The material in this book is for informational purposes only and not intended as a substitute for the advice and care of your physician. As with all new weight loss or weight maintenance regimes, the nutrition and fitness program described in this book should be followed only after first consulting with your physician to make sure it is appropriate for your individual circumstances. Keep in mind that nutritional needs vary from person to person, depending on age, sex, health status, and total diet. The author and the publisher expressly disclaim responsibility for any adverse effects that may result from the use or application of the information contained in this book.
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Published in the United States by Harmony Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
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I dedicate this to my mother, Dr. Jeanne Wilson; my aunt, Pamela Chavez-Hutson; and my grandmother, Virginia Hutson, for their cooking made everything better.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Get Ready to Heal Your Metabolism with 28 Days of Delicious Food
If youve read The Fast Metabolism Diet, congratulations! Youve just taken a huge step in repairing not only your metabolism, but your entire relationship with foodbecause the recipes in this book arent just about repairing and or revving up a sluggish, slow, and burned-out metabolism (though they will). They are also about learning to love food againrelearning how to love its taste, its smells, its textures, and all the ways it nourishes your body and spirit.
I want you to let go of the death grip of fear food once had over you. I want you to learn to see food as your friend, your ally, your companion on your journey to a healthier, thinner you. I want you to relearn how to show love through the food you put on your familys table, and enjoy the love that your family puts into the food they cook for you.
You know the Fast Metabolism Diet is about eating, and its about eating a lot. You know its a diet that requires you to eat five times a day, sometimes more; that its a diet about feeding your metabolism, using food to fuel your weight loss. But in order to do that you have to have real food, and real food needs to be cooked. And if youre as busy as most of my clients, that food needs to be easy, it needs to taste amazing, and it needs to be good for you. So this cookbook is all about learning how to cook food that tastes great, food that makes you feel great, and food that makes you look great: food that you can be proud to put on the dinner table for yourself, your guests, and your family. Cooking is about becoming an active participant in being well; its what lets you take control of your health and repairing a metabolism that got broken somewhere along the way.
My family is fortunate enough to have a personal chef to cook all this delicious foodand that personal chef is me! Together were going to turn you into your own personal chefand the personal chef for your own family, friends, and loved onesby teaching you how to create meals that strengthen your body, enhance your health, and light your metabolism on fire.
We are going to find the new you, and were going to do it now. Its going to take a little work, but its nothing you cant do. Im not going to ask you to starve yourself ever again. Thats likely what got you into this mess in the first place. So lets draw a line in the sand. If food has been your enemy in the past, thats all over. Now were stepping into your future, where food is your medicine. Its the only thing we have to build our bodies, to create a healthy heart, strong bones and muscles, and good skin, hair, and nails. Its what we use to fuel the manufacture of hormones that regulate everything in our bodies. Its not just energy. Its life. Its time to stop being afraid to eat, and instead learn how to do it the right way. Whether you are ten or twenty or fifty pounds overweight, you need this medicine. You need to learn how to use food to unwind stress, unlock fat, and unleash your metabolism.
I am out to revolutionize the way people feel about food, cooking, and the way they use food in their lives. That is why Ive designed more than 250 nutritious, delicious, and easy-to-prepare meals that you can eat on all three phases of the Fast Metabolism Diet. Its why throughout the book youll find lots of tipssome that Ive come up with, and others that my clients shared with meto help keep you on track as you rekindle your relationship with cooking, food, and weight loss.
But there are a few things you wont find in this cookbook. You wont find any fake or packaged ingredients. You wont find any artificial sweeteners or artificially sweetened foods. You also wont find any calorie or carb or fat gram counts. If youve read The Fast Metabolism Diet, then you know that calories in, calories out is a myth, and that I do not want you to ever count calories or carbs or fat grams. Instead, I want to see you cooking, preparing, and enjoying real food: the food that is the cornerstone of a healthy, fast metabolism. My primary goal is to promote health and make weight loss happen. Its what I do. Its who I am. And its why were going to get into the kitchen, together.
This is a diet full of pleasure, not denial. I am going to send you in a new direction, to help you enjoy food again, rather than fear it or deny it or portion it out on little tiny plates. With the Fast Metabolism Diet, unpleasant diet side effects simply arent necessary. No starving allowed! You will shake up your metabolism in just the right way to increase your lean-muscle-to-fat ratio while enjoying improved health, more energy, and all the great food youre going to learn how to make in this book.
Cooking is a sacred and calming activity for me. At times, if you walk into my kitchen youll find me with two slow cookers and a stock pot all going at once, because thats maybe the only night I have to cook for the entire week. After everything cools, youll see Tupperware and freezer bags laid out all over the counter; after everything cools I portion it all out for family meals, one-serving meals, breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and then I label everything and stick it in the freezer. It can be a crazy assembly line for one afternoon, but it makes the rest of the week totally seamless. Sometimes I even invite friends over for a bring-your-own-Tupperware cooking party.