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.