Dr Mayr, the Austrian physician and Viva Mayr namesake, said: ‘Nutrition is the result of the food we eat and our digestive system.’ In other words, what matters is what we make of the food we eat.
When we eat a certain food – fish, meat, vegetable or potato – its nutrients do not go directly to the cells of our bodies. Our cells would not know how to make use of nutrients in this form. Instead, our digestive systems turn the food we eat into nutrients that our bodies can absorb and assimilate. Only then can we really make use of the energy and nutrients contained in food. Rather than saying ‘you are what you eat’, Dr Stossier and followers of Mayr would say ‘you are what you digest’.
I am really excited about this book. It will provide the logic that I and so many others have been looking for, and explain the essential principles behind a thinner, healthier life. My aim is to take Dr Stossier’s vast knowledge and expertise and present it to you in an easily digestible (pardon the pun) form of 14 main sections, set out as days of the plan. I will explain the reasons why it is so crucial that you overhaul your eating habits, and also how you can do so – easily and without too much pain, and for an enormous amount of gain.
Dr Stossier tells me that just by changing my eating habits I can put an end to my on-going digestive problems, lose weight, age better, feel better, sleep better, have more energy and clearer skin, concentrate on my work more effectively, and avoid major illnesses and disorders such as heart disease and asthma.
It seems a small price to pay for such a huge reward. I am keen to find out more.
Day One The FIRST day of the REST of your LIFE
You are about to discover:
How to prepare yourself practically and emotionally to begin the Viva Mayr Diet
How to make the famous Viva Mayr spelt bread
The shopping list you’ll need to stock your cupboards with everything you’ll need to get started
Breakfast
Green tea, and fruit muesli with nuts (see here)
Lunch
Vegetable salad with chicken strips, and fresh berry cream (see here)
Dinner
Soft polenta with steamed vegetables and herbs (see here)
This is the first day of the rest of your healthy, slim life. It’s an exciting day. There are challenges ahead, but the rewards are huge. At the end of the 14 sections that comprise this book, you will be healthier and slimmer, and you will look and feel better. If you ever feel as though you can’t go on, remember that these first few days are the toughest, but they are worth it. You are changing a lifetime of bad habits in order to hit your ideal weight, and also stay healthy and young-looking. That’s a lot of reward, so of course there has to be some effort – even if it’s minimal.
If you can, try to pick a weekend for the beginning of the diet, so you can prepare yourself and begin eating well on Saturday, and then launch into the body of the diet itself on Sunday.
So here is how you begin. You go shopping. Great start, eh? But sadly not for Louboutin shoes; rather, you’ll be shopping for food that will enhance your health and keep you slim. During the 14 days that this book guides you through, you will be shown what to eat, how to eat it, when to eat it, and how to cook it. At the end of the book we provide recipes for every menu, designed to help you to take on board the focus of that section. So, for Day Three, which is all about chewing, you’ll find a menu, with recipes at the back of the book, to encourage you to chew properly. Today we will look at the sorts of foods you need to stock up on to eat the Viva Mayr way. We will also be looking at how best to prepare yourself in other ways – such as mentally and physically.
If you’re anything like me, the minute you know you’re going on a diet you eat and drink everything you know you shouldn’t. This is a mistake. Starting on a hangover is not a good idea. If you are hungover and tired, your body craves quick fixes like sugar and carbs to boost your energy levels, so starting a diet becomes doubly difficult. The ideal way to start would really be to fast the day before, so you would enjoy the taste and texture of all the healthy new foods. But I know this is not feasible for everyone, and fasting should never done without the supervision of a doctor. So give the fasting a miss and, for now, use this preparation day as a day to eat well (the recipes for today should be easy to make without too much extra shopping and effort), make the famous Viva Mayr spelt bread and think about the task ahead.
It’s worth every ounce of effort
This is not something insignificant you have chosen to do. This is a huge undertaking that will transform the way you look and feel. I’d like you to think about exactly what it is you want to achieve and make a note of it. This would be my list:
• Lose weight.
• Sleep better.
• Have more energy.
• Look and feel better.
• Get rid of a pot belly and digestive complaints that have been plaguing me for years.
You can achieve this and more by sticking with me through these 14 days of the Viva Mayr cure. Remember that people pay thousands of pounds to go to the clinic – to learn all the things you are about to learn, and to eat the way you are going to eat for the next 14 days. What’s more, you’ll find that after your 14 days, your habits will have changed dramatically, and you’ll be embracing a new way of eating, and a new way of thinking about what, when and how you eat. Viva Mayr is not a quick fix; this is permanent change we are talking about here. With this book, you have the opportunity to acquire all this knowledge and all those secrets for a fraction of the price and in the comfort of your own home. This is a great opportunity, and one I think you will be really happy that you took.
