Excerpt from Dr. Shapiro's Picture Perfect Weight Loss by Howard M. Shapiro, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Chapter One

Seeing Is Believing: The Core Of Food awareness training
Does it seem to you that everywhere you go, people are talking about their diets?

It's true. One-third of Americans are overweight, while another third struggle constantly not to be. In 150 million homes each day, clock radios go off and people get out of bed, go into the bathroom, look in the mirror, and think about a diet.

But only about 9.5 million people are actually dieting at any given time.

What happens to the 140 million other promises? They're broken as soon as the man in the too-tight vest reaches for that piece of Danish pastry in the bustle of the morning meeting. For the mom who's at home with the kids, the diet promise ends as soon as she takes a few more nibbles of the kids' snack foods because she needs energy. For the person who has been chained to a desk all day, trying hard not to think about food, the diet promise comes to a crashing end with a late-night bowl of ice cream.

Everyone knows that being overweight isn't good for you. The insurance companies certainly know it: To determine risk groups, they have gathered masses of statistics about what happens to people who are overweight. They've realized that if you're overweight, you're more prone to diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and high blood pressure. People who are overweight are more likely to need surgery, and once they've had the surgery, they're more likely to develop complications. Being overweight even affects your buying power: Those who weigh more are likely to earn less money, especially if they're executives.


Enough Incentives?
Better health and more prosperity are fine motivators. But even with these incentives, the thought of going on a diet is difficult to contemplate.

A diet is rigid. A diet is boring. A diet means giving up all the foods you like. A diet means changing your lifestyle. A diet means feeling hungry. And many people have discovered something else that's incredibly discouraging about diets: Once they're over, you usually begin to gain back the weight.

Before you take the first steps toward Food Awareness Training, I want you to get rid of all those thoughts about dieting. This is not like any diet you may have known. Food Awareness Training is flexible, not boring. You do not have to give up the food you love or change your lifestyle. You will never feel hungry. You will change your entire relationship with food so you need never be on the same up-and-down weight cycle again.

This is not a "diet book" in any conventional sense. Start with the fact that it is not just for dieters. You won't have to rely on prescriptions, diet gurus, or prepared meals. While this book will help anyone who is trying to lose weight, either through an individualized or group program or with the help of a doctor, it is also meant to help people who are trying to maintain weight, eat in a healthier way, or make better choices for their children.


Who Are You?
To be sure, the way you approach Food Awareness Training is likely to be influenced by experiences that you've had with diet or weight-loss programs in the past. Fortunately, the program has worked for a wide range of people—from those who have never tried diets to those who have been through numerous plans and programs that were designed to help them lose weight. And there's a reason why Food Awareness Training is just as effective for men as it is for women, and just as effective for young people as it is for those who are middle-age or older.

If you've never been concerned with weight loss, but you are now, Food Awareness Training can help you make food choices that assure you'll never have to go on a drastic weight-loss program. In fact, many people who come to see me are experiencing a weight problem for the first time.

Reprinted from Dr. Shapiro's Picture Perfect Weight Loss: The Visual Program for Permanent Weight Loss by Dr. Howard M. Shapiro, Copyright 2000. Permission granted by Rodale, Emmaus, PA 18098. Available wherever books are sold or directly from the publisher by calling (800)848-4735 or visit Rodale's website at www.rodalestore.com.