The Sirt Diet Cookbook. Jacqueline Whitehart

life.

      Firstly, you should think about what are your worst habits. What are the foods, beliefs or bad habits that get in the way of a successful diet? Perhaps like me you’re a late-night snacker? A weekend binger? A kids’ tea scoffer? Or even a biscuit non-resister?

      Change one – break your worst habit

      The first thing you need to find is your biggest diet-breaking bad habit. When it comes to over-eating, when are you most likely to buckle? You must work hard to stop this behaviour. This is where willpower comes into play, but also you will find the diet-friendly SIRT foods and proper balanced healthy meals will help enormously.

      My worst habit is definitely eating far too much in the evening. This is invariably cheap sweet snacks. I’m not hungry particularly, but my willpower is low and my cravings are high. What do I do to beat this habit? Well the first thing I do is eat a small portion of dark chocolate. I try and eat this slowly and make the treat last as long as possible. I normally find that this fulfils my need for something sweet – although I do have to resist going back to the cupboard for a second helping. If I make it through the evening with only one portion of dark chocolate and nothing else, then I give myself a pat on the back for another diet day achieved successfully.

      Here are a few other common bad habits and best advice for breaking the pattern:

       • Eating kids’ leftovers

      Don’t want to waste those chips? Carefully cutting off the crusts for fussy children, but find they somehow make their way to your mouth without you realising? I think it’s hard for parents to throw good food away and the mind-set is that it is preferable to eat them yourself rather than throw them away. This comes from our fear of waste. But just think you might eat 300 to 400 calories of rubbish without even realising. You need to be on guard and aware of what you might put in your mouth without noticing. Would it really be so bad to throw a few things away? No of course not. Scrape plates straight into the bin when your children have finished and don’t leave yourself open to temptation.

       • Unable to turn down biscuits and cakes when offered

      This happens more than we care to mention. Someone in your office brings in a delicious cake and says help yourself. Or even worse they say: ‘It’ll go to waste if you don’t help me eat it.’ You’re at a friend’s house and you are offered a biscuit with your cuppa. How do you say no? Surely only one biscuit or a little slice of cake won’t hurt? If this is your biggest weakness then you have to say no. Try not to make a big thing about it. In fact you may find that just saying no with little fuss and just moving on to a different topic may mean that no one really notices. However, you can and should give yourself a big pat on the back because this is one of the hardest things to do.

       • Eating too much when you go out to eat

      Faced with amazing food in a restaurant, it’s very easy to eat bread roll, starter, huge main course and an enormous pudding. For a very rare treat then just do it! Life is for living after all. But if it’s a habit you do frequently, then one blow-out meal could mean that a whole week of good healthy eating is lost. That is what you have to weigh up. Is it worth it? If you’re trying go out for a meal and still be healthy, then go just for a healthy-ish main course without chips or bread and resist the pudding. If you don’t have too much carbohydrate, sugar or fried food, then it counts as a success – especially if you eat some SIRT-rich foods too – although you need to be aware that you probably won’t lose weight that day.

       • Weekend splurge

      Are you good all week, but eat and drink like crazy at the weekend? Does willpower go out of the window because the weekend is a time for having fun? If you are good all week but have a blow-out at the weekend, then you will not lose weight. It’s as simple as that. All your hard work during the week is totally lost. Is the pleasure worth the cost? If you need to let your hair down, then choose one aspect to splurge on, but be good on everything else. Want to have a few drinks? Eat a healthy SIRT-rich meal before you start drinking to help resist drink-induced snacking and stick to low-calorie drinks and red wine.

       • Biscuit-tin raider

      If you’ve got a biscuit tin for your kids or guests, then it can be hard to resist the temptation when you’re feeling run-down. It is impossible to forget that it’s there. Do you really need a full biscuit tin at home? If you’re not due any guests, then maybe empty it all into the bin (this is a job to do in the morning when you’re feeling strong) and buy/make SIRT-rich treats when needed.

      Remember you are setting out to fix only your worst habit. This is the one you should focus on breaking. Try to change your mind-set on just the one thing and everything else should fall into place. Every single day that you don’t succumb, give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.

      Change two – drink green tea every day

      Love it or loathe it, there’s no getting away from it, drinking green tea is an essential part of the SIRT diet.

      If you’re already a convert to green tea, then congratulations you’ll already be reaping the benefits of the extraordinary sirtuins found in green tea. You’ll find weight-loss comes more easily, together with a revitalised spirit and glowing skin.

      This is for the rest of you. Those of you that think you can follow the SIRT diet without drinking green tea. You simply can’t. Even if you dislike it, you’re going to need to drink it as it is a core part of the diet.

      Why is green tea so vital?

      Green tea is the only source of one of the most powerful sirtuin bioactives, catechin. Catechins are so potent that only a small quantity, one small cup, triggers fat metabolism and reduces oxidative stress.

       • Appetite suppressant

      With a cup or two of green tea inside you, you really notice the difference in terms of hunger pangs. You should find that you don’t think about food between meals.

       • A little bit of caffeine

      A cup of green tea contains about a quarter of the caffeine you’d find in a cup of coffee or half the caffeine you’d find in a cup of black tea. This caffeine is just enough to combine with the catechins to have an even more powerful fat-burning effect. This is the optimum way to convert fat to muscle.

       • More energy

      Hard to measure but definitely there, the catechins give you a little natural buzz that makes starting the day a smidgeon easier.

       • Cumulative effect

      The power of green tea keeps on giving and two cups of green tea is better than one cup, three cups is better than two cups, etc. In fact you can get up to four of your SIRT 5 a day from green tea if you drink four or more cups.

       • Zero calorie

      Green tea is naturally calorie free. It doesn’t need sugar or sweetener and gives you energy without the calories.

      To prove to myself the benefits of green tea, I have done a little bit of self-experimentation. I conducted the experiment on two consecutive days. On the first, I drank three cups of green tea, one at breakfast and two mid-morning. I also drank my normal quantities of black tea and coffee so that I didn’t upset my normal caffeine levels. I ate a small (non-SIRT) breakfast of natural yogurt and honey. On the second day, I drank no green tea but had the same builder’s tea and milky coffee and the same breakfast. I was surprised by the difference between the two mornings. The most substantial difference was to my energy levels. I felt noticeably brighter on the green-tea day and was able to get more work done. It felt like a little extra zing in my step, different and discernible from my standard morning caffeine buzz. The second difference was my hunger. I really didn’t feel hungry all morning on the green-tea day and didn’t think about food at all until lunchtime, despite my insubstantial breakfast. On the day when I didn’t drink green