Most of us know we should eat less and exercise more to lose weight. It’s a simple concept to understand. But if it were simple to implement, none of us would have an issue with our weight, and obesity would not be a national health concern. However, science has revealed that the ability to lose weight and maintain that loss is affected by a complex web of hundreds of physical, mental, and emotional factors.

After years of research and clinical study to identify the most important factors, Mayo Clinic has developed a plan—a fresh and practical weight-loss program that gives everyone the very best chance for success. This is not another fad diet leading to extreme short-term weight loss that’s impossible to maintain. The Mayo Clinic Diet is a straightforward plan with endless food possibilities based on a simple framework of adding five new habits, breaking five old habits, and adopting five bonus habits.

In The Mayo Clinic Diet: The Healthy Approach to Weight Loss, Donald D. Hensrud, M.D., M.P.H., shares practical tips to help you implement the behavioral changes needed to lose weight and keep it off. In 12 engaging lectures reinforced by explanatory visuals and exciting demonstrations, you will learn about setting your caloric goals, food prep shortcuts, developing a physical activity plan, and tracking your progress.

But this course also will take you a step further as you learn how your thoughts and emotions affect your weight loss, including:

determining whether or not this is the right time for you to start a weight-loss program

how to identify your personal motivation to lose weight

why perfectionism doesn’t work

taking responsibility for determining which changes you’re willing to make and how you can modify the Diet’s suggestions to meet your goals

identifying your weaknesses and triggers so you can adjust your plan accordingly

the crucial interplay between guilt and forgiveness

how to identify appropriate personal goals—short-term and long-term, outcome, and performance

Mayo Clinic experts know that people who start a weight-loss program are more likely to stick with it when they see fairly quick results. But they also know achieving and maintaining a healthy weight requires a long-term plan. That’s why The Mayo Clinic Diet has a two-part strategy: Lose It! is the initial two-week plan designed to give you a safe and healthy jump-start on your weight loss, and Live It! is a lifelong approach to help you meet and maintain your goal weight.

Hands-On Demonstrations: Right There with You

In addition to Dr. Hensrud’s expert guidance, the personable Chef Jen Welper is the “secret sauce” of The Mayo Clinic Diet: The Healthy Approach to Weight Loss. The Diet comes alive during numerous real-time kitchen demonstrations with Chef Jen talking directly to you, pulling for your success every step of the way. Her title, Executive Wellness Chef at the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program, tells you she’s a consummate professional who knows her way around food science and a commercial kitchen. But her relaxed, conversational manner—along with numerous, practical shortcut tips for shopping, prepping, and cooking—shows how well she understands your busy life and how important it is for you to make the best use of time in your own kitchen.

Don’t want to make trips to the market every day for fresh ingredients? You’ll be surprised to learn all the many frozen fruits and vegetables that can be just as healthy—and in some cases, even healthier—than fresh. Don’t feel like cutting up large, fresh fruits, such as melons or pineapple? Chef Jen understands and suggests buying pre-cut. Don’t have the time to cook brown rice or other whole grains? Buy them already cooked in the freezer section. Can’t imagine making five or six different meals in under an hour? Just watch! As Chef Jen demonstrates everything from slicing and dicing to searing, grilling, and roasting, her easygoing, down-to-earth manner will help you build your own meal-prep confidence and excitement.

Satiety—What It Is and Why It Matters

Satiety is that comfortable feeling we get after we’ve eaten an appropriate amount of food in response to hunger, the feeling that tells us when it’s time to stop eating and put the food away, no matter how much is left on our plate. Satiety arises from a complex interplay of body chemistry, emotional make-up, and habit. Basic biology has taught us that, for animals with an abundant food supply, satiety is an important feedback mechanism for maintaining health and preventing overeating. But U.S. obesity statistics tell us we have a lot to learn.

First, we don’t pay attention. Almost all of us have had the experience of eating beyond the point of satiety, sometimes way beyond. That oh-my-gosh-I’ve-eaten-so-much-I-am-sick feeling tells us we’ve been concentrating on the oral sensations of taste and texture but ignoring signals from the rest of our body. Or maybe we rarely overeat to the point of stomachache, but we habitually eat past satiety at almost every meal. Why? Maybe we’re focused on an activity, such as watching TV, and we don’t realize how much we’re eating.

Our second problem is that there are so many unhealthy ways to reach satiety. What to choose? Although most of us are aware of the relative number of calories in a variety of foods, we don’t think in terms of calories when we’re hungry. When we’re hungry, we want food. And when we’re really hungry, we want the food that’s closest at hand.

In The Mayo Clinic Diet: The Healthy Approach to Weight Loss, you’ll learn:

which habits will help you better pay attention to the signals your body sends when you’re hungry and when you eat, and which habits are likely to drown out those signals

how to schedule your meals and snacks to best achieve a healthy satiety

how to keep your pantry and refrigerator stocked with delicious, low-energy-dense foods that will help you lose weight by reaching satiety with fewer calories

As Dr. Hensrud explains, The Mayo Clinic Diet was developed with only one goal in mind—to help you feel better and become healthier by following an eating and exercise program that fits comfortably into your real life. You don’t have to follow it to perfection, but by identifying your personal goals and applying the principles of The Mayo Clinic Diet, you will find yourself on a path to better health and greater happiness.