How it works

Weigh once

Weigh once, then eyeball: in week 1 weigh the chicken, dough ball, rice, pasta and oil on a kitchen scale; after that you know the sizes by sight.

Oil

Oil comes out of the bottle only with a measuring teaspoon, never poured. 1 tbsp is about 120 kcal; most dishes use 1 level tsp or less, the most is 1.25 tsp (crispy chicken burger, fried rice).

Chai

Two milk teas a day: 70 ml boiled full-cream milk (or 100 ml lower-fat packet milk; mark the cup once) and 1 level tsp sugar or 1 sweetener tablet each. Every other hot drink is sugar-free green tea (qehwa), which is practically free.

Plate order

The chicken, beef or eggs first, then the salad, the bread or rice last. One chapati per meal: 65 g of dough (a medium egg, 40 g flour), no ghee on top.

Salad every day

Raw salad or fruit every day (kachumber, onion rings, slaw, raita, pickle, guava, banana, dates). It is part of the meal, not optional.

Training timing

Morning session = pre-training snack 45-60 min before, breakfast straight after. Evening session = snack 45-60 min before, dinner straight after. Every lunch and dinner carries about 50 g protein or more, so post-training protein is automatic. On a morning-training day you may eat that day's chapati with breakfast instead.

Swaps

You may swap lunch and dinner on the SAME day (both are thawed) so the bread- or rice-heavier one is nearest the session. Never move a meal to another day, except after eating out (see Eating out); swap whole days only, and move their thaw bags too.

Thawing

After dinner, read tomorrow's line on the freezer map taped to the fridge door and move those bags to the bottom shelf of the fridge on a plate. Set a phone alarm for 21:30 as a backup.

Thaw only in the fridge overnight, never on the counter or in water. Reheat until steaming in the middle. Cooked rice is reheated once, never twice, never refrozen. Anything with a 'made' date older than 4 weeks goes in the bin.

Loose milk is always boiled before tea, pancakes, French toast or pasta sauce. Minced beef and chicken are always cooked through with no pink; poached-egg yolks can stay soft for healthy adults, but cook them firm for pregnant readers, young children and older adults.

Lunch box

Lunch box for work: pack it fridge-cold in a lidded box inside an insulated bag with a frozen 500 ml water bottle, sauce in its own small box; eat within 4 h of leaving the fridge, reheated at work until steaming if there is a microwave or stove, or cold (fine for the wrap and quesadilla). For karahi, dal chicken or chilli you can instead fill a vacuum flask pre-heated 5 min with boiling water, steaming hot, and eat within 4 h. Never carry food warm in foil or a hot-case. Taco rice box (Tue): never in a flask or carried warm; at work only with the ice bottle and a microwave, which is its one reheat. No microwave: swap Tuesday's lunch and dinner, cook the tikka pizza in the morning (14 min) and take it cold, and eat the taco box hot at home.

Load-shedding

Keep the freezer door shut. A full closed freezer stays safe about 48 h, half-full about 24 h, so keep water bottles frozen in the empty spaces. Keep a cup of frozen water with a coin on top: if the coin has sunk, the freezer thawed. After a cut: a bag that still has ice crystals goes back in. A bag that is fully soft but still fridge-cold moves to the fridge and is eaten within 24 h (the rice box that same day), never refrozen. Anything that feels like room temperature, or if you cannot tell how long the power was off: bin it.

If the fridge is off more than 4 h, bin anything perishable that is no longer cold to the touch: thawed raw meat, thawed cooked boxes, the Monday shawarma box, the Sunday rice box, yogurt sauces, raita, chutney, peeled eggs. If it is still cold, cook or eat it today. Eggs in their shell and unopened sauces are fine.

Low gas pressure in winter: do the Sunday cook-up mid-morning, lean on the pressure cooker, and keep lids on when reheating. Tuesday's breakfast needs almost no gas.

Forgot to thaw

Forgot to thaw? Cooked flat boxes and bags: straight from frozen into a covered pan with 4 tbsp water on low 12-15 min, stirring, until steaming (the rice box too, and that is its one reheat). Quesadilla or burrito: covered pan on low 7-8 min per side until the middle steams. Raw smash-burger balls, tikka or teriyaki: cook from frozen on medium-low with the lid on, add 5-8 min, cut the thickest piece: no pink. Crispy chicken fillet: cook from frozen as a plain chilli-yogurt fillet, lid on, medium-low, 7 min per side, skip the crumb. Never leave a bag on the counter to speed it up.

Hungry

Hungry between meals: qehwa, water or a cucumber. No biscuits, rusks, fried snacks or fizzy drinks.

Weigh-ins

Weigh at the same time of day, once a week, not daily. Losing more than about 1% of your body weight per week (weekly average) after week 4; the first 3-4 weeks can drop faster from water

Eating out

Eating out or a takeaway = that one meal only, never a 'cheat day', at most 1-2 a week. Eat that day's breakfast and snack as planned and skip only the planned main it replaces. If the skipped bag is RAW (smash burger beef, tikka pizza, crispy chicken, teriyaki, tikka boti): put it straight back into the freezer the same day; it thawed in the fridge, so that is safe, and it becomes the next Sunday's lunch instead of the cheesesteak (buy 190 g less beef next Saturday). If the skipped box is COOKED (shawarma chicken, taco rice box, quesadilla, karahi, dal chicken, spaghetti chicken, burrito, chilli): eat it at your next lunch or dinner within 24 h, and that meal's RAW pack goes back into the freezer as above. On Friday both boxes are cooked: eat the skipped one at Saturday dinner and put the raw tikka boti back in the freezer. A second meal out in the same week: its raw pack replaces Sunday's fried rice. Never refreeze cooked food or rice. Plate rule when eating out: half the plate protein (grilled chicken, tikka, kebabs, about 2 palm-sized portions), a quarter salad or raita, and ONE flatbread or ONE small bowl of rice, not both. Lift pieces out of gravy instead of spooning oily sauce. No fizzy drinks; green tea or water. Dessert = 2 spoons, only at a celebration. Quick guide: grilled tikka or karahi = a 250-300 g meat share + 1 roti + salad. Burger: a single patty, no fries, no extra cheese. Shawarma or wrap: 1 regular, ask for less mayo, no fries. Pizza: 2 slices + salad. Fried food: 1 portion + salad is the whole meal. The next day goes straight back to the plan; never 'save up' by skipping meals.

Safety valve