The Body Book by Cameron Diaz



I've always liked Cameron as a person because of her happy personality and through her writing in this book you can feel that cool down to earth persona as she gives you a pep talk on taking better care of your body. Make no mistake, this is not a diet book, it's a manual to encourage women to love their bodies since happiness comes from within. She wrote this book so that you will connect your mind with your body. Which is what I talked about in this post. Because as she says being healthy is not a gift, it's a habit. She asks that you trust yourself that you are worth the effort and to believe in yourself. She says that at the core of every successful person there is one common thing: discipline. Any person who is successful in any business is because they work their assess off for it. Discipline isn't about denying yourself, it's about giving to yourself. If you've read a zillion books in nutrition, know that having the knowledge and taking the action are two different things.



Cameron starts off her book trying to dispel the "I've had it easy because I'm naturally skinny" thought we all had. lol She explains as a kid she was made fun of for being too skinny and even today is jealous of women who have curves. She's a former smoker who had a daily taco bell and soda addiction which resulted in bad acne that she could never get rid of until she changed her diet. She discovered that once she changed how she ate, it also changed how she felt. She only started working out on the set of Charlie's Angels where she also met her lifelong friend Drew Barrymore.

She advocates against artificial sweeteners because of the chemicals it doesn't allow you to enjoy the taste of food, so fruit is no longer sweet enough for you. She encourages you to read food labels to make sure there's no added sugar in your ketchup, peanut butter, salad dressing, oatmeal, cereal bars, spaghetti sauce, and yogurt. When you eat foods that include a lot of added sugars, those sugars bypass your "I'm full" signal and keep your brain asking for more. She recommends buying plain yogurt and adding your own fresh fruit instead of buying fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt. Likewise make your own salad dressing.  She loves beans and lentils and says she keeps every color in her house. She suggests you increase you consumption of omega-3 fatty acids - walnuts, avocado and fish and touts the benefits of eggs. In short she sells you have to quit sugar.  She drinks water first thing in the morning to rehydrate her body!


She is carb conscious and only consumes brown rice pasta, couscous, and quinoa pasta. She advocates for brown rice over white rice because brown rice has the fiber and more nutrition, and quinoa and couscous because you'll get energy in a slow, steady way.  I've decide to give this a try. I ran out of rice and pasta awhile ago and thought I wouldn't refill my pantry until I use up all the quinoa/couscous/wild rice I had.  Before you say this is all too expensive for you to try, remember that the cost of chronic illnesses caused by bad nutrition and lack of exercise is much steeper than healthy groceries.

Cameron loves to cook for her friends and hosted a huge Cuban themed dinner party at her house last Christmas. I was surprised to learn that like me she shops, preps and cooks all her for the week on Sundays. She brings her own food on airplanes and to movie sets where she works 12 hours days. She says that planning helps you use your discipline and create new habits, and it ensures that you'll have time to work out. After your meal: consider how the food you ate made you feel. is it a feeling you want to have again. It is a food you want to eat again.  Use your discipline to make consistent choices.

I loved what she had to say about vegetarians:
"I definitely advise befriending a vegetarian. Seriously, some vegetarians have developed a real knock for turning garden-fresh produce into delectable, satisfying, full kind of meals. I find that my vegetarian friends often introduce me to new varieties of veggies and show me amazing ways to cook and prepare them."

Her book has the name of her co-writer on the cover. Reminded me of the Real Housewives of NYC drama over admitting to having a ghost writer. lol Her Body Book is also featured in the May issue of Dr. Oz's magazine. Plus she's on the cover of the May issue of InStyle Magazine! She's now filming my favorite childhood movie - Annie!

For a 40 year old who has had long term relationships with a bunch of men in Hollywood including Matt Dillon, Jared Leto, Justin Timberlake, baseball player Alex Rodriguez, and currently Good Charlotte's Benji Madden, I loved this quote by her:

"I also, by the way, have a lot of girl friends who don’t have children. It’s not like I'm the spinster who didn't have a child. I just didn't do that in life, and I'm OK with that. I know the choices I made. I know why I made them. I’m very much a person who lives in the moment. When you come from where I do, there are so many ways my life could have gone."

If you need some good movies to watch, these are my favorite of Cameron's - What to Expect When You're Expecting, In her Shoes, The Sweetest Thing, My Best Friend's Wedding (with Julia Roberts where she sings karaoke with the worst voice), Charlie's Angels, There's Something About Mary, and she was the voice of Fiona on Shrek. Last year I watched The Counselor which was a very different role for her, she was a bad ass drug dealer with cheetah print tattoos. In theaters right now check out The Other Woman which is half fun chick flick half cheesy. Nicki Minaj has a different hair color in every scene! lol

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