Wine Is Beautiful!

You can lose weight on a grape juice diet. 

Though the Red/Black Grape Juice Diet is technically not a wine diet, it is given in the same spirit as the three wine diets. If you follow this diet as religiously as you would the wine diets, the Red / Black Grape Juice Diet should result in a similar weight loss. Watch what happens over the next 365 days. In my case, I lost over 62 pounds over about two years on the Red Wine Diet. My 800 + days are up and then some and that is why I decided to make the whole diet plan into a book.  

Each particular Diet has its own nuances and so all parts of each particular diet are included in a main article such as the one you are reading now about the grape juice diet. All four chapters (three wines and one juice) occupy full chapters in the book and each is a separate article on the WineDiets.Com web site.  

The liquid grape diet definitely worked for me. My grapes were fermented and produced alcohol in the red wine which I enjoyed. I have the extra belt holes to prove it. I hope to be updating my total again in spring 2016.This is such a low paced, no-pressure diet, that within another six months or so, my goal is to lose another ten pounds at the check-in.  

No weight loss is guaranteed to work for you but my derivative surely worked for me. Please share the essence of this juice diet with your family physician to make sure the prescribed regimen as presented will keep you healthy during your weight loss. Your physician may have some additional to do's for you or some caveats. Best wishes!  

It is hard to lose weight under all circumstances. If you are lots bigger than you ever thought you would be, as was my case, this is your perfect diet. If you have been on so many diets over your lifetime, that after the first five pounds, you cannot buy a pound of weight loss, this is the perfect diet for you. Of course, I project from my own success and there are no guarantees in life.  

I did not even know that I was losing weight when I changed my daily eating and drinking routine. I did not want a strict diet that seemed to work and got in the way of all fun and frivolity and more or less suggested that a few years in a monastery would be the only way I could ever lose twenty pounds again. I had had many successful weight loss endeavors in my earlier life but that semmed to have ended several years ago when I turned 60.  

It just gets harder to lose a thinning pound the older that one gets. I had given up 100%. My objective was simply to stop gaining weight at the rate of five to ten pounds or worse per year.  

My first inkling that I was actually losing weight was several months after I changed my every-day life—though I did not think substantially. I found out that I was losing weight only when I met that nasty doctor's scale at Dr. Patrick Kerrigan's practice in the fall 2013. The scale presented to me some very pleasing facts. I had lost real weight almost unknowingly.  

So, I reviewed the prior few months of minimally changed behavior to account for what I may have done differently. Whatever it was, I wanted to be able to continue it and hopefully lose more weight. I was either sick or I had stumbled on a new approach that would not only help me not-gain weight but would actually help me lose weight.  

I have told parts of this story a few times already on the web site and in this book in the wine diets above. The most descriptive essay is presented in the winediets.com classic article / chapter titled Wine Diets Basics. It is Chapter 5 in the book 

You may want to read this classic before you read the rest of this article / chapter as it has the theory, the rationale, and the implementation directives for the wine diet of your choice -- Red, White, or Rose' / Blush, and of course your selection The Red / Black Grape Juice Diet. Most of that chapter is in this chapter if you want to keep reading here without taking a break.  

I must admit that I do not intend to ever try the juice diet myself, though I would not mind a glass or two every now and then. I love grape juice, especially from Kedem. Grape juice drives this diet. I am still healthy enough to drink wine. I thank God for that with many Amens! But, what if one day, I could no longer drink alcohol and maintain my health? This is a great alternative.  

So, as I examined the substitution of dry grape juice for dry wine, I realized that anybody on NA either temporarily or permanently may learn to enjoy their NA grape juice as much as NA beer drinkers enjoy their NA beer and as much as wine drinkers enjoy their wine. A dry grape juice diet therefore is a real thing. 

In fact, it can actually be more effective than a dry wine diet for the zealous dieter because dry grape juice has less calories than dry grape wine. And, so, if you cannot drink dry wines, this juice diet or perhaps a different flavored juice in the diet may be just the solution that you have been searching for. And, after all that goodness, you can still manage to lose weight.  

