The 17 Day Diet Breakthrough Edition

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ALSO BY DR. MIKE MORENO

The 17 Day Plan to Stop Aging

The 17 Day Diet Cookbook

The 17 Day Diet Workbook

The 17 Day Diet Essentials

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Breakthrough Weight Loss

PART ONE: The 17 Day Diet Breakthrough

1—Just Give Me 17 Days

2—Burn, Baby, Burn

3—Contour Foods: Nutritional Spot Reduction

PART TWO: The Cycles of Fat-Burning

4—The Fasting Breakthrough

5—Cycle 1: Accelerate

6—Cycle 2: Activate

7—Cycle 3: Achieve

8—Cycle 4: Arrive

PART THREE: Special Considerations

9—The 17 Day Cultural Diet

10—The PMS Exception Diet

PART FOUR: Make It Stick

11—Dining Out on the 17 Day Diet

12—Family Challenges

13—Surviving Holidays

14—The 17 Day Diet on the Road

15—Shift Work on the 17 Day Diet

PART FIVE: Extra Help

16—Supplement Sense on the 17 Day Diet

17—The 17 Minute Spot Reduction Workout

18—The 17 Day Diet Breakthrough Recipes

Dr. Mike’s Power Cookie

Kefir Smoothie

Yogurt Fruitshake

Egg-White Veggie Frittata

Spanish Omelet

Mexican Huevos

Greek Egg Scramble

South of the Border Scramble

Harvest French Toast

Blueberry Griddle Cakes

Breakfast Crisp

Salade Nicoise

Super Salad

Balsamic Artichoke

Full-licious Salad

Crunchy Salad

Southwest Slaw

Asparagus Tarragon Salad

Cactus Salad

Spinach Salad

Marinated Vegetable Salad

Taco Salad

Beef Fajita Salad

Village Salad

Lettuce Wraps

Spicy Yogurt Dip and Veggies

White Bean Hummus

Smoked Salmon Rolls

Chicken-Vegetable Soup

Greek Chicken Stew

Onion-Leek Soup

Cream of Pumpkin Soup

Tortilla Soup

Stewed Zucchini

Guiltless Potato Salad

Sweet Potato Apple Casserole

Pasta Caesar Salad

Brown Rice with Mushrooms

Picnic Beans

Oven Roasted Veggies

Salad in a Sandwich

Meat and Bean Burritos

Eggplant Parmesan

Fried Fish

Ceviche

Sesame Fish

Salmon Burgers

Elegant Poached Salmon with Dill Sauce

Salmon Lemonato

Mexican-Style Shrimp

Garlic Shrimp

Shrimp Cocktail with Avocado Dressing

Avocado Stuffed with Scallops

Bacon Wrapped Scallops

General Slim’s Chicken

Chicken with Orange Sauce

Oven Barbecued Chicken

Chicken Kiev

Easy Gourmet Chicken

Turkey Black Bean Chili

Old-Fashioned Beef Stew

Catalina Grilled Steak

Drunken Pork Chops

Apricot-Glazed Lamb Chops

Creamy Light Fettuccine Alfredo

Low-Carb Primavera Delight

Mango Sorbet

Tropical Pistachio Pudding

Poached Pears and Oranges

Mom’s Apple Pie

Mint Choco Chip Soft Serve

Banana Ice Cream

Chocolate Candies

19—Mister M.D., Can You Please Tell Me More?

About Dr. Mike Moreno

References

I dedicate this book to my family and friends who have supported me and my dreams, but, most important, to my mother and father who always encouraged and supported me. They placed a big emphasis on education, and instilled in me the importance of hard work and helping others. I would also like to thank my patients for providing me with the motivation to think outside the box, in hopes of making this world a healthier, happier place.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I feel a deep sense of gratitude to Maggie Greenwood-Robinson. Without her persistence and endless hours of dedication to this project, the book you are holding might not have been written. I’d also like to thank the many people involved in putting the program and its support materials together.

My hope is that this book will help make the world a healthier and happier place.

It’s never too late to be fit and fabulous!

INTRODUCTION

Breakthrough Weight Loss

I am a guy who likes to fix things, which is probably why I chose the field of medicine and became a doctor. We doctors like to fix people; we like to make them feel better, get well, be healthier, and enjoy long, productive lives. We have even tried to fix Medicare for people, but we have not been very good at it.

Which brings me to the book you are holding in your hands: The 17 Day Diet Breakthrough Edition. This book is my attempt over the last two years to fix and tweak the original 17 Day Diet so that you can lose weight even faster, keep it off longer, and stay healthy and fit well into your golden years.

