Chapter One

Why the UltraSimple Diet?

"I lost 3 pounds right away, my sugar levels stabilized, and my energy level shot up."

My entire life, even after having children, I have been plagued with depression, chronic fatigue, allergies, debilitating headaches, constant mood swings, and anxiety. After hearing for years from doctors that it was all "in my head," I decided to jump on Dr. Hyman's program, because I had nothing more to lose. Immediately after following his instructions, I started to feel calm and began sleeping throughout the night. I naturally started eating less, because I was full and satisfied. I lost 3 pounds right away, my sugar levels stabilized, and my energy level shot up. For the first time, I can live in the moment. I feel better, my heart palpitations are gone, the ringing in my ears has diminished, my headaches have stopped, and my focus and concentration have improved dramatically. This simply happened as a result of removing the toxins from my diet and eating nourishing whole foods. This experience on The UltraSimple Diet has completely changed my life. Carla Goodrich

Columbus, NE

Could this be you? This was one user of the program, although not all results were this striking. More dramatic results are at the beginning of each chapter.

For more success stories, go to www.ultrasimplediet.com/success.

In this chapter you will learn:

• The 6 steps of The UltraSimple Diet
  • The 4 additional steps of The Enhanced UltraSimple Diet
    • Why the program works
      • Who I am

        We have all the scientific information we need to address the obesity epidemic facing our society and threatening our children and our longevity.

        The problem is most of you are not hearing about it. It takes an average of 20 years for new medical discoveries to be applied in practice.

        But, you don't have to wait -- it's available right now, here in this program.

        I have to admit something to you: The term diet in the title of this book is a bit misleading. This is really a 7-day health program wherein one of the natural consequences is healthy weight loss as I'll explain in a second.

        After working with thousands of patients for more than 20 years; heading the medical department of one of the world's top health resorts, Canyon Ranch, for 9 years; and being the founder and medical director of The UltraWellness Center, I have discovered what works and what doesn't to give people quick, yet safe results for revitalizing their health and achieving weight loss.

        And I have the results to prove it, which you can see for yourself by going to www.ultrasimplediet.com/success where you'll find hundreds of success stories from people who have already been through this program.

        In fact, throughout this book, I've included comments from real people who have actually already gone through the program so you can see how well it has worked for them.

        Even after looking at these success stories, if you are still skeptical that you can't lose up to 10 pounds in 7 days, you are right -- you shouldn't believe it. There are so many false weight-loss claims flying around today that it's tough to believe what works and what doesn't.

        The only way to know that it's true is to try the program and prove it to yourself. This program won't work for everybody, but it should work for most, and in many cases you may get the kind of dramatic results I've highlighted in this book.

        The real trick is that the same things that make people sick make them fat. In fact, being overweight is actually a symptom of an underlying health problem.

        So, it's not really a trick or a gimmick at all -- in this program, you'll be working on some of the underlying, fundamental problems that make people fat.

        And being fat creates even more sickness and disease -- including heart disease, cancer, arthritis, dementia, and diabetes.

        The answer to effective, long-term weight loss is addressing the underlying causes of obesity and disease. For most of you out there suffering with weight issues there are two key causes: toxicity and inflammation.

        In fact, for many of you, toxicity in particular may be what's been frustrating your weight-loss attempts. As I'll explain in chapter 3, you may be carrying around a truckload of toxins in your body that are disrupting your body's natural mechanisms for health. And as you'll see, getting healthy is the key to losing weight.

        This can frequently explain why people seem to reach a plateau or "hit the wall" when attempting to lose weight, where, after an initial drop in weight, further weight loss proves to be next to impossible. Just restricting calories is a recipe for disaster and inevitably leads to failure. Unless you get rid of this toxic load, you might find yourself continually hitting this wall.

        Take the "Toxicity and Inflammation Quiz" in chapter 2 and you may be surprised to find out how toxic and inflamed you really are. Don't worry; I'll explain what those two terms mean after you have taken the quiz.

