Lose Weight, Feel Better -- YOUR Way

Many of us made a New Year's resolution to lose weight and feel better.

In his new book, "The Spectrum," Dr. Dean Ornish introduces a plan he's devised to help you achieve your goals, in your very own way.

It's Ornish's first book in a decade and in that time, he says, a real consensus has emerged in the medical community about what's good for you and what isn't. For instance, we know that you should eat lots of good carbohydrates and keep your bad carbs to a minimum. The same goes with fats.

He notes he's been on the front-lines of the diet wars for the past 10 years, fighting with espousers of diets or eating programs that really don't work. Ornish says his regimen, "The Spectrum," does.

As part of our series "Weapons of Mass Reduction," Ornish discussed "The Spectrum" with CBS News:

YOU'RE NOT A BIG BELIEVER IN DIETS. WHY IS THAT?

The whole idea of a diet is that it constrains you. When following a diet you have to avoid certain foods. And this is not good for your psyche. No one likes to be told that they can't eat something - and then, when they do eat the forbidden food, they begin to feel guilty. So instead of a diet, you want to take up something like "The Spectrum," which enables you to occasionally indulge in less healthful foods without feeling badly.

WHAT DO YOU SAY TO PEOPLE WHO'VE TRIED MANY TIMES TO LOSE WEIGHT, BUT JUST CAN'T SEEM TO STICK TO IT?

I say that you can do it. There have been studies that have shown that people can lose weight and keep it off. If you're having trouble keeping off the weight, you may want to look more deeply at yourself and ask questions such as, "Am I depressed? Do I eat as a way to make myself feel better?"

IN "THE SPECTRUM," YOU OUTLINE A PROGRAM TO HELP PEOPLE FEEL BETTER AND LOSE WEIGHT. THERE ARE THREE COMPONENTS TO THE OVERALL PROGRAM. THE FIRST IS A "NUTRITION SPECTRUM." WHAT IS THAT?

I have categorized foods from the most healthy to the least healthy and encourage people to eat foods from the healthiest group, but not beat themselves up if they eat from less healthful groups.

NEXT IS THE "STRESS MANAGEMENT SPECTRUM."

Everyone needs to keep his or her stress levels to a minimum. Stress isn't good for us. There are even studies that show it can negatively impact your health. So the thing you are going to want to do is take part in some stress-busting activities, including meditation or yoga. It's also important to have a lot of intimacy in your life, since that relaxes you and just makes you feel better.

THE THIRD AND FINAL SPECTRUM IS THE "EXERCISE SPECTRUM."

You don't need to run marathons, you don't need to go to the gym five times a week, you just have to be as active as you can and not be hard on yourself if there are days when you don't have the desire to do some moderate exercise.

TO READ AN EXCERPT OF "THE SPECTRUM," click here.

For details on Ornish's approach, and on the three components, go to Page 2.

From RandomHouse.com:

In "THE SPECTRUM," Dr. Ornish shows us how to personalize a way of eating and a way of living based on your own health goals, needs, and preferences.

Here's how it works:

Since "THE SPECTRUM" is about freedom of choice, there is no diet to get on and no diet to get off. Nothing is forbidden. No guilt, no shame, no pressure. "THE SPECTRUM" is based on love - joy of living, not fear of dying. Feeling better, not denying yourself pleasure.

First, determine your health and wellness goals. Do you want to lose weight? Do you have high cholesterol? Is diabetes a problem in your family? Based on your individual needs and goals, "THE SPECTRUM" has examples of six individually-tailored lifestyle programs ideally suited for you: lowering cholesterol, losing weight, lowering blood pressure, preventing/reversing diabetes, preventing/reversing certain types of prostate and breast cancer, preventing/reversing heart disease.

Each personalized plan in "THE SPECTRUM" has three components: Nutrition, Stress Management, and Exercise.

The Nutrition Spectrum

The Nutrition Spectrum consists of five groups. Group 1 is the healthiest end of "The Spectrum" and Group 5 is the least healthful end. To determine your current place on the Nutrition Spectrum, find the group that contains the foods you tend to eat most of the time. Then, according to your needs, preferences, and goals, decide how far and how quickly you want to move in a more healthful direction. For example, if you typically eat predominantly foods in Group 4 and you want to lower your cholesterol 50 points, begin by incorporating more foods from Groups 2 and 3. If that's sufficient to achieve your goal, great; if not, you can move more towards the healthier end of "THE SPECTRUM" by consuming more foods from Groups 1 and 2.

In general, the closer you move towards Group 1, the more benefits you're likely to gain and the more quickly you'll experience them. If you're healthy, you many not need or want to make very many changes at all-the "ounce of prevention." On the other hand, if you are trying to reverse heart disease or diabetes, you'll probably need to make bigger changes-the "pound of cure."

