The Hot Belly Diet: A 30-Day Ayurvedic Plan to Reset Your Metabolism, Lose Weight, and Restore Your Body's Natural Balance to Heal Itself (Guide to Healthy Weight Loss, Nutrition)

On Sunday, I typed "digestion" into Amazon's search engine and Dr. Suhas's book popped up in first place. When I saw it was being released on Tuesday, I took that as a sign and pre-ordered his book. Receiving it Tuesday afternoon (gotta love Amazon Prime!), I devoured it by Friday morning. Tomorrow, Saturday, I will start the Doctor's protocol and report back with my results.The Hot Belly Diet is full of great Ayurvedic advice as well as blending Western medical thoughts into it so it it very easy to understand, has a very loving, friendly voice and the recipes look so yummy that I am going to try four of them out on friends this Thursday! I also checked out his website dedicated to the book and I do hope he begins a blog where he or an assistant will answer questions.So far, my only question would be the fruit issue. On page 125, Dr. Suhas says to "avoid fresh, whole fruit as a dessert after meals, as the energy of fruits should not be exposed to hot, digestive acids". But on several other pages, including page 120, there are instructions that say a piece of whole fruit can be eaten for dessert. Plus, several of the recipes have fruit in them with other non-fruit ingredients. The recipes do ALL sound delicious!Other than that small point, everything else makes perfect sense and the whole book, as a read, is very calming. I haven't weighed myself but I actually look and feel lighter from just having read it. Much of the book is about our mental and emotional life and how that affects our digestions and I think I am seeing how this is true. Thank you, Dr. Suhas and Kristin for writing such a wise and pleasant book!8/31/14: Yesterday I did the optional castor oil cleanse. Did not taste as yucky as I thought it might (I stirred into a fresh squeezed grapefruit juice). Felt tired and nauseous all day but stayed around house like suggested. Began drinking daily seed/ginger/lemon brew blend but without caffeine green tea since I have a problem with caffeine. Odd but tasty. Had a green smoothie, a protein smoothie and a broth with blended carrots and celery in it, so managed to stick to liquid fast: which is amazing for me! Was not difficult. What did bum me out was that I didn't make a #2 visit to the bathroom by 2:00pm. Nothing happened until 7 am the next morning. So my digestion must be REALLY slow. No wonder I have had so many digestive issues in the past. Good news is that in one day I lost 2 lbs and a half inch each off my waist and hips. And I feel great today! Just started taking the two tri supps. (Got them from Amazon.) Will update after 21 day protocol. Can't wait to try the khichadi!9/14/14: So I haven't finished the entire 21 day protocol but I wanted to update with some more results that might help someone else. It took me longer than three days to transition into phase two. It took about a week. Probably because my digestion was so weak. Things weren't coming out, if you know what I mean, my guts were bloated, I was only able to swallow two cups of seed tea a day and I almost quit. Oh, here's a bizarre thing that happened at about day four: the skin on my knuckles, knees and elbows got really dry, brown and flaky! But my joints were feeling better and I had more energy. Also, I think I thought because I had promised to give my 21 day report, I would keep on with it. Five days later, all the gnarly skin had sloughed off and left nice soft skin (which they were soft before I started the diet). And I can now crouch down, let's say to get something out of a lower cabinet or weed in the garden, without any pain or weakness.In the last four days, I was able to start eating lighter dinners, quit snacking and drink the full quart of seed tea during the day. After a cup of seed tea, my body will heat up briefly, I will even start sweating and then it will subside. (No, it's not a hot flash: I know what those are ;-)) In the last three days, my digestion has started to remain calm for almost the whole day, sometimes the whole day. I'm thrilled! I have lost another half inch off my waist and another whole inch off my hips. My clothes are feeling a lot looser. I feel so much more energetic and vibrant. Two strangers, one at the post office and one at Trader Joe's stopped me yesterday and said, "Wow, you look healthy!" Isn't that weird? (But nice!) I feel like my digestion is beginning to work consistently for the first time in years. And did I tell you how delish the khichadi is? For the most part, (I have dined out at restaurants occasionally for lunch or dinner) I eat it for lunch with salad or veg, finishing with some dark chocolate (hemp seed smoothie for B, veg soup or grilled veg salad for D, chia seed pudding for dessert) and I have used several different seasonings, along with onions and veg broth besides just the curry. Both my son and husband eat it! It's so satisfying. To say the least, I am very satisfied with Dr. Suhas's plan :-) I'm feeling such joy, relief, and I'm getting my life back!9/25/14: 21 day update: Yay, I'm wearing my skinny jeans today! (I was living in all my elastic waist pants and skirts.) But, really, besides fitting back into my clothes, Dr. Suhas's program has relieved my digestion issues by 85% and it keeps getting better every week. I no longer take the digestive enzymes I had been taking for years. And I no longer crave cookies like Cookie Monster! That was an ongoing problem of mine for, oh, let's say, 30 years. And I finally have energy to get lots of work and play done every day. I'm looking forward to trying out more of the recipes in this book. It was a massive stroke of luck that I stumbled onto The Hot Belly Diet. Life changer for me!

I was looking for a diet that would reset my metabolism, health and balance, and also help me lose weight. My goal was to lose 30 pounds. The book is easy to read and lays out basic Ayurvedic principles in a simple and easy to understand manner for someone who is not familiar with it. The problem is that it is not clear as to a meal plan other than eating khichadi every day. The first week I was okay with eating it everyday even though I did not particularly like it. But after 7 days I was tired of it. After 10 days I could barely stand to look at it. Now at day 18 I would rather starve than eat it again. I did buy several other ayurveda cookbooks to get some ideas. I admit I did not try the recipes other than the tea and khachadi recipes from this author. The recipes did not appeal to me at all. One of the cookbooks I purchased that looks like yummy recipes is "The 30 minute ayurvedic cookbook". I have been disappointed at the weight loss, I thought I would have lost more. In 10 days I lost 5 lbs. In 14 days I lost 8 lbs. Now on day 18 I have now gained 1 lbs. I don't know why I gained since I have not cheated at all. I even went to a birthday party and there was lots of food and drinks and I did not indulge at all. I took my own food and drank water. So in 18 days I have lost a total of 7 lbs. I plan on sticking with this for the full 30 days. If weight loss resumes I will extend it. I will post updates. I should let you know, I am 66 yrs young and have a very difficult time losing weight and keeping it off. I am taking the supplements that he recommended and more by Banyan Botanicals. The problem with the book is that it contradicts itself. In one part of the book it says you can only eat a smoothie for breakfast and kitchadi for lunch and dinner thats it. Then in another section it changes that to eating oatmeal for breakfast kitchadi for lunch and a smoothie for dinner, then in a different section it days something else. He gives a grocery list that has fish and chicken on it as well as a little fruit but he told us earlier that we couldn't eat those things. I found this very frustrating and confusing. The diet is hard enough without making it so confusing.

This cleanse is amazing and it really taught me a lot about my body - after struggling with my weight for years, this has helped me a lot and even after finishing I have lost even more weight. It really does jump start your body!

Amazing book really easy to read and follow. List 13lbs in the 30 days and missed the diet so now doing it for a second cycle Highly recommended

Very poor book. One recipe and one idea.

I started using Ayurvedic eating wisdom over 20 years ago but had lost my way. This is accessible and fit fir the 21st in the western world.

Absolutely fantastic,learned so much.