I have now completed two weeks of the 6-week Eat to Live plan.  I can honestly say I feel better then I have in a long time. I have a constant energy throughout the day instead of the mid-morning and mid-afternoon tiredness. I don't have peaks and dips of mood changes. I am no longer feeling bloated. My headaches have gone away. My stomach and intestine don't cramp. My cravings for sugar have dissipated. My desire to buy low nutrient foods is gone. I have lost weight. And finally and most important, I feel healthy and alert.

Completely changing the way I eat and feel about food has been the most difficult.  I have realized that I have an emotional attachment to food. It can be calming. Sometimes it can become an obsession. And since there is a social aspect to eating, the wrong food used to break my willpower. But since I finally got to the point of wanting to be healthy, I have been able to reassess my relationship with food. Walking the isles at the store was so difficult at the beginning of this process but now I try and focus on what I need rather then focusing on what I think I am missing. I think back and although it seemed like that piece of pie, bottle of soda or that can of Pringles was making me feel good but in reality it only tasted and felt good for a very small amount of time.  Soon, the thoughts of regret, the feelings of bloating and the sugar peaks and crashes would set in.  Three minutes of bliss was not really worth it.  Now two weeks later, I can still enjoy food but without the negatives.

With this process, I have also become so much more aware of how inundated we are as a society with food. There are restaurants everywhere. Where there are no restaurants, there are billboards for food.  Turn on the television and every other commercial seems to be about food.  Newspaper and magazines have ads and recipes. One can not escape it. So instead of trying to hole up and become a hermit with my healthy food, I have faced it straight on. I am getting more and more experience with learning to retrain my brain.

This cleanse has amazing health benefits and when I am eating something that doesn't have the oil, butter, salt or sugar I am used to having, I just remind myself that it is healthy. It has become mind over matter.  I am slowly learning to eat to live rather live to eat.  

A good place to start for inspiration is to watch the movie, "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" at http://www.jointhereboot.com/?movieid=3.  This is based on a more extreme cleanse then Eat to Live but the science is there. The story of inspiration is there as it is about the life and journey of two fat, sick and nearly dead individuals.

The following smoothie is for beginners, children and those who just want something naturally sweet.

Pineapple Romaine Green Smoothie (for one)

1/2 cup Non sweetened almond milk
4-6 medium sized leaves of Romaine Lettuce
1 frozen banana
1/4 Pineapple or 1/2 can No sugar added Pineapple
1 oz Walnuts
1 tbsp ground flax seed

Blend until smooth.  Add water as needed. Ice can be blended in as well.