Good morning! We hope you’re feeling good and full of optimism. You’re also probably feeling slightly strange. This is absolutely normal. Work with it. Stick at it. It will pass. Not only are you losing weight, but you’re also detoxing. Your body needs to catch up with itself, and when it does, it’s going to be very, very happy, and reward you with some serious and dramatic shrinkage.
Before we start today, we’d like you to congratulate yourself on having made it through yesterday. The beginning of the diet is the hardest part, and you’re on the way.
Like yesterday, and like every day in the future, yea, even until the end of time, start by taking your supplements and drinking a big glass of water, or two if you can manage it. You’re allowed a slice of lemon or lime in there, if you like, for a bit of added zing.x
Breakfast
Eventually, you’re going to re-educate your taste buds so that certain foods that you don’t traditionally think of as “breakfasty” become part of your eating regime. For the moment, though, let’s stick to the more traditional options. You’re welcome to have bacon and eggs again, but let’s say today you fancy sausages. Fry or grill them using butter or peanut oil. Remember, if the former, to add a dot of oil to the butter to stop it from burning – this is always necessary when frying in butter, unless you deliberately want the nutty taste of “burnt” butter. Accessorize with half a grilled tomato. Chuck in an egg if you fancy it, and/or a handful of mushrooms. If you have any mashed cauliflower left over from yesterday, fry it up into cakes.
Eat sitting down, and with cutlery. Drink some water – before or after the meal, ideally, so that everything isn’t sloshing about in your stomach like soup.
Do whatever you do in the morning (in our case, resist the fairly overwhelming urge to go back to bed, and try to get on with work instead). Mid-morning, if that’s convenient, go for a little walk. Yesterday’s was ten minutes. It would be good if today’s was fifteen, if that’s manageable. If not, then ten is fine. Remember: you want to be slightly out of breath, but not huffing and puffing.
Lunch
ROAST BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP WITH PARMESAN AND BACON
Piece of cake, this (well, not quite cake), and delicious.
one butternut squash
olive oil
vegetable or chicken stock
parmesan cheese, grated
crispy bacon
Cut the butternut squash in two lengthways. Brush it with olive oil and stick it on a baking sheet in the oven, heated to 375°F, for an hour or so, depending on its size – it’s ready when soft. Scoop out the flesh and whiz it in a blender. Put the squash in a pan with enough vegetable or chicken stock to achieve a consistency that’s pleasing to you. Gently heat through for twenty minutes or so. Serve with one big heaping tablespoon of parmesan per bowl, and some crispy, crumbled bacon. Feel free to have seconds.
If you want to gild the lily, you could add some rosemary leaves to the roasting squash, and/or drizzle the finished product with a little truffle oil.
If you’re still hungry, have a side salad – not a gigantic, main-course size one, but a couple of handfuls of leaves, dressed however you like (except, of course, any sugary dressing). Good olive oil and lemon juice make a lovely, crisp dressing which is quite nice after the richness of the soup. Have a piece of cheese if you’re still hungry.
This is all very lovely, but I work in an office. What do I eat?
You bring a packed lunch, or go out to your local sandwich bar. A packed lunch isn’t terribly glamorous, granted, but at least you know exactly what’s in it, which in the circumstances is extremely helpful. The problem with ready-made stuff is that so much of it contains hidden carbs, and also often hidden sugars. Most of the recipes in this book can be slung into some Tupperware and reheated, if your office has a microwave.
Failing that, though, what you’re after – apart from lunch on expenses, because as you’ll already be able to see, this diet is extremely restaurant-friendly – is an old-fashioned sandwich shop, of the kind that has sandwich fillings laid out in boxes behind a glass counter. If you should be lucky enough to be within striking distance of such a gem, cherish it and make friends with the staff. Have a look, and then choose from any of the following breadless options. Have generous dollops of any of the following:
• shrimp salad
• egg salad
• tuna salad (there’s a bit of a theme developing here)
• crispy bacon
• sliced tomato
• sliced cucumber
• sliced avocado
• sliced olives
• smoked salmon
• cream cheese
• any other kind of cheese – mozzarella is nice with tomato and avocado
• roast beef (and you can have horseradish with it)3
• roast pork, lamb, etc.
• ham
• any fish
• salamis and other cold meats
• sausages
• pâté
• taramasalata, if it’s not bulked out with bread (ask)
Ask for any of these ingredients in salad form, i.e., with lettuce and dressing (check for sugar), or have the salad on the side and use the lettuce to make wraps. It’s not necessarily wildly exciting, but then neither is it significantly more boring than the usual lunchtime sandwich, frankly.
Get on with your afternoon, and remember – if you’re hungry, eat. Have some nuts in your bag, like a squirrel. And please remember to keep drinking your water, along with any decaf tea/coffee you might fancy.
