Since starting my quest to beat the curse of the #foodbloggerbelly I’ve had lots of people contacting me with lots of suggestions and recommendations but I was really surprised when a friend sent me a link to Italian food chain Gusto’s website where they were promoting their new diet, the Skinny G, yes really! So, I dropped them a line and went to meet up with the lovely Steph, the BDM in their Edinburgh restaurant.
What is it? Gusto have teamed up with celebrity nutritionist Jeanette Jackson to create a diet plan which claims to give you the opportunity of losing up to 14lb in 2 weeks by eating healthy superfoods and food combining. My initial thought was that they produce and deliver the meals to your door, which sounded ace, but it is actually a diet pack that you can sign up for online (£20) which will give you all the information and recipes that you need to follow the diet. This is then complimented by a special Skinny G menu in the restaurants themselves.
Gusto's Skinny G Diet
Looking at the 2 week diet itself I was struck by how colourful it looked and got quite excited, Steph’s enthusiasm was infectious and one of her colleagues had already lost an impressive amount of pounds in her 1st few days on the diet. It sounded like the answer to my prayers and the in-house menu looked really tasty with dishes such as sweet potato & mascarpone soup with crushed fennel seeds and a goats cheese, caramelised red onion tomato and cranberry tart to start and whole salt baked sea bass infused with lemon & Italian herbs and seared sashimi-grade tuna with salmoriglio and sweet tomato as options for Mains.
A girl after my own heart she even introduced me to a dieting lassie’s cocktail of choice – a Skinny B***h, vodka, soda and freshly squeezed lime, not that I ever really drink spirits but it appealed. It all sounded great, a 2 week detox to kick-start the weight loss followed by a more sensible eating plan, makes perfect sense and surely I could manage that….?!
The Skinny G 14 day detox plan
Later on, when I got home and had a more detailed look at the diet and the recipes I realised that while it most certainly did look colourful and appetising with plenty of foods that I love to eat, my heart sank a little when I realised it was quite heavily liquid based with soups and smoothies. Also one lunch, ‘lettuce and avocado wraps’, were actually just that, slices of avocado wrapped in lettuce, with the best will in the world I’ll never survive on that!
As I studied it more it finally dawned on me this is a serious 2 week detox and not for the fainthearted, I have no doubt that you can lose up to 14lbs in 2 weeks on it, great for a special occasion but I just don’t think I want it enough to be able to maintain the discipline required for the full 2 weeks, unless I was in a health spa and having it all prepared for me….maybe…..
The Skinny G 14 day detox isn’t for me but the in-house Skinny G Menu would definitely be right up my street and hats off to them for addressing the problem that a lot of us face when eating out but trying to watch what we eat! I can however see the detox being a great very short-term option for some people (those with greater will power) who are looking for a kick-start to a less restrictive and balanced longer term weight loss management plan. The recipes are easy to follow and I will probably try a couple of the soups, the sweet potato & coconut and the spinach, chilli & leek ones appealed especially.
feels like the type of joint a glamorous Fellini actress would hang out in the evenings
So far I’ve failed pretty miserably with losing weight and my first week of 5lbs was as good as it got, 5 weeks in and I’m sitting at a total weight loss of 2lbs, yes really! On the plus side, I haven’t had a cigarette in that time so at least one resolution has been adhered to and bizarrely quite easily, it’s just the food & wine I’m having trouble managing! I seriously need to work out what to try next, there has to be something that works for me besides having an appendage chopped off…….
Gusto, 135 George Street, Edinburgh, EH2 4JS. 0131 225 2555
