Tuesday 30 August 2016

Cinch (Sass diet) 5 day Fast Forward review and results

In the past year I have lost - and fairly successfully kept off - about 20lb of weight loss, most of which I lost very quickly over about 3 months. One of the diets I tried that kick started this last summer was the Cinch diet, now renamed the SASS diet, from dietician Cynthia Sass.

The long-term diet advocates many small meals perfectly composed of different food groups. However, with my love of a callenge/quick fix, I was drawn to the five day start to the programme, the Fast Forward. It was strict and simple. It was also great to start a diet plan with really limited ingredients - so easy to shop for. The five ingredients are
spinach, raspberries, eggs, almonds and non-fat yoghurt 
All chosen for their nutritional properties, particularly pertaining to weight loss.

I lost 5lbs on this five day fast forward. I was drawn to the plan as I really like all five components. It's very vegetarian-friendly, which is a pleasant surprise. I wasn't hungry at all during this diet (apart from emotional hunger, boredom, or specific cravings as I was restricted from most of my favourite meals) and I didn't do any exercise or sports except walking as the daily plan had under 1200 calories. I drank one coffee a day and green teas. My favourite meal was the evening salad of spinach dressed with balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon of freshly squeezed orange juice, raspberries, almonds and a hard-boiled egg. If I felt like I needed a treat I had a spoonful of natural almond butter.

I have kept the non-fat yoghurt and raspberries combination as a favourite breakfast or snack. I found the weightloss easy to maintain and the quick results very motivating.

I didn't continue with Cynthia's long term plan, but I would really recommend this diet for a nutritional reset and a kick start for a weight loss regime. More information on her plan is in her book - I bought a second-hand hardback of the old edition, titled Cinch! on Amazon marketplace very cheaply. Here is the current edition.
 
Images by Freepik