I have wandered about some of the dieting sites a little more and oh dear some of them are grim. Dieters trying to yank and beat their bodies into weird shapes. And getting angry and miserable about it. All those beautiful bodies. Remember there is no failure in the Celi Diet. Because you are designing your own Food Program. There are a few more of you who have joined me on the Celi Diet which is great because the Celi Diet is all about Loving the Body remember. Watching the Body not the weight. Cutting out processed foods. Allowing your body to achieve its natural weight. And eating well. 
AS you know there are a few rules for the first few weeks. No processed foods. Eat fresh.
- No flour
- No sugar
- No rice
- No roots
- No cheating
This will quickly knock off some of that excess fat that has gathered around your internal organs. As this drops off you will start to feel more energetic and more excited about eating good food. I start every day with a lot of water. A lot of room temperature water. Before I even brush my teeth, I drink glasses of it. It gives my body a shower on the inside. 
Eat Colourful food. In our first few weeks make yourself lovely food. In fact ALWAYS make your self lovely food. Food is wonderful. Food is not your enemy. Set the table, even when you are eating alone. And eat whilst thinking, chatting, reading, listening to music or writing. Mindless stuffing of food into your mouth while sitting on the couch watching the Giggle Box is banned. Banned. BANNED. I say!! CHEW your food and eat slowly at the table or in your favourite chair or at the breakfast bar or under a tree or IN the tree for that matter.
Here are a few perfect meals I found for you to help you cook simple healthy food that matches the Celi Diet.
This is a great example of a Celi Diet meal, a lovely ancient recipe for chicken by Ang Sarap.
This is another lovely simple yet gorgeous meal by Cookinginsens. In fact quite a few of the recipes on her beautiful site are perfect for us.
Here is a delicious omelette breakfast from Gluten Free Zen.
How about a gorgeous salad from Couscous and Consciousness!.
And an exotic Japanese savory egg custard that I just adore from The Chef and The Steward.
Plus this divine salmon meal from Midnite Chef. 
AND just when you thought it was safe, how about a wee drinky while you are thinking about what to cook for the Body Beautiful tonight. The honey version of course!! This is from Cook Eat Live Vegetarian. 
And that was my lunch you watched go by. It is ideal for the working person to take to work. I put it in a plastic tub with a lid and take a fork and eat it all day. I bring it up to the loft and have a munch as I write. (Right now actually, can you hear me? chomp, chomp, chomp!) You will make your own variation of it as you design your own lifetime diet.
The optional dressing is 1/4 cup cider vinegar, 3/4 cup olive oil, a little garlic, 1/2 tsp whole grain mustard, dash of lemon, pepper and salt, and whatever green or dried herbs you have at hand. I put that all in a little mason jar and shake it up.
Eat well, have fun
c
ps. This post is my thank you to the lovely award givers. Thank you. I am not good at awards but I LOVE to introduce people!
The Kitchen's Garden 
70 responses to “Celi Diet – Colourful food: Eat Pretty”
Celi, do you ever make rhubarb pies? My mother made them when I was a kid and they were so good. I love fruit pies. For my birthday I never wanted a cake. I always wanted pie. My mother made the best cherry pies, too. I guess all pies need a lot of sugar, though. Anyway, do you make any fruit pies and can a pie with low sugar taste as good as ones with the right amount?
You know what Harper, i do not have a sweet tooth. I flavour everything with honey and that seems to work out. i am so sad! and yes I do make a rhubarb and strawberry pie in the spring. Pie is a very american thing though . At home if I said Pie we would think of steak pie. Though i am fairly sure that your mums sweet pies would beat mine hands down! c
Wow, steak pie sounds great, too. I guess I would like everything to be in a pie. It would be easy to eat, too!
Hey, is that steak and kidney pie that you hear the English make?
In fact here is a steak pie recipe : https://thekitchensgarden.wordpress.com/2011/08/19/steak-with-onion-pie-and-ram-gets-a-hair-do/.. and now that you have reminded me .. maybe i will make this next week! I love a good steak pie.. have never been so fond of the kidneys! tho! c
Cecilia, does this mean I must throw away the wonderful cocotte stew I made with jarret de boeuf (shin of beef), onions, carrots, parsnips from the garden and big jacket potatoes, also from the garden? Too late: we’ve eaten most of it, leaving seconds for tomorrow. And we’ve also finished off the apple cake I made on Sunday! But I can still fit into my clothes, so it can’t be too bad.
bring it over here and i will have the leftovers.. all good food is good food!! c
Thank you, C, for reminding people to eat around all of the color palette – so important! I like to have something green, yellow, and red on my plate at all times!
That is so true.. you are so onto it.. no wonder your recipes are so good! c
Thank you 🙂 I try to keep it well-balanced as do you, obviously!
I do love all the bright produce that’s fresh right now. Yum!
there is some good stuff around at this time of year… especially those deep green leafy veges… c
okay, so wait…
cucumbers
oranges
tomatoes (right?)
avocados (okay…)
olives (huh?)
raisins?
pickles? (are those actually pickles?)
other sweet dried fruit?
and whatever the heck else was in there??? dried peas and some white stuff…???
Okay, now how can I be the only one who’s eyebrows lifted at this combo? What am I not getting here? Could it be that the processed foods that I eat (sometimes….I mean not ALL the time, but I suspect that you wouldn’t approve of all my food choices haha) have weakened my eyesight?
Please explain what all is in there…and how on earth it tastes all in the same bowl…hahaha
Nope melissa your eyesight is just fine! You were right down as far as other dried fruit, there are nuts, then sprouts then (wait for it) frozen blueberries! It all taste divine and worse I eat it with a spoon, scooping out the individual tastes that I want to combine into a mouthful! And now you design your own, with all your favourites in a bowl! c
Looks like the perfect lunch C. I always love a colourful plate. It encourages you to dive right on in.
I can and do eat it all day, I love pretty food! c
Gluttons don’t know what dieting is. 🙂
Good God NO! That would just ruin all your hard work! c
What this combo illustrates for me is one of my great loves: sweet-and-savory combinations. I had a yummy salad last weekend at The Mansion at Turtle Creek (my first visit there, but not my last, I hope) that was a soft but not limp sweet lettuce (Bibb, perhaps?) tossed with a delicious creamy lemon vinaigrette, shredded Manchego, and slivered Medjool dates. Simple, light and HEAVENLY.
Wow, that does sound glorious.. That whole bitter, sweet, pungent, bland thing.. beautiful combo! c
I am now starving – time to head of for breakfast!
Ah breakfast! It is my favourite meal in the morning.. c
Your lunch looks so colourful. I think it is such a shame that so much emphasis is place by the dieting industry on low fat foods. I feel it would be so much better if there was a focus on good rather than bad fats.
very true.. the packaged low fat diet food is a money making scheme.. it is not for our health! c
Wow, that salad looks so tasty and colourful. I will definitely be cracking open a bottle of home made wine with supper. Cheers C.
Oh how is your homemade wine? What fun. We just racked or is it wracked, it again last night and it is .. well.. still in the developmental stage! c
How long do you carry on with these restrictions?
Well, I have already lost the required 10 pounds, so now I will work on maintaining that, so on monday (14 days) i will be revving up the sourdough and baking bread again, and potatoes can come back in on the days I do not eat bread. I am always going to try not to eat processed foods or any foods with a Genetically Modified component. Plus the big doses of water first thing in the morning will stay. This keeps me honest. Easy really. c