THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE GREENPRINT AND CREATOR OF 22 DAYS NUTRITION—WITH A FOREWORD BY BEYONCÉ.
A groundbreaking plant based, vegan program designed to transform your mental, emotional, and physical health in just 22 days—includes an Introduction by Dr. Dean Ornish.
Founded on the principle that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit, The 22-Day Revolution is a plant based diet designed to create lifelong habits that will empower you to live a healthier lifestyle, to lose weight, or to reverse serious health concerns. The benefits of a vegan diet cannot be overstated, as it has been proven to help prevent cancer, lower cholesterol levels, reduce the risk of heart disease, decrease blood pressure, and even reverse diabetes.
As one of today’s most sought-after health experts, exercise physiologist Marco Borges has spent years helping his exclusive list of high-profile clients permanently change their lives and bodies through his innovative methods. Celebrities from Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Jennifer Lopez, and Pharrell Williams, to Gloria Estefan and Shakira have all turned to him for his expertise. Beyoncé is such an avid supporter that she's partnered with Borges to launch 22 Days Nutrition, his plant-based home delivery meal service.
Now, for the first time, Borges unveils his coveted and revolutionary manifesto, featuring the comprehensive fundamentals of starting a plant-based diet. Inside, you’ll find motivating strategies, benefits and tips for staying the course, delicious recipes, and a detailed 22-day meal plan. With this program, you will lead a healthier, more energetic, and more productive life—helping you to live the life you want, not just the one you have.
Marco Borges, an exercise physiologist, author and vegan has spent the past 20 years teaching people how to lead healthier lives.
Marco has written for Us Weekly, Brides.com, The Knot and a host of websites including his own "Healthstyle Blog" and has been featured in numerous publications. He has developed extremely successful group fitness programs for both adults and children. Through his passion for people and communicating a healthy lifestyle, Marco continues to fight the obesity epidemic one person at a time.
Marco lives by a simple mantra - "I am committed to making a difference every day!"
I bought this book because I already have a plant-based diet and I needed a kickstart to make me start being healthier again.
The book is very preachy, but most of what it says is perfectly true. It didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know, but it's never a bad thing to remember important lessons when you have strayed down a bad road health-wise. I'd become very lazy and eating lots of junk food, so I figured a few lectures about health and mindfulness wouldn't go amiss.
The recipes are not exactly amazing, but my husband and I stuck to the diet word for word for 22 days, and we both lost a ton of weight. It's also easy to extend the diet further by creating your own menu afterwards from the recipes, or adding in your own meals based on the same ideas from the book. I tended to add some extra herbs and spices to a lot of the meals, or mixed in different veggies for more variety and different flavours, as the recipes given in the book are very samey and can tend to be a little bland.
All in all, the diet did word so yes I would recommend this book. I would encourage anyone to take what they learn from doing the 22 days and adapt the diet afterwards to be a bit more palatable. That way it's more sustainable and easier to continue being healthy after the 22 days have ended.
I am not a nutritionist, I am a developmental psychologist, and I know that nutrition plays a critical role in development. So because I write and teach about general nutrition, I tend to look at books that are about diets and nutrition.
This seems to be another in a long line of "one diet fits all" books. And I most genuinely believe that there is no one diet that fits everyone. We all have different types of bodies and metabolisms.
So even though I was bored partway into it because the author's ideas about habits and mine are a bit different, I thought maybe I'd see some good recipes yet even those were things I already knew. So there's really nothing in the book for most people who have a general idea of nutrition, vegetarian eating, or plant-based eating - or even know how to look up recipes online.
This book gets an extra star solely because I agree with the author on two major points. We should eat primarily plants, and committing to things for a habit breaking 3 weeks is a good idea.
