Page 11 | Anyone tried the sirtfood diet?

H3l3naGraham · 18/02/2016 10:33

Hi painterlady, well done with the gym, I have added a brisk 2 mile walk to my otherwise sedentary regime, managing 3-4 times a week, but looking at the rain today, I will need to find some wellies along with some motivation...A trick someone once told me when you get a food craving is to brush your teeth....I love wine, it's my real weakness, along with cheese and under duress I have actually tried this and bizarrely it puts your mind in a place where the idea of putting chocolate, wine (or whatever floats your boat) into your mouth, is a turn-off.... Laughing as I type, but hey, it doesn't cost anything, won't hurt & might work for you too!! I also like 'cooks tipples' but have now managed to restrain myself & only raise my (much smaller) glass when I sit down for supper. Got on scales this AM and have lost a total of 10lbs, in what is now 5 weeks, give or take a day.

KtDee · 25/02/2016 15:07

Hello all. Wow - some of the weight lost so far is great. How are you all feeling? Any noticeable improvements in general health?

I'm on day 2 (so very new to this) but it's been ok so far. Wish the weather was a little bit warmer though...

I need to lost 14lbs, so hopefully this will put me a good way towards this. Could also do with reducing my cholesterol, so it would be good to know if anyone has seen any improvements in this area too.

painterlady · 27/02/2016 18:35

Hi KTD, haven't checked cholesterol, but have noticed an increase in energy & alertness. Normally I have to put an alarm on or I would sleep away half the morning, but now I am waking half an hour before the alarm & I actually feel refreshed.That hasn't happened for years- I usually feel just as tired as when I went to bed the night before! I hated the green juices in week 1, but after not having them for 2 days ,I started to feel tired again .So the benefits outweigh the ' disgustingness ' of the drinks, & I try to have one on most days.I am not following the maintenance weeks from the book; I am just including sirtfoods in normal meals & on 2 days a week having green juice for breakfast & lunch & an evening meal under 500 calories. I have lost another 3 pounds but it was hubbys birthday yesterday so we ate out & had a few drinks!
My extra energy means I am up for more exercise though so as well as visiting the gym at least once a week & swimming ( though never more than twice in a week) , I have just sent for a Rosemary Conley exercise dvd( it was on Amazon,used 3 dvd copy for £4.60 inc p&p!)
So whilst I still have a lot of weight to lose, I am already benefitting from feeling better & find the weight loss encouraging.
Keep with it -you are doing great !

Charlydon · 28/02/2016 13:06

I've just made my first green juice and it tastes horrible! There isn't a food I don't like and I don't consider myself a fussy eater but I was struggling to drink it. I added water so it was more of a drink than a thick sludge. Can anyone guess what I've done wrong? Maybe I added too much kale as I have big hands so a handful was quite a lot!

yumyumpoppycat · 28/02/2016 16:52

Did you use a blender instead of a juicer, its yuk to me because I hate celery but not a sludge really?

I'm not on this diet but having the juice a few times a week in combination with 800 cal blood sugar diet, I think the juice does help! Well done everyone who is trying it properly.

H3l3naGraham · 02/03/2016 13:43

Hi Charlydon - I suspect that you might be using a blender like I was at the beginning, so I empathise with the compost sludge. I didn't want to invest in a juicer so bought a nut-milk-bag off Amazon for about 7 quid which another lady on this post recommended; I strain the sludge through this, give it a good squeeze & bingo, juice not slime. It is a tad messy though and I have seen on this stream that someone bought a juicer off Argos for under 50 pound so I might yet go and get one despite swearing off any more kitchen gadgets.

KtDee - I have high blood pressure and was on meds which I decided to stop last Sept. Had blood pressure measured today & it was normal for the 1st time in years..... Sirt diet has to have played a big part in this and am delighted. I have lost a stone and like many other contributors, including Painterlady I am now modifying the diet to suit my lifestyle - I am now following Michael Mosley's 8 week Blood Sugar Diet with Sirt modifications - ie the compost-juice 3 times a week & having Sirt meals on as many occassions as possible, whilst watching the calories as the 3 Sirt meal a day level is too much for me, I am not active enough to justify the calories.

