We recommend 30 days on raw fruits and vegetables. Raw food is used by sanitariums in the healing of disease because it is similar to a juice fast in detoxifying the body. The process is slower, but the effect is the same; you will be revitalized. If you stick to this program, you will experience an exhilaration that you have never known. You will feel vitally alive. As your blood clears of all addictive substances, you will feel great. Any health conditions will be noticeably improved or even healed. Your sinuses will clear of mucus and you will be able to smell even the faintest of scents. You will be able to breathe deeply, feeling each breath enter the lungs. The mental fog will lift and your mind will become more alert. Your skin will soften and feel sleek. You will feel 10 years younger and look like it.

Raw food is loaded with enzymes, vitamins and minerals. For the first time in your life, your body is functioning free of heavy proteins, milk fats, animal fats, cholesterol, mucus forming starches, trans-fatty acids, food additives and high doses of salt and sugar. You have given your body a time of rest and healing.

The first week will be the hardest, especially the first few days, for that is the time when the body undergoes the most intense cleansing. As the weeks progress, you will feel better and better.

Although juice fasting is superior in its healing effect, the challenge of a raw food diet is better than juice fasting at developing the skills to control food intake. When a compulsive eater juice fasts, he feels free from food addiction, but as soon as he starts to eat, hunger triggers all the compulsive desires and distorted thinking patterns that were never dealt with. The result is a binge. The benefit of a 30-day fast can be lost in three weeks of indulgence.

Juice fasting has more amazing benefits than a raw food diet, but first you must develop the skills to combat compulsive eating. By occasionally replacing meals with fresh-made juice, you are gaining the benefits of juice fasting while battling compulsive eating. For this reason, juice is an important component of the raw food program. Try to have freshly made juice each day.

Thirty days of raw food is a challenge that will powerfully affect your life. These diet restrictions are difficult to face, but in doing so, you will bring about healthy changes that will benefit your body and mind. Healthy changes are an investment in your future.

The raw food diet includes:

• Raw fruits and vegetables

• Fruit and vegetable juices

• Herbal teas

• Honey and natural sweeteners

• Frozen juice concentrates

• Frozen fruit

Build your resolute decisions. Find a friend who will do this along with you so you may support each other. Tell those who will be affected by your decision how much this matters to you, and ask them for their help and understanding.

Get focused in the morning, especially with prayer. The first thing to do while getting out of bed is to do some exercise to get the blood moving. This works faster than coffee. Take a shower and at the end, run the water cool or cold. As you face the discomfort of the cold water, strengthen your mental stance for the day: "I refuse to eat donuts. I refuse to drink coffee. I refuse to be negative. I refuse to worry. I refuse to be lazy. This is going to be a great day." Start a journal to keep you objective in seeing your accomplishment and failures.

Try to feed your mind with positive input. Choose educational programming on television. Cut down on reading newspapers. Much of it can be negative. Cut down socializing with negative people. Don't read horror novels. Develop a workout routine. Go for relaxing walks to be at peace and encourage yourself. 

Cut out the negative influences on your thinking. You need to strive at being active in your thinking process to work at fighting negative thoughts. This will take time.

Eating while hungry reduces fat production. If you eat when you are not hungry, the blood is filled with calories and you are adding more, so the excess is turned to fat. When you eat when you are hungry, the body needs calories so there is no excess. If you want to be thin, eat smaller amounts when you are hungry. Put a check mark every time you have waited till you are hungry before you eat. Put a number beside the check mark. Five is really hungry and one is a little hungry. Look at your successes and feel good about them. Each time you face hunger and win, you are conquering food addiction. Hunger prepares the stomach for food. It makes it tastier, and lets the digestive systems have smaller portions of work to do. Eating this way will give you a blast of energy better than that of coffee. Expect more energy. If you lose the desire to eat, you have started to detoxify. If so, you will feel weak for a few hours or days. Drinking freshly made juice will keep your energy up during these times.

