Review of 'Body Love' by Kelly Leveque

I have got this book out of the library at the moment and wanted to review it here because I am really liking it a lot!  It's a refreshing look at how we eat and more of a life plan than a diet.  Kelly came to my attention as I randomly saw Jennifer Garner mention a shake she was having on facebook and it was linked to her trainer - Kelly Leveque.  So I went to Kelly's facebook page, saw she had a book and borrowed it from the library.  She also trains a lot of other celebrities at the moment like Jessica Alba, Molly Sims etc.

Anyway, to sum it up, Kelly's approach is that it's all about balancing our blood sugars to get maximum satiety or satisfaction and lasting value from our food.  That we need to realize we can be physically hungry and hormonally hungry and they are two different things.  Hormonally hungry is fueled by blood sugar spikes etc from eating the wrong foods. Despite what is popular out there in the diet world at the moment,  Kelly does not advocate eating lots of small meals. Her reasoning is that it takes our body 6 hours to complete digestion.  When we are constantly eating, our body never stops the digestion state to move onto other things such as shifting into fat burning mode.

Kelly's whole theory is based on what she calls 'Fab4' which are Protein, Fibre, Greens and Fats and if we get the right combination of these for every meal - they will keep us satisfied for around 6 hours till our next meal.  If we can get this balance right and our blood sugar is not spiking, then we will actually burn fat during those 6 hours also as our body will be working as it was designed to.  So no snacking with this one.

This appeals to me on so many levels but in particular the only eating three times a day is something I like.  I read a lot on French culture last year and they do not snack and just eat the three main meals a day and really savor every mouthful too.  For me, I prefer that.  I think the thing I dislike the most about eating is not feeling satisfied and having to go back looking for something else.  I LOVE the idea of having the right balance so you don't crave food after you eat for hours and I really hope this can work for me.

Kelly is strong that this is not a diet or a list of things you can't have. She states near the beginning that many people find that just by adding her Fab4 smoothie for breakfast every morning, that they lose a lot of weight they haven't been able to lose on other diets.  She provides recipes, photos and her own personal plan to inspire also.

In summary,  this is something I will be trying and if I remember to come back to update - I will!  I'm always looking for things that are realistic to do forever, and this seems like one of those things I could easily integrate.  It fits well with Whole30, which I also like.   It's a really interesting book and I really enjoyed it a lot.  I would definitely recommend it, even though I haven't tried it to see how it works for me - the celebrities highly recommend her, so hopefully that means something :-)

You can purchase this book here.  I will be as I have to return this to the library soon!