One Simple Change: Surprisingly Easy Ways to Transform Your Life

01

STOP DIETING

IN THE INTRODUCTION, I told you about my miserable experience with dieting. Sadly, I don’t think my story is all that unusual; I know many people who have similarly messed up their bodies by restricting their food intake in some way. I also see many people out there who just can’t seem to figure out how to eat normally and feel comfortable about their weight, so they’re always on one diet or another. They are always searching for the diet to end all diets, but they never do seem to find it.

Most diets fail, but even those that seem to work at first do not help you maintain your weight loss (and certainly not your health) over the long term. It’s not good for you, nor is it sustainable, to skip meals or drastically cut calories. According to Julia Ross, author of The Diet Cure (1999), you need to eat at least 2,500 calories per day to be healthy.

But all calories are not created equal, and I’d really prefer it if you stopped counting calories altogether. Please stop fretting about fat grams, too: Chances are you’re not eating enough healthy fat! And while cutting back on carbohydrates can indeed be beneficial for weight loss and health, a diet that eschews them completely isn’t recommended (I explain why, and help you figure out which types of carbohydrates to eat, later in the book).

You may not even remember what it feels like to eat without dieting. If that’s true, it’s time to remind yourself! I don’t believe that dieting is healthy for your body or your mind—and I am sure you could use your precious time and energy in much more fun and productive ways. Instead of always worrying about what you think you’re not supposed to be eating, I want you to shift your focus to eating without any agenda other than supporting your health.

We are all individuals with different metabolic needs. You may have a lactose intolerance, celiac disease, or an allergy to eggs. You may be a lifelong vegetarian or you may really love eating paleo. Please know that I respect you and your choices 100 percent, and if you’ve found what works for you, then I think that’s fantastic. If you have not found what works for you, though, might I suggest letting go of preconceived notions that you must find and follow a certain diet? It’s really best to find a lifestyle—not a method of deprivation—that supports your health.

Please don’t ever take healthy eating to an extreme. There’s a name for that and it’s orthorexia; it can be just as damaging to your body and mind as any sickness. Food should be enjoyed, and meals should be shared with family and friends. If your so-called healthy diet prevents you from doing this, it’s not a good diet.

Weight that will not budge despite good nutrition and regular exercise may indicate underlying food sensitivities (more on these in chapter 11), poor thyroid function, adrenal exhaustion due to chronic stress, insulin resistance, or another physiological problem. You can consult a natural health practitioner to help you figure out if you might be dealing with one or more of these issues, but keep in mind that skinny does not necessarily equal healthy. There is far too much emphasis on thinness in our culture, which is particularly damaging to women.

If weight loss is on your wish list, then I’d like you to put your scale away and pull it out only once or twice a month to see how things are going. When you do, I really don’t want you to be attached to what you see. Know that when you embark on a new lifestyle such as the one described in this book, you may put on a few pounds at first. This is especially true if you’ve been on a very low calorie diet for a long time. As your metabolism adjusts to your new way of eating, however, the weight should come off. Trust that it will.

In the meantime, get away from letting a morning weigh-in dictate your mood or what you plan to eat that day. Your weight is not a measure of your health in any meaningful way. I ditched my scale a long time ago, and it was one of the best things I ever did for myself.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with waking up and deciding you’re going to eat light because you overdid things the day before, but don’t do it just because the scale says you gained a pound. Always remember that your body needs and deserves to be nourished. Go by how your clothes fit and how you feel, not by what the scale says.

QUICK REVIEW

• Say good-bye to dieting for good. Most diets don’t work, and dieting isn’t healthy for your body or your mind.

• Eating too little food isn’t going to help you permanently lose weight. Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are all required by the body, so don’t follow an eating strategy that completely eliminates any one of these three.

• Ditch your scale so you can focus on your health, not your weight.

02

EAT REAL FOOD

YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT I DON’T BELIEVE IN DIETS. I also don’t believe there’s a single way of eating that’s going to work for everyone. We’re all different—from our biochemical makeups to our unique cultural backgrounds to our taste preferences.

That said, I do believe that an individualized diet consisting of real food is what we’re all meant to put into our bodies. So what’s real food? Think about what our ancestors ate long ago, when sustenance could only be procured by hunting, fishing, and gathering. Though it’s infinitely easier for us to get meals on the table these days, we would all do well to eat similarly natural, unprocessed food.

