Michelle Lewin - The Hot Body Diet: The Plan to Radically Transform Your Body in 28 Days

L ife will never cease to amaze us. God puts in our path people and situations that come to improve our life for good, even if we dont necessarily realize it in the moment. There are things that happen when we least expect them, that shake us up and change our way of thinking and radically transform our lives. Both Michelle Lewin and I are a testament to this, in two very different ways.

I am a doctor, a specialist in public health and obesity medicine. In the United States I studied to become a health coach, speaker, writer, and lecturer. In my career Ive had the opportunity to see hundreds of patients suffering from obesity as well as a number of diseases associated with being overweight. As a doctor I understand that obesity is a weapon of mass destruction, an epidemic that we must tackle. Thats why over the past six years I have been on a path toward education and prevention through my @soysaludable social networking account.

Through this multimedia platform, Ive managed to motivate and change the lives of thousands of people, inspiring them to eat well, achieve a healthy weight, exercise regularly, and overcome their mental barriers. While I was teaching others how to eat healthily and adopt healthy lifestyle habits, I continued to treat patients through in-person and online consultations. The result was almost always the same: my patients achieved impressive changes both in their weight and in their lifestyle.

Yet even though its hard to believe, in spite of having helped so many people through my advice on health and nutrition, I myself wasnt able to make my own radical change in order to shed my extra pounds and gain control over the anxiety that stymied my efforts. It was a living nightmare: the doctor who helped others lose weight was unable to achieve her own weight goals and gain control over her metabolism and hormones. Something was terribly wrong and I myself couldnt even believe it.

I come from the world of obesity, which started to take over my life, little by little, after I had my first child. At a certain point I weighed over 220 pounds, which had terrible consequences for my self-esteem and physical health. It was just around that time that I decided to specialize in obesity medicine in the hopes of saving myself from this terrible condition. With great effort, and over the course of several years, I managed to lose about forty pounds, but then I fell into a zone of resistance, where I was able to lose a few pounds only to gain them back again. Over time, my weight-loss journey stalled completely, and just like many of the women reading this book, I was eager to solve my problem forever.

Two years ago I left Venezuela and moved to Miami, where I met Michelle and gave her my first book of healthy recipes. I discovered Michelle through social media and I was struck by her transformation. Yes, I say transformation, because Michelle wasnt born with that body we all admire so much. Not at all. Her body is the product of much effort, discipline, and sacrifice. From the moment I met her, I was delighted with her humbleness and good energy, and I can say that we became friends on day one. Then I met her husband, Jimmy, a fitness fanatic with an impressive sense of humor and a creative mind that never stops. Jimmy and Michelle are a delightful couple and together they have dedicated their lives to promoting fitness and a healthy lifestyle throughout the world.

On a couple of occasions over the course of the past two years, Michelle and Jimmy motivated me to lose the weight I needed to lose in order to reach my goal. They gave me advice and even invited me to train with them, but I was still too focused on anythingwork, anxiety, money, relationships, wanting to feel more secureother than my transformation. I had forty pounds to lose and was overwhelmed with anxiety over the situations I had had to face after leaving Venezuela to start a new life in the United States. My mind was a factory of silly fears and excuses.

One day, Jimmy and Michelle said to me, Lets make it a public challenge. Well help you lose weight: youll train with Michelle and follow a diet plan. The idea terrified me, but I decided to run with it. In the first forty-five days, I managed to lose almost fourteen pounds. I was elated and clung to the motivation they so generously gave me. Then Michelle and Jimmy went away for a long time, and I was left alone, without the sufficient willpower to stay on track. My weight loss stalled and the following month, when Christmas came around, I even managed to gain a few pounds. Over the following months, I felt depressed because I hate to fail. And on top of that, I also felt like I was letting my two mentors down. I felt awful.