Books : The Ultimate Weight Solution Cookbook : Excerpts

Introduction

The more tools I can put in your hands to help you manage your weight, the better the job you will do at creating a life defined by health and vitality. Now, with The Ultimate Weight Solution Cookbook, you have the latest in a set of tools designed to help you improve your way of eating, achieve a healthier weight, feel better, and experience far greater energy -- and make all these changes for life.

Millions of you have already taken steps in that direction by acquiring The Ultimate Weight Solution: The 7 Keys to Weight Loss Freedom, and its companion, The Ultimate Weight Solution Food Guide. Everything in those two books equips and empowers you to do the work of changing your lifestyle, becoming the healthy, fit person you were meant to be, and, ultimately, maximizing your life and everything you have to give.

Since The Ultimate Weight Solution was published, I have been both humbled and inspired by the sustainable, life-altering results people are achieving with regard to weight management and better health. On average, the results that come from learning and applying the seven keys have produced dramatic weight losses.

There is, however, much more to the story than that. As the numbers on these people's scales fell steadily from week to week, so did other critical numbers including LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels, blood pressure, and blood sugar. Once indicative of declining health and an early skid into the cemetery, these lowered levels began to reflect a new vibrancy of recharged health.

As people internalized the seven keys, making them a part of their deepest self, they began to live a new life with a rock-solid foundation that no shifting circumstance or disappointment will be able destroy. These are people who got real with themselves, for themselves. They did not do it with willpower or intentions, but with action, courage, and commitment.

If you are one of these success stories, I am thrilled for you and your achievement. If you are not -- if you are barely treading water with yet another diet -- then today, at this very moment, let the words on these pages become a wake-up call, because I do not want you to go through one more hour or one more day drowning in misery or headed for more of the same. This very day you can begin to make a difference in your life. All you have to do is open your hands, firmly grasp all the tools available to you, including this cookbook, and use them.

I confess that, with the exception of firing up my grill for barbecues (it is a requirement of Life 101 for Texans to master the art of outdoor grilling), I don't do a whole lot of cooking. And so, for The Ultimate Weight Solution Cookbook, I brought together an innovative and expert cast of culinary and nutrition experts to develop these recipes, many of which were inspired by our family's favorite foods. This remarkable team collaborated with me and Robin, my wife of twenty-eight years, and put together some of the healthiest and most delicious meals possible. Together, we tested every recipe to ensure that it tasted great and offered high-level nutrition that would help you manage your weight and put health and vitality back into your life.

If you have resolved to cook lighter, leaner, and smarter this year and in the years ahead, you have come to the right place. Designed to work with the food plans in The Ultimate Weight Solution and The Ultimate Weight Solution Food Guide, the recipes in this book use a wide variety of wholesome, nutrient-rich foods that will move your weight and your health in a better direction. With these recipes, you will produce meals that taste better and cost less, and you will avoid the overload of refined carbohydrates, saturated fats, salt, and sugars that are ruining your waistline and your health.

At the same time, these recipes are full of so much flavor that they are destined to become standards in your mealtime repertoire. This should be welcome news if you have ever become bored with healthy food choices and abandoned your weight-control efforts because of it. Every recipe is designed to help you succeed at keeping your weight in line without giving up the tastes you love.

You will not find any recipes here that enslave you to the kitchen for endless hours, because in today's rush of the world, there seems to be less and less time for cooking and food preparation. Our recipes take only a minimum of preparation time, so that you will be able to spend less, rather than more, time in your kitchen.

Nor will you find skimpy diet-type meals that taste like wallpaper paste. I wanted the recipes in this book to be not only nutritious but also hearty and filling, stick-to-your-ribs meals that you will want to prepare and enjoy again and again.

A self-defeating mistake made by many people who decide to lose weight is to prepare one meal (a diet meal) for themselves and an entirely different meal, one that is infinitely more fattening, for their families. How inconvenient, ridiculous, and depriving is that! Not to mention a disservice to their families. I'm betting that if you have done this, you are so tempted so much of the time, just by having to handle and prepare stuff that probably shouldn't be in your kitchen anyway, that you cave in to the temptation, put on your what's-the-use face, and overindulge with everyone else. And so, you're back to square one, as another attempt to lose weight bites the dust.

That kind of self-defeating behavior stops here, and it stops now. Our recipes have been created for your entire family to enjoy, whether or not they need to shed pounds. No longer will you be required to fix one meal for yourself and another for the rest of your family. No, these are meals for everyone. When you make them a part of your everyday cooking, you will be taking care of yourself while at the same time taking care of your kids, your spouse, and everyone else you love.

As I have often said, you do not need to lose weight or become healthier -- you deserve to do it. Using The Ultimate Weight Solution books as your guides, you now have one of the best opportunities you'll ever have to lose weight. That's a great deal -- having the opportunity to enhance your life. But let me repeat myself for emphasis: I'm not just saying that you need to do it; I'm saying you deserve to do it. You deserve something better for your life, and now is the moment to go after it. Let these books move you forward on your journey to weight loss freedom.

It is my hope, and Robin's hope, that this cookbook will become a welcome resource in your household for nutritious, healthy, and delicious meals that you and your family can enjoy both today and in the future. As you turn the pages, we invite you to share with us some of our very own favorite foods and our favorite ways of preparing them. So from our kitchen -- and our home -- to yours...enjoy!

DR. PHIL AND ROBIN MCGRAW