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. 

Pity poor Mona Lisa: she has been through a lot. Lisa Gherardini lived in Firenze/Florence, Italy, and she married a silk merchant named Francesco del Giocondo. In the language of the time, one would address a lady as “Ma Donna” [my lady], which contracted to “Mona.” Thus, the lady was Mona Lisa del Giocondo. According to the popular story, Signor del Giocondo commissioned a local artist, Leonardo Da Vinci to paint his wife’s portrait in 1507. Da Vinci either loved the painting so much that he could not bear to hand it over to his patron, or he was not happy with certain details. At any rate, the artist kept the painting, and continuously re-touched it for the next four years. He took it with him to Rome, and he lugged it to Amboise, France where he worked for King Francois I. When Da Vinci died in 1519, the portrait became part of the King’s collection when he bought it from the estate. From there, rulers displayed it at Chateau Fontainebleau, then Versailles, then in the Musee du Louvre after the Revolution. It was considered a minor painting of the collection — so minor that its theft in 1911 wasn’t noticed for more than a day! The thief was Vincenzo Perugia, an Italian national who worked as a carpenter at the Louvre. The search for the missing artwork was intense and theories abounded — was it a jealous artist? an anarchist? On September 7, poet Guillaume Apollinaire was arrested for the crime, and he implicated Pablo Picasso. Perugia kept the painting for two years, but was undone when he tried to sell it to an art dealer in Firenze. He was busted, tried, and sentenced to eight months in prison. The theft made the painting world famous. Since its return, it has been slashed with a knife, splashed with acid, been hit by a tea cup, splattered with paint, and smeared with cake. That is why the lady is now behind bullet-proof glass.

Our breakfast consists of ingredients that Italians would relish — both in Da Vinci’s time and today. The dinner is more in keeping with the budget of the laborer who said that he wanted “to restore La Jocande to her homeland.”

Prosciutto ScrOmelette: 153 calories  8 g fat 1.6 g fiber 11.6 g protein 9 g carbs 47 mg Calcium  NB: Food values shown are for the ScrOmelette and fruit only, and do not include the optional beverages.  PB GF  The earthy flavor of mushrooms [wild ones if you can] combines deliciously with cured meat and eggs at breakfast.

1½ two-oz eggs  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.   ¼ oz prosciutto ½ oz mushrooms ¾ oz pear   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]

Whisk the chopped meat and mushrooms with the eggs. Pour into a lightly-spritzed non-stick saute pan and scramble to your liking. Plate with the pear and the beverages of your choice.

Chickpea Ragout with Meat: nb: entire batch has 484 calories, so divide into portions. The portion size you choose would be dictated by the type and quantity of meat. GF PB divided in 2:  242 calories 5 g fat 10 g fiber 11.5 g protein 40 g carbs 51 mg Calcium divided in 4: 121 calories 3 g fat 5 g fiber 6 g protein 20 g carbs 26 mg Calcium

This is from Jacques Pepin’s Fast Food My Way. Although he doesn’t mean my kind of ‘Fast Food,’ Pepin has long been a proponent of healthy cooking. He presents this as a side dish, but for our purposes it is best prepared as a main course with meat for more protein. 

½ tsp olive oil ½ cup diced onions ½ cup scallions, chopped 1 Tbsp garlic 2 cups diced tomatoes, fresh or canned and drained 1½ cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed if canned ½ cup chicken stock ½ tsp salt ½ tsp pepper a few leaves of baby spinach

Heat the oil in a saute pan. Add the onion, scallion and garlic. Stir briefly over the heat then add the tomatoes, chickpeas, salt, and pepper. Cook over low heat until liquids are mostly evaporated, adding the spinach at the end so it wilts. If using now, separate out your portion and keep warm. Cool the remaining ragout and freeze it in serving portions. Add one of the following meats. >3 oz chicken breast [if cooked, mix in with the ragout to warm the meat] [if meat is raw, add to the pan along with the tomatoes and chickpeas] >>3 oz pork tenderloin [if cooked, mix in with the ragout to warm the meat] [if meat is raw, add to the pan along with the tomatoes and chickpeas] >>>2 oz lean beef pieces, not ground beef [if cooked, mix in with the ragout to warm the meat] [if meat is raw, add to the pan along with the tomatoes and chickpeas]

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

Sourdough rye bread	1.5 two-oz eggs  + Italian herbs
3%-fat ham slice	crushed tomatoes + ricotta cheese
Camembert or Hermelin cheese	garlic + mozzarella + onion
plum — yellow or dark blue	crushed red pepper + melon
optional smoothie	optional smoothie
optional hot beverage	optional hot beverage

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

beets + beef/chicken broth + butter	maifun brown rice noodles
leek + parsnip + potato + cabbage + celery	raw shrimp + ground cumin
paprika + garlic + canned tomatoes + carrot	olive oil + garlic + lime juice
canned white beans + chicken/turkey kielbasa	cilantro + cupped lettuce leaves
Sparkling water	Sparkling water