Beth Aldrich's Real Moms' Strategy: Love Food & Lose Weight!

STUDIO CITY (CBS) — If your plan to lose weight in the New Year is falling short, National Healthy Lifestyle and Nutrition Expert Beth Aldrich has tips to get your diet plan on track.

She stopped by KCAL9 Saturday to spill secrets from her new book, "Real Moms Love to Eat, How to Conduct a Love Affair with Food, Lose Weight, and Feel Fabulous."

About Beth:

Hi! I'm Beth Aldrich and I am a real mom (and a Certified Healthy Lifestyle-Green Living Expert) who loves to eat. Like you, I've always been busy taking care of my family, but I also always wondered, in the back of my mind: "What is my passion? What is my life about? What am I going to be when I grow up?"

The answer came, as many answers often do, in the wake of a tragedy. While in a taxi, I was in a serious car accident that damaged my face. My lips as well as my hopes were shattered. I had been involved in producing and hosting a PBS TV series and publishing a magazine, and my face was one of my important assets. How could I go on TV now? That was when I began to think about what really mattered to me in life. What did I care about? What did I love? I knew I loved my husband and my kids and they were my world, but what else was I here to do? I was so used to getting through the day, checking off my vast to-do list and being a good mom, that I hadn't spent time in years thinking about the big picture. What did I see for myself, working so hard for so long? Money? Success? Fame? Power? No, suddenly, all that seemed meaningless.

I began to think about the smaller things in life—the little pleasures, the momentary joys that build on each other to create happiness. What did it all mean without that happiness, and what could I do to make that happiness easier to grasp?

Suddenly, I realized that it was a two-part equation: health and pleasure. Not just my heath, but the health of my husband and my children, my friends, all the moms in the world…the planet itself! Not just my pleasure, but my family's pleasure, teaching my kids that life should be fun and good and happy, enjoying my friends and food and a beautiful day and all the beauty the world has to offer. Health and pleasure; what else really matters? Isn't life a waste without those two things?

I couldn't stop thinking about my hospital bed epiphany and when I got home, I just happened to see an on-line advertisement for the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City. I had an inkling-call it female intuition, that this was the place for me. I could learn all about health, food, and I hoped, happiness. I liked the idea of integrative nutrition—to me, that implied that nutrition could transform life itself. They say that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. I signed up immediately and vowed to my husband that I would discontinue (temporarily, I hoped) the PBS series and the magazine, leaving more time for family. I was off…and my new life began.

Once a month, I packed my bags and shuffled off to the Big Apple to study holistic nutrition and health counseling and train with the likes of the school founder, Joshua Rosenthal, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr Andrew Weil, Dr Barry Sears, Dr. Walter Willet, Dr. Marion Nestle, Geneen Roth, Deepak Chopra, and many other brilliant people committed to natural health, whole food, and the pursuit of a fulfilling life. The more I learned, the more I began to see changes in myself. I got stronger, more energetic, more radiant, calmer, more aware of the influence of everything I did, more sensitive to the effects of food, exercise, and stress on my body…and I lost the extra pounds I'd been carrying around after my accident and I became a Certified Health Counselor through Columbia University and The Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

The best part of my journey was that I was able to enjoy all these amazing changes in myself without giving up food. I've always been a food lover. Bacon, chocolate, filet mignon, pancakes, pie…whatever it was, if it tasted good, I was all about it. I've always been petite but my weight has fluctuated over the years. Suddenly, I found myself slender and strong and still eating what I wanted to eat! That's when I realized I was really on to something.

So that's my story, but the Real Moms Love to Eat website (and upcoming book, New American Library-Penguin Books imprint, 2011) is about your story-your food. Real moms need to take good care of themselves if they want to take good care of their families, without sacrificing the joys of life. I created this website for one reason and one reason only: To encourage moms like you to focus on their health and happiness, both equally important. Only then can you cultivate health and happiness in your children and everyone else you love–Plus it's a great way to share awesome food ideas, recipe and tips.

So join me as you discover the key components of the Real Moms Love to Eat Plan, through the newsletter and pages of this website: step by step, delicious bite by delicious bite, you're about to get slimmer, sexier, stronger, more energetic, and better at everything you need to do each day. It all starts with the food on your plate…and ends with a better life.

To learn more about Beth Aldrich, click here.