DIET TRAP SOLN

by Judith S. Beck, Deborah Beck Busis

The New York Times bestselling author of The Beck Diet Solution teams up with her daughter and colleague at the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior to teach readers how to think their way thin, offering practical, proven tools for escaping common diet traps for good.

Most diet programs work at first. But then life happens—stress, bad habits, holidays, travel—and we revert to bad habits, and the weight comes back. In this invaluable book, Dr. Judith Beck offers the solution to break free from these common diet traps and keep the weight off for life.

Dr. Beck explains that when it comes to losing weight, it’s not just about what we eat. It’s also about how we think. To consistently eat differently, we must learn to think differently. Diets fail us because they don’t offer effective strategies for overcoming the common traps—emotional eating, social pressure, dining out—that can derail us. Now, she and her daughter, Deborah Beck Busis, share the techniques they have successfully used with thousands of clients, revealing how to overcome the thoughts and behaviors that have held us back. With The Diet Trap Solution, readers on any diet regimen can learn to identify their specific diet traps and create action plans to strengthen their “resistance muscle”—making losing weight easy, sustainable, and enjoyable.

Genres: Health, Self Help, Nonfiction, Psychology, Audiobook, Food, Fitness

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 4, 2015

About the author

Dr. Beck has written nearly 100 articles and chapters on different aspects of cognitive therapy. She is the author of the primary text in the field, which has been translated into 20 languages, as well as books, workbooks, and pamphlets for consumers.

Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., is an eminent clinician and educator who previously served as director of Clinical Services at the Center for Cognitive Therapy and now serves as president of Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy. She is also clinical associate professor of psychology in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her doctoral degree from Penn in 1982.
Dr. Beck directs the three major functions of Beck Institute, professional education and training in cognitive therapy, clinical care and outreach.

Dr. Beck divides her time among administration, supervision and teaching, clinical work, program development, research, and writing. She has been a consultant for several National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) studies, has developed widely adopted assessment scales for children and adolescents, and has presented hundreds of workshops nationally and internationally on various applications of cognitive therapy. She is also a Distinguished Founding Fellow and Past President of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy.

Reviews

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

The Diet Trap Solution focuses on CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) psychology to help find answers to the most common reasons why people overeat. It's not a research book nor is there a diet plan or cookbook. Rather, it is a book addressing the behaviors/habits/situations that cause the overeating. The authors write in a very breezy and friendly tone and the 177 page book can be finished in under two hours. I've read quite a few diet/health/eating issue books that deal with CBT and this is by far the most user-friendly, eschewing psychobabble for realistic situations and examples. As such, it doesn't feel like endless preachy theory by someone who has never had an overeating problem.

The book breaks down overeating issues into the following trap categories:
- Emotional eating traps: "If I'm upset, I deserve to eat."
- Stress traps: "I'm too busy and overwhelmed to keep on dieting."
- Food pusher traps: "I can't disappoint people by turning down food they're offering me."
- Family traps: "I shouldn't ask my family to make changes just because I want to lose weight."
- Travel and eating out traps: "It's okay to indulge when I'm away."
- Holiday traps: "It's a special time (e.g., Thanksgiving). I should be able to eat whatever I want."
- Psychological traps: "I have no willpower. I just can't resist."
- Getting of track traps: "I've already blown it for the day. I might as well keep eating and get back on track tomorrow."

The point of the book is CBT: make yourself aware (cognizant) of your situations and decisions. This means writing down benefits of losing weight and analyzing situations that would affect that goal. The authors want to guide readers to make better decisions and to avoid sabotaging "in the now" decisions that ultimately defeat the long term weight loss goal. You will have to carry note cards with you for awhile until you retrain impulsive behavior and really learn to stop and think about what you are doing. A great example is how easy it is to justify eating poorly all day if a dieter 'falls off the wagon' at one meal. A reminder card would be used to reiterate that every bite counts - and eating poorly the rest of the day is a poor justification to defeat long term goals.

