Heidi McIndoo - Walk Off Weight Quick & Easy Cookbook: 150 Delicious Recipes to Fill You Up and Slim You Down

I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE. Even I am surprised by the power of Walk Off Weight (WOW).

Let me explain. As the fitness director of Prevention magazine, with nearly 2 decades of experience as a certified fitness instructor, Ive tried just about every training routine out there. I know with certainty that walking ranks right up near the top of health enhancing exercises.

Moderate daily walking can lower womens risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes by up to 40 percent and the risk of breast cancer by up to 30 percent. It also boosts energy, your immune system, and your odds for living longer and better. It keeps your brain humming and your disposition positive.

So naturally when I implemented the trials for the WOW program with the initial test group of 24 women, I anticipated a positive outcome. The results exceeded my expectations. All the participants lost weight, but the ones who followed both the exercise and diet portions, as opposed to exercise only, shed more than double the number of pounds, on average, and 65 percent more inches than the exercise only group.

For a summary of the WOW exercise program, turn to . For now, I want to focus on the WOW eating plan. When I envisioned the food component of the original WOW plan, I knew I wanted the expertise of someone who understands the real-life challenges that dieters face. Heidi McIndoo, MS, RD, fit the bill perfectly. Not only is she a respected dietitian, shes a wife, mother, and walker.

Over and over again, our WOW participants told us that Heidis meal plans, guidelines, and tips gave them the strategies they needed to understand calories and conquer cravings. And the recipes! Family friendly, delicious, quick, and yummy are typical of the comments. Our original WOW walkers continue to walk for additional weight loss and better health. Theyve asked for even more wonderful recipes to keep them well fed on the journey. In this book, were sharing more than 150 recipes that meet the WOW standards.

For those just catching on to WOW, the first three chapters are your guide to what the program is all about. Well acquaint you with nutrients that go the distance: fiber, calcium and vitamin D, good fats, and protein, accompanied by plenty of pure water and antioxidant-rich green tea.

Youll find information on how you can personalize the eating plan for your specific caloric needs and food preferences. Like the good support and increased endurance you get from a well-fitting pair of walking shoes, this eating program gives you a nourishing foundation with lots of options. Youll also find savvy tips for dining out and choosing carry-out, an explanation of how excess weight affects your health, and a primer on sodium.

If youre already walking and working out the WOW way, feel free to turn right to the recipe pages (we know thats where you want to go anyway). Its all here for you: breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, and desserts. Each recipe includes a nutritional analysis so you can see how the dish works with your healthy eating program. Each recipe also includes the total time required for preparing and cooking so you can see how it fits into your lifestyle and schedule.

Youll find daily menus for 28 days, combining WOW recipes with easy-to-prep foods for complete meals that are quick and simple to make and give you all the nutrients you need. Ingredient lists are short and made up of products found in any supermarket, so shopping is a breeze. Canned beans, bagged spinach, loose-pack frozen produce, and other healthful packaged foods save time and energy in many meals. If you dont like a particular meal, feel free to mix and matchweve also given you additional breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks you can substitute in Build Your Own WOW Menus.

Eating smarter the WOW way means savoring delicious meals and snacks that will keep you satisfied and energized while you slim down and shape up from your walks and workouts. The result? A stronger, leaner, firmer body that will wow you.

Michele Stanten, Fitness Director,
Prevention

Chapter 1
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE WOW DIET

Chapter 2
THE FOODS OF THE WOW DIET

Chapter 3
PUTTING TOGETHER YOUR WOW DIET

IF YOU'RE FOLLOWING THE WOW exercise and eating program and reading this cookbook to get healthier, tastier weight-loss recipes, you probably know one important tenet of the program: Walk smarternot longer. The concept of interval traininginterspersing short, vigorous workouts with slower endurance trainingenables you to shed unwanted fat while energizing and toning your body.

This same enlightened concept applies to the WOW Diet. Success comes not only from eating less but also from eating smarter. By now, most of us understand that the body loses weight when it takes in fewer calories than it burns (see ). But calories are only part of the story when youre walking off weight. The quality, not just the quantity, of the calories is vital. Because youll be moving your body more and working it in different ways than youve been used to, its important to eat foods that give you the right nutrients to fuel your workouts. This chapter explains why.

WHEN WE FEED OUR BODIES consistently with refined or simple carbohydrates such as white bread and pasta, white rice, doughnuts, sodas, and sugary drinks, we feel energized for a short time but quickly crash. Thats because those simple carbohydrates have been processed to remove the fiber found in plant foods such as whole grains and produce. With no fiber, these foods metabolize very fast. They dont provide the body with the staying power needed to benefit from the WOW program.

The fitness benefits of walking begin with the first step. The step you take to get up from the couch. The step you take to lace up your walking shoes and head out the door. The step you take to accelerate the pace.

The fitness benefits of healthy eating also begin with the first step. Breaking a lifetime of negative habits must be a series of gradual steps if its to have lasting impact. Its no secret that our society thrives on instant gratification. We want everything now, now, now! Combine that with the ease with which we can obtain calorie-dense, sugar-filled, and sodium-laden foods and weve got a recipe for weight gain.

Per person, Americans eat far more calories than we did a half century ago. Not surprisingly, our waistlines have kept pace with our intake. We currently eat almost eight times as many pounds of processed sugar per year as we did in the 1950s. And it doesnt come from the granulated stuff in the sugar bowl. Its hidden in a myriad of food products. Processed sweeteners such as corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup are found not only in items you would expect, such as cookies, soda, and fruit drinks, but are also ingredients in breads, pizza, hot dogs, flavored rices, noodle side-dish mixes, and much, much more.

We also eat at least 60 percent more added fats and oils than we did 50 years ago. Is it any wonder the percentage of obese Americans has skyrocketed from 13 percent in the early 1960s to 35 percent in 2006?