Diets often feel like punishment. Suddenly you're supposed to stop eating everything you love and reduce your food intake so drastically that you're perpetually hungry.

Author Robert J. Ruettger had tried dieting twice over several decades in the hopes of dropping the forty pounds that snuck up on him in his thirties; both times, the results only lasted briefly before the weight returned-and he refused to ever make himself miserable with a diet again. When his doctor informed him he had high blood pressure, however, Ruettger knew his eating habits needed to change. What was this junk...