There is a quiz at the beginning to see which traps you are most likely to fall into - often it can be more than one. After that, readers will write down all the benefits of the weight loss and keep those handy so they can also write down the supposed 'benefits/justifications' of an impulsive action that breaks the diet. E.g., eating out with your spouse at a fancy restaurant. If he/she is annoyed that you won't go with them, the analysis shows that a short term benefit of the spouse not being annoyed is hardly equal to the benefits lost from not losing the weight (e.g., why is their temporary happiness so much more important than your own long term health/happiness if you lost the weigh because you didn't go?). There is a lot of food for thought (no pun intended) in the real world people examples used in each chapter.

The information is presented in an ordered and intelligent manner, showing excellent thought gone into the book. Each chapter has an introduction to the trap, real world pitfalls, escaping the traps (creating escape plans), and a summary 'reflect and recommit' of why a reader wants to escape the trap. There is also a handy chart of the escape plan that has columns for: sabotaging thoughts, reminders, and to do list (e.g., for emotional eating, the escape plan sabotaging thought is, "I'm lonely. I deserve to treat myself with extra ice cream". The reminders is: "It's true that I'm lonely. I need to accept the feeling and deal with loneliness in another way." And the to Do List: "Start buying only a single ice cream treat each day to eat at night. Throw away the pints of ice cream that are already in the freezer.").

Readers will have to go to the author's website to download forms - and of course expect the usual bombardment of plugs for the authors' diet books and other items. On the site is the usual hard upsell (pop ups, sign ups, etc.), for which I deduct one star (so tired of feeling like dieters are ripe for ponzi schemes disguised as 'additional products'). But the quizzes are in the book and do not need to be downloaded. Nor do you need any specific diet to follow the book. This is more of a companion to any diet you have currently chosen rather than a stand alone.

In all, I liked the ease of the read, friendly tone, excellent organization of material, and real-world, grounded examples. We all know overeating is more than just an issue of shoving food in the mouth; eating better AND dealing with the psychology side really need to be addressed in tandem for true lifestyle change. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did try to glean what good I could from this book and there were some good things. And I think it adds to my growing understanding of why we eat what we eat and how much we eat. But overall there were so many things that rubbed me wrong. The overall feeling was that we have and will have an adversarial relationship with food.

Here are the words that were repeated often that I did not like when referring to eating habits:
maintain control
mistakes
entitled
supposed to
being good or bad

These all have negative connotations when used to describe 'dieting' or how you eat, at least they do for me.

The authors also are adamant that you should weigh yourself Every Day. They explained their reasoning and I understand their logic. It was just another point that added to that adversarial feeling. The scale was to be the determiner of whether or not you succeeded every day.

So what are the good things I gleaned?
-make your own list of advantages for losing weight/being a healthy weight (at the same time, you are basically compiling a list of the disadvantages and problems of staying overweight)
-identify your 'traps' where you overeat: stress, emotional, food pushers, family problems, travel and eating out, holidays, psychological, getting 'off track.' Each of these 'traps' is discussed.
-think through situations that may be difficult for you foodwise and come up with strategies for facing those situations
-make reminder cards of your advantages, sabotaging thoughts, and strategies
-understand that it will sometimes feel hard - either hard because you are staying aware of what is required, and committed to, being healthy, or hard because you stay overweight with all the associated problems

They say "you absolutely need a reasonable, flexible, nutritious diet if you want to escape your traps, lose weight, and maintain weight loss. You won't have long-term success with an unhealthy or overly restrictive diet. ..... There is no such thing as cutting calories in the short term and then increasing calories without gaining weight."

This may be the book that helps you finally figure out how to face overeating and develop healthier habits. It had some good ideas for me, but ultimately was not great.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you're truly ready to work on your relationship with eating and exercise, you still need help to transform your mind. This cognitive behavior therapy based approach works with whatever "diet" or "eating plan" you choose. It's about how to program your thinking to stick with it, by reminding yourself of why it is of value to you... each and every day, in the circumstances that challenge you personally.

I had read the six week program "The Beck Diet Solution", last year, and I see different strengths in each approach. This one is more targeted on individual areas of challenge, based on responses to a quiz in chapter one. So, if you're looking for a directed approach, this is the one.

