Rocco DiSpirito - Now Eat This! Diet

It nearly brings me to tears when I think about how we are given a life full of possibilities and with the choices we make we slowly and methodically strip them away. Most of us wake up every day and make a series of decisions and often dont even know what informs them. And for at least 67% of us, those choices can be devastating to our health, to the health of our families, and to our health care system.

The information Im sharing on these pages will help you make better health and nutritional choices. It is information that has helped me achieve my best weight and get to the finish line of many grueling triathlons, lowered my cholesterol and my blood pressure, and generally made me a healthier, happier, and more productive person.

This book is dedicated to all of those who are committed to maximizing their lives and to passing on their passion for great health to others. I know youre in that group, or you wouldnt be holding this book in your hands. I know its not easy to make changes, but even the smallest change is heroic, and I applaud your courage and determination. A healthy, balanced life, full of energy and possibilities, is yours for the taking.

With tremendous gratitude to all those whose contribution to this work merits more than a casual inclusion in a long list of names. You always take my calls, generously share your ideas, listen to mine, and work exceptionally hard to help make everything I do better than I imagined. You know who you are, and I really couldnt do it without you.

D octors enter and exit the lives of our patients, changing them, we hope for the better. Often the favor is returned and a patient or family comes along to change us for the better by what they teach us. I met Rocco the way most doctors meet people: Someone was sick and needed my help. It was November 2005, right after Thanksgiving. His charming mother, Nicolina, had suffered a massive heart attack on her way to a doctors appointment. She practically died in Roccos arms. She was rushed into surgery, and thankfully, her life was saved.

As is sometimes the case, Nicolina would ultimately need a pacemaker, a heart-valve replacement, and a stent to keep one of her arteries propped open. A friend of Roccos suggested that he get in touch with me to perform these procedures. Of course I agreed. I sat down with Rocco and his mom and talked as best I could in plain, everyday language about what the surgery and recovery would entail.

Heart surgery, like all surgeries, is serious business. When you treat and care for people undergoing surgery, you get to know them and their families at an intensely personal level. You prepare them emotionally and physically for the operation and encourage them through the rougher parts of recovery. You become very close with the families as you study what is best for them. Through the experience, I discovered that Rocco and I had many shared interestshealth, cooking, living a balanced life. Rocco had the same mission I had: to fundamentally change how we treat ourselvesmind, body, and soul. We became fast friends.

And then I discovered his amazing talent for cooking healthy food and asked Rocco to get involved with HealthCorps, a charity I founded. Its mission is to empower teens in underserved populations to make simple lifestyle changes to enhance their health and well-being and take the message to friends, families, and neighbors. Rocco prepared and donated dinners for HealthCorps events and gave talks on healthy cooking at several of my symposiums. I invited Rocco to be on my television show as a regular guest, and hes a hit whenever he appears to create some of his fabulous, healthy dishes.

If you dont know already, Rocco can take the most fattening, heart-unhealthy recipes and turn them into miraculous nutrient-packed, delectable, mouthwatering meals. He cuts the calories, the trans fats, the saturated fats, the simple carbs, the sugarall the bad stuffwithout cutting the flavor.

This kind of cooking is just what America needs right now, and Rocco delivers.

You can use this book every day of your life to take care of the most precious thing that you ever inherited: your body. When you take care of your body, your body will take care of you.

For losing weight, not much of what most of us have tried will work. Whether no-carb, low-carb, low-fat, no-fat, cabbage soup, or whatever else your diet ploy is, please know it will not work over the long term.

Repeat after me: willnotwork for the years of healthy living you crave.

Let that sink in. Take a moment. Mourn all that money youve spent on various diet books and shakes and memberships.

Roccos book Now Eat This! Diet offers a strategy that will work because you get to eat healthy, delicious, natural foodsyour favorite foods, in factin satisfying proportions that allow steady, progressive weight loss.

So forget the usual boring list of diet foods. Get ready to serve up fettuccine, cookies, crme brle, wafflesall the stuff you thought was bad for you.

Start eating the meals in this book, and youll feel so much better, physically, mentally, emotionallyand for a lifetime. We doctors can medicate you to cover up the poor food choices you make, but thats just like painting over cracks in a foundation. We can put mechanical devices in, but those are poor imitations of what you were born with. Only you can change what you put in your mouth, and you are best able to achieve this goal if you crave the foods that are good for you. Let this book be your nudge to starting better nutritional habits.

By this time next week, I expect this beautiful book of yours to be covered with muffin crumbs, barbecue sauce drippings, spaghetti sauce, and other remnants of the great dishes youve prepared.

Oh, and by the way, do I use this book, as well as Roccos other cookbooks? You bet I do. My whole family does. Our favorites: Pita Chips with Charred Eggplant Dip and Crunchy Tomato Bread, to name just a couple. Embrace this book, start cooking, reboot your taste buds, lose weight, and feel alive once more. Now, if youll excuse me, I have some No-Boil Mushroom Lasagna in the oven

I m really sick and tired of hearing that losing weight means eating less, giving up sweets, and exercising your ass off. How much denial can we endure? All of this diet food and low-fat cooking is choking the life out of our psyches, our taste buds, and our bodies. How did we even get to this point?