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The 5 Rules Drew Barrymore Followed To Lose Weight & Heal Her Gut
I've been working with Drew Barrymore for over eight years now, and she is so beloved for her realness. She is one of us—not perfect, not eating perfectly all the time—but she does understand certain principles I have taught her. Recently, she made headlines for her 25 pound weight loss, which she achieved not by doing some insane diet, but by nourishing her body, and her gut.
I don't think we were designed to feel deprived all the time. I do think that we need some sweets and carbs in our life—otherwise "sweet" wouldn't be considered a primary Ayurvedic taste. Our brains need some carbs to function. I truly believe life, and food, are meant to feel abundant, joyful, and more full of ease than we've often been taught.
I teach my readers and clients a lifestyle based around feeling good. Feeling good doesn't mean we are necessarily happy and elated all the time; rather, it means we are connected to ourselves, our bodies, and our own inner wisdom and intuition. We can better intuit what foods and choices serve us, when we are hungry, and when we are not. We have a greater sense of peace in our perfectly imperfect lives, which is exactly what my new book (out next week), Recipes for Your Perfectly Imperfect Life, teaches.
With that in mind, here are five key principles I created in Drew's program to help her, yes, slim down and look great, but, more importantly, heal her gut and feel amazing too.
1. Really (and I mean really) nourish your gut.
If we don't have balanced guts, it means our digestion is compromised, and we tend to "hold" more, making weight loss much harder. I realized this years ago when I went out backpacking and learning for three years around the world, got out of the limitations of the Western mentality, and finally understood the connection of wholeness, including between my constipation, digestion issues, and bloating and my inability to drop weight. Gut health has been trendy recently, but I've actually been talking about this connection since my first book! You can nourish your gut by reducing refined sugars, cutting out difficult-to-digest foods, like dairy and gluten, meditating and/or bringing in mindfulness practices to help you handle stress (this is as important as what you eat, in my opinion, as everything affects everything else), and taking probiotics.
2. Eat lots of ginger…and other strategic foods.
Why ginger? It warms your body and increases circulation and metabolism. It actually promotes a warm feeling in your body. This helps you drop into your body and out of your head, helping to break the cycle of negative circular thought patterns and anxiety. Try making ginger tea or adding to a soup or stir-fry when you find yourself spiraling into a food craving or binge cycle.
Weight loss/balance is a long-term lifestyle that is really created with balancing emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being as well. If we are stressed and "holding on" in our mind, manifesting as anxiety, insomnia, chronic resentments, and constantly beating ourselves up and feeling guilty, then I believe that translates to a more arduous time of our bodies letting go of weight. Every single part of our life flows and connects to all the other parts.
3. Drink the Glowing Green Smoothie (GGS) every morning.
Our bodies need natural foods to function at their best, and let weight balance and stay at a balanced level, and this includes increasing natural satiety (feeling calm around food in general versus stressed out about it!) and digestion. This smoothie is key in that it gives you fiber, a ton of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and more. You can make it by combining 7 cups chopped spinach (about a medium bunch), 6 cups chopped romaine lettuce (about 1 small head), 2 cups cold filtered water, 1½ cups chopped celery (about 2 medium stalks), 1 medium apple, cored and coarsely chopped, 1 medium pear, cored and coarsely chopped, 1 medium banana, peeled and cut in thirds, 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice and some parsley and cilantro (optional), and blending until smooth. This serves 4, so share with a friend or save some for later!
4. Avoid dairy.
Across the board, I find that most people's bodies open up more and release when then they shift from dairy to plant-based milks, cheeses, yogurts, and so on. In my practice, I've found dairy to be very mucus-forming and congestive, so if your goal is to slim down and lose weight, it is not a very helpful food in that regard, as we are trying to create more of a natural flow in your body.
5. Practice ongoing cleansing.
It's really important we are expelling (yes, I am talking about bowel movements!) as much as possible. Our bodies are contending with endogenous (normal cell breakdown matter) and exogenous (from pollution, heavy metals, environmental pollutants, and so on) toxins each and every day. The more efficient we are at releasing, the more space there is in the body for oxygen and nutrients to circulate.
Some measures for cleansing are to eat lots of fiber to cleanse your system (see No. 3), adding cilantro to your diet to help bind to and cleanse heavy metals, avoiding refined sugars (which have a "sticky" effect on our systems), and eating more energy-efficient, plant-based meals.
Drew, along with most all of my clients, take a magnesium oxide supplement at night. It is an oxygen cleanse product, which is non-laxative and non-habit-forming, which is super helpful in this regard as well.
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