Cinch Diet by Cynthia Sass

Last July, I weighed 185.6 pounds. I had been working at home for the previous 3 years and the pounds just packed on. To be honest, I’m really surprised I wasn’t bigger. I tried dieting from time to time but I just never made it work. After I lost my job and moved to Florida, I decided I had all of the time in the world to do something about it. Today, I’m happy to say, I’ve lost 18.2 pounds. This morning I weighed in at 167.4. It hasn’t come without really hard work, though.

In January of 2009 I had recently discovered I had a lot of food intolerances that were causing me to be miserable. With the help of my brother and Dana Breen, my life was never the same. Dana put me on an elimination diet, where for 4 weeks I had to eat by a certain plan that eliminated 7 of the most common groups of intolerances such as corn, soy, dairy, etc. That 4 weeks sucked and I never cheated, but it taught me how to eat. I’m forever grateful to my brother and Dana for teaching me how to eat a well balanced diet and introducing amazing new foods to me that have been under my nose at the grocery store all of my life. It was about making the right decisions and nourishing my body, not just losing weight. Let’s face it, losing weight is really a battle with the mind, not the mouth. After the elimination diet, we were able to figure out what groups to eliminate, however, after 4 months of remaining on the diet and losing 14 lbs, the weight started piling back on again because I stopped following the diet.

After I moved here I tried counting calories to eat healthy, but I just wasn’t losing any weight, nor was I feeding myself to nourish my body. I started working out religiously at the gym but really only lost a few pounds. One day shortly after New Years 2011, I sat down to watch the Rachael Ray Show (as is typical for me) and she had Cynthia Sass, the author of Cinch Diet, on the show to talk about her book. Now, for those of you who don’t know who Cynthia Sass is, she is also the author of the highly successful Flat Belly Diet. As she explained the concept of Cinch Diet, it all made sense. The pieces to the food puzzle I had been trying to put together for so long, were finally there.

It breaks down to this. You eat 4 meals consisting of 5 food groups. I won’t lie. It’s a bit complicated to start with, but I promise after 2-3 days, you’ll have it down. You learn under each food group how much of what you can have. The 5 groups are produce, plant fat, lean protein, whole grain, and a SASS seasoning. SASS, while obviously the author’s last name, is an acronym for “Slimming and Satiating Seasons.” These are seasonings (such as cinnamon, vinegar, tea, etc) that have proven weight loss benefits. Each of the 4 meals has to consist of these puzzle pieces. Again, you have to buy the book, read through it, and learn the portion sizes for what you’re eating, but after a couple of days, you’ll have had it memorized.

So for example, for breakfast, this is what I typically have, though sometimes I switch it up, but for the most part, I like a consistent routine of something easy.

• Whole Grain: Half of a whole grain english muffin
• Plant Fat: 2 tbsp of almond butter
• Produce: 1/2 a cup of grapes. You’re supposed to have a full cup but my stomach can’t hold that much anymore.
• Protein: 1 hard boiled egg or 1 oz cheese cubes (8 cubes). A hard boiled egg isn’t something I want to eat every day, so I usually have that twice a week. The other times, I have cheese cubes with my fruit.
• SASS: Cinnamon

So I put the almond butter on the english muffin and season it with cinnamon and warm it up in the microwave and then I just eat the egg by itself or the cheese and fruit together. Other times, I’ll have this for breakfast.

• Whole Grain: 1 small flour tortilla (she says to use corn tortillas but I have an intolerance to corn)
• Plant Fat: 2 tbsp whole almonds
• Produce: 1/2 cup raspberries
• Lean Protein: 6 oz of fat free yogurt
• SASS: Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste

With that recipe, I’ll mix the nuts, raspberries, cinnamon, and nutmeg into the yogurt and eat it as a parfait. Then I just eat the tortilla by itself.

One of the nice things about Cinch Diet is you can also have chocolate. You can have less than 100 calories of 70% dark or better chocolate per day. It’s awesome!

Unfortunately, this diet, to some people, seems complicated (my dad being one of them) but clearly it works because today, I type this 18.2 pounds lighter. I plan to lose another 30-35 pounds. I also want to say that I’ve coupled this healthy eating with exercise. I work out about 3 times per week (sometimes 4, sometimes 2 depending on the week). I’ve toned up my muscles really well and with the weight loss, my shape has changed dramatically. If you’re interested in this book, you can buy it on amazon at the below link. Please know that my blog is very important to me and I would NOT under any circumstances promote something I do not believe in.

Here are some photos to compare. You can see a larger version of this collage on my facebook “like” page. Click here to view it.