38 the rice diet renewal
for you, you can avoid these slippery places for at least a month,
which is how much time you ’ ll need to give yourself to absorb this
new dietary information, cleanse your palate, and enjoy the prog-
ress you are making. There is nothing quite as inspiring as palpable
improvements and dramatic results to motivate you to keep going!
For those of you who have read my books, Heal Your Heart,
The Rice Diet Solution , and/or The Rice Diet Cookbook , you will
notice that this description of the diet is condensed. If you would
like more detailed specifi cs about the diet, such as portion sizes
and the nutritional averages of various food groups, you may con-
sult any of these books for a refresher course and to peruse their
bounty of delicious recipes and menus. You can also fi nd this
detailed information about food groups and portion sizes extracted
for you from the Journal for Health booklet that is offered on our
Web site ( http://www.ricediet.com ). The essence and power of the diet
can easily by achieved without your counting a calorie, a gram of
fat, or a milligram of sodium, but people who want more nutritional
details can refer to the upcoming menus ’ specifi c recipes (in the
back of this book), complete with nutritional analyses.
For newbies in the group, rest assured that this general descrip-
tion and four weeks of menus will produce the same results!
The diet is built around your eating a total of 1,000 calories per
day and asks that you exercise at least one hour each day. Obviously,
people who are unable to exercise this much immediately need
to gradually increase their activity, depending on their doctor ’ s
recommendation. If you follow this regimen, you will lose weight
as fast and effectively as you desire. Although the fi rst month of
weight loss is phenomenal, with men averaging a pound a day and
women losing more than half a pound a day, this rate will slow
down as you get closer to your goal. The good news is that even
those of us with only ten pounds or so to lose can continue to enjoy
one to two pounds of weight loss per week.
Just keep your food intake simple. Eat whole foods that look like
they did when they were harvested. Avoid products that contain
ingredients with added sodium and animal fats or partially hydro-
genated fats, and buy organic whenever possible. Remember, the