TO BUSINESS, HEALTH AND LIFESTYLES EDITORS:

PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y., Dec. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Acclaimed for its easy, sensible and effective approach to weight loss, ChangeOne: The Breakthrough 12-Week Eating Plan: Lose Weight Simply, Safely, and Forever is now available in full-color paperback, just in time for New Year's Resolution planning (ISBN: 0-7621-0525-9, $15.95). The first-ever official diet and weight loss book of Reader's Digest, ChangeOne sold more than 175,000 copies following its hardcover launch in January of 2003, earning it a best-seller status with consumer and trade bookselling lists, and keeping it atop Amazon's top selling diet and health books during January and February, arguably the most diet-and-health-conscious months of the year.

ChangeOne is different from controversial and trendy low-carb diets in three important ways. First, dieters learn to improve their eating habits one change at a time over the course of 12 weeks. The diet is both easy to follow and safe, since weight loss is achieved at a steady pace, with a long-term focus on sustaining healthy changes and behaviors. No calorie or point counting is required.

Second: ChangeOne dieters choose from a full palate of foods, eating what they love.

And third: ChangeOne dieters are supported by their own Web site, www.changeone.com, created especially to help them use the program -- and to stay on plan.

"ChangeOne will help you lose weight-and keep it off," says John Hastings, ChangeOne author and Health Editor for Reader's Digest magazine. "That may sound like a big promise. But there's really no mystery to dieting, despite the bewildering number of plans out there."

"ChangeOne slows dieting down so you can experiment and learn," says Hastings. "Most diets ask you to throw out the way you normally eat and adopt a new one, overnight. The biggest problem with that kind of approach is people will eventually go back to their bad habits and gain back the weight they lost."

In conjunction with the ChangeOne book, www.changeone.com offers support, guiding consumers through the diet, offering personalized meal plans based on individual progress and preferences, delightful recipes, news and advice from experts on food and fitness, and inspiration from a community of dieters. The online support site has also been a success story for Reader's Digest: since making its debut last January -- concurrent with the hardcover release of ChangeOne -- changeone.com has maintained thousands of paying subscribers well beyond the initial 12 week time frame of the basic program.

ChangeOne is a novel weight loss program. The first four weeks take a meal as their theme: breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. In the weeks that follow, the plan branches out to tackle problems that all dieters face, including how to negotiate restaurants, shop smartly, manage stress, and exercise for long- term success. Each week's chapter explains why the change should be made and offers tips, self-quizzes, and menu suggestions. By introducing subtle eating and lifestyle changes one at a time, at a manageable pace, ChangeOne allows people to create the lasting habits and positive mindset needed to lose weight and keep it off.

The book contains delicious and healthy meal and snack suggestions in full-color, plus effective techniques for successfully navigating menus and meals at restaurants, parties, and other special occasions. Each chapter includes "ChangeOne First Person" -- first-hand accounts of people who have successfully embraced the diet, and "ChangeOne Quizzes", which help the reader better understand his or her relationship with food. For dieters looking to drop pounds at a faster pace there are "Fast Track" tips. By choosing one of these quick fix tips-such as keeping a food diary, drinking more water, exercising, even chewing gum! -- each week, dieters can speed up their progress. All of this combined with meal plans, shopping strategies, kitchen essentials, and sample forms to write things down, make ChangeOne complete.

The fundamental goal of ChangeOne is to allow people to eat the food they love in sensible portions without having to remember a lot of rules. Unlike many diets, this plan works equally well for both men and women. Since its release, ChangeOne has proven to be a breakthrough concept in weight loss. Developed with the help of leading medical doctors and nutritionists, ChangeOne is solid and balanced while still being easy-to-use, fun, and effective.

The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (NYSE: RDA) is the preeminent global publisher and marketer of distinctive products that inform, enrich, entertain and inspire people of all ages and all cultures around the world. Global headquarters are at Pleasantville, New York. Reader's Digest Books are distributed by Penguin Group (USA), Inc. and are sold at most major retail and online bookstores.

For more information on Reader's Digest products visit www.rd.com .

          NOTE TO EDITORS: JOHN HASTINGS IS AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW.
           Please call Leigh Curtin, , or 
                                  ChangeOne:
                    The Breakthrough 12-Week Eating Plan:
                   Lose Weight Simply, Safely, and Forever
                               By John Hastings
                   With Peter Jaret and Mindy Hermann, R.D.
                         Published by Reader's Digest
                     Publication date: December 28, 2003
                             ISBN: 0-7621-0525-9
                                 Price: $15.95
                                  Pages: 320
            More than 150 full-color photographs and illustrations
                              7 1/2" X 10" format

SOURCE  The Reader's Digest Association, Inc.