The 22-Day Revolution: The Plant-Based Program That Will Transform Your Body, Reset Your Habits, and Change Your Life

It is so hard to make the transition from a traditional diet to plant based diet, but this book provides a weekly shopping list and easy to follow menus. The program does take more prep time, however running to pick up fast food or going to lunch also takes time. Time preparing the plant based meal options is time well spent. I'm not a morning person, however within a day of making the change, I was able to get up an hour and a half earlier to add exercise to my morning routine. The uncomfortableness in my stomach disappeared and it feels good to be a little hungry and look forward to the next meal instead of eating mindlessly. I am a Registered Nurse who previously worked on a cardiac floor at a hospital. I now work for a health and wellbeing company that supports plant based diets and disease prevention. I have seen firsthand how people lower blood pressure, improve heart health, lose weight, and lower A1c with lifestyle management including a plant based diet and exercise. As far as the cost of fresh fruits and vegetable, I see many people who pay $300-$700 a month for preventable diseases such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. I'd rather pay a little more for real foods. Yesterday my coworkers had a surprise birthday potluck for me at work. As Registered Nurses who work for a health and wellbeing company, I would think that some of the food would be healthy, however we had noodles, fried chicken, cake, and ice cream. Today I feel like I have a food hangover. It was hard to wake up, even 2 hours later than I have been getting up and my abdomen feels bloated. I want to remember this feeling, because when I doubt that I am making the right choice, I want to think about how good my body feels on a plant based diet and how I no longer have a feeling of fatigue throughout the day. I make the meals for myself and my husband, however he sometimes adds a chicken breast to the meal. I have seen that he is slowly transitioning away from the adding animal proteins and even takes plant based meals for lunch. I’m so excited to find a very easy to follow plan that includes an introduction by Dr. Dean Ornish. Dr. Ornish is a name that I respect and I know that he know is committed to improving heart health. The book is so easy to read and Marco Borges provides real stories about people who have made the change, difficulties they faces, and how it changed their lives.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. I didn't think I could do this or any program for 22 days. I was wrong. I successfully did this and lost 6 lbs my first week. It was bloat etc, but it went away. I realized after reintroducing the food that I used to eat back into my diet, that I have a very bad intolerance to dairy. So now, I avoid it as much as possible and feel so much better. The recipes are good and though I am not 100% plant based, I am pretty darn close to it. The fatigue, the mind fog, the aches have all went away with clean eating. I never put it together until after reading this book. I recommend for anyone who was on a journey like I was on why they were feeling so bad. If not this book, definitely look at this lifestyle for help. I recorded all my days and what I ate and I keep it on my pc. For me, it helped to journal this while I did the program. I never felt deprived, hungry or moody. I just felt good and at peace with my food.

I haven't started the diet yet, so this is review is solely on my first impressions of the book. To be completely honest I did not read the bulk of the beginning of the book. I hate all of that motivational "you can change your life" talk. I get that it helps most people, but the beginning is so redundant. The author is basically saying that "vegetables are great!" over and over again. I get it. I bought the book. Another thing that bothered me was that the shopping lists for the 3 weeks are listed in one section, and the recipes were in a different section. The shopping lists should have been grouped with the recipe's for that week. Not scattered all over the place. If you buy the kindle version, it's annoying to keep going back and forth to see what you will need to buy. The last thing that drove me crazy was that there are no serving sizes for the recipes, which can be really confusing, and can make you waste a ton of money if you're not careful. I assumed that the items on the shopping list were for one person, but the recipes make enough for two people, sometimes even more. I guess you can always save them for the next day, but just be careful when you go shopping. I spent a pretty penny on that first shopping trip, but luckily my husband decided to try the diet with me. Plan your trip to the store carefully. The recipes themselves seem tasty, but since I have not tried any of them yet, I will update later. The book seems pretty common sense. I think if you're really struggling with losing weight, this is a good guide to start with, but there are a lot of ingredients I would probably not purchase again. UPDATE 11/28/2015 I've been on this diet for almost a week now, and I'm down 3 pounds. I'm sure I would have lost more if I had been following the workout plan, but I'm happy with the results. I'm going to reiterate that I only bought this book for the recipes. I did not read the bulk of this book. As far as the recipes go, this book needs a whole lot of editing. The shopping lists are divided by each week. Except there are some ingredients that you don't use until the following week. Sometimes that's fine, but when everything is fresh it's not like you can keep it for a while and wait to use it again. There are also some fruits that are not used for anything, which I'm assuming were listed there so you can use them as snacks. And then there are ingredients that are listed for week 2, that you need for week 1. So frustrating having to go to the grocery store multiple times. I did find the serving sizes of the ingredients on their website, but that should have definitely been listed in the book. As far as the recipes go, I have a huge sweet tooth and absolutely hate vegetables. I found that a lot of the dishes looked a lot worse than they tasted. I actually look forward to certain vegetables now. Even though I do think everything needs a bit more salt.

