Recently I was reading about the actress Natalie Portman in the news and became curious about how she kept such a trim and attractive figure.  I thought you might be interested as well, so I did a little research.

I always have two central questions in this area.  They are 1) what is her diet and 2) what is her exercise regimen.

It turns out that Natalie is on a vegetarian diet.  She started gradually y eliminating meat from her diet and then gradual ally eliminating fish, cheese and milk.  Note there are varying degrees of Veganism and her diet approaches a Vegan diet which is eating only plant based foods.

So, to stay on this diet, she can eat organic vegetables, fruits, nuts, soy products, legumes, vegan soups, lentils or raw foods.  Also recommended is to seek out interesting restaurants or cookbooks to prevent boredom on this limited diet.

Natalie also combines this diet with portion control, another form of diet we wrote about in Crystal Harris vs. The Twinkie Diet in a past post.

So what are the advantages of her diet?  Well, for starters, there’s no arguing with her results.  And certainly, she eats plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, which is always a good thing.  She doesn’t have to worry about accumulating antibiotics and hormones that seem to be put in many farmed animals and eventually end up in our bodies.  And she gets a mental satisfaction from knowing that no possible cruelty to animals was involved into her food source.

There can be disadvantages to the Vegan diet.  The most obvious is the limited food choices it imposes.  Ad vegans have to plan their meals carefully to assure they get all the vitamins and minerals required for good health.  Some nutrients vegans need to be careful to get adequate amounts of are Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B-12, calcium and iron, among others.  But this can be done through adequate meal planning and is not a given just because meat has been eliminated from the diet.

Natalie’s exercise ideas are similar to those I favor in that she works them in to her daily regimen.  You can exercise like Natalie by simply increasing the activities in your daily life.  Much of her exercise seems to be walking, one that I consider to be the ultimate, easy to do exercise.  You can walk on your work breaks, do errands on foot where possible, park further for the store to walk more, take the stairs when possible, and if the weather is bad, use a treadmill.

Natalie also does Yoga, something I have been interested in for some time.

So there are the highlights of how Natalie keeps so fit and trim.  She stays active and walks for exercise.  She is primarily on a vegan diet, with some use of a portion control diet, and no mention of a low carb diet.

Like all diet and exercise programs, you don’t have to do everything all at once.  Just pick a couple of the ideas you think you can do and try them.  If that works, pick a couple more.

Diet is a personal thing for all of us and over time you will be able to custom tailor the one that works for you.

Good luck and have a nice day – J. Daniel