The Flexitarian Diet

Overview

If you'd like to have all the health benefits of a vegetarian diet--but can't imagine giving up meat . . .
If you'd like to lose weight, increase energy, and boost your immunity--but can't stand following a bunch of rules and restrictions . . .
The Flexitarian Diet is just for you!

"With her flexible mix-and-match plans, Dawn Jackson Blatner gives us a smart new approach to cooking and eating."
--Joy Bauer, M.S., RD, CDN, "Today" show dietitian and bestselling author of Joy Bauer's Food Cures

"The Flexitarian Diet is a fresh approach to eating that's balanced, smart, and completely do-able."
--Ellie Krieger, host of Food Network's "Healthy Appetite" and author of The Food You Crave

“Offers a comprehensive, simple-to-follow approach to flexitarian eating-the most modern, adaptable, delicious way to eat out there."
--Frances Largeman-Roth, RD, senior food and nutrition editor of Health magazine

“It's about time someone told consumers interested in taking control of their weight and health how to get the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle without having to cut meat completely out of their life.”
--Byrd Schas, senior health producer, New Media, Lifetime Entertainment Services

Table of contents

Introduction: Flex Effects--weight loss, disease prevention and so much more
SECTION ONE: Getting Started--The 5-by-5 Flex Plan
The Flex 5: food groups, meal plan, recipes, fitness, troubleshooters
Setting the Right Flex Goal
Your FlexScore: How Flex Are You?
SECTION TWO: 5 Flex Food Groups
Flex Food Group 1: Meet the New Meat
Flex Food Group 2: Veg Out and Satisfy Your Fruit Tooth
Flex Food Group 3: Go With the Grain
Flex Food Group 4: Dairy Discovery
Flex Food Group 5: Sugar & Spice (and everything in between)
Fill in the Nutrient Gaps from A to Z
SECTION THREE: 5 Week Flex Meal Plan & 5 Ingredient Flex Recipes
Flex Fridge, Pantry & Spice Rack Staples
Essential Flex Kitchen Tools
Week One Recipes, Meal Plan, Shopping List
Week Two Recipes, Meal Plan, Shopping List
Week Three Recipes, Meal Plan, Shopping List
Week Four Recipes, Meal Plan, Shopping List
Week Five Recipes, Meal Plan, Shopping List
SECTION FOUR: 5 Flex Fitness Factor
References
Index

Biographical note

Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, LDN, is a registered and licensed dietitian and a national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. She appears regularly in print and video on Lifetime Television's website, MyLifetime.com, hosts a “Healthy Eating” segment on Chicago's “Fox News in the Morning,” writes a food and nutrition blog for USA Today, and teaches cooking classes at The Chopping Block Cooking School. She is an advisory board expert for Fitness and Time Out Chicago magazines. She has appeared on CNN as well as "Dateline NBC,” “NBC Nightly News,” and other programs. Visit her website at www.dawnjacksonblatner.com.

Back cover copy

Thanks to the growing health movement known as “flexitarianism,” you can manage your weight, increase your energy, and lower your health risks with a flexible nutrition plan that minimizes meat without excluding it. The Flexitarian Diet is not a diet in the strict sense of the word but a smart new way of cooking, eating, and living that's as flexible as you are. You can eat what you want with the Five-by-Five Flex Plan--five basic five-part guidelines that you customize to your taste:

Five Flex food groups
Five main-ingredient recipes
Five types of FlexLife troubleshooters
Five Flex fitness factors
Five-week Flex meal plan

Here's how it works:
There are no rules and no restrictions. Just eat more plants during your regular meals--and try to do the best you can. It's that simple. Once you understand the basics of “FlexFoods,” you can swap your ingredients, change your dinner plans, beef up your main dishes with “meaty” alternatives, and spice up your vegetables for fully satisfying meals.

The secret is “flexibility,” according to registered dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner, the creator of The Flexitarian Diet. As health columnist for LifetimeTelevision's website, she knows what dieters are looking for. As spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, she realizes that vegetarianism keeps us slim and healthy. But as a “closet meat-eater,” she understands how hard it is to live exclusively on tofu and sprouts. That's why she developed this wonderfully flexible plan-so you can make your own choices and go at your own pace. (If you're worried about how everything will taste, relax--Dawn is an experienced cooking instructor!)

The choice is yours. Just follow some of the suggestions some of the time, and you can still lose weight, improve your heart health, decrease your risk of diabetes and cancer, and live longer--with the veggie-smart diet that let's you have your meat and eat it too.