If you're searching for another diet book, this isn't it. Most of us already could name the calories, fat grams and carbohydrates of nearly any food on the menu. Judith Beck doesn't even espouse a diet. In fact, she lets you choose your own. What she does do is hold your hand and walk you through why you eat as you do and how to change your ways. This is a six week...or longer program. Each day you will read another chapter and try one more small step. By the end of the six weeks, you will have a new frame of mind towards your body and what you put into it.

I found several particular steps to be helpful. One is writing out the response cards. Why you do what you do. If you get into a certain situation, such as eating out, how will you plan ahead what you are going to do? One exercise I was really dreading was to go hungry, actually to miss a meal, most likely lunch. I had quite some angst over this as I've experienced low blood sugar in the past. I wasn't sure how I would be able to handle missing lunch. In fact, it was easy. My stomach growled a couple of times, then I just got over it. This was probably one of the most eye-opening exercises for me as I realized that I do not have to feel full, that I can be hungry and still survive, that I have control over my body and what I put into it.

Other exercises I found helpful was to name some role models and ask myself what they would do or eat under certain circumstances. Also, to anticipate food pushers or situations where I am likely to be faced with an abundance of food.

This is not a diet book but it is a new approach to dieting and changing eating habits. I think many people would benefit by reading this book and following its simple program.

I found this book at our local library and thought it looked promising. I had been slowly but steadily gaining weight for the past few years and even though I am a former Weight Watcher's leader I could not seem to stick to the program. I stared working my way through Dr. Beck's book and realized that I needed to own the book since the behavior changes that I would be making would probably need reinforcement. At the time I started I hoped to lose 10 to 12 pounds and return to my lifetime member weight. Six months later I have lost more than 25 pounds and feel fantastic. Using Dr. Beck's techniques I was able to easily stay with my food plan (Weight Watchers Flex) and be satisfied. Thinking like a thin person makes all the difference. For instance I learned that feeling a little hungry doesn't mean I need to eat immediately. Actually feeling a little hungry for a couple of hours before a meal is completely normal. In this book I found strategies to help with all my personal challenges. I have developed good habits to replace detrimental ones. And I don't feel the list bit deprived because my food plan allows me choices. If you are ready to invest the time in learning a new way of thinking that will give you permanent results this book is certainly worth purchasing. Dr. Beck doesn't give you a quick fix nor does she recommend the specific diet plan you should follow. She does give you the tools to follow your plan and make the permanent changes you need to maintain your weight loss. Good luck.

Hopefully, you don't have a life, because if you do, it's going to be tough to stick to this plan. Between scheduling charts, diet notebooks, counting your "credits" and on and on and on, you're not going to have much time to do anything else. Maybe that's how the diet works, you're keeping your hands busy writing and you can't eat.

If you want to lose weight, I think there are better books out there.

Having been through many different weight loss programs, from soup diets to hypnosis since childhood, I lost 100 pounds at Weight Watchers about 20 years ago. The struggle is endless, and over the years I gained back as much as 50 of those pounds. At the point I discovered this book, which has changed my life, I was about 35 pounds over my goal weight.

Because this program works in conjunction with any diet program, it was easy to adapt to, and IT WORKS! I know my problems are emotional, and Dr, Beck went straight for the brain. Every rationalization I ever had was there in the book, and her answer for it was what I needed. I have trained myself through repetition and thinking the right thoughts, reading my cards over and over, and "rationalizing" the right way. I am on the right track now, and feel that I will never gain that weight back (the most confidence I've ever had with any program).

As part of the program, I found a "diet Coach" online (or as we like to call ourselves, diet buddies). We e-mail and discuss our eating, our struggles and successes, and menus every day - we have for over a year and a half now. We have both lost over 30 pounds and it has stayed off over a year and shows no signs of EVER returning. We still read and re-read the book, and refer to it often.

We both had the great fortune to be able to speak with Dr Beck a few weeks ago, and to ask questions and discuss diet issues. She is lovely, and I can't thank her enough for getting me (and my buddy) to the place I am today. I can't wait for the next book!

I'm on my 2nd 6-week focus. The book hit me hard and I found myself talking myself out of doing the daily assignments. Now, I'm re-reading the book and it's amazing how much I just ignored doing. The words are new to me! It's not easy .. however, the 1st reading allowed me to grasp some aspects that have stuck with me like: NO CHOICE.

