Sirtfood Recipes

Hailed as the new 5:2, endorsed by numerous celebrities and with promises of 7lb weight loss in the first 7 days, is the Sirtfood Diet too good to be true? I had to check it out for myself! This is my end of week 1 review…

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The Sirtfood Diet has intrigued me ever since I first heard about it. Not only does it promise incredible weight loss, muscle gain and an improvement in overall health, the Sirtfood Diet also actively encourages eating chocolate and drinking coffee and red wine (albeit in moderation!). It all just sounded just a little but too good to be true…I felt I had to test its claims. So I decided to put these claims to the test and put myself on the three week long diet in a bid to see if it really works for mere mortals. For more information on the Sirtfood Diet do go and check out last Monday’s post: What is the Sirtfood Diet and does it really work? Part 1.

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Well, having got to grips with my new juicer and done a bit of shopping to start myself off, I was ready and raring to go. The first 3 days of the Sirtfood Diet involve 3 green juices and only 1 meal, so I was prepared for it to be tough, but actually I was pleasantly surprised. The juices were drinkable and bizarrely I didn’t feel hungry all day until about 5pm (which was only an hour before dinner, so completely bearable).

But the real highlight of the day was the two squares of Lindt 85% chocolate I was allowed after dinner. I waited until my kids were in bed and I had finished work for the day before I allowed myself this treat and it was fabulous, but did seem rather naughty!

I spaced the juices out so I had one at 7.30am (our usual breakfast time), one at 11am, one at 2.30pm, and then dinner at 6pm and the chocolate at about 9pm. Before heading off to bed I made up my 3 juices for the next day.

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So, feeling smug that I had completed Monday so well and had all my juices ready to go, Tuesday was something of a shocker. The juice, which I had been quite happy drinking on Monday, tasted vile – so much so that it made me gag! Really not sure what went wrong here. I have a few theories: maybe making it up the night before meant the juices were less fresh, maybe the kale I used in batch 2 of the juices was a bit past its best, maybe my body had suddenly changed its mind and rejected the juice? Still not sure what the reasons were, but by juice 3 on Tuesday, I just couldn’t drink it. Not even holding my nose. I had a few sips and then the rest of juice 3 went down the sink.

On the plus side, I still didn’t feel hungry at all. All day! Not even at 5pm, like the day before. And the dinner I chose: Kale and Red Onion Dhal with Buckwheat was delicious. Each day there are two choices for dinner: a meat/fish one and a veggie/vegan one. I decide to mix and match a bit depending what the options were. The dhal sounded so good – I just had to try it and I was not at all disappointed.

And of course there was that wonderful decadent treat of two squares of Lindt 85% in the evening. I decided after my green juice disaster that I wouldn’t make my juices up the night before, but instead make them up fresh each time on Wednesday. Also my Tesco supermarket delivery driver arrived with a fresh batch of kale so the old manky kale went in the bin.

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I made a few changes to the juice on Wednesday. I slightly upped the apple – a whole one, not half as per the recipe. And I slightly reduced the celery – the main smell that was making me gag. I reduced the celery down from 2 to 1 sticks. Otherwise I just made up the juice the same as Monday and Tuesday…and it was fine! I’m not going to lie to you, it’s not the most delicious thing I’ve ever drunk in my life, but it is perfectly drinkable (unlike Tuesday’s bad batch which certainly was not!).

However a thought had been niggling in my brain since the start of the diet…the Sirtfood green juice ingredients all sounded like rather fab ingredients for a salad…would it work? Well I figured it was worth a shot! So instead of juice 2, I used the ingredients to make a simple salad. I made a dressing out of the lemon juice and ginger and a tiny bit of extra virgin olive oil. I massaged it into the kale and then added the rocket, parsley, celery and apple, plus a few walnuts. Both walnuts and extra virgin olive oil are Sirtfoods, so I didn’t feel too naughty adding them…and yes it did make a lovely salad (recipe below, if you fancy it). The salad was massive – I couldn’t finish it all and tasted lovely. Definitely one to have again and much nicer than the juice!!

Wednesday’s dinner was another triumph: Aromatic Chicken with Kale, Buckwheat and Salsa. It was delicious and very easy to do. And the salsa…I could have eaten a whole bucket of that – sooooo good! My only complaint would be that it used every single pot and pan in the house (OK I exaggerate. It used 5. But that is waaay more than I would usually use – I am a 1 pot kind of a girl, sometimes 2 but NEVER 5, unless it’s like Christmas or something and even then…have you seen my Christmas Turkey Traybake Recipe?). Basically I think whoever writes the Sirtfood recipes must have someone who does his washing up for him. (Quick check of the book reveals it’s a chef called Mark McCulloch… so he probably does have a whole army of underlings to wash up for him!)

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And then there was the chocolate again. You have to picture me at about 9pm, on the sofa, reading a book, eating chocolate and drinking camomile tea. I’m so very happy. It’s a very, very nice way to end the day!

So on Day 4 it all changes and you are allowed 2 proper meals and 2 green juices. This gave me a bit of a dilemma as to when to have the first meal, which on Thursday was the Sirt Muesli – more of a breakfast thing really, but I wanted to spread the meals out a bit so I opted to have the muesli at 11am and the juices at 7.30am and 2.30pm.

As before, I made the juice up fresh to my slightly adapted recipe and it was fine. Making the juice sounds a bit of a faff, but really it isn’t. Once you get used to it, it takes all of 10 minutes to make and drink the juice and do the washing up. That’s quicker than my usual breakfast (of 2 shredded wheat and a glass of orange juice) takes to eat (I’m a slow eater, OK!). I do think one of the things that made the green juice so bearable was my fabPhilips HR1867/21 Viva Collection Juicer *. It really is very simple to use and wash up. I really love it and will definitely be making more juices once I’ve finished the Sirtfood Diet (though maybe I’ll take a break from ones involving kale and celery for a while!)

Sirtfood Diet Week 1 Review

The Sirt Muesli was FAB and one of the absolutehighlights of Week 1 (the other most definitely being Saturday’s dinner! See below…). It’s really quick to put together. You can make loads of it in one go. And it tastes amazing! Plus the quantity you are allowed is massive – I couldn’t eat it all!

For dinner, I opted for the vegan option of Tuscan Bean Stew. (There is a salmon option, if you prefer, which also sounds good.) The stew was very nice, but it was the third meal in a row served with buckwheat and it would have been nice if it had been served with something else as I was getting a little bit fed up with buckwheat by this point. Buckwheat is nice but not every day. Ditto kale and celery for that matter. I know the Sirtfood Diet tries to cram in as much of the top 20 Sirtfoods as possible into each meal but it does make for a bit too much sameyness. I do really like kale/celery/buckwheat etc. But for breakfast lunch and dinner every day for a week – not so much!

Now here’s the thing. After Wednesday, there

How To Make The Sirtfood Diet's Aromatic Chicken Breast With Chilli Salsa