Thank you for choosing The Red / Black Grape Juice Diet. To put the diets in perspective, those who cannot or do not wish to drink alcohol or who get migraines from wine, logically would choose this Red / Black Grape Juice Diet.  

For your friends who are wine drinkers, the Red Wine Diet is certainly the healthiest wine diet of them all. The White Wine diet has less calories and so theoretically the five calories saved per glass may help white wine drinkers knock of another pound or so. The Blush Rose' diet is in between on health properties and calories.  

For you to achieve the benefits of any of the wine or juice diets, I would advise that you stick to your favorite wine or juice on this diet. Other than sweet wines, described below, they all should work fine for weight loss. When your friends are part of the Red Wine Diet even though its sugar content is about 2.5 calories more than the Rose' / Blush wine Diet and 5 calories more than the White Wine Diet, they would be doing the best diet that combines health and weight loss.  

For non-wine drinkers, the Red / Black Grape Juice Diet, which we are now studying, is an excellent choice. All dark-skinned grapes contain antioxidants that are beneficial for your health. Any dry red grape juice would have similar properties to the Red Wine Diet. Just like the only-red wine diets, the other dry grape juice diets, such as dry combos or dry whites, are not as beneficial as the red / black grape juice diet, because red / black grapes are the best.  

As I was digesting all the facts about this dry juice diet, I started to wonder where one could get Cabernet or Merlot dry grape juices as I do not recall seeing them in grocery stores. First of all, they may very well be in grocery stores but their manufacturers like to call them non-alcoholic wine. When you cannot find what you want in the grocery store, there is always the Internet. I found a great source of dry red grape juice I copied some of their ad material below:

 

Drape Valley Vineyard

 

This is not an endorsement but a recognition that there are sellers of such fine juices and they market their wares as if they are among the best. Perhaps they are the best. Here is an ad with which I was particularly impressed.  

Drape Valley Vineyard’s non-alcoholic grape juice is unique in its purity. Most non-alcoholic wine is dealcoholized, leaving a slightly acerbic aftertaste behind along with a small amount of alcohol. To make its juice, DVV crushes and presses premium wine grapes with all the fresh goodness of the grape preserved with absolutely no alcohol. This is no ordinary grape juice. It’s a symphony for the taste buds with a wonderful aroma! 

DVV’s Cabernet Sauvignon wine grape juice bursts with rich flavors reminiscent of cherry, strawberry and raspberry with a faint whisper of plum. 

An ad such as that puts this whole quest in perspective as it shows that dry grape juice vintners and sellers have a stake in the game. 

What good healthy stuff would we find in red or black grapes? 

The two main flavonoids in red grapes are quercetin and resveratrol. Resveratrol is often in the news for its anti-inflammatory effects. It is often cited as a reason to drink red wine.  

Red / black grape juice, therefore is beneficial for arthritis and heart disease patients. It also helps reduce the risk of cancer. Quercetin is a powerful antioxidant that can combat free radicals, protecting the body from disease and reducing the effects of aging. It is also an antihistamine, so it can help reduce the symptoms of seasonal allergies. And it does it all without a hint of alcohol.  

Like red rapes, black grapes contain vitamins C, B-1 and B-6. Black grapes also contain quercetin and resveratrol. So they are equally good for reducing cholesterol and reducing the risk of heart disease. They also contain substances known as phenolic acids.  

In 2008, S.M. Huang et al conducted a study, which has been published in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research. The study noted that phenolic acids can protect cells from diabetic neuropathy. This is a complication of diabetes, in which high blood sugar levels damage the nerves. 

In case you were wondering, eating these grapes before they are liquefied is also very healthful.  

The good news my dear wine and juice dieters is that you can drink your favorite wine or grape juice on the WineDiets.Com diets and still be a candidate to lose weight with a huge particularly smile on your face.  

You do not have to drink the lower calorie whites to lose weight. You can drink higher calorie red wines or even lower calorie red / black grape juices and you can check in at your doctor's office every six months like I do to watch the weight dripping off in double figures.  

Be careful if you must binge!   

The quick snapshot of the dry juice diet is that you should follow the pages of this web site or the book with the full agreement of your primary physician of course. Unless you are advised by your physician against it, you are permitted to break this diet many times over the course of your 365 day test drive. Try not to make it a weekly thing.  

