I’ve been asked what I ate during week 1. The answer: pretty boring stuff, mostly. I actually took pictures of most of the food I was eating to send to Laurel, because she was planning on doing the diet, but was away in Israel when I started.

The trick is to cook more than one serving at a time, even for things like cooked vegetables. I don’t like frozen veggies, so I generally buy fresh and make 2-4 servings at a time because it saves time and energy. Hooray for dishwashers.

Things cooked in bulk:

• Lentils: one package tends to last me about a week. I like them a little softer, so I boil them for close to 30 minutes.
• Bacon: one package of center cut bacon at a time. I save the bacon rendering for later. Haven’t used it for anything yet.

Breakfast tends to be the same thing every day:

• Lentils (often fried in some oil; the texture is nicer)
• 3 scrambled eggs, Gordon Ramsay style
• 3 strips of bacon (microwave them for 20 seconds, and they taste like they’re right out of the pan!)
• 1 serving (8oz) of V8 juice. This was my savior at the beginning, as it the thing with the “loudest” flavor, and until I adjusted to the subtleties of the other things I was eating, it was the most interesting thing on a daily basis
• 2 cups coffee with 1 tablespoon of cream per cup

Lunches and dinners are generally a meat with a legume and vegetables–often 2 or more. Sometimes cooked, sometimes raw. If you need rubs for your meats, I recommend Penzeys market (online or retail).

Meats:

• Steak spiced with a rub or seasoning
• Chicken spiced with a rub
• Boneless pork chops spiced with a rub
• Breadless cheeseburger, using aged swiss cheese, and often topped with salsa
• Tuna (usually wrapped in lettuce like a lettuce+tuna roll)
• Chicken sausage (grilled or broiled)

Sides:

• Black beans or lentils
• Raw cucumbers and carrots
• Nathan’s dill pickles

Vegetables:

• Asparagus (sauteed in olive oil with spices, or steamed)
• Green beans (steam a bunch, and eat them over the next 2-3 days)

Other dishes I make regularly or would make again:

• Spaghetti squash + slow carb tomato sauce + turkey meatballs, and shredded parmesan on top. Surprisingly good. Make the turkey meatballs with almond meal instead of breadcrumbs.
• Two slices of Thin n trim chicken from the deli with a slice of aged swiss in between. Brown it up in a pan (no oil needed!), which melts the cheese. Top with salsa, and eat with a knife and fork like a thick slice of ham.
• Lentils mixed with salsa.

Things I’d like to try:

• Grilled kabobs with meat and veggies
• A cooked black bean salad/stir fry thing with meat and veggies and beans
• A stir fry over lentils or beans.

I eat the same things over and over again, which is what most people do (and certainly what I did before the diet). The only real difference is that I’ve changed the things that I repeat.