August 2015 – This is not a Diet

Pease pudding hot, pease pudding cold…

Carol Healthy Eating, Recipes, Wellbeing 31st August 2015 1 Comment

An alternative to dairy butter, I’ve made a batch of Pease pudding. At around 6g of protein per 100g it’s a decent little snack on a corn cake or drizzled with some extra virgin olive oil and perhaps some chopped nuts or seeds. Properly made, it ‘dries’ out in the fridge and can be sliced or spread quite easily.

Traditionally made with a ham bone or chicken stock following the Sunday roast, this version is vegan and smells really comforting when simmering away on the hob.

pea-1562015 A lovely Geordie colleague once gave me her very simple family recipe. I scribbled it down at the time so it is very approximate:

Rinse about a mug full of yellow split peas. Place in a saucepan and just cover with stock (I used Marigold Swiss vegetable reduced salt bouillon). Once added, add roughly the same again, perhaps about 400ml of stock. Bring to the boil then gently simmer for about 40 minutes until the peas have reduced to a soft mushy consistency and would be soft to squeeze. Add more water or stock if needed as you shouldn’t allow the peas to dry out in the pan. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Put it in the fridge to ‘dry’ out and set.

I’m hoping planning ahead will help me manage juggling the demands of this different diet alongside my family, my studies, my housework and our new family upcycling business not to mention all the other aspects of life which jump up just as you least expect it!

I doubt this will last five days in the pot, I can’t wait to try it in the morning 🙂

A dabble into detoxes

Carol Healthy Eating, Lifestyle, Wellbeing 28th August 201528th August 2015 4 Comments

I’m a bit scathing about detoxes. The problem is, I’ve never actually conducted one myself. As I launch into the world of blogging, I thought I should probably put my money where my mouth is. So to speak.

Here’s the plan:

One week of no animal products at all, no wheat or gluten, no added sugar of any kind and definitely no alcohol or caffeine.

So that’s vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, caffeine-free and teetotal

I plan to weigh and measure myself before and after and blog about how I feel and what I am eating. That way, I can evaluate for myself how extreme ‘diets’ or exclusion plans make you feel.

I predict I will mostly feel cranky, irritable, deprived and resentful.

I also plan to post my daily food diary and some hints at the menu planner. That way, you can try it for yourself. If you too want to make your family suffer your food-deprivation induced mood swings…

Three Things I Don’t Believe In

Carol Body Positivity, Healthy Eating, Lifestyle, Recipes, Wellbeing 28th August 20155th January 2017 8 Comments

This is not a diet.

Let’s start with three things I don’t believe in:

Willpower
Detoxes or cleanses
Weight loss Diets of any kind (unless medically required)

Willpower

It’s just not a helpful concept. If we think of willpower as something we have or have not, it seems hopeless but it isn’t.

Here’s what ‘willpower’ really is:

People who we think have ‘willpower’ can focus on long term goals and resist short term temptation.

People who we think have no ‘willpower’ find it hard to resist short term temptation and find long term goals hard to focus on.

What that actually means:

If you want to run a marathon you focus on that as a long term goal and resist the idea of lying in bed, using the marathon goal to encourage you out from under the duvet. This looks like our idea of someone who has willpower.

If you find snuggling in bed too hard to resist and postpone the early morning run until the next day? This is our image of someone who lacks willpower. It’s relatively easy to change. Make the long term goal really clear. Remind yourself of it. Over and over again. Photo on the fridge stuff.

Set yourself short term goals… if you can get up for three mornings in a row – have a lie in on the fourth and really enjoy it.

Enjoy your treats, reward yourself. Keep motivated and keep focused and the changes you want to happen will take shape.

Ohh and, no need to look glamorous when you’re exercising, just do it!!

Detoxes

Sure we might feel better for cutting out some toxins, such as caffeine or alcohol for a while. Drinking lots of water and eating nice fruit and veg is great, let’s do it but buying a cleanse plan? Spending £££ on something which your liver and kidneys do every day for free? Let’s not do that. It’s a con.

Companies show us aspirational pictures, make us lust after flatter tummies and then sell us a ‘solution’ – only it isn’t. In the short term you may lose some inches but it’s just not sustainable, and there is almost no science to support the idea of detox. In short, it’s a marketing plan.

Here’s a suggestion for you to start you off: just drink lots of fresh water.

Here are some ideas to make it more fun and add flavour more naturally. Add a herbal tea bag to freshly boiled water, allow to cool and then add flavours.

To a green tea bag, add sliced lime and lemon.

To peppermint tea, add fresh mint leaves.

Chop up strawberries and kiwi fruit and use with a berry fruit tea bag if you like.

Sliced cucumber, lemon and lime.

Add strawberries and mint for that Pimms kick without the alcohol.

Citrus fruits (this one can become a little cloudier but tastes delicious).

Use filtered water if you like, add ice if you wish or keep at room temperature. Use as much or as little fruit as you like and make sure it cools or leave for at least 30 minutes before drinking to allow flavours to infuse.

Don’t believe anything which tells you this will melt fat. It won’t. Body fat doesn’t melt. This will refresh, invigorate and hydrate – isn’t that enough?

Diets

I never met anyone yet who went on a diet, achieved their target weight and stayed at that weight five years later. I’m not saying they don’t exist – just that I haven’t met any…yet.

Don’t diet. Make changes that suit your lifestyle to maintain indefinitely. Adapt your attitude to food and wellbeing and keep adapting it as your life changes and you learn what suits you best.

And, as Forrest Gump explained “that’s all I have to say about that.”