I developed this list of Feel-Great Foods from years of working with a wide array of clients including elite athletes, businesspeople and mothers with young kids. There is good science to prove its effectiveness, and even better real-life trial-and-error evidence.
Here’s one example: Several years ago I worked with an NBA all-star who had fallen into clinical depression. It didn’t matter how fit he was, he couldn’t perform on the basketball court. It was my job not only to get him back into playing shape, but to help restore his mental focus. I designed his diet with both of these goals in mind, drawing liberally from the Feel-Great Foods list.
The results were amazing—in five weeks he lowered his body fat by 10 percent and boosted his mental energy, physical energy, focus and exuberance sufficiently to return to his usual activities and training with a renewed drive to win.
Here’s an important part of the program that this athlete—and every client—loves. Even if you eat something that makes my Feel-Bad Foods list, you still need to eat your daily share of Feel-Great Foods. Don’t count calories.
I don’t care if you ate half of a chocolate cake five minutes ago; I still want you to eat all the foods on the plan that make you feel great. As long as you keep feeling great, you won’t eat the other half of the cake. The guilt that comes with popular deprivation diets will just drive you to eat more cake, not to get back on track.
The Feel-Great Foods list includes all sorts of possibilities for your daily meals and snacks: Omelets, burritos, turkey/ham sub sandwiches (boost your mood with a liberal glug of that ubiquitous Feel-Great Food, olive oil, and skip the mayo) or barbecued chicken. Hot cocoa and a moderate amount of red wine are OK, too. In fact, I urge clients to finish every day with a cup of hot cocoa.
Here are more Feel-Great selections: Garlic, ginger, green tea and—not to be overlooked—water. My new book has a more extensive list, along with 14 days of menus for breakfast, lunch, dinner and two daily snacks, including recipes. I also discuss how to outfit your kitchen for Feel-Great Food preparation, and even help you improve your mood when you travel and commute.
One of my goals for every client is that they never feel famished at any point during the day or week.
“I was never hungry, not once,” Patrick says, looking back on his first 12 weeks when he lost 35 pounds but notched even more meaningful changes. “It was almost like I was glowing. The weight loss was more like, ‘Oh, right, you lost weight too.’ ”