That's where this book stops being good, and I've decided to begin my "Fuck you Marco List" with his unbelievably condescending tone of writing. Borges will consistently refer to times in his life where he carried about on his holier than thou life of self improvement that'll make you long for scrolling through dating profiles of hipster bros hiking. Most pungent in my mind is when parents of the "husky" (no really, he used that fucking word) kids tried to convince his god-like self to train their children to be more like him. Borges, by the by, and you're more than welcome to google him, looks like a shriveled prune going through a midlife crisis ten years late. Before you think I'm being mean, just know that it's a direct retaliation to the smug piping out on every page.
My second major beef (because I can deal with some douchery for someone who is intelligent) is how poorly researched this book is. I know plants are good for me, because I have read better books. 22 Day Revolution asserts things like, we should get 80% of our energy sources from carbs 10% from fats, and only 10% from protein. Wait, what? That's a bold claim... It's cool though cus he cites his sources... It's fucking Web MD. No, I'm not joking. He gets his science from Web MD. Another favorite moment? You should occasionally fast if you're up for it? Why? Well, that sort of thing is what you get in a book that is well written. This book has a forward by Beyonce.
Reason three. It really is too strict for three weeks: no meat, no dairy, no eggs, no sugar, no gluten, no soy, no alcohol, three meals a day, no snacks (well you can have ONE snack every OTHER day, so choose your celery sticks for when you're really ravished!) Yea, you lose weight on a diet this strict, but you're also hungry... A LOT, and you can't have a palm full of blueberries, because this book is bullshit. No gluten is bullshit, no soy is bullshit, eggs are literally a perfect protein, and the reason these are slashed are not explained. It's just apart of the game that Borges has devised to get you to eat more greens, but not too many, because you had better not be snacking.
How will you ever be like Marco Borges if you eat an organic banana after dinner?
I feel like I'm getting long winded, so I'm going to combine the last two points. The recipes are bad. The food tastes like shit and there's no portion sizes, so say, for the chickpea mash sammich, I easily made three big servings, and I'm not sure that was right. I also added a bunch of mustard to undercut the grainy mash that was my lunch.
I stopped reading it for the daily inspirations, (filled with poorly researched smug) and instead found some good vegan recipes, stopped drinking for three weeks, and because I'm bad company till' the day I die, had a few cookies. I lost nearly ten pounds. I sleep better and have more energy, but that's not because of Borges's book, it's because I decided to challenge myself to be healthier... this is a bad book propping up a good concept, and that's a damn shame.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
There are some good examples, which speak for themselves and don’t need any more convincing in this book, but the author does overbearing convincing to the plant-based program. I agree with this diet to some extent, our diet should be mostly composed of organic plants, veggies, fruits, grains, and nuts. Meet is not needed; to give us strength - we can get it for example from avocado. I would not put away fish and sea food as this diet suggests.
If you’re looking for a book about healthy diet, I highly recommend Super Immunity by Joel Fuhrman, MD. That’s the only book you will ever need to read to understand healthy diet and its benefits.
This book is probably best for absolute beginners who don't know the first thing about vegan or plant-based eating or a healthy lifestyle and need to be convinced of the merits of such. His idea of just trying it completely for 22 days is a sound one and that is the basic merit of the book. It is written in a simple, easy to follow style. In addition to recipes and pep talks ho also provides illustrations for beginners' exercises. My main problem with the book is that the author isn't grounded in many standard healthy eating practices -- for example, he recommends drinking water with meals (not a good idea as it dilutes digestive enzymes) and he is not grounded in basic food combining principles (for example, there's a recipe for cauliflower salad that includes sliced grapes). There are some interesting variations on the standard vegan or raw recipes, such as pizza crust, vegan cheese, sushi rolls, no-cook oatmeal, home made almond milk, and juices & smoothies. Among the best recipes is a very basic and simple vegetable curry that would be easy to repeat & alter to your taste. Another plus is that for the most part the recipes use common, easy to find ingredients. However, too many of the recipes are a mish mosh. Some have way too many ingredients (for example, a carrot bread has 23 ingredients, including 5 different types of flour, not as alternates but ALL in this one recipe!). Another recipe calls for 1 can of coconut milk but doesn't say what size. Many other recipes require a food processor or too much prep. The point of the book seem to be to convince the reader of the merits of this program and that it can be easy to do. I'm in favor of any book that does this, and even with its faults this book seems to accomplish that.
