The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person Hardcover – March 20, 2007

Six to eight years ago, I stopped spending money on diet related products. Because nothing has worked for me. Maybe initially they seemed they were working, but it was just temporarily. I saw one diet book, while I was just browsing around on amazon, "you on a diet", I thought I might wanna try that, thinking like "who knows maybe this is the thing for me", so I bought it. Even though I spent lots of money on diet products, as a book, "you on a diet" was the first book for me on dieting. And, in couple of months I purchased some other diet books, hoping one would include the missing ingredient on those.

This book,Beck Diet Solution was just released, and was at the best sellers list. I read the description. It sounded very promising, but since, at that moment I already had couple of diet books which none of them really fit in to my problem, I was skeptical. For two weeks, everyday I read the reviews, trying to see if some of the reviews was gonna convince me. I finally got it, I am so glad I did. Because that was the kind of help I was looking for.It is tryin to solve my physchological problems about eating and it is triying to re-program my brain about food.

I knew myself, I can never count calories, I can never follow a menu plan written by some other people, I can never count my steps, I can never count carbohydrates, etc...etc... My diet should be without all these stuff. So that's why this is the book for me.

She, the author asks you to make your eating plan, or if you want you can use any diet that already is out there. For me, I created my own eating plan.

Then, she just teaches you some skills which is the missing skills in people who struggle with weight and skills which all the thin people has. And these skills/behaviors are not difficult to adopt. All you need to do is just practice, practice and practice... until they are your habits. Everyday, for fourty two days, you keep learning one skill at a time, until you complete all of them in that given order. You may take your time if you need, as she suggests. For example I am in my 13th day, but it has been already 23 days since I had started. Some examples of the skills are, first day you write down the reasons you wanna get thin; third day, you learn and practice sitting down whenever you eat; fifth day, you start to practice to eat slowly, and so on. At the end of the program, you have all the equipment to think like a thin person, and to be a thin person. So far I have lost 6 pounds, and I feel like I will be able to follow my plan for a long time. She gives you that confidence. She sounds very sincere about the advice she gives. And she just takes you step by step through the journey and to the very end of the journey. With other diet books, I felt like I am just left somewhere with the tons of information I did not know what to do with, or maybe they just dictate you what to do, or sometimes have fun with your eating habits, and you feel insulted and hopeless. But in this book, BDS, I felt some love and caring about the people, she sounds like she truly wants you to lose weight.

By the way, I never write a review even though I enjoy reading them. That's how happy I am, it made me write one:) I hope this review is helpful for the people who cannot decide whether to buy it or not.

I first learned about this book a few months ago on a weight loss message board, then later, at a WW meeting, a member who had been losing consistently shared how following the tips in this book totally made a difference to her success. After hearing that I had to read it.

I will say, if you have been watching your weight for any length of time, or read women's magazines, or belonged to any formal diet program, much of the content will be very familiar ground to you. But even a veteran weight watcher like me will probably find at least one little tip that will be useful.

It is not a diet per se, but a way at digging into the underlying practices and thoughts that lead to overeating. You could follow any of a number of regimes and use this as extra guidance. And the thoughts always precede the behavior, even if the thought is "I am now going into a trance so I can devour all this food and pretend like it was out of my control".

The author's advice is based on cognitive therapy and research comparing behavior and thoughts of overweight and slender people.

It helps in learning to recognize and change destructive thought patterns that lead to poor eating, overeating and bad lifestyle choices.

The practical tips in learning HOW to notice these thoughts, and in using notecards to replace those thoughts, is useful.

What I especially appreciated was the fact that the information is garnered from real people.

The two nuggets that most benefited me was 1) the finding that chronically overweight consistently have a sense of unfairness (that they can't eat whatever they want), and destructive thought patterns of self pity, "why me?", and black and white thinking ("I ate one cookie I might as well eat 20"; "I can't be a size 0, so I may as well stay fat"..etc), and 2) that 'craving tolerance' is a muscle that grows stronger with use. That was helpful and encouraging, and I think very true. You won't always feel out of control or like it's hopeless to try, if you hang in there.

The realization that the 'unfairness' thought is a real stumbling block to lasting weight loss was a real 'aha' for me, because I realized I frequently entertained the thought ''why me''!? regarding a very slow and thrifty metabolism. So just for that reason alone, it was worth it, because when I start that thought process now I know catch it in time before it can sabotage my efforts at moderation.

One thing I did NOT like was the constant use of the word 'diet' and 'dieter'. After all, if it's a lifestyle change, it is not a temporary 'diet'. Using this word repeatedly flies in the face of the author's central theme, in my opinion.