Woman’s World – America's Healthiest Mom

The Amazing Cookbook that’s Making Women Slim!

By Allison Nemetz

50, 70, 100, even 200 pounds

When newlywed Leslie Johnson wandered into a Virginia bookstore four years ago, she had no idea her life was about to change. Only 23, she weighed 200 pounds and had just learned that her cholesterol was dangerously high.

“My weight was making me unhealthy and so unhappy,” Leslie says. “I desperately wanted to take control, but I didn’t even know where to start.”

Always a good student, Leslie instinctively turned to books. Among those she bought that day was Recipes for Fat Free Living. That cookbook turned Leslie’s health

Packed with recipes and a heaping helping of inspiration, the book became Leslie’s diet buddy. “The tips and recipes helped me change the way I eat,” she says. “I was able to replace my normal fatty foods with fat-free versions, so it wasn’t like a diet at all. Before long, I even felt good enough to start working out.”

And when she was finally weighed in at the doctor’s office a year later, “I was down to one hundred twenty-five pounds, my cholesterol had dropped by seventy points and best of all, I felt happy and confident for the first time in years!”

Success stories like this touch the heart of Fat Free Living author Jyl Steinback. And they motivate her to keep spreading the word about fat-free cooking. Her cookbook series now includes five volumes containing over 1,200 recipes, all with less than a gram of fat per serving.

Says the enthusiastic nutrition pro and personal trainer: “This lifestyle is so easy and makes people feel so fantastic, I just want to share it with everybody!”

There Are Just Two Simple Rules

Steinback developed her strategy seven years ago when she was struggling to find an uncomplicated, healthy way to feed her family. She knew reducing the fat in their diet was the best way to go, but she found diet math confusing and health food stores inconvenient. So she came up with her own system, and it worked so well, she had to share it with others. The streamlined basics:

1. Never eating any food that has more than 2 grams of fat per 100 calories. “Check the labels,” she says. “This way you can buy all your food at your regular supermarket and never get more than eighteen percent of your calories from fat.”

Steinback advises giving your palate a month to adjust to the new way of eating. “Once you get the taste for fat out of your system, you’ll never want to go back,” she promises. “You’ll also want to identify your trigger foods,” she adds. “We all have foods that make us go overboard. And since you can’t eat non-stop and stay slim, try keeping these foods out of the house.” You’ll soon be seeing less self.

2. Keeping active.

Steinback suggests adding 20 minutes of aerobics (such as walking or biking) three times a week. After this gets to be a habit, tact on 20 minutes of strength training exercises to each workout using a video and hand weights. And that’s all there is to it!