This is quite an interesting approach to going vegan or even just to get your lifestyle to be healthier. I did feel like maybe the recipes could be a little bit better but I enjoy the smoothie/shake recipes at the end. The workout section wasn't really worth it because I can look up how to do the workout on YouTube if I needed to. It does explain a few things about the benefits of going plant based /vegan I don't think I will fully ever be vegan but I plan to incorporate more of a plant based diet in my life and as of now I plan on trying the fast track version of the diet this week and will update the review if I go through with it and succeed for the week. By the way this book took me way longer to finish then expected and I don't know why..
To start, my husband lost 14 lbs and I lost 8 lbs by the end of this diet. We had been vegan for over 2 years in the past, so it works for us. BUT...I don’t believe veganism is for everyone, and I found a few problems with Borges's thinking (not to mention some of his recipes).
First off, this is mainly a RAW vegan diet. I understand that raw veggies have the most nutrients, but there is only so much you can do with raw veggies. For example; avocados and tomatoes are some of my favorite foods ever…but on this diet you will consume more tomatoes and avocados than you ever have in your entire life. It’s in nearly EVERY recipe. There is even a whole recipe consisting of just tomatoes, avocados, and lemon juice. (And don’t get me started on this man’s tabbouleh recipe. I am convinced he has never had real tabbouleh in his entire life, and I apologize to any non-ethnic readers for his sad interpretation.) Yes, there were a few recipes that tasted delicious that I have saved for future use (Spanish beans over sweet potato!!!), but this is NOT a diet plan for foodies (unlike what Beyonce misleadingly claimed in the forward). I grew up eating lots of ethnic and world foods, a lot of them being vegan, so this bland and repetitive diet was pretty difficult at times for me to brave through.
I’m sure Borges had all the best intentions while creating this book, but sometimes he appeared to be...pushy? Like being vegan and plant-based is the only way to lose weight, to feel happy, and to live life. Anyone else is in denial. And it’s “empowering” to encourage your friends and family to follow suit. Also, if you're at a friend’s house or are invited to a dinner event, 'don't eat anything, or bring your own dish.' Umm I refuse to be “that person” who doesn’t eat or denies the food my host prepared or requests a certain dish because of my diet choice. That’s so rude! I used to be that person, and it made it so hard on everyone else!
Just like how every human being is different than the other, I believe there are different diets to fit each person’s physical and mental needs. There is no “one size fits all” diet, as Borges seems to preach. But of course, you don’t know what works for you unless you try. My husband and I love being mostly vegan (and Borges would hate to hear me use the term “mostly vegan”), and we still feel great and loose weight doing so. This plan definitely helped us get back on the vegan bandwagon and we intend to incorporate it into a majority of our meals. BUT…there are better vegan options out there. If you want to lose weight super fast and don’t care too much about how your food tastes, and you have great determination and you can get past all the cheesy daily motivations, go ahead and try this diet. It WILL work. But if you’re like me and you love flavorful meals, there are plenty of better vegan plans out there that are just as healthy. Hello Pinterest.
