healthy eating

The same PR agency that contacted me about Secrets of a Skinny Chef also sent along a copy of The O2 Diet by Keri Glassman. Anything with the word diet in the title makes me skeptical, but I decided to give it a read anyway. After reading through this book, I think that it should be renamed The O2 Lifestyle or something similar as it is not a diet, and I would hate for people to avoid its wealth of information thinking that it is.

The 02 Diet calls itself the cutting edge antioxidant-based program that will make you healthy, thin, and beautiful. Simply put, it is an excellent explanation of which real foods from nature are good for you and most importantly WHY. Its the way that we should be eating, and the way human beings originally ate before the dawn of things like TV dinners and low fat everything. The thing I loved most about this book is that it truly goes through a variety of natural, antioxidant-rich ingredients and tells you exactly what they do for you. Its not just “eat kale because its healthy”, but it tells you exactly what nutrients are found in kale and the contributions those nutrients make to your body, such as slowing the growth of some types of cancer cells and slowing the rate of age-related muscle damage.

The book lays out foods for a slimmer body, foods for an amazing appearance, foods that fight cancer, boost immune function, and strengthen bones, and foods for a healthier heart and focused mind. And these foods include things like dark chocolate, pecans, avocados, and oh yes red wine 😉

In addition to going through a very large variety of nutritious foods, The O2 Diet addresses the concept of ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity)value, basically, as the book states “a scale that measures how well the components of food mop up the free radicals in the bloodstream”.

The O2 Diet plan starts off with a 4 day cleanse. Again, the word cleanse is kind of off putting, but this cleanse is really something that you can sink your teeth into. It includes daily scrambled eggs, salmon, green tea, and a good portion of fruits and veggies. You won’t be hungry. Following the cleanse, the book offers a 2 week long meal plan to get you started. The diet already includes a number of foods that I have been eating including Greek yogurt, almond butter, salmon, and blueberries, but it also gives a large variety of recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner options that have high ORAC values, dishes such as salmon chowder, chicken mole, chickpea and cauliflower curry, and a blackberry thyme margarita.

To help you follow the eating plan, the book even includes grocery shopping lists. It would be easy to either bring the book in your bag to the store or to copy the lists down to make sure you aren’t missing anything.

Finally, The 02 Diet includes a plan for eating out or on the go. They show actual menus and point out which options are best and how you can increase the ORAC values of a restaurant meal by making simple changes like asking for salmon grilled instead of seared.

In addition to all of this, the book addresses topics such as sleep and exercise AND using all of these fun ingredients in homemade beauty products.

I have already started incorporating some of the book’s nutritional suggestions into my diet, and I plan on following the eating plan, starting with the cleanse period, after the marathon is over. I want to be in a good space to focus on the plan, and right now with my training, blogging, work, and other things, I am all over the place!

I’ll leave you with a photo of the daffodils that I bought on Sunday at Trader Joe’s. I NEEDED some color during the non-stop monsoon that we had in Boston, and at $1.49, this bunch did the trick!

Also, just a reminder that my ALLY Foundation raffle ends THIS WEEKEND. To encourage entries, I have changed the raffle pricing. $10 gets you 2 entries, $15 gets you 4 entries, and $20 gets you 6 entries.

The prizes?

$100 gift card to Williams Sonoma

A mixed case of wine from Wine Cellar of Stoneham

A custom granola blend from me & goji

One month membership to all Healthworks Fitness Centers

A private tour and tasting for 10 at Westport Rivers winery

Visit htttp://firstgiving.com/meghanmalloyteamally  for information on The ALLY Foundation and on my Boston Marathon fundraising!