I Can Make You Hot! (3 page)

Fruits and Vegetables

Avocado

Baby carrots

Bananas

Blueberries

Celery

Cherry tomatoes

Edamame (fresh soy beans)

Frozen peas

Frozen spinach

Mixed salad greens

Oranges

Snow peas

Dehydrated snow peas are the new edamame.

Try different kinds of milk for different flavors. See which ones you like best.

Beverages

Bottled water

Unsweetened coconut milk/almond milk/whole cow’s milk/soy milk/vanilla soy milk

Diet Coke (Yes, I drink Diet Coke but I don’t drink gallons of it every day, and neither should you!)

Lemonade

Organic chamomile with lavender tea

Peppermint tea

Pure white green tea

Coffee

Beer

Red wine

Tequila (my favorite is Patrón)

Vodka

White wine (I like Santa Margherita’s pinot grigio)

Dairy Products

Butter

Eggs

Mozzarella cheese

Parmesan cheese

Yogurt

Other

Canned tuna, packed in water

Cinnamon, ground

Crushed red pepper flakes

Lavender-lemon pepper

Miso soup

Organic nonstick cooking spray

Olive oil

Sugar

Sea salt

Truffle salt

Truffle oil

Vodka sauce (I use Newman’s Own because it’s tasty and the company is a great charity organization—my two favorite things.)

I like using sea salt instead of regular salt because sea salt has more flavor and is more concentrated so you can use less of it to get the same taste.

Many “diet” books will tell you not to drink because alcohol has empty calories and also lowers your inhibitions so that you’re less likely to make good food choices.

Personally, I do drink beer, wine, and other alcoholic beverages. In fact, I love mixed drinks—particularly anything that comes with an umbrella—but not every day. When I was younger, I didn’t drink beer. I didn’t like it, and even one beer was too filling for me. My friends from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, used to drink Old Style when we went to Chuck’s, a local bar in Fontana, but I always drank soda. I probably drank a liter of soda every Saturday night. No wonder I was so energized!

Even later, in my twenties, I didn’t really drink at all. I was modeling, traveling around the world, and attending Columbia University, all at the same time. I barely had any “me time,” let alone bar time. Studying and partying don’t mix.

After I gave birth to my first daughter, my doctor told me that my breast milk would flow more easily if I drank a dark beer every day. Since I’m Irish, I went with Guinness. That’s when it started; my taste buds changed, and it was actually beneficial to me. Once I stopped breastfeeding I started to run more consistently again. Beer was already in my diet, and it also was refreshing and gave me carbs after my daily runs.

Do I encourage you to sit back and down a six-pack by yourself? Hardly! I don’t drink beer (or any other alcohol) every day. Beer and I are now acquaintances, but not best friends. I don’t lie around in front of the TV with a beer bottle on my belly. Everything with me is in moderation (except for how I love). No one ever looks HOT when they’re drunk—even if they think they do—but if you don’t have issues with alcohol, drink really good beer, wine, and alcohol. Bad alcohol leads to bad hangovers. And always, always, drink responsibly.

According to
Forbes.com
: “A vast number of studies show that moderate consumption of alcohol, including beer, may reduce the risk of heart disease—consistently the No. 1 cause of death in the United States. A 2006 study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Harvard School of Public Health found that, among men with healthy lifestyles, those who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol had a 40 to 60% reduced risk of heart attack compared with heart healthy men who abstained.” You heard it here.

And I read in the
New York Post
that Heidi Klum, ex-Victoria’s Secret model and mother of four, runs four miles a day and drinks beer. If it’s good enough for a former supermodel and for
Forbes.com
, it’s good enough for me.

Interestingly, I’ve found that since I started taking care of my body and feeding it well, my metabolism works so efficiently that I can drink alcohol and metabolize it faster than most people. If you want to drink, my advice is to eat better and exercise!

I firmly believe that bland food makes you fat. When food is really tasty, you’re satisfied with less, so what you want is food so flavorful that you want to eat it slowly and savor every bite. Your taste buds will be in gastronomic heaven after just a few bites.

One way to get more of that sultry savory taste is to use truffle oil as a flavor enhancer. I love it on pasta, eggs, meat, and fish. Seth Levine, who appeared on Season 5 of Gordon Ramsay’s hit television show,
Hell’s Kitchen,
gave me some insight on truffles and how to use truffle oil. According to Seth, white truffles are more exotic and more expensive than black, are gathered during the summer only in France and Spain, and are mainly used in dishes during the fall months. Black truffles are more common and can be found in Oregon, Canada, and all over Europe throughout the year.

Truffle oil is so full of concentrated flavor that a little goes a very long way. Put a few drops on your salad or on a pizza. Just never add it until your food has finished cooking. Subjecting the oil to heat kills the truffle flavor. What a waste of deliciousness!

Think and Plan!

When you shop for clothes you probably have a budget. Think of food shopping the way you think of shopping for clothes. A muffin from Dunkin’ Donuts costs 480 calories. Do you have enough calories to spend on a muffin? Eat what you need and what you can afford, not what you have to burn off later. Don’t incur food debt.

Plan how and when you’re going to exercise. Get out your calendar or PDA. What does the rest of your week look like? Do you go to an office every day? Do you have morning or afternoon appointments? Evening activities? If you plan your workouts around your obligations (also including your fun activities) and write them in your calendar, you won’t have any excuse for not doing what you planned. Then use your PDA to find the closest well-stocked market and go there. Making life easy for yourself is what it’s all about.

When you go to the supermarket, dress to look good! Not only is the market a great place to meet people, but also, if you look good, you’ll feel good, and you’ll buy food that’s good for you. You don’t have to wear six-inch platform stilettos; just no baggy sweats or anything that looks like you slept in it the night before. Clean skinny jeans or a neat pair of yoga pants and a fresh white tank or tee shirt can be totally hot and totally appropriate.

Kelly’s Cardinal Rule