The Viva Mayr Diet. Helena Frith Powell

a huge difference to your well-being. Some changes are so small you won’t notice them. Others are more challenging. But once you have lived the diet for the 14 days outlined in this book, you will be converted, I promise.

      Think about what you want to achieve. Why are you buying this book? You want to lose weight? You want to feel better? To look better? Improve your health? I would guess that 99 per cent of you opted for losing weight as your number-one priority. Almost every woman I know thinks she should lose weight. But the fact is, as you will see from the Viva Mayr Diet, that weight loss is inextricably linked with all the other factors I mention. Like health and looks. One thing leads to another. Why not do it all at once and save time? Talk about multi-tasking …

      Forget all fads; the raw-food diet, the blood-group diet, the ‘whatever we haven’t tried yet to convince people to part with their money’ diet. Go for the Viva Mayr Diet, which is sustainable, logical, simple and extremely do-able.

      Where to begin to be thin

      So how to begin? This book is divided into 14 days, with one crucial Viva Mayr point of focus for each day. For example, the focus of Day Three is chewing, one of the most important elements of the Viva Mayr Diet. It’s something we all obviously do – it’s just that most of us don’t do enough of it.

      You can either read the whole book in one go and then go back and re-read the points on which you want to concentrate, or you can take it one day at a time for the 14 days, starting with the first chapter on getting prepared, and then progressing to when and how to eat. You’ll also find all of the recipes you need for a new, thinner you at the back of the book, to help support you through your first 14 days and the beginning of your new lifestyle.

      The Viva Mayr Diet is not over after 14 days; this programme simply gets you started. In reality, the Viva Mayr lifestyle is something you will want to carry on with for the rest of your life. Once you’ve changed the way you eat, you won’t want to go back to your old habits. Viva Mayr is so different from other diets because it is about totally changing the way you think about food, and making food work for you to help your body reach its optimum state.

      What is Viva Mayr?

      Ironically, Viva Mayr hails from Austria, the country of Sachertorte – possibly the most fattening cake ever invented. It all began with the Austrian physician Dr Franz Mayr (1875–1965), a medical legend. He was the first person to prove a direct link between digestive health and overall health and attractiveness. He developed the famous Mayr Cure, which thousands of people still follow to this day. Dr Harald Stossier, the man behind Viva Mayr, was head physician at the original Mayr Clinic for ten years before setting up on his own.

      Dr Stossier is an extraordinary man. If he ran the world, there wouldn’t be an overweight person in it. This is a man with a mission to change the world. Not through politics or good deeds, but by teaching us how to eat properly. Dr Stossier’s theory is that to live a long, healthy and constantly slim life, all you need to do is make a few changes to the way you eat. He began his career as an electrical engineer, but after four years he understood his true vocation was elsewhere. At his wife’s suggestion, he began to study medicine. However, early on he felt very strongly that traditional medicine was too narrow for him.

      ‘I quickly realised I wasn’t one of those typical medical students who just read the books and learned by rote. I felt very strongly my place belonged in complementary medicine,’ he tells me, sitting at a table in the afternoon sunshine at the Viva Mayr Clinic on the shores of Lake Wörthersee in Austria – the clinic he has created based upon his philosophy of health and well-being.

      ‘When I left medical school I had the opportunity to work with Dr Erich Rauch, who had studied under Dr Mayr. Dr Rauch talked about intestinal cleansing as a real health issue. It seemed so perfectly logical to me and I quickly realised how important this message was for everyone.’

      I’m not sure I’m ready to talk about intestinal cleansing with someone I hardly know, but apparently it is an issue that is paramount to good health. And a lot of people pay good money to come here to Austria and discuss it in great detail. Are they all slightly weird or should I let my inhibitions go?

      Dr Stossier’s clinic is an oasis of calm. Clients lie on sun-loungers watching the boats go by and only need to get up for consultations with Dr Stossier, treatments or meals. It is not the most luxurious or the most expensive clinic in the world, yet while I was there I met several people who could well afford to go anywhere they chose. They have chosen Dr Stossier and his clinic in Austria because they believe that he can change their lives, and for the vast majority of people I met, he has.

      I arrived at the Viva Mayr clinic one Thursday afternoon in August, starving hungry. I don’t know what it is about clinics or diet places – or, indeed, just the thought of a diet – that makes me hungry. I can have just eaten Christmas lunch and start thinking about that diet I’m going to begin on New Year’s Day and before I know what’s going on, I find myself grabbing another roast potato to add to the 17 I’ve just eaten.

      I shared a taxi from the airport with a lady called Brenda, from London. She had come to lose weight.

      ‘I just need to stop eating,’ she told me, as we sped through the Austrian countryside.

      ‘Can’t you do that in London?’ I asked.

      ‘No, I need to be forced to. I practically need a straitjacket and a cell. This is the only thing that works for me.’

      ‘Well, if you get desperate, I’ve got some organic shortbread biscuits with me,’ I smiled conspiratorially.

      Brenda went pale. ‘Please promise you won’t give me any,’ she pleaded, grabbing my hand.

      I promised I wouldn’t. Goody, all the more for me.

      It was four o’clock when we arrived, and I was relieved to see from the timetable I was handed that dinner was at six o’clock. Not long to wait before I got some scoff. I said goodbye to my new friend and headed off to explore the place. My room overlooked the lake; it was a balmy afternoon, and there were people sunbathing. In the distance there was someone water-skiing.

      The furniture in my room was modern and comfortable. There was a reclining chair that I could see myself becoming very familiar with, as I ploughed through all the books that Dr Stossier had given me to read as background research. I leafed through my welcome pack. Here I found a full of explanation of when and how to take Epsom salts (something about that made me feel rather nervous; aren’t they a substance your grandmother used to punish you with?), something called base powder, and a list of my various consultations. My first one was in half an hour, with the ‘friendly werewolf’ – as Dr Stossier has been called by various journalists because of his prominent molars. I slipped into my bathrobe and flannel slippers in preparation. Such a good look. Still, I was there for a reason, and I was going to embrace it.

      The clinic is possibly the cleanest and most pristine place I have ever stayed in. It is on the shores of a beautiful lake in southern Austria. The rooms are all large with balconies, the staff super-smiley and friendly. Dr Stossier will not be drawn on the famous people who go there, but I get the impression from him and his wife, who also works there, that there are many.

      ‘We have to respect their privacy,’ he says. His wife is responsible for some of the treatments offered there, such as personality tests based on colours, and stomach massages. She is one of the warmest, most welcoming people you could ever hope to meet; she positively radiates good health and happiness.

      If only we all lived the Viva Mayr way …

      I had first met Dr Stossier in London, at a meeting to discuss writing this book. The publisher had chosen me for the job because I have written two books in a similar vein – that is, with a mission to appeal predominantly to women. One was called Two Lipsticks and a Lover, which is all about how to get in touch with your inner Frenchwoman, and the other, To Hell in High Heels, is all about how not to age – from which staying