Chapter Excerpt
Introduction
We've Been There
Whatever eating problem you've had, we've had them, too: sneak eating, binging, purging, compulsive dieting, compulsive exercise, or just forever fighting with the same ten or twenty pounds. Like you, over the years we have tried every diet and weight-loss program in search of the perfect formula to drop those extra pounds that were making our lives miserable.
This book is not only the product of clinical research and scientific theory. Every strategy in this book is born from our personal eating struggles over many years and from the struggles of thousands of people like yourself, with whom we have worked. Their needs have ranged from repeatedly trying to shed "those last few pounds," to those who have wanted to overcome severe, lifelong eating disorders. Most of their lives have been irreversibly changed. They are eating whatever they want in their ideal bodies and never feel out of control of their eating. They are our inspiration and our motivation, so we want to share this knowledge and wisdom with you in a simple, enjoyable way.
Most Diets and Diet Books Have Got it Wrong
Diets and diet books say that weight is the problem that needs to be solved. Weight is the symptom, not the problem. These books give you their newest hottest, "diet-of-the-minute" that often contradicts the last newest, hottest, "diet-of-the-minute." Follow their regime (i.e., eat only protein or carbohydrates or ft-uit and vegetables), they say, and you will lose weight. You may lose weight and you probably have lost weight on more than one diet. But, guess what? If weight alone were the problem, you would have to lose it only one time, and your problem would be solved forever.
Why This Book Is Different
Why is this book different from all of the other thousands of diet books that have been published? This book is radically different in three ways.
First, this book treats the CA USES of overeating. Most other diets treat only the superficial symptom of excess weight. You do not want to lose weight again. You want to lose weight permanently. By simply and gently attacking the cause of overeating, you permanently solve the problem of excess weight. Our strategy is time-tested and proven. You will lose weight permanently-simply and gently.
Second, this way is so simple! We take all of the mystery out of eating normally, like slim people. You will truly be enjoying eating, and at the same time achieve your optimum health and most beautiful body. And you will do this without scales, calorie- or fat-gram counting, complicated food combining, or fanatical exercise regimens. The best part is that you already know how to eat, according to The Seven Secrets, without realizing it. This method is natural and automatic-you just need a refresher course.
Third, this approach gives you total freedom. Diets give you restrictive eating rules that may help you temporarily lose weight, so long as you continue to restrict your eating according to the diet. At some point, though (when you lose the weight or when the diet fails), you always go off the diet. However, this approach gives you permanent weight loss without any restrictive eating. There's no diet to "go off of " This method not only permanently frees you from your excess weight, but also frees you to completely enjoy eating whatever you want.
This approach leads you, one day at a time, through easily achievable, proven steps, toward the goal of your perfect body, and lifelong freedom from overeating and dieting.
The Written Exercises Are the Key to Success
We cannot urge you strongly enough to do the simple exercises in this book. They are absolutely the key to your success in permanently achieving your ideal body and for eliminating diets forever. They are exciting and will reveal surprising and comforting information about yourself Above all, you already know from your own experience that the best way to learn something is to DO IT. The exercises are the fastest, surest, and easiest way to become a slim person.
You Can't Read This Book Too Many Times
We also recommend that you read the book twice or more. The information here, although simple, is very concentrated. Others who have succeeded using these secrets have read the material many times, and have enjoyed doing so. The better they know the material, the more familiar and confident they become about the life improvements they are making in their eating and body size. Use it as your reference manual.
We have designed the format of this book and our other books in The Joy of Living Series to be as simple and direct as possible. You will not have to fish through unnecessary anecdotes and lengthy explanations to get to the information that will help you begin changing your weight and life, now.
Form Your Own Support Group
The best way to have long-term success changing from an overeater to a normal eater is to provide yourself with support along the way. (See p. 3 0 1.)
You Have to Be Fed Up with Diets
If you are someone who is not yet utterly dissatisfied and finished with dieting and diet programs, this book may not be right for you. If you still believe that diets might work, as you are reading this book you will probably say to yourself, "I'll try this technique, and if it doesn't work, then I'll go on a diet again." This "diet-around-the-corner" attitude will make you begin planning a diet even as you begin reading, and will almost surely guarantee failure with this technique. This book teaches you how to become your ideal body size by eating whatever you want, not by restricting what you want to eat.
As you will learn in here, and probably know from your own experience, virtually all diets produce binges. If you are mentally preparing for a diet because you are afraid this technique will not work for you, you will most likely use this approach to binge. You will abuse your new freedom that lets you eat whatever you want as the opportunity to advance-binge for the restrictive diet you already may be mentally preparing for...
The foregoing is excerpted from The Seven Secrets of Slim People by Vikki Hansen and Shawn Goodman.
www.harpercollins.com