The cards are really helping me even though it does seem weird. However, I am finding the words popping up in my head more and more.

I recommend this book for anyone who is an emotional eater. Just be prepared to have to re-read the book and do the exercises repeatedly over and over again. The more you practice them, the easier it gets. And it really does boil down to: eat less, exercise more, and deal with your sabotaging thoughts.

I'm a neuroscience researcher and a therapist, and I must say that this is the first diet book (of many) that worked for me, and it is the only one I recommend to others. The formula is simple: you must make a 100% commitment to changing your relationship with food. Once that is choice is made, the rest is easy-except for all of the old voices in your head that will tell you to eat the way your old self used to eat. What do you do? You go to war against those voices, devising personal strategies that keep you focused on what you truly want, which for me was to lose the dangerous belly fat that would eventually threaten my health. I won the war; I'm keeping the weight off, and I bow deeply to Dr. Beck for bringing the power of cognitive-behavioral therapy to the world of conscious eating and dieting. And yes, I had to surrender my craving for sweets. Now my wife, dog, and scale are my best friends (and a 40 calorie fudge bar for dessert).

I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it clearly has helped some people to succeed at dieting and to lose weight, although there has never been a study on well this works in the long run. (One year is not "the long run"!) On the other hand, I think it promotes some incorrect ideas about what cognitive behavioral therapy is actually for, and what it can accomplish.

In my (informed) opinion, CBT in its original form, as first pioneered by Dr. Aaron Beck, really only works for things like minor depression and adjustment disorders. (Yes, Dr. Beck wrote the foreword, too.) I lead PHP (partial hospitalization groups) for a very large mental health provider. These are designed for people with very serious mental health issues-- bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and major depressive disorder.

We use CBT techniques a lot, and it's true that CBT has been proven to show results for people with these serious mental illnesses. The problem, though, is that the way it works in this context is just not the same as the way it works for people who are, say, depressed because they have specific problems in their lives. This is a really important point, because I think it explains why this diet technique isn't any more likely to work for most people than any other technique is.

Nobody with minor, low-level depression has a biological need to think negative thoughts or make negative evaluations of situations. So a therapy like CBT, which is designed to correct these types of thoughts because they tend to lead to negative feelings, will work very well. But there is NO psychotherapy-- whether it's CBT or anything else-- that will work to control the symptoms of severe and persistent mental illnesses all by itself. The reason is that these symptoms ARE biologically based. It would be considered malpractice for any doctor to use only CBT for these mental illnesses. It can help, but there is just too much of a biological reason why the symptoms are there.

Similarly, people DO have a biological need to eat (quite apart from the whole world of psychosocial reasons why people eat how and as they do.) You just can't use CBT to control a biological urge. It doesn't work. If it did, then we wouldn't need drugs like lithium, Lamictal, and Seroquel. But trust me, we do! Some people with mental illnesses really are able to control them with therapies like CBT for a limited amount of time. A good example is a bipolar woman who becomes pregnant and can't take her normal medications. CBT can work in the short term to control her symptoms. (I have to be honest, though-- I've never actually seen this work very well at all.) But in the long run, it just doesn't happen. I have to say it-- I just plain don't believe that this diet works in the long run any more than any other diet does, except for a very small number of people. And I'm afraid that it provides the same setup for failure and self-hatred as all the other diets do. That's my .02 cents, and I'm sticking to it!

I'm so glad I got this book. I am actually a therapist, and very familiar with CBT, and the idea of applying it to weight loss makes profound sense. I heard Dr. Beck on NPR, and I was not in the mood to listen to what she had to say, but then it made so much sense, I started to take notes! And even though I didn't feel like making an effort to follow a diet, I got the book anyway. And I liked how it went one day at a time, and very slowly. I recommend this book because it's just plain reasonable, useful, and it works. So far I've lost 27 pounds, since the first point in the book where I had to weigh in, so at this point, I've probably actually lost at least 30 pounds. I'm doing this with a friend and she's lost 15 pounds. Before I read this book, I believed I was overweight because I was the wrong kind of person to be thin: too in love with food and addicted to it and I'm too fun and too spontaneous for a diet, etc., etc., but it was encouraging to find out that I can learn how to think like a thin person. Now I know how to "strengthen my resistance muscle and weaken my giving-in muscle" and it's paying off! I look forward to moving along five pounds at a time until I reach my ideal weight. I'm really proud of what I've been able to achieve by following this. I'm using many concepts from this book in my own therapeutic practice for cognitive and behavioral skill-building, also, and finding it helpful in that way, too.

by Rosally Saltsman

Ever wonder why no matter what you do, you can't lose weight? Dr. Beck has the answer - it's because you're not thinking like a thin person.

