Flat Belly Diet - The beginning

4:32 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments



Let's begin with a side note. I just scrolled through some of my past posts and it has dawned on me that perhaps I should be blogging more on the wonderful foods I am eating at some of these wonderful restaurants, sharing the recipes of the decadent foods I am eating at home and relaying the consensus of my merry band of bad movie watchers. Here I am struggling to share the healthy side of my experiences when there is a whole other facet in my life which, up until this point, I have shared only in shame and disappointment. It is time I embrace, and allow others to embrace, these wonderful experiences.

I digress.....


It has been two days on the regular part of this diet and I gotta say, this is very reasonable, healthy and easy. It seriously takes out the thinking of healthy eating. So long as you have a kitchen scale and a couple measuring cups you can do this diet. Here is what is on the menu for the first two days:

Day One
Breakfast
1 cup Kashi 7 Grain Puffs, 1 cup fat free milk, 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, 1 small banana

Snack
2 tbsp Almond butter, 1 apple

Lunch
Salad: 3 oz turkey or chicken chunks, 1 apple sliced, 3 cups lettuce, 1tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar.

Dinner
Open one whole wheat pita bread and put in strips of one string cheese package. Grill or toast until cheese is melted like a quesadilla. Cut into triangles and dip into salsa made of the following: 2 small tomatoes, chopped, 1/2 cup finely chopped bell pepper, 1/4 cup cubed avocado, 1 tsp cilantro.

Day Two
Breakfast
1 cup Kashi 7 Grain Puffs, 1 cup fat free milk, 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, 1 small banana

Snack
1/4 cup hummus, 1/2 bell pepper cut into strips, if you want, half a whole grain pita too.

Lunch
2 slices whole grain toast, 1/4 cup avocado mashed on top, 3 oz of chicken slices, and a half cup of lettuce, open faced sandwiches. One small banana

Dinner
2 slices whole grain toast, sliced tomatoes, 2 oz sliced ham, 1/4 cup avocado sandwich


The first day meal plan was so tasty that I seriously could just eat that every day and be happy. The meals are so simple to substitute whatever you like. The main deal is about 2 to 3 oz lean protein, a cup veggies, a serving of whole grains and a splash of Mono Unsaturated Fatty Acids. This diet is so healthy and I feel great about it. It has helped me cut down on salt dramatically which thrills me. I am never hungry and I have energy. After my wonderful weekend of gorging this healthy meal plan really helps me feel like I can redeem myself. Total loss from the start of the diet is 2.4 pounds. Not the worst thing for 1.3 weeks.

0 comments:

Day 4 Flat Belly Jump-Start

8:05 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments



So far this diet is great. I am greatly cutting out my salt intake and I am eating the things I said I would be eating as my new, healthier 2011. I am eating lean meats and fish, lots of fruits and veggies and whole grains. I am hoping to come out of this with some new habits and new recipes.


After the holidays I always am a few pounds overweight and so I always try to eat lighter in January and February and March...but there are so many things happening on weekends in those months, it gets super difficult. This year is no exception. Day 4 was also my mother's birthday. We celebrated by having a dinner party on one day and going out to lunch at my favorite restaurant the next. So when I give you the meal plan for Day 4 it is what I SHOULD have eaten for dinner. Not the mini tostadas, steak tartare, sliders, huge servings of gnocchi and black bottom pie I washed down with several glasses of wine that I had.

Day 4
Breakfast
1 cup kashi 7 grain puffs, 1 cup fat free milk, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup of apple sauce

Snack
I had the peach smoothie again

Lunch
Same as day 1

Dinner
Should have been 1 cup squash sauteed with 1 tsp olive oil, 3 oz chicken breast, 1/2 cup steamed brown rice

It is at this point you are to begin the regular Flat Belly Diet plan. It is at this point that I went out to eat at Tra Vigne and had two orders of their house made mozzarella, truffle pizza and a lamb pasta and a rabbit pasta, and wine, of course. I thought I could take weekends off and eat whatever I wanted but that was foolish. The following day was Sunday and we had pizza, and lots of it. Oh mercy me!! My weight went shoooomp right back up but that didn't deter me. I shall begin the regular Flat Belly Diet starting today.

