Lessig - Tank Top Arms, Bikini Belly, Boy Shorts Bottom: Tighten and Tone Your Body in as Little as 10 Minutes a Day

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To my family: You have given more of yourselves than imaginable, and I thank you for your tremendous amount of love, support, and encouragement. Thank you to:

Joseph Amuial, my husband, for all that you are and all that you doyou are the best man I know. And to our daughters: Ema and Mia, you are my inspiration and the brightest souls.

My loving parents, David and Sira Lessig. Mom, thanks for talking the talk and walking the walk of health and fitness and keeping me on that path with youyou continue to be an inspiration. Dad, through word and example, youve helped me achieve by teaching me the value of hard work and dedication.

Jacob and Terri Amuial, my loving father- and mother-in-law, for your always-present abundant love and support.

My most wonderful grandparents, William R. Lessig Jr. and June Lessig, and Anne Gilbert. Alisa, Brad, Jake, and Josie, I love you. And my faraway family: Mummo, Katja, Tiina, and Nico: for always sending your love and positive thoughts. Katja: an extra special thank-you for the beloved friend you are to me.

A very special thank-you to two treasured friends, Bianca Diaz, a.k.a. Angel, and Jacqueline Dutra: You are always in my heart, now and through lifetimes.

To all my wonderful clients and friends who have placed their belief and trust in me, thank you for allowing me to help you reach your highest goals: Elizabeth Pritchard, Andi Greenwald, Sarah, Barbara F., Jim, Matt, Janice, Dan, and the many students who have crossed my path.

Thank you to my trainers and staff at Great Neck Personal Trainer: I am proud of my team; you guys are the best trainers in Virginia Beach!

Many, many, many thanks to Andrea Ambandos, the all-time best producer and coolest person I am honored to have worked with and know.

Annmarie Gatti, thank you for your genuine support and all your help.

Thank you to my lawyer, Scott Seymour, of Kaufman & Canoles: An artist has true freedom of creativity when she has people like you on her side.

A very heartfelt thank-you to all the people at Rodale who have worked hard to make this happen, are exceptional at what they do, and have made it such an enjoyable project to take on. Amy Super: Its been a dream to do this. A special thank-you to you in the first place for getting it all started. Julia VanTine-Reichardt: You are amazing at what you do, and I thank you for all your guidance and for making it fun! Susan Eugster: Thanks for extending your help and care to my family as well. Mitch Mandel and Troy Schneider: Thanks for a great shootthe most relaxed and enjoyable one, and thanks for all the great music to keep the energy going! Adrianne Beardem: A million crunches couldnt work my abs half as much as your jokesthanks for all the laughs (and for your phenomenal work)! Marc Sirinsky: Thanks for the many ways you helped! Lois Hazel: Thank you for your hard work and dedication to keeping the ball rolling.

Last, a most special thank-you to an amazing woman who continues to live within memy grandmother, Miriam Reiniger Lessig. You are my Angel.

STAYING LEAN FOR LIFE:

Nutrition Principles and Practice

Heres the good news: Im not putting you on a diet. I wont ask you to count carbohydrate or fat grams, drastically curtail your calories to lose body fat, or log every bit of food that passes between your lips (unless you want to).

Thats rightyouve entered a diet-free zone. Just in time, too. As you probably already know, diets dont work.

How many times have you tried a popular fad diet, lost a few pounds, then gained them all backand morewhen you started eating normally again? Or starved yourself all day only to clean out the fridge or cookie jar at 11 p.m.? These scenarios are just two of the reasons diets dont work. Here are some others.

When you drastically curtail calories, your body thinks its starving. It hoards fat and burns calorie-burning muscle first. Ironically, at the end of a diet, you have even more body fat than before you started, because diets rob you of muscle.

Dieting robs your brain of fuel, leaving you irritable or in a fog.

Dieting robs your body of fuel, leaving you fatigued.

Numerous studies link chronic dieting with feelings of depression, low self-esteem, and increased stress.

Dieting increases compulsive eating.

You see, diets are temporary. Healthy eating habits are forever. My experience as a personal trainer and fitness competitor has helped me identify certain eating guidelines that will result in peak well-beinga fit mind in a fit body.

Below, youll find four eating principles, one for each week of my program. These principles serve as guideposts as you gradually develop new, healthier eating habits. After each weeks principle, youll find a practicea practical way to add new eating habits to your everyday life. As you begin the program, focus on Week 1s principle and practiceno skipping ahead! When you begin Week 2, continue to follow Week 1s guidelines while implementing Week 2s. As you start Week 3, follow the first 2 weeks guidelines and add in Week 3s. You get the idea. By the end of Week 4, youll have virtually all the nutrition information you need for gettingand stayinglean and fit for the rest of your life.

Be prepared for a period of adjustment, however. If your taste buds are used to fast-food fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy, it will take time for them to accept baked chicken and broccoli without the cheese sauce. But push past this transition period. After a few weeks, if you allow yourself a less-than-healthy indulgence, chances are that it wont taste quite as good as youd imagined. This certainly has been my experience. When I was a kid, I loved fast food. In my teens, as I became more conscious of my health and appearance, I cut out the burgers and fries. After a few weeks, I didnt miss them. Recently, I tasted one of my girls chicken nuggets. Yuck! That was my last (and my girls last!) processed chicken nuggetforever, I hope.

Traditional diets have taught us that to lose weight, we must count calories, keep track of everything we eat, and deprive ourselves by limiting the amountand kindsof foods we eat. But losing weight and keeping it off requires a lifestyle change, not a diet quick fix. Ive met so many women who tell me that theyve just started this or that new diet. A few have tried virtually every fad diet popularized in the past 15 or 20 years. If this sounds like you, I urge you to start thinking differently. Its my feeling that dieting is a dead-end roadit leads to nothing but frustration. It is far more productive to change your diet gradually, so that you can sustain healthy eating for life.

When you get off the diet roller coaster, you will feel better, become healthier, and lose the weight for good. When the body is well fed with healthy foods, it will shed the extra fat. It doesnt have to store it anymore. And when you give your body the nutrients it needs, you stop craving less-healthy foods.

That said, while I live by these principles, I dont follow them to the extreme. Even when I trained for fitness competitions, I allowed myself an occasional splurge, like a bowl of pasta with Alfredo sauce or a brownie sundae. What is life without the occasional piece of chocolateor for me, the small bag of sour cream and onionflavored potato chips? Yes, food is fuel, but its also one of the great pleasures of life. As I write this, Im eating a sliver of homemade peach piea sliver is all you need to satisfy the taste for something decadentand I dont feel guilty at all. I worked out hard this morning and ate a healthy breakfast and lunch, so Im thoroughly enjoying every bite. My hope for you is that, like me, you will find a healthy balance between indulgence and nourishment.

WHAT I EAT (AND HOW I CHEAT)

When I became a mom, my eating habits changed drastically. I try my best to eat healthy, but my diet is not perfect. I