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.

Since Dear Husband and I enjoy celebrating holidays with appropriate foods, at Christmas and Advent we always fell back on favorites from our countries of ancestry: Germany, France, England, Ireland. Then one year, it occurred to me that many more nations than those were celebrating Christmas, and that it would be fun to stretch our culinary repetoire to include them. There are 14 countries that do not have Christmas as a national holiday, and five nations where it is illegal to celebrate Christmas. But aside from those, the majority of countries in the world have citizens who keep Christmas. Ever since that epiphany, we have challenged ourselves to eat foods in December from as many different countries as possible: there are 62 breakfasts and dinners in December. It is fun to sample different cuisines — in 2024, 36 countries were represented in our count, since we don’t do a different country every day. I do stretch the boundaries a bit, to include empires that no longer exist: Romans, Mongols; and some that exist in our hearts due to literature, like Tolkien’s Shire. Many of the recipes used for these meals are from my FAST Diet collection, so there is an added benefit — if you ate 300 calories at dinner for even 15 of the days in December, you would have more ‘room’ for eggnog and fruit cake. So many people dread the amount of weight that they gain in December, leading to doomed resolutions in January. By eating Fast meals more than two days per week, we keep our weight down and still enjoy the jolly season.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Here are some suggestions for meals from diverse cultures>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> France, https://fastingme.com/2025/05/07/antoine-laurent-de-lavoisier/ ————————————– Taiwan, https://fastingme.com/2025/04/06/mazu/ ————————————————————- Ireland, https://fastingme.com/2025/03/16/patrick-has-his-day/ —————————————————— The Frankish Empire, https://fastingme.com/2025/02/26/mayor-of-the-palace/ ———————————– Persian and Mongol Empires, https://fastingme.com/2025/02/09/end-of-an-empire/ ————————— Sri Lanka, https://fastingme.com/2025/01/15/pongol/ ——————————————————– Ukraine, https://fastingme.com/2024/12/15/carol-of-the-bells/ —————————————————- First Nations of America, https://fastingme.com/2021/10/10/dwellings-abenaki/———————— Russia, https://fastingme.com/2024/11/27/saint-herman/ ——————————————————— England, https://fastingme.com/2024/11/24/elizabeth-i/ ——————————————————— United States, Southern, https://fastingme.com/2024/11/13/booker-t-washington/ ———————- Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt, https://fastingme.com/2024/08/11/cleopatra/ ——————————- Canada, https://fastingme.com/2024/06/30/canada-day-3/ —————————————————— Roman Empire, https://fastingme.com/2018/10/14/diocletian/———————————————- Morocco, https://fastingme.com/2023/02/12/morocco/ ———————————————————— India, https://fastingme.com/2019/06/09/crossroads-indian-ocean/ —————————————— Germany, https://fastingme.com/2023/04/16/diet-of-worms/ —————————————————-Japan, https://fastingme.com/2021/02/24/plum-blossoms/——————————————————– Peru, https://fastingme.com/2018/08/22/rose-of-lima/ ———————————————————-

I could go on, but you get the idea. Enjoy your run-up to Christmas, but don’t forget that it isn’t about food or gifts or parties. It is about the coming of the Prince of Peace. The world needs a lot of that. Be an ‘instrument of peace‘ in your part of the world.