The last supper

Day 23 - final day 


Then: 220 pounds (15 stones 10 pounds) 
Now: 204 pounds (14 stones 8 pounds) 
Lost: 16 pounds (1 stone 2 pounds) 

Our fridge contains one last vanilla yoghurt - ready for my breakfast on the way to the airport tomorrow morning. 

It's a fitting symbol for the end of this diet. These Fruyo greek yoghurts are far from diet-friendly. They may be "fat free", but they are full of sugar, not artificial sweeteners. Yet they are one of the reasons this diet has been a success: they are delicious and satisfying, and I like them now just as much as I did at the beginning. 

There hasn't been a day when I've been so hungry I've raided the chocolate box or have felt faint from lack of proper nutrition. Sure, we've been strict with ourselves:  no bread, pasta, flour or potatoes throughout;  very little alcohol and no fruit in the first two weeks; minimum of sugar and fats, high protein, only good carbs.  As a result, we've experimented with a range of satisfying new recipes, most of which are listed in this blog. We've followed the 5 basic rules I laid down at the beginning of April, which transformed themselves into 7 rules due to my inability to anticipate the effect of dinner parties with friends or the overwhelming desire for a beer when you've been gardening. 

In these 3 weeks I've gone from a BMI of 31.5 to 28, and lost 7.2% of my bodyweight. I feel lighter and have a spring in my step. I didn't feel out of breath when I ran to save my car from a parking warden this morning.

Baked salmon, asparagus, spinach, fresh mayonnaise

 

And this lightest of suppers, our last diet supper, very hurriedly put together in less than 10 minutes from opening the fridge door to plating up (which includes making the fresh mustard mayonnaise on top of the salmon*), has filled me up in a way that it never would have done just three weeks ago. Result.

*Salmon:  cut slit in skin, sprinkle in salt, coat with olive oil, black pepper.  Put skin side down in very hot pan for 3 minutes, then turn and pop into hot oven for 4-5 minutes;  Spinach: heat olive oil with 1 large clove garlic, halved lengthwise, throw in washed spinach, season and cook quickly for 2 minutes, strain through kitchen roll.  Place next to salmon with quickly cooked asparagus spears.  Mayonnaise: 1 heaped tsp Dijon mustard with 1 egg yolk, whisked together, then very slowly start to pour in 125ml groundnut oil until the mixture emulsifies;  when about halfway through adding the oil, mix in 1 tsp lemon juice and less than 1 tsp white wine vinegar, with a pinch of salt and some ground white pepper.  Whisk in rest of oil.  Put one tbsp on top of baked salmon and throw rest away if, like me, you're going on holiday.  Because fresh mayonnaise only keeps for a day.  But it tastes divine.