Change your life in two weeks

The Jumpstart Program is RLMI’s award-winning two-week program that is proven to prevent, arrest, and even reverse chronic disease, all through teaching a simple, whole-food plant-based way of eating.

  • 7 sessions over 15 days

  • Facilitated by medical professionals and expert Jumpstart guides

  • Held remotely via Zoom - learn from the comfort of your home!

  • Educational presentations, cooking demos, menus and shopping lists, virtual potlucks, and access to our exclusive community platform

  • Participants routinely lose weight, lower cholesterol, lower blood sugar and blood pressure, reduce their medication needs, and gain energy

  • Only $349!

  • A $100 discount is also available if you consent to share your information with your healthcare provider and fill out a pre- and post-program questionnaire

Sign up for Jumpstart by clicking an event below!

What medical practitioners and participants are saying…

“The Rochester Lifestyle Medicine Institute has created an educational program founded on evidence-based science proven to prevent and reverse chronic disease. Participants will readily comprehend the vocabulary of science that will empower them as the locus of control to achieve the goal of lifelong optimal disease-free health. The Rochester team, known for its success rate, is now able to offer their skill and knowledge base beyond Rochester nationally and internationally in a format with dignity and simplicity.

Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., MD

I haven’t had a chance to say this during our sessions yet but I’m so happy I chose to do this jumpstart, for I really needed a “kick-in-the-pants” to right my eating pattern!!! And you have provided the format and support/community caring from which to do! I give both staff and participants a hearty ‘THANK YOU’! Hearing other’s stories helps a great deal. All of us can go astray; it’s the turnaround and going back to a healthy nutritional lifestyle that’ll keep one healthy! Thanks everyone!

Jumpstart participant

Huge impact! I lost 10 lbs, I sleep through the entire night, I feel brighter, my skin is clearer, I have less anxiety. It’s been more radical than any “diet” I’ve ever tried.

Jumpstart participant

Frequently Asked Questions

  • A whole-food plant-based (WFPB) lifestyle will help improve your energy, sleep, and mood by reducing your weight and inflammation and lowering your blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose levels. Working with your medical provider, you may find that you can reduce your medications and lower your odds of having cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes. A healthier you is just a Jumpstart away—without counting calories or restricting portion size!

  • The short answer is: Yes! Many chronic diseases—including cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, and type 2 diabetes—respond well to the Jumpstart diet. These are all part of an interconnected disease state known as metabolic syndrome. There is also growing evidence that a whole-food plant-based diet can also prevent or slow the progression of cancer and auto-immune disease, and can preserve brain health.

    The Jumpstart Program diet adheres to Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., MD of the Cleveland Clinic to reverse heart disease in his patients, but its positive impacts extend far beyond heart disease.

  • If possible, you should take Jumpstart with the involvement of your medical provider, especially if you are on any medications.

    If you do not have a medical provider, or do not have one that will support you during Jumpstart, please email us at info@roclifemed.org. We work with Love.Life Telehealth physicians that can support you: https://love.life/telehealth/

    With your consent, after you complete the program, we will send your medical provider a results report, so they can continue to support you on your WFPB lifestyle journey.

  • Jumpstart is a 15-day program, plus a pre-Jumpstart Orientation Session and a post-Jumpstart Results Session/Introduction to Alumni Program. Each Jumpstart session is a highly interactive educational experience, but you always have the option to watch and listen, and can choose your own level of engagement.

    Orientation: One-hour overview of Jumpstart eating plan with tips on shopping and meal preparation. Includes a review of Zoom skills and an introduction to the Google Classroom with its secure forum.

    Day 1: Two hours that launch your two-week whole-food plant-based (WFPB) experience. You will discuss goals, and learn about the connection between food and chronic disease and the “nuts and bolts” of a whole-food plant-based diet.

    Day 2: Two-hour cooking class teaches practical skills for success.

    Day 5: One-hour check-in with medical facilitator and other staff to answer your questions and discuss challenges and accomplishments.

    Day 8: Two-hour “virtual potluck” where participants share recipes and receive PDF illustrated cookbook of class recipes.

    Day 12: One-hour check-in with medical facilitator and other staff to answer your questions and discuss challenges and accomplishments.

    Day 15: Two hours that end Jumpstart but commence the WFPB journey. Participants share results (always optional) and we discuss next steps, the alumni program, upcoming events, and ways RLMI can support your new lifestyle.

  • You will be following a low-fat whole-food plant-based diet which consists of beans, grains, vegetables and fruit; and excludes animal products, bottled oils, and most processed foods (except condiments). We provide you with shopping lists and recipes, and show you how to prepare delicious, nutritious, and satisfying meals and snacks using those food groups. We’ll guide you so you can eat out at restaurants and with friends and family. You can continue to drink coffee and tea; if you use cream or sugar, we explain how to use a small amount of natural sweetener and plant milk.

    The best part is: no restrictions on the amount of healthy food, no measuring or weighing food, no calorie counting, and no macronutrient (carbs, protein, fat) tracking! Eat until you are satisfied, just eat what is Jumpstart-friendly.

    You will learn all you need to know when you take Jumpstart!

  • We recommend no more than a half-drink a day (1/2 glass wine, 1/2 bottle or can of beer, or one light beer).

  • Jumpstart participants get extensive support during Jumpstart and beyond!

    Jumpstart provides:

    Eight highly interactive online sessions facilitated by a medical provider and our health facilitators. Jumpstart participants get extensive, interactive support during these sessions. This makes Jumpstart different from other self-paced plant-based programs. Our interactive sessions are a key success factor for Jumpstart participants.

    The 40-page Jumpstart Guide is your roadmap to Jumpstart and whole-food plant-based living after Jumpstart!

    Daily encouraging and informative emails with links to useful resources

    Inclusion in a secure Virtual Classroom with forum and extensive reference resources (articles, videos, documentaries, etc)

    After Jumpstart the journey continues! Jumpstart alumni get extensive, ongoing support, including:

    Monthly Alumni Group meetings

    Extensive online forum resources,

    Optional coaching

    Optional follow-up programs such as Lift

    Free Lifestyle as Medicine webinar

  • Jumpstart costs $349 and you can receive a $100 discount while registering if you agree to some requirements that are detailed in the online registration form. If you have financial barriers, please fill out a scholarship application located HERE.

  • Yes, but… Jumpstart asks you to follow a very low-fat, whole-food plant-based (VLF WFPB) diet. This diet is made up of beans, whole grains, vegetables and fruit; it excludes all animal products (meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk and cheese); excludes most processed foods; and excludes high-fat plant foods (nuts, most seeds, coconut, avocado, olives, and all oils). Jumpstart is a vegan diet, but it’s an especially healthy one. So, for example, if you are considering a restaurant menu item or a packaged food, it’s not enough to know that it is vegan: you also want it to be made of whole-food ingredients and, for the duration of Jumpstart, want it to be very low in fat and to exclude high-fat plant foods and oil.

  • Thanks to generous donations, qualifying health care professionals can take the 15-Day Jumpstart program for $49 and qualifying medical students, residents, and interns can take it for free while scholarships are available.

    Qualifying requirements and registration instructions for medical professionals are here. Medical students, residents, and interns can inquire about scholarships at info@roclifemed.org.