Judith S. Beck - The Complete Beck Diet for Life: The 5-Stage Program for Permanent Weight Loss

To my daughter, Deborah Beck Busis

What a great pleasure it has been collaborating with my daughter Deborah Beck Busis in writing this book. Debbie and I had countless discussions, virtually every day, about our respective dieters: their sabotaging thoughts and habits; their struggles and successes; the techniques we were developing to help them overcome psychological and practical obstaclesand about how best to present this material in a reader-friendly way so dieters could lose weight on their own. So great thanks to Debbie for her endless supply of creative and valuable ideas, for co-leading workshops on the topic, and for her polished writing and editorial skills.

Many thanks to my husband, Richard Busis, whose unending support (and editing) made this a better book; to Alisa Bowman, who helped to organize the material; to Tracy Gensler, R.D., who helped to refine the eating plans and develop the recipes; to my friends who tested the recipes; and to Beth Grossman and Meryl Moss who publicized the book. As always, Im grateful to my wonderful Oxmoor House team: Amanda Owens, Melissa Clark, Vanessa Rusch Thomas, Sydney Webber, Jim Childs, and Brian Carnahan. A special thanks to Stephanie Tade, agent extraordinaire, whose assistance has been so essential, every step of the way.

I would also like to thank my excellent staff at the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research, with special thanks to Naomi Dank, Ph.D., who has always given 150 percent so I could devote time to writing. Thanks, too, to my mother, Phyllis Beck, for encouraging me in every possible way and to my father, Aaron Beck, with whom I have had the pleasure and honor of discussing, since a young age, the field he created: Cognitive Therapy.

Finally, I would like to thank the thousands of dieters, diet coaches, and health and mental-health professionals who have e-mailed me, or whose blogs and Internet discussion-group postings Debbie and I have read. Their messages have enriched our thinking and influenced many aspects of this book.

I am glad you have found your way to this book. I think you will find it very different from other approaches to weight loss. Most programs just tell you what to eat and what not to eat. But as research bears out, that is rarely enough. The difficult part of dieting is actually sticking to a diet. The Complete Beck Diet for Life not only provides you with a highly nutritious, enjoyable diet (which includes your favorite foods), but also teaches you how to motivate yourself to follow itday after day after day.

Its not surprising to me that you probably have had difficulty either losing excess weight or keeping it off. The problem is that no one ever taught you how to diet. Most people can lose some weight by biting the bullet and restricting their eating for a period of time, but almost everyone gains it back. They just dont know what to do when they are feeling upset, stressed, or tired; when their lives get too busy; when hunger and cravings intensify; when they eat out; when people push food on them; and when it just doesnt seem worth it anymore. Through a step-by-step program, The Complete Beck Diet for Life addresses all of these problems and more, teaching you the skills you need to achieve permanent weight loss.

My first books on dieting, The Beck Diet Solution and The Beck Diet Solution Weight Loss Workbook, struck a chord with dieters. To date, they have sold over 125,000 copies in English and are being translated into 17 languages. In these books, I recommended that dieters choose whatever healthy, nutritious diet they wanted. I concentrated on providing readers with the thinking and behavioral skills they need to stay on their selected diet. Since the publication of these books, I have received valuable feedback from thousands of dieters who read the books or attended my workshops, as well as from comments I read online in blogs and in virtual communities.

I have learned a great deal from these dieters. First, I found that most dieters need more guidance in selecting their food. They just dont know how to select foods that minimize hunger and cravings. They dont know how to eat in a highly nutritious way. They dont know exactly what balanced means. Although they are able to stay within a reasonable calorie range, at least temporarily, they frequently do so in a way that isnt sufficiently healthy or sustainable in the long run. For example, they rarely eat enough protein and fiber, or they include too many high-fat, high-sugar foods. In addition, I found that many dieters dont count all of the calories they consume. They forget about the cream in their coffee, the olive oil on their vegetables, or the extra mayo in their tuna salad.

Some dieters run into trouble trying to apply to real life whichever eating plan they are following. They overeat at restaurants, social gatherings, family dinners, and special events. I also discovered that some readers simply are not using all of the skills I taught them to stay on the diet they selected. They institute the techniques they likeand ignore others. Or they use the skills, but not every day.

Based on this feedback, I modified my program. I changed how I taught certain skills, and I engaged a registered dietitian to help me fine-tune a food plan based on the eating choices of the most successful dieters I have counseled. The result is the book you hold in your hands. Throughout the pages of this book, you will learn and practice the skills you need so that this time you can lose weight forever.

By following the Beck Diet for Life Program in this book, you will evolve. You will stop the cycle of losing weight... regaining... losing weight... regaining. I want you to know that it isnt your fault that you have not been able to break this cycle before now. It certainly isnt because you are weak or incapable of keeping off excess weight. To be a successful dieter and maintainer, you have to learn to follow a highly nutritious diet, use good eating habits, and refrain from eating food you havent planned in advance to eat. To accomplish these three objectives, you have to learn to change your thinking. When you have such thoughts as, Its okay if I eat this [unplanned food], you will need to be ready with a strong response: No, its not okaynot if I want to lose weight and keep it off... If I get involved with something else right now, my desire to eat this will fade away. Throughout this book, you will learn to identify the thinking that is likely to derail you, and you will practice strong responses to these thoughtsover and over again.

Here is my best advice to you: Practice every skill I teach you in this book. Dont skip any. Give each exercise your best shot. It would be such a shame if you let your unhelpful thinking get in the way and prevent you from achieving permanent weight loss! If you do as I suggest, Im sure you, too, will discover what the dieters Ive counseled have discovered: It is so worth the effort to master every skill. It is worth the improved self-esteem, the better health, and the enriched life you will enjoy. Its worth the renewed confidence and control. Its worth the rest of your life!

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I hope youll periodically visit www.beckdietforlife.com for information and inspiration, and I would so appreciate feedback on this book or my other books. You can contact me via the Web site.