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

Synopsis: The woman Psychology Today calls "the best-known life coach in America" shatters the myth that willpower is an effective weight-loss tool and introduces a revolutionary approach to lifetime leanness based on a series of "4-Day Wins" that work with any weight-loss program.

Substitute a good habit for a bad one and stick to it for just 4 days, and it begins to feel normal. That's the surprising discovery that holds the key to lifetime weight control, according to life coach and New York Times best-selling author Martha Beck. Not a conventional diet or exercise program, The Four-Day Win combines evolutionary logic, psychology, and neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to restructure itself, which suggests ways to reshape our bodies) with strategies and success stories--plus large doses of humor and an insightful, straightforward approach to teach the principles required to reverse weight issues.

Drawn from hundreds of hours interviewing weight losers--in both her discussions with private clients and her groundbreaking consulting work for Jenny Craig--Dr. Beck reveals:

   • Why willpower-based dieting is doomed to fail
   • How to step out of the conflict between the rule-making Commander (who bans all our favorite foods) and the rule-breaking Resistor (who gives in to cravings) and reach the Watcher, who is our happiest self
   • What the latest research into the mind-body connection reveals about how our emotions affect our eating

Breaking down the weight-loss marathon into 4-day intervals, Dr. Beck provides effective strategies for changing the behaviors that make us fat. And if there is a relapse, readers take comfort in knowing they are just 4 days from turning it around.