Yumyumpoppycat - do keep at it, it does seem to have health benefits & to be honest if you loathe a veggie (I hate chicory to oblivion & back) then try swapping it for another veg, as you'll more likely stick with the diet if you make it taste a bit better - the Sirtuin contained in celery is called Apigenin and that is also found in parsley, so I'd add more parsley & reduce the celery if that's your pet hate.

yumyumpoppycat · 02/03/2016 14:34

Ooh I might do that parley is yum thanks H3l3naGraham! You should join us on the blood sugar diet thread too www.mumsnet.com/Talk/fasting_diet/2548602-Michael-Mosley-Blood-sugar-diet? By the way I initially tried nut bag and blender then bought a blender but wish I had either gone with a slow juicer or stuck with the blender method as my juicer gets very little from the kale. Its also still quite messy as I am trying to reuse some of the pulp etc. Juicer is quicker though.

yumyumpoppycat · 02/03/2016 14:36

Plus juicer takes up loads of space..

yumyumpoppycat · 02/03/2016 14:39

Sorry I had a blender already and then bought a juicer which I sort of regret as it is big, more parts to wash, doesn't get much juice from leaves and the children don't even like the fruit juice I have tried with it.

Snooze60 · 03/03/2016 18:20

Hi all! Have been on the Sirt for four days and feeling... Energized! That's for sure! I made the 'juice' in a blender and it was disgusting so on a trip into town spotted Heston's juicer in John Lewis at half price so bought it and now LOVE it! No probs with hunger and love the recipes...haven't got on scales...but will do on Saturday!!

yumyumpoppycat · 05/03/2016 17:15

Snoo how were the scales?!

I havent been too good at sirting but was on amazon and noticed a new recipe book and the look inside has a sirt smoothie/juice for the blender which might help some of you skinny sirt

Crlin · 07/03/2016 22:06

Hi everyone!

Just finished my first day and I didn't starve, hooray! I am tweaking the recipes to my own taste, replacing some super sirtfoods like celery with foods that have sirtfood qualities. Has anyone noticed negative effects after doing this? I was thinking about replacing the buckwheat flakes with spelt flakes as I can't seem to find them anywhere near to where I live...

H3l3naGraham · 08/03/2016 14:17

Hi Crlin! I have found Ocado very useful because like you, I have drawn total blanks with my local retailers. I have used a mixture of buckwheat flakes in the ones that look like porridge and bigOz crispy buckwheat flakes which are more like a cornflake type product, along with the tasteless puffs. The bigOz flakes are nice & crunchy and have helped me overcome my Ryvita addiction...... Spelt does mimic a protein/grain up to a point but it has more carbs in it, from what I can work out on my extensive, tedious forays onto the web.

Thank you for the recipe book hint Yumyumpoppycat, I am just about to order it from Amazon, there's only so much cod in miso anyone can eat in a month....

Snooze60, thank you for the lead, I am now looking for a heavy-duty juicer, as the nut milk bag & I are falling out of love big-time. Am in London tomorrow so will venture down to John Lewis and Argos

I am still including Sirt recipes in my 8 Week Blood Sugar Diet and have also given myself the luxury of a day off any diet occasionally, I haven't lost any more weight yet (it's only been a few days on the new diet proper & I had already lost a lot of fluid on Sirt) but neither have I put any on, which is a real relief. I need to shift my backside & get out and exercise more which will help start the weightloss again.

yumyumpoppycat · 08/03/2016 19:09

I did something disgusting today. I had a sirt juice in the fridge with tinfoil on top for a couple of days...when I took it out of the fridge there was red watery liquid on top I stirred it up and it went green so i drank some....then decided this was not a good idea after a few sips, I have drank some kind of metal oxidised stuff haven't I?

H3l3naGraham · 10/03/2016 17:09

OMG Yumyumpoppycat..... Red watery liquid...... Unless someone in your family is playing tricks, I'd take a long hard look at your juicer/blender.... Mind you, if you are still standing, I suspect it won't be fatal! I am still Sirt-juicing for at least 3 days a week, for breakfast... :( but no-way can I store bulk loads in the fridge as it seems to concentrate the compost smell & make it taste like the smell.... When it's fresh it doesn't taste too bad. She says trying hard to believe herself.

yumyumpoppycat · 10/03/2016 18:17

I think it was the tinfoil to blame but still standing phew!

ghostoftheMNchicken · 15/03/2016 21:14

Hi everyone. New to the thread and I'm in two minds about this.

Hmm. I've just got the book from the library and it's... very odd. The SIRT food principle seems like a fantastic idea, but in practice it's as if the authors set out to create the most unpalatable, unfamily-friendly, expensive, tedious wasteful diet possible.

All that bloody juice. And it's the same juice, three times a day? Just think of the masses of perfectly good fibre wasted. It just seems so shockingly wasteful when we could be eating the whole food. I know juices have higher levels of nutrients but really... Are the Okinawans knocking back litres of green juice three times a day? Nope, they're eating food as it's meant to be eaten and drinking tea like it's meant to be drunk.