        The UltraSimple Diet provides a quick-start plan for dramatically, powerfully, and simply addressing toxicity and inflammation.

        Dealing with toxicity and inflammation may not only help you lose up to 10 pounds in 7 days, but may also provide you with a feeling of robust health and relief of many chronic symptoms.

        Some of you may ask "Isn't it all just water weight?" or "Isn't it unhealthy to lose more than 1-2 pounds per week?"

        The truth is that you WANT to lose water weight.

        Inflammation and toxicity cause fluid retention. Cleaning up your system for one week, by consuming a detoxifying and anti-inflammatory diet, may help you drop fluid and toxins quickly. This may lead to rapid weight loss, which is both safe and healthy under these circumstances.

        Once you have eliminated the initial toxic fluid and inflammation, and you continue to follow my simple guides, your weight loss may continue at a rate of 1’ÅÑ2-2 pounds per week until you are at your healthy weight.

        During this week you may lose both fluid and fat. How much of each varies from person to person.

        You may also notice other benefits.

        Besides increased energy, you may lose the puffiness in your face and around your eyes, and your skin may even glow. Your senses may be heightened. You may sleep better, have fewer allergies, and more mental clarity. Your joint and muscle aches may disappear and all your digestive problems, such as irritable bowel syndrome and reflux, may vanish.

        This will also be the beginning, I hope, of a new way of life for you. Not because I say it is good for you. NO! Your life will change, because you may not only lose weight, have more energy, and feel fantastic, but you may -- probably for the first time in your life -- have a taste of vital well-being and experience for yourself what it means to live an UltraWellness lifestyle.

        What Is The UltraSimple Diet?

        As I mentioned above, this program is founded on two fundamental principles of biology. To regain health and achieve consistent, permanent weight loss, you need to address the underlying cause of diseases and obesity: toxicity and inflammation.

        It gives you an opportunity to achieve IMMEDIATE weight loss, but more importantly offers you renewed energy and relief from many chronic diseases in just 7 short days.

        But how, you may ask, can you achieve such results in just 7 days?

        Simple.

        Take away the things that make you toxic and inflamed.

        Provide your body with foods and activities that help you detoxify and cool inflammation.

        Your body does the rest automatically. It has a natural ability to find balance and heal once you stop doing things that throw it off balance and provide things that put it back in balance.

        By eliminating the major sources of toxins in your life -- addictive habits such as coffee, sugar, alcohol, processed food, fast food, junk food, trans fats, and high-fructose corn syrup -- and reducing toxic stress for only 7 days, your body can renew and rejuvenate itself.

        By eliminating the major sources of inflammation in your diet -- food allergens, sugar and flour products, and bad fats -- your body can heal.

        Then, by eating whole, detoxifying, anti-inflammatory foods, the power of the program can take full effect.

        Let me be completely honest here.

        My motivation is not to help you "lose a quick 10 pounds," although that is a nice side effect. My desire is for you to experience in one week the power you have to harm or to heal your body, the power wrong foods have to create sickness, and the power right foods have to promote weight loss and health.

        That way you can make the connection between your behaviors, what you put in your mouth, how you treat your body, and how you feel and look every day.

        I am amazed at how the smartest people don't make the connections between what they eat, how they live, and how they feel.

        You have the power to transform your life forever by choosing to work with your body, rather than against it.

        You see, the primary reason that I designed this program was based on feedback that I received about my UltraMetabolism program that I outlined in my recent New York Times best-selling book, UltraMetabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss.

        The problem that many people ran into was that they thought 8 weeks was too long a commitment and never gave the program a chance. In reality it's not; however, as a consequence of receiving that feedback, I designed this program to be only 7 days (which anybody can do) to prove just how good you can actually feel once you have addressed the core problems of toxicity and inflammation.

        And as my patients and the hundreds of people who have helped me evaluate this program have seen, some of the results can be quite amazing. I had many people comment that they were surprised at just h...