Experience an inner and outer transformation with David Zulberg's The Life-Transforming Diet. This simple, practical and anything-but-boring program is more than merely a diet. It is a lifestyle that you can live with, because you are empowered to choose what to eat - and when to eat it. Based on the wisdom of Maimonides (Rambam), one of the greatest Jewish sages who ever lived and the outstanding doctor of his time, the Life-Transforming Diet will give you the tools for optimum emotional and physical health, a more spiritual outlook and sustainable weight loss, no matter what your age, gender or occupation.
The Life-Transforming Diet offers you:
* gradual, step-by-step implementation of a new approach to eating: you don't go cold turkey
* theoretical and practical information, including insights into how we form bad habits and tips for laying the foundation for new, better ones
* a simple, quick and well-rounded exercise program that doesn't require a financial commitment
* a do-it-yourself support system that takes only a few minutes a day
* advice for Shabbos and other dieting challenges
* an intelligent and realistic maintenance program
BOOK INTRODUCTION
RAMBAM’S GUARANTEE
Imagine for a moment a world where almost every disease can be prevented and most people enjoy long and healthy lives. If we were able to visit this idyllic world we would probably try to absorb whatever we could of their lifestyle habits in order to emulate their successes in our own lives. Unfortunately, we live in a very different world with frightening health statistics. More than half of the United States population is overweight or obese, and many suffer from resultant health complications! Eating disorders abound, and we are flooded with conflicting advice and false promises to attain our dream of health. Confusion seems to be the norm. Ours is a world in which optimum health levels seem to be out of reach!
One of the greatest Jewish scholars in history tackled these issues. He gives us the means to make this dream a reality. I am referring to Rambam (See his Bio). In no uncertain terms, and without the slightest hesitation, Rambam writes the following mind-boggling guarantee to someone who follows his main principles of nutrition:
Whoever conducts himself in the ways we have set forth, I will guarantee that he will not get sick throughout his life…. He will not need a doctor and his body will be in perfect shape and remain healthy all his life.
This assertion is found in Rambam’s magnum opus, the Mishneh Torah – an authoritative halachic work which is an essential part of the Jewish tradition.
Indeed, this great Torah personality was also one of the foremost physicians in history. Authorities state that Rambam’s advice about health and the prevention of disease remains relevant today. In the classical sources, Migdal Oz writes, “Rambam’s principles of health are clear, apply to all people, and everyone agrees with them.” The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch simply repeats many of Rambam’s main nutritional principles almost verbatim. In our times, the well-known and -respected Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, M.D., wrote to me, “I consider anything Rambam said about nutrition to be true. Furthermore, I consider Rambam’s Guarantee to be ironclad.” Similarly, Dr. Charlene Wolberg, a nutritionist and director of an obesity clinic, concludes that “The understanding of proper nutrition is returning to the principles espoused by the Rambam.”
But “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” (no pun intended). A large part of the Yemenite Jewish population, which followed Rambam’s main principles and teachings, had an average life span of one hundred years!
This population lived in Yemen until about fifty years ago.I can thankfully say that those who have taken on the principles of The Life- Transforming Diet have gained health, lost weight quickly and kept it off while experiencing a transformation of mind and body. Rambam’s amazing Guarantee is waiting to be realized by YOU.
It is possible to achieve longevity, outstanding health and a body which is in excellent shape. Let’s put an end to the frightening health and weightloss statistics! By reading this book, you are on your way to experiencing all the many rewards a healthy lifestyle promises.
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Health and Nutrition
The Life-Transforming Diet is based on time-tested principles, rooted in the teachings of Rambam, for gaining health and regulating weight –permanently! I specifically call them principles rather than rules because you will not feel restricted by them. Instead, you will be empowered to choose how to eat. The diet will give you the flexibility to create your own eating patterns in harmony with your personal lifestyle and preferences.
Furthermore, principles are timeless and unchanging, whereas specific advice or theories may be disproved over time.
Rambam begins his famous chapter on health with the following advice:
A person should eat only when he is hungry and he should drink only when he is thirsty.
This sounds simple: We should listen to our bodies! However, we all know how hard this can be in practice. Our bodies have become used to bad habits and consequently can no longer be relied upon to accurately read the cues. Our goal is to reinstate the integrity of our natural internal systems. Then, we will eat when we are hungry and stop eating before satiation occurs – because that is what we do naturally. Successful weight loss is not only about losing excess pounds. It’s also about acquiring positive eating and lifestyle habits which are based on effective and timeless principles. Gradually we will relearn how to listen to and rely on our bodies. We will lose weight, but most important, maintaining our success will be a natural consequence of the positive habits developed during the process of losing weight and gaining health.