I will new blog it..

0 comments:

Flat Belly Diet - Day 3 of the Jumpstart

11:01 AM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments




I am feeling good about these four days so far. I like the idea of a four day jump-start for several reasons. First of all, it is easy to follow because the end is in sight from the very beginning. This makes it easier to stick with it and easier to reach your goal. Second, it is designed to "prepare" your body for the actual diet and I think that is something that is important. Unlike the Phase I of many diets that do not prepare you for the diet, but rather shock your body into a very restrictive diet, this one seems to think a little bit about how your stomach and even breath will react. I think many of us are aware that you can get kind of bad breath sometimes from certain diets. Finally, I like the fact that it is also a little restrictive in the sense that you do lose weight pretty rapidly which always is a great motivator. Granted, the weight loss is water, at least they actually tell you that instead of claiming you are burning fat by drinking "miracle water".

My Day Three Menu:

Breakfast
1 cup Kashi 7 Grain Puffs, 1 cup fat free milk, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds and a 1/4 cup applesauce.

Snack
1 cup frozen peaches blended with 1 cup fat free milk with 1 tsp flaxseed oil stirred in

Lunch
4oz turkey meat, 1 string cheese stick, 1 cup tomatoes

Dinner
1 cup fresh green beans, 3 ounces baked chicken breast, 1 cup red potatoes, roasted with 1 tsp olive oil (I was supposed to have 1/2 cup of potatoes but I was super hungry and couldn't stop my hands from chopping up a few more)

My day was a madhouse today so I was totally unable to eat every four hours. I dont know who has a schedule that is so simple that one has free time to cook a meal every four hours. I am already using most of my time when I get home from work to cook the next day's meal! I had a class for 7 hours today and was only able to get out for ten minutes at a time so I slammed the smoothie and pounded the sassy water like beer at a frat party. Lunch felt good though. The class I took offered free lunch but I didn't even look at the buffet that was offered. I went straight to my office and had my measured out lunch that I brought. It was nice that my coworker is on another diet and she did the same thing. Buddy system, right?


After running around all day trying to take the class and still get my regular work done I was mentally and physically exhausted and quite hungry. While cooking I sneaked a half of a cup of the rice and mushrooms that I had leftover from the other night and drizzled a little truffle oil over it. I had crumbled some ground turkey into it the day before for the bf to have as a dinner but turns out he doesn't like mushrooms. The things you learn after three years!


So tomorrow is going to be tricky. I am going to a birthday party and there shall be alcohol and gnocchis served. Those are definitely NOT on the four day jump-start. I have no plan. I hope I keep some degree of self control.

Hooray still losing weight. I am down a total of 4.2 pounds.


0 comments:

Flat Belly Diet - Day 2 of the jumpstart

6:44 AM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments


There is a lot to the Flat Belly Diet that I do not know but I think I have the important bits. There is a book that they want you to buy that tells you pretty much what you can find on the internet plus exercises and I think a workbook where you write down your feelings and degree of hunger before and after each meal. I am not going to bother spending the $35 to get the book, specially since I spent $60 at Whole Foods last weekend preparing for this four day pre-start thing. Flaxseed Oil is expensive!!


Organic is better
Well, Whole Foods is expensive, for that manner, but I learned a lesson. As you may know I belong to a farm to front door delivery service that brings me fresh, organic fruits and vegetables to my front door every other week. Before this service I did not like fruits at all. I was known around town as a fruit hater, even. But since I began eating organic, farm fresh fruits I love them! I became particularly enamored with the little mini oranges. I would eat like three a day. When I ran out I went to a regular chain grocery store and bought a huge box of the "Cuties". I was so disappointed! They were not sweet, not orange and they were hard. I had to peel each one and stick them in my Vita Mix with some agave syrup just to use them up. Then I fed it to the bf. (heh heh) So, the moral of this story is, organic may cost more, but apparently I end up wasting it otherwise.

Day Two Meal Plan
Breakfast
1 cup Kashi 7 Grain Puffs, 1 cup fat free milk, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup applesauce, glass of Sassy Water.

