Pastor Rick Warren, author of the best-selling The Purpose Driven Life and head of Saddleback Church in Southern California, has always seemed larger than life.

But now he's a smaller, healthier size. And he's spreading the word about how he trimmed down on a program he initiated called The Daniel Plan (danielplan.com). It's a lifestyle program that incorporates healthy eating, regular exercise, stress reduction, prayer and group support from other church members in small home groups.

At 6-foot-3, Warren weighed about 295 pounds in January 2011, lost 60 pounds last year and wants to drop another 30 this year. "I've always been a big guy," he says. "I played football in college. I don't plan to be a skinny guy, but I certainly needed to lose a lot of weight."

Warren, 58, says that with the plan, "we were trying to get people to eat healthier, fresher and more natural foods. The line we use is: 'If it grows on a plant, it's healthy. If it's made in a plant, don't eat it.' My rule is no snacks, no sweets, no seconds."

Several thousand members of his flock, as well as other people who have joined the program online, have lost a total of more than 250,000 pounds since January 2011, Warren says. The plan was created with help from three doctors who have written books, including diet books: Mark Hyman, Daniel Amen and Mehmet Oz.

'Honoring God' through health

Now that Warren has been born again to healthier eating and regular exercise, and now that he and his church members have been the "guinea pigs" for the program, he is encouraging others to use the free website. Churches also can download the six-week study guide and DVD series.

The title of The Daniel Plan comes from the first chapter of Daniel, in which Daniel challenges some young men to eat the king's diet of rich food while Daniel and others eat healthy fare including vegetables, says Dee Eastman, director of The Daniel Plan. In the end, those on Daniel's diet looked healthier and better nourished, she says. "Daniel was honoring God with his body."

Warren was inspired to lose weight when in November 2010 he was baptizing people and immersed more than 800 people in water in one day. After lowering thousands of pounds of weight into the water, Warren says, "I had a thought -- it wasn't spiritual -- that we are all overweight. Then I thought, 'I am overweight. I am a terrible example to our people.' "

He says he didn't have any health problems and had a lot of energy, so he hadn't paid attention to his weight. But he realized that he couldn't expect church members to be at a healthy weight if he wasn't.

Source: USA Today | Nanci Hellmich