How this Fast Diet Lifestyleworks: 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.

Michaelmas gets its name from the Feast of St. Michael on September 29. In a time-sharing move, the Church calls the day The Feast of Saint Michael and All the Archangels. In addition to being a day for the angels, it was one of the four Rent Days in Old Europe. As a serf, you paid your rent in farm goods — grain, eggs, fruit. But the traditional and best payment was a goose. Of course the Lord of the Manor had to pay his liege lord, so some of those geese got passed up the line a few times until someone sat down to a large feast of roast goose. Eating goose on Michaelmas, or lamb in Finland, ensured prosperity for the coming year. All over Europe there were ways to celebrate Michaelmas: The house was decked with Michaelmas Daisies [England], the carrots were dug and stored [Scotland], the breastbone of the roast goose was examined to predict the winter’s weather [Pennsylvania Dutch], you invite many guests for dinner [Ukraine], the sheep are brought in from summer pasture [Hungary], hold parades and processions [Spain, Portugal], and eat waffles [France]. Who was Michael to deserve all this honor? He was the commander of Heaven’s Angelic Army and the one who would judge the souls of the dead on his scales. Milton tells us that Michael cast Lucifer down from Heaven, in Paradise Lost. He ended a Plague in Rome, and he is the patron of Mont Saint Michel in France.

Autumn is the time to kill the livestock before winter, so we will have ham for breakfast. At dinner, chicken or turkey can stand in for the Michaelmas Goose. Be sure to eat a few blackberries at breakfast and put a few dashes of ginger powder on the meat at dinner.

Ham ScrOmelette: 145 calories 7.6 g fat 0.5 g fiber 12 g protein 5 g carb [4 g Complex] 45 mg Calcium  NB: Food values shown are for the ScrOmelette and fruit only, and do not include the optional beverages.  GF  Here’s another classic of the breakfast table.

1½ eggs per person HINT: If you are serving one person, crack three 2-oz eggs into a small bowl or glass measuring cup. Whip up those eggs and pour half of their volume into a jar with a lid and put it in the ‘fridge for next week.  ½ oz ground or chopped ham 1.5 oz melon or 1.5 oz apple herbs to taste  Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories] or lemon in hot water   Optional: 5 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie [88 calories]

Chop the ham, slice the fruit, brew your beverage. Heat a cast iron or non-stick pan and spritz it with oil or cooking spray. Whisk the eggs and pour into the pan. When the bottom begins to set, distribute the ham over half of the eggs. {OR warm the ham briefly in the hot pan, pour in the whisked eggs and scramble together until cooked.] Fold the omelette and cook to your favorite degree of doneness. Pour your beverages, and you are off to a good start to your day.

Chicken/Turkey Dinner: 284 calories 4.5 g fat 9 g fiber 31.6 g protein 34 g carbs 58 mg Calcium  PB  Perfect use for left-over roasted chicken or turkey breast. Instead of potatoes, enjoy the crunch of high-fiber crackers. So low in calories that you may even have some lovely fruit for dessert!

4 ounces roasted breast meat, without skin ½ cup/3 oz green beans 2 oz carrots, sliced as coins 2 pieces Finn Crisp crackers  ½ cup sliced strawberries.

Warm the cooked meat or not, according to your taste. Cook the vegetables and plate with the meat and crackers. Enjoy those strawberries as a sweet conclusion to the meal.

Ingredients for next week: Breakfast, single portion for Monday …………………………… single portion for Thursday:

1 two-oz egg + Worcestershire	1.5 two-oz eggs
Gruyere cheese + strawberries	Haggis mixture
roasted vegetables	coriander
marinara sauce	black pepper
Optional smoothie	optional smoothie
optional hot beverage	optional hot beverage

Dinner, single portion for Monday:………………………….. single portion for Thursday:

2 two-oz eggs + Arnold Sandwich Thin	Gozleme bread + ground lamb
Clove garlic + Gruyere cheese  + leeks	tomato + onion
Mushrooms + white wine  + fat-free milk	vanilla fat-free yogurt
carrots + Low-fat cottage cheese	cider vinegar + garlic powder
Sparkling water	Sparkling water