The true secret to weight-loss success is all in your head. Nordine Zouareg has helped thousands of clients get healthier, be happier, and lose weight for good. And in the process, he's discovered something astounding: the mental work his clients do before they start their diet and exercise plan is actually just as (if not more) important than the plan itself.

In Mind Over Body, Nordine describes how everyone can find this mental motivation - what he calls our 'core desire' - and then master the tools (visualization, meditation, affirmation) to keep on track with weight-loss goals. After readers develop this foundation, they move on to the inspiring nutrition and exercise plan-a simple, effective program developed to help shed weight and keep it off forever.

You'll learn: The fool-proof method for preparing your mind - and your body - before you diet - Thirty delicious foods that are the staples of the Mind Over Body eating plan - When to cheat - without blowing your diet - How to get an effective workout in just 24 minutes a day - The 10 commandments of mindful strength training As the fitness coach at Miraval Life in Balance spa, Nordine has worked with celebrities, business leaders, discerning travelers, and soccer moms all across North America.

Rated the #1 spa by Conde Nast Traveler, the #1 destination spa by Travel and Leisure, and the top spa in American by Zagat, Miraval has become the premier destination for bringing people's lives into balance and teaching them how to live mindfully. Now, in Mind Over Body, Nordine teaches the same program that has proven wildly successful for his clients (and himself!) for the past twenty years. Learn how to determine your true fitness goals...and get the tools you need to finally make it come true!

Your body is the servant of your mind and has no choice but to obey your thoughts.

I don't believe that anyone who claims to be a leader can ask people to follow him - whether the journey takes them from New York to Chicago or from self-doubt and poor health to confidence and fitness - unless he's traveled that path himself. I've traveled every inch of the journey you'll be making with me in this book. And my path, like many of yours, has been strewn with stumbling blocks and disrupted by detours. In fact, it's because I was able to surmount those obstacles to arrive at the place where I am now that I know I can lead you, too, to a place where your body, mind, and spirit will work together to give you a healthier, happier life.

The beginning of my life was not auspicious. In fact, my mother used to tell me that I "died" three times as an infant. It was only because of her perseverance (and some inborn luck or stubbornness within me) that I survived to celebrate my first birthday. I was born on July 1, 1962, to illiterate Bedouin parents in the back of a French army truck in Algeria. My mother was just fifteen years old, and my father was twenty-nine. Algeria was a French colony at the time, and the truck was part of a convoy taking Bedouins to vote on the question of Algerian independence.

As they were traveling through the desert, my mother went into labor, and the driver finally had to stop the truck so that she could deliver her baby by the side of the road with the help of the elder women of the tribe. I weighed just over two pounds at birth, and my mother later told me that all she could see of me were my eyes and my stomach. I was literally nothing but skin and bones, and to this day it amazes me that I survived that journey, much less all that was to come after. My mother - young and ignorant but determined - managed to keep me alive.

We lived in a small town called El Houamed, which was the last oasis before entering the Sahara. To my mother, living a difficult life in the desert, I presented a terrible dilemma. No more than a child herself, she was burdened with a sickly baby who no one - including she - believed would survive. Finally, after about six months, the elder women held a "wisdom meeting," which would, to put it bluntly, decide my fate. The problem, as they saw it, was essentially this: We don't think this baby will survive, but we can't kill him, so what are we going to do? In their "wisdom," they decided that my mother should make sure I was fed and happy, then leave me on a tombstone in the cemetery and walk away. But if she heard me cry, the elder women cautioned, she would have to take me back.

My mother did what the women said. She fed me and left me on a tombstone. She has said that I seemed content. But the minute she turned her back to walk away, I began to cry. Of course, she went back for me.

A few weeks later, my parents decided to take me to M'Sila, a larger town about three hours north of where we lived, to get me proper medical care. They took me to the main hospital in the center of M'Sila and left me with the doctors overnight for observation. When my mother went back to the hospital the next day, the doctor who had been treating me told her I was dead. My mother asked to see my body, but the doctor refused.

In fact, I was not dead, but my vital signs were at such a dangerous level that the doctor and his colleagues honestly believed they wouldn't be able to save me. To them, I was as good as dead. On the one hand, they believed that keeping me alive would only cause my mother more pain when I ultimately died - as they were sure I would. On the other hand, they understood that if she knew I was still alive, she would continue trying to save me. And so, when my mother asked to see my body, the doctor believed he had no choice but to refuse.

My mother, however, wouldn't leave M'Sila without seeing me, so she went to the police for assistance. An officer returned with her to the hospital and told the doctor that she had every right to claim her baby's body and give him a proper burial. At that point, there was nothing for the doctor to do but to confess that I was not dead - yet. He apologized profusely but said that he truly believed he had done the right thing. As he saw it, my mother was very young - she could have more children - and letting me die in what he considered a "proper" place would be easier for her than watching me die in the desert.

So once more my mother took me back home, but both my parents knew I was in critical need of immediate medical attention. Their last resort, they felt, was to take me to France. All Algerians were at that time still French citizens. But my parents spoke only Berber, and they didn't have any money for the trip. Still, they managed to collect what they needed from their fellow tribes people and, speaking not a word of French, set out to build a new life for themselves and me in France.

There I was promptly diagnosed with rickets. The French doctors treated me in the hospital and then sent me home. But my health problems continued for the next several years.

My father worked whatever jobs he could find to support our family, which grew to a total of thirteen children - me, three brothers, and nine sisters - all living in a small two-bedroom apartment. In addition to economic difficulties, we also had to deal with extreme prejudice against all North Africans. In school I was beaten up regularly and had my lunch and clothing stolen. Thinking back on it now, I realize that I was a skinny runt of a kid with absolutely no self-esteem. In some terrible way, the negative energy I was putting out was almost certainly exacerbating the treatment I received. That insight, however, was a long time in coming; at the time all I knew was that I was miserable.

© Nordine Zouareg 2007

Tags: Diets and Weight Loss, Exercise and Fitness

About the Author

Nordine Zouareg is an International Celebrity Fitness Coach who works with clients from around the world. Nordine has come a long way - from being born in the back of a truck in the Sahara desert and contracting Rickets to becoming an acclaimed fitness expert worldwide.