Of course, not everyone can look like a Cameron Diaz or a Brad Pitt. To get an idea of what your healthy weight, waist, and shape should be, you’ll need to take into account such things as bone structure, muscle mass, genetics, and risk factors associated with your weight. Here’s a fact that goes virtually unmentioned: There are clinically obese people who live with no risk of health problems, and there are CD-thin people whose risk of dying prematurely is more than a chuteless sky-diver’s. Our goal is to get you to the point where you strip away inches, you strip away the risks of being overweight, and you strip away the guilt associated with the process of always trying to do so.
YOU Will Never Be Hungry
We know exactly how you’ve felt when you’ve dieted in the past. Hungry. Famished. Three seconds away from steamrolling through a triple-dip cone with sprinkles. That recipe for dieting is one you can tear up. In fact, the only place hunger ever got you was a pair of pants that could double as curtains. To eat and work smart, your goal is never to be hungry and never to be in a state of dietary angst, where your only salvation is the 99¢ menu at the drive-through window. By keeping your hunger (and internal chemicals) in check, you’ll avoid the impetuous behaviors that send fat on an express ride to your belly.
YOU Will Make Mistakes
Look, we don’t care how motivated you are, how willing you are, how inspired you are by Eva Longoria’s body. Someday, and someday soon, a volleyball-size muffin is going to get the best of you and nudge, bribe, or cajole its way into your stomach. That’s OK. Hear that? That’s OK. You’re going to have moments when your eyes, body, and curious fingers won’t be able to turn radar lock off of the queso dip. You have to get past the concept that diets have side effects—that is, unexpected negative consequences. Instead, realize that eating plans have effects—offshoot actions, behaviors, and emotions that are simply part of everyday living. One of those effects is that you will occasionally eat things that are nutritional cigarettes; while one may not hurt you, it can get you addicted to some bad behaviors. Because of that, waist management is about developing contingency plans—plans that allow you to make mistakes and then get back on the right road. We’re going to teach you how to make a YOU-Turn when you do make mistakes with Twinkies or Tootsie Rolls or any bad-for-your-waist foods. That way, your dietary fender benders won’t turn into 100-car Autobahn pileups.
YOU Will Be Flexible—and Have Fun
Most of us want our diets to be a little like having the remote control; we want the power to make lots of choices, depending on everything from our mood to the time of day. It’s clear from research that the most successful eating plans are low-maintenance: You can follow them with your family, and you won’t feel overwhelmed by cravings. If you can do that, you’ll get results. But try to stay on a diet where you feel more isolated than a Yankees fan at Fenway Park, then chances are that the result will feel like the box-office numbers of a B-level horror flick—a miserable failure.
Eating right shouldn’t be about feeling bad. It should be about feeling strong, increasing energy, living better, feeling healthier, and having more fun than a front-row rock fan. It should be about eating without thinking and without obsessing about every forkful. Of course, we all have reasons for overeating or eating the wrong kinds of food (stress, boredom, comfort, five-cent wing specials). But our goal isn’t just for you to make by-the-book food substitutions or come to grips with your Devil Dog demons. You should be grinning—not grimacing, grunting, and growling—as the inches melt away from your waist, and laughing as your lipid profile improves. You’ll understand how, after we show you how the mind-stomach connection works by explaining how brain and belly chemicals control what the mind thinks, how the fork acts in your bodily orchestra, and how this relationship can become a cacophony in the wrong hands.
So now that we’re about to begin, you’re probably asking, What are we going to do, and how are we going to do it? Well, we’re going to give you everything you need to make a body change—through a series of elegant and effective changes based on hard science—that will stick with you for your life. Simply, this book will serve as your lifelong waist management, body-changing plan.
Best of all, when you put it all together and integrate automatic actions into your life, you’ll live by the principles you’ll need to stay fit and healthy, so that you can achieve and maintain exactly what you’re striving for:
Your ideal body.
The Fat Facts Test
What Do You Really Know about Fat, Diets, and Other Weight-loss Solutions?
To help you determine your level of dietary knowledge, take this Fat Facts Test. In less time than it takes to listen to an American Idol off-key clunker, you may just learn more about your body and belly than you’ve ever known before.
1 What is the first historical event that we can point to as contributing to the rise in excess pounds?The development of agriculture.The development of whipped cream in coffee.The development of more office jobs.The development of fast food.
2 What is the reason most diets fail?They’re designed so that they’re impossible to stick to long-term.They’re so complicated that you need a math degree to follow them.There are only so many carrot sticks and celery stalks a person can take.Mozzarella sticks. Mmm!
3 Which of the following strategies is most recommended for people trying to lose weight?Weighing yourself once a week.Eating two to three small meals a day.Eating nuts every day.Ex-Lax smoothies for everyone!
4 What’s the most important number for determining whether an increased waist size is putting you at risk for health problems?Bra size.Blood pressure.Cholesterol.Heart rate.
5 What is ghrelin?The name of a Harry Potter character.A hormone that makes you want to eat more.The name of fat cells in your belly.The chemical in your brain that makes you feel good.
6 What is leptin?The name of the dude on the Lucky Charms cereal box.The muscle-building protein that helps burn fat.The nutrient in fruit that works in conjunction with fiber.A chemical from fat that tells your brain you are full.
7 Which spice has been shown to be helpful for controlling weight?Cinnamon.Thyme.Oregano.The one married to David Beckham; Posh, is it?
8 Complete this sentence with the most accurate response. Fructose .Is responsible for decreasing the number of calories in many foods.Tricks your mind so you stay hungry longer.Is responsible for increasing the amount of bad-for-you trans fat in foods.Sure makes my Trix taste darn good.
9 What does your body most want to do in periods of extreme stress?Stay away from food.Gorge on food.Seek crunchy foods.Crumple up into a pile of jelly and retreat to a warm bath.
10 Which choice is most recommended to cut your appetite?Whole-grain foods.Whole aisles of fruit.Whole lot of a diet soda.Whole boxes of Girl Scout cookies.
11 Of the following choices, which is least dangerous to a long-term waist management strategy?A 1,000-calorie-a-day diet.Higher than usual colonics ro remove all fat.Training for a marathon.Playing video games.
12 Which organ is most responsible for metabolism?Heart.Stomach.Liver.Kidneys.
13 Which condition is responsible for weight gain in about 10 to 20 percent of younger women?Vulvodynia.Hyperthyroidism.Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).I’ve had six kids, so cut me a break, would ya?
14 Calorie for calorie, what fills you up for the longest amount of time?Fat.Fiber.Fructose.French fries.
15 At least how much must you walk daily