Monday, January 27, 2014

The No Diet Solution to Losing Weight, Feeling Great, and Looking Beautiful

VeegMama's book review of The Beauty Detox Solution by Kimberly Snyder


My sister introduced me to The Beauty Detox Solution by Kimberly Snyder and then gifted me with a copy for Christmas.  I made the commitment to give it a try this month and I have nothing but rave reviews!  I think it is a brilliant, fascinating way to look at nutrition and optimal health.  With an examination of our body's science, this book recommends a way of eating that maximizes our digestion and elimination.  It is not a diet book that proposes a restrictive way of eating for a finite period of time. This is a lifestyle plan.  The outlined menus and nutrition guidelines are intended to continually cleanse and detox the body to get rid of waste and toxic sludge that builds up from not eating optimally, making it difficult to shed extra pounds, comprising the immune system, and impeding the growth of glowing skin and shiny hair.  

Kimberly outlines three levels in her book (and her follow up book The Beauty Detox Foods).  She doesn't eliminate animal protein, but restricts it (except for the third level where it is eliminated).   For the True Beauty phase (which I am following), a typical day looks like:

Breakfast: Green juice followed by fruit a half hour later if still hungry

Lunch: Large salad followed by another plant based meal such as soup, veggie wrap, or veggie plate. No grains or starches are eaten until dinner.

Snack: More green juice or a green smoothie or raw veggies and a veggie based dip

Dinner: Large green salad followed by a plant based meal that can include starchy vegetables and non gluten grains such as quinoa, amaranth, millet or buckwheat.  I also eat 1/2 cup of fermented raw veggies (Wildbrine's Red Beet and Red Cabbage Sauerkraut is my go-to, but I am also going to make a batch of Kimberly's Probiotic and Enzyme Salad to interchange with it).

The guidelines for eating The Beauty Detox Way are straightforward, easy, and backed up by the science of why it's good for your body, which Kimberly explains in great detail throughout the book:


  • Raw plant foods should be the majority of every meal, and should go in the body first.  Salads are not an appetizers, but the meal.  
  • Green drinks are a big part of the beauty detox way.
  • Cleanse on an on-going basis by incorporating probiotics, digestive enzymes, magnesium-oxygen supplements, and lots of raw, cultured vegetables.
  • Eat only when you are hungry.  Forget those rules that say to eat 5 small meals, or breakfast at a certain time.  Only eat when your body tells you it needs it.
  • Practice food pairing.  I have starting doing this and the results have been instantaneous.  Protein and starches don't digest well together, but protein and veggies do, as do starches and veggies.
  • Eat light to heavy.  Your digestion system needs to be working optimally all day to break down what you feed it.  If you fill it with heavy foods first, it will get blocked up, leaving you feeling bloated, heavy, and rundown.  Stick to lighter meals and plant-based foods during the day, and save the heavier stuff for dinner.
  • Avoid gluten  
  • Eliminate dairy
  • Avoid artificial sweeteners (use stevia instead)
  • Avoid refined sugar and starches
  • Avoid unfermented soy products and stick to only tempeh and miso as much as possible

As a vegan who already juices for breakfast, this plan has been fairly easy.  The major changes I have made are the food pairing, eliminating gluten, and keeping starches (gluten free) out of my diet until dinner.  I have added in all of the cleansing probiotics and enzymes above as well.  With these few simple changes, the pounds have been falling off of me, and I honestly feel lighter (my tummy is less bloated too).  The Beauty Detox Solution just makes sense.  I am only three weeks into it, but feeling very energized and optimistic about the results.  

As a nutrition-conscious mom, I am slowly working on how to incorporate this way of eating into my family's meals, mainly dinner, so we can share the same meal.  Mostly, I have found myself relying on my strategy of "mixed meals", where I have a base meal that everyone can add their own favorite ingredients to (see last week's post on Soba Noodle Bowls).

If you are looking to optimize your health and see some big changes in your weight and beauty, I highly recommend you check out Kimberly and her books.  Oh, and did I mention all of the great recipes in both books?  There are tons!  

As someone who already eats fairly clean and healthy, I had been frustrated with some extra bloating around my tummy and the pesky ten pounds that my body always seems to fluctuate between.  With The Beauty Detox Solution, my body feels better, my energy is even higher, and I am losing weight eating delicious food without changing anything in my exercise routine.  Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments below or send me a note at veegmama@gmail.com.

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