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. Join me in the Fasting Lifestyle.

George Orwell’s novel 1984 was published on June 8, 1949. At that time, the year 1984 seemed soooooo far into the future! The book tells the story of a world that is under the iron grip of The Party. Big Brother, the leader of the fictional country [that seems to be the United Kingdom], controls the population through his iron grip on news media, the thought police, and constant surveillance. What was Orwell’s intent in writing this? His real name was Eric Arthur Blair, son of a civil servant in India. Instead of attending university, which the family could not afford, Eric Blair joined the British Police Force in India. His five years in the service showed him the effects of Imperialism on the oppressed. It was also the beginning of lung illnesses that would dog him for the rest of his life. Moving back to England, Blair took menial jobs in London for a year, then moved to Paris to do the same. Seeing how life was on the margins of the economy spurred him to be a Socialist. The Spanish Civil War attracted Blair’s attention, and he went to Spain to fight Fascism, concerned about the authoritarian government there. He joined one of the many anti-Fascist groups, one that was made up of Communists. During World War II, Blair — now writing under the name of George Orwell — became an anti-Stalinist, seeing in Russia the same authoritarian methods that he had abhorred in Spain and Germany. [This was when and why Orwell wrote Animal Farm.] These life experiences together lead to his most dystopian book yet, a distillation of authoritarian methods to rule a society so completely that they do not think of rising up against the government. The goal of the book was to cause people to think “I’d never let that happen to me!”, and to imagine how they might prevent that sort of oppressive government from gaining power in their country. And here we are today, with citizens of many nations wondering what is happening and how they can fight back. Big Brother could be Social Media; double-speak could be fake news or a government briefing; and people wonder if the ‘thought police’ are coming for them. Has Dystopia arrived?

A recurring theme of the book is how bland and boring the food is: unseasoned, with an off taste, and grayish or pale in color. The foods presented below rebel against tasteless, monochrome meals.

Green Chile-Egg Galette: 186 calories… 6.3 g fat… 3.2 g fiber… 10 g protein… 38.5 g carbs… 44 mg Calcium… NB: The food values given above are for the egg bake and fruit only, not the optional beverages. PB The bite of the green chiles, the nutty taste of the galette, the rich taste of egg: what a remarkable flavor combination. Eat with a fork or pick it up in your hand.

++ 1 six-inch galette/crepe ++++ one 2-oz egg ++++ 2½ Tbsp roasted green chiles ++++  2 oz pears ++++ 2 oa melon ++++ Optional: blackish coffee [53 calories] or blackish tea or mocha cafe au lait [65 calories] ++++  Optional: 5-6 oz fruit smoothie or berry-yogurt smoothie[88 calories] ++

Whisk the egg with the chiles and pour into a 6” cast iron pan or small saute pan spritzed with non-stick spray. [If serving two, pour egg mixture into a 4×6” oven-proof dish spritzed with non-stick spray. Bake at 350 F. for 12 minutes] Cook the egg by gently lifting the edges to allow un-cooked egg to flow underneath. Meanwhile, gently heat the crepe: wrap in a tea-towel and put in the microwave for 1 minute  OR put in an un-greased saute pan over low heat for 1 minute, then turn over for another 30 seconds. Plate the crepe next to the fruit, put the egg on top of the crepe, then fold over. Pour the beverages and put some zip in your morning.

Lillian’s Dinner: 300 calories.. 4 g fat.. 9 g fiber.. 34 g protein… 33 g carbs… 94 mg Calcium…  PB GF Here is a meal that I designed for Canadian Friend Lillian P. P. when she flirted with the idea of Fasting. The vegetables would be from her garden, of course. A very simple meal with lots of food. TIP: You could cut the cod down to 4 ounces and the garbanzoes to 1/3 cup if you lack a large appetite.

++ 5 oz cod fillet ++++ 2 oz beets, sliced or diced ++++ 2 oz carrots, cut as coins ++++ 2/3 cup garbanzoes ++

Bake the cod and bake for 10 minutes at 400F OR pan-fry in a little olive oil oil on a cast iron skillet for 4 minutes per side. Cook the beets and carrots separately by boiling. Serve the garbanzos warm or at room temperature.