The worst that will happen if you go astray for short periods is that instead of say, a loss of 15 or 20 or more pounds in a year, you may lose only ten or fifteen pounds. When you crave, to assure that you will stay true to your personal diet, I suggest that you give in sometimes and take that brief binge.  

But, make sure that that you come back after a few days. Hopefully the binge will make you more satisfied and you will be ready to continue. Do what you must to continue on the diet. Remember this always: no diet works if you leave it forever.   

What about fasting on your "wine" diet?  

If you make a fasting diet out of this (other than the wine or juice component, which is a diet requirement), then you probably should take some vitamins or any supplements your doctor recommends to support you with the challenges of your modified wine or juice diet.  

To assure that you can maintain your health, especially if you have any concerns whatsoever, take this diet and your dinner plans based on this diet to your physician and get your personal diet approved for your use. That should be easy. Since WineDiets.Com cannot be responsible for your health whether you are on our diet or not, we recommend strongly that you consult your physician. It is her job.  

Most adults know they cannot just eat meats or just eat starches or just eat candy or just drink wine or just eat vegetables so you do not need WineDiets.Com to tell you that. Our three main diets (Red, White, and Rose'/Blush) are very similar and all depend on an understanding of Wine Diet Basics as presented on this site and in Chapter 5 of the book. The dry grape juice diet works the same way.  

In essence, the Red / Black Grape Juice Diet asks you to eat just two meals a day and not to eat anything in-between meals other than vegetables and fruits -- in almost limitless quantities depending on the type of vegetable or fruit.  

It asks you to drink lots of water and several glasses of red / black grape juice (preferably dry) during the happy hour part of each day -- 365 days a year. For me, I begin my wine consumption at 6:00 PM. I would begin grape juice consumption in the wine time slot for those who cannot or choose not to drink win. It may help most days to drink your dry juice over conversation with a good friend.  

With the Red / Black Grape Juice Diet, as noted, the juice should be mostly dry if possible but again, make sure you like the juice. Dry grape juice has less calories than all of the wine diets per ounce.  

Caveats Regarding Sweet Wine / Juice and Dieting with Sweets in General.  

Manischewitz or Moden David or Kedem juices and sweet wines, or Niagara types, Moscato, Sweet French Columbard, Port, Welch's sweet grape juice, and other sweet whites / yellows are all sold in various highly reachable markets such as PA State Stores, as well as liquor / wine stores across the Country and the world. Grape juice varieties are sold in most supermarkets. Sweet wines or juices are not recommended for dieters using the same rate of consumption as the dry varieties.  

Other sweet wines and juices in a dessert class are in the same boat. These do not qualify for the full impact of the Red / Black Grape Juice Diet but you can make adjustments to the quantity to compensate for the substantially higher calories in sweet varieties.  

Semi-sweet red wines and juices are not as bad as sweet but again, it is up to you to compensate. Even though this is a juice diet chapter, I thought you would like to see this nice picture of the Kedem Winery shown a page or so below. I have a soft spot for Kedem.  

Their tasting venue is quite elegant and they have both dry and sweet wines that are really fine. Just watch some of their sweet varieties as all sweet wines. Make sure you do not over-consume on calories. Kedem dry wines are very, very nice. Kedem makes excellent juice but most of their varieties are very sweet

Having a taste at Kedem surely does not look painful;.

 

In other words, if you check out the calorie content of any sweet or semi-sweet wines or juices and adjust your intake so that you are within the calorie range of the dry reds or blacks, your diet can be just as effective. Depending on your metabolism, you may even be able to get away with a good portion of the full bottle quotient for dry varieties. 

Make sure, of course, that you are not overly passionate about drinking lots of sweet wine or juice or I regret to say that you run the risk of actually gaining weight. Weigh yourself at the beginning of your diet on a reliable and consistent scale. Use that same scale for every weigh-in you may plan. 

Write your weight down about every two weeks on the same day. This helps and verifies your diet history for your own future reference. After about two weeks on a sweet wine or juice regimen make sure that you weigh yourself to be sure that the diet is working for you. 

