Believe it or not, weight-loss success is only three steps away! It might not be a quickand-
easy fix, but I promise you that it is possible and that you can do it with the guidance presented
in this manual.
easy fix, but I promise you that it is possible and that you can do it with the guidance presented
in this manual.
To be successful with the Diet Solution Program, you will have to do some work. This work
entails many small tasks that essentially can be grouped in three main steps: Determine your metabolism
type, create your personal meal plan, and learn which healthy foods you should choose.
After you have completed these three steps, you will have all the tools you need to achieve the
long-term results you desire: weight loss and optimum health for life.
Step 1: Determine Your Metabolism Type
Just as you are unique in all other respects, your body’s biochemistry requires certain
kinds and proportions of healthy proteins, carbohydrates, and fats to perform optimally. This
unique makeup is called your metabolism type. Learning your metabolism type will help you to
lose weight in a safe and healthy manner, once and for all, and achieve optimum wellness. It also
will produce long-term results without the starvation and cravings that usually accompany most
other diet plans. What’s more, it’s easy to do with the questionnaire that you will complete with
Although volumes have been written to explain this step, for starters you should know the
basics:
• In general, everyone is a Carb Type, a Protein Type, or a Mixed Type. Each type
requires ideal amounts and varieties of healthy proteins, carbohydrates, and fats (which
you’ll identify in the Chapter on Meal Planning).
• Requirements for the appropriate ratios and types of healthy proteins, carbohydrates,
and fats exist along a fixed spectrum. The requirements for people whose
biochemistries require high amounts of protein for optimal health (Protein Types) are
located at one end, and those for people whose biochemistries demand high amounts of
healthy carbohydrates (Carb Types) are at the other end. Mixed Types are a combination
of these two types.
• Medical doctors and nutrition pioneers have used metabolism typing for decades.
It has helped people not only experience dramatic weight loss but also overcome
severe chronic disease, obesity, and other serious disorders.Learning your metabolism
type will help you answer many common dietary mysteries that you have always wondered
about:
• Why can some people be successful—at least in losing weight over the short
term—on popular low-carbohydrate, low-fat, or other diets while many others fail
miserably on the same diets? Because success with any diet depends on the dieter’s
metabolism type; in other words, the same-diet-for-everyone approach simply is not
effective.
• How can one kind of food be so good for one person, giving energy and apparent
health, but affect someone else in a completely different way, making them tired
and cranky? Because certain foods are ideal for each metabolism type. Just because a
food is considered healthy in general does not mean that it’s healthy for everyone.
Learning your metabolism type is essential to creating the meal plans that will work best
for you. The ideal foods (and the ratios in which you should eat them) for your metabolism type
will create the foundation for your personal meal plan. Internationally renowned natural health
expert and advocate Joseph Mercola, D.O., uses metabolism typing with all of his patients for
weight loss and to alleviate disease symptoms (Mercola 2005).
Step 2: Create Your Personal Meal Plan
Knowing your metabolism type, you will be able to tap into the wealth of resources
needed to create a personal meal plan that will allow you to achieve long-term weight loss and
optimum health. In the Chapter on Calories, you will estimate healthy daily calorie requirements
for achieving and maintaining your ideal weight. Using your Success Journal will record
your daily food intake and track how you feel afterward. Finally, the Chapter on Daily Meal
Planning will guide you in choosing the ideal foods for your metabolism type, in the ideal proportions
and serving sizes, and creating your own Diet Solution Meal Plan.
All of the resources you need to choose, combine, and portion your food properly are included in
this manual and your bonus materials. The numerous charts show you the ideal ratios of proteins,
carbohydrates, and fats for your metabolism type; which foods are the best choices for your metabolism
type; and how to build a meal plan that takes all this personal information into account.
Step 3: Choose the Best Foods
The third and maybe most important step toward weight loss and overall health is to identify
which foods to eat. To save yourself a lot of time, just follow this guideline: If it’s natural—
that is, it grows or otherwise occurs in nature—eat it; if it’s artificial, don’t. In other words, if a
food contains ingredients that you can’t pronounce or define, steer clear.
Natural foods span all the food groups and include fresh, unprocessed fruits and vegetables;
unroasted tree nuts and ground nuts; whole seeds and grains; and unadulterated fats, dairy,
and meat products. Foods in the artificial category include packaged foods, frozen meals, cookies
and cakes, artificial sweeteners (e.g., saccharin [Sweet’N Low], aspartame [NutraSweet], and
sucralose [Splenda]), hydrogenated oils (e.g., margarine and Crisco), high-fructose corn syrup,
and any prepared products that contain any of these ingredients.
To understand why this distinction is important, you must understand the function of the
liver. The liver is the body’s largest internal organ, and it’s responsible for an astonishing variety
of life-sustaining and health-promoting tasks, including those that make healthy weight loss and
weight management possible. Integral to countless metabolic processes, the liver supports the digestive
system, controls blood sugar, and regulates fat storage. One of the liver’s most important
functions—and the one most crucial to weight loss—is the chemical breakdown of everything
that enters your body.
It’s the liver’s job to distinguish between the nutrients to be absorbed and the dangerous
or unnecessary substances to be filtered out of the bloodstream. But when overwhelmed with
toxins (like artificial sweeteners and other chemicals that are added to packaged foods), the liver
gets “clogged” and cannot effectively process nutrients and fats. If your liver cannot process the
nutrients and fats that your body needs, you will gain weight and won’t be able to lose it.
The liver also produces bile, a substance crucial to detoxification of the body. Bile helps
break down fats and assimilate fat-soluble vitamins. But when bile becomes overly congested
with the toxins it’s trying to filter out, it simply can’t function properly. It becomes thick, viscous,
and highly inefficient.
What qualifies as a toxin? Anything that your body does not recognize as a food source.
Artificial sweeteners, for example, have 0 calories because the body does not recognize them as
food sources. But they still have to pass through the liver, as do other synthetic ingredients that
you can’t even pronounce.
Food-processing chemicals and other toxins also irritate the gastrointestinal system,
which may manifest as bloating, constipation, or gas in many people. Chronic constipation may
also lead to difficulty losing weight, not to mention a long list of other harmful health problems.
Toxins are stored in fat cells—that is, embedded in body fat. The more fat in your body,
the more toxins you can store. Stored toxins cause your cells and organs to become sluggish and
inefficient. Toxins also attack and destroy cells and gene structures. They create an acidic environment
in the body that is vulnerable to fungi, bacteria, parasites, worms, viruses, and many
other pathogens. Organs and body systems under a toxic load lose their ability to metabolize and
process fat effectively.
The body stores toxins in fat tissue. In fact, toxin storage is one of the main functions
of fat stores; this protective mechanism keeps toxins away from vital organs. When you ingest
fewer toxins, your body will not need as much fat to store them and will quickly begin to let go
of excess fat. This process leads to not only the right kind of weight loss (from fat) but also a
healthy, disease-free body.
The body also stores toxins wherever it is weak. This makes the weak area even weaker
and eventually can manifest in a cyst or disease. An area left diseased for too long becomes difficult
to repair. To achieve an ideal weight and healthy body, it is vital to eat only clean, unprocessed
food from this point forward.
