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It's the program that shatters all the myths: Fit for Life the international bestseller that explains how to change both your figure and your life. Nutritional specialist Harvey and Marilyn Diamond explain how you can eat more kinds of food than you ever ate before without counting calories...and still lose weight! The natural body cycles, permanent weight-loss plan that proves it's not only what you eat, but also when and how, Fit for Life is the perfect solution for those who want to look and feel their best. Join the millions of Americans who are Fit for Life and begin your transformation with:
- The vital principles that bring you permanent weight loss and high energy
- The Fit for Life secrets of timing and food combining that work with your natural body cycles
- A 4-week meal plan, menus, shopping tips, and exercise
- Delicious recipes and more.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781538752784 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Grand Central Publishing |
| Publication date: | 06/09/2020 |
| Sold by: | Hachette Digital, Inc. |
| Format: | eBook |
| Sales rank: | 93,191 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Fit for Life
By Harvey
Wellness Central
Copyright © 2010 HarveyAll right reserved.
ISBN: 9780446553643
Part I
The Principles
BY Harvey Diamond
INTRODUCTION
For the sake of clarity, unless otherwise noted, Harvey’s voice is used in Part I and Marilyn’s in Part II.
Are you one of those people looking for a way of living that will allow you to sensibly lose weight? Keep the weight off permanently? And accomplish this while experiencing all the joys of eating? If your answer to these questions is yes, then you can start to celebrate right now! Because this is the information that will enable you to do just that!
This book is the culmination of over fifteen years of intensive study of the relationship between the foods we eat and the shape of our bodies. If you are fed up with the dieting merry-go-round and are looking for some practical and sensible information that can put you in full control of your weight, then here is some very exciting news. You are about to learn some secrets of how to lose weight, and lose it permanently, while eating. I know some of you feel that’s too good to be true. I felt the same way, but I found out through experience that you can indeed eat your way to the weight you wish to be.
Wouldn’t it be ideal to eat and enjoy it, always feeling satisfied and not deprived, always looking forward to meals, and most important, always maintaining a comfortable body weight? This is what FIT FOR LIFE is all about. It is not a diet! It’s a way of eating that can be incorporated into your life-style as a way of life, not as a dogmatic regimen. It doesn’t require calorie counting; it is not a starvation diet; it avoids portion restrictions; it is not behavior modification; there are no drugs or powders; it is not a temporary measure. It is a set of dietary principles that you can use as much or as little as you wish, depending on your goals. The program puts no pressure on you. You will be comfortable all the way along, having regular, progressive success as you incorporate this information into your life.
FIT FOR LIFE brings about permanent results. Following its principles will teach you to stop “living to eat” and begin “eating to live.” It may seem as if eating great food, not counting calories, not locking up your refrigerator, and not dieting are impossible dreams, but let us assure you it is no dream—it works.
You may have reached a place in your life where you are absolutely sick and tired of hassling with your weight. You may have arrived at a position where, once and for all, you want to find an eating program that works, that you can trust. You want to feel confident at last that your body will be receiving all the nutrients it needs, your energy level will be high and consistent, and your weight, after a lifetime of major or even minor fluctuations, will stabilize. In short, you want to eat regularly and well, but at the same time you are determined to be free of that nagging concern over extra pounds and extra inches.
The information in this book affords you the opportunity to do all that. With this much promise, however, you may very well be thinking, “Uh-oh, nothing but alfalfa sprouts, lettuce, and wheat germ, with a bowl of grated carrots for dessert!” No way! We’re not from that school of thought! To put your mind at ease, let’s take a look at what one typical day could include.
When you awaken in the morning, you can have a big glass of fresh fruit juice. Choose whatever you like, whatever is in season and most convenient for you. It can be orange, tangerine, or grapefruit juice that you make on a simple, inexpensive citrus juicer. If you happen to have one of the many all-purpose juicers on the market these days, you can make some fresh apple juice, or strawberry-apple, or watermelon, or watermelon-cantaloupe. The point is that you are encouraged to start your day with fresh juice.
If you prefer, or in addition to the juice, you can have a fresh fruit salad, or simply some fresh fruit. You can have any fresh fruit you like, but no canned fruit, and you can have as much as you feel like having. (We will explain later why canned fruit will not fit into the program.)
Perhaps you had some juice and half a cantaloupe early in the morning, and then around ten o’clock you feel hungry again. You can then have more fresh fruit, an orange or two, an apple, fresh peaches, more melon, fresh nectarines, or some cherries or grapes, depending on the season. If you have had some juicy fruit but are still feeling a little hungry, you can have a banana or two. The idea is to eat fruit during the morning, until noon, whenever you feel hungry.
