Happiness Diet Reader Sheds 26 Pounds in 8 Weeks! - Drew Ramsey MD

Image courtesy Flickr/Amy Moss

Weight loss is one of the happy side effects of the Happiness Diet. When you wean yourself off fake processed foods overloaded with simple sugars and unhealthy fats, it’s good for every part of your body, not just your brain. You will have more stable moods, better focus, more energy and you will also lose weight. A recent email from a Colorado woman named Rachel (excerpted below) shows how a simple Happiness Diet approach to your food can improve your life in the New Year, and give you a new, leaner physique!

Rachel from Colorado, writes:

Like most people, I resolved to lose weight and get healthy in the New Year. Now, over the past eight weeks on the Happiness Diet, I have lost 26 pounds and taken six inches off my hips and waist. Best of all, I feel great – happy and emotionally content.
Since moving to Colorado, I had been moving towards eating more local, organic, and sustainably raised foods. I had joined a CSA [a Community Sustainable Agriculture buying group] and shopped regularly at my farmer’s market and local co-op. But before the New Year, probably only 20 percent of my diet was “happiness diet” foods.

Starting the Happiness Diet was easy! After reading the book (with the list of 100 reasons not to eat processed foods), I switched to mostly local foods and nearly 100% organic foods. I am lucky that I live in a town that has lots of reasonably priced organic and locally produced foods. Researching local sources and shopping frequently has allowed me to opt for grass-fed meats and dairy, and to cook all of my meals from whole ingredients.

I realize that not everyone can take the time I dedicate to daily shopping and cooking from scratch, but there are some things I learned to make following the Happiness Diet easier. Joining a local CSA is a great way to support your neighborhood farmer while getting fresh, healthy vegetables and meats. Local farmers’ markets and co-ops also favor healthier food options. I invested in a pressure cooker, which allows me to cook and freeze batches of beans, legumes, and grains for easy prep later.

The real secret, though, is planning ahead. On Saturdays, I usually plan my meals for the week – using cooking magazines, recipe websites, and the Happiness Diet book itself. With my meals mapped out, I can either do all my shopping and chopping at once, or take a more day-by-day approach, depending on my schedule.

I also keep a list of Happiness Diet’s top mood foods and food combinations (page 52) to help guide my menu. I am not a seafood fan, so getting plenty of omega-3s has been a challenge. Luckily, I found this fantastic recipe for tuna casserole from Cooking Light (Jan/Feb 2010) – though I substitute whole milk for reduced fat milk and cream cheese and I use all organic, sustainably harvested ingredients.

Eat Complete

Winner of a 2017 IACP Cookbook Award  •  Finalist for a Books for a Better Life Award

Named one of the top health and wellness books for 2016 by Well + Good and MindBodyGreen

 

From leading psychiatrist and author of Fifty Shades of Kale comes a collection of 100 simple, delicious, and affordable recipes to help you get the core nutrients your brain and body need to stay happy and healthy.

What does food have to do with brain health? Everything.

Your brain burns more of the food you eat than any other organ. It determines if you gain or lose weight, if you’re feeling energetic or fatigued, if you’re upbeat or depressed. In this essential guide and cookbook, Drew Ramsey, MD, explores the role the human brain plays in every part of your life, including mood, health, focus, memory, and appetite, and reveals what foods you need to eat to keep your brain—and by extension your body—properly fueled.

Drawing upon cutting-edge scientific research, Dr. Ramsey identifies the twenty-one nutrients most important to brain health and overall well-being—the very nutrients that are often lacking in most people’s diets. Without these nutrients, he emphasizes, our brains and bodies don’t run the way they should.

Eat Complete includes 100 appetizing, easy, gluten-free recipes engineered for optimal nourishment. It also teaches readers how to use food to correct the nutrient deficiencies causing brain drain and poor health for millions. For example:

• Start the day with an Orange Pecan Waffle or a Turmeric Raspberry Almond Smoothie, and the Vitamin E found in the nuts will work to protect vulnerable brain fat (plus the fiber keeps you satisfied until lunch).

• Enjoy Garlic Butter Shrimp over Zucchini Noodles and Mussels with Garlicky Kale Ribbons and Artichokes, and the zinc and magnesium from the seafood will help stimulate the growth of new brain cells.

• Want to slow down your brain’s aging process? Indulge with a cup of Turmeric Cinnamon Hot Chocolate, and the flavanols found in chocolate both increase blood flow to the brain and help fight age-related memory decline.

Featuring fifty stunning, full-color photographs, Eat Complete helps you pinpoint the nutrients missing from your diet and gives you tasty recipes to transform your health—and ultimately your life.

BUY NOW:

Buy Eat Complete On AmazonBuy Eat Complete on iTunesBuy Eat CompleteEat CompleteBuy Eat Complete

You have Successfully Subscribed!

The Happiness Diet

For the first time in history, too much food is making us sick. It's all too apparent that the Modern American Diet (MAD) is expanding our waistlines; what's less obvious is that it's starving and shrinking our brains. Rates of obesity and depression have recently doubled, and while these epidemics are closely linked, few experts are connecting the dots for the average American.

Using the latest data from the rapidly changing fields of neuroscience and nutrition, The Happiness Dietshows that over the past several generations small, seemingly insignificant changes to our diet have stripped it of nutrients--like magnesium, vitamin B12, iron, and vitamin D, as well as some very special fats--that are essential for happy, well-balanced brains. These shifts also explain the overabundance of mood-destroying foods in the average American's diet and why they predispose most of us to excessive weight gain.

After a clear explanation of how we've all been led so far astray, The Happiness Diet empowers the reader with simple, straightforward solutions. Graham and Ramsey show you how to steer clear of this MAD way of life with foods to swear off, shopping tips, brain-building recipes, and other practical advice, and then remake your diet by doubling down on feel-good foods--even the all-American burger.

BUY NOW:

Buy Eat Complete On AmazonBuy Eat Complete

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Fifty Shades of Kale

Kale gets sexy in Fifty Shades of Kale by Drew Ramsey, M.D., and Jennifer Iserloh, with 50 recipes that are mouth-wateringly delicious and do a body good.
 
Release yourself from the bondage of guilt and start cooking meals with the ingredients you love: meat, cheese, and yes—even butter. Nutrient-rich kale provides essential vitamins and minerals to keep you healthy, happy, and lean—so you can indulge in your most delicious desires. Whether you’re a cooking novice or a real kale submissive, you will undoubtedly succumb to Kale’s charms.

From Mushroom and Kale Risotto to Kale Kiwi Gazpacho, Fifty Shade of Kale offers simple ways to have your kale and eat it, too, as well as nutritional information, cooking tips, and a tutorial on kale in all her glorious shades.
 
Indulge your culinary passions with Fifty Shades of Kale: 50 Fresh and Satisfying Recipes That Are Bound to Please.

BUY NOW:

Buy Eat Complete On AmazonBuy Eat Complete on iTunesBuy Eat CompleteEat CompleteBuy Eat Complete

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Are you ready to eat to beat depression?

Get a head start with our free food mood log! Submit your information and we will send you the log to begin.

You have Successfully Subscribed!