The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet: Activate Your Body's Natural Ability to Burn Fat and Lose Weight Fast (The Dr. Mark Hyman Library, 3) Hardcover – February 25, 2014

I'll put the summary upfront: using the principles and plans in the 10-Day Detox Diet, I lost 12 lbs in the first 10 days, a total of 21 lbs in the first 30 days and now 30 lbs total in the first 50 days. (Update: as of August 2015 I've lost 60 lbs total). In addition, my overall feeling of health and my energy levels increased greatly.A little about me: I'm in my mid-fifties and am a relatively big-framed guy who stands 6'1" and weighed 310 pounds when I started this plan. That was about 110 lbs overweight as my ideal weight is about 200 pounds (it's been a long time since I've been there so I'll let you know for sure when I get there).This book was recommended to me by a life coach I was seeing. I purchased the 10-Day Detox Diet, read it thoroughly and loved the sound science and principles behind the ideas. Following the plans in the book, I prepped my refrigerator and pantry, purchased vitamin supplements and fiber pills, tapered back on Dove dark chocolates (my main addictive habit), picked the day I would start and jumped in.I haven't felt hungry since.Good things that have happened in the first 50 days: I lost 30 pounds and 1.5 inches off my neck and 3 inches off my waist (just a representative sample; I slimmed down in other places on my body as well). My cravings for fatty foods and sugar disappeared. I'm sleeping better, some nagging inflammation in my knees cleared up and my digestive elimination challenges cleared up. My patience increased for handling both my interpersonal relationships and life's little problems. I have more energy for work and throughout the day. My overall feeling of health improved greatly. I feel like, after all the efforts I have made to lose weight over the years and after all the ups and downs my weight has been through, I've finally found the right set of intellectual tools to approach eating. Feeling this good is motivation enough to keep me eating healthy for the rest of my life.After about 20 days on the plan I also went back to Amazon and purchased Dr. Hyman's Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook to expand my access to additional recipes. Once I got the hang of how Dr. Hyman combines the ingredients for dishes and meals, I started experimenting with carefully modifying some recipes to tweak them for my own particular culinary preferences. If you use good common sense it's easy to mix and match ingredients and spices to tailor dishes and meals to your liking. I enjoy cooking and like to experiment in the kitchen. Your mileage may vary and the provided recipes are just fine the way they are presented. I'll keep doing this as long as my weight loss continues apace and my overall feeling of health stays strong. If I go too far afield, I'll just move back closer to the original recipes.'The real trick now is making sure I eat healthy over the long term. I already passed my first big test: a long overdue vacation at an ocean-side resort with lots of social interaction and eating out at restaurants. During the short trip I managed to lose 5 lbs instead of gaining weight as I likely would have in the past. Once again, I feel like I have the tools I need in Dr. Hyman's program to handle all situations.Side note: I did a sleep study three months ago and was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. Many overweight people who snore loudly like me have sleep apnea and don't know it. Since I was tested, and prior to starting the 10-Day Detox diet, I started on a CPAP machine and have been diligent about using it so I credit this with also helping me to have the energy to face up to my dietary challenges. I think it would have been much more difficult to lose weight without also dealing with this condition first.I believe good health is a combination of restful sleep, breathing fresh air, drinking lots of fresh water, eating healthy food of high quality, mitigating stress and exercising regularly. I feel I have the other items in order and now I will tackle the stress and regular exercise portions.Best of luck on your particular journey toward health. The 10-Day Detox Diet continues to work well for me, perhaps it will work for you too. Highly recommended.Update July 2014: In the first 100 days I have lost 44 lbs and feel great. I'm sticking with the principles laid out in Dr. Hyman's books as they are working well for me.Update September 2014: I hit my halfway point and I'm now down 55 lbs. This feels great as I've struggled with my weight most of my adult life. Best of all, others around me have taken inspiration. One person I know has lost over 40 pounds in the last three months just by utilizing information from Dr. Hyman's books that we talked about and is now at his ultimate goal weight and is very trim! I'll get there too. The key for me is that I don't feel deprived. I eat plenty of good food but now just the food that is good for me. The rate of my weight loss has slowed but is still steady. I now need to concentrate on making regular exercise a part of my life.Update January 2015: My weight loss has plateaued at 55 lbs down for the last 4 months and I still have 55 lbs more to lose. I just saw my cardiologist