The 3-Season Diet Eat the Way Nature Intended: Lose Weight, Beat Food Cravings, and Get Fit

by DOUILLARD, JOHN

• ISBN13: 9780609805435
• ISBN10: 0609805436
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-03-13
• Publisher: Harmony

Summary

* Do you drink coffee in the morning to get your day started? * Do you work through lunch? * Do you crave sweets or a nap in the afternoon? * Have you tried losing weight in the past three years and given up? * Do you tend to have bouts of worry, anxiety, and depression? * Do you have difficulty remembering things? If you do, this book will help you restore balance to your daily life. By following its simple instructions for eating foods appropriate to each season, adjusting your diet to your body type, eating at the optimal time of the day, and exercising without triggering a survival response, you will not only lose excess pounds and maintain your ideal weight, you will generate energy and power in your life. Derived from a 5,000-year-old traditional medical system, the 3-season diet does what no other diet will: work along with the body's natural response to the changing seasons, feeding it what it craves and can best utilize at all times. In spring, for instance, we want salads, berries, and leafy greens, a naturally low-fat diet. And in winter, we yearn for hearty soups, nuts, warm grains, and high-fat and protein-rich foods such as fish and meat. Following the foods that nature provides seasonally creates the best diet for balancing weight, mood, and energy for anyone living anywhere on earth.

Author Biography

JOHN DOUILLARD is a former professional athlete and the author of Body, Mind and Sport. Currently he is a consultant to the New Jersey Nets and cohosts a top-rated radio talk show in Colorado, Health Time. He received a Ph.D. from the Open International University, which was established by the World Health Organization and the United Nations University. He practices Ayurvedic and chiropractic sports medicine and lives in Boulder, Colorado, with his wife and five children.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	v
Preface	ix
PART I YOU CAN EAT IT ALL
The Diet Dilemma and the Eye of the Hurricane	3	(21)
The Diet-Go-Round	24	(25)
Converting Food to Energy: Medical and Historical Patterns	49	(15)
The 3-Season Meal Plan	64	(27)
Recipe Suggestions and Food Lists for the Seasons	91	(27)
When to Eat and How to Eat: The French Paradox and the Midday Meal	118	(15)
Fine-Tuning Your Diet According to Your Body Type	133	(21)
The Daily Cycle	154	(11)
PART II THE COMPLETE WEIGHT-BALANCING PROGRAM
The Weight-Balancing Program	165	(25)
Breathing for Life	190	(18)
The Perfect Weight-Balancing Workout	208	(25)
Epilogue	231	(2)
Appendixes	233	(82)
1 Glossary of Foods	233	(44)
2 What's Under the Hood of Your Food?	277	(14)
3 Seasonal Grocery Shopping Lists	291	(24)
Bibliography	315	(2)
Index	317

Excerpts

Over millions of years of human evolution, nature has figured out how to feed us with astonishing accuracy. The more deeply you study the 3-Season Diet, the more logical and compelling you will find its wisdom. And the proof is in the craving: When you practice this diet, you will crave exactly what nature is about to harvest. You will not experience any struggle or strain, only a growing appreciation of how nature has designed the best diet for balancing weight, mood, and energy for everyone living anywhere on the earth.

In the late 1980s, I went to India to study their natural system of medicine, called Ayurveda. That ancient Sanskrit word means literally "the science of life," an in-depth study of nature itself. To the masters who described Ayurveda in the ancient Vedic texts, perfect health was a reflection of a life attuned to the changing cycles of nature and with all plant and animal life. They saw that these cycles, from annual growing seasons to daily rhythms, were connected to the rhythms of the cosmos and influenced every aspect of nature. Because Ayurveda was derived from natural rhythms, its research and proving ground was found in the expression of nature itself. The 3-Season Diet that I am presenting here is based on the Ayurvedic nutritional map, but with some important differences.

After my postgraduate training in Ayurvedic medicine in India concluded in 1989, I returned to the States and started teaching Ayurveda to doctors and lay people. During my years of teaching, I realized that the original Ayurvedic diets, which work for India, don't always fit well in our culture. So I began to apply the concepts and rules I had learned in India to the pace of life and the foods that are available here in the West. I have spent the last 10 years translating Ayurvedic concepts into the American way of life, including diet, exercise, eating habits, and stress-prevention techniques--all of which are included in this book. The deeper I delved into nature and its growing seasons and harvests, the more respect I had for nature's wisdom. I discovered that the principles of Ayurveda provide a universal body of knowledge that applies to every culture and each individual in all parts of the world. Although I would not call this an Ayurvedic book, the principles from which the 3-Season Diet is derived have been proven over more than 5,000 years. In fact, I like to think of the 3-Season Diet as an updated version of the original American Diet. It is based on the same logic farmers have been using to feed us since the very first harvest.

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Excerpted from The 3-Season Diet: Eat the Way Nature Intended: Lose Weight, Beat Food Cravings, and Get Fit by John Douillard
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