Helena Frith Powell - The Viva Mayr Diet

HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

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First published by HarperCollins Publishers 2009

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© Harald Stossier and Helena Frith Powell

Harald Stossier and Helena Frith Powell assert the moral right

to be identified as the authors of this work

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Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007516636

Version: 2019-10-15

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Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction Eating your way to a healthier, thinner you

Day One The first day of the rest of your life

Day Two Viva eating

Day Three The art of chewing

Day Four Getting active

Day Five Breakfast like a king

Day Six Raw before four

Day Seven Stop when you’re full

Day Eight The early bird

Day Nine Water works

Day Ten Enhancing digestion

Day Eleven Eating stress-free

Day Twelve Hello alkaline, goodbye bloating

Day Thirteen Looking and feeling younger

Day Fourteen The Viva Mayr way and you

Recipes

Useful contacts

Acknowledgements

About the Publisher

Congratulations. This is the first step to a healthier, thinner, younger-looking and gorgeous you. I know what you’re thinking: All diet books say that . Some of them even tell you that you’ll get healthier and thinner just by picking up the book and paying for it. ‘Buy this book, it will change your life,’ they boast.

We all know they can’t be telling the truth, but just as when we buy extortionately expensive face creams that claim to take years off our appearance, we want to believe them. We are desperate to believe that our lives can be changed – or, at least, that our hips can be slimmer – by reading a book, smearing on some cream or buying some new knickers.

The bad news is that most of the time it simply isn’t that simple. There is no magic wand to make most of the changes that we want to see. But the good news is that the Viva Mayr Diet is as close as you can get to a miracle cure-all. It is, quite simply, the best diet there is – and the easiest one to follow. There is no calorie-counting, no weighing your food, and no living off cabbage soup for weeks on end. It is simply an approach to eating that will totally transform you. I guarantee that if you follow the Viva Mayr Diet, you will not only lose weight but you will also feel and look better than you have done in years.

This is because the Viva Mayr Diet is not only about what you eat, it is about how you eat and live. It is about making small changes to your everyday habits that will make 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.

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.

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.