Not everyone has a little black dress—or feels the need for one. Maybe you’re more a blue jeans and sneakers sort of person who never needs to dress up. You still make those jeans your own, because you’re you, with your own unique style. Your personality comes through, no matter what you wear. And no matter what you have on, your own needs are still there.
Your Nutritional Style
Just as the little black dress is unique to you, so is your Nutritional Style. Just as the little black dress calls for different accessories throughout the seasons, your Nutritional Style must change with the seasons as well.
Your Nutritional Style is the eating style that makes you feel like the best version of you. Eating for your Nutritional Style gives you energy and allows you to live a sustainable lifestyle without causing stress and anxiety to your body or your mind.
Eating for your Nutritional Style gives you energy and allows you to live a sustainable lifestyle without causing stress and anxiety to your body or your mind.
It’s not religion, and it’s not scientific. It’s about discovering your own best way of eating, living, and feeling great. It’s the one that lets you effortlessly release excess weight and returns your natural vibrancy and glow from the inside out. Just like choosing the clothes that make you feel your best, it’s about finding the Nutritional Style that works best for you.
Think of your food and nutrition as unique to you, and not as a way to fit into someone else’s plan or ideal. You’re not meant to live life going from diet to diet that you’re either on or off, and you don’t want to feel good or bad about yourself based on whether or not you stuck to a diet someone else created.
Here’s the best part. Your style can, and should, evolve over time; and it can, and should, change and adapt with the seasons.
The Healthy Omnivore
An omnivore is someone who eats all kinds of foods, including both animal and plant foods. I’m using the term Healthy Omnivore here, not regular ol’ omnivore, because anyone working with me is going to be the healthiest version of an omnivore possible. Animal protein includes red meat, pork, chicken and poultry, fish and all seafood, eggs, and dairy foods, including milk, butter, and cheese.
As a Healthy Omnivore, you eat lots of fresh vegetables, fruits, and an assortment of plant-based proteins, such as beans, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. You’ve learned to eat the right amount of animal protein, an amount that won’t weigh you down or clog your digestion.
The main way omnivores get into dietary trouble is by taking this Nutritional Style too far. When you rely too heavily on animal proteins, consuming them several times a day, it can lead to sluggish digestion, constipation, lack of vitality, dull skin, and weight gain in the short term. Significant health issues, such as heart disease and even cancer, could show up in the long run. Unhealthy omnivores usually indulge too frequently in processed foods, such as pizza, breads and baked goods, and low-quality snacks and sweets. These foods dull your taste for fresh ingredients and whole foods; they crowd out more nutritious foods from your diet.
If, as you read this, you realize you’re an unhealthy omnivore, let’s first focus on upgrading you to Healthy Omnivore status. As your eating patterns evolve, we’ll revisit your eating style season by season, while still allowing you to keep the variety of foods you love.
Don’t worry. If you choose this eating style for the long haul, you’re in good company. Both the Dalai Lama and Michael Pollan believe that animal protein is necessary for optimal health. We’re going to make you the healthiest omnivore possible.
The Flexible Vegetarian
If you’re a Flexible Vegetarian, also called a Flexitarian, you follow a vegetarian or an almost vegetarian eating style. You mostly avoid animal foods and enjoy the amazing variety of plant foods: beans, nuts, seeds, grains, vegetables, and fruits. You sometimes eat some poultry or fish, and also enjoy moderate amounts of eggs and dairy foods.
I’m not using the label vegetarian, because your Nutritional Style isn’t about rules and never eating animal foods. Many of my clients come to me already enjoying this particular eating style. They’re vegetarian, except for when they’re not. They don’t feel guilty if they crave an egg once in a while, or if they enjoy a piece of fish while out to dinner. It’s just food, and if their diet is 90 percent vegetarian, they’re OK with that. Your Nutritional Style is about the style of eating that you love and that makes you feel your absolute best. It’s not about forbidden foods.
Your Nutritional Style is about the style of eating that you love and that makes you feel your absolute best. It’s not about forbidden foods.
The downside to the standard vegetarian diet is that people employing this style often rely too heavily on processed carbs. Many people “fail” on a vegetarian diet because they forget about the vegetable part of the word; instead, they load up on sugary carbohydrates and dairy foods to replace the meat in their diet. A diet that has lots of cheese, deep-fried onion rings, and blueberry muffins isn’t really a healthy diet, even if it doesn’t include red meat. For too many vegetarians, an unbalanced diet leads to weight gain, low energy, skin problems, digestive issues, sinus problems, and more, all because they’re making poor nutritional choices.
THE NUTRITIONAL STYLE QUIZ
Your Nutritional Style is the style of eating that nourishes and satisfies you completely, not just because you look your best when you eat that way, but because you feel it, too. It’s the style of eating that banishes cravings, feeds your body well, and allows you to live life with joy, ease, and grace. It’s the style that fits well with the rest of your life and enhances it.
So what’s your Nutritional Style? Let’s figure that out together.
Take the quiz below and tally up your answers. When deciding which answer to give, please pick the one that’s closest to your usual eating habits. Or think of it this way: If you were eating out and had to choose from the three options, which would it be?
You’ll probably find you fit naturally into one of three Nutritional Styles. Once you’ve determined what your basic Nutritional Style is, we’ll begin your journey to better health with whichever style suits you right now. Within that style, I’ll teach you to upgrade your food choices to make them the healthiest ones possible. And if later on you feel you need to adapt your food choices to a different style, you’ll have the knowledge to make the shift slowly, and seasonally, in a smart and sustainable way.
No matter which style you choose, they all share one common goal: to help you attain a fabulous, vibrant, uplifting, happy-to-be-you level of health and well-being. I invite you to find that place where you feel good in your own skin and know you’re doing your best to stay there.
1. What’s your preferred source of protein in the food you normally eat?
A. Animal protein: meats, fish, eggs, maybe dairy
B. Legumes: beans and lentils
C. Nuts, seeds, and some soy
2. An average dinner for you would be:
A. Chicken breast, quinoa, and veggies
B. Vegetable chili and a salad
C. Kale noodles and fresh marinara sauce
3. Your favorite breakfast is:
A. Bacon and eggs
B. Oatmeal with blueberries
C. Green juice
4. They offer wild salmon and steak filet at a party and you choose:
A. Both, to taste each of them
B. A small piece of salmon
C. That fish had a mother! Pass the salad again.
5. Your BFF wants to go for ice cream, and you get to choose what