According to Dr. Beck, the problem isn't the diet you're on. In fact she says her program works with any diet. What's different about her program is that it focuses on cognitive nutrition, about thinking about food and eating in a new way.

For example, a thin person eats till they're full or slightly full and stops. An overweight person keeps on eating even if they're not hungry. Why? Because they perceive food differently.

In a six week program comprising 42 succinct lesson plans, Dr. Beck gives people the tools they need to change their relationship with food so that they can follow a diet, lose weight and keep it off. Using cognitive therapy, she teaches how changing your thoughts changes your behavior. It's simple, it's straightforward and it's easy to implement. Well, not terribly difficult anyway.

Dr. Beck provides techniques, choices and troubleshooting tips to help insure a successful result and continued maintenance once you achieve your goal weight. She also discusses how to set realistic goals.

The Beck Diet Solution isn't about food, it's about food for thought. We mistakenly believe that dieting is about eating less and how long we can stand it. But Dr. Beck provides techniques for life that will keep us - if not reed thin - at least in control of the food we consume and not the other way around. This is a diet plan that works because it's all in the mind. Well, you might have to eat some rice cakes.

An added bonus is that the theory can conceivably work on any bad habit. Though the tools are geared toward weight loss, they can be applied to help quit smoking, overspending or any bad habit because the program works on changing your behavior by changing your mindset.

If you follow the recipe for weight loss in this book and apply the cerebral strategies outlined therein, it is likely you will lose the weight you've been unsuccessfully trying to lose, especially if you haven't been thinking along the right lines. I highly recommend it and that's not to be taken lightly.

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I have been using the skills taught in the Beck Diet Solution for about three months and have lost over 20 pounds. This solution is no quick fix, but helps a person lose slowly over time, which is the way to change lifestyle behaviors.

The most effective lesson taught in the book for me personally was making an Advantage card listing all the reasons why I want to lose weight. When I am tempted to eat something I know is not on my own unique eating plan and is unhealthy, I dig out my card and review the 30 reasons I came up with for why I would rather be thin than eat that Twinkie or that piece of pie. Self talk really works to overcome temptation. Also Judy Beck suggests phrases to repeat, repeat, repeat when that little voice inside tells you it is okay to "just this once" have a little bite of something (which leads to disaster!)

The book isn't a diet in the sense that it tells you what to eat. Most people know what foods will be convenient to prepare and what they like to eat and even what is healthy. Beck lets us be adults and do it our way, in moderation of course.

She also recommends counting calories, because every bite does count. There are many internet sites that will count the calories for you if you just enter what you have eaten that day, every day.

Also get a good digital scale and weigh every day. Even if you have only lost one-tenth of a pound the previous day, at least you know you are making progress. I also record my weight on a chart like she suggests, which is hugely motivating.

Don't expect to drop 10 pounds in a week. That would not be healthy. Hang in there and re-read the book when tempted to weaken. Honestly I can't believe I have been able to do this without getting hungry and giving up. This book has been a miracle for me. I am 60 years old and decided it was time to do something besides take pills for high cholesterol and high blood pressure, the obesity diseases. I still have 20 pounds to go and have every confidence that I will make it this time. Highly recommend this book to anyone who has tried and failed over and over. Try it, what have you got to lose besides weight?

I ordered a used book, & couldn't tell it wasn't new, very pleased with that indeed. Contents are really food for thought, no menus or diets, just cognitive thinking ideas & much to think about & choose from...a very informative book I find.

This is really NOT a diet book, but will help tremndously on your diet. The real surprise is that applying the same cognitive concepts will make it much easier to achieve any goal in your life that requires discipline and perseverance. It's a well-known fact that ANY diet will "work" if you stick to it. This book will make sticking to it much easier by enlisting your own good sense and bolstering your self-esteem to the point that you'll feel so good about yourself that wrecking that feeling seems as idiotic as touching a hot stove. It's also something you can come back to, as I think I may need to, again and again when you need a fresh start. Thanks Judith!