Do not fight obsessive thoughts, but deflect them into positive thoughts and activities. Use mini-breaks to change your mood and break cycles of obsessive thinking. Do something you enjoy for a few minutes until the emotions diminish. Play an instrument, exercise, go for a short walk, or do some stretching. Not only will you be fighting obsessive thoughts, but improving your life one mini-break at a time. Do not give in to an urge; each time you do, the pleasure will create a craving to repeat it. Remind yourself that junk food is artificial pleasure that steals from your body. If you do not feed a craving, it will die. If you become anxious, take a slow, deep breath, holding for one second, and then release, think peace. Let go and let God.

Create the feeling of revulsion to the point of nausea: finger nails scratching a blackboard, a hair in your soup, dog vomit on your carpet, a wet fur ball on your bed, or a bug in your shoe. Find what image best works for you. Use negative labeling. Bacon is burned strips of cholesterol and fat. Make up your own negative labels for the foods you are trying to quit. Play the mental tape to the end; look at the big picture. Don't look only at the pleasure, but focus on all of the negative consequences.

When we discipline ourselves, we feel as though we have lost something, and feel deprived. Fight that feeling with the fact that you have what you need to be happy. Challenge the feeling of loss.

Remind yourself of the bad qualities of the food you hate. Refuse to eat them. Avoid triggers like donut stores and bakeries. Avoid spending time in the kitchen or at the dinner table when you start to feel tempted. Plan your meals. Have fruit or vegetable snacks ready.

The first few days can be the toughest. If you feel weak and out of it, it will be difficult to discipline your thoughts. Discipline is work, and feeling toxic creates an ‘I don't –care’ feeling. It will pass once the blood clears of toxins. Do the best you can during these times to remain resolute.

We all have a stubborn part of our character that digs its heals in and says, "no, I refuse." It can get us into a fair bit of trouble. It can also be used to form resolute decisions. Certain thoughts stir that stubbornness into activity. If you were told to rob a bank or run naked down the street, you would stubbornly refuse, even at gun point. Imagine if you refuse to eat junk food with that same power of conviction.

It is easier to refuse to do something than it is to try to do something. Which statement is stronger, "I will try to eat better" or "I refuse to eat junk food." Stubbornly refusing to do something has power. It is absolute refusal that makes decisions resolute.

The second part of a resolute decision is being intent. Being intent is to be fixed on something. Like an athlete preparing for the challenge, be fixed on what you intend to achieve. Do not become distracted. Be connected to the victory, just as an archer aims for his target. All that he can see is that target. Once he has fired his arrow, he relaxes and gets ready to become intent again. The focus is exhausting. It requires 100% attention. Be like that. See the goal and become totally fixed on it for periods of times during each day, especially just before you eat or face temptation. Once it is over, you can relax till the next target comes up.

Resolute decisions end mental wars. Weak decisions are useless. Inevitably, you compromise, then feel like a failure. Make your decisions resolute. Pull out that part of your nature that digs its heals in when it is told to do something it does not want to do.

If you have made the decision to eat one bowl full of food per meal and wait till you are hungry before eating, you have to think of that decision, then create a storm in your soul: "I am not getting pushed around any more. I refuse to be controlled by food. Cravings, do your worst. I will not budge. I am standing firm. My decision is unchangeable. I will not give in." This is war. How long are you going to let this problem go on in your life? Till the day you die? Feel it! A resolute decision is forming.

The three important decisions you will have to be resolute about:

• Refuse yourself permission to eat anything except raw food. Be intent to finish the 30-day program. Refuse to fail.

• Refuse yourself permission to overeat. Be intent on eating one bowl of food or a small portion, and wait until you are hungry before eating again.

• Refuse to think negative thoughts. Be intent that you will think only positive thoughts.