This book is poorly written and edited with not enough information to follow the diet even if you tried. Lets start with the recipes. Chapter 5 says to stick with the recommended portions or you won't do well with this diet. Then, there is a list of portion sizes - "beans and legumes 1/2 - 1 cup", grains 1/2-1 cup, veggies 1-2 cups, and similar portions for fruit, "fats like avocado", nuts and seeds, olive oil, and nut butters. Some of the recipes have portions listed - for example, the chia pudding says it makes 2 servings, but most of the recipes do not indicate how many servings they make so if you are only cooking for one person, you have to guess or else have leftovers and try to figure out according to his chart how much is one portion. The Avocado Bruschetta recipe includes "2 vegan and gluten-free slices of toast(recipe above)" but there is no toast recipe anywhere - not that most people would need one. If someone did manage to follow this diet, I imagine, in addition to having a lot of leftover food that they would have to share or throw out since leftovers are not included in the plan, they would indeed lose weight because there is very little food in some of the recipes and in the plan in general. I am not sure if it even has enough calories for people to adhere to for 22 whole days. For example, on Day 4, dinner is raw zucchini, carrot, and cucumber salad. I assume this recipe makes only one portion, but it might be more than 2 cups of veggies depending on their sizes. The ingredients of this salad are: "1 zucchini, 1 carrot, 1 cucumber, 1 T tahini, 3 T lemon juice, dash sea salt, dash sesame seeds." Spiralize the veggies, mix the dressing and serve it together. That it - the whole dinner - a carrot, a cucumber and a zucchini. But hey, that day you get chia pudding for breakfast - 1/4 c. chia seeds in a cup of almond milk with cinnamon, vanilla, and maple syrup. The lunch on day 4 is lentil soup, which calls for 1 1/2 cups of dry lentils and 6 cups of water and some spices and onion which can be garnished with a little avocado and tomato. You are going to have way too much soup for one person since you can only have 1/2 to 1 cup of cooked lentils and the recipe will make about 3 1/2 to 4 cups of the soup. The book does not tell you how much soup it makes - I looked online to see how much cooked lentils you get from a cup of dried ones. I am all for a plant-based diet, which is why I checked this book out from the library, but it is going back quickly because it is just not doable.
I own a book called plant-based on a budget, which provides simple, cheap vegan recipes that anyone could make. This book may be the opposite. Set up as part self-help, part-workout plan, part-vegan recipe book, Borges' 22-Day Revolution isn’t bad, so much as it could be so much better.
The premise of 22 days, the amount of days it supposedly takes to break a habit, is a little far-fetched to begin with, as everyone is different with their cravings, behaviors and tendencies, but what really irked me was the sheer volume and diversity of ingredients you have to make if commit to the day-by-day recipes in the book. One lunch would last me a whole week.
Not to mention, the ingredients – tapioca flour, coconut aminos, norri sheet, capers, coconut oil – make it tough to affordably go plant based (or know what the hell you’re doing in the kitchen, as I haven’t heard of half these products).
There are some decent sections on nutrition and the importance of sticking to your goals (the self-motivation part of this is a main theme), and probably the best part of the book was his anecdotes about transitioning to a plant-based diet in his own life, but there are better, more accessible books that encourage a whole foods, plant-based diet, without stocking a pantry and cooking the full-scale meals of an upper-middle class family.
Confesso: não fiz a dieta. Por pura falta de vontade mesmo. Preguiça e sobretudo, falta de confiança. Mas esses são problemas que eu tenho que superar, e não que a dieta me trouxe. A dieta em si é bem equilibrada e acho que super vale a pena. Como vegetariana a quase dois anos, a minha curiosidade ao ler esse livro era saber como veganizar a minha vida. Acho que o conteúdo apresentado é bem interessante para quem nunca pensou no veganismo, ou para todos os iniciantes que não sabem muito bem como começar a sua jornada rumo à alimentação saudável. Esse é definitivamente um bom jeito de começar. A primeira parte do livro é um pouco entediante, se você já tem consciência de que vegetais são bons pra você. Mas o restante é promissor. Recomendo.
Really good introduction book into plant-based eating. It did a very good job of laying down the facts without being too preachy. I liked that there were life examples of being on a plant-based diet. In some respects I think sometimes the author wasn't realistic about commitment and what to do in the case of someone veering away. I also was not at all happy that the recipes did not including serving size which is the most basic information. How did the editors not catch that!?! Still I went through the 22 day program and I feel absolutely great! I tried recipes that i wouldn't normally try and loved them. A couple of the recipes were misses but all-in-all, as I said, great introduction.