and he is very happy with my progress and my blood work showed huge improvement from before I started this lifestyle change to now. To continue my weight loss I need to trim back my portion sizes a little and start exercising consistently. I'm confident I'll get to my goal weight of 200 lbs or less in 2015. I'm sticking with Dr. Hyman's program.Update August 2015: This hasn't been a linear and easy journey but I'm back on the right path. Earlier this year, I slowly put on 10 lbs to 265 lbs as a response to stress from challenges I experienced both professionally and personally. Also, I noticed Dr. Hyman's program shared many similarities with the Paleo diet and I experimented with combining the two programs. I feel my main problem is portion control. I have the mistaken idea that if something is healthy to eat you can have as much of it as you want. This is not true for me particularly when it comes to animal proteins and nuts.No excuses though. I started exercising regularly and have been briskly walking for about 40 minutes per day, 7 days per week for the last three months. The scale didn't move for me though until I made some changes to my portions that were holding me back. I trimmed back on my animal protein portions at each meal, cut out the snacking on cheese that had crept in and reduced the portion size on nuts that are my go-to snack. Now, between the portion control and regular exercise, the scale is going down and I've lost 15 pounds in the last month. I'm now at 250 lbs for a total weight loss of 60 lbs. My goal weight remains 200 lbs so I have a ways to go but I'm feeling good about what I'm doing.I have recommended the 10-day Detox Diet to several people who have asked me how I've lost weight. Those that have purchased the book, read it thoroughly and adopted Dr. Hyman's principles have successfully lost weight and cleared up some health concerns as well. I continue to highly recommend this book and the info it contains. Be well!

I read this book prior to starting my weight loss journey. I ordered my supplements on Amazon and stocked my refrigerator and cupboards with the items I would need to begin.The program is easy to follow. I am into my 4th day and have lost 4 1/2 pounds so far. Day 1 was not easy as I was a huge coffee/Diet Coke drinker. I had the worst headache! Not only did I have the headache but I experienced terrible exhaustion. I could hardly function. By day 2 it was a little better. I did notice I’m drinking more water than I ever have. All the puffiness is gone from my face. I no longer have the cravings for caffeine or sweets.I can’t wait to see what happens in the next 6 days!

Okay...I'm going to be as honest and helpful as I can here. This book presents very common sense ideas and lots of information about recent advances in scientific research regarding food and diet. It is an easy and pleasant read, albeit a little repetitive. There are some interesting new ideas presented, but mostly it focuses on eating lean or "healthy fat" proteins and lots of non-starchy veggies. For 10 days, the plan requires you to give up dairy, gluten, sugar, caffeine, processed foods, starchy vegetables, beans, legumes and most fruits. It stresses high quality, organic foods--which, to be honest, can get quite pricey--but generally, I think are worth it in regards to flavor and health benefits. He never once says you HAVE to buy organic to do this detox, but organics are stressed throughout the book. The detox diet's main purpose is to wean you off of all the processed foods that are full of chemicals and preservatives and "hidden" sugars that cause intense food cravings, inflammatory responses and a myriad of health problems. To that purpose, I think it works well. It's main message is that food itself can be a medicine, which if used properly, can help our bodies heal and function at maximum efficiency. It's all about the FOOD.That said, it may take some people longer than 10 days to reap all the benefits of this type of diet and to lose their cravings for sugar and other unhealthy foods. Many people are psychologically addicted to food, and although there are some suggestions and references for receiving help with these issues, not much about deep-seeded, psychological food addiction is addressed in this book. To be fair, it's a diet book, not a psychology book, so it's not surprising. That said, some people may not be able to stick with this program due to much more overwhelming issues than simply craving sugar. Being a food-addict myself, I strongly recommend seeking some kind of additional behavioral or psychological therapy to compliment this, or any, diet plan. Almost anyone can stick to a restrictive diet for 10 days, but long term success with weight loss can only be accomplished by treating both the body AND the mind.Dr. Hyman's plan encourages moderate exercise, relaxation therapies like breathing techniques and epsom salt baths, plus daily journaling. Exercise is an important part of any weight loss plan and an even more important part of a healthy lifestyle. No arguments from me on the prescribed 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise. The breathing exercises are easy to do, relaxing and take only 5 minutes. The epsom salt baths, while relaxing and pleasant, do take more time than I can commit to on a daily basis. I