Before I tell you why it is a breakthrough, let me explain why I have become so passionate about updating this book: Habits, including dietary ones, can be hard to break. For example, an estimated 144 million American adults—representing 66.3 percent of the adult population—are overweight or obese, according to the American Heart Association. Among other things, obesity and being overweight put them at increased risk for shortened lives, and, as a healer, this concerns me greatly.

The list of problems caused by obesity gets longer and longer every year, and I see most of these on a daily basis in my medical practice. Take a peek:

Heart disease and stroke. If you let yourself get very overweight, this elevates levels of artery-clogging LDL cholesterol in your body, which leads to the buildup of plaque in arteries feeding the heart or brain. Your risk of heart attack and stroke under these conditions multiplies by 10, compared to someone without a serious weight problem. Once this sort of heart damage has taken place, it can be a rapid downhill course, right to the graveyard.

High blood pressure. With excess fat on and in your body, the volume of blood your heart must pump will swell. This places pressure on your artery walls, heightening your risk of heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease.

Type 2 diabetes. This form of diabetes is on a steep rise, and the main reason is being overweight and obesity. When someone is very heavy, the body can’t use insulin properly to normalize blood sugar levels. Excess blood sugar does damage our organs, arteries, nerves, and blood vessels. The consequences can be heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, neuropathy (loss of feeling in limbs), and blindness.

Joint disease. Wouldn’t you like to be limber and mobile your entire life? If so, keep your weight under control. The more body weight you tote around, the greater stress you place on your joints. This greatly elevates your risk of getting osteoarthritis in your knees, hips, and lower back.

Cancer. Most people never make the connection, but being overweight increases your risk of cancer. The main cancers affected are of the colon, breast, endometrium, esophagus, pancreas, kidney, thyroid, and gall bladder.

Breathing problems. Ever heard of sleep apnea? It occurs when you stop breathing during sleep, followed by an abrupt gasp for air and loud snoring—a heart attack risk factor.

To go on with the list, it is also known that women who are overweight are more at risk for infertility, and pregnant women who are overweight have babies who are also more prone to develop hypertension, diabetes, and heart diseases.

And there are gallstones and gout, not to mention emotional disorders such as depression and social embarrassment and ridicule as a result of being overweight or obese.

I’m probably listing stuff you’ve already heard a hundred times. In fact, I bet you can recite the list yourself. And I know that these conditions generally don’t motivate people to lose weight.

Honestly, what does motivate people to diet is the desire to look, and feel, more attractive. In other words, we slim down mostly out of vanity. That’s not to say you can do things for more than one reason. I exercise regularly myself, and my diet is deliberately based on the 17 Day Diet. The rationales are multiple: My diet gives me energy and ensures I sleep well. Oh, somewhere in the mix looms a certain concern for my health: I don’t want to die of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, or any of the diseases linked to being overweight. I feel that the aims of well-being and a pleasing appearance aren’t at odds with each other. But of course, the bottom line is that I want to look good.

And you want to look good, too, or you wouldn’t be reading this book. That mighty motivation leads to a lower risk of all those nasty diseases I listed above. Vanity—well, let’s just say it’s the health motivator of motivators.

Unfortunately, many of my colleagues in the medical profession have accepted that being overweight and obesity are here to stay. I do not share their opinion. Losing weight and bringing about a complete end to obesity may appear difficult considering how pervasive food is, but it is not impossible. If everyone put forth their best effort, we can definitely counter this. I have personally seen thousands of people, who used to habitually wolf down bags of cookies frequently, quit the habit in one go. And if someone has decided to lose weight for good but is unsure or having difficulty in doing it, we doctors should be able to help them if they come to us. The 17 Day Diet Breakthrough Edition is one more way in which I would like to help you.

The Breakthroughs

By definition, a breakthrough is an important discovery. Breakthroughs have been happening since ancient times, and they have altered our most basic beliefs. People used to think the earth was flat, until Columbus’s voyages proved that the earth is round. The once nearly universal notion that disease had a supernatural cause was abandoned when Louis Pasteur discovered that microorganisms in the air were the perpetrators of many diseases. In 1940, a man named George Stibitz, working at his kitchen table, built the first computer that could perform sophisticated mathematical calculations. This device led to the development of the personal computer (PC), which hit the marketplace in the late 1970s. Today, the computer, the Internet, and social media have revolutionized every aspect of life, including personal relationships.

