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INTRODUCTION
It is wonderful, if we chose the right diet, what an extraordinarily small quantity would suffice.
-- Mahatma Gandhi
Are you frustrated with your war on weight? Have you tried any number of diets, lost weight, and then, in time, put the weight back on? Do you still want to lose weight but no longer believe that any diet will really work for you?
We know exactly how you feel. We also know that we have empowered many to lose weight and keep it off -- for good.
At the Rice Diet Program, we, a registered dietitian and a cardiologist, have helped thousands of Ricers (our affectionate name for the participants who come to our program) lose weight. Some come to lose 100 or 200 pounds. Others come to us for help losing 20 pounds they've put on since stopping a sport, having a baby, or entering middle age. The reasons people gain weight vary enormously, but the way they can lose weight and maintain their goal is actually quite simple: the Rice Diet Program.
The Rice Diet Program was established in Durham, North Carolina, over sixty years ago, and since that time the Rice Diet's results are well documented by extensive studies on hundreds of people, and impressive data on thousands. It is the most medically sound program for weight reduction, and the fastest. So whether you want to lose 10 pounds or 200, the Rice Diet will show you how to lose weight safely and quickly. The Diet will also cleanse and detox your body, ridding it of excess sodium, water weight, and other toxins from both processed foods and the environment.
Here's how it works:
• As a low-sodium diet, the Rice Diet dramatically limits salt and all other sodium-rich ingredients. Salt, like refined sugar, is an appetite stimulant. Since you will be eating mostly fresh, whole foods and dramatically reducing processed foods, you will sharply reduce your major sources of sodium (salt). Without this extra sodium, you lose not only water weight but weight associated with overeating. Ricers often say that salt works like sugar to trigger overeating; with so little salt, they rid themselves of yet another trigger that stimulates eating!
• As a low-fat diet, the Rice Diet limits saturated fats and instead relies upon carbohydrates as the main source of food. You will be eating a lot of fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans -- all whole foods that contain a lot of fiber. This high fiber cleanses your body and fills you up so you feel full more quickly with less food and calories.
• People feel satiated, rarely hungry, and lose weight faster than any other whole-food diet because they easily limit calories. It's a challenge to eat 1,500 calories on this diet.
The result? You lose weight -- fast and safely.
Though the rapidity of your weight loss depends on your age, sex, initial weight, and ability to exercise, men lose an average of 30 pounds and women an average of 19 pounds in the first four weeks. Over a period of months, a weight loss of 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pounds per week (or 1/3 to 1/2 pound per day) is very doable. You will lose even more by gradually increasing your amount of exercise. It is very common for Ricers to lose several pounds per week. One Ricer lost over a pound a day, for a total of 217 pounds in less than seven months. As S.S. said, "In 1980, while in residence in Durham for ten months, I lost 150 pounds under the supervision of the Rice Diet staff. Here it is fifteen years later. I have maintained my weight at 115 pounds all these years. It is the hardest thing that I have ever done. My life began again when I lost the weight. This is not to say that you don't have problems when you're fat; it's an illness that shows on the outside. It's all consuming and distracts you from the real problem -- you. I can't hold my fat accountable anymore, but I wouldn't have it any other way."
Another young man told us, "My great-grandfather came to the Rice Diet Program in the 1940s to lose weight after a heart attack, so I always knew about the place. I had gotten to the point where I was embarrassed to go out with friends because I was always the largest one there and felt uncomfortable. I knew that if I did not do something about it then, that it would only get worse and I would not end up living the long, healthy life that everyone desires. When I arrived at the 'Rice House' [the popular nickname for the Program's home base] on May 9, 2000, I was twenty-one years old, had a size 56 waist, wore a size 6X shirt, and weighed 359 pounds. Now, August 1, 2001, I am twenty-two years old, I have a size 36 waist, wear a size Large or XL shirt, and weigh an incredible 215 pounds. I cannot say enough good things about the Rice Diet. People and places come into your life for a reason; this place came into my life for reasons that I will continue to discover throughout the long life it has given me back."
One of the unique and ingenious truths of the Rice Diet is that you can tailor it to your needs. We have designed three phases of the diet: Phase One focuses on cleansing your body to ready it for true, lasting weight loss; Phase Two guides you to lose the weight; and Phase Three shows you how to maintain your weight loss. We give you the guidelines and the portion sizes; and then you decide on how you want to do the three phases in order to reach your weight loss goals. You are also free to eat any food you want -- presuming that it does not cause you health problems. You are able to select from all the food groups: grains, legumes (beans), vegetables, fish and meats, dairy, and fats (preferably olive oil).
There are three other keys to making the Rice Diet work for you: becoming a mindful eater by learning about nutrition, relaxing and making time for yourself through exercise and other mindful activities, and by creating support in your community. When Ricers put these pieces of the weight loss puzzle into place, they are pretty much guaranteed to lose the weight they desire and maintain their weight loss. Our results are the best we've seen for long-term success: 43 percent of our participants maintained their weight loss, or lost even more, after six years back home!
Within days of starting the Rice Diet, you will feel remarkably better: more clearheaded, more energetic, more at peace with yourself. You will know that the Diet is working for you not just because you are losing weight, but because you suddenly feel unburdened from living -- and eating -- in a way that hasn't worked for you. This is when something magical happens: When you are freed from the grip of processed food's excess fat, sodium, and sugar, your weight loss inspires you to explore your "inner healing" tools that heal at the root level, and you discover that you truly have the power to actualize your goal weight, as well as other lifelong dreams.
We have watched these transformations again and again with Ricers at the program. When people finally learn to control their eating and achieve lasting weight loss, they do so with the understanding that they can choose to think differently -- and more positively -- about their bodies. And as a result they begin to expect more from their futures than they ever realized was possible. This is a diet that has the simplicity and the scientific support to give you the tools to cleanse your body of toxins, lose weight in the short- and long-term, and give you the power to actualize all your lifelong dreams. It is this combination that can lead you to change your life. Now what's stopping you from becoming a Ricer?
Copyright © 2006 by Rice Diet Publishing and Production LLC