Sweet candies and other goodies 

My recommendation on all sweet delicacies would be that if possible, stay away from them; but if you must—all things are acceptable on this diet in moderation. To the extent you can, get rid of sweet candies and cakes and large quantities of ice cream almost completely in your wine or juice diet.  

Sweets always add empty calories—of course those dark Gertrude Hawk Chocolates we talk about at the end of this piece are an exception—Don't we wish? Even though no sweet is an exception, the impact of the Gertrude Hawk Dark Chocolate Smidgeons has been accounted for in the three major wine diets and also the dry grape juice diet. I was the Guinea Pig. Yes, you can eat some Smidgens and you can still lose weight. It's all part of the diet.  

Sweet stuff—even coffee must be managed  

Back as a child, my parents let me take my coffee as if it were a coffee milkshake. It was made with half milk and at least three heaping T-spoons of sugar to give it an OK taste for child consumption. So, I ask those thinking of sweet wines or sweet juices to consider that under these circumstances I did gain weight as a child and young teen.  

When I got older and into my college years, I eventually lessened the impact of coffee calories by putting just a thimble full of milk in my coffee and reducing the amount of sugar from three to 1/4 teaspoons. Eventually, I was able to completely eliminate sugar from my coffee. I don’t miss the sugar a bit.  

Yet, I still gained weight but it was not because of the coffee. In my case in my early twenties, I discovered a new favorite liquid. I can rightfully blame excessive beer drinking for my weight gain. Watch your beer consumption as it can ruin the full impact of any of the wine or juice diets.  

When I stopped drinking beer excessively more than twenty years ago, I kept gaining weight but not so rapidly. At the time, I was not paying attention. When the mirror finally stopped lying to me, I tried to do something. But, until the wine / dry grape juice diets, I could never lose more than 20 or so pounds at a time…and if I lost anything, it came back quickly with more.  

Things happen to us over our lives. Our metabolism begins to decrease while our unwillingness to eliminate things from our diet increases. Unfortunately, in my case, I gained weight for most of my life in small almost unnoticeable increments.  

But I did not gain as much as I would have if I had given in to all urges. That's just how it was for me. That's how I woke up one day at 343 pounds, and the mirror had stopped lying.  

How I lost 62 pounds on the "Wine" Diet 

Sometime in the summer of 2013, I don't even know exactly when or why, but with little thought, I began to eat consciously and differently. I was hoping not to gain any more weight. I had resigned myself that I could not lose any weight at all and so staying the same weight sounded pretty good to me at the time.  

I was beginning to feel huge and I thought that I could do nothing about it other than stop drinking wine and good grape juice and starving forever. I really did not think anything that I could do would help me lose weight for the long haul.  

Though I am an upbeat guy, I did feel a bit doomed by my plight. Finally, without really tuning in to what was happening. I began to lose weight. I did not realize it because it was coming off so slowly. I could not tell that I was losing weight and I was blinded to the fact since I am such a poor dieter and I was not really trying to lose weight.  

It was not until my October 2013 Doctor Kerrigan appointment that I found that I had been losing real weight. I was surprised that I had lost 9 pounds. My belt holes were the same and I had not added any new holes, yet my pants were a bit looser. I figured I needed to rethink how this had happened. So, I went back and charted what I had been doing. I got the drift.  

I kept doing the prescription looking for continual results. In the Spring of 2014, at the doctor's office again, I found that I had lost another 6 pounds. I had gotten through Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays and more importantly the Dago Red wine season and had still lost six pounds.  

By then, the diet had become second nature to me. It was not burdensome. I had not formalized anything and I had not named my routine or thought about a formal diet at the time. It was all ad-hoc. But, for sure, something good was happening.  

In October 2014, I checked in at the Doctor's office again. This time, I had lost fourteen pounds. I was really feeling good. I was living naturally on the diet now and I had added a light walking regimen in the summer but not an awful lot of walking in the 2014 summer months.  

However, I was starting to believe that I had something that worked for me and could work for others. Around this time, I built the WineDiets.Com web site and began to tell the story in articles such as this one the web site.  

