Ditching Diets: How to Lose Weight in a Way You Can Maintain

by Gillian Riley

<b>DITCHING DIETS</b> is the alternative to dieting and slimming clubs - because a diet only works while you stick to it and hardly anyone sticks to any diet forever. The best way to lose weight is by developing a style of eating you can live with, because it’s flexible and probably unique to you. But often that’s easier said than done.

You’ve no doubt tried some different things already. Maybe you’ve been advised to eat only when hungry and stop when full; to overeat your favourite foods so you’d learn to get over them; to find the right kind or combination of carbs, proteins and fats, or micronutrients; to deal with your emotions in order to stop wanting to eat so much.

None of this takes into account what happens in your brain when your natural, survival drive to eat (and eat and eat) becomes activated. The purpose of this drive is to get you through the next famine, but in these times of plenty it’s a disaster. In the face of this, nutritional advice may not make much of a difference. You can know what’s healthy, but find it impossible to stick to for long enough.

Do you feel hungry after a meal, no matter what was in it? Do you lose weight only to yo-yo back again? Do you think about food too much of the time? Would you like to stop dieting and eat ‘like a normal person’?

<b>DITCHING DIETS</b> explains how to stop eating so much by thinking in a way that’s the opposite of dieting. The opposite because it’s the dieting mindset – especially the prohibitions - that contribute to the problem in the first place.

You will discover how to eat in ways you truly want to live with, rather than ways you later regret; how to eat less without following any rules, either your own or those taken on from others; how to develop the motivation to make changes, and stay in touch with that motivation long term.

You will learn how to eliminate:
• persistent cravings and obsession with food
• feeling deprived, miserable or irritable when you don’t overeat
• an all-or-nothing relationship with food
• rebellious overeating and bingeing.

<b>DITCHING DIETS</b> will give you control around food so that you can lose weight – and maintain that weight loss in the longer term. This is about how to make a shift in your thinking about food that will last, and once you’ve made that shift there will be no need to diet again.

<b>DITCHING DIETS</b> is easy to read, with thought-provoking and practical advice that the author has taught in seminars for many years. Not a book on nutrition, this is a common sense, gimmick-free approach that enables you to overcome your attraction to all that food you don’t really need.

<i>“Her way of achieving a healthy lifestyle and junking diets for ever has to be the only way forward in my life.” </i>ELLE

<i>“I can sense the shift in my thought process and I am no longer grazing from the fridge all night.” </i>The Daily Telegraph

<i>“I am eating healthier food and less of it. What I like most is the idea of never going on a diet again.” </i>The Independent


<b>A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR</b>
Many years ago I signed up for a liquid diet programme, and the day I was to begin I woke up with a strong desire for a large, fried, English breakfast. The thing was, I didn’t ever eat breakfasts like that at that time.

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Health

140 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 16, 2013

Reviews

[Celia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read dozens of books on books for disordered eating over the years. I must start by saying that my view is colored by all the reading and experimenting I've done on using a non-diet approach which includes books, joining groups, working with coaches, taking online classes etc. etc. Gillian's approach is one that bases itself on the neuroplasticity concepts and uses current findings that address addictive urges to eat as a function of learning and reinforcement. This is not unique of course, but I found her suggested technique of identifying urges as such and striving to bring the urge out of the super-charged limbic system and under the control of the executive function with very simple mindfulness and reminders really a breakthrough for me personally. Like with anything, practice is mandatory as is releasing hard and fast goals of perfect eating, weight loss in any special time frame but I think this book is a winner. For added reinforcement, consider reading also her book on how to quit smoking for good (I actually read the smoking cessation book first because smoking is a more black and white thing compared to food). Worth getting on her mailing list to take one of her webinars as well. Highly recommend.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of the reviews are commenting on the style of writing, noting that it's repetitive. I'm of the opinion that this is an intentional use of NLP and it works. I found this book a breath of fresh air. I didn't find it at all judgemental and those that do perhaps need to consider its their low self esteem thats causing them to receive it as such. It's a wonderful, empowering approach and I recommend it to anyone that is battling with food addiction.

[Amy Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gets to the heart of the matter, which is in your brain... Quick read.

[Vvvvv · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice set of principles to guide you towards resolving your relationship with food.

[Travel Writing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear and simple, so simple that you will ponder why you bought the book, but the tone is encouraging and the information is quite useful and supportive.

Don't let the colloquial writing and simplicity fool you. I pick up something new each time I re-read a chapter.

Between this book and "Fat Loss Happens on Mondays", there is a gentler, yet staggeringly harder way, to approach what we have always thought of as willpower. "It isn't willpower. It's the opposite of willpower and that's why it doesn't work."

Quotes:
You take control by developing a deep sense of free choice.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd give this 5 stars for the ideas but 3 stars for the way that it's written, so I'm taking the average. I am already applying some of the ideas in this book to change my relationship with food. However, I found her tone to be offputting and judgy. Parts of the book were also very repetitive. I guess her confidence may come from having a lot of people have success with her ideas, but I felt like she was often talking down to the reader.

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

not what I was expecting but it had some good info.

[Miss Joanne Cash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Puts food craving into perspective

I found this book enlightening. It explained my relationship with food perfectly. I've already made some positive changes. ! ☺

[Sammy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the most diet-y "non-diet" book ever. I made it just under halfway and when a story mentioned a 28-day detox, I knew this was garbage.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read and very similar principles to Brain Over Binge.