The Smart Dad Diet

Remember when I wrote about my nine steps to losing weight? Four steps were related to nutrition: reducing carbohydrate intake, meal planning, meal preparation, and giving up beer.

Today I will focus on the first, reducing carbohydrate intake and avoiding combining it with fat and proteins.

The video story (if you prefer to read the story, please continue below the video):

I have mentioned in previous posts that I have tried many diets, and combining foods is part of most diets. All the diets had in common: I was successful in the short term, but it stopped somewhere. The first of these diets was the Hay diet, which divides foods into acidic (proteins), alkaline (carbohydrates), and neutral, where you are supposed to avoid combining acidic and alkaline foods in the same meal. It seems simple at first glance, but in reality, there are a lot of details to know. Later, I tried the Montignac diet, which is based on the glycemic index, and says that you should avoid foods with a high glycemic index, such as potatoes, white rice,  white bread, and pasta. But other foods are also classified; again, it is necessary to go into depth and take a lot of time to understand the diet.

I was successful with both diets in the short term, but eventually, I lost the motivation to go into the theoretical details, so I finally gave up. So at some point, I decided that I needed to simplify things, and without overcomplicating, I took something from each of the two diets and put together some simple rules:

• Avoid potatoes, white rice, white bread, and pasta made from white flour – they all have a high glycemic index
• Eat whole-grain or spelt carbohydrates for breakfast
• Do not combine carbohydrates with proteins and fat – e.g., spelt bread with jam is OK, but without butter
• For lunch and dinner, you can mix proteins (meat, eggs) with vegetables, with salads, or with cooked vegetables
• Eat fruit separately between main meals

The advantage of this diet, I call it The Smart Dad Diet, is that it is straightforward, so I can plan my meals accordingly without having to constantly learn and check each food’s theoretical background and mechanisms of action.

During my last major diet, I followed the above rules 100% and was highly successful, certainly not less than with the Hay and Montignac diets. In the last few years, my commitment has dropped, and I have stuck to my diet perhaps 70%, but I have never abandoned it, which I consider a significant success.

In short, my dietary rules are very simple, and although I am not able to fully stick to them, they have enabled me never to give up entirely and have thus managed to keep my weight at least partly under control.

Of course, rules are the first step, but for their successful implementation, there are two more steps required: menu planning & meal preparation. If you are interested to read more, stay tuned!