Comecei o ano (como se calhar a maioria das pessoas) com a resolução de perder peso e tornar-me mais saudável! Recomendaram-me este livro e gostei muito! Tirei algumas ideias essenciais para seguir um plano mais saudável, comer menos animal e mais legumes, plantas, sementes. Tem sido uma aventura e não tem corrido nada mal! :)
A leitura foi fácil. Nunca gostei muito de ler este tipo de livros. Quando peguei nele pensei: "vou desistir facilmente", mas não foi o que aconteceu. Mantive o entusiasmo do início ao fim.
Hard book to review but the idea seems simple and I am at an age where I worry more about my health. I recommend reading the book because it will give you a new perspective and I believe the philosophy. The recipes do not look easy at all to prepare but that is the problem with eating healthy it seems, it is less convenient when there is a fast food joint on every corner. Maybe someday they will be replaced with farm fresh stands!
The first half of this book was my favorite Whole Food, Plant-Based book so far. The second half was interesting, but got too "cheerleader" for my personal tastes. No knock...just not what I need.
If you don't eat a Whole Food, Plant-Based diet today, read this book!
Great concept of trying something for at least 22 days. I agree with the author that between a complete plant based diet and some exercise, you will end up losing weight. As the author clearly states numerous times throughout the book, you will be hungry because your body is getting used to much smaller portion sizes. Continue reading and you'll find that not only are the portion sizes much smaller but your intake of just pure fruits and veggies will cause your stomach to grumble in hunger.
Recipes are intriguing and love the fore thought of adding a menu and recipes to each day. The prep that goes into each meal (yes some meals are easier than others to put together) is not for the faint of heart. Cost of ingredients will be much higher than your usual trip to the grocery store, especially if you follow the author's notes and just stick to complete organic products. Not sure about anyone else, but here in Michigan organic fruits and veggies are at least a $l - $3 more than non-organic choices. Portion sizes are certainly off. Some recipes will tell you how many it will serve and others do not. And, what about substitutes? What if the reader doesn't like chia seed pudding?
I should also mention that the author states that in order to increase your success with this 22 day vegan challenge is to also cut out alcohol, added sugars, artificial sugars, anything made with white flour, fried foods, processed foods, food that does not look like the original product, and of course ALL animal protein including eggs which are a great source of protein and nutrients (IMO).
I feel like there are better options to gaining/ maintaining a healthier lifestyle.
Me gustó mucho el libro para dar una visión acerca de lo que se puede comer en una dieta a base de plantas. Siento que en la parte argumentativa si bien sirve para motivar, a mí me hubiera gustado que tuviera más referencias de base científica para consulta externa. El plan que ofrecen tiene algunos elementos que no son económicos y otras recetas que toman mucho tiempo. Pero en general, todas las recetas se ven apropiadas según lo que describen, y deliciosas incluso. También me gusta que algunas recetas son muy sencillas, esas son las que me voy a robar del libro. ¿Que si haría el reto? En este momento quiero algo más ligero.
Tres ideas que me llevo: 1. La dieta es un 75% del esfuerzo de bajar peso y el 25% es ejercicio. Las dos deben convivir. También es importante dormir bien y tener una comunidad de apoyo. 2. Una dieta a base de plantas, sin alimentos altamente procesados puede tener muchos beneficios para la salud. Y te ayuda a bajar de peso. (me convenció el libro). 3. Los carbohiratos son la principal fuente de combustible en el cuerpo. Hay dos tipos de carbohidratos. Los simples que se descomponen fácilmente como los azúcares, refrescos, caramelos, etc. estos son calorías vacías que no nutren. Los complejos, para los cuales el cuerpo trabaja más. Cuando uno coma carbohidratos hay que preferir los complejos. Por ejemplo: los vegetales, frutas, legumbres y cereales tienen carbohidratos complejos. No hay que hacerle guerra a los carbohidratos, solo comer los apropiados.
