ENTERTAINMENT REALM

The Lean by Kathy Freston. Publisher: Weinstein Books (March 2012). Health/nutrition. Hardcover. 352 pages. 978-1602861732.

“Eating consciously, moving your body, and doing inner work puts you on track with that evolutionary impulse to transcend who you were before and be your very best.”

I have a girl crush on Kathy Freston. She’s a smart, beautiful vegan so it’s relatively easy. Her latest book, The Lean, provides a 30-Day plan for anyone to ease into better nutritional and a healthy lifestyle. This is all about a plant-based diet. A vegan diet. There’s nothing scary about it and Freston doesn’t shock anyone into it. By providing an assignment each day, the reader can see how s/he feels after doing whatever Freston suggests. Some are easy—drink eight glasses of water, eat a hearty breakfast, eat an apple each day—and some aren’t that easy for some people—eat a meatless lunch, add flax, swap out milk for non-dairy version, reduce/eliminate sugar.

Freston provides ample suggestions and encouragement throughout The Lean. She includes delicious recipes to make it much simpler to follow this plan. The Lean reveals a plethora of facts about various foods [one apple gives you an average of 4.4 grams of fiber], how food works in our systems and where food comes from. The appendix contains suggestions on what to keep in the pantry to keeping costs down to a list of resources.

I consider myself 90% vegan. An ongoing struggle involves eliminating sugar. I use cane sugar and sometimes agave and sometimes Stevia but it’s not good enough and I know it. But I’m aware of it and working on it. I will also eat small amounts of cheese if I’m out somewhere and it’s on a salad. Freston’s goal is to change our thinking and our relationship toward food. She wants us to feel better and be energetic and healthy by consuming a plant-based diet. It’s such a great book. Everyone needs to read The Lean.

A few interesting bits:

“Apples not only have antimutagenic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory effects, but they may even enhance our immune systems to help clear out any budding tumors before they get their start.”

“Nuts appear to boost our metabolism, meaning when we eat nuts we burn more of our own fat to compensate.”

“When you consume a lot of meat, your body produces an excess of uric acid. Uric acid is a waste product in the liver’s metabolism of DNA, and when you eat too much meat, your body isn’t able to eliminate it.” [I think this is the source of smelly guys at the gym.]

“Chia seeds are an excellent source of antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, and a good source of protein.”

“A few years ago I discovered a supplement called nopal cactus, which is said to support lower blood sugar and take sugar cravings away.”

purchase at Amazon: The Lean: A Revolutionary (and Simple!) 30-Day Plan for Healthy, Lasting Weight Loss