Welcome to your own personal weight-loss journey. The decision to begin eating cleaner and getting leaner is yours, and yours alone—and you should be proud and excited to take this step toward better health. There are many different paths you can try taking to reach your destination, and maybe you’ve started down one (or more) of those roads before. But this time, you’ll see: Things are different.
If you are fed up with gimmicky eating plans, tasteless and hard-to-follow recipes, and complex rules with zero flexibility (No bread! No fat! No fun!), you’ve opened the right book. Chances are, you’ve tried time and again to lose weight by dieting. And you know what? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Like finding the perfect pair of jeans or the most flattering pair of glasses, most of us have to try on many sizes and styles before we find our right fit.
Hopefully that’s just what you’ll find here: your right fit—in a setting of complete support and zero judgment.
There’s no question that achieving a healthy weight for your own best self is highly individual. All of the turns, hills, loose pebbles, and smooth walkways you’ll find on your route are unique. And it’s up to you to determine how best to deal with the hurdles and course changes you may encounter. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a plan, a program, and an approach that actually admits that this journey isn’t always easy? And better yet—one that then helps you navigate the sometimes confusing road map, and offers up strategies for coping with the inevitable obstacles, so you can achieve lasting success? Best of all, wouldn’t it be wonderful if, all along the way, you actually felt good—like you are doing something that’s positive for your body?
That’s what Eat Clean, Stay Lean: The Diet is all about. It’s really not a diet in the trendy, and ultimately temporary, way to lose weight that most of us have come to despise. This is a simple, no-nonsense plan designed to teach you how to eat in a way that supports your own best weight and energy for your own best body. And it all starts—and continues—with eating clean. Of course, healthy weight loss also involves regular movement (in other words, exercise, though it doesn’t have to feel that way). It also involves employing strategies that enhance your overall health, happiness, and well-being—like rest, stress management, and having fun.
You’ll find all of that—and more—in the chapters ahead. With the guidance of the trusted Editors of Prevention magazine, Eat Clean, Stay Lean: The Diet offers small steps and simple yet effective tools designed to help you make lasting, sustainable shifts in the way you eat. The end goal isn’t simply that you lose unneeded weight (though that will certainly happen). It’s that eating to support your best body simply becomes your normal—and more importantly, your favorite—way to stay fueled. Because there’s absolutely nothing easier to maintain than a style of eating that you love.
In these pages, you’ll learn how to achieve those goals. Much of the information you’ll find will surprise you, and some may reinforce what you already know. In both cases, you’ll learn how to eat clean with our easy-to-follow program and delicious menus. Just as important, you’ll find out why eating clean is the best path for lasting weight loss. Best of all? You’ll do it with the support of experts who fully understand the challenges you may face.
When I developed this effective, research-backed weight-loss plan, I had you—as I would a new client and friend—in mind. When I wrote the menus and worked with Prevention’s test kitchen to develop more than 70 delicious, tested, and Clean Eater–approved recipes, I had you—a health-inspired but also busy individual—in mind. As a doctor of public health, registered dietitian, and exercise physiologist who has helped thousands of individuals work toward their weight-related health goals, I have listened, talked, strategized, planned, advised, laughed, and occasionally even shared tears around the challenges and opportunities my clients, perhaps like you, have faced when it comes to pursuing a healthier weight while still living a rich and happy life. I know that it’s not always easy, but I promise you that it is worth it. Especially when your path is marked with simple strategies and delicious recipes that can help you stay lean for life.
Want proof that this plan works? Take a look at the stories of our amazing test panelists, who graciously allowed us to share their 6-week journeys on the Eat Clean, Stay Lean plan. You’ll be inspired, as I was, by their challenges, successes, and valuable lessons learned. And their impressive results, observations, and experiences will reinforce your motivation as you step forward on your own Eat Clean, Stay Lean path.
Be kind to yourself, put in the effort, and enjoy the ride—and rewards!—of getting lean by eating clean!
—Wendy Bazilian, DrPH, RD