So many diet books focus on the mechanical aspects of losing weight -"this is what you should eat, or not eat, and this is how you should exercise," blah, blah, blah.

As a veteran of various diets over the years, I realized some years ago that I often eat for emotional reasons. But, I couldn't figure out how to change that, in spite of being a psychotherapist, and understanding the principles of cognitive therapy. Now I know.

Beck presents the ideas you need to know and the techniques to use along with a diet to combat your tendency to make excuses, sabotage yourself, or otherwise fail to stick to a weight loss plan. As she says, it's about learning how to think like a thin person. And it's not magic.

The book itself is not a diet plan but a companion to any reasonable diet you may choose. If you have a serious eating disorder like bulimia or anorexia, this is not the book for you. If you are a compulsive overeater, using this book along with your diet, and the help of a therapist would probably work well.

One of the first things she said made me laugh because I could see myself in it. It is "Hunger is not an emergency."

This book uses cognitive psychology to help you lose weight. Cognitive psychology is based on the concept that the way you think affects how you feel and what you do. Cognitive therapy, then, helps you identify your self-defeating thinking and helps you respond to it so you can feel better and behave in helpful ways. Instead of leading you step-by-step through a diet plan, this book addresses the psychology behind why you can't get yourself to follow one and lose weight. In this book, you pick the diet (and an alternative as a back up), and the book helps you follow it.

The set-up of the book is a six-week plan. Week 1 is laying the groundwork, where you pick 2 diets. Week 2 is getting prepared to diet, Week 3 is starting the diet, Week 4 looks into responding to sabotaging thoughts, Week 5 is about overcoming challenges, such as staying in control when you go out to eat, and Week 6 is fine tuning things.

All-in-all, I'd have to say that its a great resource to address the psycholgical side of eating. There's no magic to it, just a little looking inside yourself and addressing any barriers you have that may be holding you back.

This book uses cognitive psychology to help you lose weight. Cognitive psychology is based on the concept that the way you think affects how you feel and what you do. Cognitive therapy, then, helps you identify your self-defeating thinking and helps you respond to it so you can feel better and behave in helpful ways. Instead of leading you step-by-step through a diet plan, this book addresses the psychology behind why you can't get yourself to follow one and lose weight. In this book, you pick the diet (and an alternative as a back up), and the book helps you follow it.

The set-up of the book is a six-week plan. Week 1 is laying the groundwork, where you pick 2 diets. Week 2 is getting prepared to diet, Week 3 is starting the diet, Week 4 looks into responding to sabotaging thoughts, Week 5 is about overcoming challenges, such as staying in control when you go out to eat, and Week 6 is fine tuning things.

All-in-all, I'd have to say that its a great resource to address the psycholgical side of eating. There's no magic to it, just a little looking inside yourself and addressing any barriers you have that may be holding you back. Also recommend The 5-Minute Plantar Fasciitis Solution if you struggle with plantar fasciitis- which is very common in overweight people.

This is not a specific diet. It is supposed to support whatever diet you choose. But it actually covers what is a big problem for a lot of us - its not the food, its the reasons why we over-eat: the "emotional" eating, the "boredom" eating, the "stress" eating. I've lost 125 pounds and am now maintaining and I keep this book close because the mind games never leave. Food isn't like alcohol, we can't just stop eating, we have to learn to use it for what its meant for - substenance.

This is a book written by a cognitive behavioral therapist so it gives good behavioral techniques to help you deal with emotional eating. The information is helpful and if you use the techniques they will make a difference. Like many things in life, losing weight usually comes down to one question: how bad do you want it. Reading this book isn't going to magically make you lose weight but it can give you some techniques to use when you are struggling to put the cupcake down.

I have used this book to very good results with my weight loss plan.

