Love Week: Eat Your Way to Beauty & Still Lose Weight

November, December, and January are filled with food-laden holiday feasts and high-calorie festive beverages. It’s no wonder every year we make the same New Year’s resolutions—“lose weight,” “eat better,” “get in shape.” Instead of waiting to make, and then probably ignore, those New Year’s resolutions, keep your looks—and your mood—their best with some easy nutrition tricks. And if you hit the New Year promising to drop some unwanted pounds, put my top 10 diet tips into practice now and keep that resolution all year long. Whether you’re prepping for love, have found it already, or just want to be the best you possible, you’ll look and feel ready to ring in the New Year.

Eating to Boost Your Mood
Serotonin improves your mood and feelings of satiety from eating.
Eat foods rich in Omega-3s, tryptophan, and antioxidants to increase serotonin.
• Omega-3 fatty acids: salmon, flax seeds, walnuts
• Tryptophan: red meat, dairy products, nuts, and turkey
• Antioxidants: fruits and vegetables

Selenium can help prevent bad moods.
Too little selenium can leave you more anxious, irritable, hostile, and depressed than people with normal levels of selenium. Pistachios, salmon, and shitake mushrooms can quickly get you out of this funk.

How to Grow Strong Nails by Eating Healthy
• Calcium helps get rid of dry brittle nails that break easily.
Calcium-rich foods: yogurt, cottage cheese, eggs, broccoli, and kale
• Keratin, the protein that makes up your nails, keeps them strong and moisturized.
Keratin-rich foods: white meat, cheese, strawberries, nuts
• Zinc eliminates and prevents white spots on your nails.
Zinc-rich foods: red meat, poultry, legumes, nuts

Incorporate Healthy Skin Vitamins into Your Diet
• Vitamin B plays a huge part in protecting the skin, including helping to treat acne, and different types of vitamin B work in different ways. It helps to rid the body of toxins through antioxidant properties (thiamine); is essential for skin, hair, and nails (riboflavin); exfoliates the skin and helps with moisture retention (niacin); and treats sensitive skin (pantothenic acid).
• Vitamin C is not just good for warding off colds. Our bodies use vitamin C to produce sebum, an oily substance secreted by hair follicles that acts as a natural hair conditioner. Vitamin C helps skin, too—think fewer wrinkles and less skin dryness—along with reducing inflammation and puffiness under eyes. Strawberries have more vitamin C per serving than oranges or grapefruit.
• Omega-3 fatty acids are good for your heart and your mood, and also great for your skin. They help to maintain the natural oil that keeps your scalp and hair from drying out, and the moisture in your skin that gives it a healthy, youthful look. Good sources include fatty fish, such as salmon, tuna, and halibut, and certain nuts and seeds, such as walnuts and flaxseeds. Eat fish at least twice a week and boost your intake by sprinkling ground flaxseed into yogurt or using a little canola oil while cooking.
• Magnesium aids in the body’s absorption of calcium, helps to regulate blood pressure, and is essential to your body’s ability to make the collagen that keeps your skin elastic and youthful.
• Silica improves the condition of hair and nails, improves the texture and resilience of skin, and is needed to make strong, healthy bones and to keep your blood vessels elastic.

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Tanya Zuckerbrot, Health & Fitness Contributing Editor
Tanya Zuckerbrot is a Manhattan-based registered dietitian and the creator of the F-Factor Diet, an innovative nutritional program she founded in 1999. The F-Factor Diet: Discover the Secret to Permanent Weight Loss (Putnum, 2006) debuted in hardcover in January 2007. This common-sense plan, used successfully by hundreds of Tanya’s clients, provides tools for improved health . . . Read more of Tanya’s tips

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In Monday’s Final Love Week Email . . .
What is Love Week? Really, it’s 6 weekday emails, but Love Week just sounds catchier! Don’t miss our living contributing editor Eve Robinson’s stylish home décor picks to feather your nest. And if you missed the other Love Week emails, read Matchmaker Marni Galison’s Dating Do’s & Don’ts: How to Land Your Love Match, celebrity stylist Stacey Mayesh’s Love Week: What to Wear on a Date, celebrity makeup artist Sue Devitt’s Love Week Makeover: Ring in the New Year Radiantly, and wine expert Anu Karwa’s Love Week: How to Order Wine Like a Sommelier.