In The Mayo Clinic Diet: The Healthy Approach to Weight Loss, Donald D. Hensrud, M.D., M.P.H., shares a straightforward weight-loss plan with endless food possibilities. You’ll learn about setting your caloric goals, food prep short-cuts, and developing a physical activity plan, as well as how your thoughts and emotions affect your weight loss. This diet was developed with only one goal in mind—to help you feel better and become healthier by following a program that fits comfortably into your real life.

1: The Science of Weight and Weight Loss

• With more than two-thirds of U.S. adults either overweight or obese, weight is clearly a national health concern. But how important is it for you to lose weight? Learn how your body-mass index, waist circumference, and medical history each impact your health. You’ll be surprised to learn which factors are most important and why.

2: Getting Ready for The Mayo Clinic Diet

• Learn how to prepare your kitchen and what other tools you’ll need to begin Lose It!—the two-week jump-start phase of The Mayo Clinic Diet. But first, take this quiz to answer a fundamental question: Is this the right time for you to start a weight-loss program? Or are there other underlying issues to be addressed first?

3: Starting Your Diet: The Lose It! Phase

• Learn the five specific habits to add to your daily routine for the first two weeks of the program, the five habits to remove, and the bonus habits that will give your weight-loss journey the best possible jump-start. These changes are designed to bump you out of your comfort zone and head you in a different, healthier direction—but in ways that are both doable and nutritionally sound.

4: Assessing Your Weight-Loss Progress

• If you couldn’t follow every detail of the Lose It! program for the full two weeks, don’t worry. Chances are you did change some habits, and that is the beginning of success. Going forward, you can give yourself a bit of leeway on some habits—but others are too fundamental to your weight-loss success to be negotiable.

5: Maintaining Your Program: The Live It! Phase

• As you move into the long-term Live It! portion of the Mayo Clinic Diet, you’ll learn how to realistically set your personal outcome and performance goals, as well as your daily caloric intake. With The Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid as your guide, you’ll see that no foods are completely off limits as long as you understand the crucial difference between serving size and portion size.

6: Tracking Your Weight-Loss Progress

• While you can use any method that’s convenient for you to track your daily food intake and activity—from pencil and paper to smartphone apps—the tracking itself is crucial for success as you begin the long-term portion of The Mayo Clinic Diet. Learn exactly what and when to track for maximum efficacy. But tracking your weight? That’s a more personal matter.

7: Adapting The Mayo Clinic Diet

• The Mayo Clinic Diet is an adaptable plan that can work whether you’re in your home kitchen or out on the road. If you usually follow a vegetarian, vegan, Mediterranean, or DASH diet (for hypertension), no problem. These and other eating plans fit well within the framework of The Mayo Clinic Diet. With these five healthy cooking techniques and the five criteria for any food, you’ll be on your way.

8: Exercise, Activity, and Health

• Physical exercise provides a variety of health benefits with respect to heart disease, blood pressure, cognitive function, mood, diabetes, and some cancers—as well as helping the body lose weight and maintain that loss. In addition to structured exercise, learn how to incorporate more Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) into your day.

9: Behavioral Strategies for Weight Loss

• Many people believe they don’t have enough willpower to lose weight and keep it off. But the real issue is having the amount of willpower you need exactly when you need it—and you can plan for that. Learn how to give yourself every opportunity to be successful in changing your behavior long-term, and about the significant interplay between guilt and forgiveness.

10: Cooking The Mayo Clinic Diet Way

• How to plan healthier meals? Chef Jen makes it easy! With her simple suggestions for grocery shopping and easy-to-follow cooking demonstrations, you’ll learn to cross-utilize your ingredients to maximize efficiency in the kitchen. From barbeque pita pizza to pesto shrimp pasta, these delicious meals will help you meet your weight-loss goals.

11: Overcoming Obstacles to Weight Loss

• Everyone who undertakes a long-term plan to improve health will face obstacles. Learn to anticipate specific challenges and plan your work-arounds in advance. Whether it’s grocery shopping, cooking, eating out, getting your family on board with food changes, or prioritizing exercise, you can identify and overcome potential obstacles to your optimum health. You can be successful.

12: Handling Lapses and Keeping Weight Off

• Some days you will eat too much, and some days you won’t exercise, not even for five minutes. It happens to everyone. And eventually, you may even hit a plateau in your weight loss. Learn the best ways to keep negative self-talk at bay and continue to move forward toward better health, instead of expecting unattainable perfection and relapsing into old habits.