Dieting
I hadn't needed to watch my weight in ten years because I no longer spent my days at a desk. My weight moved up and down a little with the seasons, but it was always comfortable. Then I signed up for a winter project. After four months, I had put on twenty pound.
A turnaround diet
I was interested in losing weight fast without torturing myself. I came up with a simple diet. It requires very little preparation. On it, I lose a pound a day.There is a shopping list at the bottom of the page.
Morning drink
I prepare a drink with:2 lemons (squeezed),
1 tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar with the "mother" (it will say on the label),
water to take the edge off.
Breakfast
1 apple, chunked.7 walnuts. When I can, I buy the walnuts whole and crack them.
2 dried plums (for transit).
Lunch
1/2 cucumber. The second half serves as a snack later in the afternoon.1/2 avocado. The second half serves as a snack later in the afternoon.
6 small cherry tomatoes (or 4 medium cherry tomatoes).
7 almonds.
1 bulb of fennel, raw, chunked.
1/2 can tuna (roughly 100 grams / 3 ounces)
Snacks
I usually don't need snacks in the morning. If I do, I will shift the carrots from the afternoon snack list. In the afternoon, I take:1 carrot
1 apple (a different variety from the morning apple)
1/2 avocado
1/2 cucumber
Drink
Water, the morning drink, lemon juice and copious amounts of my favorite herbal infusions.I have four lemons a day. Two get used in the morning drink. The third gets used straight after lunch. I squeeze the lemon and add a little water. Somehow this feels like a great chaser for the meal. I have the same drink when I get hungry in the afternoon: lemon juice gets your appetite under control. Don't forget to rinse your teeth as over time acids will eat through the enamel.
I get a bit of caffeine through green tea. If you normally drink coffee or black tea, I wouldn't recommend it on this diet as it is too strong for a dieting body.
Dinner
One pound of a green frozen vegetable such as spinach, broccoli or green beans. This fills up the stomach nicely before bedtime. I thaw the bag of vegies in the afternoon. I cook it in a pan with a little water so it doesn't burn, on a high flame, setting a timer for five or six minutes.Additions and Substitutions
I like the idea of rotating some of the foods, not just to give my tastebuds a break, but also to tap into a broader range of vitamins and minerals.Plums. On days 6, 7 and 8, I didn't have a bowel movement. On day 9, I started to add two organic dried plums to my breakfast. That seemed to help.
Fennel. After a few days of raw fennel at lunch time, I saw that I would get a little bored with it. For the rest of the first week, I substituted "sea lettuce", a beautiful green seaweed from the organic shop. It has to be rinced thoroughly because it is very salty. Chopped, it goes beautifully with the tuna.
Tuna. On week two, I bought a pack of smoked mackerel filets at the organic shop. It lasted two days. Much fatter than the tuna, but a welcome diversion. Also I don't love what they say about tuna (a much larger fish than mackerel) being full of mercury.
Cucumber. On week two, I bought organic cucumber. They say that all the good stuff is in the skin, and I had been peeling the cucumber on week one because of all the pesticides. It seemed less of a waste to pay three times more for a cucumber that I could eat properly than to have to throw all the skin away.
Shopping list
I shop every Monday when the store is empty. This is the first week's list. Some items won't need to be replenished the following weeks. In the place where I lived at the time of this diet, I could afford to buy organic if this is all I bought for the week. In the case of certain ingredients (the lemons, the vinegar), I wouldn't use them at all unless they were organic.One bottle of organic apple cider vinegar with the "mother".
One bag of raw almonds.
28 lemons.
7 "Russet" Apples.
7 Apples of another variety.
A big bag of unshelled walnuts.
One pound cherry tomatoes, to be rationed so they will last the whole week.
7 avocados.
4 cans of tuna.
7 fennel bulbs.
7 cucumbers.
7 carrots.
7 bags of frozen spinach or broccoli (one pound each).
Herbal infusions.
Dried plums (optional).
Warm regards,
Andy
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