At lunch you might have a big salad made with whatever fresh, raw vegetables you prefer. You can choose from a variety of dressings, and with your salad, if you wish, you might have some whole-grain toast and butter, or some soup. You might have a sandwich made from a combination of avocado, tomato, cucumber, lettuce, sprouts, and mayonnaise or butter. (By the way, if you have never had a big, luscious avocado and tomato sandwich, you are in for a real treat!)
At dinner, if you have one of those all-purpose juicers, you might want to have a big fresh vegetable-juice cocktail while you prepare the rest of your meal. You can have buttered yams, rice, or baked potatoes with an assortment of lightly steamed vegetables and salad. Or you can have a special main-course Mediterranean Rice Salad or Steak-lovers’ Salad. You can have your choice of meat, chicken, or fish with vegetables and salad. For a change of pace, you might try a delicious soup with some hot buttered corn bread and coleslaw. You might have an assortment of steamed, raw, or sautéed vegetables wrapped in hot tortillas with avocado and sprouts. There are so many options and lots of new ideas to try! There is no reason to have any concern about boredom, deprivation, or confusion. You can see that there is plenty of good food to eat—exciting, delicious food, in fact! The high quality and variety of the food directly correlate with how you will look and feel. Most of the dishes you will be eating will be familiar to you, making the program easy for you to follow. And there will also be many satisfying, original meals that are new to you. Emphasizing familiar foods, the program merely calls for some very simple changes on your part.
What is completely new and different about this program is that IT IS NOT ONLY WHAT YOU EAT THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE, BUT ALSO OF EXTREME IMPORTANCE IS WHEN YOU EAT IT AND IN WHAT COMBINATIONS. This when and how factor is what you have been searching for, the missing link that will insure your success!
What is most exciting is that this is a sensible approach to weight loss that can be readily employed as a life-style. It works! It is innovative and it is fun! This system will give you lasting results! It is NOT a fad diet, and it succeeds because, unlike fad diets, it is NOT a temporary solution! You will never again have to experience the disappointment of gaining back weight you have tried so hard to lose. You’ll have at your fingertips some unique tools that you’ll be able to use whenever you feel a few unwanted pounds sneaking back into your life. This system overcomes the built-in failure of fad dieting. The weight you lose on this program will be gone forever!
FIT FOR LIFE is a safe and balanced system based on natural physiological laws and cycles of the human body. And because it is based on natural laws, it will work for you. Everything in life is regulated by natural physical law, including your bodies, and so if we wish to lose weight effectively, we must do it in accordance with those natural laws.
At the foundation of this system is a universal truth concerning weight loss that, until now, has not been very well understood: SAFE AND PERMANENT WEIGHT REDUCTION IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE AMOUNT OF VITAL ENERGY YOU HAVE AT YOUR DISPOSAL AND TO THE EFFICIENT USE OF THIS ENERGY TO ELIMINATE WASTE (EXCESS WEIGHT) FROM YOUR BODY. The key to this system is that it works with your body to free up energy. With this new energy pool, your body goes to work automatically to shed any burden of excess weight. The more energy freed up, the more weight you lose. Because you will be eating to free up energy you will have more energy than you ever had before. Consistently optimizing your energy is a critical part of FIT FOR LIFE. It has been designed not only for weight loss but also for the personal energy crisis that many people are experiencing because they are continually interfering with the proper functioning of their bodies. Even if you don’t need to lose weight, we assure you that on this program you will definitely be aware of a significant energy boost.
Let go of the diet mentality! If for some reason you have to get off the program, don’t worry about it. Just get right back on as soon as you can. You can’t blow this system! It is a life-style, not a temporary pattern of behavior. You can always pick it right back up at any point, and you will immediately begin to see results. Obviously, the fastest way to lose weight is not to deviate! For best results, adhere closely to the recommended program.
In the Health Reporter Dr. Ralph Cinque of Hygeia Health Retreat, Yorktown, Texas, writes: “Americans have become accustomed to bulkiness, but this is by no means a universal plight. Virtually all the long-lived peoples of the world, from Asia to South America to New Zealand, tend to be lean. In America, life insurance statistics show that the greatest health, longevity and freedom from degenerative disease are found among those who are 15% under the conventional standards, since the norm for body weight is too high if judged by current health standards.”
