As a doctor, I’ve been witness to a lot of people’s personal changes. Some people struggle with diet and lifestyle adjustments while others seem to swan-dive into a whole new way of living—and for a long time, I’ve wondered what accounts for the difference.

When I think back to the patients who made swan-dive transformations, nothing about the patients themselves sticks out as a unifying factor. But there is one detail that a lot of their success stories share: in a word, their approach to change.

Most people resolve to make changes. In other words, they commit and they mentally push themselves to stick with it—but the trouble, I believe, is that a lot of people don’t really adjust how they think in the process. Specifically, a lot of people struggle to keep their minds open to new possibilities (even the ones they’d love).

No surprise that diet and lifestyle changes can often feel like unpleasant guests in a crowded house. Spoiler alert: when that’s how things start, they don’t usually get better.

But I notice that a lot of the “swan-divers” don’t just resolve to make changes. They revolutionize to make changes. They’re willing to throw out old assumptions and expectations, try a bunch of new things, educate themselves in the relevant science—whatever helps to make those changes feel right, natural, and normal in their lives.

A lot of popular dietary regimens—keto, paleo, Whole30, WW (formerly Weight Watchers), programs targeting calories or carbs, you name it—aren’t actually very accommodating of these “personal revolutions.” They tend to favor rules and restrictions over options, flexibility, or personalization; you’re meant to adhere to the diet whether or not you’d have arrived there on your own terms.

When you choose your diet based on what you’re told to remove and restrict, your relationship with food suffers and your understanding of what’s healthy can become severely skewed.

The diets listed above are not only restrictive, but they all fail to focus on what’s truly important: YOUR GUT. Yes, a couple of them might claim gut healing as a side-benefit, but they simply don’t have the science to back it up.

That’s where I come in, and that’s what Microbiome Mastery is about at its core. Because your gut microbiome is the core of your health.

These 21 days are not just about shedding some pounds and collecting a badge of endurance. This challenge is about gaining energy, long-term vitality, learning habits you can actually stick with, and understanding that the health of every system in your body starts in the gut.