Sunny in MN

I read this book and found it to be pretty good. I really loved how the author advocates a total change of lifestyle and a total change of thinking. However, I found it too rigid. Some of her advice (ie not eating snacks between meals) became more of a hassle to me than a help. Everyone is different and some people (such as myself) need snacks. I found myself trying to mentally train my mind, reciting and reading the reasons why I wanted to lose weight on a tiny index card, to hold out until the next meal. It was such a pain and it made me THINK too much and I ended up feeling somewhat deprived. Check this book out instead. It's for people who want lasting change in their health:Integrative Nutrition

In this interim review, I give the plan all 5 stars. I am in week 4 of the 6-week plan and, so far, have really taken to the concepts. The first 2 weeks prepare the reader for dieting. Beck does not push a diet plan, but rather leaves the choice of a plan to the reader. The book is for people serious about not only losing weight, but also about learning how to approach eating from a healthy, non-shameful perspective. There are two books -- one of them a workbook -- both with overlapping information. I am working between both of them, and find that they compliment one another well. I already have significant control over what and when I eat. The true test, of course, will be a year and two years from now. If I fail, it will be hard to blame the book.
The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin PersonBeck Diet Solution Weight Loss Workbook: The 6-week Plan to Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person

This book has changed my life. Yesterday I finished the six-week "Beck Diet Solution" program, and I am amazed at the changes I have made in my eating. I am 29 years old and have yo-yo dieted for the last 15 years of my life, with my weight fluctuating by as much as 45 pounds over the last eight years. I followed this book very carefully, doing one task every day. I was so tempted to read ahead, but the book says that doing one day at a time will be the most beneficial, so I followed it pretty much to the letter.

The book focuses on responding to sabotaging thoughts such as, "Well, I have eaten something I am not supposed to so I may as well blow my diet for the rest of the day" and "It's not fair that I have to watch what I eat when others don't". The book teaches you to respond to those thoughts in productive ways and reverse the negative thinking that plauges so many of us dieters.

This book does not tell you what to eat. It lets you pick any reasonable diet plan. I chose Atkins because I believe in the low-carb approach. What is different from the times in the past when I have done Atkins is that I have to tools to respond to cravings, food pushers, and sabotaging thoughts that would have led me to go off my diet. I have virtually eliminated snacking from my diet, except for the small snacks I plan to eat. I am now able to stop eating when I am reasonably full, rather than overeating and feeling miserable. My cravings have greatly dimished, which is a tremendous relief. I have lost 9 pounds in the last six weeks and finally feel like I have the tools to lose the last 28 pounds to reach my goal. If you have struggled with yo-yo dieting, ever said "This diet doesn't work for me", thought there was something wrong with you physically because you weren't losing weight (I even had my thyroid tested once, and it was normal), then this book is for you. It has changed my life and helped my for the first time in my life feel in control of my eating. The tools I have learned in this book I will use for a lifetime. I have recommended it to all the people I love who struggle with their weight. Thank you, Dr. Beck. This is the book I was waiting for and didn't even know it.

Very serious book. If you are serious about changing your life, this is the book to do it.

This book uses cognitive psychology to help you lose weight. Cognitive psychology is based on the concept that the way you think affects how you feel and what you do. Cognitive therapy, then, helps you identify your self-defeating thinking and helps you respond to it so you can feel better and behave in helpful ways. Instead of leading you step-by-step through a diet plan, this book addresses the psychology behind why you can't get yourself to follow one and lose weight. In this book, you pick the diet (and an alternative as a back up), and the book helps you follow it.

The set-up of the book is a six-week plan. Week 1 is laying the groundwork, where you pick 2 diets. Week 2 is getting prepared to diet, Week 3 is starting the diet, Week 4 looks into responding to sabotaging thoughts, Week 5 is about overcoming challenges, such as staying in control when you go out to eat, and Week 6 is fine tuning things.

All-in-all, I'd have to say that its a great resource to address the psycholgical side of eating. There's no magic to it, just a little looking inside yourself and addressing any barriers you have that may be holding you back. Readers should also be aware of their other book too, Beck Diet Solution Weight Loss Workbook: The 6-week Plan to Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person.

EXCELLENT BOOK HIGHLY RECOMMEND! Not a diet plan, but a change in thinking. Easy complete daily exercises to help you change your thinking about eating. works with any diet plan and helps you understand and change eating behaviors so that you can succeed with a diet plan of your choice.

I am a Weight Watcher Lifetimer and this book integrates perfectly with the program. It is an in depth "Tools of Living" resource

This book has great advice for developing the right attitude for weight loss. I am finding it very helpful in remotivating myself. The book consists of a short section of general info about the plan and then 6 weeks of day by day lessons. Everything that is in the book is in the workbook as well so I wound NOT purchase both. The workbook is probably the better buy because it is designed to write in and has preprinted "response cards" that tear out. If you are ready to commit to a weight loss plan, this is a great tool to keep you on track.

