Frequently Asked Questions

How is The Boredom Diet: Permanent Weight Loss as a Matter of Routine different from other diet books and diet plans?

The short answer is that The Boredom Diet isn't about food or the nutritional aspects of dieting; it's about the psychology of dieting. The Boredom Diet recognizes that the factors that make losing weight – and keeping it off long-term – so unpleasant and difficult for most people are primarily psychological rather than physiological. The Boredom Diet identifies the psychological obstacles to permanent weight loss and shows you how to deal with them effectively. It also shows you how to structure your own customized weight-loss diet, one with which you will be psychologically compatible and comfortable. Once you have the psychological factors working for you instead of against you, it becomes much easier to stick to a weight-loss diet.

Because most popular diets are food-centered, they force you to focus enormous attention on food. For that reason those diets have the same psychological effect as food advertisements and so actually tend to induce you to eat more rather than less. The Boredom Diet, on the other hand, shows you how to structure your diet in ways that allow you to give relatively little thought and attention to food. And that makes dieting much easier.

Why the title: The Boredom Diet?

The more exciting and interesting food is (or is made to seem), the more of it you'll eat. That basic psychological truth is why the corporate food pushers spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually on food advertisements. One of the things The Boredom Diet does is to identify the psychological mechanisms that make you tend to eat more, and then shows you how to reverse them. If making food exciting and interesting induces you to eat more (and it does), then making food boring should make it easier to eat less. And research indicates that it actually does. So one of the techniques that The Boredom Diet teaches you is how to structure a diet that is relatively boring but still pleasant and palatable enough to stick with.

What foods will I be eating on the Boredom Diet?

That's entirely up to you. The Boredom Diet doesn't prescribe any particular foods. You get to eat familiar everyday foods that you actually like instead of special "diet foods" or foods that you don't like. You'll eat less overall, but at least what you do eat will be your choice. That's the beauty of The Boredom Diet: because it deals with the structure and psychology of dieting, it works with almost any foods. And the fact that you get to include foods that you like (and leave out foods that you don't like) is one of the reasons that the Boredom Diet is psychologically easier to stick to.

How hard is the Boredom Diet to follow?

Most diets get harder to stick to the longer you go on with them. The Boredom Diet seems to work in the opposite direction. It's sort of like learning to ride a bicycle; in the beginning it takes a little effort to get the hang of it, but then it gets easier and easier. You see, unlike all those diets that tell you exactly what to eat and when, The Boredom Diet gives you general guidelines but lets you work out the specifics for yourself so that you'll end up with a diet plan that is just right for you. That requires more initial effort and usually some trial-and-error adjustments, but once you have fine tuned and "broken in" your own personal Boredom Diet plan, it becomes easier and easier to follow. As time goes on, losing weight and keeping it off really does become just "a matter of routine" for you.

I'm really, really heavy. Will the Boredom Diet work for me?

Because with the Boredom Diet it generally gets easier to lose weight as you go along, the Boredom Diet actually works better for people who have larger amounts of weight to lose.

Where can I buy a copy of The Boredom Diet?

It's still pretty hard to find in most bookstores, so the fastest way to get a copy of The Boredom Diet: Permanent Weight Loss as a Matter of Routine is to click on this website's "Contacts" button. That will take you to a page that has a direct link to the publisher (click again), and it also gives you the publisher's toll-free order number if you'd rather order by telephone. You could also get your bookstore to order you a copy, but you'll have to wait longer than if you just order it directly from the publisher.

By the way, The Boredom Diet is a good investment even if it seems a little bit pricey for a paperback. Once you have your personal Boredom Diet up and running, you'll soon find yourself spending less money on food, and so the book will probably more than pay for itself in the first month alone. And you'll never again have to buy any of that overpriced "diet food."