also think it's a waste of water, but, that's just me. As far as the journalling, I have personally had little time to practice this. We have busy lives and sometimes taking time for these things, on top of the extra time it takes to prepare healthy meals, seems overwhelming. I think you just have to do the best you can and take time for these extra things when possible but you can't let it consume you or make you feel like you are failing on this program. It is a little bothersome that Dr. Hyman repeatedly advises one to "follow the plan to the letter" or you won't get all the results. I think if you follow the food plan strictly, exercise as often as possible and do the relaxation techniques and journaling as time allows, you will be doing fine.On to the topics that lots of negative reviews here take issue with. Minimizing "screen time" (i.e. media fasts) and supplements. Maybe I am the minority here, but being "unglued" from my cell phone and computer is not much a problem for me. In fact, I like having an excuse not to stare at my cell phone all day. But I do work in an environment with lots of screens in front of me for 12 hours at a time, so much of this is unavoidable. I also love to watch TV as a hobby and to relax, so giving up TV is hard for me. That said, it is only for 10 days. Personally, I think a common sense approach of reducing computer, TV and cell phone time when not at work slows me down in a way that allows me to take time for other activities (including exercise and preparing healthy food) that are more nurturing to my body and mind. I realize that for some people, this will be much more of a problem than it is for me.On to supplements. I have no problem with supplements. I have taken many of them for much of my life. For those who object to them because they are "a bunch of chemicals," I have no sympathy. Most supplements consist of vitamins, minerals and micronutrients that have a place in the human diet. You can buy supplements with no additives, preservatives, fillers, colorings or other added ingredients. They are sourced from naturally occurring compounds. Additionally, most supplements have an organically sourced option available. These "chemicals" are beneficial to our health in many ways. And just because they were made in a laboratory does not make them suspect or unhealthy. For those that object to supplements because they feel that a healthy diet will provide all the nutrients their body needs, please...Get real. The amount of (healthy) food one would have to eat to get all the vitamins, minerals and nutrients provided by a handful of supplements would CAUSE morbid obesity (if a person could even manage to choke down that amount of food daily). Supplements are a healthy and easy way to "supplement" one's diet to create balanced nutrition. For those who claim this book is just a scam created to sell Dr. Hyman's expensive supplements (sold through his website) again, PLEASE, get real. The book clearly outlines the recommended supplements and dosages that go along with the detox and state you can buy them ANYWHERE (including here on Amazon). He offers his own supplements as a convenient option to purchasing the supplements separately. That's all. You can do the detox without his own branded supplements. You can also do it without ANY supplements if you have such strong objections to the notion of taking them. Like anything else, including exercise, relaxation exercises and journaling, they are simply a tool that can help to maximize the benefits of this plan. But, as Dr. Hyman states over and over and over, IT'S ALL ABOUT THE FOOD.In short, if you hate vegetables and want to eat red meat every day, you won't like this plan. If you believe that 10 days is too long to give up bread, cheese, milk and caffeine, you won't like this plan. If you don't believe in taking supplements, you won't like this plan. If you hate drinking water, you won't like this plan. If you don't want to invest some money in healthy foods and in the time it takes to prepare them, you won't like this plan.On the other hand, if you want to rid your body of processed sugars, chemical dyes, preservatives, saturated fats, stimulants and foods that cause or exacerbate inflammation, you might want to give this detox diet a try. There is no magic pill to accomplish these things. Getting through the sugar and caffeine withdrawals can be very challenging and you may even feel like crap for up to a week into this detox. I was extremely tired and slept much more than I normally would. You may not even lose more than a pound or two. But this is certainly a healthy way of eating, and it certainly should not make you gain weight or feel poorly in the long-term. After the 10 days, you can continue the same eating plan for up to 90 more days, or you can choose to reintroduce foods like beans, starchy vegetables, fruits and even dairy and gluten if you feel like they can be part of your healthy eating plan without increasing your cravings for unhealthy food.Everyone has to start somewhere. And 10 days is not a huge commitment. If, after 10 days, you decide you don't like this plan, just quit and try something else. If that isn't satisfactory, keep trying things until you find what you can live with over the long term. All you really have to lose by buying this book is less than $20.