How this Fast Diet Lifestyle works: Eat these meals tomorrow, for a calorie total of less than 600. On another day this week, eat the meals from a different post, another day of eating 600 calories or less. Eat sensibly the other days of the week. That’s it: a simple way to lose weight and be healthier. Welcome to Garane Ibrahim who is now Following.

On June 6, 1755, the Hale family welcomed the birth of a son in Coventry, Connecticut. No one knew how famous he would become for being put to death in 1776. Young Nathan was well educated and attended Yale University. He became a school teacher and then war was declared between the American Colonies and Great Britain. Hale’s several brothers enlisted right away and saw action in Massachusetts. Nathan signed up at the end of the school year, joining George Washington‘s army as they moved to New York. Following a loss to the British on Long Island, General Washington realized the need for spies in British-held territory, in order to plan for the next attack. Hale volunteered. There was no training, no handed-down wisdom on how to run a covert operation. Spying was not considered ‘gentlemanly,’ so no one knew how to do it well. Nathan Hale did not do spying well at all. His cover story was that he was a school teacher. Complete with the correct clothing [teachers dressed a certain way back then], Hale slipped over to Long Island in September, 1775. He engaged people in conversations easily enough, but he asked questions too aggressively and acted suspiciously. After confiding his goals to a British counter-espionage agent, Hale was arrested after one week on the job. Tried in a military court in Manhattan, he was hanged the next day. Every school child knows his ‘dying words.’ When asked by a sneering British officer if he had any regrets, Hale is supposed to have said, “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” This was a quote from the play “Cato” by J. Addison, which Hale and his friends at Yale knew well. Did he really say those stirring and defiant words? Possibly not. His college buddies kept his memory alive and might have guessed that he might have said something like that. No one really knows, but eyewitnesses say that he went to his death with courage and dignity. The Nathan Hale Homestead, built over the house where he was born, is an historical site. Hale is Connecticut’s official State Hero. Don’t look at any of his statues to know what he looked like — they were all done posthumously, with no likenesses as a model. One of the statues stands on the campus of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

A man as patriotic as Nathan Hale deserves an all-American [made with corn] patriotic breakfast such as this one. For dinner, a very New England meal.

Cornmeal Stars with Fruit Yogurt: 133 calories 3 g fat 4 g fiber 7.6 g protein 21 g carbs [8 g Complex] 46 mg Calcium  NB: Food values given are for the plated foods only, and do not include the optional beverage.  PB GF  Cornmeal and stars are SO American, that they fit in with any patriotic meal. Are there stars in your nation’s flag? This one is for you too.

Cornmeal Stars: 1 egg white 1 egg yolk, stirred 1 Tbsp white whole-wheat flour 3 Tbsp yellow cornmeal Whip the egg white to soft peaks. Fold in the yolk, the flour, and the meal. Put your largest [3-4”] star-shaped cookie cutter in the center of a non-stick pan. Spray the pan and the inside of the star with non-stick spray. Spoon some batter into the star, nudging it into the corners. As it starts to cook, loosen the mold from the batter and remove it. Cook the star on one side until starting to brown, then turn carefully to cook the other side. Repeat until batter is all used up. HINT: This can be done a day or so in advance, storing the stars in a plastic bag.

Per serving: 1.5 stars 2 Tbsp fat-free Vanilla yogurt 2 Tbsp blueberries 2 oz strawberries, sliced or diced [If frozen, they will need to be thawed and drained]   Optional:  5 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie [88 calories]  Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories] or lemon in hot water 

Plate the stars, slightly overlapping. Dollop the yogurt on top, then strew with fruit.

Crab Cakes: 237 calories 7 g fat 4 g fiber 18.6 g protein 17 g carbs 198 mg Calcium  PB  GF- if using GF bread  Rock and Jonah crabs abound on the coast of New England and they are grand as crab cakes. This recipe is from Todd English’s Olive’s Table cookbook.  Note: this is the full recipe and makes 8 cakes – more than you will eat at one meal. Prepare them all and cook as directed.  HINT: This will provide a few future meals.

½ pound crab meat 2 T [1 fluid oz] plain nonfat yogurt  1 tsp Dijon mustard 2 Tbsp. chopped green or white onion 1 Tbsp parsley, minced one 2-oz egg 1 tsp salt & ¼ tsp pepper 1 slice fresh 70-cal bread, crumbled 4 T. flour 2 tsp oil 5 oz asparagus aioli dressing: 1 tsp low-fat mayonnaise few drops of lemon juice pinch each of tumeric and garlic powder

Gently combine ^{the first} eight ingredients in a bowl. Dust a large plate with the flour. Using a ¼ c. measure as a mold, form the crab cakes and turn them out onto the flour. There should be 7-8 cakes. Dust the top of the cakes with some of the flour. Heat a non-stick skillet and add 2 tsp olive oil. Handling them carefully, cook the crab cakes until they are beginning to brown on the top and then turn them to brown on the bottom. Cook the asparagus. Prepare the aioli. Put aioli on crab cakes and asparagus. One Fast Day serving = 1-2 crab cakes. Cool the others, wrap in cling film and freeze. Reheat in a toaster oven, since the cakes will have been previously cooked.