Lee Holmes - Supercharged Food: Eat Right for Your Shape

This book is dedicated to my beautiful dog, Cashew.

Thank you for bringing so much joy and unconditional love into my life. You were my rock and my world and I miss you every day. I miss swimming with you and frolicking on the sand at Kutti Beach. I miss your crazy runs, and how you put your paw on my heart when I was feeling sad. You simply had a soul of pure love. I loved watching you in the car with the window down and seeing the wind on your face. Thank you for dedicating your friendship to me, filling a void in my life, mending my heart and never leaving my side. I hope you are having fun in doggie heaven.

Lee x

Lee Holmes holds an Advanced Certificate in Food and Nutrition and is a certified holistic health coach (IIN), yoga teacher, wholefoods chef and bestselling author of the Supercharged Food series, which includes Eat Your Way To Good Health ; Eat Yourself Beautiful ; Eat Clean, Green and Vegetarian ; Heal Your Gut ; and Supercharged Food: Eat Right for Your Shape . She is a columnist for Wellbeing Magazine and Lifestyle Food Channels Healthy Eating Expert, and her articles have appeared in leading Australian newspapers and journals, as well as The Times and The Daily Express in the UK and The Huffington Post in the US. Find Lee at her award-winning blog, superchargedfood.com.

Contents

Introduction

I could use this introduction just to talk about me, but about me pages can sometimes be overly self-aware. I dont want to impose on you a list of achievements and have you yawning mid-sentence the first time you pick this book up. So while Im keen to jazz up my introduction with a bit of background, I want to make this book all about you the person I wrote it for.

T o begin with, though, Id like to invite you to discover a little bit more about me so that youll be able to get the most out of this book, which has been cooked up in the Ayurvedic kitchens of India during my travels there. I want you to be able to use this book in your own kitchen and feel excited about the recipes, enjoying their special and unique feel-good curative capabilities. Id be particularly honoured if you used this book regularly and were inspired to share the recipes with your family and friends.

I believe that this is more than just a book about losing weight and eating right for your shape. Its a book you can turn to at any point in your life to get in touch with your constitutional needs and understand how to bring harmony into your life through food, nutrition, mindfulness and meditation.

If I were to describe myself in three phrases, I would probably say I was sometimes introspective and a little bit funny, with an overdose of creativity. This is my fifth book and Ive really enjoyed seeing the writing appear almost like magic on the blank pages. I want you to know that Im not just talking the talk here, and I hope that once youve immersed yourself in the pages, my authenticity will shine through. Ive been walking the Ayurvedic walk ever since I incorporated and implemented its principles into my life after taking a trip to India to study Ayurvedic cookery and nutrition first hand, and Im eager to share my game-changing results with you.

When I commenced the Ayurvedic lifestyle, I was a healthy size 12 and had just treated my fibromyalgia and an autoimmune problem through eating anti-inflammatory foods. Since adopting this new way of life, Im feeling the best I have ever felt and am now a healthy size 10. Whatever size you are or desire to be, the recipes and principles in this book will help you to bring your body into balance so that youll become the size and shape you were always meant to be.

The ingredients used in this book come directly from nature, and Ive included nutritionally dense foods with potent healing properties so that you can enjoy food the healthy way. One of the big attractions of the recipes is that theyre created with simple ingredients that are grown and picked in tune with the seasons, which makes them so full of flavour and undeniably satisfying. A home truth about Ayurveda is its emphasis on freshly prepared earth-based foods. Big tick!

I hope you enjoy delving into the richness and healing properties of Ayurvedic nutrition and cooking, and find inspiration through my latest food safari. One of the most important things to remember when eating right for your shape is that Ayurvedic cooking and nutrition are more about guiding principles than strict rules. This isnt a restrictive fad diet like so many others endorsed in the Western world as a result of our reliance on processed foods and changing food systems. Its a balanced and considered approach to lifelong health, one that will give you complete control over the interplay of your bodily systems to keep your true self feeling balanced, healthy and calm.

Meeting Tony the local grocer and weighing up a bunch of beautiful fresh vegetables

Having a colonial princess moment in Kerala

An Ayurvedic kitchen is full of beautiful vessels and essential utensils!

How to get started

In this book, Ill show you how to apply Ayurvedic principles to your life. Ayurveda is an ancient healing system, originating in India, that takes a holistic approach to feeling well and living in harmony with yourself and your surroundings. It incorporates eating habits, digestion, daily routines, yoga and meditation. The emphasis is on balance, and one of the starting points is establishing your own particular (or constitution: more), to enable you to tailor the principles to suit you.

Ayurveda is very simple to incorporate into your life without too much disruption. New things can seem hard, but sometimes all it takes is a little leap of faith. Dont worry about what other people might say; dont let labels and stereotypes stop you from walking to the beat of your own drum.

Starting a new way of eating and living that will benefit you internally and externally neednt be restrictive, complicated or difficult; it just needs to work for you. Your weight may be an unconquered facet of your life that you want to change. You may start to enjoy cooking and the healing benefits that food brings to your body. I hope youll jump on board and experience this adventure with me to help find balance and happiness in your life.