New diet - Flat Belly Diet for Men

I went to the library last week and picked up a few diet books. I love looking through these types of books. I also enjoy self help books. I have read so many of them. Most are garbage but a few have very good advice. I have even read self help books about self help books – no joke. I started a blog a couple of years ago where I was going to do a ‘New Year’s’ resolution each month for a year. I think I got about four months into it before the ironman training started to consume too much time.

Anyway, I ran across this diet book called the ‘Flat belly diet for men.’ It is a follow-up to the same book for women. There are also a couple of recipe books in this series.

The premise is pretty close to what I already do – multiple small meals throughout the day. This book has a four day kick start plan. In the kick start phase you have four 400 calorie meals a day. After this phase you start the normal diet which is five 400 hundred calorie meals a day.

Like I said, this is close to what I already follow. The difference is the meals themselves. The book is big on MUFA’s (mono unsaturated fatty acids) – pronounced MOOFAS. Every meal needs to have these good fats. In my normal routine I already follow this to an extent. For a very long time I have been eating oatmeal with peanut butter. Healthy carbohydrates and MUFA’s. However, I have become dependent on that one meal. When I am hungry this is the meal that I grab. There have been days when I have had this one meal four or five times. I am fortunate that I can eat the same things day in and day out but I do need variety. This is where the book is going to help me. There are about 50 different balanced meals that have approximately 400 calories.

There is also this drink concoction called ‘fire water’. It consists of the following:

½ teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 small cucumber

1 lime

6 mint leaves
3 -4 dashes shot sauce

It does not taste bad. In fact it is a little bit refreshing - it smells like a fancy lotion from bath and body works or something. I am, however, not sure if you are supposed to drink all of the chunkiness. I filtered it through a coffee filter the next day.

With the recipes in the book I am going to make up my own deal-a-meal cards and mix and match. I will keep you posted on the results. Also, since the book does not require exercise I will continue with what I have always done – add a few post exercise meals into the mix. Otherwise I get into this deep calorie deficit and consume everything in sight.

I will keep you posted on the results of the diet!