But the earlier book is a fuller approach, with six weeks of daily tasks and exercises that I for one found instructive, and in some cases was surprised by what I found out about myself. So... I don't see a problem with having read/worked through both books.

[Pyroclastic Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was great. I think I'd like it in physical form.
I think the suggestions in this were practical and I liked that there were examples and alternative ways to look at many challenges for losing weight.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book was kind of unnecessary. All of the same information is in the first book, the Beck Diet Solution. Another thing that bothers me is the idea of dieting. And the word diet over and over again. What I am doing is following a food plan that works for life, not just for a diet. There is a lot of good information, a lot of good suggestions, the whole a
cognitive behavioral development aspect I really do like. But as I said, most of the information in this book and more are in the book the Beck Diet Solution.

[Christine Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent book by Dr. Judith Beck (and her daughter Deborah Beck Busis) addressing the thinking process that gets us in trouble when we are trying to lose weight or maintain weight loss. This book is focused on some of the common traps dieters fall into, such as family and friends who push food on us, holidays, vacations, eating out and our own all-or-nothing thinking. The charge here is to plan ahead for dealing with difficult situations, being kind and forgiving and how to get back on track before a small mistake becomes an excuse to give up entirely. Insightful, practical and addressed many scenarios that I am all too familiar with! Already trying to put some of these strategies into practice. Like Beck's other books, this is not a diet plan per say, but is designed to work with an healthy diet and tackle the situations and thought processes that might derail us from meeting our goals. The final chapter does a nice job of showing how clients have used these cognitive behavioral strategies to conquer their weight issues to address other issues in their lives.

[MB Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. There are so many reasons why healthy eating can be difficult - holidays, stress, busy schedules, other people who push you to eat/drink, etc etc. Dr. Beck has such a warm, engaging tone and includes so many personal stories of her clients who face similar struggles. When I first read this book, it helped me lose about 15 pounds relatively easily. I've slipped back into bad habits, so I needed to read it again for a tune-up!

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rational, thoughtful approach to losing weight by way of changing one's relationship to food. Highly recommended. Offers skills applicable to other life areas, too! I would suggest reading it slowly, a chapter or section at a time, to help the ideas sink in and practice as you go.

[Musings of a Middle-aged Mum · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second time I have purposely read through The Diet Trap Solution. It is one that you can keep referring back to when you find your eating going out of control.

This is another book that I was reading through with my friend, as we try to encourage each other to get healthier and lose weight.

The book goes through the psychology of dieting and why most diets fail - not because of the diets themselves, but rather because of ourselves. There are various core strategies that is recommended you do every day (for example, reading through your Advantages List of why it is important to you to lose weight). There are reminder cards for you to carry around with you to help prepare and prevent your sabotaging behaviour, and you are encouraged to think in advance about what normally happens to sabotage your weight loss, and what strategy you will use to mitigate it this time.

At the start of the book there is a quick quiz to determine which traps affect you the most, and then the book goes through each of eight traps in groups of two: Internal Traps, Interpersonal Traps, External Traps, and Universal Traps. For me, I ticked 'yes' to almost all of them, but even if you don't, I'd recommend you at least skim read through the other chapters, even if you don't pay as much attention to the ones that affect you.

I like this book because it is no nonsense, Again, it's not a magic pill that will solve all your weightloss problems, but it helps focus your mind. Whilst some of the suggestions seem like common sense, I dare say that if you perfectly enacted all of them in your daily life, you wouldn't be needing to lose weight.

[Ricardo Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toda una experiencia.
Primer libro que escucho en lugar de leerlo, siendo también uno de aquellos vivos que te mandan a la acción.
El sobrepeso y la obesidad son un problema de nuestros tiempos, el vivir comiendo enfocado en problemas de la vida cotidiana. Comer con ansiedad, comer y estar arrepentidos justo después de comer. La ausencia de nosotros la comer.
El porqué comemos tiene múltiples respuestas, sin duda muchas ocasiones comemos diferente, tal vez de más, o elegimos de manera distinta, en determinadas situaciones. La compañía es otro factor determinante, la presión de la sociedad, los roles de la familia, nuestras emociones, son otras variables más.
En este caso vemos como nos afecta el aspecto social y psicológico al tomar decisiones al comer.
Un libro que se lleva a la acción, para empoderarnos, para conocernos más las cuestiones que están involucradas al acto de comer.
Un libro que tiene mucho de manejo cognitivo conductual. Un libro que nos involucra, nos hace escribir y nos hace pensar que tan decididos estamos para mejorar nuestros hábitos.
Aquí las respuestas y el pan de acción surge del lector (en este caso escucha), quien mejor par conocerse que uno mismo.
Esto es elaborar un plan de alimentación focalizado en la introspección

