This was a really quick read - almost too quick considering I was able to read it in about an hour. However, I felt like there was a lot of valuable information and exercises centered around weight loss and making behavioral changes. One other thing was this is geared toward readers in the UK and as a US reader, I felt like perhaps the resources shared could have been expanded to include those outside of the UK. She also could expand this further by including some more examples or discussing research behind why these steps of are important to the weight loss journey. This is perfect for someone looking for a concise read and more focused on putting in the work by doing the exercises, but I feel like I would have liked a little more of the science behind why this is going to help me.

I'm usually not a fan of CBT, but this book was actually very helpful. It takes different therapeutic techniques to help someone change their lifestyle. Sometimes losing weight isn't always about just cutting calories. It's about changing the way you think and function in the world.

A very different type of “diet” book. With a realistic approach to health, definitely one to read if your feeling in a “rut”

I’ve always had a complicated relationship with food. For as long as I can remember, eating has been a form of reward or coping mechanism for me – I eat when I’m bored, scared, stressed, angry… every “ugly” emotion I can’t properly process or express translates in as many iced frappuchinos (Hi, Starbucks!), molten lava cakes, pizza slices or entire chocolate bars just bought at the corner store.

I’ve been trying to lose weight for a while, now, and had some measure of success… before taking it all back on, and then some. I’m just one of many who tried on a couple of diets, and just can’t seem to make them stick.

The goal of this workbook is to help people like me figure out why we just can’t stick with it, and how to make it stop – in twelve easy to follow steps.

Three things I liked in this book :

- The simplicity
One of the things I look for the most in a self-help book that aims to make accessible to the general population key psychology concepts is simplicity – specifically, the way the author explains keywords and crucial concepts so that all readers will understand them, without losing any of their meaning.

Scientific vulgarization is a difficult exercise, and one that Sylvie Boulay has mastered with brio in this book.

- The exercises
As interesting as textbooks or general self-help books are, in my opinion, there’s nothing that beats the workbook format in terms of practicality and direct usefulness in readers’ lives. That is – if the workbook is well-constructed, and the exercises are relevant to the theoretical materials.

Here, the exercises are pertinent to each chapter, and bring the reader to self-reflection rather than making them find pre-prepared answers to their questions – an approach that echoed my recent training course in applied humanist psychology, and that I found particularly important in the context of weight management.

- The theory behind the scenes
My favorite branch of psychology is called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT for short. It is rooted in several core principles, including but not limited to :

The belief that psychological problems are based, in part, on faulty or unhelpful ways of thinking
The belief that they are also based, in part, on learned patterns of unhelpful behavior
The following conclusion that people suffering from psychological problems can learn better ways of coping with them, in order to relieve their symptoms and become better adjusted in their daily lives.1
This book follows current CBT theory and its practical applications, and I found it extremely well done. The structure of the reflection, mirroring that of the 10-steps program used in addiction recovery programs, is efficient and clinically sound. Unlike a certain kind of self-help book that I will abstain from quoting here (but you know what I mean…), this is a document that can be taken with all the seriousness its topic requires.

Interested in weight management, CBT, or just self-help in general? Want to finally figure out what’s blocking you from feeling in charge of your own behavior, and at ease in your own body?
Then this book is the one for you. Seriously. You’ll thank me for it.

Having been familiar with CBT for other health benefits I was intrigued to see how or even if this would work and obviously that is always down to the individual on the whole but the advice and the way in which it is presented will have a huge impact on the individual. I think this book achieves that with its use of simple language and breaking down the elements.. It is a great aid to anyone who is serious about changing the way the use and eat food it isn't just a way to diet but to recognise your relationship with food.

I really liked this book. I've used Noom before (and it worked, for the time) and this book reminds me of the Room program. it is much cheaper than a Noom subscription!

The format was clear and well laid out. I liked the worksheets. The style and tone was good--informative and understanding.

The ideas were set out well, clear and with enough detail.

I think this is a useful book. A well-written one. One that will help many people take the step to lose weight they want to lose.

I bought this for myself, after reading the ARC, so that is definitely high praise. Let's see how I do, once I commit to it!

Like many other people, I have started and restarted many diets and I’ll be the first to admit I eventually just give up.
At first I was unsure how this workbook was going to help me but this is a great tool and has helped me change my mindset towards dieting.
It’s well laid out, it’s easy to read and follow. Broken down into 10 different sections to help you address different areas of your diet, the tips at the end of each section are great.
A book I would recommend for anyone who is tired of yo-yo weight or dieting on and off, this will help you start the final chapter in your diet life as it helps to change your mindset.
A 5/5 for me.

A no nonsense, insightful self-help workbook full of practical tips for those who intend to start developing healthy eating habits for good. The author is a psychologist specialising in addiction treatment. Like many of us, she spent a lifetime of being on diets and relapsing into bad eating habits, until she tried to apply cognitive behavioural therapy techniques used with patients recovering from drug or alcohol addiction. Because often it is not the diet that does not work, what really matters is changing our attitude to food, understanding why we stuff our emotions, what the triggers are and what helps overcoming bad moments. Easy said, but how?

