Salad Niçoise – Tomorrow’s recipe

 

It has been a fantastic official first week on our RESET plan. Not just that I lost some weight this week (over 1 kg) I also lost 2% of body fat that according to Elana Hirschowitz, the other healthy cookie: that is the most important thing, it’s the body fat (or mass-fat) that influences our body shape and our body composition, and that’s the real loss – so I’m delighted!

Now let me explain, when you talk about dieting, it’s safe to say that the majority of information out there focuses on weight loss. We all want to see the scale drop, the faster the better. For many of us, getting on the scale is difficult. But if you focus on body composition, the struggle can be a little bit more satisfactory.

Let’s say you step on the scale after dieting for a week and, hooray, the number has gone down by a kilo or more.

Here’s my question to you: What did you lose? Was it just water? Was it body fat? Was it muscle? Did you just have a rather large stool that morning and that’s why you weigh less? Can we rely on weight loss only? When all it can tell you is whether or not your weight has gone down or up and that can fluctuate from day to day (that’s the reason why we are not getting on the scale every day!).

RESET is aimed at improving body composition (e.g. more muscle with less fat) – A loss of 5% body fat to 10% body fat will show a real change in our body and health.

In order to achieve that, there are few rules we need to follow but today I will concentrate on one rule that I learnt and tried to master this week and it is that reducing the amount of carbohydrates in my diet is one of the best ways to lose weight that will lead to reduce my appetite and cause weight loss, without the need for calorie counting.

Studies also show that low-carb diets are particularly effective at reducing your belly fat, which is the most dangerous fat of all and highly associated with many diseases.

Therefore, we are allowing for a bit of carb but only 1 portion of low-GI carb per meal, one carb at a time and I should try and keep the carbs for breakfast and afternoon snack, keeping both lunch and dinner carb free.

However, one of the great benefits of low-carb diets is that they’re ridiculously simple. With the RESET plan we don’t count calories or track points, we teach you how to eat properly: when, what and how much.

The general rule is to just eat some protein, healthy fats and veggies at every meal. Throw in some nuts, seeds and dairy products for good measure, but don’t overdo the nuts as they contain lots of calories.

We also have two plates’ models:

1. ¾ plate veg and ¼ protein – have more of that plate as often as you can
2. ½ salad / veg, ¼ carb, ¼ protein

Example for a portion of low-GI carb to go on your ¼ of plate is: 75 gr sweet potatoes or 1/3 cup basmati rice. This plan restricts your intake of carbohydrates like sugars and starches (breads, pasta, etc.) and replaces them with protein and healthy fat.

It doesn’t get much simpler then that!

 

Carbs you can eat:

• Plenty of vegetables.
• 1-2 pieces of fruit per day.
• 1 portion (a handful / 75gr) of starchy carbohydrates like Vivaldi potatoes, sweet potatoes and healthier grains like rice and oats.

 

Weight loss will slow down after the first week, but this time the fat will be coming from your fat stores.

 

My carb free dinner today was a delicious roasted chicken shawarma with green salad.

 

Shawarma style chicken  

INGREDIENTS

For the marinade:

• 1 lemon, zest and juice
• 1/3cup olive oil
• 6cloves garlic, peeled, smashed and minced              
• 2teaspoons ground cumin
• 2teaspoons sweet paprika
• ½teaspoon turmeric
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp allspice
• Red chilli flakes, to taste
• Salt & freshly ground black pepper

For the chicken:

• 1kg of mix chicken breast and boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 25gr chopped fresh parsley

Method

1. Prepare a marinade for the chicken: Combine the lemon juice, 1/3 cup olive oil, garlic, cumin, paprika, turmeric, cinnamon, allspice, chilli flakes, salt and pepper in a large bowl, then whisk to combine.
2. Cut the chicken breast and/or thighs into strips, add to the marinade and mix well to coat. Cover and store in refrigerator for at least 1 hour or overnight.
3. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 180C.
4. Place a foil on an oven tray and top with a baking paper. Remove the chicken from the marinade, and place on the tray, spreading evenly across it.
5. Put the chicken in the oven and roast for about 30 to 40 minutes, until crisp.
6. Remove from the oven and use a sharp knife to slice the meat into small, thin shawarma-like pieces.
7. To make the chicken even crisper, set a large frying pan over high heat, then add the sliced chicken, and sauté for few minutes till the some of the chicken pieces  turn brown and crisp. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste, if desired.
8. Sprinkle with parsley over the top and serve with Israeli salad and tahini sauce.

Happy and healthy day

Karin

Two Healthy Cookies