Similar breakthroughs have occurred in the field of nutrition. In the late 19th century, millers used to get rid of that ugly brown stuff that coats rice and wheat, so people could enjoy pure, refined flour in light, airy breads and pastries. The discarded roughage was fed to livestock. A century later, nutritional experts lambasted white flour and rice, after discovering that the discarded bran can protect health and save lives. For decades, the B vitamin choline was relegated to the status of a second-class, unnecessary nutrient until recent studies discovered that it is essential for a healthy liver and brain. Getting adequate choline from the once much-maligned egg yolk and other foods may even help guard against cancer and heart disease. And once upon a time, federal law limited what vitamin makers could claim about whether a supplement could cure or prevent a disease. But with so many positive breakthroughs into the benefits of supplements in improving health, the FDA, in 2000, granted supplement manufacturers the right to state that their products can improve the structure or function of the body. The FDA allows such statements as: calcium builds strong bones, fiber maintains bowel regularity, antioxidants maintain cell integrity, help maintain heart and vascular health, and so forth.

And so, in tweaking and updating this edition, I’ve included several diet-related breakthroughs that will help you lose weight and keep it off more effectively. Here they are:

Eat, and See Spot Melt

For decades, doctors and dieters alike have lived under the assumption that there is no such thing as spot reduction. By that, I mean the removal of fat from selected areas of the body, through diet and exercise (not liposuction, which is surgical spot reduction). As a doctor, I am always asked how can fat be trimmed from the waist, hips, or thighs, and patients are very specific about desiring this. Is it possible to lose inches only in the areas you would like to? Yes, and it can be done with certain foods that I call Contour Foods—foods that have been scientifically proven to take fat off your abs, thighs, and all over your body. And guess what else? These foods happen to be very healthy. They are foods everyone should be eating, every day. So, in addition to improving your waistline and other parts of your body, you will be improving your health.

Exercise, and See Spot Melt More

And, for the first time ever, you will be introduced to the exclusive 17 Day Diet Spot Reduction Workout. I discovered a batch of research showing that certain methods of exercising, namely targeted high-repetition moves, will indeed burn fat from troublesome areas and change your overall shape, regardless of your genetics. There was not a workout per se in the original book. But since exercise is so important to fast and lasting weight loss, I wanted to make sure that the new book had a breakthrough workout component, but not just any ’ole component, rather one that would really target ugly fat, incinerate it, and get you in the best possible shape—as soon as possible!

The Transitional Day Fast

I want your weight loss with The 17 Day Diet Breakthrough Edition to be even faster (but still healthy), so I created an optional fast for you to follow every 17 days—if you want to. But don’t worry, this fast does not mean going 24 hours without food. Not at all. You get to enjoy some delicious fasting drinks that include known fat-burning ingredients. Fasting is no longer the wicked stepmother of dieting. Increasingly, it is being scientifically recognized as a safe, healthy, and fast way to take off weight. Although fasting has been around for centuries, new ways of fasting make it a true breakthrough. My optional fast is a dietary breakthrough.

Breakthrough Supplements That Encourage Weight Loss

Natural weight-loss supplements have been on the market for more than 20 years. Until only recently, most were bogus, with false claims and hype. Now there has been enormous, credible research in this area, and there is good news from the lab: Several supplements have been found to work pretty darn well, especially when paired with the right diet and exercise program. I’ve scoured the supplement research the past two years to come up with breakthrough products that would complement the 17 Day Diet, and I explain the virtues of those supplements here and how to use them on the program.

Everything Works Together

The above breakthroughs work together with the powerful original features of the 17 Day Diet to further accelerate your results. Those features include the breakthrough fat-burning benefits of probiotics, such as yogurt and other cultured foods, cleansing vegetables that help your digestive system better process calories, and friendly fats that work their own weight-control magic. The diet still emphasizes a protein-carbohydrate balance designed for rapid weight loss. Of the three macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein, and dietary fat), protein has the greatest fat-burning and weigh-control effect. If you overeat calories from carbs and dietary fat, those calories will be packed away as body fat. Protein, on the other hand, is not likely to accumulate as fat. I’m not saying you can stuff yourself with protein. I am saying you should eat more protein in the proper portions from lean meat, poultry, or fish instead of pigging out on extra carbs or fat to satisfy your hunger or cravings. What’s more, the diet itself is still organized around 4 cycles that keep your body constantly guessing so that you rarely plateau. And with your faster metabolism, you’ll burn off calories and body fat around the clock!

