HEALTH
i
k
To drop pounds, you need
to focus on w hat you can
add to yo u r diet, no t w hat
.
you can't.
by GALE MALESKEY, R.D.' '
a
ccentuate the positive. That’s
what weight-loss experts
learned when they worked
with overweight study
participants. Doctors couldn’t just tell
people all the foods they shouldn’t eat.
’
Patients weren’t acting on it. But once
researchers focused on what dieters
could do, such as choose fruit before
junk food, and activity before couch
time, results improved dramatically.
It’s part of the “positive psychology”
movement-focusing on strengths and
positive behaviors, not problems.
“This approach creates less stress by
focusing on what you can do, not
what you can’t,” says Martin Binks, Ph.D.,
director of behavioral health at the Duke
Diet & Fitness Center, in Durham,
North Carolina.
Dr. David Kessler, author of
The End
of Overeating: Taking Control of the
Insatiable American Appetite
and former
U.S. Food and Drug commissioner, puts
continued^^&g§£^M
240
NOVEMBER 2009
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