Let's face it already: diets don't work. If they did, we would not be facing a global obesity epidemic with all of the related illnesses that go with it, like heart disease, increased risk of certain cancers, and orthopedic joint problems. Several weeks ago there was an international news story about an English boy whose mother allowed him to eat whatever he wanted. This included entire pizzas, burgers and fries, and multiple bags of chips. British social services considered taking away custody since the boy was so unhealthy and obviously out of control.

Our sense of appropriate portions is completely skewed. The small McDonald's fries today is the size large was 20 years ago. That's right - the small used to be the large!

Basically, if you eat less and exercise more you will lose weight. We all know that and have for years! Yet, if you are like most people (including me) you have tried low fat, low carb, grapefruit, pills, green tea, and every other diet plan out there. For the majority of dieters, these plans do not work. Even if we lose weight in the short term we gain it back in the long term. Each time we gain it back we gain a bit more and it becomes harder to lose.

Into this fray strolls Dr. Darcy Buehler, a behavioral therapist who has utilized hypnosis to help herself and her clients lose weight. Her theory is that diets do not work because we, the dieters, don't really change our behaviors and thought processes about food, exercise, ourselves, and our lives. We always feel like fat people who crave foods, have food addictions, and always fall short of the ideal.

Think Yourself Thin: The Revolutionary Self-Hypnosis Secret to Permanent Weight Loss is not about changing how you eat, but changing how you think. The accompanying CD contains eight self-hypnosis scripts such as "Rewiring Your Brain" (which contains suggestions such as "Your urges are nothing more than faulty messages from your brain. You are learning to recognize a false message and simply say no to urges."), "Decision Making," and "Exercise."

Dr. Buehler does make some suggestions about diet and exercise, but the majority of the book is about changing your brain and lifestyle to that of a non-dieter, to that of a healthy eating and exercising person who can recognize a bad eating idea when they see it and stop before it's too late. The audio scripts are definitely the best part. I downloaded them from the CD onto my MP3 player and I listen to at least one every day.

The self-hypnosis appears to be working. My nighttime eating urges are definitely less pronounced and I am starting to feel better. Yes, the scale is slowly moving down.