We already give you a behind-the-scenes look at the morning and nightly routines of interesting women around the world, and now we’re taking things a step further with our new Food Diary segment. Each week, we’ll be bringing you specific and detailed logs of what our featured guests eat on a daily basis, to hopefully inspire you to try something new.
Liz Moody is the Food Director at Mind Body Green, as well as the author of Glow Pops, a cookbook full of easy recipes to help readers look and feel their best. She also shares her recipes and wellness tips on her Instagram, @lizmoody, in a stunning array of food-centric photos (warning: prepare to crave some seriously incredible-looking food on her feed). Wondering what this impressive health boss eats daily? Scroll to find out.  

Breakfast

What I eat: I always start my day with a huge glass of water. I skip the warm water with lemon thing that the wellness world is so obsessed with because, after looking into it, I found it didn’t really have the science to back it up, and the acid is tough on teeth. Then I have what I believe is the world’s best healthy breakfast: A veggie-packed smoothie. Here’s my argument: In just a few minutes, you can make something that contains more vegetables than most people eat in an entire day. Plus, it can taste like cookie dough. I typically use a huge handful of greens (which you need to rotate, because each kind contains a certain amount of toxins in addition to the good stuff) or cauliflower or zucchini as a base, and enough fat and protein to keep me full through lunch. Today, I made a Cardamom Chocolate Cherry version with a ton of mixed greens from Trader Joe’s, a banana, frozen cherries, Vital Proteins collagen, hulled hemp hearts, avocado, sea salt, and a good shake of cardamom. I never use nut milk in my smoothies—it’s expensive and often contains emulsifiers, and a spoonful of hemp seeds makes, in essence, a hemp milk since you’re blending anyways.
The time I eat it: 9:30 A.M.
Where I get it:  It’s homemade! I try to keep even a stash of greens in the freezer so I’m never caught with my pants down.

Snack

What I eat: I’m going to say something sacrilegious, especially as a food editor—I’ve fully stopped snacking.  I think it’s difficult on our digestion to constantly be eating and never give our systems a break (which is the premise of a lot of the trendier diets, like intermittent fasting).  I used to be such a snacker, but I realized that I was eating, by and large, from boredom, or because I wasn’t consuming enough at meal time. Now, I try to make my meals filling enough to tide me over until the next meal (including a lot of fibrous vegetables, and a good amount of healthy fat—which most people skimp on—and protein), and don’t eat in between.  I’ve found that my digestion is so. much. better. and I rarely get bloated in the way I used to. I do, however sip on herbal tea all day long, so I can still have that action and feeling of eating.
Where I get it: My favorite herbal teas are The Republic of Tea, Pukka, and Traditional Medicinals—The Republic of Tea Saffron Rose tastes like a trip to an exotic land, even if you’re drinking it deskside.

Lunch

What I eat: My husband and I have been doing a “no restaurant” challenge, where we try to cook 100% of our meals, as an effort to save money and eat a little better (since even “healthy” restaurant orders are often high in undesirable ingredients or cooking oils). This is trickiest for lunch, since I cannot get on board with meal prepping (I just want my weekends to be fun time, ya know?), but we’ve found that making big dinners and bringing the leftovers the next day works for us. Today, that was pizza made on a Simple Mills pizza crust. Their crusts are my go-to healthy option: They’re made from super clean ingredients and actually taste good. Topped with a ton of vegetables (my favorite combo right now, and the one I had today, is Brussels sprouts, kale, chopped garlic, grass-fed bacon or coconut bacon, drizzled with a ton of olive oil), it’s basically a salad–right?
The time I eat it: 2 P.M.
Where I get it: I used a Simple Mills crust and a ton of Trader Joe’s vegetables—you pre-bake the crust, add the toppings raw, and cook until they’re done about 10 minutes.

Snack

What I eat: In the afternoon, I do a mushroom tonic usually, since my energy is flagging. I like to mix Reishi and Lion’s Mane for a calming focus. The science behind mushrooms is incredible—I think they’re one of the most underutilized healing foods around. The mushrooms come in powdered form, and, if I’m feeling fancy, I’ll blend it up with some hemp seeds (see note about milk, above), hot water, and cinnamon for a latte-type drink. If I’m not feeling fancy, I just add hot water, mix it up, and drink. They have a really earthy, grounding flavor that I love.
The time I eat it: 3 P.M.
Where I get it: I typically go for Four Sigmatic mushrooms—I think they’re on top of their quality control, and they don’t contain sugars or fake sweeteners, which I try to avoid.

