The Boredom Diet: Permanent Weight Loss as a Matter of Routine

Introduction

Nobody asks to be fat.

Some people work long and hard to become more muscular. Other people shell out big bucks for plastic surgery or hair transplants. (I might even consider that last one myself.) Speaking of hair, plenty of people color their hair or curl it or straighten it. But with all of the things that people do to change their current appearance to a different one of their choosing, I have yet to meet a single person who intentionally set out to become fat.

That tells me something. Fat is something that happens to us, not something that we willingly choose for ourselves. Given the choice, most fat people would rather be thin.

This book is about giving you that choice.

Oh, sure, some people who have never been fat may smugly point out that you already have that choice. Yeah, right. If only it were that simple. Having a choice in theory doesn't do you much good if you can't come up with a way to make it happen in practice.

That's why this book isn't about nutrition or calories. Everybody knows that the only way to lose weight is to take in fewer calories than you expend. That's just simple math. The problem is that taking in fewer calories than you expend is pretty darn hard to do, especially over the long term.

But what really makes it so hard? What specific forces or factors or attitudes make losing weight, and then keeping it off, so very difficult? What can be done to counteract the things (and the people) that work against us when we choose to lose weight? When I woke up one day, now more than thirty years ago, and decided that just because I had been fat all of my life up to that point didn't mean that I had to stay that way, those were the questions that I knew I would need to find answers for if I were ever going to succeed in transforming my theoretical choice to become thin into a practical reality.

I worked out those answers. One by one, I identified the obstacles to losing weight and figured out how to overcome them. One of the biggest obstacles, as you will learn when you read this book, can often be the typical diet plans themselves, which are so psychologically counterproductive that you would almost think they had been designed that way on purpose. I figured out why it is that most diet plans either don't work at all (because no normal person could possibly stick to them for long) or else end up making dieters gain even more weight. Other obstacles to carrying out our choice to lose weight are all around us: Entire industries and cultures, and often even our own families and friends, seem determined to fatten us up and to keep us that way whether we like it or not. But, as I discovered, there are ways to beat them. You can lose weight. You can keep it off permanently. You can choose to be thin, and you can make your choice stick.

You can win.

Many unsuccessful dieters have concluded that they just don't have enough "willpower" to stick to a weight-loss diet. Bull. The problem isn't that you lack willpower; the problem is that up until now the diet deck has been stacked against you from the get-go.

Well, get ready for a whole new deal.

Chapter 1. THE DEAL

Here's the deal.

No diet pills or drugs.

No "programs."

No memberships.

No meetings.

No counting calories.

No counting "carbs."

No special foods.

No special exercises. (Physical exercise is encouraged but optional.)

You decide what to eat.

You decide how thin to become.

Oh, and no extra, ongoing costs. Assuming that you paid for this book, that was the last money that you will ever have to spend on dieting–except for buying yourself some new, "thin," clothes.

The Boredom Diet takes an approach to dieting and weight loss that is unlike any diet plan or program with which you may be familiar. The focus is on you, not on food. It puts you in charge. It puts you in charge of your weight. It puts you in charge of your life.

You will learn how to lose any amount of weight you want to and keep it off for as long as you want to. You will learn why most diet plans, programs, and their approaches to dieting don't work, why they actually make it harder for you to lose weight, and how taking the exact opposite approach will allow you to succeed. You will also learn to identify the factors–and the people–that have prevented you from losing weight in the past, and you will learn how to defeat them. You will learn to change your thinking and change your size. You will grow on the inside and shrink on the outside. You will become the person you want to be, the person you choose to become. A thin person. For the rest of your life.

Here's what's not the deal.

I would be lying if I told you that it would be easy. (And anyone who promises you "easy" weight loss is lying to you.) Life isn't easy, especially if you do it right. But with a little effort it can be fun, and interesting, and rewarding. Getting fat, on the other hand, that's what's easy. That's why we're going to really make an effort here. Actually, you are going to be supplying the effort. My job is to show you how to make that effort pay off for you.

As you will see in later chapters of this book, you probably didn't get fat on your own. So I certainly won't ask you to accept blame for being fat, and there is no need for you to blame yourself, either. Unfortunately, the realization that other persons or forces may be to blame for making you fat doesn't make you one bit thinner. While you need not (and should not) accept blame for being fat, you must accept responsibility for becoming thin, and for overcoming all of the forces that are working to keep you fat. This book will show you how to do that, but only you can make it happen.

I certainly do not promise "quick" results, either. Long-term problems require long-term solutions in order to achieve long-term results. You didn't get fat overnight, and you shouldn't expect to get thin overnight, especially if you plan to stay thin. Quick weight-loss results usually don't last long; the weight comes back just as quickly as it was shed.

This will not be another "crash diet." No, what we are aiming for with the Boredom Diet is a truly permanent, substantial change in your body size, and that will take a little time to achieve. So if you are just looking to lose a measly five pounds before you dash off to your high school reunion next week, you are probably reading the wrong book. But if you are looking to permanently lose ten, twenty, thirty percent or more of your body weight and to permanently change your body style–and life style–from fat to thin, read on.