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The Four Day Win: End Your Diet War and Achieve Thinner Peace
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, ...more
Substitute a good habit for a bad one and stick to it for just 4 days, ...more
Hardcover, 347 pages
Published
December 26th 2006
by Rodale Press
(first published December 19th 2006)
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"The only diet skill you'll ultimately need is the ability to create inner calm" says wise and funny author Martha Beck (325). The Four-Day Win is a down-to-earth and often hilarious read about getting off the diet carousel and establishing a lifetime of sensible eating habits. I know that certain LDS people may not want to support a work by Martha Beck because of her book of a few years ago called Leaving the Saints in which she not only describes her exit from Mormonism, but als...more
I read this book in spurts. I originally picked it up from the library but it was a new book and could only be checked out for a measly 7 days! I checked it out again (but after a lengthy break) and couldn't finish it in time. I finally bought it and yes it took me forever to finish but not because I don't find it to be an excellent book and resource.
I am a fan of Martha Beck's candid and conspiratorial style of writing. I wish I could handle all of her Four Day win suggestions. I a...more
I am a fan of Martha Beck's candid and conspiratorial style of writing. I wish I could handle all of her Four Day win suggestions. I a...more
We all know that in order to lose weight we have to eat less and move more. This seems like a simple and obvious concept, so why doesn't it work. Why is it that the harder you try to lose weight (eating less and less and exercising more and more) the more likely that you end up craving junk food, binging, and eventually giving up? The Four Day Win gives us the answer.
Losing weight and being healthy isn't about willpower, starving ourselves to death, or exercising until we pass out. ...more
Losing weight and being healthy isn't about willpower, starving ourselves to death, or exercising until we pass out. ...more
This book demands I turn my attention to a problem that's not very high on my priority list right now. Also, I'm finding the author's self-deprecating humor grating. May be returning unfinished. I think she's right about the scarcity mentality being a big part of many people's problems with losing weight--I had a brush with that myself a few years back and dropped it like a hot potato.
...
Yep, returning unfinished. Just don't feel like reading this. Maybe some day it will bubbl...more
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Yep, returning unfinished. Just don't feel like reading this. Maybe some day it will bubbl...more
While she does try a little too hard to be witty, the book does have some really good stuff about why trying to eat right isnt about "will power" and ways to get in better touch with what your body needs. While it is a "diet book" in the sense that she says that the end result of learning to eat this way will be weight loss, it's actually more of a psychology book, helping you observe your own eating habits and finding a way to be more at peace. It's helping me in the quest ...more
Well, Martha Beck is certainly her father's daughter in that she can take a large amount of source material and whip out a book at the drop of a hat. Unfortunately, where her father's voice was always authentically his, with Martha it is difficult to tell where what she writes is her own insight, and where it is just being made up of bits and pieces of other people's stuff as she goes along. For example, I have no idea whether she has ever really had any personal struggle with her weight, or if ...more
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After losing and regaining the same 60 lbs twice (not counting all the attempts in between), I finally concluded that the key to taking weight off and keeping it off can't be just working out and eating right.
It had to be something psychological. Maybe something hardwired. Something I couldn't quite put my finger on.
Martha Beck's book showed me where exactly to put my finger, so to speak. She covered a myriad of obstacles that present themselves along one's weight loss jo...more
It had to be something psychological. Maybe something hardwired. Something I couldn't quite put my finger on.
Martha Beck's book showed me where exactly to put my finger, so to speak. She covered a myriad of obstacles that present themselves along one's weight loss jo...more
I love Martha Beck since I read Finding Your True North Star.
