INTRODUCTION

Heaven for Food Lovers

Using the principles of food science, I am offering you a plan for eating that seems lavish and self-indulgent, all while satisfying your food cravings and reducing your appetite in a healthy way. The Spice Diet will help you to break your addiction to unhealthy foods without feeling deprived. My way of eating delivers the flavors you love without the salt, unhealthy fats, and processed carbohydrates that defeat your best efforts to lose weight while they destroy your health.

I’ve found that one of the greatest challenges for people trying to eat and live well is how to breathe life into their cooking. I hear it all the time: “I get so bored eating healthy, because everything begins to taste the same,” or better yet, “I just stick to my salt, garlic seasoning, and black pepper because I have absolutely no idea how to use all those other spices.” My goal is to inspire you to get into the kitchen to prepare irresistible, healthy meals. I want you to learn to eat food that supports your health and well-being, instead of being your downfall.

My practical program delivers rapid weight loss—usually ten pounds in a month—by using flavor to satisfy your taste buds and ultimately changing the way you think, feel, and approach healthy foods. In most kitchens, spice racks are used as kitchen decor, not as a functional part of everyday cooking. Those pretty glass jars often have never been touched, and the spices are stale and too old to use—at least that was true in my mother’s kitchen. Sorry, Mom.

I want to teach you to use individual spices, spice blends, and natural ingredient combinations that are nutritionally healing to the body. These taste enhancers range from simple, pure flavors to fusion cuisine like Korean-Latin mash-ups. Adding layers of flavor to your food involves using imagination along with practical techniques to build delicious, healthy meals. The Spice Diet will teach you how to create customized flavor profiles that reduce your food cravings by retraining your taste buds. I want my approach to food to inspire you to fall in love, or fall back in love, with your kitchen. You will enjoy a new relationship with your favorite foods, now prepared in a wholesome, palate-pleasing way.

After I tell the story of my own transformation, I will share with you the heart of my program: everything you need to know about herbs and spices, including their flavor characteristics, so you can incorporate them into your cooking to reduce your cravings and heal your body. My recipes deliver powerhouse flavor, and at the same time, my spice blends are functional. The spices I use are medically proven to lower blood sugar, reduce inflammation, settle your digestive system, and more. These delicious blends work with your system from the inside, improving your health, boosting your metabolism, and promoting weight loss. “Fire Up” sidebars throughout the book describe how specific spices can help you lose weight.

In chapter 3, I take a hard look at food addictions and cravings. Understanding what happens in your brain that drives you to overeat should make it clear to you that being overweight is not simply a matter of willpower. I will take a look at obesity in this country and the toll that weighing more than you should takes on your health. My goal is to make you hyperaware of the health risks associated with being overweight and show you how little weight you have to lose to influence your health for the better.

To begin to make healthy eating a habit, you have to create a weight loss mind-set. You have to believe you can do it and make a serious commitment. You have to face your truths head on by addressing the issues that got you where you are with your weight. I’ll give you advice on how to break up with your current relationship with food, which obviously isn’t working. I will show you how to make the shift to mindful eating. I will cover not only the psychological and spiritual aspects of weight problems, but will also present practical information, including the nitty-gritty on processed foods, portion control, and getting more movement into your life. Adam Zickerman, the founder of InForm Fitness and the author of the New York Times bestseller Power of 10, has created two fifteen-minute resistance band workouts for The Spice Diet that you only have to do twice a week. Once you have covered this material, you are ready to roll up your sleeves and jump right in for the first thirty days of taking control of what you eat, a month that will change your life.

The Spice Diet has two phases:

Phase 1 is when significant change happens. You will form healthy habits, and your confidence preparing home-cooked meals using spice blends will grow. This phase lasts thirty days, during which most people lose at least ten pounds. If your goal is to lose additional weight, you can stick with Phase 1 until you are close to your dream weight.

Phase 2 is when you perfect the healthy habits you began to develop in Phase 1, maintain your weight loss, and transition to your new dietary lifestyle—for the rest of your life. You can continue to lose weight gradually during Phase 2, but the more rapid results of Phase 1 are always there for you if you want to return to it at any time.

There are two weeks of meal plans for each stage to give you an idea of how well you will be eating for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and snacks. I have created mouth-watering recipes for Phases 1 and 2, including a “Peach Cobbler” Power Bar and a Citrus Protein Bar, which you can make yourself. These powerhouse flavor recipes will prove to you that The Spice Diet is anything but boring. Imagine eating a Guiltless Lemon-Blueberry Cake Milk Shake, South-of-the-Border Grilled Corn Bisque, Honey-Lemon Baked Chicken, and Sweet Potato Crumble as you steadily lose weight!

The recipes are followed by twenty-five spice blends I have built, including N’awlins Spiced Pecan Crust Blend, Sour Dill Pickle Blend, and Jamaican Me Crazy Jerk Spice Blend that you can make and keep on hand for an instant flavor boost to just about anything you are preparing. Now you can see what I am getting at: if you are eating food this full of flavor, you will not feel deprived.

Finally, I want to provide you with lifetime strategies that will help you keep the weight off, like how to avoid losing your resolve when you eat out, on special occasions, and on vacation. I offer advice on how to get through the holidays without gaining weight. No one is perfect. It helps to have strategies to resist temptations.

I’m not promising that this will be easy, but if you’re willing to put in the work and dedication to change now and keep it going, the spice blends and ingredients in my recipes—and the ones you will learn to create—will propel you toward your goal. It’s time to fight and be the master of your fate. Put the power of spices to work for you. My plan won’t only change the number on your scale or the size of your clothes. The Spice Diet will change your life!