The Kind Diet

It seems that every celebrity eventually writes a diet book.  Alicia Silverstone is no exception.  Her book, The Kind Diet, explains her approach to healthy living and weight control.  Judging by the success of her book (it is a New York Times best seller), Alicia may be on to something!

Alicia has defined three levels of achievement for the Kind diet.  The "flirt" level is someone who is easing into eating organic and vegan.  Nowhere near full time or full tilt, but testing the waters a bit and already receiving some benefit from eating better.  The "vegan" level is for people who have cut themselves off completely from eating meat, but still use meat substitutes (like flavored tofu) to salve those cravings.  The "superhero" level describes those amazing converts who have fully embraced the diet and aren't looking back!

Besides promoting "eating green" her book has six fundamental concepts:

Eating kind is a beautiful thing.  This is all about reducing our impact on the world around us.  Eating meat and processed foods places a much higher burden on our environment, because the cattle, pigs or chickens are raised for our table, consuming resources and producing pollution.

Doing good also tastes good.  Here Alicia is reframing the menu as an addition to our previous experiences.  Rather than focusing on the take-away aspects of her organic, vegan diet, she celebrates the new flavors and textures that will result.

Rethink the word "diet."  There are no calorie counts in the Kind Diet.  No exchanges or portion controls, either.  Instead, the Kind Diet leads to weight loss because of the naturally lower calorie density of the foods.  You feel full and satisfied, but in reality you haven't eaten as many calories compared to a meat eater.

Small changes can be huge.  The Kind Diet can be approached incrementally.  Small steps leading to a completely vegan lifestyle can be easier to accomplish than going "cold turkey" from meat.  Oh, that’s right, not even cold turkey is permitted, so I guess that's "cold tofu."

Be kind to yourself.  Alicia stresses that everyone has days when you just need a hamburger.  Or a cup of coffee.  Instead of beating yourself up, give yourself grace and move on to the next day, stronger and more committed.  Expect small failures along the way and don't let them shame you into quiting.

Don't forget dessert.  OK, I will admit that this is my favorite concept of them all.  Alicia's book contains some great dessert ideas so that you never have to leave the table without something yummy to complete your meal.  Yes!

Could the Kind Diet work for you?  The conversion to a vegan lifestyle is not easy.  Especially at first, it is important to include a multivitamin to counter the loss of nutrients that you had previously received from processed foods and animal products.  Also consider the slight increase in cost associated with organic and vegan eating.  Not a huge cost increase, but forget about those evil dollar menus at the fast food. 

Have you tried the Kind Diet?  Click on the Comment button and let us know how it worked for you.