Cravings, Clean Eating, and Fasts, Oh My!

Last night I was thinking that I need to work on my soft drink addiction. I gave up diet drinks about a year ago mainly because of what I was reading about the effects of aspartame and started drinking regular drinks again.  First let me say that I am not a person to crave sweets, if I crave something, it is usually bread and chips but recently I have craved sugar. The one thing that is said about sugar is that it is truly addicting and I am realizing this is true. The more sugar you eat or drink, then the more you crave.  Is this true for you?

So going back to last night, I was reading some books about cleaning eating by Tosca Reno and thinking I need to start working on truly getting the sugar out of my diet and that is why I was reading this plan. Tosca has coined the term Clean Eat Diet. The main points of this eating plan are eating lean protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats, and eating frequently. You can find out more about this program at Eat Clean Diet. So after reading I thought I can do this. I just need to prepare snacks and have fruits and veggies with me at work and drink more water.

This morning I get to work and noticed that my co-worker had a bag with all kinds of good food. I started asking questions and praising her for the items that she had brought in her bag. She had a wonderful spinach salad, carrots with hummus, string cheese, apple and some other items. She proceeded to tell me that she had started a fast called Daniel's Fast. I had never heard of this but she explained that it was a 21 day fast that eliminates meat and sugar and that you re eating fruits, vegetables and some basic grains. This made me very curious about this fast and I found some information at The Daniel Fast. I also realized that this was not the only site that had information, so if you want more information just goggle Daniel fast and you will find it.

After I started checking out this site, the fast is really a vegetarian/vegan program and I thought that this was really funny that I had been reading about the same idea through the Eat Clean Diet. But this is not really funny because I think most dietitians will advocate a eating program along the same line as these programs. In other words, we need to eat more fruit and vegetables and less processed food.  So if you find some free time, I think The Daniel Fast or Eat Clean Diet are great reads to further your minds on nutrition.