The Four Day Win: End Your Diet War and Achieve Thinner Peace (Hardcover)

~ Martha Beck PhD (Author) "Not that I think you are..." (more)
Key Phrases: thinner peace, famine brain, means fattest, Wild Child, Dates of My Check Off Current, Small Daily Reward (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The woman Psychology Today calls "the best-known life coach in America" shatters the myth that willpower is an effective weight-loss tool and introduces a revolutionary approach to lifetime leanness based on a series of "4-day wins" that work with any weight-loss program

Substitute a good habit for a bad one and stick to it for just 4 days, and it begins to feel normal. That’s the surprising discovery that holds the key to lifetime weight control, according to life coach and New York Times best-selling author Martha Beck. Not a conventional diet or exercise program, The Four-Day Win combines evolutionary logic, psychology, and neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to restructure itself, which suggests ways to reshape our bodies) with strategies and success stories—plus large doses of humor and an insightful, straightforward approach to teach the principles required to reverse weight issues.

Drawn from hundreds of hours interviewing weight losers—in both her discussions with private clients and her groundbreaking consulting work for Jenny Craig—Dr. Beck reveals:

• why willpower-based dieting is doomed to fail

• how to step out of the conflict between the rule-making Commander (who bans all our favorite foods) and the rule-breaking Resistor (who gives in to cravings) and reach the Watcher, who is our happiest self

• what the latest research into the mind-body connection reveals about how our emotions affect our eating

Breaking down the weight-loss marathon into 4-day intervals, Dr. Beck provides effective strategies for changing the behaviors that make us fat. And if there is a relapse, readers take comfort in knowing they are just 4 days from turning it around.

About the Author

MARTHA BECK, PhD, is a life coach and monthly columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine. She is the author of the bestsellers Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live and the memoir Expecting Adam. She lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books; 1 edition (December 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594866074
• ISBN-13: 978-1594866074
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #24,630 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

140 of 142 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart advice I've never read anywhere else, January 5, 2007

By	Native New Yorker - See all my reviews

I'm a huge fan of Martha Beck's life coaching column in Oprah's magazine, so I grabbed this book to help me lose those last ten pounds. It definitely isn't the same old plate of beans--put your fork down after every bite! Use a smaller plate! Instead, it explains the latest findings in brain research, and how we're hard-wired to respond to dieting the way our ancient selves responded to any other kind of stress--by storing fat. No wonder the usual dieting always fails. Martha shows you how to "retrain your brain" with different exercises that won't make your body go into that stress response. She teaches you how to talk back to those voices in your head--the Dictator ("You WILL lose weight!") and the Wild Child ("Yeah, MAKE me!"). She shows you how to SIN (substitute inedible nourishment), so that every time you don't eat, you have to do something else small and nice for yourself, so losing weight doesn't feel like punishment. I've never seen this kind of advice anywhere. Plus the book is really, really funny.

80 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Could be life-changing, July 6, 2007

By	K. Hill (AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've never written a book review before, but this book has seriously changed my life -- and I've never had reason to say that. As silly as this may sound to some, I can now keep cookies and ice cream in my house until they go stale. I eat only when I want to, where I want to and whatever I happen to feel like eating -- no restrictions at all, only sanity. I have reached my goal for the first time in my entire 55 years on this planet without dieting, without binging, without ANY food-frantic behaviors. In fact, I now have to remind myself to eat at all; I am too busy being happy.

After reading some of the negative reviews here, I almost did not buy this book. But now, I have to suggest that perhaps anyone who has something flippantly negative to say about this book might not have actually read it, might not have applied any of the many wonderful and insightful suggestions. I've read many spiritual books on being the "observer", none of which have in the least affected my eating behaviors. This book is so much more than that; it's silly to suggest otherwise.

I'd like to say thank you, Ms. Beck, for taking those turtle steps towards getting this book published. You have truly made a difference in at least one person's life.

89 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, somebody who gets it!, January 3, 2007

By	Girl in the Mirror (Baltimore, Maryland) - See all my reviews

Thank goodness, somebody who gets the concept that there's more to getting thin and staying thin than just eat less/move more. Sure we all know what to do, but we don't do it. Thank you Martha Beck for showing us how to heal our brains and bodies. This is the best weight-loss book I've ever read and I've read 'em all.