Thanks to our smart, mighty editor Marisa Vigilante and her equally wonderful editorial assistant Isabelle Hughes for their commitment to the project, manageable but aggressive deadlines, and active and instructive communication throughout the development of this book. Thank you to Sarah Toland, Prevention magazine’s food and nutrition director, for her direction, confidence in, and support of the project from inception. We are grateful to the vision and oversight of Prevention’s editor in chief Barbara O’Dair and editorial director Michael Lafavore for their vision and confidence in the strength of the weight-loss plan and the entire book.
Many thanks to the members of Rodale’s Test Kitchen, including Juli Roberts, Jennifer Kushnier, Amy Fritch, and Melanie Hansche, for their creative culinary ideas and for bringing this plan to life with delicious, nutritious, easy-to-make recipes.
To our photographers Mitch Mandel, Matt Rainey, and Ryan Hulvat and designer Amy King for the mouthwatering recipe and cover photos and for making this book look so beautiful.
A gigantic thank-you to Michele Stanten for organizing and managing our test panelists. And we are so appreciative of our Clean Eater panelists themselves for their tireless dedication to eating clean and getting lean over our 6-week—and ongoing—journey together. You inspire us!
Thanks to our writer, Marygrace Taylor. Her thoughtful and collaborative approach, attention to detail, and knack for making words flow helped bring these pages to life.
Finally, thanks to our guiding force and health expert, Dr. Wendy Bazilian. Her infectious positivity, thorough research, dedication to detail, willingness to solve problems, and commitment to this project—and to our test panelists and readers—were essential in creating this plan and developing a book designed to truly serve those who want to achieve sustainable weight loss.
To my chief partner in life and business and best friend Jason Bazilian, for his unflappable calm and balanced ways; my creative and driven assistant, Jen Ratanapratum; and my incredibly artistic professional photographer and dear friend, Pearl Preis. My utmost thanks to the incredible Rodale Test Kitchen team; our fabulous editor, Marisa Vigilante, her editorial assistant, Isabelle Hughes; and also to Sarah Toland for her support and encouragement. So much gratitude is extended to Marygrace, whose talent with words and spirit of professional teamwork and timely collaboration were unparalleled. And of course, tremendous thanks to our Clean Eater panelists, who graciously shared their personal journeys—and a peek into their lives—with us all.
To my husband, Sam Taylor, for his unwavering support, encouragement, and patience. To Amy Beal, who first invited me to write for Prevention; to Sarah Toland, for her continued guidance and for bringing me on to this project; and to Marisa Vigilante and Isabelle Hughes. Thanks also to our test panelists, who generously shared their inspiring stories. Finally, thank you to Wendy Bazilian for her guidance, collaboration, enthusiasm, and total dedication to this project.