Liana Werner-Gray, an Australian-born beauty queen, actress and environmentalist, lectures worldwide on healthy eating and is supported by a corps of nutrition coaches. Her book, The Earth Diet, describes a nature-based eating and lifestyle plan that has helped thousands realize greater vitality, harmony and peace.

How did you discover the Earth Diet?

Six years ago, I was completely addicted to junk food and chronically sick, tired, bloated and miserable. It wasn’t until I was diagnosed with a golf-ball-sized precancerous tumor that I decided to take a serious look at my life and make a change.

I began to blog about my journey into self-healing through natural foods and my readers held me accountable to sticking with it. I also started creating healthy recipes that delivered my favorite junk food flavors so I didn’t feel deprived. Slowly, I stopped craving artificial junk foods and started craving natural versions of those flavors. Within three months, the tumor disappeared.

I had demonstrated that I could undo the damage of toxic junk food by restoring proper nutrition into my cells and knew that by going back to nature, I could experience healing. Now people from around the world have testified that The Earth Diet has helped them heal ailments from A to Z.

Why is it important to define our eating plan?

Everyone on the planet is on a diet; it’s just a matter of which one. Are you on a junk food diet or a disorderly eating diet? Most people deprive themselves at some point and end up binging later.

Having a name for the lifestyle I wanted to live helped me commit to it. When you’re lost and disconnected from nature and your body, you need rules and guidelines. Day one, eat this; day two, eat that. The Earth Diet’s rules and guidelines helped me to break a disempowering addiction to junk food. After following the guidelines for a while, the whole lifestyle becomes natural and choices become easy.

How can busy people prepare and eat fresh foods more frequently?

Try making a huge batch of smoothies or vegetable juice on a Sunday; put a few servings in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. Then, take one to work each day. Fresh is best, but a thawed frozen juice is better than nothing.

Also, simplify eating. I grew up in Australia’s Outback, alongside aboriginal people that ate “mono foods”—singular, whole, raw foods sourced directly from nature, and they had slim, resilient and healthy bodies. Eating mono foods gives the digestive system a break; we feel energized because the body doesn’t have to break down a complicated meal. Try, for example, eating a watermelon for lunch or an avocado for dinner.

Name some foods we’d be surprised to read about in The Earth Diet.

My readers especially enjoy the chicken nuggets, burgers, gluten-free cookie dough, cashew cheesecake and vegan ice cream. The raw chocolate balls are popular, made with just three ingredients: almonds or sunflower seeds ground into flour, cacao powder and a favorite natural sweetener like maple syrup, honey or dates. Sometimes I add salt, mint, coconut or vanilla. I make a batch in 10 minutes and keep them in the freezer so I can have chocolate whenever I crave it.

Transforming the way we eat can be overwhelming; what are some simple first steps for the novice?

Lemon water is incredibly powerful. It’s high in vitamin C, so it boosts the immune system, and it’s energizing, alkalizing and detoxifying. Just squeeze the juice of a lemon into two cups of water first thing in the morning and drink. I also recommend eating a whole, raw, mono food in its natural state every day, like a banana, orange or strawberries. Eat something that hasn’t been sliced, diced, processed and packaged.

Lastly, practice eating only when hungry and eat what you’re craving in the most natural way possible (for example, upgrading from conventional pizza to organic store-bought brands to raw homemade pizza). On Sunday I woke up and made a big brunch for friends; we had organic eggs, salsa, herbal tea and organic cookies. For dinner, I ate an avocado. That’s all I was craving, and it ended up balancing out my day.

If you’re craving chocolate, there’s a reason. If you’re craving a smoothie for dinner, have one. You can both fulfill cravings and nourish and love your body at the same time.

Lane Vail is a freelance writer and blogger at DiscoveringHomemaking.com.