In an effort to get my weight down and get on the road to better health, I’m starting tomorrow on a 12-week programme of calorie-controlled diet and exercise.
After looking at a couple of different programmes, I settled on the Fast800 because I like the way it works. The online portal includes a meal planner with recipes that I can plan and print out for the week ahead. There are exercise videos and mindfulness exercises, as well as an online forum to talk to diet coaches and other people on the programme.
Even though I’ve opted for three meals a day (I could have skipped breakfast) it is a fasting diet because the daily calorie intake is limited to 800 per day, for twelve weeks. It is a Mediterranean-based diet with no carbs. This will ‘kick-start’ my metabolism apparently.
Good news, I can have as much as I want of the following vegetables: artichoke, alfalfa sprouts, asparagus, bean sprouts, bok choy, broccoli / broccolini, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, courgette (zucchini), cucumber, fennel, green beans, kale, leeks, mange tout (snow peas), okra, pak choi, radishes, rocket, spinach, spring onions, sugar snap peas, swiss chard, watercress. Other vegetables are ok too, but require calorie counting.
I can drink as much water as I like. I can have black tea or coffee, herbal tea, and sparkling water.
We have been trying some of the recipes in the past week. Some of the meals have been surprisingly good. We had vegetarian lasagne tonight, and we both thought it was very tasty. While H. is not joining me on the diet programme, he has agreed to share the meals as a way to support me while I’m doing it.
Vegetarian Lasagne (Serves 2 – 366 calories per serve)
2 eggplants, sliced into 1cm (half inch) thick rounds
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
0.5 onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
0.5 x400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
150 g ricotta cheese
0.5 tsp ground nutmeg
fresh basil, chopped
20 g parmesan cheese, grated
sea salt
black pepper
0.5 tsp dried chilli flakes
Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
Place baking paper over a large baking tray and place eggplant slices in a single layer onto the tray. Brush the slices with half the olive oil. Turn to coat, making sure that both sides of the eggplant slices are lightly covered in oil. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes, flip the slices half way.
Meanwhile, place a saucepan over medium heat. Add the remaining olive oil, garlic and onion and cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the onion has softened. Add the tomatoes, chilli flakes and apple cider vinegar and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes. If making only a few serves, you may need to add a splash of water. Season to taste.
Place the ricotta cheese, nutmeg and two thirds of the basil in a bowl and mash with a fork to combine.
Arrange a layer of eggplant at the bottom of a small, oven proof baking dish (use approximately 1/3 of the eggplant for this). Spread a third of the tomato mixture over the eggplant. Cover with half of the ricotta cheese. Repeat the eggplant/sauce/cheese layer. Top the second layer with the remaining eggplant and cover with the remaining tomato sauce. Sprinkle over the remaining basil leaves and parmesan cheese.
Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Serve!
Photo by Nadine Primeau on Unsplash