The Diet

I usually post a recipe on Wednesdays, but this week's recipe, a chicken tagine, did not turn out very well. It's edible, but in spite of all the spices in it, bland. So I'm not going to bother you with it.

Life is too short for boring recipes.

So instead, let me tell you about the diet I'm following. As I posted in To Do List for 2013, I intend to lose 100 pounds this year. I'm not following a name brand diet. No Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, NutriSystem, Atkins, South Beach, etc. - I've tried all of them anyway. Mine is adapted from the many (many) diets I have been on in the past 20 years. It mostly comes down to the regulation of sugar and fat.

Every day I eat:

• 2 servings of protein
• 4 servings of vegetables
• 2 servings of fruit (whole fruit - no juice)
• 1 serving starch
• 1 serving of fat
• 1 serving of dairy
• 1 protein-based snack (usually Atkins bars, but peanuts also work)

 And, of course, lots of water.

I don't count calories. I do measure amounts and I have a cheat sheet listing how much a serving is in my kitchen.  Sometimes I go a little over in the fat/dairy categories (I have been known to count cheese as my protein serving) but in general I stick to the diet.

I suppose a more disciplined person would have stopped recipe testing, but to me the recipes are important. I want eating healthfully to be a normal part of my daily life, and I have no intention of eating rice cakes for the next 40-50 years.  If I tried to do this eating only skinless chicken breasts and undressed salads, I'd quit out of boredom.

I miss wine, and cookies. Oh do I miss cookies. But on the bright side, this morning the scale said 272.2, which means I have lost a total of 9.4 pounds! Only 90.6 to go.