The struggle for a mother of five to find a healthy way to feed the masses.

The thought of eating healthy is daunting to most, given the inefficiency of home-prepared meal plans and the quest to shop for organic or natural foods. That is why it's especially inspirational when anyone, let alone a mother of five children ranging from infancy to sixteen, sees the importance of adopting the Maximized Living way of life.

Gabriele Bauer, or Gabi, as friends know her, is dedicated to her role as a mother. Realizing the need for a good diet, she pushed for years to integrate a healthier eating regime in her household, but found that the sugary treats and fatty foods were too hard to give up. Trips to the grocery store for Gabi are near impossible with a baby in tow. The preparation of home cooked meals develops into a tedious task, since she also home schools her children and helps with homework. When her husband became increasingly frustrated with his overall health, especially his low energy level, Gabi set out to find a way for her family to win their battle with the bulge.

The couple soon met with Dr. Ben and learned the importance of a healthy diet and lifestyle. Immediately, Gabi set to work cleansing her cabinets and refrigerator of the unhealthy options she'd fed her family for so long. Unfortunately, raising five children means a lifetime of unexpected medical bills and an extremely tight budget. Before she could even begin to think of venturing into the grocery store, Gabi found herself studying her recipe book, re-inventing old recipes with much more health conscious options. Armed with a detailed list she was able to make trip to her local market a lot more stress free for the whole family.

While finding tasty substitutes for snacks and organic foods to use in recipes was a bit time consuming, and at times costly, Gabi found that overall her food budget did not increase. In fact, cutting out the "junk" foods left Gabi with a considerable amount of money in her pocket. She also found other creative ways to save money, such as changing her children's lunches. Gabi replaced fatty, processed lunchmeat sandwiches with healthy veggie sandwiches of tomatoes, cucumbers, dairy-free mayonnaise, sea salt and pepper. The food was so yummy that her children didn't complain once!

She also found that using whole foods filled up her family faster, and gave them the fuel that was necessary to live their hectic and busy lifestyle. Simple substitutions like honey for sugar, sea salt for table salt, and whole-wheat foods instead of bleached wheat helped to quickly reduce their weight. Gabi and Stan immediately noticed another money saving positive to this meal plan--the family stopped getting sick, and stopped paying monthly visits to the doctor!

In 2004, the tables were turned on Gabi and her family. Dr. Ben, the man they'd met with to seek assistance in their food battle, asked Gabi to help him co-author a recipe book in conjunction with his New York Time's Bestselling book Body By God. Gabi immediately jumped on board, and has now been able to share her delicious treats with an entire nation. Whether it's her recipe for homemade granola, roasted eggplant sandwiches, spinach lasagna, or yummy banana bread, everyone's always surprised at how eating healthy can meant amazing taste!