I am 50 years old. Through my 40s counting calories and exercise allowed me to lose weight. Eventually it stopped working. I would ride my Peloton 6 days a week and eat 1800 calories a day, always end with a calorie deficit and the weight wouldn’t drop off. I was discouraged. I heard about this book in a Peloton group and decided to try it. I’ve been following these principles for more than 3 months and here’s what you need to know before you give it a whirl. ( I lost 19 pounds in less than 3 months (I lost 7 before I started, between January-mid March) I have lost a total of 26 pounds between January-June. If you are ready to change your lifestyle, here goes: 1. You have to cook every meal. This is a clean eating way of life. But don’t worry if you aren’t a cook. I am a horrible cook, but managed to figure out how to roast vegetables and follow a recipe. You will want to prep meals. Lunches are soups and salads and the recipes for soups net you between 5-13 16 oz. bowls. I freeze them and take out the ones I’ll eat for the work week and put in the fridge to start defrosting. 2. Your family most likely won’t be on board. Because you cut out all processed food and you can’t eat out for more than two weeks when starting this, odds are they won’t want to eat kale or squash. My family doesn’t like eating healthy. Even when I cook fish, chicken, lamb, and bison, they wanted nothing to do with it. I roast zucchini, yellow squash, shiitake mushrooms, and onions ans it was a hard no for my crew of 5. Their idea of vegetables are corn. And why can’t you eat corn? See next…. 3. The facts are their are reactive foods and friendly foods. The book provides you with a list of foods that are healthy but cause inflammation, which is shown on the scale. People think bananas and tomatoes are good for them, yet those healthy foods don’t work for the chemistry of many individuals. This plan is a process of testing foods to see which ones work for you and avoid the ones that don’t. This isn’t a diet because no foods are off the table; you have to test foods to see if they fit for you. 4. You have to follow the first 20 days exactly as written with no substitutions to see results that reset your body. During the first 3 days you can expect to lose between 3-6 pounds depending on your starting weight. You are cleaning your body, removing inflammation, and resetting your body. You won’t feel hungry; you will feel good and can feel your body healing. 5. I recommend you also get the original book “The Plan” because of the recipes in it. This book has even had some updates, so after you purchase this, you need to go to the website and print off the 20 day menu plan and follow it. It is almost just like the book with a few changes. For instance, in TMP it calls for baby romaine lettuce everyday, but in the updated web version you switch between that and green and red leaf lettuce. In conclusion, I have never felt better. Ditching processed food has made such a difference. When looking at weight loss, 80% is nutrition. In fact, I discovered my body was under stress and inflamed because I was working out too much! I dropped to 4 days a week instead of 6 and my body thanks me and I continued to lose weight. You also test exercises, so you will discover if you need to change what you do. I had to quit power zone training because I will not lose weight doing a 45 minute ride because it is too stressful for my body. I’m better with 20-30 minute rides, but I believe if I didn’t exercise some days I’d lose an extra pound. You should totally do this! It is HARD, but if you have tried everything else, so this because it isn’t a diet, it is a healthy lifestyle of eating. I’m pretty much at my goal weight now and I can eat out or have a “cheat” day because if I gain weight, I know what to eat the next day to lose what I gained.