In April 2015 at my semi-annual Doctor's visit, I was ready. I was looking for a really big loss. I had three losses in a row and was ready to be uplifted onto the svelte platform. Unfortunately, on this semi-annual visit, I learned that even my new Wine Diet is not magical. I lost zero pounds.  

I was upset for a while but upon reflection, I definitely now do know why. In prior years, I would have gained ten pounds or more with my holiday Dago Red wine consumption. Please see Chapter 11 or the article titled "Dago Red: World's Best Wine" on the web site. Then, you too will know why I lost no pounds in my April 2015 Dr. Kerrigan office weigh-in.  

Once the Dago Red was long gone, I could feel myself losing weight again. I found some older retired jeans that fit again and I added holes to my belts. During the Dago Red off-season, I switched to Pennsylvania-grown Chambourcin red wine from Benigna Creek Winery in Klingerstown, PA. It is great.  

To keep wine consumption expenses down, when I was not looking for the best red, such as Chambourcin from Benigna, I used some of the California box wines or gallon jugs of dry reds—Merlot or Cabernet such as those from Carlo Rossi. The calorie and alcohol count, fullness and body were minimal, but then again, box wine and public jug wine is about 40% of the price of Dago Red.  

The key notion for the return to a weight loss scenario was that the box wine and bulk wines were not heavy. Thus, they did not carry a lot of calories with them. The end of the Dago Red availability in late spring, and the switch to a lighter substitute brought me back to reality. It  helped me lose weight.  

Even though such red wines are not really that great, they are not that bad either. These cheaper bulk wines simply did not make me want to drink as much wine as I would have with Dago Red.  

This fall in early October 2015 at Dr. Kerrigan;s office, I was very surprised. I lost a staggering 22 additional pounds. Altogether, adding the 9 lbs. to the 6lbs. to the 14lbs. to the 0 lbs. to the 22 pounds, I had lost 51 pounds. I hope I never find them again and I hope that I continue to stay healthy. Wealthy and wise would also be nice, but I would be very happy with simply healthy.  

That's not the end of the 2015 weight loss. By the time I finished this book in December 2015, I weighed myself again. I did not have the doctor's scale available but I have a pretty good scale now and with fresh batteries, it is now in pretty good synch with the doctor's scale. I had lost another 11 pounds.  

So now at completion, as I prepare this book for publication, my weight is at 281.6 pounds. I am now a 281.6 pound weakling and I am very proud of the loss.  

That, my dear WineDiet.Com friends, is down from 343—a total of 62 pounds. This great weight loss over 2+ years was the motivation for me to take the WineDiets.Com web site public and create a book from it. At the same time, I updated my personal weight-loss experience on the web site and in the book. Thank you all for sharing in my joy.

 

The Diet Part of the Red / Black Grape Juice Diet

 

Now that we got through all the when's, where's, and why's, let's discuss the what's and how's. As we are about to reveal the secrets of the infamous Red / Black Grape Juice Diet. Be advised again that you should be able to use other dry juices and have the same fine weight results. A fine hair dryer controlled clinic might help:

There are separate articles about each of these wine diets on the web site and in the book. Each wine diet chapter (white, red, grape juice, blush / rose') is like this one on red /black grape juice. They are all complete so you need only read about the diet that you choose. Skip the other chapters if they do not apply. 

They are self-contained essays. They are not identical but they contain all of the facts that apply to specific diets and all of the facts that pertain to all diets. If you read every diet, you may get bored but if you read just the diet chapter in which you choose to engage, it will be very convenient for you.  

As discussed previously, there is Chapter 5 and a web site article that describes the generic attributes of all the wine diets. It is called "Wine Diet Basics." So that you do not have to go back to this article for a perspective, I borrowed some of its text, touched it up a bit, and put it in each wine diet and juice diet chapter / article including this. For example, in this particular chapter / article, I tuned the text to be more appropriate for the Red / Black Grape Juice Diet.  

When thinking of your meal contents with the Red / Black Grape Juice Diet it helps to consider the few rules in the Wine Diet Basics to help make sure that your diet is successful. One key item is noted immediately below: 

Be careful between meals, 

Remember that during between-meal-time, you can have fresh fruits and / or vegetables, but as a rule do not have another full meal. When you have raw vegetables, eat as many as you want with the smallest amount of dip. Some raw hard raw vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower burn up more calories than they add.  

