Review Rick Warren, Daniel Amen & Mark Hyman - The Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life

As a pastor you want to set an example for your church. Rick Warren, currently hosting 25,000 people in his Sadlleback Church services, realized on the day he was baptizing 800+ people, how many people had overweight…..including himself. He confessed his disobedience to God’s commandment to treat the body as temple of the Holy Spirit to his congregation. Warren needed to lose weight and asked if anyone wanted to join him. Instead of the expected 200 people this stirred as much as 15,000 churchgoers to sign up and get rid of over 260,000 pounds in the first year. From the initial stage Warren collaborated with two doctors, Daniel Amen & Mark Hyman, and a fitness specialist to detail The Daniel Plan.

The subtitle, 40 Days to a Healthier Life, may suggest a similar book to The Purpose Driven Life or The Purpose Driven Church. The Daniel Plan was inspired by the biblical prophet Daniel who served with his friends in the king’s court in Babylon: “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.(..) Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink (…) At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.” (verses from Daniel 1 in New International Version).

Can you be as strong as Daniel? Then a 40-days devotional is not what you need. The Daniel Plan is not like an average lose weight program or crash diet. The secret’s in a supportive community relying on God’s instruction for living. The book’s elaborates on the powerful combination of faith, fitness, food, focus, and friends will change your health forever, transforming you in the most head-turning way imaginably—from the inside out. Faith and Friends as unmistakably biblical sound frames for having God’s love instead of fear, shame and guilt as motivators, alongside buddies devoted to the same goal: become more healthy. Warren is eager to embed the purpose driven elements, without repeating previous books. The doctors contribute with a wealth of knowledge on good and bad food and their consequences for your body, soul and mind. The fitness expert brings exercises in all flavors and levels. 70% of the book is purely an introduction to the program, background information for you to have a well-prepared start of a first 40-days sequence. For that period a series of recipes and exercises are provided. If you sign-up to the program with a group – the book strongly advises not to do it on your own – you’re provided free online resources and an app to support your Daniel Plan.

About the authors

As the best-selling author of the Purpose Driven Life, Pastor to Saddleback Church, and creator of the global PEACE Plan, Rick Warren has dedicated his life to transforming lives. As philanthropists, Rick and Kay Warren give away 90 percent of their income through three foundations: Acts of Mercy, which serves those infected and affected by AIDS; Equipping the Church, which trains church leaders in developing countries; and The Global PEACE Fund, which fights poverty, disease, and illiteracy.

Host of the Daytime Emmy-winning Dr. Oz Show, Dr. Oz is also Vice-Chair and Professor of Surgery at Columbia University and directs the Cardiovascular Institute & Complementary Medicine Program at NY Presbyterian.

Dr. Daniel Amen is a physician, double-board certified psychiatrist, teacher and eight-time New York Times bestselling author. He is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts on applying brain science to everyday clinical practice.

Dr. Mark Hyman is a family physician, a six-time New York Times bestselling author, and an internationally recognized leader in the functional medicine field. He is well known for addressing the root causes of chronic illness through groundbreaking whole-systems medicine.

I received a review copy through Booklookloggers to read and provide you my personal impressions.