The Four-Day Win: End Your Diet War and Achieve Thinner Peace

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.

If you've never "met" Martha Beck before, you are in for a treat (non-fattening, of course). If you think you've read every diet book out there and this is just another one of "those" books - think again. Beck will quickly have you not only laughing - but laughing yourself thin. Really. Her quick wit and spot-on sense of humor had me forgetting that I was reading a diet book at all. What's more: Beck gets it! Sure she's got the trilogy from Harvard (undergrad, Masters, Ph.D.) so she can back up her scientific musings - but within the first couple pages you'll learn - Martha Beck, Ph.D. gets it. And she'll tell you what it is in the first few pages. It's what we already know: To get rid of extra weight we need to (drum roll, please) eat less and move more. Period. Yet, if this were the absolute answer to weight loss, we could all just close the book and end there. But you won't want to. It's just not that simple. We know we need to eat less and move more - yet most of the time we don't. Why? Beck tells us: By putting such tight restraints on ourselves, we actually berate our inner thin-ness and use this power to keep ourselves fat (Horrors!). In short - we're just not ready to be thin. Until we are. How to get back to "thin-brain" thinking? Beck will show you. You'll use her simple, tiny "turtle" steps - four days at a time. In The Four Day Win - Beck uses her Harvard research tools to help you change the most important variable on the road to weight loss - your mind. She does it in this way. By mapping out for readers the way our mind thinks about creating change, Beck helps us take the small steps we need to create lasting shifts in thinking and body weight. She also gives us this information the way we can handle it - action and reward in tiny, manageable assignments (kind of like the way we should be eating). She first outlines the three steps our mind needs to work through to make positive and lasting change (Precontemplation, Contemplation, Preparation) . Then Beck walks us through action and reward steps on each rung of the weight loss ladder. Thus, changes become natural, permanent and fun. As an added bonus, Beck teaches readers about the blissful state she calls: "Thinner Peace." Studying Taoism and aiming to always be on the "middle road" myself - I understand that life works best when we are in the ebb and flow of nature. By teaching us her ways of Thinner Peace -we learn how to maintain an "observers" view and how to get there when we're feeling stressed and out of sync. She also understands, by forcing our bodies to do the things we want it to do, it resists us. Thus, the reason why most fast-track weight loss programs fail. Beck teaches us to train our minds to be on our side - the thin side of life. Then to maintain this and return again; even if we have a relapse. No, you won't get loads of recipes and eating suggestions in this diet book. Yet, you will get direction for gaining weight loss suppo

Not only does Martha Beck have a wonderfully, spunky style to make the read FUN, but her advice is some of the best I have ever heard. I've not even finished the book, and am already using several strategies with great success. I love her suggestion of imagining two little figures in the palm of your hand (it's in the appendix, which you can quickly use to jump start your changes). This is powerful stuff. I recommend it to anyone wanting to live healthier, to anyone who needs help in jump-starting change, to anyone who needs to get back on track with their eating, and to anyone looking for a better life. Seriously, it seems this good.

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.

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.