Real foods include fruits and vegetables (preferably in season, organic, and locally grown, prepared in all different ways); minimally processed dairy products (organic and raw, if possible); fish that’s wild (not farmed, and free of mercury or other chemicals); land-animal foods, including eggs (ideally free-range and pastured only); legumes, nuts, and seeds (preferably organic); and fats that are traditional and unprocessed (from both plants and animals). What about whole grains? These can be problematic for many individuals, so I consider them an optional part of a real food diet. I’ll discuss all aspects of a real-food lifestyle in greater depth in the chapters that follow.

Real food is what your body has evolved to eat; your body recognizes it and knows how to digest it. It contains the nutrients you need (unlike processed foods, which are nutrient-poor). Real food makes your taste buds sing and satisfies you on a deep level (whereas processed foods foster cravings, food addictions, and emotional eating).

Real food does not come from a box. It does not contain artificial or refined ingredients, added sweeteners, excessive sodium, processed fats, GMOs, pesticides, or other potentially toxic chemical additives. Real food does not come from a fast-food restaurant (or most chain restaurants), either. Real food doesn’t contain man-made preservatives; it will spoil unless you take steps to preserve it naturally.

If you’re already making an effort to shop the perimeter of the grocery store, purchase food from farmers’ markets or farms themselves, and cook the majority of what you eat, then you are probably eating lots of real food. Good for you! If, however, you eat a Standard American Diet, composed of many processed foods and meals picked up from the drive-through, or even if you eat lots of packaged foods from the health food store, then you’re not eating enough real food, and you have some work to do.

Unfortunately, eating food that is not real is all too easy. It’s everywhere, it’s inexpensive, and if it’s what you are used to, then you probably think it tastes good. But a diet of food that’s not real is very likely to mess with your body. Switching to a diet of real food is essential if you want to live long and feel good while you are doing so.

I am concerned about the prevalence of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in our food supply. Designed to resist insects and diseases, as well as herbicides, GM crops are currently very controversial for health and environmental reasons, and consumers are beginning to demand mandatory labeling of foods that contain them. The Big Four GM crops are corn, soybeans, canola, and cottonseed, which are ubiquitous in processed foods. If you want to avoid genetically modified food, do not eat anything that comes in a box, and choose organic whenever possible (organic foods don’t contain genetically modified ingredients). For more information on GMOs and how to avoid them, download the Non-GMO Shopping Guide from Mercola.com (http://gmo.mercola.com/sites/gmo/shopping-guide.aspx).

I give very few recommendations for dietary supplements in One Simple Change because if you are not dieting and you are eating real food, supplements are rarely necessary. In fact, supplements can do more harm than good. If you have a health challenge, though, certain supplements may be helpful. Consult a licensed naturopathic doctor (ND) or a holistic medical doctor (MD) to help you decide if they are right for you.

Do you want to know what I ate today? For breakfast, I had eggs from my backyard chickens scrambled with leftover roasted root vegetables. Lunch was an Asian-style wild salmon and kale soup made with homemade stock from my Thanksgiving turkey, and a big helping of Spicy Lacto-Fermented Pickles (page 100). Dinner was a salad of greens (purchased at a local farm this morning) dressed with olive oil and lemon juice, followed by sliced aged grass-fed beef (from the same farm) sautéed with lots of onions and peppers, and accompanied by a bowl of steamed broccoli tossed with organic butter and sea salt. Dessert was a couple of squares of dark chocolate.

Now doesn’t that sound a lot more appealing than diet food or fast food? Real foods are incredibly satisfying, so I don’t eat when I am not hungry.

Do you have to spend an exorbitant amount of time in the kitchen cooking in order to eat real food? No, not at all. I’ll tell you some of my real-food shortcuts and share some of my favorite (easy!) real-food recipes with you later in the book. Eating real food does not have to be time-consuming; I can honestly say that no matter how busy I am, I can still eat healthy, tasty, real food at just about every meal. Know that I do like to eat out sometimes, and I do grab a slice of pizza with my kids every now and then; if we eat real food approximately 85 percent of the time, then the occasional non–real food splurge is just fine.

QUICK REVIEW

• Packaged and processed foods are linked to just about every health issue that plagues those of us living in the modern world.

• You need to eat a widely varied diet of fresh, whole, real foods to be healthy. If your diet is less than optimal, make the switch to real foods.

• Cook real food at home the majority of the time, then don’t worry about the occasional non–real food splurge: Aim for 85 percent real food and 15 percent everything else.

