Monday 20 February 2017

Eight Weeks Until Easter

Eight weeks until Easter Monday, to be exact, but I started The 8-week Blood Sugar Diet on Friday and Spring Cleaning on Saturday, so my eight weeks have begun already. 

Incidentally, I was asked yesterday if it was not a bit weird that everyone who reads my blog knows so much about me, and I thought, yes, but just try to stop me from blogging anyway. Not-blogging would be incredibly hard now that I am on a 800 calorie diet, as naturally I feel a compulsion to write about food. 

Food, food, wonderful food.

The 8-week Blood Sugar Diet is supposedly based on the Mediterranean diet, but I have been to the Mediterranean a lot in the past seven years, and wheat flour features highly in the daily diet. In Italy, for example, one has a croissant with one's cappuccino and a small dish of pasta before one's lunchtime main and a slice of pizza for supper. The waiters bring bread and you have to pay for it whether you eat it or not. Admittedly, it is not great bread. For great bread, go to Germany or Poland.

Bread, bread, wonderful  bread. 

I can last eight weeks without bread if it means I will fit into my pale blue Hobbs dress again. A bigger temptation is croissants, but to get a croissant even resembling a good Canadian croissant, let alone a French one, I would have to go to London. 

As a responsible citizen, I should point out that yo-yo dieting is a bad thing and that nobody underweight, under 18 or under the tyranny of an eating disorder should be on the 8-week Blood Sugar Diet. Also, if you wish to retain the results of the Blood Sugar Diet when your 8 weeks are up, you still have to avoid bread, potatoes, rice, and sugar. Blah.

The average weight loss of an adherent to the 8-week Blood Sugar Diet, claims my Recipe Book, is 14 kilograms, which is 30.8 pounds. I do not need to lose that much, but on the other hand, I do not need to weigh much more than 100 pounds, being rather short. And I do not believe I will actually lose 14 kilos, as it seems to me from much reading that it is the obese who have these massive losses, not the post-Christmas flabsters.

Much less compelling in my thoughts is Spring Cleaning, which I will complete over this generous 8 week period. That's a week per room plus closets. The kitchen sadly, will really need a week, but it has had two days already, and the prognosis is good. 

9 comments:

  1. Cranberry coconut cookies for CWL meeting Thursday. Oatmeal coconut cookies for Membership Sunday. The leftovers came home....so sweeeeet, so crunchchchy.
    Aged P, the call of the Siren

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    1. Terrible. However, I think it is quite usual for mothers to express love through cookies.

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  2. Thank you, Aged P, for that wonderful laugh. You remind me very much of my own Aged P.

    Meanwhile, good luck Seraphic. I need to drop a few pounds myself, but I am too much of a wimp to go full tilt on the Blood Sugar Diet. I am all admiration!

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    1. Just cut out bread, potatoes, rice and anything with added sugar and see what happens. You have to eat a lot of dark green leafy veg to make up for it, though. Lots and lots of veg.

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  3. A Worried Longtime Reader!21 February 2017 at 03:35

    Auntie Seraphic, please be careful! 800 calories per day is extremely low for a woman, even if you are as you say rather short! Recommendations range from 1600-2000, and for those who are overweight and wish to achieve weight loss, 1000-1600 is effective. It may be important to consult with a health professional to ensure you're getting enough nutrition!

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    1. Don't worry! If anything bad happens (e.g. hair falling out), I will stop. And I am following the book to the letter: for breakfast today I had full-fat Greek yogurt, a handful of blueberries and some walnuts.

      I should add that it is a very bad idea to go low-carb while in training for a strenuous event like the Chartres Pilgrimage and be low-carb during the event. I learned this on Day 3 of the Pilgrimage around lunchtime. Dear heavens.

      I would never recommend this for a young person. Like gold lamé, this sort of thing is for the tough middle-aged.

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  4. Why is no-one interesting in Spring Cleaning? ;-) Daily miracles are happening in the kitchen!

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  5. I am interested in spring cleaning! Yes.

    And dieting. It is SO HARD to just quit the sugar. Everytime I do, it helps immensely....

    As for grains, I am mostly just eating soaked and/or fermented whole wheat flour a la Nourishing Traditions/Weston A Price foundation and I think that helps like they say. Only problem: crusty sourdough bread is SO GOOD that it is hard to eat in moderation (yet I always have to have some around to feed the babies).

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  6. Hello Seraphic,

    I am! What is the name of that really excellent housekeeping book again? You had it on the sidebar there for a long time.

    What is your own feeling about holding on to books? I have too many. I want to throw them all out at this stage.

    Sinéad.

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