14-Day Makeover Challenge: Healthy Eating

Week Two: One week down, one to go! When we left off with Kirsten last week, she was armed with newfound nutrition knowledge and on her way to the grocery store to stock up on fresh produce. Now she's at the halfway point of our 14-Day Makeover Series: What's working? What's not? Did she survive the food cleanse? Let’s see...

After meeting with Keri Glassman, founder of Nutritious Life, last week Kirsten started a three-day, whole-food cleanse from Glassman's Slim Calm Sexy Diet. It meant lots of vegetables, just a little bit of fruit, and absolutely no processed foods. How'd Kirsten fare? Day one, she fought off coffee cravings, but by day two she was surprised by how high her energy level was — sans caffeine. After day three, she was sold on Glassman's cleanse. Here's what she had to say:

"It was so much easier than I thought it was going to be. I was eating constantly, was hardly ever hungry, and my energy increased. Coming off of the cleanse, I incorporated new healthy foods in addition to sticking to some semblance of the way I’d been eating—since I liked how I felt so much."

Kirsten's been off the cleanse for five days. She's still eating very healthy, but sticking to her new routine is getting tougher. What’s the hardest part? Resisting takeout at work when co-workers pull out delivery menus. Limiting coffee to a single cup per day, minus the Splenda (she bid all artificial sweeteners adieu). And maintaining her willpower during nights out with friends when she made her one ‐ and only — slip.

Despite the abundance of temptations, there've been several refreshing discoveries. Kirsten's thrilled by what a cheap snack fresh fruit makes and is quickly becoming a smoothie addict with her new CuisineArt blender — score your own, plus more of her favorites, next Tuesday (4/10) during our Inside ideeli Makeover sale. Meanwhile, recipes from Glassman's Slim Calm Sexy Diet are now staples in Kirsten's diet (two egg whites mixed with one whole egg in the morning, cucumber with rice vinegar in the afternoon). And one of her favorite new recipes is Slim Slaw — a mix of cabbage, almonds, rice vinegar, and dijon mustard — which is easy to make, thanks to her new salad chopper.

Tune in next Wednesday to see how far Kirsten's come in two weeks with the final post of our healthy-eating challenge. Learn more about our 14-Day Makeover Series, and check out our latest challenge — hair — where one ideeli employee got a bold, new cut and color at a top NYC salon.

14-Day Makeover Challenge: Hair

Week 1: The haircut and color is always the real reveal in a makeover. Good ones brighten the face and balance its shape, allowing all the best features to stand out. Ready to tame her mane, our member specialist, Jessica, put her three main goals into writing:

1. Find the perfect cut, color, and style for her face shape, hair type, and personality
2. Get her hair as healthy as possible
3. Experiment with ways to wear her new style (and, hopefully, find a few foolproof 'dos to stand up to the summer humidity)

To help Jessica jump-start her new look, we hooked her up with a visit to the NYC salon of beloved celebrity stylist Ted Gibson, where two of his expert stylists set out to transform her long, fine locks into voluminous, red waves.

Jessica arrived at the salon with a folder full of inspiration — from photos of Jennifer Aniston's beachy waves to magazine tear-outs of Christina Hendricks's fiery red locks. Within minutes, expert colorist Ronny deemed Aniston's sun-kissed color too safe. (It is a makeover, after all!) A few pep talks later, and Jessica is on board for trying a coppery red shade. But she'll keep the length fairly long, because — makeover or not — it's best, says her stylist Jill, to stick to one major change at a time.

With the cut and color finished, Jessica and her duo of stylists dove right in to the next challenge, which was: what do I do with my hair now? They experimented with new styles — up, down, curled, and straightened — so that Jessica now has an arsenal of go-to hair tricks to turn to during her morning dash. And to help with the transformation, we’ve supplied her with some of ideeli's best-selling hair products and tools, which she'll test-drive and tell us all about over the next two weeks.

Check back tomorrow for a Q&A with Ted Gibson colorist Ronny and stylist Jill — and next Wednesday 4/ 11 to see how Jessica’s doing, one week into her hair challenge. Want to learn more about the ideeli 14-Day Makeover Challenge? Click here.

You can also follow our 14-Day Makeover Challenge: Healthy Eating. Click here.

Healthy Eating: Meet the Expert

Changing a habit is hard work, especially when it comes to eating well. That’s why we enlisted nutrition expert Keri Glassman — founder and president of New York-based Nutritious Life and author of Slim Calm Sexy Diet, The O2 Diet, and The Snack Factor Diet — to give our 14-day Makeover Challenge participant, Kirsten, all the ingredients she needs to reach her goals. (Click here, to learn more about Kirsten.)

We sat down with Glassman to talk about jump-starting our own nutrition makeovers. Here’s what we learned.

