Body Love Every Day #Q15
Photo from Amazon
And somehow, here we are. In September despite it feeling like March 51st. Craziness. And here we are yet again, talking about health, fitness and the apparently very stubborn Quarantine 15. I mean…where I am I going that I’m in a rush? Part of my commitment to wellness during this time is learning easier ways to eat nutritious foods, meet my goals whilst not driving myself crazy*. Enter: Kelly Leveque and Body Love.
Kelly Leveque’s whole schtick/philosophy/plan is to have people lose weight and feel better by incorporating more nutritious foods into their diets versus eliminating “off-limit” food. And she does this but encouraging her clients/readers/followers to ensure every meal contains the “Fab 4” as separate elements:
1) Protein
2) Fiber
3) Leafy Greens
4) Fat.
She wrote about in her first book, Body Love. Body Love Every Day follows up on that messaging with a set plan - whether you’re constantly on-the-go, eat a plant-based diet or enjoy having quality time to say, make your own nut milks. In Part 1, she recaps all the fun, nerdy nutrition information about blood sugar and the key to a controlled arc versus rapid spikes. In part 2, there are plans based on the lifestyles listed above and as required by most consumer-facing nutrition books, there is also a 28-day “crunch-time” plan for special events. Each of these plans, however, is built around including the “Fab 4”" in every meal you have and also incorporate Kelly’s known specialty: The Fab 4 Smoothie.
As I mentioned in our last nutrition book review, cutesy marketing and meal plans are really not my thing nor do I care if your client is Jessica Alba. HOWEVER, I totally appreciate that’s what publishers use to sell books and why Cameron Diaz and Gwenyth Paltrow get to write books about nutrition. The cool thing here is that Kelly is an actual nutritionist and a huge nerd who loves data. As am I. So it’s really the first part of the book that I love.
To be honest, I was not at all sold on the whole "have a smoothie for breakfast” thing. I always have an egg-based breakfast, a smoothie for a snack, a full lunch and an afternoon snack. But dang it to heck, she was right! By making a more formidable smoothie, I actually can have one for breakfast and stay full. Which is great since all of us are on Zoom calls now and it’s just so weird to eat on video. I also normally have a salad for lunch but by adding in some fat, I can make that keep me full longer too. This is the exact thing I’m looking for when I read this type of book - what is a helpful takeaway that I can add to my life? There’s no requirement to adhere wholly and strictly to a specific author’s plan. Just take what works for you and keep moving!
My take-aways? If you read her first book and don’t need/want a meal x meal plan, you don’t need this. If you didn’t read her first book, I like how succinctly this book lays out all the nutritional info from the first book. If you don’t want to buy a book, I strongly recommend listening to a podcast Kelly is featured on, since she lays out the premise discussed here, in every interview she gives. She’s a big fan of circadian rhythm-based intermittent fasting which makes sense in concept but doesn’t always work with my schedule.
Like I said, I enjoy new recipes and since I love her podcast, I was happy to support with my dollars. I do know you can always get and request books at the library which is how I read Body Love. And separately, physical copies of cookbooks/books with recipes are way better than the kindle or audible versions but…I’m impatient and listened to the whole book on Audible which comes with a 100-page pdf with the meal plans and recipes.
How about you? Are you a fan of Body Love ? What do you think about celeb forward or gimmicky-named plans?