This book gave me wonderful added insights about how to lose weight and stay thin forever! Understanding the interplay between my Dictator, Wild Child (synonymous with our inborn primitive drive to stay alive in times of LACK-ATTACK) and the Watcher who sends them both Compassion, Understanding and Love - make for a Zen of Dieting kind of read which I appreciate. It throws light on the emotional hunger side of dieting and I for ...more
This book gave me wonderful added insights about how to lose weight and stay thin forever! Understanding the interplay between my Dictator, Wild Child (synonymous with our inborn primitive drive to stay alive in times of LACK-ATTACK) and the Watcher who sends them both Compassion, Understanding and Love - make for a Zen of Dieting kind of read which I appreciate. It throws light on the emotional hunger side of dieting and I for ...more
I started reading this last month around the time I joined weight watchers. Between this program and that, I was losing weight very quickly -- too quickly, according to the eTools on WW's website. Then I stopped. Reading, that is, and doing the exercises Beck recommends. Big mistake. My weight started climbing again because I wasn't feeding the Wild Child that seeks food when it can't have what it wants. Lesson learned. Beck is back in my regime and this time, with her help and Weight Wat...more
Jennifer
is currently reading it
I love this book so far. It is already helping me eat healthier because of asking me to be less ambitious in my eating goals, thus making them attainable and I go well beyond my goal each day. Martha Beck makes me laugh out loud.
I am still reading this, but dont know how to edit this. I heard lots of positive feedback from others who read it . I will let you know soon.
so I have finished this, it is really a workbook and reflective push for a person. I will keep it handy for rereads, as it is a book to go back to and keep the work going, why we are who we are, what we do and why, whether excercise, diet or relationships. Liked it a great deal, and feel is is a good help for me. The writer is funny, tells it like ...more
so I have finished this, it is really a workbook and reflective push for a person. I will keep it handy for rereads, as it is a book to go back to and keep the work going, why we are who we are, what we do and why, whether excercise, diet or relationships. Liked it a great deal, and feel is is a good help for me. The writer is funny, tells it like ...more
Dear Martha Beck, would you PLEASE STOP trying so hard to be hip and funny? JESUS.
Sincerely, Vicki
Sincerely, Vicki
Martha's "four-day" principle is applicable to virtually any life change; highly recommended.
Apparently either one loves Martha Beck or detests her. I have enjoyed all of her books. This allegedly is a "diet" book but 200 pages in I have yet to read a recommendation about exercise or food. Indeed, Beck writes about our interior belief system that affects our relationship with our bodies, our lives, and ultimately our figure. I think that this is a fabulous book for anyone, regardless of where s/he is on the weight continuum. Beck reminds us that it is our interior realit...more
More brain-science than diet-science but that's the way I like it. Besides, I've yet to read anything of Martha Beck's that I *didn't* like.
Lychee
marked it as to-read
I've enjoyed Beck's previous efforts (Finding Your Own North Star, Steering by Starlight, and The Joy Diet), so although I am not undertaking any kind of effort to end my diet war or achieve thinner peace, I am curious about the four day win approach/tool. Especially now that I'm moving into moonlighting as a life coach, it gives reading self-help books a whole new added layer of analysis.
I didn't make it all the way through this one, but it's something I'm glad that I bought. I can go back when I feel like I need a little reminder. This is a great book if you have emotional eating issues.
Best book on the relationship we have with food! It take Geneen Roth's ideas (don't overeat), and has many brain exercises to help you shift the way you act around food. I highly recommend it.
This is a book that does not promise a quick fix for weight loss, but rather a gradual retraining of your mind for a permanently different mindset about food.
This is a good book and helped me find a different idea to the stuggle to lose weight. I listened to the book on tape and now I'm reading it. I liked this book.
I love Martha Beck! If you haven't read "Finding Your Own North Star," do it! I'm just getting into this one, but it promises to be just as good. I'll check back..
This self help book extends beyond your relationship with food and can apply to so many other areas of your life. Truly powerful and well written.
Amazing, excellent book on changing your relationship with food. Martha Beck is pretty much a genius in all areas of life. :)
This is a really cool book. Although it's a diet book, it could really be used in other ways as well.
I want to read this book when I am ready to do the activities.
Once again, Martha has made sense and made me laugh doing it.
My trainer recommended this to me. Good reminders in here.
She's the horse whisperer of food issues.
kelly
marked it as to-read
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Martha Beck is a writer and "life coach" who specializes in helping people design satisfying and meaningful life experiences. She holds a bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies and master's and Ph.D. degrees in sociology, all from Harvard University.
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