The Virgin Diet: The US Bestseller. JJ Virgin

Drop the high-FI foods, drop up to 7 pounds in 7 days and look years younger. That’s my promise, and I can’t wait for you to take me up on it.

      If you eliminate a high-FI food and then reintroduce it, you’ll know instantly if it’s been causing you trouble because any symptoms you have will be through the roof. I had a client who had never realized that she’d been struggling with egg intolerance. When she cut out eggs, she lost 10 pounds in 3 weeks without even trying. Then, when she ate an experimental plate of scrambled eggs, she got so sleepy that she almost passed out. Eggs had been making her tired, fat and old before her time. It was only when she gave them up that she figured it out.

      Have you ever heard the story of the lobster who didn’t realize it was being cooked because the water just kept on getting warmer and warmer? That’s how a lot of my clients are about eating high-FI foods. That’s how I was, too. One day I woke up and realized that I had gained 10 pounds, had developed a bloated waistline and was struggling with mental fog and fatigue almost all the time. I hate to admit it, but I also looked 10 years older. How had this happened? My symptoms had developed gradually, and I had simply learned to live with them.

      When I cut out high-FI foods, my new normal was terrific. I lost all the weight I had gained, and I looked young and glowing again. Problem solved, right? Then I took one tiny bite of egg – by accident, it was lurking in a sauce – and I almost doubled over with cramps and bloating. Suddenly it looked like an alien was growing in my stomach.

      The Virgin Diet is the key to losing those stubborn pounds – and all those extra years. If I want to keep feeling good, looking young and staying slim, I stick to the Virgin Diet. Now you can follow the Virgin Diet and get the same great results.

      

      Like most people, you’ve probably longed for your old figure and your younger metabolism. You’ve chalked up your leaner friends’ skinny jeans to luck and genetics. You’ve tried every fad diet and superfood, hoping to resemble the Hollywood stars who look better at 40 than they did at 20, seemingly by magic. And you are reluctantly accepting a fate of an ever-expanding waistline as part of ageing.

       You can stop gaining weight and lose the pounds simply by eliminating the bad foods.

      Well, what if I told you that fat is not your fate? I’m almost 50 years old, and I put most younger women’s bodies to shame. Better yet, so do my clients. You can stop gaining weight and lose the pounds you’ve packed on over the last decade simply by eliminating the bad foods. Time makes you wiser not wider, and you have probably spent a lifetime of moderately consuming the wrong foods and gradually undermining your body’s ability to maintain or lose weight. The fewer wrong foods you eat, the leaner you will be. By eliminating all the wrong foods for 3 weeks, you can drop up to 7 pounds and look years younger by next week.

      Let’s get one thing straight: even if you’ve been on a dozen diets and struggled unsuccessfully to lose weight, the Virgin Diet can work for you. In fact, the more trouble you’ve had with losing weight and keeping it off, the more likely it is that food intolerance is at the root of your problem. Ironically, trouble with previous diets probably makes you a better candidate for success with the Virgin Diet. If they didn’t work, food intolerance was very likely a big part of the reason. Heal that problem, and off come the pounds.

       The more trouble you’ve had losing weight, the more likely it is that food intolerance is your problem.

      Does pulling high-FI foods from your diet sound like an impossible task? Believe me, I get it. I hated the thought of giving up my favourite high-FI foods. I wondered how I’d live without my occasional slice of sourdough bread and my beloved breakfast omelettes. I couldn’t believe I’d ever be happy without that inch of foamy milk on my caffé Americano. The irony is that you usually crave the very foods that are hurting you, and eat them every day.

      Now that I live on a low-FI diet, I feel happier, healthier and more energetic than I ever have. My mind is clear and focused, and I love the way I look. My life has been much easier to navigate without high-FI foods, and I promise, yours will be, too. In just 3 weeks, you’ll reverse your weight gain. You’ll look and feel at least 10 years younger. And you’ll be able to safely reintroduce the foods that your body likes.

      The Virgin Diet can work anywhere with anybody, no matter where you live, how often you eat in restaurants or how frequently you travel. I travel a lot of the time and rarely have time to cook, but when I’m home, I like to make dinner for my kids. I’m not the Queen of Cooking, but I am the Queen of Meal Assembly. I’ve stuck to the Virgin Diet everywhere in the United States, including some tiny towns too small to even have a full-sized grocery store.

      In Part III of this book, I’ll show you how to create delicious low-FI meals (including plenty of easy, crowd-pleasing recipes) and how to maintain the diet when you travel, eat in restaurants or cook for your family – even for picky eaters! You can prepare low-FI foods for your family, and you can prepare them on a budget. You don’t need access to special health-food shops and you don’t need to eat weird or unusual foods. All you have to do is cut the wrong foods out of your diet and replace them with the foods your body likes.

      So don’t worry about sticking to this programme. Whatever your situation, I know you can make it work. Just give me 21 days, and you are going to be blown away by how great you feel.

      

      I’ve been working with weight loss and food intolerance for more than 20 years. I’ve helped hundreds of physicians expand their knowledge of nutrition and weight loss, and I’ve helped thousands of men and women lose weight. Some of my greatest success stories can be found throughout this book. Clients who have struggled with their weight for years suddenly begin losing weight almost without effort – as long as they leave high-FI foods out of their diets. People who have suffered from acne, arthritis, joint pain, mental fog, fatigue and a dozen other complaints suddenly lose their symptoms. Their skin clears up, their hair looks shiny and full of life and they appear 10 years younger. That is their success story – and it can be yours.

      It was certainly Melanie’s. After 21 days on the Virgin Diet, she lost 10 of her target 20 pounds without any reduction in calories or change to her exercise routine. A few weeks later, she lost the other 10 pounds and was feeling stronger and more energized than she had in years. She no longer had to stress over calorie-counting or obsess over the scale. She just had to leave out of her diet the foods that her body couldn’t tolerate.

      “You know, it’s funny, JJ,” she said the last time we talked, “now my friends all want to know what I’m eating to look so terrific.”

      “That’s great,” I answered. “What do you tell them?”

      Melanie laughed. “I tell them it’s what I’m not eating that’s made all the difference!”

      

      Kathy Miller

       Age 56

      Lakewood,

       Colorado

      Height: 1.7m

      Starting