Changing The World, One Meal At A Time

Roasted pumpkin and cheese really is a match made in heaven. The Real Meal Revolution has an awesome recipe for spiced pumpkin and goat's cheese, covered with sunflower seeds and citrus dressing. Page 226, if you have the book by Prof Tim Noakes, Sally-Ann Creed, Jonno Proudfoot and David Grier. A lot of thought has gone into this real meal revolution.

Changing the world, one meal at a time is such an appropriate slogan. When we cooked this the other day, I shared a piece of sirloin steak with my eldest daughter, Jordan. My wife and youngest daughter are pescatarian (vegetarian but eat seafood). We joked about this when we were with friends in Zambia that a vegetarian in Africa is someone who doesn't eat red meat.

I am enjoying this new eating plan. It is new to me, and while The Real Meal Revolution seems like the "flavour of the month" in South Africa, it is based on the Atkins Diet. Further evidence for me that this is not a fad, is the concept of Banting. This is based on what was a fat man's way of eating. William Banting in 1862,  was 66 years old and weighed over two hundred pounds (over 90kg). He was five-foot-five in height, so that made him a fat man. By avoiding sugar or starch in his food, William Banting lost thirty five pounds by the following May (15kg). He continued to lose weight by sticking to that diet. He was not starving himself, he ate three meals a day, consisting of meat, fish and game.

I have been chasing my ideal weight since last year November, when I was well above 100kg. 104kg is a weight that I had never seen myself at before, and even for me being six foot tall, it is overweight. I have been exercising, and went on an eating plan where I was calorie counting "Calories in must be less than calories out".  I lost 5kg in the three months to February 2014.

I started Banting a week ago. I have lost 3kg in seven days, simply by following the recipe book and, green list as per the Real Meal Revolution. My cholesterol shot up in the process. I am not worried about that. Why I am not worried is because of further research I did into the relationship between high cholesterol and risk of heart disease. That's a different story for another time.

While I am a believer, I need research and evidence to buy into an idea. The evidence is, The Real Meal Revolution is changing my world one meal at a time. I was battling to break below 99kg's and in one week on this diet, that breakthrough has happened and long may it last.