Shonali Sabherwal - The Beauty Diet: Eat your Way to a Fab New You

RANDOM HOUSE INDIA

Published by Random House India in 2012

Copyright Shonali Sabherwal 2012

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EPUB ISBN 9788184002867

To my dad,

who brought me to macrobiotics.

And Brian,

without whom it would not have been possible.

To you, readers

hope you find the secrets helpful.

And to the Divine,

for whom I am a mere channel of this wisdom.

F OREWORD

Just as exercise is important for a well-toned body, food is vital for overall beauty, which includes a slim body with glowing skin and healthy hair. When you eat well, you nourish the body and your blood circulation and digestion get stimulated. This immediately creates an overall vitality and that unmistakable secret glow. In todays life, its important not only to look a certain way, but to also feel confident about yourself. And that only comes from feeling healthy and beautiful. And who doesnt want beauty as one of their virtues, right? I too wanted to look and feel like a million dollars. And thats where the challenge lay.

It is extremely difficult to find genuine health-food products and places to find them. When I first came to Mumbai, I struggled to find food products that were healthy and nutritious, and which also kept my hunger pangs at bay since most of what is out there in the market is artificial and processed. I was looking for something different. Thats when I read about Shonali in the papers.

Shonali believes in an organic, a well-balanced and simple diet, and her outlook towards food matched mine. I called her immediately. This was two years ago, during the promotions of my film Alladin. I have been with her for over two years now.

When I started eating with Shonali I was worried that her diet included too much carbs. I had avoided rice, bread, and beans ever since I started watching my weight, but I soon put my fears to bed as the benefits of Shonalis approach were immediately visible. The first change that was evident to me as well as to the people around me was that my skin and hair both started looking healthy and vibrant. Before I met Shonali, I suffered from PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) and constant stomach problems, and my weight fluctuated because of the various diets I was on. But after Shonalis food, those issues never returned. It was then that I realized that in my quest to look good and be thin, I had actually invited many other problems by eating less. But that is all in the past now.

After being introduced to her approach, I started looking better than I ever had. I was happier and healthier, and I could do more intensive workouts because I had more energy. I was actually feeling like a kid again, like I was eating mums food. I always joke that Shonali is my tiffin mum. However, the best thing about her food is that you dont end up craving unhealthy food; she balances the meals and gives you the right amount of complex carbs so I always feel satisfied and full, and dont feel like I need cheat meals because theres always variety in Shonalis food. Through Shonalis food, Ive discovered a whole new side of me. Apart from my skin never breaking out and my hair looking thick and glossy, Ive actually been able to maintain my weight. By the time I was shooting Murder 2 I was toned and fit naturally. Thats what following Shonalis approach has done for me.

The Beauty Diet can open up doors to beauty that you never thought existed. And the funny thing is that that theres actually nothing to it. Here, the emphasis is on understanding the importance of a well-balanced meal. All natural foods are good for you, even carbs like sweet potatoes. A healthy mixture of carbs, protein, and good fats should constitute each meal, and that is the basis of looking and feeling great. Staying away from processed and refined food keeps your body detoxified and functioning properly. And thats where Shonali steps in. She not only explains the importance of food, but also the kind of food that will benefit you the most. The Beauty Diet is packed with secrets of everyday foods, things that we see but never pay any attention to. This is the most comprehensive guide to lead you to a healthier and more beautiful you, and my secret which I want to share with all my fans and readers of this book.

A final word. Forget diets which are temporarythe real test is having something that works for you in the long term and being able to maintain that so that its ingrained in your daily life. When it comes to looking your best, give your body the best tools to help it achieve that. Never sell yourself short; good food is like a lifetime investment with high returns. The power to be healthy and beautiful lies in your hands and yours completely. So what are you waiting forlets all embrace good health and get beautiful.

Jacqueline Fernandez

Mumbai

I NTRODUCTION

Take a look at the image of Goddess Kali. Dishevelled hair, raging eyes, she is poised on Shiva, wearing a garland of human heads, and a skirt of human limbs. But have you ever noticed how shes biting on her tongue? My friend Rohit Arya, who writes on mythology and spirituality, revealed to me what the biting of the tongue symbolizes. The tongue is the prime symbol of passions as it is the centre for taste, regarded as the core passion. Once you can control your craving, not only for food, but also for rasaflavour or taste in all its connotationsyou have won over your passions. Kali biting her tongue is an acknowledgement of her control over the passions of the world. Literally, she has conquered the palate, the desire for flavour, for taste or for rasa, one of the hardest things to do in yoga. But sadly that is not what we humans do; most people I meet would like to get the juice out of life when it comes to food.

By this I dont mean you should turn into yogis or eat nuts and leaves and live out in the wilderness. The idea is to control our urges and live a balanced life. Balance is vital. It is what keeps the body and mind fit, healthy, and harmonized. Through this book I will explain how balance is the secret to good health and beauty.

Beauty is really skin deep, and thats why food and true beauty are linked very closely together. We all love being beautiful. But is beauty just having good, proportionate physical attributes? Or is it that glow that shouts over your physical attributes, the vitality, as I call it, of your being? If it is our prerogative to be beautiful, then it becomes necessary to be healthy. That glow and vitality are a result of good health, not cosmetics and products to make you look beautiful superficially. It is food upon which the whole structure of your beauty rests. Your skin, hair, and nails are all the result of what food choices you make and how your organs work to process this food. Eat healthywell at least 80 percent of the timeand you will be awarded with true beauty.