Dinner

What I eat: I’ve been craving cold corn chowder for days, and I finally got home early enough to whip one up.  I had a whole vision in my head: I’d sub cauliflower for potatoes to make a creamy, dairy-free, detoxifying base (cauliflower is so good for cleaning you out, if ya know what I mean), and then have a whole toasted corn and pepper mixture for that crunch on top.  And basil—lots of fresh basil. Lo and behold, it worked out perfectly—it was bright and zesty and filled with pops of corn and tons of vegetables. Best of all, super easy to make.  Plus, it was accidentally vegan—while I don’t adhere to any diet beyond “whole foodist” (the state of the food, not the store), I like eating slightly lighter in the evening, so my body can focus on things beyond digestion while I sleep.
The time I eat it: Later than I wanted.  Every day, I’m like, “this will be the day I begin intermittent fasting!”  I have so many friends who have gotten great results by eating all of their meals between 10 am and 6 pm (so they’re fasting for 16 hours a day), but honestly, I have no idea how they do it.  The idea of prepping two meals to take to work seems insane, and by the time I pick up groceries and get home after work, it’s at least 7, meaning dinner won’t be on the table till 8—and that’s if I don’t go to an event or do yoga.  Tonight, I ate at 9:30.
How I make it: The recipe is super easy (the full thing is here) but you basically sauté up some onion, add frozen cauliflower and corn, coconut milk, veggie stock, and blend the whole thing.  Then you top it with flash-charred green onions, peppers, and more corn, plus heaps of fresh basil. You can eat it hot or cold and it’s so summery and good.

Snack

What I eat: I’ve been obsessed with CBD chocolate recently. CBD is the non-psychoactive component of the hemp or marijuana plants, and it’s really done wonders for my anxiety. I’ll eat a small amount, just enough to satiate my insatiable sweet tooth, and to help me destress at the end of a long day.
The time I eat it: 10 P.M.
Where I get it: I made my own using CW Hemp’s full spectrum hemp extract (which is legal in all 50 states), some raw cacao, maple syrup, and cacao butter as a base, plus some rose water, cardamom, and flaky sea salt, because yum.  I made a big batch and store it in the freezer.

Workout

Workout I did: I try to get 10,000 steps as a baseline every day, and then I try to workout a few times a week on top of that. Honestly, I’m terrible about working out—I’d much rather eat cookies—but I do feel like moving my body has a massive effect on my mood.  Recently, though, I’ve been doing Bethany Meyers’s be.come project workouts.  They’re 25 minutes long, and they blend yoga, pilates, and dance into this incredibly effective full body workout.  It’s not boring, and it makes me so sore—it really feels like the most effective possible use of time.
The time I do it: 8:30 AM—before smoothie and after water.  I go to so many events in the evenings for work that it’s really nice to get my workout checked off before I even head into the office.

Overall thoughts

Honestly, I struggle with anxiety off and on and I have for years, but I feel pretty good today. I’m really proud of how my soup turned out!

What are other wellness activities or habits that make you feel like your best self?

I’ve been meditating for 20 minutes every day for about 4 years. I started when I was having a huge bout of anxiety (I’m talking agoraphobia, not leaving the house for weeks, panic attacks daily, the whole nine) and it was hugely useful to me then, and continues to be an indispensable resource in my life. I like it because I feel different immediately—I feel more rattled and less grounded on days I don’t do it, and that’s important because it’s so hard getting motivated for something that has intangible future benefits.
I also filter most of my water, which has made me feel so much better (the things that make the biggest difference in wellness are the ones you do A LOT versus a few times a month or year, so drinking water is way up there). The chlorine in our water is terrible for gut bacteria, and if you’ve noticed from the 8,000 news articles, gut bacteria are very important for skin health, immunity, mental health, and basically everything else. Gut bacteria are the shit.  Literally.
I also use nontoxic skincare and makeup, Waterpik daily, foam roll, and do eight million other wellness-y things—including indulging in regular Aperol Spritzes during the summer (gotta take care of the soul too).