The Beck Diet Solution

The latest of my diet-reading: The Beck Diet Solution by Judith S. Beck, Ph.D. The sub-title is “train your brain to think like a thin person.”

I don’t remember how I first heard about this book, but it was probably one of many that I find while playing on Amazon (I know, some people play cards, and I play on Amazon…). My general Amazon policy (central to me actually retaining some of my income) is that I only buy books that aren’t available at the library. In this case, it meant I waited on hold for this book for a month or two, and that I need to decide whether to buy it or not in the next few days, since I have to return it on July 5th.

The premise of the book is straightforward: it’s difficult or impossible to maintain the healthy behaviors that result in weight loss if you don’t change the way you think. Dr. Beck’s father is also the father of the Cognitive Therapy school of thought, and this book is essentially Cognitive Therapy applied to weight loss.

The Beck Diet Solution is made up of six weeks’ worth of daily exercises. The first two weeks are focused on preparing to diet. I’m already dieting, but Dr. Beck says it’s incredibly important to do those, regardless of current dieting status. That makes sense because those weeks are about establishing the habits and knowledge that help with actually sticking to a diet.

Week three is about understanding your body while dieting—learning to accurately interpret its signals and be realistic about progress. Week four deals with sabotaging thoughts (a major focus of the book, based on the introductory chapters), while week five tackles various challenges that can ruin a diet (food pushers, eating out, traveling, and emotional eating, among others). Finally, week six is about fine-tuning your dieting skills for the long haul.

I’ll have more feedback as I go through the book, but my first impression is good. As I mentioned, I’ve got some issues with food and taste, so I hope that working through this book will not only help me see food more accurately but will also help me want to make changes for the better.

The Amazon reviews for this book are very encouraging. Reviewer after reviewer reports success, and many of them are the “I tried everything, nothing worked, and then I found this” type. I also like that the book is compatible with any diet (since I like to try them all!) and develops lifetime skills. I’ll be working through some of the exercises here on the blog (when it makes sense to do them that way) so you’ll be able to see if the book might be helpful for you as well.

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