It’s also OK to bend a bit, especially when you’re away from your own kitchen. One of my Modern Vegan clients needs to attend business luncheons a few times a month. If it’s a buffet, great—there’s always plenty of salad and veggies and usually a meatless choice or two. If it’s a sit-down meal and there’s a vegetarian option, she asks for it. If there’s no vegetarian choice, and the waiter can accommodate her request for more broccoli and no chicken, that’s fine. If not, she quietly does the best she can with whatever is put in front of her. She’ll often eat—and enjoy—the animal-based main course. Remember, it’s food, not religion.
KAREN To Vegan and Back
My client Karen grew up in a family that ate the Standard American Diet. Lots of boxed cereals and sugary snacks, plenty of microwaved foods, and always meat for dinner.
As an adult, Karen became more aware of what she was eating, but it took becoming a mother to decide she really needed to clean up her diet. Unfortunately, Karen didn’t have a good idea of where to start. After listening to some of the moms in her children’s playgroup, she decided to make a radical change in her own diet and become a vegan. She abruptly gave up all animal foods and took up juicing. At first, Karen felt amazing. She had energy to spare, enjoying huge amounts of greens and vegetables, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds. She lost weight, too. For about a year, she was happy. Then she began to crave what she was feeding her family.
She began to sneak bites of her kid’s organic hot-dogs. She found herself picking at the roasted chicken in the kitchen so her husband wouldn’t question her choices. She was frustrated and hungry all the time, trying hard to make her new vegan lifestyle work. She believed that being a vegan was the best choice for her (after all, the other moms seemed so happy), but her body was rebelling.
It was at this confusing time that Karen came to see me. Her head wanted one thing, but her body fought her and wanted something else. Karen was losing energy and craving food all the time. She felt like she was never satisfied by her meals, which led to frightening episodes of binge eating. On top of her out-of-control behavior, she could see that her hair was lackluster and thinning. Karen was worried.
She proudly told me she was a vegan. When she described her ideal eating day, I was confused as to why she’d called. Then she told me the true story: her diet and mind were all over the place, and she no longer knew what to do.
I knew what Karen was going through because I’d been there myself. I recommended that she let go of the dogma, the all-or-nothing attitude about her food. Her goal before our next session was to add in a serving of organic animal protein of some kind a few times that coming week, without guilt. She needed to listen to her body and eat what it told her she was craving.
Karen went for it, and within a week she was feeling like a new person. Her agitation was gone; she was calmer and stronger. She felt like working out again, and she even lost the anxious feeling that each meal would bring. She hadn’t binged once that week.
We worked together for three months, and came up with many vegan and animal protein meals that worked for her because they gave her the protein and dietary fat she needed. Karen learned how to change her eating pattern seasonally and handle occasional periods of high stress. She’s ditched the stigma she used to attach to eating animal protein, in favor of her own physical and mental health.
If you’re eating in a healthy Modern Vegan style, you’re aware of how your body reacts to your food and you have a strong interest in nutrition. The downside to the vegan eating style comes if you become too dogmatic about food and diet, jumping on each new diet trend and superfood, and obsessing over your own nutrition. This can lead to ignoring signs that your body may not agree with your latest diet plan. Most Modern Vegans need a little bit of leeway, and I’m giving you the freedom to listen to your body and let go of the strict rules. (Check out chapter two for more on the importance of flexibility in your approach to food.)
I’m giving you the freedom to listen to your body and let go of the strict rules.
Discovering Your Nutritional Style
As you can see from the quiz, discovering your Nutritional Style isn’t complicated, but it is personal. What works for someone else might not be right for you. I’m pretty certain, for example, that the celebrity diet you read about at the salon while waiting for your stylist isn’t going to be the best approach for you.
What is right for you could be as simple as tweaking a few things in your diet, or it might mean a bigger shift in what you eat. No matter what, the goal of finding your Nutritional Style is to make you feel beautiful and energized.
Health and beauty come from being comfortable and happy in your body, having high energy, and a love and passion for life, and knowing that you look and feel the absolute best you can.
What Are You Really Eating?
If you’re like most of the women I consult with, you believe, for the most part, that you eat in a healthy way. You have a sense that you could do better, but compared to your assistant, friend, or sister, you’re a health nut. She orders a greasy burger at lunch and you have a salad. While your colleagues at work are raiding the vending machines, you’re enjoying healthier snacks, such as nuts or fruit. Good for you! But what about the rest of the time? Not so much.
Chances are you’re eating whatever’s within reach. More often than not, you ignore what you know and rationalize that “everybody else eats that way, so why not me?” You’ve paid the price for too long. It’s time to stop. Wake up and greet the day like Mary freakin’ Tyler Moore; toss that hat into the air and turn the world on with your smile. You can. Let me show you how.
You’re a busy person. Most of the time, you eat what’s handy—a frozen meal tossed in the microwave, last night’s party leftovers, take-out from the deli near the office, or whatever the meeting coordinator is serving that day. You justify it to yourself by saying, it’s here, it’s easy, I’m starving, and I’ll get back to eating healthily tomorrow.
When you do cook for yourself, you nibble on a favorite cheese with some crackers and pour a glass of wine to go with it. Before you know it, you’ve eaten several servings of the cheese and had a second glass of wine. If you do happen to become conscious of your snacking, you wonder, “Can anyone really cook a meal without appetizers and a glass of wine?” And for another day, you give up on healthy eating and decide to start again tomorrow.
The best way to learn what suits you . . . is to learn to listen to your own body wisdom. You have unique nutritional needs that suit your internal make up and your lifestyle.
The next day, you grab a candy from the bowl at the receptionist’s desk, because it’s there, and how bad can one little piece be? Ten luscious, high-fructose candies later, you’re filled with regret and a sense of failure. “How many chocolate pieces did I just eat?” you wonder, counting the wrappers in the wastebasket. “S*#t,” you murmur, and vow to eat only lettuce for lunch.
Every few weeks, you resolve to do better for your health and, let’s face it, your looks. You know you could feel better, and you’ve read enough nutrition articles to realize you could make better choices, you just have no idea where to start or what to believe. There’s so much contradictory information out there, and every day you read or hear something different. The Today Show brings on an expert who says eat goji berries, and the latest guest on Good Morning America swears by blueberries. The next day, Dr. Oz recommends a different berry that you’ve never heard of. Are you supposed to worry about your antioxidants that much? It makes you want to just give up and eat at the nearest fast food place.
Plus, the extra weight you’re carrying drives you crazy. Those extra 10 or even 20 pounds are exhausting. Your energy lags, and none of your favorite clothes fit. You’ve done several diets with mixed results, and while you’ve lost some pounds, you couldn’t