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.

There are beautiful urban parks and gardens all over the United States. If they date from the late 1800s, odds are they were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, or one of his students. Olmsted grew up in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of a successful retailer who loved to look at ‘scenery.’ Young Frederick was taken along on many trips through the New England countryside in his youth. A brush with poison sumac damaged his eyes so badly that he could not attend Yale University. The next 20 years of his life might seem aimless to the casual observer, but Olmsted was storing up valuable experience as he farmed; plied the China Trade; hiked in Europe; did under-cover investigative reporting about slavery in the US South; authored books; edited a literary journal. In 1857, he became superintendent of Central Park in New York City. There was not ‘central park’ then, just an idea to create a public space. That year, the residents of Seneca Village and other small communities were removed so that a park could be built. Olmsted and English landscaper Calvert Vaux entered a competition for the development of such a park. They won, and Central Park, NYC became an urban jewel. The valuable organizational skills learned during the project were useful when Olmsted was put in charge of the US Sanitary Commission during the Civil War. He established practices for service men to stay fit and healthy, among them the use of hospital ships. After the war, Olmsted’s company was the go-to American landscaping firm. From public spaces [the Emerald Necklace, Boston] , to university campuses [UC Berkeley], to planned communities [Mont Royal, Montreal, QC], to private estates [Biltmore, NC], to the US Capitol grounds in Washington, DC — they did it all. In Chicago alone, Olmsted designed two parks, the campus of University of Chicago, part of the city’s parks and boulevards chain, and the grounds of the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Until his death on 28 August 1903, Frederick Law Olmsted worked to promote parks for all people as well as conserving natural wild spaces. A fine legacy which we should all embrace.

Olmsted’s designs were influenced by English country gardens, and our breakfast also makes a big nod to the English countryside. The dinner choice is due to his extensive work in Chicago, where his workmen might have eaten the iconic hot dog for lunch on the job.

Cottage Breakfast w/ Sausage: 135 calories 3 g fat 5 g fiber 6 g protein 18 g carbs 24 mg Calcium  NB: Food values given are for the plated foods only, and do not include the optional beverage. PB  I wanted a breakfast that evoked a cottage in the English country-side, so here it is: fresh fruit, whole-grain bread, a bit of meat. The pan muffins are very good.

1 pan muffin* ½ c. raspberries one 30 calorie chicken breakfast sausage  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] 

Take one griddlecake from the freezer the night before and let it thaw. Cook the sausage in the microwave or warm it in a non-stick pan along with the griddlecake. Dish the berries, brew the hot beverage, pour the smoothie. What a sweet and easy meal.

*PAN MUFFIN each: 71 calories 2.5 g fat 1 g fiber 2 g protein 11 g carbs 8.5 mg Calcium These are a dandy little bread to add to a breakfast plate. You will see them in Roman Breakfast  and in Cottage Breakfast with egg

1 cup dry Bob’s Red Mill 10-grain hot cereal mix 1¼ cup buttermilk/soured milk	Combine cereal and milk in a small bowl. Let sit 10 minutes.
1/3 cup butter  1/3 cup sugar 1 two-ounce egg	Cream butter and sugar, then mix in the egg.
1 cup unbleached flour 1 tsp salt  1 tsp baking powder  1 tsp baking soda	Add dry ingredients and cereal/milk mixture. Stir until just combined.
2 Tbsp batter for each pan muffin**	Portion batter onto a flat-bottomed pan or hot griddle spritzed with non-stick spray. Cook on both sides.

**HINT: I prepared 8 griddlecakes from the 10-grain muffin batter, cooked and froze them. I made the rest into muffins to eat on Slow Days. 

Chicago Hot Dog: 272 calories 16.4 g fat 2 g fiber 11 g protein 14 g carbs 36 mg Calcium  PB GF  This is the real deal: every single flavor found in a Chicago bun, without the bun. Delicious and satisfying, wherever you live.

Two 100-calorie all-beef hot dogs [Hebrew National reduced-fat]  3 oz fresh tomato, sliced in 8 wedges 2 oz dill pickle spears, you should have 2-5 pieces of pickle celery salt 2 Tbsp chopped onions, raw 2 tsp relish [neon green relish is traditional] 2 ‘sport peppers‘ OR 3 pepperoncini, sliced in two ¼ tsp poppy seed yellow mustard

Cook the hot dogs any way you want. In a wide, shallow bowl place the hot dogs in the center. Place pickle slices along side and between the hot dogs. Now arrange the tomatoes around the edge. Sprinkle it all with celery salt, especially the tomatoes. Dollop with relish and distribute the onions all over. Arrange the peppers on top and drizzle with mustard. Add the poppy seed. Wear your favorite Chicago team jersey and tuck in to the dinner.