I Can Make You Hot! (10 page)

You can’t outsmart your metabolism, but you can jump-start it by eating nutritious, well-rounded meals. If you don’t eat enough, your body will think it’s starving and your metabolism will automatically slow down to preserve as much energy and body fat as possible. If you feed your body what it needs, your metabolism will work for you instead of against you.

Is this you?
I don’t eat breakfast; I eat chicken and lettuce for lunch; and I eat a salad with vegetables and light dressing at night
. If that’s you, you are trying to be skinny, but actually you’re not ever going to trim down. You’re starving your body, even though you think you “eat nothing”…and are on a “skinny track.”

Write down what you ate for the last two days. Don’t lie. We can start fresh tomorrow, one bite at a time.

What I Eat Every Day

To begin with, I’m not a big breakfast person. My three go-to breakfasts are either two oranges or a plate of mixed berries if I’m not going to be very active; all-bran cereal or some other high-fiber cereal with almond milk or unsweetened coconut milk if I’m going on a long run, riding, or doing something else that requires extra energy; and on weekends, I love making pancakes to eat with my girls. We make them with coconut milk and top them with fresh fruit. You don’t always need syrup; low-glycemic-index agave nectar is delicious, too. Sometimes I even go against Miss Manners and eat them with my hands. (
My Favorite Pancakes
).

People try to control their meal plan when they can’t control other things in their life. That’s how eating disorders are born. Stop micromanaging your meals and take control of your whole life.

Every morning is different. Some days I’ll wake up and have the time and the energy to make pancakes. Other mornings a green drink (
Kelly Green Juice
) or a smoothie may be all you can tackle. My kids and I love smoothies, and I make them all the time as an easy breakfast alternative. The point is that no child or adult should ever leave the house in the morning without something in their stomachs. A plastic cup that says “Forced Family Fun” from
www.themonogramshops.com
makes the smoothie go down with a giggle.

People often ask me how I feel about snacks. Do I snack? What are my go-to snack choices? My answer is that I truly believe that if you eat three good meals a day you shouldn’t really need to snack between meals. I was married to a Frenchman, and the French philosophy is not to snack. But sometimes, I do sneak a snack here and there. If you really feel the need to snack, please do, but first
stop
and ask yourself if you’re really hungry. Don’t eat because you’re bored, and certainly don’t snack to keep your mouth busy while your eyes are glued to the television. If you’re bored, get out and do something. Sitting alone in front of the TV eating ice cream is
not hot
! Food is energy; it shouldn’t be mistaken for comfort or entertainment, or a friend/enemy.

I know that eating a pint of ice cream can make you feel really good—for the moment. But what are the ramifications? How much more will you have to exercise to work off those calories? Is the momentary gratification really worth the long-term results? How much extra weight do you really want to carry around every day? Personally I don’t ever want to carry anything heavier than my own purse.

Try to make at least one day a week a “no-snack day.” I promise that it won’t be as difficult as you might think.

Lunch is my biggest meal, because I need the energy to get me through my busy days. I might have brown rice with vegetables and a protein such as chicken, tofu, or fish. I call this “Energy Economics”: eating what my body needs based on the action of the day. When I’m really busy and active, I can’t eat as if I were at a spa. Spa food is great when I’m relaxing, but I don’t live at a spa, and neither do you, so you will need more food to keep you going.

A great way to combine your meat and vegetables is by stuffing. Stuff cabbage, sweet peppers, tomatoes, or even onions with ground meat, chicken, or turkey seasoned with salt and pepper. Bake until the meat is cooked through and the vegetable is softened. If you mix the ground meat with cooked rice, you’ve got a whole meal in one neat package. See
Have an Impromptu Pepper Party
.

In the evening, your body needs less energy, so you need less food. For dinner, I eat something light, like a salad and a protein or soup and a salad. I’ve actually been eating soup and salad for dinner since I was a little girl. When I was young, my parents used to pack the entire family—my twin brother, my sister, and I—into the car and take road trips from our home in Illinois to Montreal, Aspen, and even as far as Washington, D.C. My mother loved going to the best restaurants and hotels in the country, but we were a party of five, and that sometimes got expensive. Whichever restaurant we went to, my parents ordered soup and salad for us kids. It was inexpensive, came to the table quickly, and allowed me to nap on some of the finest linens made in America. That’s the truth; I grew up on soup and salad.

When I was in my twenties, modeling and traveling the world, I learned how to make healthy, inexpensive, easy dinners out of a can. Many people think that models lead super glamorous lives filled with jet-set vacations and nightclub outings. That’s a total misconception. Whether I was in Paris or Africa, it was usually just for a few days, and usually I was working with people I didn’t know. I figured out that all I needed was a can of peas, a can of stewed tomatoes, and a hotplate, and I could have a meal ready in no time. I called it Kelly Green Peezzz. Even now, when I need a quick, healthy dinner, I still revert to my twenties and make that, only now I dress it up with truffle salt, garlic powder, and crushed red pepper flakes.

Since I try to work out in the mornings, I stay away from starchy carbs in the evening because I know I don’t need the quick energy and I won’t be actively burning them off. If I’ve had a substantial lunch, I don’t need to eat a big dinner.

If I don’t eat that way, I’m violating my own laws of energy economics and my body goes either into inflation mode (too much energy when I don’t need it) or recession mode (not enough energy in the bank for me to draw from). The key is to create economic equilibrium: eating well so that I feel good, which allows me to be happy.

To summarize:

For Six Days

Fruit or a cup of cereal with milk in the morning.

A substantial lunch including 1 cup of carbs with a protein.

Protein with salad or vegetables for dinner.

On the Seventh Day

Have fun and indulge yourself
.

Of course, I can’t eat perfectly every single day, and I don’t expect you to be perfect, either. None of us live in a test-tube, and life happens. Maybe you have a business dinner one night, or you get stuck in traffic, or you’re really backed up with work. When something happens to throw you off course, just be sure you get back on track the next day—no excuses!