Q: You talk a lot about reaching a “calm place” with food, what does that mean?
A. Calming down in regards to your relationship with food will ultimately cause you to decrease overall stress and eliminate excess weight. It’s what I call ‘eating empowered,’ and it’s all about knowing ‘I can have that’ and getting away from ‘I can’t have that.’

Q: You describe your method as a “whole person” approach. Since “whole” is a word that’s thrown around a lot in the world of nutrition, how do you define it?
A. I always say: ‘whole with a [capital] W!’ This is because I approach nutrition by looking at a person’s WHOLE life. If someone is crazy stressed, not sleeping, or has no order in her kitchen, it can be nearly impossible to implement even the best nutrition plan.

Q: A big part of your program is adhering to what you call “the 8 pillars of nutrition” — what are they?
A. It’s not just about diet; it’s about getting adequate hydration, exercise, managing stress, getting sufficient sleep, pampering yourself, being aware of ‘your’ world, and even having a healthy sex life. You don't have to be conquering all of these pillars all of the time, but you should be focusing on as many as you can. It will not only make you feel better, but it will also help you stay consistent with your overall healthy lifestyle and lose weight for the long haul.

Q: How should people prepare before they change their eating habits?
A. For many people, I start with switching up the way they hydrate (taking out soda, upping water intake, adding in green tea). Then we set up an exercise routine and figure out one thing daily that they can do for themselves to help decrease stress and provide happiness.

Q: If a person can only make one change, what’s the best place to start?
A. The biggest initial change I like to see is the elimination of added sugars and artificial sweeteners and upping the intake of veggies (especially greens at lunch and dinner). These sweeteners alter your perception of food, making it very difficult to decrease sweet cravings.

14-Day Makeover Challenge: Healthy Eating

Week 1: We are what we eat, so we’re kicking off our makeover series with the food challenge. Our sample coordinator, Kirsten, has already promised to trade sugary snacks for healthy meals, but now she’s put her four main goals into writing:

1. Make healthier choices
2. Cook and bring lunch from home
3. Be more active, specifically walking home from work every day
4. Do all of the above on a budget.

To give Kirsten a running start, we hooked her up with Keri Glassman, owner of Nutritious Life and author of Slim Calm Sexy Diet, The 8 Rules Diet, and The O2 Diet. The two met at Glassman’s Manhattan office, where Kirsten learned her first tenet of healthy eating: ask what food can do for you. Will it give you energy? Improve your skin? Or make you crash? It’s what Glassman calls empowered eating. “If you focus on what’s good for you,” she says, “you want to do it.”


But empowered eating is more than just nutrition — that's just one piece of the puzzle. Because healthy habits breed even more healthy habits, she looks at a client's whole life before delving into food.

Late to bed and early to rise Kirsten almost never gets eight hours. And sleep, Glassman says, is a prerequisite to healthy eating. She recommends Kirsten enter wind-down mode 30 minutes before bedtime. This means turning off the TV and Internet, taking a hot shower or bath, and spraying some yawn-inducing lavender. Then getting into bed, making a to-do list for the next day—casting all worries aside—and saying goodnight.


With a prescription for a good night’s sleep, Kirsten gets her homework for the week. She’s not only going to give up Splenda (and all artificial sweeteners) cold turkey, but also start a three-day, green-food-only cleanse while reading excerpts of Glassman's book, Slim Calm Sexy Diet. And with this arsenal of advice, Kirsten sets off to her first week of healthier eating.

Check back Wednesday for a Q&A with Keri Glassman and next Tuesday to see what’s cookin’ with Kirsten, one week into her healthy eating challenge. Want to learn more about the ideeli 14-Day Makeover Challenge? Click here.

Get Inspired: 14-Day Makeover Challenge

Even the best of us fall into a style rut every now again. But here at ideeli, April is officially “Get Inspired” month, so we’re making it an office-wide goal to break out of those ruts (whatever they may be) post-haste. While some of us have embraced the challenge by recycling our water cup daily, others are taking it a tad more serious. Enter: the 14-Day Makeover Challenge.

Three of our very own have agreed to tackle a personal challenge head on—from fashion to hair to eating well—and document their successes (and hiccups) for all of us to follow along the way. Look for blog posts, Facebook updates, and tweets (including pics!) tracking each woman’s transformation.

Mark your calendars and start following along. (And hey, if you feel inspired...join in!)

March 27th: Our sample coordinator, Kirsten, trades in sugary snacks for nutritious, home-cooked meals (that don’t break her budget).

April 3rd: Jessica, a member specialist, goes on a hairstyle spree, looking for the perfect cut and an arsenal of styles to help tame her untamable main.

April 9th: Social media specialist, Nicole, parts ways with her closet of black and goes in search of a more sophisticated (gasp, and colorful) wardrobe.

And when it’s all said and done, we’ll celebrate the ideeli-way—with a sale. Kirsten, Jessica, and Nicole pick the items that helped them achieve their goals (and will hopefully inspire you to achieve a few of your own). Let the 14-Day Challenge begin!