Product Description

A glass of wine at dinner and a flatter stomach in 14 days? Yes girls, it can be done! The Viva Mayr Diet is the savvy diet for people in the real world who want to get a bikini body and revamp their health with ease. It's based on the world-famous Viva Mayr spa clinic in Austria, the hottest health and weight loss destination in Europe. After 14 days your stomach will be flatter, your skin will be glowing, you'll have a spring in your step and you'll be well on your way to getting a fabulous beach babe body. You'll feel so good you'll want to make The Viva Mayr Diet a way of life -- and let's face it girls, if you want to make a permanent dent into those love handles you've got to look a bit further ahead. The difference is that after the 14 days you'll be hooked and it should feel as natural following The Viva Mayr Diet as it is reaching for your lip gloss. Dr Harald Stossier, the medical genius behind it all, has teamed up with Helena Frith Powell, former serial dieter and author of Two Lipsticks and a Lover. Together they will take you through the simple principles of the diet, open your eyes to why following it makes perfect sense and walk you step-by-step through the 14-day practical plan. Dr Stossier and Helena also share their experiences of following the diet with rare insight and humour, telling you what to expect, how to avoid any pitfalls and how to reap the benefits of looking and feeling better than you have done in years. Sneak preview facts every girl should know: / Agonising over water or wine at dinner? Make it wine every time! / Stop eating on the move! Eating when you're all stressed out is your no.1 enemy. / Eat a cheese burger really slowly and it'll be better for you than wolfing down an all-organic fancy salad. / Never, ever skip breakfast! If you're really that busy, drop dinner from your day instead.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27010 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Review
'I arrived a cynic and left a convert ... three-quarters of a stone in just over a week is impressive, plus I feel amazing.' --India Knight

About the Author
Dr. Stossier is President of the International Association of Physicians for Applied Kinesiology and a member of the International Society of Mayr Doctors. He has an outstanding international reputation both as a practitioner and innovator of Mayr Medicine. He runs two clinics in the south of Austria near Klagenfurt and has a satellite clinic in central London that he visits every month. He runs his London clinic with the highly respected fertility expert, Zita West. Helena Frith Powell is the author of Two Lipsticks and a Lover and To Hell in High Heels. She writes regularly for a number of national newspapers including her French Mistress column in the Sunday Times.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Quinoa potato gnocchi with fresh spinach, tomatoes and olive cream

Serves Four

550g potatoes, peeled and boiled
4 egg yolks, beaten
3 tbsp potato flour
100g quinoa flour
A pinch of rock salt
A pinch of grated nutmeg
80g Parmesan cheese (plus a little extra to garnish)
500g fresh spinach, washed and stalks removed
1 tsp butter
250g organic baby plum tomatoes
A handful fresh basil leaves, torn

Preheat the oven to 200ºC, 400ºF, gas mark 6.

Press the potatoes through a sieve or ricer, and blend in a bowl with the egg yolks, potato flour, quinoa flour, salt, nutmeg and Parmesan cheese. Knead together with your hands to form a soft dough.

Quarter the dough, and form 4 rolls, approximately 2cm thick. Cut into pieces and mould each piece so that it forms a gnocchi. Put one side to rest.

Place the tomatoes on a baking tray, and roast for about ten minutes.

To make the olive cream, blend together the pitted black olives and olive oil until smooth. Set to one side.

Fill a saucepan with lightly salted water, and bring to the boil. Simmer the gnocchi for 2 to 3 minutes, and drain.

Next, simmer the spinach in a large covered pot, with only a little water, until tender. Remove the lid, and allow the remaining water to evaporate. Stir in the butter, and a little rock salt and grated nutmeg.

To serve, arrange the gnocchi on a bed of spinach, and gently top with roasted tomatoes. Place a dollop of olive cream on the side, and sprinkle with grated Parmesan and fresh basil leaves. Serve at once.

Customer Reviews

Eat yourself fitter
I bought this book after being impressed by a recent Grazia magazine article
about the principles of the diet. Once you get pass the annoyingly cheap as chips presentation, the endless advert for the Viva Mayr Clinic and the
irritating writing style of Ms Frith Powell (constant references to her shortbread biscuits and Krispy Kremes were maddening!) you have a book that promotes not just a diet but a new way of eating for life. Changing bad habits for good ones, and making whatever food we eat matter.
The diet's basic mantra is based on common sense and everything that my Mother used to tell me as a child (chew your food properly, sit down to eat your meal or you'll get digestion) all ring true! The basic rules are easy for me to follow... Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper. Chew, chew, chew your food!, never eat when stressed, never eat raw after four and try not to eat past 6.00pm (luckily, I work from home)
These changes to my eating patterns has made a great difference. My stomach is flatter, I sleep better, I feel less bloated and I have more energy, with the added bonus of weight loss. So...the penny has dropped. You are not what you eat. But you are what you digest.

Chew it over...and over, and over...
I agree with other reviewers that the advice provided in the book is sensible, and that the broad principles are worth following as much as possible. However, I think that trying to follow it strictly would be unworkable for the majority of people. ('Can't eat before 6:00pm? Don't eat'. Riiight.)

My issue with the book is that I found thought that the author's style did not do the issues (which do seem interesting) discussed justice. Obviously this is my personal opinion, but I found the book itself to be fairly bland, and it had the air of an extended advert for the clinic. The author actually visited the clinic and speaks about her time there, and this seems to confuse the message that it's an easy diet to follow at home.

Just to get this off my chest - I found the constant references to 'organic shortbread biscuits' (and 'wolves' - why?) really annoying and pointless.

Also, there were a few grammatical errors in the book which, although a relatively small issue, does make me feel as if the book has just been rushed out as quickly and cheaply as possible.

A diet for me!
I don't think this is a diet that is all about depravation. In fact, I think it's a bit indulgent. Fine by me! I just get so sick of counting the calories and all that, that this diet was refreshing. Don't know how much weight I will actually lose, but, hey, it's worth it to me to give this one a shot! Another good one---Goodbye, Fatty! Hello, Skinny! How I Lost Weight And Still Ate The Foods I Loved-Without Dieting.