Richard Simmons is widely regarded as the foremost diet and fitness expert and entrepreneur in the U.S.. Since Simmons opened his first weight loss club, according to Diet,com, his clients have lost more than 3 million pounds. His FoodMover helps people track daily eating. He supports the FoodMover method with his 50 exercise videos, of which he has sold more than 20 million copies, and his television program. He emphasizes dieting along with exercise and motivation.
Deal-A-Meal Origin
Richard says he began his campaign to help people shed unwanted pounds by zeroing in on what constitutes the right amount of the right foods for a day's eating. He learned what a day's total menu should be, based on your weight and sex, how many calories you would need every day and on how to balance fats, carbohydrates, proteins, fiber and fluids. He created a set of cards with lists of food on them. For instance, if you ate a slice of bread you would deal yourself a single, brown-bordered Bread Card. That card listed dozens of equivalent carbohydrate food portions. One-half cup of cooked pasta or four Saltines also earned a bread card. If your plan called for five bread cards per day, you knew you were done with carbs until tomorrow when you had dealt yourself all five cards. A similar system applied to vegetables, fats, fruit and dairy. This was Simmons' Deal-A-Meal system.
Close Window
Millions of people used the Deal-A-Meal system but some said the cards, though only the size of ordinary playing cards, were clumsy to use and inconvenient in public settings. They came with a folder about the size of a check book. Dealing your meal meant moving the cards for what you ate from one set of slots in the folder to other slots. To remedy this, Richard created the Food Mover, a pocket-sized case with rows of postage stamp sized windows inside, each with its own little shutter to open or close. The rows represent the same food categories as Deal-A-Meal, and adds water windows and a few other new ones. You start each day with as many open windows as you would have allowed cards for your day's food. For every portion you eat, you close a window. When your day's windows are all closed, you are done eating until tomorrow. The Food mover comes with food cards and a resource book to help you decide how much of which foods to eat.
Action Windows
The Food Mover adds an action feature not included with the Deal-A-Meal system. Richard encourages you to establish calorie-burning, fitness-building activities to do every day based on how many calories you can burn up. Calories eaten minus calories burned determine whether you will gain or lose weight. For every activity you complete you close a window until you do all the work you intended to do for the day. Windows for water intake are also included.
Motivation Windows
Richard says motivation is king. Many overweight people think poorly of themselves and their low self-esteem fuels comfort food binges. The Food Mover has windows to close for every time you give yourself a positive affirmation, pat yourself on the back or achieve something satisfying. Richard's Food Mover encourages you to fall in love with yourself. You always take better care of the things you appreciate, especially yourself.
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