Another great motivational book is 100 Days of Weight Loss by Linda Spangle. I like Spangle's book a little better but that may just be personal opinion.

I got to Day 8 in this book, and the lessons I learned from Day 1 to Day 8 were enough to help me lose 35 pounds in 65 days. I didn't stop at Day 8 because I got bored, I stopped because the skills she taught me in just 8 days were enough!

I got to Day 8 in this book, and the lessons I learned from Day 1 to Day 8 were enough to help me lose 35 pounds in 65 days. I didn't stop at Day 8 because I got bored, I stopped because the skills she taught me in just 8 days were enough!

I chose this because the "Beck" name is a superstar in the Psychiatry and Psychology world. The book is not a diet per se, but a way to psychologically approach dieting. Useful as an adjunct to help you stay in a healthy eating pattern, with a focus on helping you keep your reasons for dieting in mind at all times, and exercises to help those who eat for emotional, rather than satiety and nutritional reasons. This book should be paired with some kind of reasonable diet plan (my favorite is "Volumetrics") as it is not a diet book in the classical sense. There are lots of mental exercises in this book to counter destructive thoughts about food and dieting. Great book for emotional eaters, but not helpful for someone who is mainly looking for nutritional advice.

As someone who has struggled with weight issues for much of my life, I was initially intrigued by Beck's, "Diet Solution" book. While taking a mindful approach to eating is nothing new, it is not often you see a diet book focus on the thought processes involved in eating. Usually, you are told what to eat, how often and how much. This book is different in that it stresses the importance of eating when you're hungry (and even allowing for hunger vs. eating as soon as a pang hits), plus how to rid yourself of the sabotaging mindsets that would curtail your efforts. For that I feel the book is an asset. However, it's the diet mentality ontop of this that doesn't sit well with me.

To quote the author:

"I also came to the conclusion that there are two types of thin people: Those who don't have to work at staying thin and those who do. For the most part, those who don't have to work at it have small appetites, don't eat unless they're hungry, and get sufficient exercise. The rest fall into the second category: They have to work at it. Most thin people, especially women, stay thin by being incredibly careful about what they eat. They might tell you that they don't work at it, but mostly they do. This doesn't mean they're lying; they're just so used to eating the way they do, they consider it the norm. To them, eating small portions and lower -calorie foods is a way of life. They decide that fattening foods are either entirely out of bounds, or, more likely, they indulge in them only occasionally."

In other words, they DIET..and in my personal experience, diets have always led to sabotaging thoughts and behaviors due to feelings of guilt and deprivation. When you naturally want a cheeseburger, but feel you "have" to have a salad, instead, you are going to feel short-changed in the palate department. Isn't it better to have something that you really want as long as you are physically hungry and possibly severely limit sabotaging behaviors/thoughts, then to make yourself have something you don't want (in the name of getting and staying thin), only to have to battle thoughts of deprivation all the time?

What this book essentially teaches you is how to cope with being a restrictive eater:

"With the Beck Diet Solution program, you'll learn how to accept the restrictions you have to impose on yourself to reap the rewards of losing weight."

My questions is, 'Why must one restrict at all?' When you practice intuitive (or instinctive) eating, nothing is off-limits; the only rule being that you must eat when physically hungry and stop when you are not. Period. Beck's book pretty much holds to the same principle, except she tarnishes her techniques by essentially stating that one must be on a perpetual diet in order to stay thin. It is that mentality that leads to yo-yo dieting, binging and eating disorders. When you are more focused on what you feel you SHOULD be eating, rather than on what you really want, you place yourself in a mental box with rules. Break a rule, and the self-sabotaging begins.

Yes, some people feel you can either eat what you want OR be thin; that you can't have it both ways. I'm here to tell you from personal experience that you CAN..and the answer is to learn how to eat intuitively and to stop dieting, altogether.

Cicero once said: "In nothing do men approach so nearly to the Gods, as in giving health to men."

Virgil said: "The greatest wealth is health."

So many of us take our health for granted. It's truly THE MOST IMPORTANT asset each of us have. I am posting this review to not only share my favorite, most important health books of 2007... but more important, to hopefully convince just one person to read a book that might strengthen their health and maybe help them live a little longer and a little healthier.

