If you don’t know who Emilia Clarke is, I’m going to assume you’ve been living under a rock for the past six years. Or perhaps you just know her as Khaleesi or “Mother of Dragons.” You may also know her as Sarah Conner from Terminator Genisys or Lou Clark from Me Before You. But she’s another thing: Esquire‘s Sexiest Woman Alive of 2015.
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So how does the Sexiest Woman Alive get her amazing body? Literally, just like anyone else. The answer is moderation. Clarke is one a long list of celebrities, including Rose Huntington-Whiteley and Elle MacPherson, who follow the Clean and Lean Diet. The diet’s creator, James Duigan, believes that the way to a healthy body is not by being restrictive but instead by focusing on the right foods. That doesn’t mean that you have to cut out the bad stuff entirely. But the more you focus on the right foods, the less you’ll feel the sugar cravings.
Ordering to the exact rules of clean eating, you have to eat foods closest to their natural state. So if you pick something up and see a bunch of ingredients you can’t pronounce, it’s pretty safe to say that food is not a part of clean eating.
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Every meal should include protein, fat, and vegetables. Alcohol, bad carbs like pasta, sugar, and caffeine are all out. It’s all about ridding your body of toxins.
But if you want a glass of wine when you’re out with your friends Friday night or you could just really go for a small piece of chocolate cake? Duigan says go for it. It’s not about depriving yourself. It’s about teaching your body to stop using this food as a crutch. Chocolate cake isn’t really a treat if you have a slice every night, after all. And your body doesn’t need the cake is much as it’s trying to convince you it does.
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To be fair, this is the way to eat like the Khaleesi. If you want to eat like Sarah Conner, you’re in for a rougher time. While training for her role in Terminator Genisys, Clarke spent nearly all her time in weapons training, kickboxing, and weightlifting. With such an increased workout regime, her body would have needed more calories to sustain herself. Instead, Clarke went in the other direction and deprived herself a lot more than she would on her usual Clean and Lean diet. She claimed that she basically couldn’t eat anything that tastes good. She was not allowed to eat any sugar at all.
But we don’t all have to be butt-kicking Sarah Conner and we all don’t have to go through weapons training in our day to day lives. The safer (and happier) diet of choice to eat like a Khaleesi and not a Sarah Conner.
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