About the Gazpacho Diet - Made In Italy On Line

About the Gazpacho Diet
And Why I Invented It
1,200 Calories a Day With Lots of Choices!
Healthy and Balanced, Gives You Lots of Energy!

Italiano

If only I had been satisfied with my body and weight when I was 20 years old. I was perfectly normal for my height of six feet, with a 26" inch waist but with hips wider than I liked because of my bone structure. In those days women were held to almost-impossible standards of beauty, and I was as unhappy as any woman at the time. Unfortunately, years of dieting, losing weight and gaining it back in spades, has led me to my current state of being, let's face it, fat. Yes, dear readers, I actually DIETED MY WAY TO OBESITY.
The last straw came the other day. I entered the isolation chamber at my bank's door and was humiliated to hear "Only one person at a time" from the loudspeaker which could also be heard by the people inside the bank! Right now it's not just a case of looks and self-image, it's also a matter of health. I have a small bone structure, and my back has rebelled at supporting all the weight. Like many people, I was using phen-fen as a crutch (years ago it was Dexamyl) but now I'm on my own.

For years, during the summer, I would make large bowls of gazpacho and keep them in the refrigerator. Gazpacho is the basic summer dish of peasants in Andalusia in southern Spain, made with bread and the ingredients from their gardens. My Italian friends loved it when I offered it for dinner. This past winter there was a craze in Italy for the "Minestrone" diet made from vegetables and beans. The idea came to me: Why not offer a summer version of the minestrone diet. Consult with doctors and dieticians and make it a really well-balanced diet, something that people could live with, and stick to over a long period of time.

In addition, my kitchen is the hottest room in my apartment. Cooking there can be miserable! So I devised a diet where you can avoid cooking completely if you like, or cook just once a day, in the morning when it's cool, for lunch, or for dinner. The diet is very flexible and gives you lots of choices. It even allows for sugar in your coffee or tea, jam on your toast, a plate of pasta if you get that terrible longing, one (but just one) glass of wine a day, and even, yes, tiny as it is, a 20-gram (7/10 ounce) bar of chocolate. I worked it out to 40 Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate bits, but I don't have any Hersey kisses to weigh, so you'll have to figure that out for yourself. Would somebody like to weigh M&Ms? Pocket Coffee?

Doctors advise not to weigh yourself more than once a week but let's face it, everybody jumps on the scale first thing in the morning, even removing their wristwatch! The regular diet provides for 1,200 calories a day. The "Blitz" diet allows for 750 calories daily and permits you to "jump-start" your diet, with the "Blitz" the first week to get you off to a good start. The "Blitz" can also be used for those days when you are having dinner with friends, attending a wedding, and such celebrations. Eat the "Blitz" breakfast, one meal from the "Blitz" diet, and enjoy your night out. (Just don't do this every day!)

Please write with any suggestions, comments, etc. If you backslide don't be discouraged, just pick up, go back on the diet, and keep going!

OK, let's get going, and good luck to everybody!