Snack
Smoothie: 1 cup frozen blackberries, 1 cup fat free milk, blended then drizzle 1 tbsp flaxseed oil on top

Lunch
3 oz tuna in the can, 1 string cheese, 1 cup of vegetables (I forgot to bring a veggie), glass of Sassy Water

Dinner
1 cup mushrooms sauteed with 1 tsp olive oil , 3 oz chicken breast, 1/2 cup wild rice.

The breakfasts are getting easier to handle. They seem so boring but I just get up and slurp it down. I put the sunflower seeds in the cereal to add some flavor because I am missing my sugar and salt. Speaking of salt, I think I may be slowly getting used to not having salt. I hope so because I think I have a bad relationship with salt.

Today's lunch was not yummy. Flavorless tuna from a can. Gross. So what I did was put a dash of black pepper and a squeeze of lemon on it then I took the cheese and melted it on top pretending it was a tuna melt. If I had brought veggies I would have loved to have added a little chopped celery or lettuce to it but I was stranded, vegetableless, at work.


For dinner I made a pretty tasty meal with those ingredients. I chopped up the mushrooms really small. I cut the chicken into small pieces as well. I put both in a pan and sauteed them with the 1 tsp of olive oil to really mix the flavors. I added the tiniest pinch of black pepper and some herbs. I added a pinch of Marjoram, Sage and Parsley. I placed the rice on the plate, covered it with the mushroom chicken mixture and topped it all off with a tablespoon of Oregano and Thyme from my garden. I almost cheated and drizzled a little truffle oil over the whole thing. But I was a good girl.

Day two over and I have lost a total of 3.2 pounds.


0 comments:

Flat Belly Diet - Four Day Jumpstart

10:12 AM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments



I am hopeless. The past few weeks I have not been doing well at eating well. We have too many parties! So here I am trying out a new diet. It is called the Flat Belly Diet. It claims to help you lose fat from your stomach. This is ridiculous, of course, you can not eat certain food and expect fat to leave specific parts of your body. Luckily for this diet, most people, when they lose weight, lose it from the belly region anyways.

The reason I have chosen this diet is because it seems pretty healthy. I know how to eat healthy but isn't it so much nicer to have someone tell you exactly what to do and when to do it? That is why I am trying this one out. I looked over the menus and it has really healthy things with the right amount of calories. The gimmick to the Flat Belly Diet is that they claim that if you eat a Mono Unsaturated Fatty Acid (MUFA) with every meal you will magically lose weight from your stomach area. I think that is a bit silly. We all know that MUFAs are good for you but it is not miracle. They should sell this diet as saying that you get to have fat and still lose weight. This is something I have known all along. I always include olive oil or avocado in my diet without fear of gaining weight. That is, unless I overeat that MUFA.

Foods that contain MUFAs are seeds, nuts, avocados, olive oil and flaxseed oil. The beginning of this diet is a four day starter that is intended to get your digestive tract ready for the diet it's self. It is slightly restrictive on calories and is super bland but it is only four days so it is attainable.

There is a drink you make that they call Sassy Water, named after the inventor whose last name is Sass. I greatly dislike the name of the drink but it is actually really neat and I plan on drinking it beyond the initial four days. The drink is just a bunch of herbs and vegetables that you soak overnight in two liters of water, strain and drink throughout the day. The recipe is as follows:

Sassy Water
1 small cucumber, peeled and sliced thin
1 lemon, sliced
1 tsp grated ginger
10 leaves mint

Put all those in two liters of water and soak overnight. After you have strained the veggies out, you can discard the rest.
Sassy water

What is so great about Sassy Water? For one, it has flavor which is less boring than regular water but what it also has are ingredients that are good for you. The lemon helps keep hunger down, the cucumber acts as a diuretic decreasing bloat and the ginger soothes your stomach. Dieting usually results in a bit of an upset stomach so I think this is a great idea.

