The Flat Belly Diet

As a life and wellness coach, I get all sorts of requests from people who want to lose weight about which diet works the best.  My answer is always, "The best diet is the one that works for you."  Different diets suit different personality types and different ways of learning. 

In her book, The Four Day Win, Martha Beck says that people have different needs for determining a diet/fitness program to follow, namely structure and information.  In Chapter 11 entitled "Eat Whatever the Hell You Want," she has a little quiz to find out which type you are (Apprentice, VIP, Scholar, or Explorer) and then gives some examples of diets that fit your type.  I happen to be an Explorer, low need for information or structure.  I recommend checking this out and finding out what type you most closely fit.

Anyway, I am reading Martha's book, but right now I feel I need a little extra boost to lose a few pounds, especially around my middle.  So I have turned to The Flat Belly Diet by Liz Vaccariello and Cynthia Sass and endorsed by Prevention magazine.  I have read about this diet many times in Prevention and it always appealed to me, because it allows natural peanut butter and other MUFAs (monounsaturated fatty acids-the-good for-you-fats, such as nuts, seeds, oils, avocados, olives and dark chocolate.)  But I never tried it.  But now seemed like a good time - it basically is a 1600 calorie Mediterranean diet, not hard to follow and since I started a few days ago, I haven't been hungry.  You can read about it here http://www.prevention.com/weight-loss/flat-belly-diet.  I bought the book and the handy pocket guide.
The 3 basic rules of the diet are : 1) Stick to 400 calories per meal, 2) Never go more than 4 hours without eating, and 3) Eat a MUFA at every meal.  Pretty simple.  Lots of veggies, fruit, starches, and protein.  I will share my experiences in future posts.  Here is a recipe for Sassy Water, which the authors recommend that you drink every day:

2 liters water (about 8 1/2 cups)
1 tsp. freshly grated ginger
1 med. cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
1 med. lemon, thinly sliced
12 small spearmint leaves

1.  Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher and let flavors blend overnight in the fridge.
2.  Strain the ingredients out of the water the next morning and drink all 2 liters by the end of the day.