Losing Weight for Good

Book excerpt: Each person faces unique challenges when trying to lose weight. As director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, Lawrence J. Cheskin, M.D., and his team of experts have had remarkable success in helping thousands of individuals develop successful plans of action. Each plan contains the crucial ingredients for healthy success: an attainable goal, an appealing diet, and a practical program of physical activity. Based on the latest research in medicine, psychology, nutrition, and exercise physiology, the Personal Plan of Action offers a unique approach that recognizes the different reasons people gain weight—and why they have trouble losing that weight and keeping it off. The advantages of an expertly designed Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center plan are available to those who want to lose weight on their own. Losing Weight for Good: Developing Your Personal Plan of Action helps you assess your own reasons for weight gain. With this knowledge, you can design your own personal step-by-step program for weight loss based on the approach that has been so successful at the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center. This individualized approach takes into account personal differences in such areas as emotional makeup, lifestyle, family circumstances, coping style, physical health, and economic means. Unlike typical diet books that offer simplistic or formulaic recommendations for weight loss, Losing Weight for Good tells you how to develop and follow a plan that meets your own specific needs. As you read through the book, you will establish your own weight loss goals, dietary aims, and exercise schedule, while building critical skills to help you cope with temptation, frustration, and anything else that interferes with your goal. "The basic message is this: You do not need to change everything about yourself and your life to lose weight and keep it off. You do need to identify your specific problem areas and find creative, individualized solutions."—Lawrence J. Cheskin, M.D.