Make that list and keep it somewhere safe; look at it now and again to remind yourself why you are doing this. I promise that the rewards are huge compared with the actual effort. The Viva Mayr Diet is all about making subtle changes in your lifestyle that will result in huge gains both in terms of weight loss and your general health. This is something you need to keep in mind at all times. You have to be a little like a child waiting for Christmas; just a few more days and you’ll see some results, another week and you’ll have lost another few kilos. But when Christmas Day comes, you will be so hooked and happy with the new you that you won’t want to stop.
As I said, there will be challenges. If you are a coffee and tea addict, you may get headaches as your body purges itself of toxins. I know this might sound silly, but look upon those headaches as a good sign. Headaches equal progress. A lot of people I met at the clinic said that the toughest day is Day Three, when you are really starting to feel the effects of what is effectively a deep cleanse. You feel headachy, tired and perhaps a little depressed, too. But then you come out the other side feeling incredible. Whatever side-effects you experience, they can never be as bad as feeling fat and unhealthy. So persevere and you will make it, I promise.
Re-read your list of aims, remind yourself why you are here and what you are doing. Remember that you bought this book with an aim in mind and a goal to reach – and you will reach that goal. There is no one stopping you. You have it within your grasp to become whatever you want.
Stocking up
So how best to prepare for the Viva Mayr journey? Today is not only a day to stock up on all the good things you are going to feed your new-look body, but also a great opportunity to throw out all those crisps and Mars bar ice-creams you have been saving for a special treat. You are going to prepare yourself both mentally and practically.
Your essential shopping list
Over the next 14 days, you’ll need the following foods in your store cupboard and fridge. Most of the recipes are designed to serve about four, so if you are cooking for your family, this is probably ideal; however, if you are going solo, you will need to purchase smaller quantities of the ingredients. Read through the recipes before heading off to the shops, so you know what you’ll need. It’s also a good idea to purchase your fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs daily (if possible), and, unless you have a very good deep-freezer, your meat and fish, as well.
Drinks
Green tea
Pomegranate juice
Spring water
Store cupboard
Stevia
Vegetable stock cubes, organic
Rock salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
Cold-pressed linseed oil
Cold-pressed hemp oil
Cold-pressed walnut oil
Cold-pressed pumpkin-seed oil
Coconut oil
Truffle oil (optional)
Balsamic vinegar
Honey
Maple syrup
Cider vinegar
Blackcurrant purée
Baking powder
Cream of tartar
Organic soya sauce
Raisins or sultanas
Green olives
Black olives
Dried fruit, such as apricots and prunes
Dairy & eggs
Organic eggs
Butter
Soft goat’s cheese
Soft sheep’s cheese
Sour cream
Soya milk
Single cream
Double cream
Parmesan cheese
Cottage cheese
Rice milk
Oat milk
Live sheep’s, goat’s or cow’s milk yoghurt (avoid the latter if you have any allergies or intolerance to milk, milk proteins or lactose)
Goat’s milk or sheep’s milk (full-fat cow’s milk is OK, if you have no allergies)
Fruit & vegetables
Apples
Berries (such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries; whatever you can get)
Pomegranates
Oranges
Lemons
Limes
Bananas
Papaya
Mangoes
Spinach
Onions
Radishes
Celery
Carrots
Fennel
Potatoes
Kohlrabi
Ripe vine tomatoes
Baby plum tomatoes
Pumpkin or butternut squash
Salad (various lettuce leaves; anything goes)
Garden cress
Mixed sprouts, such as fenu greek, alfalfa, mung bean, radish, soya
Courgettes
Parsnips
Avocados
Artichokes (globe)
Broccoli
Celeriac
Rocket
Aubergines
Turnip
Shallots
Fresh beetroot
Fresh horseradish (or shop-bought horseradish sauce)
As well as any fruits and vegetables in season …
Fish & meat and meat substitutes
Trout fillets
Smoked trout fillets
Skinless, boneless turkey breasts
Slices of turkey ham
Loin of lamb
Salmon fillets
Slices of smoked salmon
Fillet of beef
Organic silken tofu (or hemp tofu if you can get it)
Char caviar
Grains, pulses, nuts and seeds
Walnuts
Pumpkin seeds
Almonds
Whole linseeds
Chickpeas (dried)
Sesame seeds
Amaranth seeds
Ground oats
Buckwheat flour
Millet
Corn flakes
Spelt flour
Rice flakes
Soya flour
Polenta
Potato flour (an Italian deli should sell this)
Risotto rice
Herbs & spices
Note: some of the dried herbs can be found at your local health-food shop
Fresh ginger
Fresh lemon verbena
Fresh dill
Fresh chervil
Fresh tarragon
Fresh lovage
Fresh coriander
Fresh thyme
Fresh rosemary stalks
Fresh marjoram
Fresh mint
Fresh parsley
Fresh or dried fennel
Fresh lemongrass
Fresh basil
Cinnamon sticks
Ground cloves
Ground ginger
Ground cinnamon
Nutmeg
Vermouth
Dried caraway seeds
Dried yarrow
Dried horsetail
Dried birch leaves
You may also want to consider getting some crystals to energise and purify your water; rose quartz is a great choice, if you can get it.
