Post-lockdown dieting is actually piece of cake
qualms about offering advice where it may not be wanted. Nor will I let a trifling detail like not being a nutritionist stand in my way.
Use our simple daily meal plans to establish a healthier dietary regimen without the faff of having to weigh tiny portions or count calories. Remember to keep a daily food diary of everything you actually eat. That way, you’ll be able to monitor when you’ve deviated from your plan and adjust the next day accordingly. Use a smaller plate so that a modest portion looks generous! Try to drink eight glasses of water a day! Here is a sample meal plan and diary record, taken from my own— er… taken from an anonymous dieter.
MONDAY — PLAN
Breakfast: 2tbsp Greek yoghurt, 1 tsp runny honey, ½ cup chopped fresh fruit, eg strawberries, blueberries, etc. Drink: Black tea or coffee. Water. Lunch: ½ avocado lightly mashed on two slices rye crispbread, 1tbsp cottage cheese, small side-salad (no dressing).
Snack: Seven plain, unsalted almonds Dinner: Small portion grilled or steamed salmon with green vegetable and two small new potatoes.
DIARY RECORD
Breakfast: yoghurt + honey (approx. 2 tbsp honey as tipped it from jar and couldn’t stop it) plus whole banana (no berries in fridge).
Drink: 3 mugs tea (with milk). Glass of water.
Second breakfast: 3 slices toast and jam. Tea.
Snack: Half a packet honey-roast cashews + 2 choc digestives to combat low blood-sugar. More tea.
Lunch: Avocado on toast (no crispbread left as forgot to buy last time and can’t face masked trip to supermarket). No salad as leaves all manky. Mid-afternoon snack: Three cinnamon rugelach (no queue at bakery – hurrah!). Tea.
Dinner: Takeaway fish and chips (sick of cooking). Peas. Basically the same as diet plan.
Last thing at night: Seven glasses of water.
TUESDAY — PLAN
Breakfast: Porridge with a sprinkling of cinnamon and chopped fruit. Lemon tea. Water.
Lunch: ½ wholemeal pitta, 1tbsp houmous, raw carrot sticks
Snack: 2 rice cakes (unsalted) Dinner: Plain sliced chicken breast, 1 cup watercress, 1tbsp cooked quinoa
DIARY RECORD
Breakfast: Cheerios. Toast. Half an apple (too boring to eat other half). Pot of tea. Water.
Second breakfast: Cheese on toast. Half a tomato (too cold as left toms in fridge by mistake). Spoonful of peanut butter straight from jar. Lunch: Hummus, falafel, salad, tahini in whole pitta from Israeli take-away. Chips. Weird Israeli grapefruit drink. Supper: Roast chicken, roast potatoes, veg, gravy. Choc mousse. Second portion of mousse as no space in fridge to house leftovers.
Last thing at night: Two Bendicks Bittermints. Seven glasses of water.
WEDNESDAY — DIARY
This is too hard. Had to get up twice in the night for a wee. Using smaller plate but then have to pile food up into a Vesuvius like mountain in order to fit it all on.
Thoughts during the day dominated by fantasies involving lying on mound of hot-buttered toast or having obedient males seductively offering me wedges of apple strudel. Sell stupid size 12 dress I bought online during lockdown on e-Bay. Dump bikini outside Jewish Care charity shop at midnight when no-one is looking (they’re still shut). Go home and cry. Eat packet of jaffa cakes. Feel much better.
Claire Calman is the author of bestseller ‘Love is a Four-Letter Word’. Her fifth novel, ‘Growing Up for Beginners’, is out now. @clairecalman