Optifast Diet

The details of the Optifast diet are at http://www.optifast.com.au/, but here are some tips. See also General Diet Tips.

The Optifast Itself

• Many people dislike the vanilla milkshake. This is probably because it's sweetened with saccharine. The chocolate milkshake is sweetened with saccharine also, so I didn't bother even trying it. The other two milkshakes aren't sweetened with saccharine, so they taste better. Adding instant coffee to the vanilla flavour can help, but not if you don't like the taste of coffee.
• The chocolate dessert Optifast is nice with a handful of fresh chopped strawberries added to it.
• If you can, save your fruit quota to use for morning and afternoon tea instead of eating it with breakfast and lunch. You're going to be hungry on this diet, and being able to assuage the pangs a bit can help.
• Take a look at my Optifast recipes.

Drinking

One is supposed to have at least 2 litres of water or "diet drink" on this diet, and that's more than most people are used to drinking, so it can be hard to do.

• get a cask of spring water; it tastes better
• tea with sweetener (see General Diet Tips)
• coffee with sweetener and a couple of spoons of powdered skim milk
• diet lemon or lime cordial; just add a splash to cold water (or soda water if you like fizzy)
• herbal/fruit teas; there's a lot more around than there used to be, there's more than just peppermint and cammomile. Twinings and Liptons have a few varieties you can even buy in the supermarket. Health food stores often have herbal teas (and sometimes the "health food" aisle of the supermarket). Two more common brands are Celestial Seasonings and Healtheries. Depending where you live, you may also be able to find a specialty tea store: T2 in Melbourne has a few outlets, and they have some delicious herbal tea blends.
• herbal tea ice: make up some strong-ish peppermint or lemon herbal tea, pour into ice cube tray, freeze, and then put in a container in the freezer. Then use one or two cubes to add a faint peppermint or lemon taste to your water, as well as cooling it down.
• lemon ice cubes: buy some lemons, squeeze them, pour the juice into an ice cube tray, freeze, put in a container in the freezer. Then you have lemon juice ready to use for drinks (or recipes) without worrying about whether you have lemons or not.