Day 1, Week 1.

I am both excited and scared of the journey ahead of us. Excited in that I think it’s going to be really interesting. Scared in that firstly it might not work, and secondly I might be really, really hungry!

So, the important bit. Starting weights.

Week 1 Mrs Diet Diva: 147.2lbs BMI: 23.8 (less than I thought)

Week 1 Mr Diet Diva:  184.2lbs BMI: 25.7 (more than he thought)

We’ve decided to start with The Harcombe Diet . The Juice Diet seemed a good way to detox and clense, but it’s very anti-social. So we have booked out the first week in the diary (28^th February onwards) that we don’t currently have any social engagements which can’t be moved, and we’ll try not to put any more in it, and that’s the week we’re doing it. Having had a quick flick through the juice diet book it looks miserable. And very, very expensive. I thought it would just be a juice or smoothie of your choice for every meal, but its very prescriptive. More reading is required I think.

So, Harcombe. We’ve actually done this one before to try to shape up for our wedding. The hubby loved it, lost 11lbs in two weeks. I hated it, ended up hugely dehydrated and gained 1.2lbs. The good thing about Harcombe is there is no measuring or weighing, and it’s easy to follow. The hard and fast rule is no carbs and fats in the same meal. It also promotes one of my most strongly held beliefs – no processed food. I am guilty of sometimes reaching for some toast or pizza, and I have a worrying diet coke addiction. However all our meals are always homemade with the exception of bread to go with Mr DD’s lunchtime soup. And ice-cream, somehow I can never get mine to set.

So the good thing is you can go out with your friends and just eat something vegetarian, or a mixed grill or the like.

Harcombe has 3 stages. Phase 1 lasts 5 days. In phase 1 there is no sugar, grains, dairy, potatoes, mushrooms, nuts or fruit. You can have as much meat, eggs and other veg as you like. You can have 50g of brown rice per day, or 150g if you’re vegetarian.

You can’t have fruit juice, squash or milk in your tea in days 1-5. You can have 1 black coffee if you really need it. No fizzy drinks or anything else. Basically water hot or cold, as you can have any spices you could feasibly put some mint or ginger in it.

Breakfast today is a chicken thigh fried in garlic. Mr DD has 3 hard boiled eggs and the other turkey thigh. Weird certainly. And to be honest not all that appetising at 8am. I miss my usual bowl of fruit. Phase 1 is supposed to get rid of cravings for junk food, but all I crave is an orange and some strawberries right now. Surely those aren’t dangerous cravings? 

Oddly the exception to the no processed food rule is Quorn. Surely one of the most processed foods on the planet! But it does make it easier to have whole wheat spaghetti Quorn bolognaise or a Quorn fillet and sweet potato on stage 2.

Lunch today is a pork, spinach, carrot and parsnip curry, cooked pretty dry so I don’t need to worry about not having any rice or naan to mop it up with. I have a huge portion so hopefully it’ll fill me. Mr DD has homemade carrot soup and some more chicken. Dinner will be a vegan curry as a friend is coming over, with our 50g of rice. My theory is throw lots of spice at it and things might not be so bad!

You have to really like either vegetables or meat to make this diet work, and at the start it does feel very odd not to have the carbs on your plate along with the steak or chicken.