If one follows health coach David Zulberg’s ideas, one would think that all that is old has become new or, conversely, all that is new is old.

Zulberg, author of The 5 Skinny Habits: How Ancient Wisdom Can Help You Lose Weight and Change Your Life FOREVER(Rodale), quotes research studies to support two principals for good health: Don’t overeat and exercise at the right pace. On the other hand, he says, “to get the right info we have to reach back, way back, to the Master Physicians”—Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine who lived 2,400 year ago; Galen, the Roman medical researcher who lived 1,800 years ago; and Jewish polymath Maimonides, who lived over 800 years ago.

And that’s exactly what Zulberg—an expert on Maimonides’s medical works—does as he eases dieters into one new habit a week over five weeks. He teaches the virtues of mindful eating and the addition of exercise.

And, if you follow his trove of transformative ideas, he offers Maimonides’s promise of lifelong health.