Who said diet food can be boring? I think I did, but have been consistently proven wrong in the past week. The food coming in from Balance Café has not only been very tasty (what would you say to flavourful lamb cakes or lettuce aumonieres of herbed vegetables in creamy sauce or the turkey-papaya rolls and the pineapple or tomato rasam?) but enough for the whole day, rather than for just one meal.
So much so that my colleagues have started questioning me whether I'm really on diet — especially one who's now on a "juice diet". Just Thursday when I opened my lunch main course of beef in teriyaki sauce, I couldn't imagine what the chef was thinking sending me what one friend called "a whole animal" — and that too after requesting smaller portions (Balance Café will reduce portions if planner requests).
"Yes, the meals have been designed specifically to be filling. They are meant to satiate your hunger and still be within a calorie limit," Dr Chandy says. "It is best to eat slowly and spend a little more time chewing your food. Ideally, in a day a total of 1,400 calories is required by the body. If breakfast makes for about 200 calories, lunch about 500 and an early dinner of about 300, snacks can go up to 100 calories in total. The remaining calories that the body needs should be obtained by burning the reserve fats. This helps individuals to start losing weight."
Well, sorry to disagree, but that beef dish definitely did not seem within 500 calories — no doubt it was tasty and vanished in 15 minutes between the three people on the table.
I also find the portion too big to finish, because not only is there a salad (often two big ones) but also a little dessert. Obviously, you don't expect me to miss a chocolate fig torte with vanilla ice-cream or blueberry panna cotta …
"According to Ayurveda, all six tastes — sweet, sour, astringent, salty, bitter and pungent — need to be fulfilled," Dr Chandy explains. "The ‘sweet' is considered to help build tissues and calm nerves. Thus, the dessert is an important component of your daily diet. It always makes sense to indulge sensibly."
As I've been regularly attending my yoga classes (I forget what other exercise I'm supposed to do. Maybe next week I'll remember …), I did manage to move the needle on the weighing scale a kilo in the lower direction. And to celebrate it, I promptly headed to my favourite burger joint — just the sandwich and a few fries, though.
