Sardine Diet

I came up with this idea back in November 2015 to just eat one can/tin of sardines a day for a month. I thought of this because I wanted to kick start my weight loss again. Read my last post about my weight-loss journey but in short, in 2012 I started following a low carb, high fat, moderate protein diet and had great success. 70 pounds lost kind of success. But as with any diet, I started tweaking and exploring different foods. And with any success I got a little cocky that I could eat a little of this or that and nothing would happen. Well that was more true than I had considered. Nothing did happen. I did not lose anymore and I really did not gain anything. For 2 years I weighed about the same (250–260) depending on the day etc. The real patterned developed into a M-Th — I would get down to 251/250 and then the week-end would happen and on Monday I was looking at 256/258. That cycle repeated for 2014 & 2015. I need to make a change.

I believe that a low carb diet will work— for everyone. Allow your body to determine when and where it needs glucose and let it make it.

Breaking It Down Phase

One option that I considered and that people like Jimmy Moore do is Fasting. Really Not eating anything for 30 days. This is a ZERO carb diet obviously. I am not sure I was up for that. Another option was to follow the Rosedale diet or a basic low carb/Paleo plan which does offer a lot of choices for protein (including sardines) and veggies etc.and after 31 days I might gravitate back to this diet, but I need to get mentally tough and have a laser focus on getting my weight loss going again. Knowing myself as I do too many choices can lead to some bad choices.

So what is the next best option? Eat zero carbs, a little protein and some healthy fat. Bingo. I remembered Dr Ron Rosedale’s answer to the perfect food and thought a can of sardines a day. Granted I have been learning to eat sardines through 2015 and have really come to enjoy them. So I thought what if I only ate one can of sardines a day?

The can of sardines I like and eat are 301 calories. 24g of fat and 24g of protein. 0 Carbs.

To drive the point home. I am limiting my intake of food thereby entering a ketosis state, which in ketosis I will use fat and hopefully the fat on my body as my fuel. My hormones should start communicating correctly and my appetite will be reduced due to lower leptin levels and I will start losing weigh.

You Still Have Not Answered Why Sardines!

*Easy — Open. Eat.

*Cheap — $2 a day

*Amazing Nutritional Value

*Portable — put a can in my laptop bag and I am good to go No excuses as to why I could not follow this diet for 31 days.

*Serious Calorie Restriction- Sub 1000 per day

*Less Choice Means Less Room for Error- Sardines are going to make it easy for my to follow the diet.

While I wanted to limit my options and reduce my calories intake only a can of sardines was still a little too hardcore for even me. So I added Coffee/tea some crunch with Bell Pepper/Cucumbers (which are very low carb sub 10g) different flavors for the sardines, lemon, tabasco, pesto and a little Tito’s Vodka for the times I needed to relax or if I was out with friends.

Putting It Out There — Periscope

So yesterday after posting what I was going to do and sharing that to my community via facebook I opened Periscope and did a little scope showing the sardines and just talking. Generally I get 0–10 people watch any scope I do. But this one started to grow for some reason. People were asking questions and engaged in what I was doing. Who knew that sardines was such an attention getter. 266 people tuned in to watch some of what I was doing and now about the same number have watched on the replay. I am floored. Here are some answers to the questions they asked me.

Do I not Cook?

Yep and I think I am a pretty good cook. Check out my instagram

Where Did You Hear of this Diet?

Well I do not consider this a diet just a method to kick start a low carb diet. I came up with the idea myself.

Exercise is More Important Than Diet

I disagree. It is important and should be done but diet will impact health more in my opinion.

The Wrap

You still reading? Good. You want to follow along in my journey? Good. Go to terrygrier.com and get connected to me. I am planning on doing daily periscopes and blogging about my experience as well.

So follow me and see what happens. If you decide to do the diet with me use the #sardinediet I would love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback.

Terry