The essential principles of Conscious Combining are easy to remember and easy to follow. With time, adhering to the principles becomes routine.

1. Ideally, proteins go with proteins; carbohydrates go with carbohydrates; fruit must be eaten alone.

2. Begin each day with a single enzymatic fruit from the list of fruits included in the 35-day weight loss plan -- i.e., pineapple, strawberries, grapes, papaya, watermelon, mango, kiwi, persimmon, prunes, apricots or figs.

You may eat as much of the fruit as you want, but eat just one fruit at a time -- don't mix grapes with strawberries, for example.

Wait one hour before switching from one fruit to another fruit. Wait two hours before eating food from another food group.

Once you eat food from another food group, do not eat fruit again for the remainder of the day.

3. If the next food you eat after fruit is a carbohydrate, you may eat them without restriction until you eat a protein.

4. Once you eat protein, no matter how small the amount -- even if it is just milk in your coffee or chicken in your Caesar salad -- 80 percent of what you eat for the balance of the day should be protein.

The following is an excerpt from The New Beverly Hills Diet by Judy Mazel, Health Communications, Inc. © 1996. Used with permission.