The Plan Cookbook: More Than 150 Recipes for Vibrant Health and Weight Loss Hardcover – Illustrated, December 30, 2014

***Update*** I emailed the author and she said this book is not for colitis sufferers.This is a fairly incomplete supplement to The Plan. I bought this first because of IBS, not knowing what I was really getting into. It outlines the 3 day cleanse but not the rest of the 20 day diet. The 20 day part is not clearly described in this book but when you buy the companion books they describe what you’re eating for the whole 20 days, which is basically whole flaxseed, broccoli, zucchini, and carrots with no salt. It’s tough. The recipes really don’t taste all that great. She swears the cleanse will cure you of your desires for salt but they don’t (I didn’t eat that much salt before but going to zero salt with all these veggies is not easy). My sugar cravings are definitely way down but as soon as the cleanse was over I started eating recipes in this book I gained back about .5 lbs/day until I gained back 5 of the 7 lbs I originally lost. It wasn’t until I got the workbook that I realized this is a 20 day cleanse and not a 3 day cleanse with a slow reintroduction to foods that don’t inflame. The reintroduction is a long and painful process that still involves lots of flaxseed, broccoli, zucchini and carrots with a few bites of other foods occasionally thrown in to “test” how you react to them. Unless you live in a controlled environment with 2 hours to cook every day, no kids, and no friends to have dinner with its pretty tough to follow. Also this is not a colitis/ IBS diet and many of the foods are on the no go list for IBS (pear, apple, mango, watermelon are staples here). I did lose a lot of bloat but gained it all back without really identifying what my trigger foods were.

Although I pre-ordered my cookbook so got it when it first became available shortly after Christmas, I've waited to review it until I'd had time to try a number of the recipes. I am SO not a cook, so this took a while. I can't say enough good about this cookbook. If I had one complaint about the book 'The Plan' it was the 'season to taste' in some of the recipes. Not being a cook, that often left me baffled. However I was fortunate enough to have online help (both from Lyn-Genet's team and from other Planners) so they helped me through that. I've been 'planning' since January 2014 and as of March 2014 I am prescription meds free! This is HUGE for me - I'd been trying for about 10 years to make lifestyle changes (losing weight, exercising, eating what I thought was healthy) but only after following 'The Plan' was I able to get off blood pressure meds!So of course I was anxious to have new recipes - but I'm retired and we travel quite a bit so its taken some time for me to experiment. The recipes are easy to follow (even for a non-cook like me), give me exact measurements LOL - another biggie, and every one I've tried has tasted great (and I can be a bit of a picky eater.) Some of my personal favorites are the crab cakes, the apple streusel, the apple pancakes, the almond grabbers and the Hearty Tomato Basil Soup. Yum - even my DH is eating these recipes (this from a guy who said I was eating 'rabbit food' when I first started 'The Plan'). LOVE this cookbook!

If you want to find out what foods cause inflammation in your body and consequently weight gain this is the plan for you. You start with a few days of detox to get your body to a baseline and then you start adding foods one at a time to see how your body reacts to them. I lost 15 pounds in 2 months. I love dairy and ate it regularly and discovered it caused most of my weight gain so I eliminated it from my diet (insert sad face here). I like the scientific approach the author takes and that by the end of the plan you will have a diet plan that works specifically for you. Knowing what your body processes in an efficient manner allows you to balance your diet and maintain your weight. If I eat pizza one night I will go back to the first 2 detox days and the weight I gained will come right off. This diet will have you eating healthy, feeling better, loosing weight and not feeling hungry. You will need a "weight watchers" type scale, organic food and willingness to cook all of your food. Other than the carrot soup I use the suggested foods but prepare everything with Italian flavors since I'm Italian. So if you are willing to cook, follow the directions with accuracy, spend the money on some organic foods this diet is for you. If you don't like to cook or are on a tight budget I am not sure this is the right approach for you.

This is a supplementary cookbook that goes with The Metabolism Plan book. TMP book explains everything behind when and what to eat so this book won't really help until you understand the author's information. I have been extremely successful on TMP and have lost weight, slept better, recovered quickly from bad eating days, had brighter looking eyes and skin, and the list goes on. She has a web site and a facebook page that are free and very helpful, too. I'm not a member of her paid portion of her web site, but she has still responded to the few questions I had when I first started. If you decide to do this, please do it justice by reading TMP and then following the 20 day plan. Last tip: use Sundays or a day of the week that is open for you to prepare more complicated items ahead of time like the soups. The soups are large batch so I would suggest freezing them in portions to make your life easier. I use ball jars and freeze once the soup has cooled.

The Plan has been a literal lifesaver, and this cookbook just helps it along. The recipes are straightforward & customisable. I will forever be grateful to Lyn Genet Recitas.

The recipes are wonderful. I find the plan rather difficult to follow as the recipes are rather far between for second serving, i prefer them fresher. As one person would like to see the Plan bring second serving closer to first.. Feel really good following this but find following it difficult for the abovementioned reason

Lost 15lbs in like 3 weeks, and am still on the Plan. HOWEVER I recommend purchasing the Metabolism Plan instead of this one, because it is more up to date. Her cookbook is also useful, and web site for the most recent menus.

Excellent book. Lots of information and has proven to work. No fancy foods invoked, just eliminate foods that react with your body.

The first book I received, I returned because it was damaged. I received a replacement book and that one was damaged as well. Great book, but for the money it shouldn’t look like it has been used already in someone’s kitchen twice!