Remember that I went through several months of my first summer without even watching my weight, while post-facto being declared on the Red Wine Diet. I lost weight anyway. The diet guides you on a path to weight loss.  

In my opinion, only if you are kidding about wanting to lose weight, will this great diet be a dead-end for you. But, you have to stick to the guidelines for you to be happy with the results.  

Here are the basic notions of your daily diet. The key elements of the Wine / Dry Juice Diet on a daily basis are as follows:

 

  • Wine /Juice Diet Breakfast / Lunch (Brunch) Time 12:00 Noon or so
  • Wine /Juice Diet Wine Time 6:00 PM or so
  • Wine /Juice Diet Dinner Time 8:00 PM or so
  • Final Treat of the Day -- After Dinner before bed some time!
  • Relax and watch some TV
  • Time for sleep

 

For very early risers, you might find it more comfortable to have your brunch at some other time between ten o'clock and noon, and then you may choose to begin your wine time and dinner time earlier if you choose. It is not how I did it, however. I do not recommend it as I do not have results yet to see if it works well. I can't see why it would not work for many people. 

Wine / Juice Diet Breakfast / Lunch (Brunch) Time 12:00 Noon or so. 

For the breakfast / lunch combination (Brunch) always have a drink such as coffee or tea. Try not to put a lot of cream or sugar in either. Water or a light sugar drink can also be used. Orange juice or a fruit juice mixed with half way or more with water helps reduce your calorie intake if you do not like tea or coffee.  

Drink: coffee, tea, fruit drink, skim milk. Make sure sugar is light. Splurge seldom. 

 

Breakfast / Lunch Staples – Eat just one meal: Choose one:

 

  1. Two eggs, lightly buttered toast, sausage patty or ham, corned beef hash, or a few pieces of well drained bacon.
  2. Hamburg, Tuna, ham, roast beef or turkey sandwich or a chef salad easy on heavy dressings... your choice.
  3. Occasionally, substitute some French Toast or two pancakes
  4. Occasionally, add a donut or a muffin and of course some jelly for your toast. A small desert for the lunch part of brunch is appropriate.
  5. Eat as much fruit or vegetables as you want with small amounts of toppings or dips that are not huge in the calorie department.
  6. Rarely… but whenever you need it, have a piece of pound cake or banana cake or something really good.
  7. Two times a week have some home fries if you like.
  8. Yes, it is OK to have sausage, bacon or ham or a combo as long as you do not go overboard. But, remember this is not the Atkins diet so watch your total meat consumption. All parts of Brunch should add up to one meal.
  9. Now, since this meal occurs at noon, we can consider ourselves as having had Brunch. As long as it fits on a reasonably small to medium sized plate.

 

Wine Diet wine / juice time 6:00 PM or so

 

Get yourself a favorite dry red / black grape juice as discussed above and keep getting glasses of them until about 8 PM or until you have had your fill. When you don't have a need to go get one more of these fine beverages, wait a bit of time. But when you need your next juice, go get it. Enjoy your third meal of the day prior to dinner of course. 

Wine Diet dinner time 8:00 PM or so. 

Take a look at your dinner plate. If it is a big plate when empty, consider using a smaller plate that is also empty to begin your dinner hour. Then, fill it up with whatever it is you choose to eat for dinner from the type of selections outlined below. 

It is best to limit meat / fish quantities to about 4 ounces but please note that I did not do this and I still lost weight. Just do not over-do it! When all is said and done, it will help you to use the small plate and have just one piece of meat / fish on this small/medium plate along with all of the other dinner accoutrements. 

Your dinner meals should consist of some protein (meat, fish, fowl), some vegetables (salad, peas, green beans, etc.), some starch (beans, potatoes, pasta) etc. 

Fix up any kind of meat or your type of protein if you are a vegetarian. Make sure there is some space on your plate before you begin to eat your dinner. Yes, you can eat more but after one nice plate try not to stuff yourself unless you can't stand it. A helpful way to become full is to have a glass of water before leaving the table. Once you eat—no more wine for the day. 

