The Parisian Diet - Middle of the Cafe Stage

2:38 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 3 Comments

I am writing to you from day 8 of the ten day Cafe Stage of the Parisian Diet. It is working out well for me so far. I have lost 7 pounds and I do not feel starved or weak at all. In fact, I could continue like this until my trip but they say I need to move on to the Bistro Stage after ten days and I shall follow their advice.

I am just going to recap what I have eaten in the last 5 days that got me down another three pounds. You may recall in my last blog that I had lost four pounds in the first two days. I am terrible at following recipes to the note and I have a lot of distractions in my life, just like everyone else does. I will tell you what I have been eating but I will point out when I am actually following the Parisian Diet to the letter and when I had to stray.

Day 3
Breakfast: The diet called for a smoothie of berries, yogurt and sweetener but what I did was find some wonderful frozen cherries which are supposed to be great for Rheumatoid Arthritis. I blended that with the non-fat Greek yogurt, a little honey and another section of vanilla bean (yes, I'm obsessed).

Lunch: I still followed the book pretty close on this one and again, it is a recipe I thought I would not like. It again surprised me. I sauteed zucchini with garlic and put that with some cottage cheese and black pepper. I never really thought of cottage cheese as actual cheese but it made a vegetable I do not like to begin with taste like it was covered with cheese. I mean, it WAS. I ate everything the recipe said to make and I was stuffed. I had to give the last ounce or so to my dog I was that full.


Dinner: Okay, I strayed a bit from the diet on this one. I was supposed to make this cabbage soup but I was walking down to give the rent check to my landlord when my neighbor commented from his balcony how great I looked. We started talking and I ended up at his place for beers. We had the dogs (who are best buds) running all around and we were celebrating my health and his recent graduation from college. Soooo, my dinner was three beers. Oops.

Day 4
Breakfast: I was, again, in a hurry because this is the day of the week that I see all my doctors for all my illnesses. I whipped up a smoothie I knew I would like: the apples, vanilla and yogurt treat.

Lunch: I followed the basic guidelines in the book for lunches that seems to be 3oz lean protein and a cup of veggies. I had some tilapia in the freezer so I ate half a fish of that and a cup of green beans. I did the same thing I did last time with the beans and put a drizzle of olive oil and a dash of salt. On the fish I put some lemon and a tiny sprinkling of capers. I cooked the fish in a spray of coconut oil that I got from Trader Joe's. I love this stuff!!! I have been using coconut oil for about a year and I swear by it. Now that it is in the spray form, I am using it even MORE. Get some if you can. Highly recommend.

Dinner: This was a tough one because we went to a friend's to watch movies. I was not that hungry so I brought along some hard cheese. The book mentions that as a snack you can have a hard cheese or an apple. I had some Gruyere cheese. I measured out a little over an ounce and then chopped that up into bites. I just snacked on the cheese while everyone else snacked on chips and popcorn. I am a genius!

Day 5
Breakfast: I was in a hurry because we are now on a Saturday and people were at the house to go have fun. I blended up some leftover cherries, vanilla and milk and drank it on my way out the door. I had my breakfast and painted my nails while the boys played basketball.

Lunch: It gets worse and worse from here. After basketball we went to the frozen yogurt place, You-Top-It where they have 8 different frozen yogurt flavors that you can sample as you please before you buy. I sampled every one but didnt buy anything. The pour your own samples are so huge, you can't help but have them be huge, that is how they come out of the machine! So I practically had 8oz of frozen yogurt and I figured that was protein enough for lunch and we all went to the pool for the rest of the day.

Dinner: I told you it gets worse. By the time we got out of the pool and I added the ingredients to the cabbage soup, it was time to see Iron Man 3. We got back from that late in the evening. It is a long movie!! Good, but long. I was not in the mood for a big meal so we all got comfy on the bed (my living room projector bulb is out being fixed) and watched movies until I fell asleep. I ate three of those Mott's Ice Pops that I love so much for dinner. Double oops!

Day 6
Breakfast: Again, no time so I grabbed a Keifer bottle and headed out the door to my friend's in San Francisco. I do recommend if you are on this diet to just buy a few keifers for your fridge. They are made of pretty much what the diet asks you to have, fruit and yogurt, only in a grab and go form. They also last a long time in the fridge. Perfect weekend breakfast and it fits in your purse!

Lunch: SO NOT on the diet, I had two sushi rolls. Yum! I had my favorite, the Hot Sake roll also known as a Hot Mama roll. Then I had a smaller Prawn Tempura roll with avocado. I was a good girl and had multi grain rice instead of the usual white rice. Do I get points for that?

Dinner: For dinner I was way off the diet as well. I am terrible on weekends, aren't I? I was STUFFED from the sushi because the bf is a vegetarian and we can no longer share sushi rolls so I have to eat them all! Such a terrible predicament, no? I was stuffed, we had just moved a brand new, super fancy mattress into our bedroom and put on some sweet LED lights to the frame and I was pooped. We went to a neighbor's to watch the Sharks play-off game. For dinner I resisted the pizza and only had red wine. So my dinner, once again was a couple large glasses of red wine. Triple oops.

Day 7
Breakfast: I made yet another berry and milk shake. It is so easy and I have frozen berries in my freezer.

Lunch: I could not resist having Indian food. I went to the City to visit the bf and he works right near my favorite Indian place. I was VERY good in that I had the Tandoori Chicken. It is just a massive pile of chicken breasts with onions and peppers. It came with a huge salad which was great until as I continued to eat it I found more and more it was swimming in dressing. I was a good girl and ate only approximately 5oz of the meat. I now have leftovers for later too. I was a bad girl and got a garlic naan. I had to. I love naan!!


Dinner: Well I finally had time, and stomach room, to cook my Parisian Diet cabbage soup and it was FANtastic!!! Holy cow. I love this book! It is just cabbage, tomatoes, and broth but then you add apples and raisins. That made the whole soup! I love sweet and savory foods. I added a whoop-load of black pepper again. Hey, it worked for the Leek Soup, why not for this one? I had to have had like two cups of it last night and there is a ton left over for tonight. Weeee!

Summary of the days 3-7: I find this diet is a great fit for me. The meals are quite filling and easy to make. Even when I do not have time to do the exact meal, I find ways to come close. I am noticing that in the mornings I have a milk or yogurt based fruit drink, lunch I have 3oz of protein with a cup of veggies and then for dinner I have one of the wonderful soups (when I am not having alcohol! haha)

I have lost a total of 7 pounds in as many days. Not too shabby. I will write again to share the last three days of the 10 day Cafe Stage of The Parisian Diet with you. I hope this losing streak holds but I understand that one can not lose this much weight this fast for too long. Wish me luck.