The CSIRO diet - or - "How many animals can you eat in a week?"

While I am sure you are all excited about reading the next installment of "Why am I still Hiking? - The South Coast Track Chronicles", I thought I'd mix things up a bit because, quite frankly, its a bugger of a thing to write, and I need a rest.

So lets talk diets. "Chris on a diet ?" I hear you ask, "surely he jests?" ... well, while it is perhaps a joke, it is in fact true.

I have been convinced (or more accurately, "coerced") into taking on the great CSIRO dietary challenge, which as far as I can gather after a week and half of it, appears to be best summed up as: "how many animals can you eat in a week?" and, for extra points: "How long can your student income afford it ?"

"So why do it ?", I hear you ask. Well, the truth is, and this might come as some sort of shock to those familiar with me, and my beautiful physique - I am just an incy-wincy bit ....

. . . over-weight!.

Yes, its true! Despite the fact that I feel quite fit, and generally pretty healthy, apparently I am not in accordance with my original design specifications, and should in fact be about 15kg lighter than I am. Of course, I was as shocked as you when I found this out, and for many years, I have sort to defy this notion that I may in fact be over-weight!.

So I guess the next question is "why now ?" Well, for one, Christmas is over. It is, of course, the unwritten, but very well known 11th commandment: "thou shalt not diet over the Lord's birthday" that dictates this. Secondly, the weight loss has already begun, having lost about 4kg on the South Coast track - thanks mainly to a 24 hour vomit fest as well as general mal-nourishment as the days lingered on.

Aff actually purchased the CSIRO book a month or two ago, with all the best intentions to start it after Christmas. She eventually committed to starting the diet after our Tassie hike. I, however, was not so easily convinced, a fact that probably wasn't helped by Aff's choice to discuss this decision with me on the 10th day of out hiking trip, as I wearily swayed from side to side, while eyeing off a very juicy looking caterpillar. However, after finishing the hike and then proceeding to eati non-stop for three or four days after, I eventually reached a point where I could eat no more, and realised it was probably a good idea to try and keep the weight I had lost during the hike, from coming back with a vengeance as it often does.

As far as I can tell, the diet is pretty much common sense, but does provide some useful information regarding the proportions of different food groups for each day. I am generally very critical of dismissive advice along the lines of "just maintain a balanced diet" which is often farmed out by GPs and health professionals. I am sure it is true but this advice means absolutely nothing unless you know what the f@#^ it is you are meant to be balancing. If that sounded a little angry, you can probably blame it on my mood swings as a result of not getting my dietary balance quite right. The truth is, I do not eat a lot of junk food, and in general, do try to eat meat and vegies, and in addition, I involve myself in well over the recommended portion of per-day physical activity. Yet despite all this, I am still quite heavy, and as a result, have become increasingly dishearten by such advice. What I am interested in is more scientific, and ultimately more useful, responses to the question: "what should I be eating?".

Thankfully, The CSIRO's book does appear to provide just what I have been looking for, and so I was happy to give it a go. Of course, not everyone is head over heels about the dietary advice given. The prescribed quantities of red meat appear to be the main sticking point, particularly with regards to evidence linking red meat with an increased risk of colon cancer. I have to say, there is A LOT of red meat on Aff and my menu at the moment. Even more interesting, however, is that apart from fish, other white meats such as chicken and pork barely rate a mention in the dietary schedule. My take on this is that it doesn't really matter what the meat is, its the protein that appears to be most important to the diet, and therefore any adequate source of it is ok.

Perhaps the greatest problem with the diet, if you follow the week by week schedule they provide, is that you end up cooking for half the night. The preparation time for most of the dishes Aff and I have had have been at least an hour. At first, cooking new things is a bit of a novelty, and so you don't mind it so much, but after a couple of night's of it, you start to get quite tired of it (although, this lack of energy may also be a result of the low-carbs aspect of the diet, which is also quite apparent. Anyway, I am yet to see any firm evidence of weight loss, but I do expect to see some reduction in the next week or two.

I guess, like any self respecting dietary plan, I should probably have a before and after photo. So here is the before shot, taken as of today (using spherical lense on my robot):