Swozzle,
After a brief scan of this thread, I think some important issues were not sufficently highlighted. The biggest problem with a 40 day diet is that it is by defininition unsustainable. Diets plain and simple do not work and will never work. Sure, temporarilly, you may lose a bit, but you'll be right back in the fat clothes shortly after you stop the diet (shortly after the 40 days). Only a true lifestyle change will work. You must find food choices and exercise choices that you can do today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life.
Alkemyst's first post here is a good start. So is SociallyChallenged's fat loss thread. But both miss critical issues. It isn't until
brikis98's post in that fat loss thread do several key factors get mentioned. Those key factors are fiber, fullness, and satiety.
If you aren't regularly full, you will eventually go off the diet and end up back where you started. You really must eat foods that keep you satisfied. Water, protein, and fiber are what you need to focus on. All three keep you full for a long time. All three have little to no calories (1 gram of protein has half the calories as 1 gram of fat, 1 gram of water has no calories, and one gram of fiber has no calories and the fiber pushes fat/starch out with it meaning it is in essence negative calories). Brikis98's post gives links with foods that are highly filling per calorie. They all have fiber, water, and/or protein. Stick to those foods for the bulk of your meals.
Think bran, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, beans, broccoli, and whole grains for fiber. Think lean meats like steak, fish, or turkey (no skin) for protein. Think apples and oranges for water.
Here is one bit of data to consider. The typical American eats ~13 grams of fiber per day. The USDA recommends 25 grams of fiber. The American Dietary Association recommends 35 grams of fiber. Dieticians and studies usually recommend 50 grams of fiber. Countries were people are thin eat ~70 grams of fiber per day. There is a direct correlation between fiber intake and weight. I strongly encourage you to gradually increase your fiber intake (both soluble and insoluble). In every study of different diets ever done, the high-fiber diet won for long term weight loss (assuming they bothered to include high-fiber as a diet choice in the study).
And I do want to reemphasize the idea that you need fat. Without fat in your diet, you can't absorb key nutrients. Your body will not be in top form without fat. Without fat you will crave diet busting treats, and your diet will fail. High fat foods aren't bad, but keep their intake small and focus on the healthy fats. A salad with ranch dressing is just a high-fat wasteland. A salad without dressing is not filling and fairly useless since you'll be eating soon again and you couldn't absorb any nutrients from the salad. A salad with a reasonable dash of olive oil is perfect.
The idea of rewards will kill your chances. If you eat one healthy thing, you cannot reward yourself with an unhealthy thing. That will fail every time. Purposely include a few treats in your diet. But keep them that way: a FEW treats.
Finally, skip anything pre-packaged or pre-prepared that says low fat or low calorie since they are traps. Low calorie dishes are usually high fat. Low fat dishes are usually high calorie. I see it all the time, someone buys a box of low fat cookies then eats the entire box in a sitting. The result is that he just ate a whole day's worth of calories for a snack and he is still craving the fat/calories that he didn't get. That is a diet-killing trap. Stay far from them. Instead, like I said above, let yourself have the
occasional full fat/calorie treat. That'll fullfill your cravings for bad foods and you can go on the rest of the day will proper foods.