So no doughnuts and no deep-fried Mars bars – funny that. If the list looks sadly lacking in sugar hits, just remember that your taste buds will change in a few days and you will no longer crave all those sweet things. You are perfectly capable of living without them, and you will start to feel and look better very quickly as a result of eating the kinds of foods listed above, which actually have some nutritional value.
Going off-piste?
It’s perfectly acceptable to create your own meals rather than following the suggested menu plans, although you may want to try them for a few days first, to get the hang of the way food is prepared at Viva Mayr. Here, you’ll find hints for cooking the Viva Mayr way, and a little later in this section you’ll find out what foods you need, and why you should be eating them. By all means experiment with the foods listed above, or choose some of your own. The key words are fresh, organic (if possible), varied and whole. So get plenty of different whole grains, fresh, brightly coloured fruits and vegetables, a little fresh, lean meat and fish, some good-quality seeds and nuts, plenty of fresh herbs, organic eggs and some dairy – sheep and goat’s, if you can; otherwise, cow’s milk dairy produce will be fine, too. The most important things you can and should purchase are cold-pressed oils, which feature every single day on the Viva Mayr Diet (see here).
What about sugar?
When I ask Dr Stossier what type of sugar is best for us to eat, he is very firm when he responds.
‘No sugar – that’s the best sugar you can have.’
But that’s totally and utterly impossible. How can anyone possibly live without sugar? I mean, even if you wanted to, how could you avoid it? Is there such a thing as sugar-free shortbread biscuits?
‘I know it’s difficult,’ he concedes, ‘but the fact is that you don’t need any more sugar than you get from the food you already eat. We get so many different forms of carbohydrates that it is not necessary to add more.’
I ask him if brown sugar is better. Apparently it is not. How irritating is that? I have spent the last 20 years taking brown sugar lumps instead of white ones because I think they are healthier. I don’t even have any white sugar in the house; I do everything with brown sugar, even baking – which is not easy if you’re trying to bake a white fluffy sponge.
‘Brown sugar is very often only white sugar that has been coloured brown to give it the appearance of natural, healthy sugar,’ explains the doctor. ‘In fact, natural sugar wouldn’t even taste like sugar. If you have a sweet tooth then use the plant Stevia instead.’
I have tried Stevia in its raw form and also in a chocolate mousse. It is delicious and sweet enough for anyone. You can buy it online or in health-food shops. But be aware that a craving for sweet things is a sign that your cells are asking for sugar because they need energy to digest your food. This means you have not given your body the best chance to digest, and is not good news. You are either eating the wrong thing at the wrong time, not chewing enough (see here), eating too much protein (see here) or eating when you are stressed (see here).
Fruit is a better option than sugar. Instead of sugar, sprinkle fruit on your cereal. An ideal breakfast would be muesli and some fruit followed by eggs (preferably not fried, sadly, which will upset my daughter who likes nothing better than to start the day with one or even two fried eggs), and some raw vegetables. While I was at the Viva Mayr Clinic, I had an avocado with linseed oil for breakfast – surprisingly delicious and one of the most nutritious ways to start the day. But if you can’t imagine going on without your daily fix of doughnuts, Mars bars or fizzy drinks, please do me a favour and just give it three days; that’s all it will take to break your nasty habits, for your taste buds to mellow, and for those things to seem like sugary, unhealthy and fattening blasts from the past.
Roll up your sleeves …
Once you have all your ingredients stashed away, then it’s time to make spelt bread. Spelt bread is one of the things for which the Viva Mayr Clinic is famous – or even infamous! Everyone who goes there, from film stars and property magnates to professional football players is put on a diet that includes spelt bread.
The first time you eat it, you may well be horrified. The bread tastes, well, stale. I can imagine the great and the good who visit the clinic – and are used to the better things in life – being rather shocked when they are presented with a bowl of vegetable broth and some, um, stale bread. But the point is that it teaches us to chew properly. Actually, I grew rather fond of the taste while I was at the clinic. Freshly baked, it is delicious, once you have learned how to chew properly.
