The secret to a smaller you lies in waist management. It's time to take out the garbage for once and for all. And by garbage we mean the extra rolls of flab hanging out around your waistline. Forget everything you think you know about shaping up and open your mind to a new diet concept that focuses on your waist not your weight. It's a plan that makes the scale virtually obsolete.

So say bestselling authors Dr. Michael Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz. The duo of dynamic doctors has assembled a guide to help you whittle away up to two inches from your waistline in under two weeks. In You On A Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management (October 2006, Free Press), the trusted physicians inform readers that the size of their pants dictates their risk of death and disability. Get ready to trade in your gym membership and scale for a handy dandy measuring tape, which should be used once a week to gauge your progress.

By completing just the first five steps of the program, you're 90 percent there, says Dr. Roizen. Unlike other diets that leave you struggling and feeling deprived, the bestselling blueprint to good health contains easy-does-it strategies. Here are the five essentials for getting you started: