Juan-Carlos is a me-first kind of guy, so we’ll start with his CV. A few years back, he was a happy fat guy—his words, not mine! He was a gainfully employed and highly regarded pastry chef (who was not afraid to enjoy that which he created). For the sake of his marriage, his wellbeing and health, Juan-Carlos decided to break up with pastry. The weight melted away, his sex life heated up and the Food Network came calling. Yep, if you thought this guy seemed familiar, that’s because he’s the Calorie Commando. Today JC spends his days promoting the Calorie Countdown Cookbook and traveling as an American Heart Association spokesman. Now, with the Love Diet, he’s branching out into the matters of the other heart, the one that flutters, flips and loves love.

Next there’s me, I’m Amy Reiley. I’m the author of Fork Me, Spoon Me: the sensual cookbook, the owner of the publishing house Life of Reiley and an expert on aphrodisiac foods. I started out as a wine journalist and as you’ll soon discover in the Love Diet, wine is one of my greatest passions. But while I was studying for my Master of Gastronomy at Le Cordon Bleu (same school as Julia Child, thank you very much!) I discovered my passion for… passion. And so I dove headfirst into the much-misunderstood world of aphrodisiac foods. Since then, although I still work as a sometimes wine critic, I spend most of my days developing aphrodisiac recipes, consulting with award-winning chefs and speaking on the foods of love. Lucky me, this hot, Latin pastry chef walked into my life a few years ago and we’ve been developing recipes and exchanging ideas ever since.

You see, great food, great health and great sex all go hand in hand, which means JC and I are a match made in heaven.

What we’ve done together is to, essentially, create a road map for a lifestyle, a Love Diet. We can’t promise that the Love Diet will find you love, but we speak from experience in saying that much of what we have to offer can bring romance into your life, keep your love life fresh and help keep things moving to, you know, go the distance. Not every element of the Love Diet will work for everyone. Every body is different—some of us need a little more of this, and others need a whole lot of that. But trust me, in this game, the trial and error is all a part of the fun!

Our journey is based on nutrition, it incorporates seasonal eating, encourages exercise (particularly the kind that starts in the bedroom, or shower, or living room floor, hotel suite or kitchen island or somebody else’s guest room…) Remember kids, exercise can be fun!

Now for the disclaimer: Keep in mind that we come to our whole lifestyle from the food perspective. Neither one of us is a doctor, has a degree in nutrition nor any other aspect of the medical field. But we do have an extensive knowledge of food, ingredients and their physiological effects, all of which we’ve learned through years of studying, cooking and some very delicious life experience. We are both professional bon vivants!