[Kate M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing new, though the focus is okay—not on the diet but on the reasons that they fail. Beck applies a simple modality of behavioral change —CBT—and is known to use it in relation to dieting. The issue is that behavioral change alone cannot effect all the change needed if we have a disordered relationship with food. We know this—it’s why people gain weight back after weight watchers and all those other diets that don’t actually deal with the underlying issue. My biggest problem with this one is that it seems misleading; these “traps” go deeper than simply changing eating patterns, which can’t change if underlying issues aren’t addressed. No new ideas for adding movement or behavioral changes are really offered, either.

[Jodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I don’t agree 100% with some of the underlying philosophy, this is one of the first times I’ve read about eating/food perspective that makes sense. Unlike many in their target audience, I’ve never really participated in fad diets. This is partly because I knew I wouldn’t be able to maintain it long term and/or I wasn’t convinced that the diet was a good choice. This, on the other hand, is built to be for the long haul and to be able to get back on track. Let’s see what happens! :)

I think I first heard of these books from Crystal Paine (blogger and author). I appreciate her perspective otherwise I probably wouldn’t ever have picked this up based on the title.

[Luiz Fabricio Calland Cerqueira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than her other Diet Book. It has more Cognitive Therapy in it. The other one felt like a bunch of thecniques sanduiched together, but this one brings a deeper understanding of the overfeeding mentality and how to reprogram it. I enjoyed it very much.

On the other hand, as I read it not only as someone who needs to lose weight, but as a psychoterapist, I feel the example dialogues weren´t very socratic. Felt like the Becks shuvled the cognitions inside the clients brains using a screwdriver.

[Claudia Rant]

Definitely a page-turner for me. I could see it becoming a film one day. The only thing that put me off at times was the inconsistency in the spelling of a few words. The author is English, the story takes place in Scotland and London yet somehow words like “color” and verbs ending in “ize” featured in the book. But that’s me, I am picky about these things.

[Jude · Rating 5 out of 5]

everytime matters!

My new mantra. Going into the holidays i tend to over eat and over do. With these tips and strategies I know that won't be a problem so much. Definitely going to make it happen this year.

[sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Approach to Dieting...

At last, a new approach to sensibly lose weight and keep it off forever. I’m looking forward to sharing these philosophies with friends and family.

[debra mullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Making it through the pandemic!

This is my third read through in four years. I found their book to show incredible insight. I am back to reading my cards daily through this pandemic. Count is eleven pounds down. No munching to pass the time. Key is it works!

[Diane Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook. It seems like this is the sort of book that works better as a workbook. Probably a paper copy would be best. There were reference to resources that I could not locate. The information is good, but not as effective in audio.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some nice tips. A lot of background and jargon.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll be working through this one for a while, but this is the best version of this book so far. Much more concise and easy to read.

[Shannon Vanderhyde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, useful tools to change the way you think BEFORE trying to change your body!

[Mary Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read every diet book I thought. Really found this one different and hopeful. Will read again in a month!

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommended by my DIL.

[Christine De Napoli · Rating 5 out of 5]

se fizer direitimho o que elas sugerem ajuda muito no emagecimento. Armadilhas da Dieta é o titulo em português.

[Amy Adamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book with great tips! I plan to implement all these ideas in my life.

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book with practical ideas

[Kewannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars, really

[Norma Ojeda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh

[Dave Helm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terrible book, terrible advice

[Vaporlan · Rating 4 out of 5]

讓你了解自己無法減重的問題在哪裡。在針對各個問題去做思考的方法