Supper
ROAST COD WITH HERBS AND TOMATOES; SIDE SALAD
1 6-ounce cod fillet per person – two if you’re starving
good olive oil
half a tomato per person, sliced
generous handful of any fresh herb, or mixture of fresh herbs, if you like – try thyme and rosemary
Brush each cod fillet – and it doesn’t have to be cod, it could be any other robust and fresh-looking fish – with olive oil. Cover with sliced tomato. Crush the herbs a little so they release their fragrance, and stick them on top of the cod. Wrap the whole thing up neatly – or messily, if you must – in tin foil. Roast at 375°F, for fifteen minutes. Serve. Don’t forget to pour the herby olive oil that’s puddled at the bottom of the foil onto the fish. Serve with a salad – it’s nice with arugula and parmesan.
You’ll notice we’re low on desserts. That is because one of us (India) disapproves of artificial sweeteners, especially at this stage of the diet, when you’re weaning yourself off sugar. But don’t worry – we’ll go into your dessert options in a few days, though they are limited.
Drink your water.
Useful Tip
Make herb butters to melt onto meat or fish. Let unsalted butter soften at room temperature and add chopped fresh herbs; shape into a roll using plastic wrap; refrigerate. Then cut off a slice or two to melt onto your steak (or whatever). You can make garlic butter this way too, and blue cheese and walnut, which is especially nice with beef.
Thought for the Day
If I can repeat failure, I can repeat success.
How We Felt on Day Two
India:I still feel gung-ho. I also feel odd in a way that’s hard to describe: I’m perfectly fine, and functioning normally, but I feel a bit speedy and there’s a weird (not bad, just weird) taste in my mouth. I keep brushing my teeth. All of this so far is fine, except that earlier I really wanted a Starbucks vanilla latte, for some peculiar reason – I normally have them about twice a month. Milk aside, I don’t think sugary syrup is really an option. Bummer. Never mind. Went to a restaurant for dinner. Odd to have no wine. Ate a steak with béarnaise sauce and a side of creamed spinach (yummy), and then a cheese plate. Felt oddly indifferent to the bread on the table. Wonder how long that’ll last.
Was lovely to come home a: sober (not that I make a habit of getting pissed! I just mean it was nice to be clear-headed and not even a tiny bit tiddly), and b: not stuffed, but – horrible phrase – “pleasantly full.” Just as well, as the baby was up in the night.
Told someone I was following a high-protein diet. She was delighted to tell me some ridiculous story about a woman a friend of a friend knows. For God’s sake. Might not tell people I’m dieting. They’re weirdly keen to come forward with horror stories. Sisterhood, eh?
I haven’t pooed since the day before yesterday, which doesn’t feel great. Very slight headache before going to bed (in about two minutes), but am hoping to sleep it off.
On the plus side, though: I’m finding this diet very easy to follow. I don’t have a sweet tooth, so I’m not missing the sugar (except in my tea and hypothetical latte), and I really liked the fact that I could have eaten loads of things on the menu at the restaurant. Very glad I didn’t have to interrogate the waiter at length about ingredients – it’s all very obvious. So far, so good. And I haven’t once been hungry.
Neris:Woke up feeling like I’ve got mild flu. Drowsy, irritable and blocked nose. Feeling rubbish, basically. Couldn’t help but weigh myself. Wow – lost four pounds! My body is so weird. I can literally put on five pounds in one meal and take it off overnight. Anyway, still going to keep going on it. (I mustn’t keep weighing myself.) Don’t understand how the weight actually disappears … but it has gone.
Had some bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast. It’s 1:08 now and I feel really full. Which is also extraordinary for me!
I did have one chunk of cheese ten minutes ago, though, which should keep me going until lunch. Desperately need a Twix bar. Life would be so nice if I could just eat one with a nice cup of normal tea.
5 pm. Feeling rubbish. Sluggish. Overwhelmingly tired. If I closed my eyes now I would go to sleep (not good when I’m supposed to go into a meeting in about five minutes). I feel a bit embarrassed by how much I’d like to go off the diet already and its only Day Two. You really have to be focused and have an excuse to go off it. Then I see myself in the mirror or look at a shop full of millions of items of clothes that I could never fit – it is those moments when I really feel angry with myself – the rest of the time I sort of feel normal and don’t see why I can’t eat what I want. Then I feel angry with myself that I got into this situation and that I’ve wasted so much time trying to just get rid of this weight. Feeling this rubbish and fluey doesn’t help the general downward spiral. Went to bed feeling not at all hungry.
Haven’t drunk enough water. Only had a liter. Every time I had water through the day I felt better, though, so I’m going to try to have more tomorrow. Finding it difficult working and feeling a bit rough.