Soooo I have survived day one and here is what I had:

Breakfast:
1 cup Kashi 7 Grain Puffs
1 cup fat free milk
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
1 glass of Sassy Water

Snack: Smoothie
1 cup of blueberries (frozen)
1 cup of fat free milk
Blend the two together and then stir in 1 tbsp flax oil.

Lunch:
1 cup cherry tomatoes
4 oz deli turkey
1 light string cheese
1 glass of sassy water

Dinner:
1 cup fresh cooked green beans
4 oz steelhead fish filet
1/2 cup roasted red potatoes with 1 tsp olive oil
1 glass of Sassy Water

Yes, it was boring but I wasnt hungry and the water made me feel pretty energetic. The night before I made the Sassy Water, packed the lunch and made the smoothie in a container to bring to work. I have to admit...that smoothie is nasty. It is just watery, unsweetened blueberries with an oily film on top but it goes down pretty fast.

The other part of this diet is that you are supposed to be eating about 400 calories, four times a day, four hours apart. This part is difficult for me since I have an ever changing work schedule and I never know where I am going to be when but I am trying.

I am down 1.6 pounds but I am sure that is just water...I dont care. I like being down.

0 comments:

Day two: Foiled by Fake Fish

12:47 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments


Even the best intentions can be spoiled by temptations. I made a mistake. I overlooked something. The result was not disastrous but I should have known better. See, last week was my three year anniversary with the bf and we always go on a trip to celebrate. This year we went on a road trip to Monterey. It was so much fun! We ate clam chowder out of bread buns, saw lots of whales on a whale watching cruise, we drove down the Big Sur coast and of course saw the aquarium. Monterey is only a few hours away so we made it a road trip.

When I was cleaning up the house to get ready for the new year and the new healthier me I missed one little detail. I left a MASSIVE bag of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers.


There it was. Sitting in the center console of my car. With all the worrying about the first day back to work on Monday I had completely missed it but on Tuesday...a Tuesday after what was apparently only a 600 calorie intake day....I most definitely saw it...like a tractor beam it sucked me in.


So during my hour and a half commute to work I started nibbling on fish. One handful then another. I have no idea how many I ate. Then I got to work and went about with my day thinking that at least it was in the morning so I could have all day to sort of burn off all those cals and carbs. I had the maple flavored oatmeal for breakfast and Amy's Lentil Soup for lunch. Everything was going ok until I had to drive home again.

I wasn't even hungry but there were those fish calling to me. I ate another several handfuls. Then I got home and I thought that I would just skip dinner since I had eaten so much in the car but then I had my farm fresh veggie box that I get delivered waiting for me. Everything in it looked so tasty I had to eat some of it.

I made a simple salad with a chopped up pear, a little bit of feta cheese and roasted walnuts. For the sauce I drizzled some olive oil and honey over the top and put in just a splash of apple cider vinegar.

You might think that the salad was the lowest calorie thing I ate that day aside from the goldfish but it was the highest calorie meal. I am not terribly concerned with calories though because you need to eat calories to be healthy and olive oil and nuts are part of the high calorie yet good for you category.

So my intake for the day minus the goldfish was 920cals, 44g fat, 1510mg sodium, 137 g carbs, 29g protein, and 21g fiber. BUT when you add on the little crackers, it becomes a different story. I can not calculate exactly how many of the little guys I ate but it was a lot. I figure three fish per bite, one bite for every couple minutes on the road, 80 minutes on the road, comes out to about 88 fish per direction making a total of 176 fish.

This makes me have to tack on 378 calories, 13g fat, 675mg sodium, 54g carbs, 11g protein and maybe one gram of fiber.

This, coupled with eating that salad late at night caused no weight loss. BUT the eating was, for the most part, healthy so I did not gain any weight either so that is a good thing. In addition I have still been eating lots of healthy things. I had a fruit, olive oil, lentils, tons of vegetables and whole grain oats with minimal bad fats and sugars.

Loss: 0

0 comments:

Day One of Eating Healthy

3:13 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments


The first day of a diet is always the best. It is the extreme from eating and drinking everything in sight to cutting back dramatically. Do you know that in the past week I had eaten fondue THREE times? I just can not resist a pot of melted cheese, even more so when I know I will be on a health kick in a few days. All or nothing! That is my life.

