ArcaMax

Living ZLife in London

If you read last week’s column, you know I spirited off to London for a business meeting and to celebrate my birthday. The meeting was very important to the development of Plan Z the Diet by Zola. I was visiting the prestigious pharmacy that makes our ZR50 formula. It’s all designed to help people get through the toughest parts of dieting – comfortably.

The meetings took place over a couple of days but we had plenty of free time to spend a few days walking around London. London is such a fine walking town. It’s flat so you can go long distances without tiring. The only trick is to make sure you are looking the right way before you cross the street. So many foreigners get hit by cabs and cars because they look the wrong way, and since Londoners drive on the opposite side of the street to which we are accustomed, the city even goes to the trouble to print “look right” or “look left” on the pavement to remind us all which way to look so we don’t get injured.

I got away unscathed and enjoyed myself immensely.

I have seen all the touristy stuff in London. I have been there many times. This time we focused on just relaxing with long walks and good meals. I did, what I call, Living ZLife in London. That means I ate like a queen. I thought I’d report out today on how well you can eat on ZLife and still maintain your weight. I weighed in this morning just .7 of a pound more than when I got on the plane. And when you see the kinds of things I was eating, I am guessing some of you will be incredulous. I really ate like royalty. When you lose the weight on Plan Z we teach you how to eat going forward so you can eat with great pleasure and not have the fear of gaining the weight back or the guilt that our society has put on us when we go out and splurge. You just have to splurge on the right stuff.

Now, I know for some reading this it will look like I am speaking a foreign language. This was not American comfort food I was eating. This is international gourmet. My husband and I make a hobby out of dining at fine establishments and even reminiscing years later about a wonderful meal we had or a special bottle of wine. I say “we collect chefs”. So here is a bit of a report on the chefs we collected this trip and the meals we ate. This won’t be all of the meals. I can’t type all afternoon. This is just a few of the highlights, but they are indicative of every meal I ate on this trip.

Our first stop was a restaurant called simply, Fifteen. I have been waiting since 2002 to go to Fifteen. Fifteen is a restaurant by Chef Jamie Oliver. If you are a Food Network watcher you likely are familiar with Jamie. I admire Chef Jamie for opening Fifteen. He’s giving disadvantaged youth a chance at building a career, so this place is staffed by folks who could not afford culinary school. Many of them came from gangs or tough homes. They are taught proper restaurant service and cooking execution and they do deliver. Superb.

So here’s what I ate.

Beef, barley bun and horseradish cream

Crispy quail and pickled walnut ketchup

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