A Personal Message to My Readers, New and Old

The 17 Day Diet sold well over a million copies, and for that, I am eternally grateful to have affected so many lives. If you are among that million, you are probably wondering what’s in this new book for me? To that I would say, plenty. Yes, you’ll read much of the same advice, because it’s foundational information that makes the diet work, but as our cars need tune-ups, maybe you need to tune up your basic knowledge of the diet. You’re also graduating to the next class of the diet where you’ll gain breakthrough knowledge of how to control your weight. You’re going to learn a lot more that can help you, from the science of Contour Foods and spot reduction exercise to the value of fasting and supplementing.

And, you’ll reap the benefits of 50 new recipes, and brand-new meal plans that include those recipes! I am a doctor who can stand the heat in the kitchen. Cooking has always been appealing to me because I can explore and expand my knowledge of different foods. I like to cook because I love the satisfaction when I’ve finished and tasted it, plus I like to show other people how to cook in a healthy fashion. Thus, many of these new dishes are straight from my own kitchen.

Now, maybe there are some of you out there who followed the original diet, but gained some weight back. Maybe you got pregnant after losing weight on the original diet, and need to take that post-baby weight off. Maybe you just got lax with your eating, and a lot of your weight crept back on. Ah, I see a few of you out there. Well, this breakthrough version of the 17 Day Diet can give you a totally fresh start. Once you’re back on board, your body will start burning body fat once again, and you’ll see results in the first days. Don’t feel guilty about getting off it, just climb back on and go from there. This is your starting line in the race to get trim and healthy.

Getting back in a shape takes some fundamental commitments. If you don’t exercise, start the 17 Minute Spot Reduction Workout. If you eat too much junk, start adding more fruits, vegetables, protein, and Contour Foods to your diet. Think about how this book can help you get and stay healthy for life, and make that your ultimate resolution.

And if you are brand new to the 17 Day Diet concepts, welcome! I can’t wait for you to get started. You’ll be amazed at the fast results you’ll get the very first 17 days. You won’t feel hungry, you won’t be craving foods, and the weight loss you’ll experience from the get-go will inspire you to keep going on down to your goal weight. I bet that at the next party you attend, your friends will gather around you, asking, How did you lose so much weight? You look fantastic! Simply tell them, "The 17 Day Diet Breakthrough Edition."

So now, as you go forward with the 17 Day Diet expect to experience many great benefits:

• The loss of up to a pound a day, particularly in the first 17 days

• Steady, satisfying weight loss, right now to your goal weight

• Toned, firm hips and thighs

• A flatter belly

• Improved body shape

• Measureable loss of inches

• Satisfaction after eating, with reduced hunger and cravings

• No diet boredom

• Better overall level of fitness and energy

• Greater self-confidence

• Positive feelings about yourself and your body

• Improved health

The 17 Day Diet Breakthrough Edition is geared for rapid, healthy weight loss and targeted bodyshaping. It is easy to follow, easy to live with, and provides satisfying results. Enjoy this enhanced version. Embrace it, whether you’ve followed the original or not. Get trim and fit in the process—you could be as much as 17 pounds lighter after the first cycle of the diet. So . . . if that sounds good to you, and if you’re ready to start—or restart—turn the page and let’s do it!

PART ONE

The 17 Day Diet Breakthrough

1

Just Give Me 17 Days

I can personally sum up the 17 Day Diet in two words: fast results.

And now, with the introduction of The 17 Day Diet Breakthrough Edition, I can say faster results. I’ve tuned up the original diet with some new science, new tips, and new techniques that will help you to lose up to a pound a day in the first 17 days and to keep losing steadily after that.

Since the publication of the The 17 Day Diet, testimonials of rapid, effective, and lasting weight losses have poured into my office and have been posted on blogs and websites. The response has been downright amazing and overwhelming—much of it unsolicited, and from practically every corner of the world. Add these to my own weight-loss patients, and there are now millions of people who have discovered a diet they love and can live with.

Here are just a handful of typical comments that have come to me from my patients and other dieters—some in person, others by e-mail, and still others by Internet posts in chatrooms:

• • • • • • • •

I lost 70 pounds on the 17 Day Diet—almost half a person. This is the first diet I’ve ever been successful on. I did it with my 17 year-old-son, too; he needed to slim down after football season and he lost 15 pounds. Doing it together was a bonding experience, and I feel like it changed my family’s health.

• • • • • • • •

I found out through a manager of a clothing store about your diet. She had lost 80 pounds and looked great. And, she is keeping it off! After finding out about the 17 Day Diet and how balanced it is, I immediately ran out and bought the book. My husband and I started on it a week ago. I’ve lost 8 pounds and he has lost 9 pounds—and that is in the first week. We are thrilled and wanted to email you about how well the diet is working.

