Introduction Gett Ready to Heal Your Metabolism with 28 Days of Delicious Food If you''ve read The Fast Metabolism Diet , congratulations! You''ve just taken a huge step in repairing not only your metabolism, but your entire relationship with food--because the recipes in this book aren''t just about repairing and or revving up a sluggish, slow, and burned-out metabolism (though they will). They are also about learning to love food again--relearning how to love its taste, its smells, its textures, and all the ways it nourishes your body and spirit. I want you to let go of the death grip of fear food once had over you. I want you to learn to see food as your friend, your ally, your companion on your journey to a healthier, thinner you. I want you to relearn how to show love through the food you put on your family''s table, and enjoy the love that your family puts into the food they cook for you. You know the Fast Metabolism Diet is about eating, and it''s about eating a lot. You know it''s a diet that requires you to eat five times a day, sometimes more; that it''s a diet about feeding your metabolism, using food to fuel your weight loss. But in order to do that you have to have real food, and real food needs to be cooked.

And if you''re as busy as most of my clients, that food needs to be easy, it needs to taste amazing, and it needs to be good for you. So this cookbook is all about learning how to cook food that tastes great, food that makes you feel great, and food that makes you look great: food that you can be proud to put on the dinner table for yourself, your guests, and your family. Cooking is about becoming an active participant in being well; it''s what lets you take control of your health and repairing a metabolism that got broken somewhere along the way. My family is fortunate enough to have a personal chef to cook all this delicious food--and that personal chef is me! Together we''re going to turn you into your own personal chef--and the personal chef for your own family, friends, and loved ones--by teaching you how to create meals that strengthen your body, enhance your health, and light your metabolism on fire. We are going to find the new you, and we''re going to do it now. It''s going to take a little work, but it''s nothing you can''t do. I''m not going to ask you to starve yourself ever again. That''s likely what got you into this mess in the first place.

So let''s draw a line in the sand. If food has been your enemy in the past, that''s all over. Now we''re stepping into your future, where food is your medicine. It''s the only thing we have to build our bodies, to create a healthy heart, strong bones and muscles, and good skin, hair, and nails. It''s what we use to fuel the manufacture of hormones that regulate everything in our bodies. It''s not just energy. It''s life. It''s time to stop being afraid to eat, and instead learn how to do it the right way.

Whether you are ten or twenty or fifty pounds overweight, you need this medicine. You need to learn how to use food to unwind stress, unlock fat, and unleash your metabolism. I am out to revolutionize the way people feel about food, cooking, and the way they use food in their lives. That is why I''ve designed more than 250 nutritious, delicious, and easy-to-prepare meals that you can eat on all three phases of the Fast Metabolism Diet. It''s why throughout the book you''ll find lots of tips--some that I''ve come up with, and others that my clients shared with me--to help keep you on track as you rekindle your relationship with cooking, food, and weight loss. But there are a few things you won''t find in this cookbook. You won''t find any fake or packaged ingredients. You won''t find any artificial sweeteners or artificially sweetened foods.

You also won''t find any calorie or carb or fat gram counts. If you''ve read The Fast Metabolism Diet , then you know that "calories in, calories out" is a myth, and that I do not want you to ever count calories or carbs or fat grams. Instead, I want to see you cooking, preparing, and enjoying real food: the food that is the cornerstone of a healthy, fast metabolism. My primary goal is to promote health and make weight loss happen. It''s what I do. It''s who I am. And it''s why we''re going to get into the kitchen, together. This is a diet full of pleasure, not denial.

I am going to send you in a new direction, to help you enjoy food again, rather than fear it or deny it or portion it out on little tiny plates. With the Fast Metabolism Diet, unpleasant diet side effects simply aren''t necessary. No starving allowed! You will shake up your metabolism in just the right way to increase your lean-muscle-to-fat ratio while enjoying improved health, more energy, and all the great food you''re going to learn how to make in this book. Cooking is a sacred and calming activity for me. At times, if you walk into my kitchen you''ll find me with two slow cookers and a stock pot all going at once, because that''s maybe the only night I have to cook for the entire week. After everything cools, you''ll see Tupperware and freezer bags laid out all over the counter; after everything cools I portion it all out for family meals, one-serving meals, breakfasts, lunches, anddinners, and then I label everything and stick it in the freezer. It can be a crazy assembly line for one afternoon, but it makes the rest of the week totally seamless. Sometimes I even invite friends over for a bring-your-own-Tupperware cooking party.

But as much as I love to cook, I am also living a very full life and at times stretched very thin financially, emotionally, and for time, as I bet you are too. Therefore most of the recipes I have included are the things I prepare daily, so I know they are pretty quick and can be made on the fly. Many can be made on a shoestring budget; a few you could serve to a king. I also know that most of them freeze and reheat well. These are all recipes I enjoy, and I cook them for my friends, family, and clients to enjoy too. In fact, many of them have given their input as to which favorites they wanted me to include. In more ways than one, cooking food creates community, and now you''re part of that community, too. So in a way we will be cooking together.

Know that I am most likely chopping, freezing, slow-cooking, and baking along with you. So if you want to share recipes of your own, please visit my web site at fastmetabolismdietdotcom.