Yesterday UPS stopped by with seven boxes of books! It was exciting and the UPS guy was even impressed.

So the books are here and I'll be mailing out the pre-orders Thursday and Friday, so they should be arriving for most folks early next week. If you ordered a copy, keep an eye out for it.

Today the first samples of my book arrived!

This is the first step before I order a whole batch of them, and I was a bit worried that the books might not come out okay. After all, I sent the digital files off to the printer via a website and have no proof or anything to confirm that the artwork was correct. This is the first time I've used a print-on-demand printer so the process is new and there's a lot to learn. (The service definitely seems geared at the amateur or non-professional, which actually makes it more difficult for the pro graphic designer like me.)

But... wow. Having the real, printed book in my hand is amazing. The project finally feels real. The print quality is amazing. The cover is gorgeous, thick and glossy and colorful. It's really outstanding. The inside is also excellent, with the text being extremely readable and high quality. I am impressed! The grayscale photos aren't as nice as the original color ones, but convey the idea (and the printing would have been outrageously expensive in full-color). That's part of the reason I'm giving everyone who orders a printed copy a complimentary copy of the PDF edition. That way everyone can enjoy the full-color experience and have a digital archive copy (great for searching), but have a convenient printed copy for more comfortable reading.

After one last round of proof-reading, I've placed my order for the bulk quantity. It'll take a couple weeks to get them printed and shipped to me, and then I can start fulfilling orders. Until that time, the pre-order special is still in effect: all pre-orders will receive a free license to my upcoming nuTracker nutritional management software (a $25 value)!

I'm also working on getting the PDF edition of the book ready for downloading... that should happen in the next couple of days, so if you pre-ordered the book, watch for an email from me with a download link.

I am pleased to announce that you can now pre-order my new book! Eat Big While Eating Lean is being finalized right now and will begin shipping in March 2008.

The book is being self-published via a print-on-demand printer, so there will be two ways you can order the book. You can order it directly from the printer's website (I'll link to that when the book is ready to order) or you can order directly from me. I plan to buy some of the books in advance and sell them directly.

One advantage of this latter approach is that I can begin selling the book early, before they are printed. This will help me raise funds to purchase the books in advance and save money via volume purchasing and shipping. Now I know not everyone wants to pre-order things -- you want the book today. But to reward those of you who will pay in advance, I'm offering a very special limited time promotion:

Pre-order Eat Big While Eating Lean and I'll give you a free license to my nuTracker software when it is released!

That's right: a $25 software license for free!

Keep in mind that this offer is for a very limited time. Once the book has been printed and is ready for sale (early March), the pre-order special will be over. So if you're interested in a great deal, place your pre-order today.

I've been working like mad on the book and my nuTracker software and I am pleased to report that I've made tremendous progress. In the past few weeks I've added several significant appendixes to the book and they really help fill in a few holes. The information is more technical and not everyone will be interested in it, which is why I put the info into appendixes, but I was feeling like something was missing, that the book felt too "light" and these additions help provide more technical details for those interested.

We're nearly there! I've actually finalized a lot of the details and the book right now is in the proof-reader's hands.

Next up is getting the pre-order system in place, which I hope to do shortly. My plan is to have the Pre-Order Special for several weeks and be able to ship the first books in March. I have a conference to attend in Texas in mid-March so I've got to get them shipped before that!

Seeing is believing, right? Most people cannot fathom how good I'm eating when I tell them my meals are 500-600 calories. So I've put together a little collection of photos of some of my real meals -- this is how I eat every day, I swear!

(The recipes for most of these meals will be in my upcoming book.)

The book is coming! The book is coming!

Yes, I've been making progress. It's a little slower than I planned, but it's coming. Next week I meet with my dietician to get her feedback and then I'll finalize the material and send it off to the printer. I'm not sure exactly how long that will take, but hopefully not too long. I'd like to have books in my hand in March.

My next goal is to get the pre-ordering system set up so that those of you who are interested in the book can get your orders in right away. This will also help me gauge the interest in the book. I'd like to get at least 100 pre-orders so I can order them in bulk. The print-on-demand service I'm using is convenient as I don't have to stock books and fulfill them myself if don't want to, but I think it'd be easier to order a bunch of books pre-printed in advance if I know I've got a number of orders. I'll obviously offer some kind of a special reward for those who pre-order!

Things have been hectic around here lately and I haven't been working on the book. I gave a copy to my dietician, hoping she could read it and give me any suggestions, but I haven't heard back from her, so I'm not sure what's going on. I suspect she's just busy, but when I was waiting for her feedback I put the book on the back burner and now a lot of time has passed and of course I've been super-busy.

Anyway, my goal now is to get it finished and shipping early next year (2008). It'll have to wait until after I get the next issue of my magazine out in mid-December, but once that's done and I survive the holidays, the book's going to be my number one priority.

I'm making good progress on the book, with most of the writing finished. I'm now just finalizing the recipes, taking food photographs, and calculating the nutritional specifications of those meals. I hope to get the book finished in a few weeks (Fall 2007).

In the meantime, I have uploaded some excerpts from the book and an outline. These are pre-release so the final may be different, but it should give you an idea of where I'm going with the project.

As soon as I know a more definitive schedule, I'll offer the book for sale at a pre-release discount!

To support my upcoming recipe and weight management book, Eating Big While Eating Lean, I've decided it would be a good idea to start a blog. Here I will be able to post updates, food talk, diet tips, ideas, recipes, and more. This will also keep diet- and nutritional-related stuff off my personal blog so only those truly interested will have to endure it.