A life-style that brings on obesity is often a life-style that brings on disease. The FIT FOR LIFE program has been designed to offer a new life-style for the American people. Many of the problems of excess weight and the ill health it causes result from ignorance of how the human body works, ignorance of the critical role that energy plays in weight loss, and some very wrong ideas about how to eat. Joy Gross, in her book Positive Power People, tells us that “Life is based on awesome immutable laws. Ignorance of those laws does not excuse anyone from the consequences of their nonapplication or the breaking of those laws.” This program is based on universal laws and physiological truths. Apply them to your life! Reward yourself abundantly with a youthful, slender body, beauty, vitality… and physical, emotional, and spiritual health!
About seventeen years ago a very close friend of mine said in a moment of anger, “Look, Blimpo, why don’t you just go over there and be fat!” Blimpo? Me? This statement affected me as if someone had taken a big steel pot, put it over my head, and smashed it with a metal spoon. There were a couple of reasons that his statement so destroyed me. For one, I was certain that I was doing a fantastic job of cleverly concealing my girth with some very stylish, loose-fitting clothing, if you know what I mean. But what frustrated me more was that I had been making a career out of dieting, and my friend’s comment made me realize how unsuccessful I had been. Every program that ever came down the pike, I would try. If it called for nothing but eggs and cheese for thirty days, I would do it. If it called for nothing but celery and hamburger patties for thirty days, I would eat them. And I would lose weight. I would lose the weight, and then as soon as the program was over, of course, I would revert to my old eating habits and go right back to my old weight. If you have ever done any dieting, you know exactly what I mean, because—let’s face it—what was I thinking about while I was dieting? FOOD! As soon as the ordeal was over I would run out of the house like a scalded cat to end my deprivation. I always found that no matter how much weight I had lost, it seemed that in less time than it took me to lose it, I had already put that weight back on, plus an additional five pounds.
I hadn’t been fat as a kid. But after I was released from the Air Force in my early twenties, I began to struggle with a weight problem that just wouldn’t quit. During a time of my life when I should have been active and vibrant, I was nearly fifty pounds overweight. When I finally reached that much-dreaded two-hundred-pound mark and then passed it, I was desperate. At that same time in my life my father died at a young age, of stomach cancer. It was a terrible drawn-out ordeal, and the memory of his final days will never leave me. In his youth he had been a boxer and a longshoreman, strong and burly, over two hundred pounds. When he died he weighed under one hundred pounds. Soon after his death I awoke one night in a fever of fear, realizing that as a small-boned, five-feet ten-inch, two-hundred-two-pound male, I had all the problems that had plagued him during his life. He also was over two hundred pounds, and also like me, he had never felt really well. My subsequent studies showed me that anytime you’re carrying around an extra fifty pounds, you are going to have other problems as well. My dad had frequent colds, headaches, and stomach problems. A lack of energy was his constant complaint. I had these problems too. I didn’t participate in sports or social activities. Removing my shirt at the beach was always a traumatic ordeal. When I made it through my workday, I had no energy left except to eat and feel sorry for myself. (I always seemed to muster the energy necessary to eat.) When my father died I felt not only sorry for myself, but also scared.
This fear was the impetus for my turning point. My fear of dying young coupled with my desire not to be referred to as “Blimpo” propelled me at last to a determined course of action. I was prepared to throw down my ever-present Big Mac and Coke and commit myself to the resurrection of my body. In the heat of my enthusiasm and with great resolve I plunged dramatically into a series of diets that promised to take the weight off for good. I did my first diet, then my second, then my third. After a considerable amount of frustration and disappointment I came to realize that…
CHAPTER 1
Diets Don’t Work
One of the most ineffective and curious of all human experiences is the process of dieting. When else do people deprive and discipline themselves for days, weeks, and even months to achieve a certain goal, only to see that goal sabotaged the minute it is achieved? And as if this experience isn’t frustrating enough, many dieters put themselves through this process regularly, enthusiastically losing a few pounds for a short time, only to gain them back. These dieters are draining themselves mentally, spiritually, physically, and emotionally, always searching, yet never quite finding the permanent result they seek. And this frequent, unsuccessful quest creates the undue stress and emotional havoc that dieters know too well.
What exactly is a diet, anyway? People indulge themselves and indulge themselves until they can’t look at themselves in the mirror or until their clothes no longer fit. Then they grudgingly force themselves to “diet” to make up for these past indulgences. It’s like running out and locking your garage after someone has driven off in your car. It’s too late; the damage is done. The “remedy” for these indulgences is usually deprivation, and almost every one of the “diet cures” on the market today requires the dieter to take off pounds at any cost. Diet schemes are an extremely expensive way to lose weight. Many times their real cost is a person’s well-being.
