US News & World Report's Katherine Hobson summarizes some of the ideas in a book called The Complete Beck Diet for Life, by Judith Beck. These ideas are surprisingly, well, Spartan. Much of the advice falls into the overarching Spartan Diet attitude of: suck it up and stop being such a wimp. For example, the ideas that 1) hunger is bad; 2) overeating when emotional is good; and 3) taking a break from healthy eating is OK are also explored and discredited in the Spartan Diet.
Other notions we disagree with. For example, the list of unhealthy attitudes includes the idea that some foods should be permanently avoided. We agree with that "bad attitude." If you want optimum health, you should never, ever eat fried foods, processed foods, domesticated animal meats, mayonnaise, sugar and a long list of other foods. We say, suck it up, Judith Beck, and stop being such a wimp. Banning bad foods is a great idea.
Best of all, according to Hobson, Beck totally nails the reason (which we'll cover in detail in the upcoming Spartan Diet book), why nearly all weight-loss diets fail: "People haven't been taught the mental skills necessary to sustain changes in their eating and exercise habits."
Exactly!
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