Saturday, August 7, 2010

After effects of cheese and pastries!!!!


Although I failed in my quest to document ALL the cheeses that I ate in Paris, I certainly ate my share. A particularly memorable cheese was a silky, creamy Roquefort that will forever  banish lame gorgonzola to a distant memory.

But there was an after effect to the cheese, pate, and baguette diet that I maintained for 18 days in Paris - that's an "overly curvy" figure that I'm not too thrilled about. After some reading and discussion with friends, I've been looking at both the "Chrononutrition" diet that my fabulous French friend (let's call her FFF) is following and the "Blast Bellyfat diet" that another friend, amazing australian epicure (let's call her AAE) told me about. These diets are all about cutting carbs but not ignoring them. You can eat them but mostly during the day so you have a chance to burn them off. On the chrononutrition diet, you can eat bread and butter and cheese in the morning (very French!) but no carbs after lunch. On the belly blast diet, you drastically reduce your carbs and you increase your fat intake from avocados, olives, and nuts.

So far, it hasn't been too difficult except to be home in time to cook something. I don't think I could do this in the winter but with all the great summer produce, its not too difficult.

I've been having omelettes with onions and mushrooms or red peppers for breakfast. Sometimes soft boiled eggs with a piece of cheese or some poached chicken or salmon left over from the night before. At lunch, I have a big salad with nuts, meat, fish, or eggs on it. Filling and tastes great. Having some time off, I can make all my own salad dressings.

On the chrononutrition diet, they recommend that you eat nuts or dried fruits in the afternoon. I love roasted almonds and the Moroccan vendor at the Dappermarkt sold me on some fantastic dates so this has been lovely.

So far for dinner - I've often skipped dinner because I'm out or just not as hungry. But tonight, I'm going nuts cooking up everything that I've made so I have it in the fridge to make things easier.

I'll post the following recipes but here's my menu for the weekend:
Slow cooked Salmon with braised Leeks tonight.
Tomorrow lunch, poached chicken salad with a tarragon mustard dressing
Tomorrow dinner, Summer gazpacho.

Stay tuned for recipes!

1 comment:

Libby said...

here's my no-fail diet plan: summer in Columbia, working in a building with NO AIR CONDITIONING. It has killed my appetite--I maybe have a piece of fruit for breakfast and an iced coffee, and if I eat feel like dinner it's something light and cold--a smoothie, a cup of yogurt, a cold sandwich. Works like a charm!