Hopefully, you will be able to get by most days without "not being able to stand it." It may help to remember the recommended Gertrude Hawk Dark Chocolate Smidgeon is very satisfying at the end of the day before bed.  

You may find that just paying attention to your weight helps pave the way for weight loss; but admittedly it can be frustrating. The objective here is to not pay attention every day and just lose weight by following the directions. 

Meats, fish, fowl and other dinner items! 

When 8 o'clock PM comes or you are really ready to eat after finishing your day's wine quotient, go ahead and eat your dinner slowly; and enjoy it. Do not speed eat and do not chinch. Depending on the time, you may wish to have another nice dry grape juice rather than eat right away. That is OK!  

When ready to eat; go ahead. It helps to have a lot of parts to your dinner meal as you fill up along the way. Have a light soup and a salad with lots of stuff such as other vegetables as well as some fruits and nuts but do not pick an especially fattening dressing.  

In other words, look at the calories of the dressing and most of the time, pick something like a balsamic vinegar or a light dressing but every now and then let loose and have blue cheese or ranch if it will help you.  

Sometimes I will put some Blue Cheese dressing (heavy hitter) on half of my salad and Balsamic Vinegar on the other half. Try a nice slice of bread or two. When I am not compelled to have ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing or any other creamy variety, I may choose to pile salsa or a relish like chili sauce on top of an already attractive green salad.  

These toppings hardly register on the calorie scale and are delicious and filling. I also like to assure that half of the salad is baby spinach leaves because they have lots more nutrition than plain lettuce salad greens. Mmmmm!!! Spinach of course is not a meat no matter how good it is. The salad should be in its own bowl, not on your dinner plate.  

Check out your own protein intake to make sure you do not hurt your health on your particular Wine / Juice Diet. Use your physician as a consultant. We do not claim to be doctors. We do not know the medical facts as a doctor does. A doctor may tell you to do something other than that prescribed by this plan. Listen to the doctor in this case; not the plan.  

But, if like me, you have had a difficult time over the last several years losing weight, this wine diet should be good for you. It would help checking it out if you wrote down your meal contents and the time of day when you ate and share your documentation with your physician.  

For protein, eat whatever you like as your main course for supper (dinner) after you have had your dry grape juice for two hours and you have enjoyed your salad and soup.  

Put your meat and vegetables (green beans, peas, carrots) and pasta (potatoes, beans, light pasta salad) on the same plate unless you are having some spaghetti or a similar pasta.  

Major pasta such as spaghetti would be better on its own plate. Enjoy dinner and enjoy the night. Along with a nice dinner a few pieces of the best bread at dinner with some, but not much butter, always helps it all seem better. You may also have a small to medium sized dessert and some more coffee or tea to top off the meal.   

When you have finished eating whatever food that you feel is good for you at dinner time, check to see if you are satisfied. You should at least not feel hungry. At the end of the evening, when you feel OK, after about an hour of TV or whatever you need—no limit on TV or outdoor ogling—go to bed and enjoy your night's sleep.  

If you feel too heavy before retiring for the evening, please consider an Alka-Seltzer. They sure help my wife Pat and I when we overeat or eat too close to bed time.  

What about retirees? 

Retirees often stay up later than when they are fully engaged in the workplace. I am retired and Pat still works. Pat is on my retiree schedule though it makes it tough when she has to go to work. 

My beautiful wife Pat and I like to watch a few programs on our way to sleep. Then, at 11:30 PM Mon to Fri, we watch Perry Mason together and often we get through the whole show before we fall asleep. 

Pat is still slim so she does not need a regimen such as the WineDiet.Com formula; but she often chooses to have a wine or two at 6:00 PM to keep her husband company. She loves the healthy effects of wine and that makes having some champagne a lot easier than otherwise.  

Regardless, the eating on this diet is always without regret. When you go to something special such as a wedding, or a birthday party or a happy hour once or twice a week, enjoy yourself again without regret. Don't skimp. As a rule stay on the diet but on special occasions, enjoy yourself. It will give you more incentive to stick with your chosen Red / Black Grape Juice Diet.  

