Eat Live Thrive Diet - Book Review

Two weeks ago a new diet book called Eat Live Thrive Diet came out, and as I sit here typing this, I'm sipping on my cranberry drink as prescribed in the diet. I was really impressed with the content of this book. If you're a woman of a certain age, or a woman getting close to being a certain age like me, and you want to ensure your health and maybe even lose a few pounds, then I would highly recommend following the plan in this book.

The authors Danna Demetre and Robyn Thomson have been where you are, and they outline their own struggles with food and weight in the beginning of the book. Then they take you through the three steps of their diet plan, which is designed to be "a lifestyle plan to rev up your midlife metabolism".

First, you go through an elimination phase. I'm sure you've heard about all the foods that are not good for us to eat. Sugar would be the number one culprit. But also grains, beans/legumes, dairy, nuts, alcohol, cured meats, and so forth. There are three levels of the elimination phase, so you can pick how many foods to cut out. In the first phase, which is what I did, you're just getting rid of grains and sugar.

Once you eliminate foods, then you enter the discovery phase. Reintroduce the foods you've eliminated and see which ones, if any, bother you. Those are foods you probably shouldn't be eating. And once you've gone through that process, you can enter the lifestyle phase. This is probably the most important part of the diet because it helps you continue on your plan, and keeping up with any diet can be difficult. So thankfully, Demetre and Thomson have written a whole section to help you out.

And if you fall off the diet wagon, don't beat yourself up. The authors are very big on quoting inspirational scripture and treating yourself with respect and care. Part of the diet is reframing how you think about your body and speaking self-affirmations on a daily basis.

That was just a very brief synopsis of what the Eat Live Thrive Diet is all about. What did I think about it? Well, as mentioned above, I liked it! Did I follow the elimination phase to a "T"? No. I definitely fell off the wagon, however, you have to cut me some slack. I tried to start this diet right after my daughter's birthday party when there was still birthday cake in the house. I couldn't let all that cake go to waste!

Cutting out sugar is just really hard. Not gonna lie. I've known for a long time that sugar is bad. Sugar feeds cancer. I even have a cookbook called I Quit Sugar (which I've reviewed right here on the blog) and it still didn't change my eating habits. But this whole thing is a process. I've already cut out dairy because of my lactose-intolerance, and my husband is on a gluten-free diet, so our grains intake is a bit on the low side.

What's great about this book is that there are recipes in the back to give you some food inspiration (check out the breakfast chocolate protein smoothie and the slow cooker chili!), and you can also find more recipes that fit each stage of the diet on their website.

I'm not sure if I've lost any weight since attempting to start this diet. I just haven't weighed myself! But I have been inspired to work out more, and I love drinking the cranberry drink (just watered down unsweetened cranberry juice) every night before bed. It makes me feel like I'm doing something to filter my system. And I have to say that the first full week that I was really doing this diet, I didn't have any migraines. Coincidence?

I'm definitely keeping this book out on my new cookbook shelf so I can go back and check out more of the recipes, and also give myself some reminders on how to do each phase of the diet. This is a process, and I'm sure I'll be going through the process many times until it becomes a habit.

The Eat Live Thrive Diet is published by Waterbrook and is on bookstore shelves now. I received a free advance review copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.