• • • • • • • •

I am very short (5 feet), but I weighed too much for my height: 154. I found out about the 17 Day Diet so I picked up a copy of the book. I am a native of Thailand, and I found the diet very easy to follow according to the way we eat here. I now weigh 105, which is perfect for my size. Best of all, I feel so well, with lots of energy and very good health. I changed my entire eating behavior towards more nutritious foods, and I am very happy with my life at this new, slimmer weight. Thank you, Dr. Mike.

• • • • • • • •

I am currently on Cycle 1. My roommate and I started this diet 8 days ago. I have lost 8 pounds in my first week. I am so excited! And my pants feel a little baggy. I’m still hoping to lose another 17 pounds or so on this diet. Hopefully, the rest of cycle 1 and all of cycle 2 will get me there.

• • • • • • • •

I followed the diet through each cycle. I lost 11 pounds in the first 17 days and over the remaining course of the diet I lost a total of 27 pounds. I had learned so much from Dr. Moreno’s diet and method. I eat more often, in smaller amounts, and I have kept it off.

• • • • • • • •

I started the 17 Day Diet in mid-September. I reached my first goal of a 20-pound weight loss by Thanksgiving. After the holiday season, I went back to the first phase and continued to a 37-pound loss by the end of June. I have continued to follow the basics of the diet and have learned to take control of the food I am eating. I feel great! I also dropped 4 sizes. People are constantly asking how I did it, and of course I refer them to the 17 Day Diet.

• • • • • • • •

This diet has been a life changer for me. I feel great every single day. I have more energy and I feel less bloated. I have lost 12 pounds, and I’m only on Phase 1! I have tried a number of diets before this one and I have never lost this much, this fast.

• • • • • • • •

I am a woman in her fifties, and I have had weight issues most of my life. I have reduced and regained a few times. Recently I saw Dr. Mike on The Doctors, and I believe it was a life changing moment. I lost 10 pounds in the first three days! Then I was hooked because I felt better, and weight was coming off without counting calories! I dieted when I was in my twenties and it was never this easy! Really. I got so excited that I started telling people about the program. I have now completed the four 17 day cycles and lost 39 pounds.

You’ll hear more testimonials like these later in the book in sections called I Broke Through!

Even More Rapid Results

Depending on your weight when you start out and your metabolism, you might lose up to 10 to 12 pounds in the first 17 days. Of course, the further you are from your ideal weight, the more you’ll initially lose. And, with this new, revised version of the diet, I’ve got some tricks up my white-coat sleeves to help you lose even faster.

Let’s not kid each other: When you start a diet, you want to see results right away, in how you look and in how you feel. That’s because our society is geared toward the immediate; we want things and we want them now. The same is true of weight loss. We get impatient when the pounds don’t come off fast enough. It seems much easier to give up than to go on.

This diet is designed to produce quick results, not because it starves you down to size, but because its carefully designed balance of food and exercise adjusts your body metabolically, so that you burn fat, day in and day out.

Also important: The weight-reduction portion of this diet is limited to just 17 days at a time, so you aren’t demoralized by the thought of endless months of dieting.

Nor are you apt to plateau as you might do on other diets. The 17 Day Diet keeps your body and metabolism guessing. I call this body confusion. With each 17 Day Cycle, and my new Transitional Day Fast between cycles, you’re changing your calorie count and the foods you eat. By varying these things, you prevent your body from adapting. The scale is less likely to get stuck. The added bonus: You’ll never get bored; it’s fun watching those pounds melt off. So, confusion is good!

At the end of 17 days, you’ll go on to a second 17 Day Cycle, then a third, and finally enter the weight-stabilization cycle of the diet, in which you get to eat a greater variety of foods, including your favorite foods within reason. (I don’t want you to get too chummy with the all-you-can-eat buffet again.)

I already know what you’re thinking: Is it possible to shed pounds swiftly yet safely? If done right, without sacrificing good nutrition, the answer is yes.

Despite what many nutritionists have preached for years, rapid weight-loss diets can be healthy if done correctly, and can work wonders, reducing pounds and inches in just days. Research published in the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine suggests that the faster you take weight off, the longer you keep it off. That’s a reason for dieters everywhere to rejoice. Plus, if you’re too embarrassed by a recent weight spike or have just gained an embarrassing eight pounds after a holiday weekend or an ice-cream binge, this diet can get you back on track fast.

The 17 Day Diet thus gives your body the perfect jump start, the kind of quick drop in weight that gives you a powerful mental boost. My whole focus is to get you thin as soon as I can. When I do, just think: You’ll no longer have to move around hauling the equivalent of two 40-pound bags of cement. The button on your jeans will no longer