But it isn't really nothing. I am eating and I am eating really good food. So what did I eat for my first day of eating healthy? I had a packet of Costco instant oatmeal, apple cinnamon flavored with some Super Skinny Ultra Chai Tea which isn't the kind of chai tea you get with all the sugar and cream. It is a green tea with some spices. I thought I could use the extra bit of caffeine to start what is going to be an epic work month ahead. Double shifts, extra hours and working weekends....oh my!

The ingredients of the oatmeals

The nutritional information for the oatmeal

For lunch I had a can of Amy's Vegetable Barley soup which, according to her is two servings but I ate the whole can. It was quite tasty on it's own but I punched it up with a sprinkling of cayenne pepper.

When I got home it was 6:30 so I was right at the point I shouldn't eat if I want to not eat at least three hours before bedtime. I was very hungry after a rough day at work so I risked it and had dinner. I intend to eat steamed and baked lean proteins with veggies but I had a leftover lasagna, also from Costco, that needed to be eaten and it was super quick so I went for it. In my defense, it was a turkey spinach lasagna with fat-free ricotta cheese to which I added a lot of hot sauce.

Before bed I had a cup of chamomile tea.

My total intake for those three meals are as follows:

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal: 130 cal, 4g protein, 160 sodium, 27 carbs, 3g fiber, 1.5g fat
Soup: 140 cal, 4g protein, 1160 sodium, 26 carbs, 6g fiber, 2g fat.
Lasagna: 310 cal, 20g protein, 690 sodium, 28 carbs, 3g fiber, 12g fat

Grand Total: 580 calories, 28 grams protein, 2010 sodium, 81 carbs, 12g fiber and 16g fat.

I am not lying when I say that is what I ate yesterday but it sure seems like I had to have had more calories than 580!! But that is what the labels read. Perhaps it is the combo of protein and fiber or perhaps it was my super busy day but I never felt like I was deprived.

I need to work on lowering my sodium intake. That number seems like it could be brought down some. I am not concerned with the carbs because I was eating good things like barley and oats.

All in all I woke up this morning three pounds lighter than I did when I woke up the prior morning.

Loss: 3 lbs

0 comments:

Happy New Year!!

2:01 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments


Overeating is a staple during the holidays


It has been a fantastic holiday season. I ate and drank with friends and family until I nearly burst. It is now a new year and a perfect time to begin anew with a healthy lifestyle. I got a subscription to a health magazine and I have new motivation to lose some weight. I still have a goal weight but I do not have a time limit now. This means I have time to go about this in a less extreme manner.

Some little rules I will still follow:

The best worst movie

I am going to take one day off a week to do what I want to do. We are big into having everyone over for terrible movie night every weekend. When we do this we find some fantastically horrible movies and get three or four family sized pizzas from Papa Murphy's. We also go to Trader Joe's and get all kinds of junk food like chocolate covered pretzels, cookies, small cakes and ice cream. Everyone yells at the television and gorges on food until we are all in a coma and pass out. It is a really good time that I don't want to give up.

I am going to stop eating at least 3 hours, preferably 4 hours, before going to bed. This is the simplest way to lose some weight. Eating before you go to sleep is one of the worst things you can do.

Eating breakfast follows the last point pretty well because you will be hungrier in the morning if you don't eat before you go to bed. Breakfast should be the biggest meal of the day and that makes sense. It is going to fuel you, give you a jump start, for the rest of the day.

And finally, I am going to stick to the old staples, lean proteins and fruits and vegetables as well as legumes.



The first week I will have to go through some of the food I still have around the house. I have a massive box of oatmeal from Costco that needs to be eaten so I will be eating oatmeal for breakfast every morning. I also have some wonderful soups from Costco that I will be eating for lunch. The soups are from Amy's which is a local company that produces some really great and healthy vegetarian products. Dinner will be a baked chicken breast and two veggie sides.



I will be doing other healthy things like using supplements and exercise but I have yet to form a plan. As I learn about different options I will update my blog on those topics. I also want to use a more natural approach to health so I will be updating about that too.

0 comments: