The Sirt Diet Cookbook

7 Blackberries

15 blackberries • 1 of your SIRT 5 a day • 32 calories

Another easy SIRT fix to keep in your fridge. Available in the supermarket or your nearest hedgerow. Also great as a frozen treat.

8 Dark chocolate 85%

6 squares/20g chocolate • 1 of your SIRT 5 a day • 125 calories

Get your chocolate hit here! If you prefer 70% dark chocolate, you’ll need 9 squares/30g, which will be 180 calories.

9 Pomegranate seeds

50g/half a small pack • 1 of your SIRT 5 a day • 50 calories

Easy to obtain while on the go, pomegranate seeds pack a large SIRT punch and you only need half a 100g pack to get one of your SIRT portions.

10 Blueberries

25 blueberries (80g) • 1 of your sirt 5 a day • 36 cals

One large handful of blueberries is all you need to get your SIRT 5 a day.

THE RED WINE QUESTION (#ulink_2e8e399a-c745-5939-8ceb-f42c8e2d5182)

For some people, myself included, the idea of a diet that allows any alcohol, particularly one as delicious as red wine, has got to be the best diet ever. There are a few rules to follow when it comes to having a drink (there to make sure you don’t go overboard) and you have to stick to red wine as it’s the only one that contains resveratrol, one of the most important SIRT bioactives.

One small glass of red wine (125ml) is one of your SIRT 5 a day. I wouldn’t recommend any wine on your jump-start days as even a small glass of wine has 120 calories and may encourage you to eat more.

However, on days 3–7, a small glass of red is acceptable, even encouraged, with your evening meal. On days 6 and 7, or whatever days happen to be the weekend, up to 2 small glasses (or 1 large) is allowed. Enjoy the wine knowing it’s good for you and helping with your diet, but be aware of how even a small alcoholic drink may affect you. Firstly, it is sometimes hard to resist a second or third glass of wine with the bottle open and the first glass being so tasty. This really isn’t allowed on the SIRT diet and is counterproductive. If you find that 1 glass of wine is never enough and willpower is a problem, consider cutting out the wine altogether and getting your SIRTs from other sources. The other tricky concern is does drinking wine make you eat more later in the evening? I find that this can be a problem for me. Even a small glass of wine inspires a ‘laissez-faire’ attitude and can leave me scurrying for the biscuit tin.

Everyone is different when it comes to their attitude to alcohol and red wine. If red wine is not your favourite tipple, then abstinence (for the diet period at any rate) is the most sure-fire way to lose the pounds. If you like a glass of red, then don’t go over the top – 4–5 small glasses a week is the maximum. If you have large wine glasses at home (who doesn’t?) then measure 125ml in a measuring jug the first time so you know the correct portion size. A standard wine bottle is 750ml, which is 6 small glasses of wine, so you’ll need to make it last. An airtight wine stopper is a good investment as it allows you to keep the wine fresh for several days. I normally stopper the wine after pouring out a glass and then put it away so it is ‘out of sight and mind’.

Saying all of this, you should not be discouraged. A delicious glass of red wine is something to savour and enjoy guilt-free on the SIRT Diet.

WHAT ABOUT EXERCISE? (#ulink_f354cd3f-37ab-5629-a769-1c65ddc4a922)

Have a great exercise routine already and have no wish to change it? That’s fine. Just carry on as you are, you are off to a great start already. The SIRT Diet gives you plenty of energy (perhaps even more than normal) to follow your normal exercise plan. You should find this is the case even on jump-start days, although maybe skip the marathon that day …

Not really an exerciser? That’s OK too. Obviously as part of any balanced healthy living plan, exercise is always a good idea. At least 30 minutes, three times a week of exercise is a good minimum. However, the SIRT Diet plan isn’t about exercise and you don’t need to change your current lifestyle to successfully follow the plan.

The beauty of the SIRT diet is that just by eating more SIRT foods you are likely to convert fat to muscle – without changing or increasing your exercise routine at all. As well as weight-loss, you will find that you look and feel leaner by the end of the plan and this is due to a reduction in fat and an increase in muscle fibres. This will not be reflected on the scales as muscle is actually slightly heavier than fat. For example, if you lose 10lb on the scales, then by the end of the four-week plan you may have converted another 4lb to muscle. So your total weight-loss is ‘only’ 10lb, but you will look and feel like you’ve lost over a stone. Just wait for the compliments to start rolling in.

The only exercise ‘guideline’ you need for SIRT dieting:

Don’t worry about exercise. Just carry on as you are.

THE JUMP-START (#ulink_aed564d6-7fc9-5778-b7ff-ac1779996d7b)

800 CALORIES PER DAY WITH SIRT FOODS

By restricting calories as well as eating SIRT foods, you will trigger fat-burning genes and get your SIRT diet off to the best possible start.

Eating only 800 calories per day may sound hard, but if you pick your foods carefully – to be filling as well as SIRT-rich – you will not feel more than a little bit hungry. Avoid ‘empty’ calories in foods like bread and pasta, which will fill you up for an hour or so but leave you starving later on. Instead, pick fibre-rich carbohydrates like oats and beans. Eat some protein and/or fat with every meal as these are the most filling parts of your diet. Chicken, eggs and fish all contain good-quality protein. Dairy, particularly yogurt (the full-fat kind), contains protein and carbs and can be part of a filling and healthy breakfast.

As a rough guide you’ll probably want to eat about 200 calories for breakfast, 200 for lunch and 400 for dinner. This enables you to have enough food to curb your hunger pangs during the day and have a ‘proper’ balanced meal for dinner.

I find that on jump-start days I don’t feel hungry during the day – although I do enjoy my food more than normal – and my evening meal is the most important part of the day. The only time I find it hard is later on in the evening when my cravings for unhealthy food are at their highest. I get through them knowing that I can feed my cravings guilt-free with dark chocolate on other days.

It is likely that you will need to keep track of your calories on a jump-start day, especially the first few times you do it. Although it is extremely important to eat plenty of SIRT foods, making sure you don’t exceed 800 calories on your jump-start days is the most sure-fire way to lose weight quickly. If you need to take in more SIRTs, try adding green tea, which is calorie free, or add red grapes or other berries, which come in at under 50 calories per portion.

Jump-start breakfast suggestions include: SIRT fruits and yogurt, oat-based cereal + grapes and omelette with green vegetables. All breakfasts should include a cup of green tea.

Jump-start lunch suggestions include: miso soup (either home-made or take-away), young kale salad with chicken or beans, savoy cabbage and bacon soup.

A jump-start dinner should include: protein such as chicken, salmon or prawns, a good source of carbohydrates – think basmati rice, new potatoes in their skin – and plenty of leafy green vegetables and other healthy SIRTs.

Example jump-start day

As a rough guide, you should aim to consume up to 200 calories for breakfast, 200 for lunch and 400 for dinner.

EXAMPLE JUMP-START DAY MENU

Breakfast:

200 calories • 3 portions of SIRTS

Cup of green tea

Fresh SIRT fruit or smoothie

Mid-morning:

Cup of green tea

Lunch:

200 calories • 3 portions of SIRTS

Leafy green salad or miso soup

Dinner:

400 calories •3 portions of SIRTS

Lean meat such as chicken or fish or tofu/beans

A small portion of good carbs such as brown