A little with quiet is the only diet.
— Scottish proverb
Luigi Cornaro, a fifteenth-century nobleman from Venice, Italy, is famed in the study of wellness because of a vow he made.
After living a youth filled with overindulgence of every kind, Cornaro resolved that he would mend his ways, pursue moderation in all things, and try to survive until he reached the age of at least one hundred.
His success was outstanding. The average life expectancy of fifteenth-century Italians was about thirty-five years. Luigi lived to be 103! Moreover, he remained active, clear thinking, and creative, recording his life experiences in detail right to the end.
The cornerstone of Luigi Cornaro’s success? A spare diet of fruits and vegetables. Cornaro lived on the equivalent of about fifteen hundred calories per day from the age of thirty-seven onward. This honored the ancient Greek and Roman belief in a frugal diet as the secret of longevity.
One fifteenth-century experience does not make for scientific proof or twenty-first-century health policy. But frugal eating is the one activity that has caught the attention of virtually every person who has seriously tried to pursue the wellness journey.
As soon as we mention the word diet, two predictable objections always arise. The first has to do with lack of willpower: “I’ve tried a hundred diets and can’t stay on one of them.” The mental programming is that we’ll fail on any future attempt.
The second predictable objection is taste: “I just love a meal of beef roast and apple dumplings! I’m never going to settle for some tasteless diet, no matter how good it is for me.”
Listen carefully: our past behavior does not automatically predict our future behavior. We’re not talking about sticking to some rigid diet. We’re suggesting a whole new way of life, a new outlook, a changed way of viewing ourselves. And taste? There’s absolutely no reason that nutritious can’t be delicious.
The core message of the Law of Nutritional Frugality is simple: eat a variety of unprocessed foods, in moderate amounts, during at least three meals, including breakfast, combined with a smart afternoon snack, while drinking eight glasses of pure water and taking a broad-spectrum vitamin-and-mineral supplement each day.
That’s not difficult. It takes no monumental willpower. Every bite can be delicious. The biggest change is in our thinking. If we change our thinking about eating, we’ll change our life. Just a few of the rewards of following the Law of Nutritional Frugality include:
I first met Shari, a nurse, at one of my workshops sponsored by a hospital in Atlanta. For Shari, the battle of the bulge had become a war that never ended. She was thirty-two years old and was almost sixty-five pounds over her ideal weight. Although she had tried every fad diet, her weight had risen steadily since her teen years. Each time she’d diet, Shari would take off fifteen to twenty pounds, and then gain it back, and more, over the next six months.
I suggested that Shari start her wellness program with an affirmation. (This brought into the equation the non-negotiable Law of Mindfulness, which I’ll discuss in a later chapter.) She chose the phrase “I am vibrant, happy, and fully alive.” I also suggested she start to eat breakfast each day and view any hunger pains as signs of progress.
This approach struck a positive chord with Shari. The affirmation helped lift her depression and reminded her of all the great things she had in her life. She had been skipping breakfast as a calorie-saving strategy, and she found that a small meal at the start of the day sharply reduced her craving for sugary afternoon snacks.
The results, so far, have been spectacular. After four months, Shari lost sixteen pounds “without dieting.” She was more energetic than she had been in her teen years. At eight months, she was down a total of twenty-nine pounds and found no difficulty in keeping her weight off. She now participates in a regular aerobics class. “The trimmer me is just somehow gradually taking over,” Shari said with a smile.
It’s true. If we change our thinking about eating, we will change our lives. The choice is ours.
Assuming our physician has not prescribed a special diet, the Law of Nutritional Frugality provides us with these specific eat-smart guidelines:
The Law of Nutritional Frugality sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The trick is to actually eat this way and enjoy it. Remember the Law of Esprit. If it can’t be done with joy, we’ve missed wellness.
Enjoying this approach to diet and nutrition is not a problem; it’s a decision. When I was recovering from cancer, I developed a nutritional program very similar to the one I’ve described here. As critical as the quality of the food was, my attitude toward the program was more important. I was determined that I would enjoy this way of eating.
Changing our diet is something we choose to do, not something we are forced to do. Instead of dreading it, try saying, “Here’s another thing I get to do to help myself! Great!”
Diet is a point of power in my life, something under my direct influence and control. Unlike chemo-therapy and radiation, it is something that wasn’t done to me; it is something done by me. Wow! Empowerment! I love it!
The Law of Nutritional Frugality helps us focus on an important reality. Our bodies simply do not need and cannot use the typical American daily diet of three thousand-plus calories and eighty grams of fat. Keep on that program and you’ll find yourself gaining at least two to five pounds per year. Multiply that over ten or twenty years and you’ll understand why you’re twenty pounds heavier than you’d like to be. Keep violating this non-negotiable law, and your quality of health and life will suffer.
With eating, less really does mean more. It’s the Law of Nutritional Frugality.