Book excerpt: All You Need is Love: From the New York Times best-selling author of The Sonoma Diet and the acclaimed medical director of 20/20 Lifestyles—one of the country’s most successful weight loss clinics—comes the revolutionary plan that will forever change the way you feel about food, yourself, and how you look. According to doctors Connie Guttersen and Mark Dedomenico, the secret to successfully losing weight isn’t HDL, LDL, or DNA. It’s LOVE: loving yourself, loving your body, loving your overall health. Self-doubt and self-loathing are responsible for our dysfunctional relationships with food and our destructive health habits, which inevitably lead to poor nutrition, unwanted weight, and dangerously low self-esteem. Learning to recognize your own worth is the first step to finding the waistline—and the life—you deserve. Drawing on their revelatory research, the latest science on nutrition and weight loss, and thousands of patients’ accounts, Dr. Guttersen and Dr. Dedomenico have developed the Love Diet, an accessible, practical, and proven plan to transform your body, emotionally, mentally, and physically, from the inside out. The Love Diet includes: • 21 days of meal plans for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner, based on ideal nutrient distribution and nutritional strategies for both men and women; • Illustrated “power pairings” for feel-good meals and easy-to-manage portion control; • Anti-inflammatory diet strategies to limit the metabolic syndromes of obesity; • Low-glycemic meals specifically designed to optimize your body’s blood sugar level, decrease cravings, improve energy, and promote weight loss; • Micronutrient information related to the science behind the “gut-brain connection.” Combining good nutrition with positive emotional reinforcement, The Love Diet can deliver sustained weight-loss and radically transform you mind, body, and soul.