I usually do a 3 week cleanse/elimination diet annually: I cut out meat, dairy, gluten, soy, alcohol and any other processed foods. I think it helps my body reset, and I go back to healthier habits and eat a more plant-based diet. I was interested in this version of that, mostly because, BEYONCE. In my opinion, this book was only "ok". The recipes aren't great - some are downright complicated and tasteless. They are all over the place in serving sizes, and the instructions can be vague, so you need to know how to cook. Because I do a version of this diet already, I know that you can have delicious food within these parameters. I did not follow the exercise plan, instead I walked and did yoga. I require more calories than this provides in order to do cardio. If you need inspiration then there is a lot of positive encouragement here, and the book would certainly keep you on track.
The sheer number of world class performers that Marco Borges has trained over the years is phenomenal. In his 22 day revolution he shares his experience and expertise in a way that is very accessible to the reader. He breaks down the benefits of veganism, offers a path that anyone can follow to get on top of their health, and stay there!
Great book for anyone interested in making "the change." Marco will help you break your addictions to processed "dead" food, and teach you how to eat a more "vibrant life filled" diet.
The health benefits promoted in the book are real. The plan he proposes really could be a more cost effective and long term solution for many people who are on the verge of medical intervention in their life. Plus, the change will be better for the planet too!
One star is harsh, as this book is not literally the worst. However, I'm mad that someone so uneducated wrote a nutrition book, telling others what to eat in such a non-scientific way. Eat carrots, he says, they're good for your vision! That's a false piece of 'wisdom' that's been going around for at least 40 years. He says you can drink fortified plant milk to make up for all the nutrients you'll be lacking when you eat a vegan diet. I am just so tired of people espousing strict diets that are the one right way to eat, full of misinformation and a lack of facts. I read 1/3 of this before taking my life back. Plants are good, and lovely, and tasty, but we also benefit from some animal foods.
Soy vegana desde hace 4 años, quise leerlo para seguir documentándome y tener más ideas de recetas, y debo decir No me encantó el approach que la relación con la comida, veo muchas ideas que para mí son arcaicas (como pesarte diario!) y varias formas de ver la nutrición que no considero que sean sanas (para la mente). Tiene buenas recetas, sin embargo a mi parecer le falta agregar proteínas como tofu, tempeh, etc. y siento q está muuuy enfocado a bajar de peso, las porciones son minis! Y pues creo q cada cuerpo es diferente y cada quien tiene distintos requerimientos
This is a strict vegan diet that would be hard to accomplish solely because the portions seem too small. I'm going to try some of the smoothie recipes. I think you could definitely lose weight on this regime but it would be difficult to follow. The fact that it is suggested that you supplement certain vitamins in place of meat tells me you need some meat in your diet, but I understand there are those that won't eat meat.
Got from the library for the vegan recipes + curiosity about the forward by Beyonce. Most of the book is a case for veganism, which I thoroughly researched about 10 years ago, so nothing new there. Some of the recipes were good! Some were meh. Was good to jumpstart some clean whole-food eating for our family.
This is the very definition of preachy, cherry picked manifesto. While I agree with the ideas, the way they are presented is so off putting it made even me, someone who he doesn’t need to convince, want to do the opposite of what he says.
There are tons of books like this; read any one of those instead.
I didn't get a whole lot of new info on the subject from this one. And kinda boring recipes. But that being said, could be an accessible starter reference for someone new to plant-based eating and lifestyle medicine.
I don't plan to follow the author's 3-week plan for converting to a plant-based diet, but I did pick up a few more tidbits on how to incorporate more plants into our family's meal plan. Always a good thing!
Согласно автору, на физическое состояние нашего тела значительное (75%) влияние оказывает питание и физические (25%) упражнения (или их отсутствие). Ничего революционно нового книга не открывает, но дает хороший заряд мотивации для здорового питания, особенно в летние жаркие месяцы.
Good for people new to veganism. Book mainly focuses on weight loss but veganism is more than this. A plant based diet is all about giving you more energy.