These decisions are paramount to the success of the program. Each day you have to go over the reasons as to why you have made these decisions, and strengthen those decisions by reaffirming your intent not to give in: "I will not bend regardless of how I feel. My decision is final." If you feel weak, go down in the basement, plant your feet firmly on the floor and shout with all your strength, "I will not give in. My decision is made and that is it."

As soon as you weaken in your decision, the battle starts. Pain comes in, emotions stir to a storm: fear, insecurity, anxiety, feeling empty and deprived. These feelings will not exist if your decision is resolute. They come because you are allowing yourself to consider breaking your decision. Even if you do not break, those feelings will have weakened your decision and you will need to rebuild it. If you do not, you will fail.

Make a list of your resolute decisions and read it daily. 

Refuse to worry, especially during eating. Get the problem down on paper. Be objective. Make your decisions, then stop worrying and do something positive. Make a list of your priorities and goals. Make a list of positive statements to say to yourself for encouragement. Learn how to create the feeling of joy and peace.

Your brain is filled with negative thoughts. It will take work to change the programming. When you do, discipline becomes easier.

Blowing it is part of the process of learning how to do it correctly. You are not a failure. You have come so far and accomplished so much!

Fight those feelings of worthlessness. Forgive yourself. Rebuild your desire to try again. Look at all the benefits. Come on, you can do it!

• Take ten minutes to pray shortly after awakening "Lord help me to do this. I really want to. This is important to me."

• Take ten minutes to build conviction to your resolute decisions.

• Take ten minutes to consider your accomplishments and feeling good about them.

• Take ten minutes to do a visualization exercise.

• Take ten minutes each night to journal your day. Bring the failures into context and feel good about your successes.

• Take ten minutes to stretch or exercise.

BASE: Freeze peeled, ripe bananas in freezer bags. As they start to freeze, break them up so they will not clump together. Bananas will store in the freezer for months. If you are cutting a frozen banana that is too hard, place it in the microwave for 10 seconds. To eat them like a Popsicle, wrap the bottom with a paper towel. For the fruit salad base, use oranges, melons, grapes, peaches, or the fruit of your choice. Dice the fruit into bite-sized pieces then place in a bowl. Frozen banana slices are added next. They taste like ice cream. Chill the mixture.

FRUIT DRESSING: The dressing is the most important part. The dressing will make fruit taste like one of the best desserts you have ever tasted, but it will be healthy. 

To make your dressing, mix applesauce and one tablespoon of orange or pineapple concentrate. Avocados also make an amazing dressing. Avocados are high in calories. They’re perfect if you are an athlete in training or have a fast metabolism and do not want to lose weight during the 30 days. Buy ripe avocados. Test them by pressing with your thumb. They should give a little, but not be mushy. To make an avocado dressing, blend avocados with frozen orange, pineapple or apple concentrate. Frozen juice concentrates sweeten the mixture. You can also use the frozen concentrates as a topping; just mush and spread over the top.

TOPPING- Sprinkle chopped dates with cinnamon for the final touch.

These fruit desserts will never get boring. You’ll feel no sleepiness or bloated feeling after eating, but a clean burst of energy. Try to make the mixture ten minutes in advance. Put it in the freezer, clean up and spend a few moments in prayer to be at peace. You will easily appreciate every bite.

Orange-Banana Shake - 1 Banana, 1/4 can frozen pineapple or orange concentrate, one cup water and 4 ice cubes.

The 90-day program has three parts.

1. One thirty-day raw-food program.
2. One thirty-day fast.
3. Another thirty-day raw-food program.

The 30-day fast is mostly a juice fast, but we recommend two periods of water fasting of three days in length, or one five-day water fast during this time period. It is not starving, as your body is being flooded with nutrients.  Because your body is clean, you will find these periods easy. There will be a sense of freedom that you have never experienced. Do not expect to feel dragged out.

The 30 days back on the raw food diet is the only way to continue gaining more of the same astounding benefits you have received. Most people break a lengthy fast over 10 days. But thirty days is even better.