Table of Contents
To my wife, Krista, and my daughters, Felicity and Faith
Writing a book can be overwhelming for ones family. Id like to thank mine for their patience and understanding throughout this process. Putting off family time and having to miss some play times has been the most difficult part of this process, but now its done, and the play times are even more appreciated.
Acknowledgments
Id like to thank my publisher, John Duff, and the Penguin Group for this opportunity to help others get off the diet merry-go-round. In addition, I want to acknowledge my book agent, Alex Fields, and my manager and friend, Steve Allen, for connecting the dots and helping make this book a reality.
Also, a big thank-you to Provida Life Sciences (Alchemy Worldwide), with which I codeveloped the Food Lovers Fat Loss Systemmaking it possible for people to experience my Metabolism Makeover and sustainable fat loss principles. My relationship with Provida Life Sciences made it possible for me to quickly enter the homes of millions of people who have now embraced my philosophy and the science of eating real food while losing real pounds. As well, Id like to thank Jusuru International for their support of this book and for giving me an opportunity to work with them on this revolutionary fat loss and metabolism-friendly program.
A big shout-out to my assistant and right hand, Briana Mackey, who spent hours helping me turn out delicious and nutritious recipes for this book. Also major thanks to Randa Dinkler for proofreading and helping to bring clarity to my message, and to my executive assistant and our director of nutrition at the Diet-Free Life Clinic, Brandy Beesley, for her assistance in helping me help others.
My appreciation to Judy Kern, who helped me write this book and make it a good read as well as an invaluable and easy-to-follow guide to health and fitness.
And finally, thanks to my mother, Brenda A. Watson, who has offered me constant and much appreciated feedback throughout this process.
Foreword
I first heard about Robert Ferguson in early 2005, when he was featured in a health and wellness publication in our local community. As a physician, I am always in search of resources that can empower my patients to win the long-term battle with excess weight, and I was intrigued with both his philosophy and his approach to weight loss. He was obviously knowledgeable about nutrition and fitness, but even more important, he advocated a strategy that would allow people to live leaner and healthier for the long haul.
After meeting Robert and seeing his work firsthand for several years, I can truly say that he is a gifted coach and motivator who is committed to helping people around the globe live Diet-Free for Life. If you follow the advice Robert has provided in this book, I guarantee that your outlook and approach to weight loss and weight maintenance will be changed forever. You will achieve lasting weight and fat loss success! You will no longer be searching for the next greatest weight loss pill or diet. Instead, you will be transformed and empowered to control your own destiny in regard to your weight.
Diet-Free for Life is not a gimmick. This is the real deal, leading to lasting weight loss success.
David P. Pryor, MD, MPH
The Promise of Living Diet-Free
If youve been gaining and losing weight over and over for most of your life, I can appreciate what thats like. Im no stranger to the joy of losing weight and the pain of yo-yo dieting.
Over the years, Ive watched as my mother gained and lost an estimated 1,600 pounds. I was there when she celebrated losing 100 pounds on a low-calorie liquid diet and when she gained back all those unwanted pounds plus a few more. I cheered when she lost more than 100 pounds on a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet, and I felt her pain and embarrassment when those pounds came back. Seeing so much effort come to nothing again and again was bitterly disappointing for her and heartbreaking for me to watch.
I realize that my mother is not the only one wrestling with these issues. Too many men and women are fighting weight gain and losing the battle no matter what diet they are following. At any given time, statistics show that two-thirds of Americans are on a diet, and less than 5 percent of the people who actually lose weight are able to keep it off once they stop dieting. And, yes, I have fought the fat loss battle myself.
When I was in the Marine Corps, living away from home for the first time, McDonalds became my home away from home. At the risk of sounding outrageous, I want to be candid with you and share exactly what I ate every day. For both lunch and dinner I would order and consume one Big Mac, one cheese-burger, one large and one small order of fries, a hot apple pie, a caramel sundae with nuts, a large strawberry shake, and a large diet soda. Sometimes Id also add a small box of cookies to my order. Needless to say, it didnt take long for my overindulgence to start showing up on my body. Lucky for me, my Marine Corps camouflage made it easy to hide my heft.
One day, while I was relaxing in front of the television, digesting my latest McDonalds meal, a friend took my picture. When I saw the print a few weeks later, I was shocked. How could I have gotten so fat in so little time?
I was scheduled to go home on leave a couple of months after that, but I immediately phoned my mother and told her that Id had to change my plans. There was no way I was going to go home looking the way I did. Without realizing it, I had stumbled into the same trap my mother and so many others were trying to break out offighting unwanted fat.
I was determined to win this fight, so I began doing what I felt would work. I quit McDonalds cold turkey and started eating foods I thought were healthier, even if I didnt particularly like them. But my immediate instinct was that I needed to start moving. Run, Robert, run became my mantra. I ran often: first thing in the morning, at lunchtime, and before going to bed. My strategy worked, and in a relatively short time I was back to a lean 170 pounds.
That was all well and good, but I still had a problem: Was I going to have to run three times a day and eat food I didnt really like for the rest of my life just to avoid being fat? If so, I didnt think this was a lifestyle I was going to enjoy or could even sustain.
With time Ive come to realize that it wasnt actually what I was eating at McDonalds that was to blame for my weight gain; it was actually how much food I was consuming at every meal. My way of eating was definitely excessive, but dieting was not something I wanted to do. To me, dieting meant restriction and denying myself the foods I really liked. And thats what it means to most people. Since those early days, however, Ive learned that it is not only possible but actually easy to reduce your waistline without having to adhere to a strict diet. You can lose weight eating the foods you normally eat and loveat home, in fine-dining restaurants, and even at McDonalds.
If you are one of the lucky ones who has never been forced to diet (or has done so only infrequently), I am happy that youve come to this book before you fall prey to a lifetime of going from one weight loss diet to the next. And if you have already been on the diet roller coaster, I hope that what I have to offer will bring that nerve-racking ride to an end.
