Since the last pictures, we’ve been really busy and haven’t had a diet plan.  Of course the old standby to stay away from sugar and white flour has still ruled.

This week’s diet plan is rice and beans.

Doesn’t sound very good; does it?  It’s actually one of our favorite dishes here in Costa Rica.  It’s called Gallo Pinto and everyone has it for breakfast.

The beans are black.  The rice is regular old white rice.  The trick is to cook the rice in the sauce of the black beans instead of water.

There is also an excellent vegetable seasoning sauce here called Lizano.  We’re limiting how much we use of that since it has sugar, but it is very flavorful so you don’t need much.

Also allowed at the last minute is eggs.  Fried eggs are added on top of gallo pinto for breakfast here.  We’re just extending a typical Costa Rican breakfast to every meal for a week.

It will be interesting to see the results.  My prior data shows that I need to avoid rice.  Beans are OK though.  It will be interesting to get more data on the apparent rice problem in a more controlled diet.  Maybe it isn’t a problem after all.  Maybe it was several other things that have been had with rice in the past.

That’s the only way to find out for sure… test.  Change diets weekly and do a multivariate analysis on the results.  Once you see a food item (like sugar) that causes weight gain in every single combination… maybe it’s something you should limit.  I have enough data on sugar and flour for me.  I don’t yet have enough data on rice to be sure that is something I need to avoid.

So… here’s to rice and beans this week.

It’s all that most poor Nicaraguans ever eat.  I’ve never seen a fat Nicaraguan so far.

-James D. Brausch