The recipes by Art Smith for "THE SPECTRUM" are designed so that each base recipe is in Group 1. Depending on your health and wellness goals, each recipe offers healthy variations. For example, the Vegetable Chili recipe is a delicious version of a classic recipe that begins in Group 1 with predominantly plant-based whole foods that are very low in fat, sugar, salt, and calories. Variations listed at the end of the recipe include adding a cup of pitted higher-fat black olives (which moves this recipe to a Group 2 dish) and/or adding one pound of turkey breast sausage to the recipe (which moves this recipe to a Group 4 dish).

The Stress Management Spectrum

Stress can have a negative impact on just about every part of your body. It can suppress your immune function, cause a heart attack or stroke, increase your risk of cancer, delay wound healing, promote inflammation, cause you to gain weight, impair your memory, cause depression, exacerbate diabetes, and worsen sexual function. Just for starters. Stress also makes you age faster even at a genetic and cellular level. Some people thrive on stress, and it doesn't cause them to get sick. Studies have found that they can turn it on when needed, but they can also turn it off. They have appropriately elevated levels of stress hormones at work during the day, but their stress hormones drop sharply at night. In other words, they can turn it off. In contrast, people who feel chronically stressed and anxious have stress hormones that remain elevated, and this predisposes them to a wide variety of illnesses.

Stress-management techniques can help you turn it off. They are not about withdrawing from the world; rather, they enable you to embrace it more fully and effectively. When you're feeling less stressed, you can think more clearly and creatively, making it easier to find constructive solutions. When you're less stressed, you're more empowered.

The Exercise Spectrum

You already know that exercise is good for you and that regular, moderate exercise is one of the best things you can do for your health and well-being. What you may not know is that new research is showing that exercise beneficially affects your genes, helps reverse the aging process at a cellular level, gives you more energy, makes you smarter, and may even help you grow so many new brain cells (a process called neurogenesis) that your brain actually gets bigger. Really.

Here again is another demonstration of the theme of "THE SPECTRUM": your genes are not your fate. The choices you make each day in your diet and lifestyle have a direct influence on how your genetic predisposition is expressed-for better and for worse. You're only as old as your genes, but how your genes are expressed may be modified by exercise, diet and lifestyle choices much more than had previously been believed-and more quickly.

To gain all the health benefits of regular exercise, you don't have to join a gym, hire a personal trainer, or organize your life around 10K's. For example, in the Women's Health Study, a major ongoing research project involving tens of thousands of women, those who walked briskly for just 60 to 90 minutes a week-just 15 minutes a day-cut their risk of death from heart attack and stroke in half.

FOODS IN THE NUTRITION SPECTRUM

Here is a basic breakdown of the foods in each group of the Nutrition Spectrum:

Group 1

These are the most healthful foods, predominantly fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, soy products, nonfat dairy, and egg whites in their natural forms, as well as some good fats that contain omega-3 fatty acids. These are foods that are rich in good carbs, good fats, good proteins and other protective substances. There are at least 100,000 substances in these foods that have powerful anti-cancer, anti-heart-disease and anti-aging properties.

Group 2

These are also predominantly plant-based but somewhat higher in fat (predominantly monosaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat) such as avocadoes, seeds, nuts. Oils are included but in small amounts, since they are so dense in calories. Group 2 also includes foods canned in water (rather than sugary syrup or oil), canned vegetables (if sodium is not too high), low-fat dairy products (1 percent), decaffeinated beverages, low-sodium soy sauce, and so on.

Group 3

These foods include some seafood, some refined carbohydrates and concentrated sweeteners (in moderation), some oils that are higher in saturated fat, some reduced fat (2 percent) dairy products, margarines free of trans fatty acids, sweeteners containing high fructose corn syrup, and higher sodium.

Group 4

In this group foods contain additional fat, higher animal protein and fewer protective nutrients. These include poultry, fish that are higher in mercury, whole milk/dairy products, margarine, mayonnaise, pastries, cakes, cookies, and pies.

Group 5

In general, these foods are considered the least healthful. They are the lowest in protective substances and are highest in "bad fats." Some food included in this group are red meat, egg yolks, fried poultry, fried fish, hot dogs, organ meats, butter, cream, and tropical oils.
We all need to find our place on the Nutrition Spectrum that's comfortable and congruent with our own personal values as well as with our health needs. And it may evolve over time. The point of "THE SPECTRUM" is to provide you information that you can use to make informed and intelligent choices. Only you can decide what's right for you, for only then is it sustainable.