So bugger that for a game of soldiers. I don't have a juicer anyway.

But it sounds like the actual food is okay, and the individual Sirt foods are all things I would devour. So I'm thinking of adapting it slightly, swapping the juices for smoothies (or soups), and changing the ingredients around, using other Sirt-foods as a base. Walnuts, for example.

Apologies to you all. I know this post is massively ranty, but this book has really annoyed me. Surely a calorie counted recipe book packed with Sirtfoods would work better as a diet than this old fashioned, prescriptive load of codswallop.

But well done to those of you it's working for. If you don't mind I'd quite like to share my experiences in eating more Sirtfoods with you, even though I'm not officially following the diet (bugger that).

ghostoftheMNchicken · 15/03/2016 21:15

Wow, that really was ranty . Sorry about that.

yumyumpoppycat · 15/03/2016 21:51

Ghost I sort of agree with you, I thought this diet was supposed to be easier than a traditional diet!I wish I hadn't bought a juicer, there are some recipes for making blended drinks in the other sirt books. I think the logic is the juice is like a supplement as you can drink more portions without all the bulky fibre.

yumyumpoppycat · 15/03/2016 21:51

Ghost I sort of agree with you, I thought this diet was supposed to be easier than a traditional diet!I wish I hadn't bought a juicer, there are some recipes for making blended drinks in the other sirt books. I think the logic is the juice is like a supplement as you can drink more portions without all the bulky fibre.

cakebaker · 16/03/2016 10:49

Hi Everyone - interesting to read how everyone is doing and reassuring to hear that most people are still not liking the kale liquid compost! I've managed to move from a full on heave to a grimace when I drink it - and thats over 2 months down the line! However....
For me its been worth it. I've lost 21 lbs . I've had a couple of weekend breaks where I haven't stuck to the diet....well actually I stuffed myself with chocolate and on the girls weekend away - oops! But I only put on a couple of pounds which I lost again in the following week getting back on the diet, so I know now I can indulge and get easily back on track, which is good to know. I've also discovered baby kale which is so much nicer than the thick stalky stuff and is nice raw in salads, so sometimes I swop some of the juices and up the kale in my salads. Feel like i@ve got in a routine now and should be able to maintain interspersed with cake fests now and then :D

cakebaker · 16/03/2016 10:54

oh, and just in case anyone wants even more kale in their diet.....

www.ocado.com/webshop/getSearchProducts.do?clearTabs=yes&isFreshSearch=true&chosenSuggestionPosition=&entry=kale

Ocado have a whole range of kale soups & juices...yum!!

yumyumpoppycat · 16/03/2016 17:49

Crumbs @ kale in ocado!

Awesome - 21lbs Cake so what routine are you in now, is the weight still coming off?

xxrosaxx · 19/03/2016 04:05

I started This And have been very strict with it since Monday. Today is day 5 and I have stuck to the diet but it has been the most difficult day. What I miss the most is red wine and pasta :)
Tomorrow I plan on drinking 2 juices, and having a small meal in the afternoon and whatever I want in the evening, including wine :). I have lost 3 pounds since Monday but haven't weighed myself since Thursday. My favorite recipes out of the book have been the shrimp recipe and the sirt muesli. I did not care much for the cauliflower couscous. I don't think that I would make it again. I actually ended up adding some curry, stock and soy sauce to it. Thank goodness for the chilis- they give everything a kick. I don't understand why I am so hungry today. I am thinking it may have been my meal this afternoon, I didn't eat enough. This diet has been costly and time consuming. My husband and I are both on it. I think that next week I will continue to drink one juice a day but I will eat healthy foods and incorporate the sirt food items into what I make. I tried making the juice in a blender instead of the juicer... What a bad idea! Tasted ok but the consistency was terrible. Would love to hear what others Are doing for their 2 meals a day after day 3 and also if anyone is still incorporating red wine and chocolate.

How strict are you? One more thing----TMI anyone else having problems going to the bathroom? I am super constipated which doesn't make sense considering all the veggies I am eating and drinking .

R

yumyumpoppycat · 19/03/2016 09:47

You probably need to drink more water rosa, esp if eating more veg than normal, I think bread adds a lot of bulk so if that doesn't work try adding more beans/lentils or some psyllium husk powder (if you use this though you will need more water again!) . Well done on your weight loss. Sorry to say I haven't had any sirt juices recently but might try adding them again as think pos they help.