My Most Important Health Books of the Year...

* You: Staying Young - Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen hit a home run with this book. The advice is sound and the nutritional recommendations are cutting edge, presenting the latest research on nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids and cayenne. This book may very well help rejuvenate your health and allow you to drop the extra pounds and possibly protect, and even reverse, certain ailments such as diabetes, high cholesterol, arthritis, and others.

* The Natural Bird Flu Cure They Don't Want You to Know About - The deadly bird flu is spreading like wildfire across Asia, and it's only a matter of time before it hits the U.S. The CDC and government officials have said as much. Unfortunately, we don't hear a lot about the bird flu in the U.S. anymore because of the media's preoccupation with O.J. and Britney Spears. This book reveals a possible natural cure to the deadly bird flu supported by 2 Nobel Prize-winning chemists.

*You: On A Diet - Another book by Drs. Oz and Roizen. While I do not like the word "diet" (it conjures images of strict calorie cutting, sacrifice, and, well, torture), this book does share a wonderful plan for finally and forever dropping those extra pounds. Let's face it, the majority of illness and ill health in America today is food related. This really is an important, worthwhile book, despite its somewhat gimmicky title.

Coming from a family of obesity and over-eating, this is the one book that is enabling me to break the cycle and break free from my old ways of doing things (that were not getting me anywhere). It's definitely not another "diet" book but a great way to condition ourselves in order to succeed at any diet we choose to follow. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is tired of failing at dieting and failing themselves and ready to make some real changes that will result in lasting and joyous results.

Judith S. Beck is right, and her approach works not only for diet, but it can be applied to other efforts in life as well where people derail themselves with their own thoughts. This is a tool for success, not a diet.

This book is great for anyone who wants to lose weight and keep it off. Cognitive Behavior Therapy is the same thing I used to quit smoking 20 years ago, and it really works. The book is written in layman's terms so it's easy to understand, yet not condescending. I highly recommend it.

Judith S. Beck, The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person (Oxmoor House, 2007)

The Beck Diet Solution is not a diet book in the strict sense; there are no eating plans to be found here. This is, more accurately, a diet book adjunct; Beck has designed this to be usable with any diet, whatever you work with. Even the grapefruit diet. (If you're crazy enough to try the grapefruit diet, of course.) Beck's goal here is not to change what you eat so much as the way you eat it, the way you think about eating it, and your habits while eating. After all, as millions of us are well aware, just changing what you eat is in no way guaranteed to shed pounds and keep them off. The idea is to read a chapter a day for six weeks, learning Beck's tips and techniques gradually in order to change your mindset towards food. Does it work? I know that since reading it, I've looked at a few things differently; it's certainly worth a try. *** ½

I am always telling people to buy this book. I have made a friend buy it. Now the tricky part is sitting down and doing it daily. It is a process. I can't wait for the workbook to come out in Oct 2007. This book needs the workbook. It should have been thought out before.

I highly recommend this book. I had a great deal of trouble losing 20 pounds. I followed this book and I was successful. It is logical not magical. It is great practical advice on how to lose weight and keep it off.

This book uses cognitive psychology to help you lose weight. Cognitive psychology is based on the concept that the way you think affects how you feel and what you do. Cognitive therapy, then, helps you identify your self-defeating thinking and helps you respond to it so you can feel better and behave in helpful ways. Instead of leading you step-by-step through a diet plan, this book addresses the psychology behind why you can't get yourself to follow one and lose weight. In this book, you pick the diet (and an alternative as a back up), and the book helps you follow it.

The set-up of the book is a six-week plan. Week 1 is laying the groundwork, where you pick 2 diets. Week 2 is getting prepared to diet, Week 3 is starting the diet, Week 4 looks into responding to sabotaging thoughts, Week 5 is about overcoming challenges, such as staying in control when you go out to eat, and Week 6 is fine tuning things.

All-in-all, I'd have to say that its a great resource to address the psycholgical side of eating. There's no magic to it, just a little looking inside yourself and addressing any barriers you have that may be holding you back. Readers may also enjoy The Sixty-Second Motivator to address motivation issues as well.

