Weight Loss Plan: The (real) Mayo Clinic Diet

The Mayo Clinic Diet can help you conquer the weight loss obstacles you’ve dealt with in past dieting attempts. Just released in January 2010, The Mayo Clinic Diet is the only real weight loss plan from the prestigious Mayo Clinic.

A fake Mayo Clinic diet involving grapefruit has been making rounds for years, but it has no association with Mayo Clinic.

The Mayo Clinic Dietwill teach you everything you need to know about eating properly to lose weight. The comprehensive, yet easy to understand book would even make a great textbook for nutrition classes. Keeping reading to see how I did with this diet!

Consisting of two phases, the diet will first help you lose six to 10 pounds in two weeks during Lose It. After that, the Live It phase will help you maintain that weight loss and lose one or two pounds each week until you reach your desired weight. You may repeat the Lose It phase at any time for an extra weight loss boost.

During the Lose It phase, you may jump in with little preparation (other than some shopping for healthy foods). During the first two weeks, you’d read ahead to prepare yourself for maintaining or continuing your weight loss beyond the initial phase. Keeping track of your progress and goals in The Mayo Clinic Diet Journalis also helpful, but not required. A notebook will work as well. Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of The Mayo Clinic Diet and the journal. Read more about my disclosures.

The Mayo Clinic Dietprovides ample instructions, tips, meal planning assistance, recipes and encouragement to help you meet your weight loss goals.

A big part of the diet is eating to the healthy weight pyramid from Mayo Clinic. To follow the pyramid, you’d eat more from the fruits and vegetables category at the bottom of the pyramid, followed by carbs, protein/dairy, fats and sweets (located at the skinny top).

I followed The Mayo Clinic Diet through the Lose It phase. My goal was to lose 10 pounds. I’m not going to lie to you. It was work to avoid all sweets and snacks (other than fruit and veggies) during the Lose It phase. However, once I became more accustomed to having a fruit like strawberries for dessert and apples, grapes or bananas for snack, I liked it.

The two-week Lose It phase is more demanding than the Live It phase which allows some sweets. The hardest challenge for me was exercising each day rather than just a couple of times a week. One of the five healthy habits dieters are asked to implement during the Lose It phase is to walk or exercise for at least 30 minutes each day.

I weighed 130 at the start of the diet, and I lost 5 pounds to end up at 125 in two weeks. I wasn’t overweight before, but I wanted to be closer to my ideal weight and to eat healthier to help lower my cholesterol. I fell short of my weight loss goal because I didn’t exercise each day. It’s that simple. However, I’m grateful for the 5 pounds I lost and the healthy habits I adopted.

The Mayo Clinic Diet is a great tool for weight loss, but you’ll only be successful if you dedicate yourself to following the diet. There’s no magical weight loss pill, but there is a potential to transform your eating habits for a lifetime. And that means you’ll be healthier and able to meet realistic weight loss goals.

(Cover image via Good Books. Strawberries image via sxc.)

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