I Can Make You Hot! (15 page)

Another one of my rules is to never skip a meal. You need to keep your internal engine running smoothly and it can’t do that when it’s running on the fumes at the bottom of the tank. Skipping meals won’t make you hot. It also won’t make you skinny because you’ll be so starving that you’ll probably eat more than you need at your next meal. Here’s what they call people who skip meals: exhausted, irritable, and grumpy. If I don’t eat three meals a day, I am really grumpy—like get-me-my-broomstick grumpy. I work out every day, so I need to fuel my engine. Bad food choices affect my life choices.

Now that you know what I eat, and how I believe you should be eating in order to look and feel HOT, I also want you to know that, as you’ll soon see, Sunday is the day when all bets are off and you can eat whatever you please—within reason. Sunday is Funday, a day of indulgence.

One question people frequently ask me is whether I believe in taking vitamins or supplements, and the answer is “yes, I do,” because, even though I know my diet is healthy, I can’t be sure that I’m getting all the nutrients I need. All the vitamins and minerals we need can be found naturally in foods, but how do we know, even if we’re eating a healthy diet, that we’re getting everything we need? I don’t want to take that chance. I think of the food I eat as my fuel and vitamins as my oil—my body’s engine needs both. Vitamins and supplements are not food replacements, but we’re exposed to so many environmental toxins on a daily basis that I believe we need to supplement our diets to counteract all the harm those substances can cause.

I take a prenatal multivitamin daily (I am not, nor am I expecting to become pregnant any time soon, but you never know…) because prenatal vitamins contain iron, calcium, and folic acid, as well as other B vitamins. Folic acid not only protects against birth defects; it also helps to promote heart health and prevent cell changes that could lead to cancer. In addition, I find that these vitamins give me more energy, are great for my nails and hair, and get rid of the dark circles under my eyes. Honestly, if I don’t take them, I can see the difference.

Kelly’s Cardinal Rule

Never eat while you’re doing something else, except enjoying good conversation. (And don’t smack your
lips
, no matter how good the food tastes.) When you do two things at once, you’re not doing either one of them properly. If you believe the food you eat while you’re walking doesn’t have any calories, you’re wrong!

Thursday: Tricks of My Trade

Now that you’ve got the basics, I’m going to share some of the tricks I use to kick-start my energy when I’m not feeling too hot, and some of the mistakes I’ve made along the way, so that you can learn from what I’ve learned. I’m actually glad for the mistakes I’ve made because anyone who doesn’t make mistakes doesn’t learn, and if you don’t learn, you’re boring! I’m sure you’ll still be making some mistakes of your own, but you might as well learn what you can from mine instead of repeating them.

One of my biggest lessons came when I was competing in my very first horse show in Sagaponack, New York. I knew that I’d be jumping three rounds of eight 2-foot, 6-inch jumps set in three different courses. I knew I’d need lots of energy and decided to have a filling and nutritious lunch of pasta, broccoli, and shrimp. All great, but the show was running late and by four o’clock in the afternoon my adrenaline was pumped high and to me it felt as if I were starving. I decided to have an egg on a bagel from the food-service van. That turned out to be not so great. I was hot and sweaty and feeling like a stuffed Thanksgiving turkey. I wasn’t energized. I was totally lethargic. I did all right in the competition, but I wasn’t relaxed and I was pushing and pulling my horse instead of letting him go.

What lesson did I learn from that unhappy experience? To never eat more than I normally would, especially when I need to be physically active. In this case, my adrenaline was pumping but my blood sugar wasn’t dropping.

What could I have done differently? I should have hydrated more when I started to feel hungry. On a recent Thanksgiving when I was fox hunting in North Carolina, it almost happened to me again. But this time I had granola with soy milk and a banana, and I drank a couple of bottles of water and a cup of coffee, so I could gallop through the hills. Even though I was anxious, I was hydrated, and I had a great time. Anxiety doesn’t mean you’re hungry; it means you’re anxious. Food doesn’t help anxiety and neither does alcohol.

Staying hydrated is important no matter what you’re doing, so I always try to drink eight glasses or about a liter of water a day. Soda isn’t water. Coffee isn’t water. Water is water. Drink throughout the day; don’t try to get it all down at once. You wouldn’t drown an orchid, so don’t drown yourself.

Even when I was training to run the New York City Marathon in 2007, I stuck to my basic diet. I ate high-fiber cereal for breakfast, lots of good carbs for lunch, and a steak and salad for dinner. I didn’t stuff myself (even at the carb-loading fest at Tavern on the Green the night before when everyone around me was loading up on pasta and beer), and when I completed the run—on the first day of my period, I should add—I felt fit and strong rather than depleted.

Sometimes when you think you are hungry, you really just need a little energy boost and a sweet drink will do the trick. Next time you think you’re hungry, try a lemonade and a diversion.

That said, however, everyone, including me, has some days when their energy is not as high as they would like or need it to be in order to get everything done. I don’t have a life that allows me to crash and burn, so here are a few of the energy boosters I reach for when I’m having one of those days:

JELLY BEANS: Find really good ones that are so bursting with great flavor that you really can’t eat more than a few. They’re tiny, they satisfy my sweet tooth, and they give me that burst of energy I need to keep on going. At that point, I’m frankly not concerned with sugar turning to fat. I just know what I need.

GOJI BERRIES: They have many different nutrients and antioxidants to help boost my immune system and keep me looking and feeling HOT.

Dehydrated fruit of any kind

Frozen grapes

Tomato, pineapple, cantaloupe, or watermelon with a dash of salt