A few days ago I put out a call for beta readers of my new book “Automatic Weight Loss Method”, asking for feedback and an Amazon review if they’d like to help get the news out. And when I only got a handful of takers, I asked a bunch of fellow authors what else I could do to get those precious first reviews that can make or break a book.

They didn’t hold back:

”Saturated. Sorry, but why bother downloading and reading a book on it? What does your book add to the subject that hasn’t been covered a million times already?”

”Well, weight loss is never automatic so I get why people aren’t interested. Plus … what qualifies you to write on that topic?”

”Even if I were in need of weight loss knowledge, and were susceptible to being convinced into following a regimen based on Chaos Magick, tapeworms and poached eggs, the word “automatic” in the title is just off-putting.”

”Like some 80s/90s infomercial messaging, or an ad in the back of some cheesy magazine.”

And more …. But I was both disheartened and delighted. See, I thought that after following my science and health writing for years, that people would trust that I wasn’t hyping or BSing. You know what they say about the word “assume”? On the other hand, I was delighted, because I could finally understand what people were thinking when they decided to ignore the offer of a free copy.

So here’s my response

I’m a peer-reviewed and published clinical researcher and was a behavioural therapist for over 30 years. I am scrupulously evidence and science based.

This book recognises and explains that conditioned responses form all the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that lead to non-hungry or unhelpful eating.

And that’s why, according to a comprehensive report by our own Commonwealth Government Department of Health and Aged Care, there’s a failure rate of around 96% of almost all current approaches, and especially with diets, eating plans, and exercise programs. Even with bariatric surgery there’s a failure rate, and 14% move on to a GLP-1 medication because the surgery didn’t do the job.

The reason for the failure of all these programs is that precisely none of them has been able to eliminate the conditioning that drives the behaviour and which sooner or later sends people back to their preferences. Not even hypnosis, and certainly never with a program that depends on any kind of willpower or discipline.

However another strategy, which I’ve been writing about and screaming from rooftops for years, can and does eliminate conditioned responses easily, rapidly, and permanently. It’s called “disruption of reconsolidation”. By disrupting the reconsolidation phase of a conditioned response we can extinguish these responses, and even have fun doing it. As you can see from the videos of people who kindly offered to be filmed.

So this book shows step by step how to eliminate conditioning that has led to non-hungry or unhelpful eating, so that without thinking about it (ie; automatically) the person changes their behaviour and loses weight.

There are free training videos and a free support community to make sure people get the result they want.

My mantra has always been that it’s usually not necessary to walk over broken glass to get the outcomes we want, and this book is an illustration of that.

I hope you enjoy it, and look forward to seeing you in the community.