I try not to overeat at dinner but I do want to be filled. I have learned over the years what overeating feels like when trying to go to sleep… You know too! Overeating makes it tough to go to sleep. In my case, I make sure that I am filled enough to push away from the table in time to digest enough that getting to sleep is not an issue.  

I list a dessert above but do not recommend a dessert with dinner. However, if you must have dessert, go ahead and see how it works out for you. Think about keeping it small. My wife likes a small dip of ice cream or sherbet after dinner. Sometimes I join her. 

Final treat of the day! 

Once you have completed your "diet" day and you are getting ready to go off into the sleepy sunset, according to how I practice the wine diet—the one in which I have lost 62 pounds so far, you are encouraged to enjoy two dark chocolate Smidgens from Gertrude Hawk Chocolates in PA. Pop one in at a time and enjoy it for a while. Then pop the other. This should be at the end of the night before you go to bed.  

You may do this either before or after you watch some good TV such as ME TV! If you fall asleep before having the candy, that is OK. Don’t make it up the next day. No Makeups!   

If you find a chocolate stain on your pillow, you'll know you fell asleep before you finished your Smidgens. If you find a huge chocolate stain in your hand when you wake up, you probably do not need the chocolates. Good night Sweet Pea!  

Check out Smidgens of all kinds in this small sample picture of small little "Clauses" from Gertrude Hawks massive assortment of chocolate goodies.  

Gertrude Hawk Candies WB PA, Christmas Smidgens

 

 

In the past two years, more unconsciously than consciously, I rarely ate between meals and almost every night, I had a dark chocolate Smidgen or two or three to cap off the evening. I try to keep it at one but two works fine, and sometimes three is necessary.  

Since Smidgens are so good, any of us over 100 pounds avoirdupois, can probably eat ten or twenty at a sitting. But, you guessed it… The Wine Diet or the Dry Grape Juice Diet cannot work with so many Smidgens in the gut. We would continually be buying new belts.  

I do like dark chocolate as they have special health benefits independently of red wine. But most importantly, dark chocolate tastes like it was made out of this world.  

I am almost always happy with one or two Smidgens before bedtime but I do cheat every now and then and I go for a third. There is rarely a chocolate stain on my pillow or a chocolate stain in my hand in the morning. They are that good.  

I don't think that I could have lost any weight if I had hit double digits on the Smidgens. Yet, I was tickled to have the boxes available even though my daily portion was meager. What a great way to end a great day.  

In my nightly retinue, at one time, I used two different types of Smidgens. One Smidgen was dark chocolate with nuts, and the other was plain solid dark chocolate. I am sure that a few Hershey miniatures would do the same trick but I do not like recommending them because Hershey is no longer America-friendly.  

Enough about chocolates  

When you have had your final treat of the day, you can feel free to sign off winediets.com and resume your normal life. But, don't sign off for too long. I hope you come back online each and every morning to help remind yourself that you can do it as long as you follow the regimen. Nothing good diet-wise happens overnight even though we all weigh somewhat less in the morning.  

Once you convinced yourself that you have lost a few pounds, and your particular wine diet or dry grape juice diet is obviously working; stop the checking. Don't check the scales daily anymore! Check your belt once a month or come up with some other way of getting a clue that this almost mindless diet is working for you. God bless you always! 

Nothing worth having in life is easy. Enjoy your weight loss struggle.  

By the way, each and every day and night, after you finish following the plan, most of you, I suspect, will eventually go to sleep. That, in and of itself is a treat. Knowing that you are knocking off some pounds, makes your sleep even sweeter.  

You may know that W C Fields once said, that sleep "is the most wonderful experience in life; except for drink." Any good diet depends on you getting your share of good sleep. Go ahead and get your ZZZZZZZzzzzzzsssssssssss. You deserve them. Amen to all wine diets' brothers and sisters!  

Thank you for visiting this site and/or reading the book. Let us know how well you do by leaving a comment using Disqus on our web site.

Yes, it would be OK if you bought enough books to give one to all of your non-Internet-savvy friends. www.bookhawkers.com 

Please see DISCLAIMER information prior to Chapter 1. More importantly, please remember that this site is not a medical site and the book is not a medical journal.

Any questions—please call your doctor!