Best Life Diet - The Phases Explained
February 2, 2009 by Matt Hellstrom
Filed under Diet
Phase 1: Getting Started
This initial phase of Bob Greene’s plan is laying the foundation for a life of healthy living. You determine your weight then 4 weeks later weigh again. Scale is not your enemy! Next you honestly evaluate your level of exercise and increase it (after checking in with your doctor) because this is where your metabolism starts to take off.
The food issue is addressed with getting on a regimented meal routine - 3 a day and a snack. Emphasis on breakfast as this is where your metabolism gets started for the day and keeps hunger at bay until midday. Don’t let your appetite be your guide, eat as soon as you get up. This also makes your brain start producing the chemicals that generate pleasure and lower pain senses.
Things to follow on this phase:
* No alcohol (don’t worry it’s only for this phase)
* Have a glass of water at every meal.
* Find a good vitamin, with an Omega-3 and calcium supplementation.
* Stop eating at least two hours before you go to bed.
Now at the end of this 1st phase, one month, get on the scale. If you’ve been losing more than 1 pound a week, stay put at this level for a few more weeks. If you didn’t see that kind of loss, move on to Phase 2.
Phase 2: The Switch
Here is where the weight really drops. Do this phase for at least 1 month also. There are six bad foods that you are going to throw out of your meals and add foods that will lower your hunger. Now you are weighing weekly. Be patient with the numbers, this is long term. If you have a few up weeks, look back over what routine you are on and see if you can tweak it to get moving again. Always use upping your exercise as a way to get back on track, plus the increased endorphins will help replace the comfort you got in the past from food.
When you have reached the end of the month, see how you are faring against your goal. If you are close, move on to the rest of your life - Phase 3. Otherwise, give this phase another month. The Bob Greene’s diet book lists in greater detail what the parameters are in pounds on when to go to Phase 3.
Phase 3: Happily Ever After
Welcome to the rest of your life! You don’t have to add all the recommendations of this phase all at once, but do the best you can. You will continue to watch the way you eat and exercise as this is a work in progress. By now, watching calories will come more naturally (which you can do easily with the Bob Greene diet plan Advanced Pedometer).
With everything you have learned and changed in Phase 1 and 2, you are ready to add the “anything goes” calories back into your diet. Good foods like dark chocolate, full-fat cheese, yogurt, a glass of vino, pizza (whole grain crust of course!) are all back up as options. Vegetables continue to be your main staple. With these, 2 servings of fruit and any whole grain food, depravation (and diet) are no longer words in your vocabulary. Your craving for sweets will be taken care of with fruit and an eye on the ingredients when you added a tasty tidbit.
This phase allows you to add calories back in and not worry about gaining. Why? You are again raising your activities level. This will give you the freedom you desire in choosing foods without finding those pounds you have left far behind. Oh and goodbye botox too as exercise is now the way you will keep your youthful appearance. Weigh at the most every week and at the least every month.
The Best Life Diet by Bob Greene - A Review
January 22, 2009 by Matt Hellstrom
Filed under Diet
I always like to get an idea of a program will work for me before I spend any of my hard earned money or limited time. So I thought maybe you would like that too before you make a commitment to Bob Greene’s Best Life diet. So here’s your peek.
Price. A very valuable question - cost is about $50. That includes the primary book that includes meal plans, a food journal and a great book or cd that helps you focus on the effect food has on you in life. You also can become part of his forum that gives you access to experts and other people in the program.The offset of this is that fresh food is cheaper than processed food.
How Long is the Diet? As with any plan, Bob Greene’s diet depends on your commitment. The first 2 phases are set up to go for 4 weeks each. The middle phase is the reach your goal stage and may last longer depending on the weight loss you desire. The final phase is your new improved changed lifestyle.
Exercise. This is a huge focus on this plan. You start by deciding where you are activity-wise and increasing it a bit at a time until you eventually reach the optimum range that will keep your calories burning. This is important because it keeps on you on the success track and doesn’t blow out your body.
Time Commitment. Food prep is low, the fitness level is high. See Ongoing Commitment for further comments.
Dining Out. Of course! Bob Greene’s diet books help you learn how to make smart decisions at restaurants. He even offers a book that gives you specific suggestions off the menu of several places.
Drinking. Start by eliminating alcohol in phase 1. But reintroduce it in the 2 later stages.
Lifelong Decisions. Knowing that gaining weight is not a cop out in doing what’s is healthy, Bob Greene’s diet plan address all the complexities of our society that contribute to the decisions we make about food. This helps us look at our life with honesty and realism that will make this not “just another” diet but a lifestyle change that unearths what is lying underneath that drives us to our choices. This is the stuff of change.
Can this diet plan work for you? Only you can answer that. Anyone or anything else will not give you the jumpstart that you need to have inside to make this the start of your last diet.
Bob Greene Best Life Diet
January 8, 2009 by Matt Hellstrom
Filed under Diet
I am very leery of diet plans, so when I heard about Bob Greene’s Best Life diet plan I was skeptical. I wasted no time in checking it out and it seemed, well, wrong. I had always believed that diets were crash courses, and these were the ones I participated in. Start fast and furious wiping out and replacing everything I ate and then very slowly working back towards getting to eat what I wanted. The more I investigated Bob Greene’s diet plan the more it starting making abundant sense.
The more I thought through Bob Greene’s diet, the more it started making sense. Statistics have shown that people fail in their diets because too much change too fast is a recipe for failure. So it dawned on me that if you start slowly, see success, it will foster a desire to continue to see more success. Plus when you start getting healthy, a bonus is that your attitude follows and it drives you too towards establishing a healthy lifestyle.
Bob Greene says this about his best life diet: “Losing weight the right way - so you shed pounds and keep them off - takes time”. This is what inspired Bob Greene to create a “for life” plan that requires you to only gradually make small but powerful lifestyle changes, like eating a nutritious breakfast each day and moving about more. And you will see the results you wanted all along, to not only slim down but to also live the healthiest, happiest life possible - this is your Best Life.
Many of us are used to diets where you can easily become discouraged and stop only to feel guilty and start again. Not this one, though, because you build into healthy eating habits in such a way that it becomes a way of life. And this is really a best life diet plan because you can enjoy the comfort of food while not worrying about losing the great shape you have earned.
Bob Greene’s diet is three simple to follow phases, each set up to last for about 4 weeks. Phase 1 is preparation for weight loss by implementing steps that rev up your metabolism with eating 3 regular meals and a snack and start exercising. Phase 2 starts by knocking out 6 bad foods and managing your meals based on a Hunger scale. Phase 3 is arriving at a way of life that will be simple to continue - your way. Building up to this Phase gives you the foundation you need for being healthy lifelong.
One downside to Bob Greene’s diet is there is no limiting on portions sizes. This is self-regulated and is very important to healthy living. The other side of the coin is you are moving more than ever and once you get moving you will be amazed how much you enjoy it because it produces again those endorphins which give you pleasure. And the calories are a burnin’!
In summary, you can’t miss with Bob Greene’s Best Life Diet plan. His honesty and awareness of the reality of how people operate is evident in the way this diet is structured. You only have to start to have the full and healthy life you desire.



