Tammy Chang - The Nourished Belly Diet: 21-Day Plan to Heal Your Gut

Text copyright 2016 Tammy Chang. Concept and design copyright 2016 Ulysses Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized duplication in whole or in part or dissemination of this edition by any means (including but not limited to photocopying, electronic devices, digital versions, and the Internet) will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Published in the US by:

Ulysses Press

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Berkeley, CA 94703

www.ulyssespress.com

ISBN13: 978-1-61243-584-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015952134

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Acquisitions Editor: Casie Vogel

Managing Editor: Claire Chun

Editor: Renee Rutledge

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Index: Sayre Van Young

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Cover artwork: fruits/vegetables Kateryna Sednieva/shutterstock.com; label Kovacs Tamas/shutterstock.com

Interior illustrations: pages 25 and 38 Sarah Trent

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NOTE TO READERS: This book has been written and published strictly for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to serve as medical advice or to be any form of medical treatment. You should always consult your physician before altering or changing any aspect of your medical treatment and/or undertaking a diet regimen, including the guidelines as described in this book. Do not stop or change any prescription medications without the guidance and advice of your physician. Any use of the information in this book is made on the readers good judgment after consulting with his or her physician and is the readers sole responsibility. This book is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition and is not a substitute for a physician.

This book is independently authored and published and no sponsorship or endorsement of this book by, and no affiliation with, any trademarked brands or other products mentioned within is claimed or suggested. All trademarks that appear in ingredient lists and elsewhere in this book belong to their respective owners and are used here for informational purposes only. The authors and publishers encourage readers to patronize the quality brands mentioned in this book.

To my family and friends

Table of Contents

Contents

Welcome! The fact that youve picked up this book means that you are interested in something new for your health. Yes! Whether you are just starting on the journey or youve been on this path for a while, Im excited that you are here. Each of us is here for different reasons: maybe you want to lose a few pounds, crave more energy, or just need some inspiration in the kitchen. Our common connection is a target of optimum health. I have my own evolving target, and every day is a practice for me to get as close as possible. Today, writing this book is a wonderful reminder of what Im working on.

This book is my opportunity to share what Ive learned throughout my life from various teachers, self-directed study, dear friends, and of course my clients! With loving guidance and experimentation, I discovered that pretty much everything I wanted to change about my health can be transformed by how I eat.

The Nourished Belly Diet is a 21-day guide to what Ive discovered; it consists of 21 days of eating whole, traditional foods. There are different levels of participation, and if you are open to following it, I have a strong feeling you will see a shift in your health and body. Eating in this way has stabilized my weight, cleared my break-out-prone skin, and made me feel strong and grounded. This is not about being perfect; its about knowing how to come to a way of eating that can bring you back into balance.

Im so thankful that Ive come to where I am because before, my mind-set about food was very toxic. When I was a child, I spent a lot of time trying to be what others thought I should be. I played instruments from a young age, competed in sports, and studied hard in school. I was a good kid, and I felt successful in many of these areas. However, there was one area that I felt like a failureI was a chubby child.

Society treats people who have extra weight on them horribly. Instead of seeing a person, the tendency is to judge people on their weight and make assumptions about their self-control or general health. (In reality, many different shapes and sizes can be healthy. Plus, its about finding and maintaining the size where you feel your best, not where society tells you to be.)

By the time I reached high school, I had an obsession with my body and what I ate. I regarded my body and my eating addictions as the enemy. I was either doing something bad and eating something bad, or I was being good and eating something good. I would compare myself to my girlfriends and wish that I had their body or that I could wear bikinis without feeling self-conscious.

I tried as hard as I could to follow the conventional wisdom at the time, which was to eat low-fat foods, carb load before swim meets, and exercise exercise exercise. I was a competitive swimmer from a young age, and if you know anything about swim teams, its that they practicea lot. We had morning practices before school and two-hour practices after school. I simply thought that I would burn off anything I ate, so I ate no-fat ice cream and peanut butter before practices, thinking hey, I was going to work it off!

Whatever I was doing was detrimental. My weight fluctuated back and forth, my sugar intake was insane, and I didnt feel in control of my eating. Most importantly, I didnt feel good about myself. Truly loving the body that we are given is not a common thing. People often feel the need to have better hips, a smaller gut, less jiggly armsit doesnt end!

In my twenties, I was in the middle of living one of the worst, most stressful years of my life. Having just moved to New York City, I was an inexperienced, first-year teacher in a hard to staff school in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

Luckily, this was also the time I discovered a way of moving that I loved: capoeira (a Brazilian martial art that has now become a large part of my life). Through class, I met a holistic health coach named Molly. The first time I heard about what Molly did (oh, you counsel people on what they should be eating?), my first impression was surprise that this was actually a thing. As the year went on and I realized how out of control I felt, I decided that maybe this was something I needed. I began seeing her as a client, and in hindsight, to have someone hold the space for me to examine my life when the outside was so utterly chaotic was a blessing.

Working with a health coach set me on a path of learning how to cook for myself, experimenting with different foods that I had never eaten before (what is this quinoa?), and getting hip to the fact that food and mood are connected.

Most importantly, I began to look at food in a different way. Instead of always seeing food as something to control, I started to see food as healthful and nourishing. When I made a meal for myself and others, I felt a sense of accomplishment. I saw that making meals together was a wonderful way to connect with peopleand real food tastes amazing!

This set me on a voracious path reading every possible book on nutrition. I moved to North Carolina and life slowed down enough for me to experiment in the kitchen. I made an effort to buy high-quality produce from the farmers markets.