Ibrahim - Eat like you give a fork: the real dish on eating to thrive

THE REAL DISH ON EATING TO THRIVE

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TO MES PETITS CHOUX
SOFIA, LUCCA, AND GABE:
YOU FEED MY HEART AND SOUL.
I HOPE TO ALWAYS KEEP YOU FULL!

Growing up, my scientist father thought television was a complete waste of time. We only had access to three channels on our rabbit-eared box, and the only one he acknowledged wouldnt rot our brains was PBS. On any given day, the options were NOVA, Animal Kingdom, or Julia Child. I thought she was so quirky and kind of odd, and had to be seven feet tall because she just towered over all her guests, including Jacques Ppin, who was at least six feet tall, right?

Yet after a while, Julia Child started to grow on me, and soon she became my mentor from afar. I would watch her explain and gesture and eat, and her passion just oozed like cream out of a cannoli. There are foodies, and then there are people who sweat butter and breathe olive oil. Julia for defined passionfor ingredients, the art of cooking, the people around her, and for bringing people to the table. I couldnt get enough of her goofball charm, and her zest for lemons and life was the flavor that made learning from her so incredibly tangy.

The quotes you can find of Julia quipping about cuisine could fill a book on their own, but the one that always gets me in the gut really has nothing to do with food: Remember, no ones more important than people! In other words, friendship is the most important thingnot career or housework, or ones fatigueand it needs to be nurtured.

This book is dedicated to the pursuit of nurturing the relationships that feed your soul and giving you the fuel to thrive. Its not about hours and hours slaving away in the kitchen, hurting your brain trying to figure out what and how to eat, or getting down on yourself because you just cant stomach another juice fast.

Instead, this is about adopting a way of life that becomes a celebration. Each and every bite you take can become a party, an occasion worth toastingsans toast. If you follow the road map of the eight strategies I outline in this book and allow your taste buds to take flight, you may soon discover that everything else in your life starts to feel different. If you shift your relationship with your plate, you can shift your personal relationships, your self-confidence, your intuition, your consciousness, your body, your mood, and your destiny. Its that dramatic. The tens of thousands of people I have spoken to, coached, or mentored could not have even imagined what they could do to get their lives back without making these strategies part of their everyday lives.

I could never have embarked upon this road without so many significant people in my life. To my mother, Janette, and my father, Shawki, who sacrificed everything that was comfortable to bring their children from Egypt to the U.S. for a chance at a better life; to my brother, Daniel, for always being wise beyond his years and the person I can always dish with. To the people who helped make this book possible: Greg Ray, my incredible agent who believed so strongly in my vision to get me there; Teri Lyn Fisher, for photographing the foods in this book so beautifully; Wilmarose Orleans, for her incredible approach to styling the dishes in a real way; Sally Cameron, my good friend and talented chef assistant, for her technical chops. And to my children, Sofia and Luccayou are my light, my breath, my inspiration, and the very reason why this book has come to be my third child. And to my Fit Tribe, who have watched, read, and supported me through all my foodie endeavors, this mouthful is for you. God, youre my #1!

I get you like no one else. Youre fed up. This body of yours doesnt come with an owners manual, so youve played the diet game like a bad online dating site and nothing has quite lit your fire. You tried going Paleo but got the worst constipation ever, and theres still bacon fat splattered on the ceiling. You went raw vegan and got tired of eating everything cold and getting the cold shoulder from your family after you canceled pizza night. So you tried the dairy-free, grain-free, bean-free, nut-free, fat-free, taste-free diet intermittently, ate with only chopsticks, and got so hungry you got splinters in your teeth. Worse, your fridge is the sad home to a few empty ketchup packets, diet soda, and moldy takeout from two weeks ago. Youve tried the bazillion fad diet plans out there, and none of them has worked, because guess what, cutie pie No one should do anything that starts with die.

The very word diet probably sends chills down your spine because it suggests deprivation, despair, and a flavorless death sentence. Why should you inflict that on yourself when life is hard enough, and all you want right now are some French fries cooked in duck fat and a killer double chocolate chip macadamia chunk cookie?

It can be hot, sweet, smoky, spicy, and raw. Its yummy. Its sensual, and it can bring you to tears. Its fun, tooso fun that most people do it three times a day. Food is magical. Its a miracle of nature. It expresses culture. It brings us together for celebration. It feeds our intellect and our creativity. It fuels the ability to cope, manage stress, and make critical decisions. It has an alchemic ability to make us giddy with joy, especially when theres chocolate involved. It forms the building blocks of our DNA, for forks sake, so what you eat today will actually affect your offspring. (If you havent had kids yet, drop the Doritos!) Theres even a component of food that affects our genetic expression that helps determine how long our lives will be and how well we might live them. The truth is, food can completely change your destiny, and the fork in the road is always Eat right. So why is eating so forking confusing?

Something happened to us as a society right around the end of World War II when we entered into the Cold War. Manufacturers began making