Morning Briefing

Let's get one thing straight: Engine 2 is not about weight loss, it's about changing your life. But it just so happens that sometimes weight loss and life change converge around green, leafy vegetables and raw flaxseed. In case studies, subjects on Engine 2 (who often were not overweight and began the program solely for its touted health benefits), lost between 2 and 31 pounds on the 28-day plan.

Since persuasion is usually about the details, I'll share my own Engine 2 weight-loss story. I weighed 204.6 pounds yesterday morning. Today, I weigh 202.2 pounds. That wasn't a typo: I lost 2.4 pounds on the first day of the diet. At first blush, I'm a little worried about the long-term sustainability of such rapid weight loss. I mean, sure, it's fine to lose 2.4 pounds on the first day; but what about after 20 days? That's 48 pounds. And how about after 28 days? That's a whopping 67.2 pounds! I may have some extra weight now, but I'm worried about losing 67.2 pounds in such a small window of time. It would take me from a robust 6 feet tall, 204.6 pounds to a bean-pole 6 feet tall and 137.4 pounds.

I will not let fear carry the day, though. Even if I have to buy all new clothes, I'm going to see this through.

Here's what I ate on day one:

Breakfast

Organic whole-grain bran cereal
Soy milk
Chopped organic banana
Organic Red Delicious apple
Glass of orange juice
Coffee

Lunch

Eight oz. organic, no-salt-added canned black beans
One steamed organic collard green
Steamed organic squash
Steamed organic cucumber
Steamed organic carrot
Chopped raw celery
Two slices of Ezekiel 4:9 Low Sodium bread drizzled with organic honey
Glass of water

Dinner

One raw organic collard green
One organic banana
Organic strawberries and conventional blueberries
Raw, no-salt-added pecans
Glass of water

10 p.m. Snack

One organic orange
One organic apple
Raw, no-salt-added cashews and peanuts
4 oz. soy milk

As you can see, Engine 2 is not about calorie counting. It's not about controlling how much food you put into your body. In fact, let me clue you in on something: you can eat as much as you want, as often as you want on this diet. Engine 2 is about controlling what you put into your body. Curiously enough, for most people, when they stop shoveling gross processed foods and meat laced with saturated fat and cholesterol down their throats, an incidental benefit is that they lose weight. The only fear I have is that for me it will be too much weight.