The Last Diet You'll Ever Need

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting the world-famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.  This bastion of medical excellence is the often the last hope for people with untreatable diseases and conditions.  Only the best doctors and researchers are fortunate enough to work there. 

With that kind of prestige, it's no wonder, in a sea of seemingly endless diets emerging onto the scene, particularly this time of year, The Mayo Clinic Diet stands-out from all the rest.   This diet is based on years of clinical and laboratory research conducted at the clinic.  The result is a strategy to lose weight and keep it off forever.

This is important stuff.  Over two-thirds of the American population is overweight.  Being overweight leads to so many physical problems I don't have time or space to list them all, just about everything from snoring to cancer can be attributed to the stress of our little bodies having to cart around all those extra pounds.  The other day I had to carry a 25-pound bag of dog food up a flight of stairs and it was so exhausting!   Then I realized that's what it's like to be 25 pounds overweight, only in that case, you have 25 extra pounds to carry around all the time.  And think about how hurtful to your body to carry around tan extra 50 pounds, or even 100 pounds!  Such is the case for millions of Americans.

And talk about expensive.  Just think about how much money we spend on doctor visits and medications associated with ailments caused by our being overweight?  With healthcare reform on the horizon, I am now more motivated than ever to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  The cost and the inconvenience of being unhealthy are only likely to increase.

So achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is so much more than just looking attractive.  It improves your emotional well-being, your health, your financial picture, it's just a "win" all the way around.  If that's true, then why are so many people fat?  The Mayo Clinic Diet addresses this question.  In a nutshell, the answer is a series of bad habits.   And like any habit, it can be broken, and new ones can be formed.

The Mayo Clinic Diet is broken into two phases: "lose it" and "live it."  "Lose it" is the first two weeks.  It's a jump-start, and if you stick to it, just for two weeks, you'll lose 6-10 pounds.  Then in the "live it" phase, which is less intense, you lose 1-2 pounds a week until you reach your goal weight.  I won't go into all the habits you need to form and break.  Pick up a copy of the book and see for yourself.  It's a great investment.   But a couple of highlights include no television while eating, and exercising 30 minutes or more a day. 

But what I found most helpful, and remember, I've been studying diets for years now, was the section about attitude and overcoming obstacles.  It addresses all the thoughts that derail our success, such as how to overcome the "all or nothing" attitude.  You know, the one that goes, "we'll I haven't been perfect, so I must be a failure.  I might as well eat that  entire cheesecake."  Sound familiar?   The list goes on.  The book looks at how to reverse all the negative thinking and how to get around all the excuses that cause us to fail.

This diet book is not really a diet book.  It's a roadmap for a lifestyle change.  The habits you adopt are permanent and will allow you to live a happy and healthy life without ever having to diet again.