Spelt bread is easy to make. You will need to prepare it the day before you want to eat it. I find it easiest to do the first part of the preparation when I get up in the morning and the second part when I get home from work. Here is the recipe:
Spelt bread
Makes about 15 pieces
Ingredients for the sourdough
Part one
125g sheep’s or goat’s milk yoghurt
125ml water
125g spelt flour
Mix all the ingredients together using a food mixer and leave to stand for 8 hours in a warm place (an airing cupboard is a good choice, or above an oven that has been previously heated). The dough is quite liquid at first but it will firm up as it stands.
Part two
750g spelt flour
250ml warm water
1½ tablespoons cream of tartar
½ teaspoon rock or sea salt
½ teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground aniseed
½ teaspoon ground fennel seeds
Sourdough (see above)
Mix all of the ingredients together with the sourdough and stir for 8 to 10 minutes. You might find it easier to use a food processor, or a mixer with a dough hook, rather than mixing by hand. The dough should be quite firm now.
Form flatbreads of approximately 70g each from the spelt dough. They must be very flat. Leave them to rise on a lightly floured baking tray for approximately 45 minutes, then prick and bake in the preheated oven at 190°C (375°F/Gas mark 5) for approximately 15 minutes. The breads should be golden brown and firm to the touch.
Leave them to rest for a day. That way they’ll be a little harder. You can also freeze the bread until you need it. It will last for several days; in fact, Dr S encourages you to eat it after a day or two so that it is tougher to chew.
No time for baking?
If you don’t have time, simply buy a packet of Ryvita, a rye or wholemeal loaf from the supermarket, or pick up some spelt bread at your local health-food store. I’d really recommend this recipe, though, as taste-wise it beats any bread you can buy hands down. Please do make the time today – in between reading – to make your first batch of spelt bread. You also need to make it well in advance because when it comes to learning how to chew properly, the bread should be a day or two old.
Cooking the Viva Mayr way
Once you know what to eat, how are you meant to cook it? The goal of cooking the Viva Mayr way is to create a dish that tastes good, while at the same time preserving the food’s nutrients. Some methods are better than others because they make foods easier to digest. In many cases, food preparation is essential for us to be able to digest a food at all. Have you ever tried eating raw dried pasta?
By far the best way to cook vegetables is to steam them, and the best way to cook meat is to grill it. Fish can be poached, steamed or grilled. If you do end up frying, use only warm-pressed oils. Palm oil and coconut oil are especially suitable, because they have a very high smoke point of between 160°C and 180°C (320°F and 350°F), which means they can be heated without destroying the valuable nutrients. Heating cold-pressed oils turns them into trans fats – the very worst type of fats you can eat. If you do choose to cook with olive oil, or vegetable or seed oils, choose warm-pressed varieties. The fatty acids they contain will not be altered by cooking.
Contrary to what most other diet books will tell you, butter is fine. Butter contains milk fat, which has high levels of essential fatty acids, required for the brain and immune system. But don’t heat butter. At the most, butter can be melted gently and used to coat vegetables. Heating any more than this destroys butter and robs it of its health benefits, by destroying the healthy fatty acid chains.
Dr Stossier suggests we all cook using more herbs. They are excellent for supporting the digestive system, they taste great, and they can add flavour to just about anything you eat. Think about using herbs in a more Mediterranean way. For example, use fresh mint in a salad, as you would in Greece, or make fresh pesto sauce with basil. Basil is extremely versatile and perks most things up; add it to some steamed vegetables with some olive oil to finish off, and suddenly you have a tasty and nutritious meal. Any boring salad can be spiced up with a bit of coriander. Next time you eat salmon, pop some dill on top.
In terms of equipment, the only kitchen appliance in which you need to invest is a steamer. If you’re not yet convinced about the benefits of steaming food, just use a colander over a saucepan. But bear in mind that steaming preserves essential nutrients in food, such as the antioxidants, flavonoids, vitamins and minerals in vegetables.
You will also need a food processor or mixer for some of the recipes; if you don’t have one and don’t want to buy one, then do what your great-grandmother would have done and use a fork – and some wrist power!
What not to eat
So what foods should we avoid? Dr Stossier is pragmatic.
‘I can’t say this is best or this is better than others; we need them all. Each food has a different ingredient that our bodies crave,’ he says.
I ask Dr Stossier if he would ever eat a doughnut. ‘Not if there are other options,’ he smiles.
‘What about dark chocolate?’ I ask him hopefully, ‘and red wine – they’re full of antioxidants aren’t they?’