Love this book! Pros: I never knew how to make the switch over to veganism without combing the right foods together to ensure proper nutrition, this book does it for you! Other books I read on being a vegan left me feeling overwhelmed and confused, so I walked away from it. Marco has made it so easy. Reciepes are easy. Flavor of foods is great! Love how it's broken out week by week a shopping list and day by day meal plan! You will need to take the time to prepare the meals but they can be done in 5-30 mins or less. As far as the serving sizes go, I understand why he didn't put servings, because a 200+ lb guy will eat much more than I can. Depending on the reciepe it can make so much more than what I need for the one day. My advice . . . FREEZE IT! Then when you get too busy to make the next days meal, you already have something in the freezer to fall back on. That's what I'm doing. I also plan to purchase 1 week of his meal delivery service food to do the same with . . . as I never know what life will throw at me each day and if I will have the ability to prepare all three meals. Cons: None! Cons: None!

I love the idea of this book, which is 22 days of vegan, clean eating. They give you a series of recipes with a shopping list for each week. Week 1 set me back about $250 (this included the "pantry items," and a caveat is that I did buy everything at Whole Foods, which is super expensive but also the only place you can get things like tapioca flour). The workout was cute, but I can imagine it would get boring - I prefer to work in my own workouts. The reason I give this book 3 stars is the recipes. First, as a previous reviewer said, there's no portion size guidance. Some are clearly for 1 person and others might be for 2-4 (maybe more). I made the day 2 lunch and had a TON of leftovers. If you follow the plan with all of the recipes, you'd be throwing away major amounts of food. Some of the recipes are good - oatmeal made with almond milk is quite tasty, and the walnut tacos are very good (and pretty easy). Others remind me of why people don't like to eat vegetarian food - bland lentils or beans over quinoa or something similar. I get the feeling that the recipes weren't even tested. The day 2 "juice," which is more like a smoothie, was so thick it was almost impossible to drink (and it was pretty nasty). Finally, I know it's a diet book, but advice like "skip meals" if you trying to lose extra weight seems irresponsible. Sure, it will work, but it's not terribly healthy and not sustainable in the long run.

Ok, cards on the table, I have been a vegetarian for decades, so leaving out dairy and eggs probably was not as difficult for me. I needed a way to kick start weight loss and deal with symptoms of ibs. This totally worked fur me from day 1. Yes, the recipes repeat and yes, you have to figure out serving sizes. The recipes are easy to figure out and they teach basic habits. For me, it was about taking time to cook for myself as well as my family (meat eaters). The other night I came home from work a little hungry and the first thought in my head was, "Oh, I'll have a few grapes." Grapes? Any method that can teach a middle-aged life-long sugar maniac to crave grapes works for me. Be creative, think, try variations on what is in this book. It will work.

I have checked out endless eating plan/diet books and nothing ever worked for long. I did lose 50 pounds on Weight Watchers, but then stuck. I knew sugar and wheat drove my appetite crazy, but I didn't know how to build a plan around them. When I saw Beyonce was following this eating plan I thought, gee, she looks so good so I checked it out mostly out of curiosity. I follow it about 85% because I do eat fish and cheese sometimes. In two months, I lost 12 pounds. What is most amazing is I never felt hungry, and I never felt out of control with my eating. I lost the obsession with sugar. At 61, I wish I would have known what I know from this book at 16. I would have had a happier life. I have never known what it means to feel full and not to want to eat from nerves, sadness, boredom or even happiness. My appetite was under control even when I was on antibiotics and came off; even when I was sick, and I love to eat when I'm sick. When I get hungry it's gradual -- not like someone dumped me in a basement. Admittedly, this will be a difficult eating plan to follow if you love meat and you're not willing to give up wheat products, sweets or meat. Many of the things I love to eat are on this: chia pudding, lentils, oatmeal so I had the added advantage of liking the food. All I can say, is that for me, it was a big revelation, a welcome surprise. It works, and I'm still amazed.

Good recipes? Depends on your taste buds, but everyone will find at least 5 recipes they love. I would advise to check the spices before you make anything. The first few had a lot of cumin and coriander (we're not huge fans, so this started us off badly on the diet). I encourage you to use different spices, or sauces (watch the calories on sauces). SERVINGS DON'T MAKE SENSE! This is a lot of food. I read another review that calculated the calories, and some days added up to 4000/day!!! The first day's dinner lasted us the next 3 dinners (and we were tired of the cumin). I would start with a small batch, and stop eating when you are satisfied. Don't eat until you feel full. These are great guidelines, but there seems to be some mistakes, so I wouldn't follow it word for word. What you should take away from it is how to eat heart-healthy, plant based foods.