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In This Chapter

▶ Grasping the core principles of the Total Body Diet

▶ Qualifying your calories for better or for worse

▶ Uncovering simple ways to move

▶ Assembling your support team

▶ Identifying your areas for change

Everyone follows a diet, a way of eating that is part of everyday life. Some diets support a healthy life and allow us to be active, happy, and productive, while others are fads, or short-time fixes that typically restrict a certain food group (think low-carb diets) or are extreme (think very low-calorie diets) and are not sustainable over the long run. The Total Body Diet is not just a fleeting diet that makes short-term promises; it’s a lifestyle that will not only give you vitality and freedom to make food choices, but also help you build a healthy relationship with food for life.

The Principles of the Total Body Diet

The tenets of the Total Body Diet are steeped in a tradition of a sound mind and body: life balance, self-confidence, and social support from friends and family. The Total Body Diet homes in on the importance of all these factors equally. If one area of life is not in sync, the rest will be out of whack.

Keep in mind the following principles of the Total Body Diet:

✔ Balance your diet with foods from all food groups (vegetables, fruits, whole grains, plant and animal sources of protein, and fat-free or lowfat dairy products) to sustain growth, energy, and well-being.

✔ Get active every day with enjoyable movement. Try walking, jogging, running, biking, hiking, swimming, stair climbing, Pilates, yoga, or tai chi.

✔ Make your mental health a priority by fostering a positive attitude. Your mind plays a large role in your health and your relationship to what and how you eat and drink.

Aim to follow these principles by balancing calories in with calories out as much as possible. Allow for flexibility, such as a small sweet indulgence or a low-key, less-active day to recharge your body and mind – you’ll be more likely to stick with it and achieve total body wellness.

Moderation and balance as far as nourishment spans cultures and ages. The ancient Indian philosophy, particularly yoga, incorporates mitahara, or the habit of moderation with food and drink as part of a balanced diet.

Counting Calories without Forgetting about Quality

You don’t want to go overboard on calories, but the Total Body Diet is about the quality of the calories you’re consuming overall. You can easily reach your calorie quota for the day with foods and beverages that provide empty calories like candy, cookies, cheese puffs, and sugary drinks, but where’s the quality in those calories? In this section, I get you focused on quality control when it comes to your calories.

Qualifying your calories

Food should be enjoyable and fun, but thoughtful eating and drinking is important to good health. Qualifying your calories by assessing their nutritional value is a good idea. An occasional cupcakes or doughnut is fine, but it doesn’t qualify to be on your regular eating plan because it doesn’t fuel your body well over the long run. Quality calories provide your body with micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), as well as macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, and fats). So, when you’re eating and drinking, think about what’s in your food.

A key way to qualify your calories is to inspect the Nutrition Facts label (shown in Figure 2-1). Important things to look at on the Nutrition Facts label include the following:

✔ Serving size: Look here to find out the suggested amount in one serving. It’s the basis for all the nutrition information on the label. If you eat two servings, you have to double all the other numbers, too.

✔ Calories per serving: When you know your serving size, you can figure out the total calories based on the number of servings you consumed. For example, if the serving size is 1 cup and you eat 2 cups, double the calories and the other nutrients on the label.

✔ Nutrients to limit: Check the label for total fat, trans fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium. You want to keep these at a minimum.

✔ Nutrients to boost: Aim for more dietary fiber, vitamins A and C, calcium, and iron.

Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Figure 2-1: The Nutrition Facts label.

If words resound better for you than numbers, check the ingredients on the package first. The first five ingredients reveal a lot! If you see sugar, salt, and unhealthy fat (such as partially hydrogenated vegetable oil) near the beginning of the ingredient list, that’s a food you’ll want to limit or avoid. Some ingredients – like sugar – are used more than once in a food product, in different forms. For example, you may see sucrose as the second ingredient and corn syrup and molasses elsewhere on the list – all three of those are sugar.

Getting better-for-you calories

I’m all about fostering quality on your plate, so let’s talk about strategies to get better-for-you calories without too much effort. When eating well becomes a lifestyle, making food choices that benefit your total body will be second nature. You’re creating a new habit. By practicing healthy eating every day, you’ll actually train your brain to want better-for-you foods.

Research on habit-formation, shows that within ten weeks you can form a new habit if you simply repeat an action over and over again in the same context. What better context than eating and drinking, which you have to repeat at least three times a day?

One of the tools that can help you develop healthy eating habits is a food journal. Don’t worry – it doesn’t have to be as tedious as you think. You can create a simple journal on your computer, on a smartphone, or in a notebook by your desk or bedside. In order for it to be an effective tool, pick the same time every day to jot down what you consumed – it could be right after you eat or drink anything or before bed. What you want to record is everything you ate and drank, where you were when you consumed it, and how you feel about your choice. If you’re not happy with the choice you made, write down an idea for a healthier choice you could’ve made instead. That way, you’ll train your brain to think of those healthier options the next time.

Research shows that people who have lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off for five years or more keep food journals regularly. Numerous mobile apps can help you with this task (see Chapter 16 for some recommendations). More than anything it cements healthy eating habits – and that’s the ultimate goal, right?

Checking in with yourself

Be sure to check in with yourself to assess how you’re doing throughout the day. The Total Body Diet is not a rigid diet where you have to eat the same foods every day or any one food group is off limits. Instead, it’s a diet where quality foods and beverages count. How do you know if you’re choosing a good-quality nourishment?

Ask yourself some questions before eating and drinking:

✔ Is this a healthy food or is it highly processed with little nutrition?

✔ Does it contain a lot of added sugar?

✔ Does it contain more than 20 percent of the Daily Value of sodium?

✔ Does it contain a lot more than 20 percent of the Daily Value of saturated fat?

If you answered yes to the first question, you’re off to a great start with that food choice! Whole foods are typically less processed and more nutrient-dense.

Nutrients from food help keep your blood flowing smoothly, keep your brain synapses firing well, and maintain your good eyesight and organs functioning. No one food can do it all – it’s the synergy of nutrients in good-quality, nutrient-dense foods that do your body good. So, it’s important to determine if there are beneficial properties in the combination of your food choices. Aim for the majority of your foods to be in line with an overall healthy, nutrient-dense eating pattern.

Why do good-quality foods support total body wellness? They’re packed with vital nutrients that have important health benefits (see Table 2-1).

Table 2-1 How Specific Nutrients Benefit Your Total Body

Let’s Get Physical!

Activity plays a large role in maintaining your total body wellness. If you’re sedentary, research shows that your risk of chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, and obesity goes up. So, reducing the amount of time you sit every day is vital.

Think about ways to reduce your sitting time. Can you work at a standing desk or get up more and move during the day?

Moving improves health, and there’s oodles of research to prove it! Global initiatives like the Healthy Eating Activity and Lifestyle (HEAL) program in Australia recruited 2,827 participants to complete an hour of physical activity once a week followed by an hour of lifestyle education for eight weeks. The results were positive, with participants reducing total body mass, waist circumference, and blood pressure. The Women’s Health Initiative, a 15-year study of women ages 50 to 79, revealed that less time spent sitting reduced the risk of death among the more than 92,000 participants over the course of the study.

Knowing how much movement you need

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends that adults move more – to the tune of at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week. How you schedule your activity is up to you. You may choose to do 30 minutes five times per week or 50 minutes three times per week – but spreading it out over the course of the week is preferable. With our increasingly sedentary lifestyle, it’s vital to make a conscious effort to move daily. Even ten-minute increments throughout the day will work wonders!