This book is a great deal of work, but worth it. I have lost 5 pounds, which does not sound like a lot. But I have also been working out and also lost 3 inches. This book is at the heart of it. It really is about changing the way you think about food and about dieting. Some caution is in order, however. It really is a great deal of work. No kidding. It is based on cognitive therapy, which means changing the way you think and you must do numerous daily exercises to get there. I honestly believe most people don't want to do all this stuff and for them it will probably be a waste of money. If you are willing to actually do the exercises, however, something magical does happen. You learn to conquer hunger (my favorite), not overeat because of (name the ocassion), keep track of what you acually eating, eat more slowly and so on. It really works, but it is not easy. BTW, you pick your own diet - she only recommends that it be healthy and that you also exercise.

This is by far the best diet book I have read. It is working great. I lost 6 lbs so far. I highly recommend it.

Fortunately I recieved a copy of this book just as I lost the 10 pounds that I've lost many times before, but in the past had always gained them back. It's 5 months later and I cannot believe that for the first time in my life I've kept the excess 10 pounds off and in fact have lost 4 more pounds. I know that I will never have a weight problem again. I've changed my sabotaging thoughts and am totally empowered to be healthy and slim forever. Thank you Dr. Beck for teaching me the skills I needed to learn to keep my excess weight off forever. Now I am free to move on and conquer all my other goals. Thank You Thank YOU Thank YOU

I guess I have read too many DIET books...this is the same ole, same ole...watch your portions....eat less....eat healthy...yadda yadda...I need a MIRACLE! :-)

THE BOOK DID NOT MEET MY EXPECTATIONS, HOWEVER I DID GET GOOD SERVICE FROM THE COMPANY.

Nicely done plan of attack in small, workable sections to enable dieters to be successful. I checked this out of the library and was so impresed that I ordered it from Amazon to help me maintain an over 50 lb weight loss.

While it is not easy, the changes that are in the book do work. Nothing earth shattering but gives you a road map to stick to a healthy food plan.

This book uses cognitive psychology to help you lose weight. Cognitive psychology is based on the concept that the way you think affects how you feel and what you do. Cognitive therapy, then, helps you identify your self-defeating thinking and helps you respond to it so you can feel better and behave in helpful ways. Instead of leading you step-by-step through a diet plan, this book addresses the psychology behind why you can't get yourself to follow one and lose weight. In this book, you pick the diet (and an alternative as a back up), and the book helps you follow it.

The set-up of the book is a six-week plan. Week 1 is laying the groundwork, where you pick 2 diets. Week 2 is getting prepared to diet, Week 3 is starting the diet, Week 4 looks into responding to sabotaging thoughts, Week 5 is about overcoming challenges, such as staying in control when you go out to eat, and Week 6 is fine tuning things.

All-in-all, I'd have to say that its a great resource to address the psycholgical side of eating. There's no magic to it, just a little looking inside yourself and addressing any barriers you have that may be holding you back. Readers may also enjoy The Sixty-Second Motivator to address motivation issues as well.

this has wonderful ways to look at our self-talk. i enjoyed this book so much i pre-ordered the workbook.

Excellent tips for losing weight on any diet plan. I've successfully lost 10lbs. I have 50lbs more to go and with the help of these invaluable tools it now seems easier.

This book uses cognitive psychology to help you lose weight. Cognitive psychology is based on the concept that the way you think affects how you feel and what you do. Cognitive therapy, then, helps you identify your self-defeating thinking and helps you respond to it so you can feel better and behave in helpful ways. Instead of leading you step-by-step through a diet plan, this book addresses the psychology behind why you can't get yourself to follow one and lose weight. In this book, you pick the diet (and an alternative as a back up), and the book helps you follow it.

The set-up of the book is a six-week plan. Week 1 is laying the groundwork, where you pick 2 diets. Week 2 is getting prepared to diet, Week 3 is starting the diet, Week 4 looks into responding to sabotaging thoughts, Week 5 is about overcoming challenges, such as staying in control when you go out to eat, and Week 6 is fine tuning things.

All-in-all, I'd have to say that its a great resource to address the psycholgical side of eating. There's no magic to it, just a little looking inside yourself and addressing any barriers you have that may be holding you back. Readers may also enjoy The Sixty-Second Motivator to address motivation issues as well.

If you need tools to lose weight and keep it off, this is a fabulous help. The book is written for use in daily chunks, so you only read a few pages at a time, and only work on one new idea each day. Very manageable and easy to do.