Nutritional Style can also evolve over time. For example, your diet now may include a lot of meat, but after implementing some healthy upgrades and ditching those dangerous liaisons I’ll talk about in chapter three, you may find you want less and less meat and are drawn to more plant-based meals. Your style will shift as you begin to let go of foods that your body doesn’t like any more; you’ll start to crave and reach for healthier alternatives. You’ll probably find that simple changes—swapping a snack of cheese and crackers for a crispy apple, for instance—can make a surprisingly big difference.
Part of adapting your eating style will be to discover any lurking food intolerances. In chapter four, I’ll take you through a semiannual seasonal cleanse plan that will allow you to figure out the source of your symptoms, isolate the foods that cause problems, and work on reducing or eradicating irritating foods from your eating style.
Tune in to your body
Truly listening to your body is the most challenging part of finding your Nutritional Style. You will learn to trust yourself, and to make the connection between the foods you eat and how you feel.
Learning to tune in to signs of imbalance is an integral part of figuring out your Nutritional Style. Often the messages indicate an intolerance or sensitivity to one or more inflammatory food groups. Gluten, sugar, and dairy are the big three offenders to look at first, and I’ll help you figure out which of those bad boys is your nemesis.
You may not want to hear the message your body is sending because you love the Good Humor guy more than your boyfriend. You’d duel at sundown for a slice of your mother’s lasagna, and the corner bakery’s scones are worth a $15 cab ride. It’s easier and more delicious to ignore the signs. I get it—that splash of vanilla cream in your coffee is so comforting it can’t possibly be causing chronic sinus issues, can it? Sorry, Charlie.
Finding your Nutritional Style is about tuning in to your body, listening to what it’s saying, believing that food is that powerful, and making changes to correct what’s not working for you at this time. Sadly, most people wait until they are faced with a life-threatening health issue before they are willing to radically change any eating patterns. (I’ll talk a lot about that in chapter five, Healing in Style.) You don’t need to wait until circumstances become dire to begin making changes. You’re already getting signals that you need to improve your nutrition. Listen to the signs and messages that your body’s sending—in chronic ailments, weight you can’t lose, bad skin, and low energy.
Get smart and stand up for your own health. Make the connection between what’s on your plate and health issues. See the difference in the mirror, on the scale, and maybe even in your blood test results. Feel it in your joints, in your digestion, and in your energy levels.
We all have other issues. If you begin with your food, and care about what you put into your mouth, the rest of your life does get easier.
Add in the good and ditch the Bad Boys
No matter what your Nutritional Style is now, and regardless of where your diet is headed this year, or next, there are some truths that are self-evident. Adding in more fresh, seasonal, organic vegetables is paramount and will benefit you, no matter what else you eat. If you do just one thing for your health today, have a serving of vegetables instead of those fries or that dinner roll. As a juice or smoothie, sautéed, grilled, mashed or roasted, stir-fried, slow-cooked, or julienned, raw or steamed, they’re all good.
Simple? Yes. Heard it before? Of course.
But unless you accept that your body needs nutrients that you can only get from whole foods, not a multivitamin pill, and unless you incorporate this simple act and begin to do this now, all of the benefits of the other changes you’re about to make will be minimized.
No pill or supplement can give you the complex synergy of nutrients that whole plants can. Adding more vegetables into your diet, however you do it, will make a huge difference in your overall appearance and vitality.
Throughout this book, I’ll talk about fun, easy, delicious ways to eat lots of veggies without feeling like you’ve turned into a rabbit, walking around with nothing but carrot sticks and chomping on celery all day. You’ll learn how to find what’s fresh and in season, the importance of variety, and the benefits of fresh, whole foods packed with phytonutrients, year-round. You may even learn to love it. Hop on the veggie wagon with me today! It’s a fun ride that’ll change your life.
A Better Life
A better life isn’t all about the food, but if we begin with our food, the rest gets easier.
When I work with my clients to find their Nutritional Style, I always start with, “Let’s talk about food.” It’s not all about the food, and there are many other factors that play into our health and well-being: stress, anxiety, peer pressure, lack of time, illness, depression, allergies, bad marriages, bad relationships, toxic environments—you can name your stressor here. We all have other issues. If you begin with your food, and care about what you put into your mouth, the rest of your life does get easier.
Play with me for a minute: As your diet changes and you discover the foods that feed you well, and those that don’t, you gain more energy and become open to moving more. All of a sudden, that yoga class or daily half-hour walk isn’t an impossible task. After two weeks of moving, and getting your newly discovered muscles to yoga class or out for brisk walk, you begin to have more mental clarity. That project you’ve been postponing for months is now getting done, ten times easier than you thought. Boom!
You begin to cook at home more, and your family loves it. You’re feeling good about yourself, your body feels lighter and more “yours,” and you’re loving your new level of productivity. Romance seems hot again, and now, everybody is ecstatic. Life is as it should be, delicious.
Impossible? Not your story? Maybe not exactly, so come up with your own dream. But dream big, because when you begin to eat better and feel better, and clear away the foggy brain and tired body, all things become possible.
Tell me what you want to be,
and I will tell you what to eat.
I know you’re exposed to a lot of diet hype. You might hear about a popular actress who’s become a vegan, and you’re sure that your skin will glow like hers if you never consume another animal product. Or you clicked on one of those Web ads that promises one weird food trick to lose a pound a week effortlessly, and now you’re out a bunch of money on worthless supplements. Your best friend has given up all grains and lost 10 pounds in a month, and with a high school reunion coming up, you want to as well. Maybe that new diet book encourages you to do a five-day juice fast, and even though it’s January and you live in a frigid climate, you think that sounds fabulous and fun. That 90-day liquid diet worked really well, until it was time to reenter the world of whole foods. Then you gained all the weight back, plus ten more pounds.
No matter what the hot new plan is, and no matter how healthy it seems, no regimen is going to work
