any questions.  I am not a professional;  rather, I'm just a little further along the road to recovery than you are.  Bob

I bought both the book and workbook on half.com for about $5 each...I didn't realize I only needed one or the other.  I started reading it and of course got distracted 1/4 of the way through, but I'm going to go back to it tonight. 

Thanks Bob, this was just what I needed.  I  know I'm a food addict and I do what I  can to avoid my trigger foods, but since doing that I've been drinking a glass or two of wine every night.  A transfer addiction is the last thing I  need so I'm going to apply her principles to any and all of my addictions.

I just want to say that I responded directly to Michelle F.  Since I last posted here on 05-07, I have slipped a couple of times.  Oops, I'm human.  The remarkable thing is that I was able to go immediately to the Beck's books and look at the chapter that dealth with that current problem.  I read the material and went back and read what I had originally written as part of working the tasks.  I can see that I've grown.  I had feared that I would slip and not be able to get back on the program.  But, just the opposite happened.  I am committed to following a program without my addictive foods.  I just can't schedule them ahead of time as part of my diet.  But, I can bounce right back on my food addict's diet whenever I slip.  I don't make excuses for my eating mistakes or slips.  They happen and I take corrective action.  I don't get mired in unneccary guilt.  I recover and go forth.

I've told the guys over on the Men's Forum that I may sound brutally honest when I mention my slips, but I have to learn to be honest when it comes to my eating.  Like most addicts, I've been dishonest for years regarding indulging in my addictive substances--sugar, white flour, and junk food.  I lied about what I ate, but, like any other addict, the only person I was fooling was myself.  Now I just admit when I slip, take corrective action, and go on.  I usually just admit it to my wife.  She can usually reinforce my good intentions ( sometimes she seems to feel that she's heard this too often in  the past) and I thank her for helping me.  Beck's talks about having a diet coach.  Although my wife is not following Beck's, I've been explaining the program to her from the beginning and she has been my diet coach since I started.  That has worked out fine for me.

the author's father is Aaron Beck, the founder of cognitive behavioral psychotherapy.  Considered one of three major theoretical schools in psychology (although certainly not the only ones) - CBT, gestalt, and relational therapy are more or less the three primary underpinnings for almost any other type of therapeutic intervention. 

which is mainly a point of interest to me, but also if you respond well to cognitive behavioral therapy, which is usually extremely structured, this type of program is likely to be good for you.  Not everyone responds as well or too the same degree to the same intervention, so like anything, it's not a universal fix for everyone.  However most successful therapy I've seen employs at least some CBT techniques.  Structure itself is often very therapeutic.  But not everyone will be able to successfully implement a full-blown CBT program especially without support.  It might be good to do it in conjunction with a group or therapist.

Of course I'm saying all this without ever having cracked the book !  so for whatever it's worth...

The book does use cognitive therapy but that is not all that it uses.  She uses many positive techniques to combat poor eating habits.  If you continue to have problems, I suggest you buy the book and give it a try.  If you are stuck with following a diet, this may be your solution.

Before I was on meds for manic-depression about 20 years ago, I read her father's book:  Feeling Good--The New Mood Therapy.  I had no idea what cognitive therapy was.  It was just being introduced to the public then even though he had been working with it for quite a while and some therapists were already using it.  Each chapter had a different suggestion for dealing with depression.  None of them worked for me except for what I thought was the stupidest thing I had ever heard of.  To get rid of negative thoughts, he suggested that you get a simple counter--like a golf stroke counter and tally your negative thoughts every day.  Hey, what did I have to lose.  I did it and within a few days I didn't have any negative thoughts.  I have no idea why that technique worked at that time.  Similarly, it's possible that just one of the tasks, lessons, or techniques in Beck's will work for you.  I can't say which one is primarily working for me.  I just know that it works.

By the way, eventually my depression did worsen.  It took several years to realize that I permanently suffered from depression with a strong genetic component.  Both depression and manic-depression run in my father's family.  I wasn't diagnosed with manic-depression (bi-polar****il about 10 years after beign diagnosed as being depressed.  I now know that people with depression are not treated like I was back then.  The shrinks thought I had short term depression and would treat me until I got better.  No one saw the longer patterns of my manic-depression because the manic episodes were not really that high--I just felt good and seemed to be more active.  Now my wife says, in retrospect, that I was quite quixotic.

quixotic  - now there's a single word that is so descriptive (i love that). 

After reading your response, I looked up the word "quixotic" and realized that it was a poor choice to describe my old behavior.  There is no simple way to explain it.  I'd do things like get up on a Sat morning in the summer at 4:00am and drive from near the Delaware River in S Jersey to the Shore and go swimming for a couple hours.  I'd leave before the lifeguards came on duty and you needed beach tags.  I'd get home just as my wife was waking up.  Or, I'd take my kayak (I actually fit in one back then) out at 6:00am and not get home until 6:00pm but not leave a note nor even think about calling during the day.  I did a lot of other crazy things, but we just didn't know what was going on.

Of course, eventually I'd get depressed and we just though I had recurring depression.  That went on from about 1980 to Oct 1990 when I really litteraly flipped out and had to be taken to a hosp in restraints.  Unfortunately, I woke up a few hours later and checked myself out (they didn't have a mandatory hold).  My wife was scared looking for me wandering the streets at about 2:00am.  I saw a shrink 2 days later and started on meds for manic-depression.  I retired from the Fed govt due to Occupational Disability ( paid full retirement under Fed Civil Service) in July 1992 and haven't worked anywhere since then.

I too have found the book to be life changing.  It validates every crazy thougt I have in terms of my relationship with food and dieting and then it tells you how to rethink that thought.  I have it on audio on my ipod and listen to parts of it randomly weekly.