Finally there is a scientifically proven way to shed stubborn pounds and keep them off, especially if you are struggling with excess weight around the mid-section. The secret to beating the bloat and enjoying lasting weight loss is a healthy gut. A healthy gut—fueled by superfoods, anti-inflammatory fats, and prebiotic and probiotic foods—can balance your appetite, reduce cravings, regulate blood sugar, fight inflammation, and fuel your body with key nutrients for optimal health. Award-winning dietitian Manuel Villacorta takes the guesswork out of gut health with his proven plan that sheds pounds, burns belly fat, and makes you feel years younger.
 
Knowing that variety is the key to his clients' success, Villacorta organized the meal plans according to seasons so you can enjoy different tastes and textures and the food is always accessible, fresh, and inexpensive. For example, in the spring and summer, enjoy refreshing smoothies, gazpachos, and salads including Fig Jicama Salad, Beef Bone Soup, a Chocolate Smoothie Bowl, and California Avocado Gazpacho. In the fall and winter, enjoy heartier soups and warm power bowls, including Pumpkin Pie Smoothie, Sweet Potato Bean Bowl, Cannellini Sausage Bowl, and Cauliflower Walnut Soup.

Flat Belly 365 provides an initial "reboot", a 7-day kickstart plan to rev your body into optimal fat-burning, whether you are starting anew after a holiday or if your skinny jeans are a bit too snug. After completing the first week reboot, you can continue with a modified plan, mixing and matching your favorite recipes. After the first week, clients report up to six pounds of weight loss, an average of 1.5 inches lost from their waists, better sleep, and renewed levels of energy.

With Flat Belly 365, you can enjoy your meals and still rock your skinny jeans.

Introduction

As a dietitian with 18 years of experience and an author of 3 nutrition and wellness books, I have helped thousands of people reach their weight loss goals. I have done so by teaching and creating programs that use the latest findings in the field of nutrition and turning them into practical and innovative meal plans. In the last few years, I developed a program that includes my latest research in nutrition and gut health. Within this program, you will learn to incorporate several different foods, such as anti-inflammatory fats to help reduce visceral fat and superfoods for antioxidant and antiaging powers. The program also includes prebiotic and probiotic foods to keep your gut happy and healthy. This plan focuses more on the quality of food rather than counting calories.

In my private practice in San Francisco, I have been using these meal plans with my clients, and the results are outstanding. All of the clients have successfully lost weight and inches around their waists, with an average weight loss of 4 to 6 pounds within the 7-day Flat-Belly reboot week. The more they followed the plan in detail, the better the results. In addition to the weight loss, the overall health effects have been nothing short of amazing. Nearly all my clients have reported that they feel more energized, are enjoying better sleep, and feel less bloated. Here are some success stories:

Stephanie, a 50-year-old who, for the life of her, couldn't shake even a pound and kept blaming premenopause, said, 'I finally lost weight by sticking to the 1,300 calorie Spring Plan. That's truly progress! 3 pounds in one week and I don't feel bloated!'

Sofia, a 62-year-old, couldn't lose any weight, even by cutting out carbs. She lost 15 pounds and 3 inches around her waist by using 2 weeks of the Winter Plan and two weeks of the Spring Plan back to back. 'This morning I was able to put on two skirts and close the clasp on the waist!'

Jeff, a 35-year-old, tried all four of the seasonal meal plans within 3 months and posted on Facebook, 'Woo hoo! Almost 23 pounds dropped! It was so easy and delicious. Thanks for the tools.'

The simple science behind weight loss is that you do need to cut calories; however, now that we know more about nutrition and gut health, we know that it doesn't stop there. For the calories you do consume, it really does matter which foods they come from, because the food you eat can really have an effect on your health and, most importantly, your gut. Certain foods can potentially upset the balance of microbes in your gut, as well as contribute to the formation of visceral fat or abdominal fat. Visceral fat is the type of fat that surrounds your organs and is the worst fat to carry around your waistline, since it is the cause of inflammation, the source of many other chronic diseases. I will discuss chronic inflammation, the types of body fat, and their effects on the human body in Chapter 1.

Even if you are losing weight but are not eating the right foods, your diet alone can create inflammation, regardless of the level of visceral fat or the balance of your gut bacteria. This is where superfoods can help, because they are anti-inflammatory foods that are packed with antioxidants that help reduce inflammation.

In this book, I have developed meal plans that take away the thinking and make it easier to incorporate these foods into your life. With Flat-Belly 365, we will cover the three main components of a diet, which will provide plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains that include common superfoods, and combine them with good healthy fats and lean protein. The meal plans will also help you keep a healthy gut by including probiotic and prebiotic foods in your diet.

When people embark on a new diet or begin to eat healthy, they think that it has to be boring. I always say that eating healthy doesn't have to be boring or daunting. You can actually apply these principles and have delicious, easy meals. A lot of people also think that eating healthy foods needs to come in the form of a smoothie. With this book and the resource material available to you on www.flatbelly.com/resources, I will show you how to include these powerful foods in various ways from soups and grain bowls to salads, smoothies, and much more. At the same time, these meal plans vary, not just in season, but also in temperature, so you can have a warm Cannellini Chicken Sausage bowl (see page 118) in the winter to a California Avocado Gazpacho (see page 73) in the summer. Eating can be fun, eating can be exciting, and it can be a love relationship with your taste buds and your gut.

I am honored and excited to introduce the Flat-Belly 365 plan and educate you about how to reduce your belly fat by enjoying exquisite recipes using superfoods. My clients' successes have been my passion and inspiration and continue to be so. This diet is not a gimmick or a new trend. This is a way of living that has been proven through solid research and will provide lasting results.

I look forward to sharing my wisdom and culinary skills with you in Flat-Belly 365. This plan is a delicious way to lose weight that will last a lifetime. Expect to reboot your gut, improve your total health, and have more energy than you have felt in years. Get ready to experience a lifelong journey of superfoods that will keep you strong, healthy, and rejuvenated.

©2017 Manuel Villacorta. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Flat Belly 365: The Gut-Friendly Superfood Plan to Shed Pounds, Fight Inflammation, and Feel Great All Year Long. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. Publisher: Health Communications, Inc., 3201 SW 15th Street, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442.