This is achieved by breaking down the process in ten manageable steps, from motivation to goal setting, to identifying triggers and strategies to handle them to setting rewards. Some behaviour and situations she addresses felt so relevant! Sylvie makes it easy by giving examples from real patient experiences and guides the reader to write down thoughts and solutions in the charts provided in the various chapters. These will help develop awareness and can be very useful as a reference later on, when they are most needed. I like the fact that rather than prescribing, she helps us to discover what works for us.

This workbook can and should be used to support any diet plan because it more about how to stick to the plan, our attitude to food and healthy practices. The author makes taking charge of your diet a manageable process and a journey of self-discovery and self-awareness. This is a well grounded workbook I warmly recommend to whoever wants to develop a healthy lifestyle and stick with it.

If you've ever heard of Noom, this book is basically what the program teaches, except a more cost effective. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking into cognitive behavior therapy to lose weight and be healthier.

Let me begin by simply saying “I really liked this workbook”
I’m a middle aged woman who has been every size from a size 10 to a size 22, and everything in between more than once in my adult life, so it’s pretty safe to say that I have, at times been very successful at losing weight. But it’s also true that I have been very successful at gaining it again, and being the kind of person who never does things by half, I always gain more than I lost just to make sure I had done it right!?!*big sigh :-(
With my past patterns in mind, one of the main reasons I like this workbook is it’s simplicity’ ‘to lose weight you have to use more calories than you eat’.
I’m not trying to argue that the information out there about macrobiotics, healthy fats or complex carbohydrates is either useful or not. But for me, an emotional eater who both celebrates and consoles with food or who, when stressed, finds oblivion in food, these nuances of weight management don’t help. So this workbook, that sticks to the basic and unwavering principles of weight loss, is absolutely spot on.
I love that it’s written in plain English and uses both comforting and encouraging phrases that feel realistic in helping to manage expectations and the realities faced by most people on their weight loss journey.
The ten steps follow a clearly logical pathway and the exercises are simple but have the impact of getting you to visualise the when, what and why of your personal strengths and weaknesses when it comes to understanding the keys to your success in taking control of your weight.
All in all I think this is a fabulous workbook and I will definitely be using it.
My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review.

Take charge of your diet is an accessible, approachable handbook for those who wish to lose weight. There are ten steps to work though in the handbook and the chapters are short and snappy meaning you feel like you can achieve the steps you need to take to be successful in your weight loss.
The exercises for each step of the way are useful to get the right mindset and to refer back to along the way.
There are useful strategies to employ for when you get off track and even for when you have reached your goal.
It’s motivated me for sure!

Everyone wants to lead a healthy lifestyle but they try for few days to relapse to the old lifestyle, am one of them and this is quite a helpful book with a lot of exercises to accomplish our goal. Reaching the ideal weight is really tough task. The task that is tougher than reaching the ideal weight is maintaining it.

I really appreciate the effort of the author and thank you for such a helpful workbook. Whatever diet we follow and change, we should be optimistic and consistent.

Useful diet tool using CBT to explore ways to make your healthy eating plan more successful. There were several exercises to work through and ways to breakdown aspects of your relationship with food. I'd recommend as a helpful aid.

Some good ideas in this book. I'm not a big over-eater so lots of the stuff didn't seem relevant to me, I still will try a food diary. Also, more exercise which is my main thing.

Sometimes it is necessary to simplify as much as possible a cognitive behavioral strategy, so that it can be used more easily by as many people as possible. So, although to me this book may seem an oversimplification of the steps of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy applied to the loss of excessive body weight and the maintenance of an ideal weight, it is possible that it is very useful for those who have never heard of it.

A volte é necessario semplificare il piú possibile una strategia cognitivo comportamentale, affinché possa essere utilizzata piú facilmente dal maggior numero di persone possibile, quindi, per quanto a me questo libro possa sembrare un'eccessiva ipersemplificazione degli step della Terapia Cognitivo-comportamentale applicata alla perdita dell'eccessivo peso corporeo e del mantenimento di un peso ideale, é possibile che invece sia utilissimo per chi non ne ha mai sentito parlare.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

A workbook that covers your diet, as well as your mindset and goals. Overall, a refreshing take on weight loss, and one that I would recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a really useful workbook. the format is bitesized, useful and effective. The CBT techniques are really clear and there are lots of examples to follow. It has made me re-consider my actions and thoughts.

This workbook is exactly that, a book organized with resources to help you put in the work. I only wish it had a printable version of the templates so I didn't have to write them out each time, but helpful and realistic advice and techniques.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Having just embarked on a weights programme, I figured this may be worth a read but have always been a bit wary of workbooks. This book has shown me not to be so wary. The book was written in a warm and friendly tone with lots of examples that I could relate to. The exercises were spaced out well and enabled me to consider my own weight journey and to reassess my goals and motivation. The chapters were well written and follows the whole weightless journey from obstacles, setbacks, achieving goal and maintenance. It also has a section for family members and carers at the back.

Great diet book that gives you common sense advice to make weight loss permanent. To writing down what you eat and why.