03

DRINK WATER FIRST THING

DO YOU STUMBLE INTO THE KITCHEN IN SEARCH OF COFFEE right after you get out of bed? Or maybe you’re a tea person, like me? I am not suggesting you give up drinking caffeinated beverages (at least not right now); I just want you to drink a tall glass of water within ten minutes of waking up—every single day.

Why drink water first thing in the morning? Our bodies are more than 60 percent water and, unfortunately, this makes us quite prone to dehydration. I am actually pretty parched whenever I wake up, but you can be dehydrated even if you don’t feel thirsty. Having a glass of water first thing and then drinking more throughout the day will help you avoid health issues that may be related to dehydration. Eating foods that contain water (like raw fruits and vegetables) and drinking additional healthy liquids will help as well. I’ll talk in more depth about what you should and should not be drinking elsewhere in the book, but water should always be your first priority.

If drinking water first thing in the morning sounds unappealing, consider that having just one glass of water is associated with a boost in your metabolic rate. The benefits of drinking water in the morning go beyond the physical, though: I find that having a glass of water right after I wake up makes me feel as if I’ve kicked off the day on the right foot. Since I’ve done something good for myself first thing, I am more likely to continue to make healthy choices as the day goes on.

The water you drink (and cook, brush your teeth, and shower with) in the morning and throughout the day should be as pure as possible. If you don’t have a well, tap water can contain chlorine as well as a variety of contaminants, so you may want to consider investing in a water filter. Filters vary greatly in terms of what they are able to remove; the National Resources Defense Council has an excellent consumer’s guide online (www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/gfilters.asp). If you do purchase a water filter, make sure to change the filter regularly, or it won’t do you much good. Also, if you feel strongly about having a filter on your kitchen sink, consider putting one on your showerhead, as well. Your skin is your body’s largest organ and, unfortunately, readily absorbs toxins.

I bring a bisphenol A (BPA)–free reusable plastic water bottle with me whenever I leave the house, and I fill it up as needed. (BPA is considered an endocrine disruptor, a chemical that can interfere with the balance of hormones in the body and cause damaging health effects.) This is much more environmentally sound than purchasing bottles of water, since precious oil is used to make plastic bottles. Though they are recyclable, millions of tons of plastic bottles are thrown away every year, and they will never decompose. What’s more, there is evidence that much of the bottled water on the market is no more than tap water in disguise (and a 2008 study by the Environmental Working Group concluded that bottled water often contains a wide range of pollutants).

Symptoms of acute dehydration that you should watch out for include headaches, fatigue, dark urine, dizziness, dry skin, and constipation. Something else to keep in mind: A more subtle form of chronic dehydration may contribute to the development of health problems, such as high blood pressure. Water regulates so many bodily functions: It helps to keep our body temperature steady, lubricates our joints, cushions our organs and spine, and aids in all our metabolic and detoxification processes. Make sure to stay properly hydrated.

Another reason to have water first thing—even before you have breakfast—is that you may be better off keeping some of your water intake separate from your meals. Many alternative health practitioners advise against gulping large amounts of water with food, because this may dilute your stomach acid or weaken your digestive enzymes. If you feel like you don’t digest your foods well, then try backing off on mealtime liquids. Practitioners of Chinese medicine discourage their patients from drinking very cold water for a similar reason (they believe it squelches the digestive fire).

If you don’t like to drink plain water, then try squeezing some lemon or lime juice into your morning water. I find it easier to drink water that way, and water with citrus has a reputation for being an excellent cleanser. Drinking lemon water with a bit of honey first thing in the morning is an old-time home remedy for weight loss. (An alternative is to drink lemony spa water—water in which you’ve also floated berries or cucumber slices and herbs.)

I just don’t really buy the old adage that everyone needs to have eight 8-oz/240-ml glasses of water every day. We all have different needs for water intake. I suggest consuming lots of fruits, vegetables, and healthy drinks, and listening to your body. Drink water when you are thirsty, and pay special attention to drinking more when exercising vigorously or spending time outside in heat. It’s also a good idea to keep an eye on your urine. When you are properly hydrated, it should be very light yellow (though certain vitamin supplements and vegetables like beets do color your urine, rendering it an unreliable indicator).

And what about sparkling water: bad or good? I love the stuff, to be honest, but I only drink it in moderation because carbonated beverages are acidic and can weaken your teeth and bones when consumed in excess. I will discuss this issue further in chapter 34.

Keep in mind that you can, indeed, drink too much water, and that doing so may be dangerous. When you drink far more water than your body needs over a short period of