The Mayo Clinic Diet: Eat Well. Enjoy Life. Lose Weight.

I was expecting lots of recipe and was very few.

The premise of the "The Mayo Clinic Diet" is that it will be the last diet you will ever need. The Mayo Clinic has helped many individuals lose weight and keep it off, and "The Mayo Clinic Diet" is the compilation of these tested techniques. Each section draws on the experience of various health care professionals - internists, psychologists, nutritionists and so on - and emphasizes creating your own plan using the concepts in the book. One of the motivational tools suggested in "The Mayo Clinic Diet" is recording your food intake, level of exercise and goals for the day. While this recording can be done in any notebook, the book does come with a companion journal which can be helpful in keeping you on track. "The Mayo Clinic Diet" consists of two parts: Lose It and Live It. The Lose It part is designed to help you lose 6 to 10 lbs. in 2 weeks to give you a jump start and results to keep you going with the program. The Live It part is longer and chock full of tips and suggestions for healthy and active living. This part discusses things like portion control, changing damaging behaviors, and making good choices while eating out. While following the rules of the first part for longer than 2 weeks may result in faster weight loss, the Live It part is easier to follow and more adoptable to an every day lifestyle. I decided to follow at least the Lose It part and see if "The Mayo Clinic Diet" would live up to its weight loss promises. The rules were simple: break 5 habits, add 5 habits and add 5 bonus habits for 2 weeks. These habits included things like fitting in at least 30 minutes of exercise every day, eating whole grains, avoiding sugar and snacks, and not watching TV while eating. I also took advantage of The Mayo Clinic Diet Journal and recorded my progress. On the first day, I recorded my starting weight, BMI and waist measurement, as well as my goal weight. I also took the time to write down my daily goal, everything I ate and what physical activity I accomplished that day. At the end of 2 weeks, I lost 5 lbs and I believe I could have lost more if I did not cheat on a few occasions. I found "The Mayo Clinic Diet" to be a refreshing change to the usually restrictive and unsustainable fad diets. The book was colorful, well organized, pretty easy to follow and just enjoyable to read. I finished the first part in one seating and could not wait to start implementing the habits into my day - they seemed like a very straight forward way to get rid of some extra poundage. I am now making my way through the Live It part and learning how to make healthy choices every day.

This is the first time I bought a diet book (or actually went on a "diet"). FYI: I'm a male. What drew me to this book was that it was published by the Mayo Clinic and is not a fad diet. The concepts in the book work. I actually lost about 8 pounds in the first 2.5 weeks on the diet and about another 2 pounds in the following week (my goal is to lose 15 pounds). The book motivated me to start to eat right and exercise (which I do for about 1 hour every day; burning between 300 and 500 calories on the oliptical + some light weight exercise). I became somewhat obsessed with eating the right foods as suggested in the book and got into an "exercise rut" (no matter how tired I was I exercised). The book is laid out fairly well and easily readable; although I find that it jumps around a bit - I would suggest reading Part 3 first (like I did) to get a basic understanding of eating and exercise and then go full bore into Lose It (Part 1). And read Part 2 and Part 3 (again). I saw results and that motivates me to continue to eat healthier and exercise. Good Luck!

If you want to lose weight than GET THIS BOOK! I lost 6 pounds the first week (6-10 was the range)and am beginning my fifth week and have lost a total of 14 pounds. I have 150 to lose. I also have Diabetes. This book has changed my life, my perspective on food, helped me change bad habits and replace them with good habits, and is one I can live with and feed my family the same foods too. I have been on every diet known to man. I have been overweight for 20 years. I will do it this time and be healthier and happier. These people at Mayo Clinic have given us a chance to be thin and healthy again. Get the book. It will change your life. I recommended it to my sister and sister-in-law as well. They are changing their lives too. My 20 year old daughter is also doing this diet with me. She only has 20 pounds to lose. It is so easy and is a life style change. I hate even calling it a diet. I will never go back to the way I used to eat. I still have that occasional chocolate cake and don't even have guilt. It is allowed. Everything in moderation is the key. I promise you won't regret spending the money for this book! Get the accompanying Journal as well!

I have read through this book and find it to be a fascinating easy to follow program that will produce results! The Mayo Clinic Diet Book starts out with a 2 week period of ADDING 5 Habits - BREAKING 5 Habits and ADOPTING 5 Habits. What I love about this method is that it is doable. That's right... it is simple steps that the journal (I love the journal!) helps you calculate and keep up on day to day. The Journal has a Habit Tracker within it so you can put in your starting weight... and check off the habits you are applying each day. This is great for someone wired like me as I have to have the visual in front of me.... plus, I like goals... and challenges... With great habits to remember like eating a healthy breakfast, fruits and vegies daily, eating whole grains, healthy fats - and my favorite habit: MOVE! That's right - get out there and well, MOVE! :) In the two week period you will also be encouraged to break 5 habits and this is good to doccument as well - like no eating while watching TV (guilty!), No sugar, no snacks, only moderate meat and dairy, and no eating at restaurants. Now this is just part of the journal habits to break. In the two week period if we focus on breaking these habits we are on our way to new and healthier ways to enjoy life... The back of the book has a break down of good carbs and healthy choices as well as recipes. This book will be one I can refer to again and again! The book talks about what motivates us... find what will give you an ongoing, burning desire to succeed. For me - I love being fit. I feel better about myself, I have more energy and I am just better. I dont know any other way to describe it. In September of this past year I fell a little off my routine and have yet to get back into where I was. I started not eating as healthy and skipping some of my workouts. My time management became cluttered and now in January I find myself 7 pounds heaver than my usual 125 pounds. So - in light of this review - a new year, a great read... I am starting this two week program today. I will probably do a recap at the end of the two weeks on how I did. This book has motivated me to do what I need to do to get back on track. Using the journal as a guide and the book to help me with those pitfalls I am looking forward to and expecting success. I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this book and cant say enough about the journal. Having a workbook that I need to keep track of what I am doing daily is a great motivator for me.

My husband and I were part of the initial study for this book. I will tell you that it is a lifestyle change but once you figure it out, it becomes second nature. I lost 8 pounds in two weeks and my husband lost 14. The study ended after 2 weeks. I did learn a lot but it certainly took time to figure out what foods are approved. I highly recommend this diet and intend to give it another try, this time adding the maintenance portions.