Day 15: start of the MEAT weeks

Day: 15 of 42
Starting weight: 78.5kg 
Today's weight: 75.1kg
How I'm feeling today: a little reticent about eating primarily meat for two weeks

No more shakes! Woo hoo! I was getting a bit sick of trying to get down three of those a day.

It's weigh-in day today, and I was disappointed to find I'd only lost 0.9kg. After all the discipline over the past week.

I'm hoping that these first two weeks were just the preparation for the "nothing will have prepared you for the speed of this diet" bit that will start happening this week.

Weeks 3 and 4: The Meat Weeks

Part two of the Lose Your Middle Aged Middle diet plan restricts carbohydrate consumption even further than the first part. There is no restriction on the amount of meat you should eat - just eat until you're full, then stop. And the meal plan consists of fat rich meals with no skinless, steamed poached chicken or fish.

This part of the diet is is planned specifically to drive up your metabolism now that your body has very little insulin swimming around within it, so that the fat released as energy will be processed by the glycogen stimulated by an intake of protein but won't be stored.

The Return of the Beast

Now that I have finished the first part of the diet, designed to give my liver a chance focus solely on spitting out its old fat stores rather than having to deal with unnecessary toxins such as caffeine and alcohol, I'm allowed two 125ml glasses of (dry) wine per week!

To celebrate I splashed out on something a step above the usual $10 budget: Sileni The Plateau 2008 Pinot Noir.

I accidentally poured 175ml and considered pouring out the extra 50ml, but how could I? And I missed lunch today. The bouquet was very good, fragrant with pepper, juicy black plums and cherries, licorice and ash. But when I took a sip I was overwhelmed by the alcohol burn. My ears immediately started burning and the tannins nearly took the top layer of skin off my tongue.

It certainly isn't what you would call a "quaffable" wine and in fact after taking about an hour to drink it, my tummy was a little upset. Quite a surprise. And actually I'm kind of pleased as I can only have one more this week, and this experience hasn't made me desperate for the next one.

The Rules of Weeks 3 and 4

• You can reintroduce alcohol but NO MORE than two glasses a week (125ml of dry wine / 300ml light beer / 45ml spirits)
• You can reintroduce moderate caffeine intake (max 3 cups a day, and no milk)
• Eat meals from the menu in amounts sufficient to satisfy your appetite (min 85g meat per day)
• No dairy
• No grains
• No starchy vegetables or pulses
• You can resume taking non-prescription medications if necessary
• Continue to take leucine (6-8g per day, between meals and after exercise)
• Continue to take the prescribed vitamin supplements
• Continue to drink plenty of water or calorie/carb free drinks (no aspartame)
• If hungry, eat more fat and protein (e.g. small meat pattie, an egg, salmon, steak, chicken) – not vegetables

Today's Food

The protein shakes are gone so I'm back to cooking three meals a day. How inconvenient.

Today I cooked eggs and smoked chicken for a late breakfast, then got a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket. Here' a good tip with a rotisserie chicken: use the juices to dress the vegetables you put with it rather than muck around with making gravy. I used half a chicken for this meal, and will reheat it tomorrow for another, then use the frame for stock. Thanks chicken (if only you were free range).