Why don’t diets work? The answer actually is quite simple. What do you think about when you’re on a diet? Just as I did, you are usually thinking about what you’re going to eat when the ordeal is finally over. How can you possibly succeed on your diet when all you are thinking about is food? Depriving yourself is not the answer to healthy, permanent weight loss. It usually causes you to binge later on, which complicates the problem. Deprivation and binging become a vicious cycle, and that’s just one of the many problems with dieting.
Another is that diets are temporary; therefore, the results have to be temporary! Do you want to be permanently slim or temporarily slim? Permanent measures bring about permanent results. Temporary measures bring about temporary results. Have you ever heard anyone say, “I’ve been on every diet that’s ever come on the market, and nothing seems to work”? Why have they been on every diet? They’ve been on every diet without success because dieting is the wrong approach! Diets fail because of the regimentation involved. Very few of us can be regimented successfully for long when it comes to food. Yet many people, not having an alternative, continue to do what they have always done—diet—because they’ve never been presented with any viable alternative. They continue their search for that one panacea that will end—once and for all—their battle of the bulge.
When we go on a diet, our systems are thrown into turmoil while they try to adapt to a new regimen. They then must readapt to old patterns when the regimen ends. It’s like taking a metal rod and bending it over and over again. Eventually it will become weak and break. If you jerk your body back and forth over and over again by dieting, it will become weak and break down.
But when I attack dieting, I attack an American institution. According to a Louis Harris poll, 62 percent of all Americans are considered to be overweight. Over forty-four million Americans are considered to be clinically obese; that is, twenty pounds or more overweight. More than half of the nation is dieting or has dieted.
But the fact of the matter is that dieting doesn’t work! It never has, and it never will. The sheer numbers should prove this to you. How many diets have there been over the last twenty years? Fifty? One hundred? If they really did work, why would there be a need for an unending chain of new ones? If diets worked, wouldn’t the rate of obesity in this country be decreasing each year instead of increasing? In 1982 fifteen billion dollars were spent on weight-loss schemes in the United States alone. Fifteen billion dollars! If you had fifteen billion dollars to spend, you could spend one million dollars every day for forty years and still have four hundred million dollars left over! If diets worked, that monumental amount of money would surely put an end to this problem, wouldn’t it? The fact is that that incredible amount is increasing by one billion dollars each year. In spite of the new diets that come and go, the problem is becoming worse.
It is obvious that people have had it with the diet mentality. Confusion and frustration are rampant because most of the diets contradict one another. When the so-called authorities are at odds with one another, what is the layperson to believe? One popular diet says to eat mostly protein and very few carbohydrates. Another equally popular diet says to eat mostly carbohydrates and very little protein. Can they both be right? Another plan says to eat whatever you feel like at the moment and then wash it out with pineapples and papayas. Yet another says to eat a small concoction of whatever you like, but be sure to exercise and be positive. One more says to eat anything you can dream of, just weigh it first. And another says you should adhere to its program for only two weeks at a time. Many diets merely rely on tedious calorie-counting. The most dangerous of all is the latest diet craze that substitutes drugs and “nutritional powders” for real food. The cost to one’s well-being from these has yet to be measured. Since we have relied on diets so heavily in the past, and we know they don’t work, what now is our alternative? YOU ARE READING IT!
What we have here is commonsense information that people can use to determine for themselves what is best for them. It is time to take control and responsibility back from those who are arguing about who has the right answer. What we have is a new approach, a new way of thinking, a new way of eating, so that diets become unnecessary and as obsolete as sealing wax. It is obvious that diets are not working, so let’s get rid of them and set ourselves free! Why not find out firsthand that the only permanent results you will see in weight loss will come when you STOP DIETING!
That’s what I did. I finally had had it. I finally gave up dieting. I resolved to find an answer that would make sense to me, that would be reasonable and permanent. After three years of driving myself crazy with diets, it became obvious that what I needed was to learn how to properly take care of my body. What I wanted to find was a course of study that would teach me how to acquire and maintain that slim and healthy body that I knew was inside of me.
One evening at a music festival two thousand miles from home, I overheard two rather healthy-looking individuals discussing the idiosyncracies of a friend in Santa Barbara, California, referring to his long dissertations on the beauty of good health. My ears perked up. “Excuse me,” I interrupted, “who is this fellow you are discussing?” In less than twenty-four hours I was on my way to Santa Barbara. Little did I know that I was on the brink of one of the most remarkable discoveries of my life. I was about to be introduced to a most extraordinary, age-old science known as…
Continues...
Excerpted from Fit for Life by Harvey Copyright © 2010 by Harvey. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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