First– Clean out the cupboards!
Out go the cookies! Right behind them the crackers, chips, snack nuts, potatoes, pasta and bread! For forty days this blog will eat only appropriate portions of protein, loads of vegetables, small quantities of whole grains and of things made of whole grains. The wine goes into the darkest, undisturbed corner of the cellar.
Spices, herbs and vinegars will suffice. Live culture dairy products are required. Daily. At least two liters of non-caloric liquid everyday, most of that water. A minimum of thirty minutes of movement each day is the law.
GO diet, South Beach, whatever you call it, everything here will represent the tastiest versions of low carbohydrate, lowered fat and fiber-filled goodness. There will be NO FAKE FOODS.
The first week you will eat too much. The second week you have to control yourself, but it will be easier. Bu the third week or so you will start to taste the sugar in a cucumber, because your holiday-sweet load will be wiped away.
Feel free to offer any meals, dishes or ideas that you have, because some of us will feel desperate sometimes. The small backlog of dishes that don’t fit this description will appear after Easter.
Why Lent? It isn’t a religious thing, it’s really that it follows a period of excess and is a time when traditionally people do give things up, and perhaps most importantly, there is a defined end. When the diet is in full swing, I can’t eat out anywhere, and can only cook for those able to eat happily without pasta, bread and wine. My acquaintance shrinks for a while. At the end I will slowly, slowly add back some carbohydrates and certainly wine. Forgive me if I do not completely return to current mode, but I figure it is going to take me more than forty days.
My goal is seven kilos or fifteen pounds, but since I do not weigh, I really will expect my nice pants to fit well and look good.
Mmmmh, well, I will accompany you on some levels and certainly share with you my attempts! But I still plan on doing the sloppy pizza dough… forgive me.
Maybe you aren’t all creeping-out-of-the-winter-cave-hibernation fat! No matter, you can still decide if any of the recipes and ideas work in your normal and rather healthy lifestyle.
I thought lent started on the 21st of Feb this year? Or is this something different?
I’m going to try to go along with you on this, Judith. Of late, since I only cook for myself, I’ve allowed myself to get into some VERY sloppy nutritional habits, like dinner is a saute’d (at least it’s in olive oil, lol!) filet of chicken breast between two slices of toast in front of the computer… baaaad me!
It does, but we are getting ready and honestly, I don’t want to wait! I would have started a week ago if it hadn’t been for last night’s supper party.
Tomorrow we tackle more planning measures, the next day grocery shopping, etc. etc., and then there’ll be no excuse for //!!! fried chicken sandwiches?
Ohhh dear, how far we must go!
Anyway, there is no chocolate anything in this house today. Tomorrow I go to the street market and the supermarket.
So today one could have an apple, if they hadn’t all been turned into Apple Crisp yesterday for last night’s supper.
Lynne, really, we all indulge or over indulge sometimes, and that’s fine, but I have lived alone since 1980 and if I ate like that all the time and thought I was too much trouble to cook for, I think I would be dead. Right?
Speaking of eating well, Canada just put out its newest Food Guide. Last update was 1992. This time, they’ve included a variety of ethnic foods (hummus and bokchoi anyone?), and reduced portions of meat. … annnnd they snuck in a remark about lmiting all manners of processed foods and drinks if one wishes to lose weight.
I think they could have been gutsier about it, but then the food lobbies might have screeched. Still, are named: Cakes and pastries; Cookies and granola bars; Ice cream and frozen desserts; Chocolate and candies; Doughnuts and muffins; French fries; Nachos; Potato chips; Alcohol; Fruit flavoured drinks; Soft drinks; Sports and energy drinks; and Sweetened hot or cold drinks. AND they suggest alternatives.
You could order one, but I wonder if they deliver outside Canada. Mine will be making its way to me soon. Hey, my tax dollars paid for this thing, I want my own copy!
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment
That is wonderful news. They might even have been bold enough to say limiting those things was a good idea permanently!
The biggest food lobby is us, ordinary people who buy and consume food. Stand up and yell about what they are selling our kids! If we would just realize that we’d be healthier. And richer, because they don’t do all that processing for nothing.
It must take a little while to clear away all this fattening stuff, but I did my first dietetically minded shopping yesterday so I will be posting about that shortly.