Habit Formation
Interestingly, Rambam places his advice on maintaining health in his Hilchos De’os, a section of Mishneh Torah which discusses emotional development and personal improvement! Elsewhere, Rambam writes explicitly that many of our bad food choices and bad eating habits originate from our learned perceptions. It is clear that Rambam considered achieving optimum health as more than simply an issue of diet and exercise.
Most diets concentrate on the food itself with emphasis on outer results. After all, most people want to look better externally! The inner causative process is often ignored. But our external habits are the physical manifestations of inner motivational forces at work. Therefore, in order to achieve our aim of health and weight management, it is necessary to understand how our minds are involved in our eating habits. Then we will be able to create and cultivate positive eating and lifestyle habits and facilitate the achievement of our goals.
Practical Process
Sometimes we read or hear something inspirational, yet we fail to actually change as a result of this insight. What happened to that powerful moment of inspiration? I know people who have voluminous information on nutrition at their fingertips, but they’re still trying to lose weight and gain health! Mere knowledge of nutritional and psychological principles is insufficient. We need to learn how to internalize our knowledge on a dayto- day basis. This is done through a precise plan of action, which will be implemented through the Phases of this program. Each Phase has been specifically designed from both a physical and a psychological perspective. The guidelines are absolutely clear and the principles are implemented at the right pace.
A Gateway
If you need to lose weight, your body fat will melt away, transforming your outer appearance. You will feel and actually be much healthier and more energized. And you will even see an improvement in your emotional outlook.
For all these reasons, I have called my program The Life-Transforming Diet. This system of gaining health and losing weight will become a gateway to fulfilling your multi-faceted potential. Before we continue, I have two requests:
First, please come with an open mind! This may sound obvious, but we all have our established opinions. Often, we are unaware that our perceptions actually limit our choices. Why should we miss out on great opportunities – plus Rambam’s Guarantee – just because we have become accustomed to certain opinions?
Second, I ask you to bear in mind that all the information in this book is interrelated, and it is impossible to form a clear picture of the Life- Transforming Diet until you have read the whole book. Let me continue by telling you about what prompted me to change my life.
SOURCES:
1. Rambam is an acronym for Rabbeinu Moshe ben Maimon. He is known as
Maimonides in Greek. Rambam lived from 1135 or 1138 to 1204.
2. Mishneh Torah, Hilchos De’os 4:20.
3. Commentary on Hilchos De’os 4:1 found in standard Mishneh Torah editions.
4. Chapter 32.
5. It is important to distinguish between ancient “medical remedies and prescriptions”and Rambam’s health and nutrition advice. They are two completely different subjects. As the Sefer Hakovetz writes (Hilchos De’os, Chapter 4), “This is the very reason why Rambam left out all ‘medical remedies and prescriptions’ from his chapter on health and nutrition in Mishneh Torah.” (See also Be’er Moshe 6:159; Sdei Chemed 3–9, 5.) In contrast, there seems to be a consensus that the “medical remedies and prescriptions” found in the Talmud should not be applied in our times. See Rav Sherira Gaon, Otzar HaGeonim, Gittin 68. Tosafos (Mo’ed Katan 11a) writes regarding the medical treatments found in the Talmud that they are not beneficial in our times. Yam shel Shlomo (Chullin 8:12) writes that it is actually forbidden to practice them. (See also Tosafos, Avodah Zarah 24b; Kesef Mishneh, Hilchos De’os 4:18; Rema, Even HaEzer 156:3; Shevet
HaLevi, vol. 3, 141:3; Bris Olam 477; Chavas Yair 234.)
6. Mishneh Torah, Hilchos De’os 4:1.
7. Treatise on Asthma 13:51.
8. In his Moreh Nevuchim (1:31), Rambam writes that a love for opinions to which we are habituated and with which we are reared can prevent us from seeing the truth.
9. Regimen of Health 2:1.
10. Introduction to Peirush HaMishnayos.
11. Mishneh Torah, Hilchos De’os, chapter 4.
12. The Book of Knowledge, which is the first volume of Mishneh Torah.
13. “Eight Chapters” (part of Peirush HaMishnayos) – Rambam’s Introduction to Pirkei
Avos.
14. Guide of the Perplexed.
15. Perek Chelek is the tenth chapter of tractate Sanhedrin.
16. Iggeret Teiman, etc.
17. Rambam’s commentary on the Mishnah.
