This is my attempt to keep a daily food and fitness diary. This isn't Pulitzer-winning writing; these are spontaneous, often hastily written rambles of what I eat, do and learn in my ongoing effort to feel awesome all the time. It may not always be pretty, but at least it's honest. You can find more stories and recipes at SmarterFitter.com.
Beetroot hummus courtesy of Roz Golding, a little treat she brought for our working lunch last Thursday. Seriously freakin' delicious. Apparently from the River Cottage Veg book. The lentil croquettes are from a Rose Elliot recipe. Served with raw kale salad. Pretty much the ideal lunch.
Delightful lunch today at Brunswick House Cafe in Vauxhaul, London. I was there for a Christmas celebration with one of my clients. This wasn't your usual stuff-your-face Christmas party. Just nice light salads, soups, stews and sandwiches - I went for a roasted vegetable and bulgar salad, plus a beetroot and mackeral salad. Their bread is also very nice. And we all shared two bottles of Prosecco - it is Christmas, after all!
Worth noting: Brunswick House Cafe is a really cool architectural salvage house and I could resist taking lots of pics. You can them on Flickr.
Last night's leftovers turned into a tasty little open-faced sandwich thing. Served with extra braised beetroot and fennel, horseradish and lots of green salad. Would eat again.
Braising is definitely my new favourite way to prepare vegetables. Here I braised beetroot, fennel, onion and garlic with a bit of caraway. I had this with half of the mackerel shown here, grilled, served with salad and avocado. Very delicious - and eerily primal!
Energy in:
I probably didn't need the lava cake tonight, but it's Saturday and I felt like a little treat.
Last week I decided, barring a few events between now and Christmas, I'm just not going to drink unless it's a truly special occasion. Basically, no more drinking at home. I've harped on about booze enough and really, all of my concerns and bad feelings would all just go away if I simply didn't drink. So, that's that.
It's weird - I've spent the last five years obsessing over my diet, trying to figure out the best way to eat to feel good physically, but alcohol has always given me trouble. I can say no to cookies, cakes, cream, and butter, but an ice cold beer gets me every time. But I'm realising that my attitudes towards food AND drink are askew. It's as if to compensate for my propensity to enjoy a few drinks on the weekend, I force myself to be fairly extreme in my food intake. But what I really should be doing is eating MORE of the right things. Instead of feeling this extreme need to be flawless in my eating all the time, I need to just chill the eff out and stop worrying about all this stuff and just BE. WITHOUT the possibility of a hangover to plunge my psyche into the pits.
I'm finding that if I want to drink less, or be less crazy about food, I need to really WORK at changing my way of thinking. Set myself up for success. Last week I took all of the alcohol in the house and put it away in a closet. Out of sight out of mind really does work. And with no expectation that I'll be having a drink, there's no anticipation. And then no feeling like it's "hard" not to have a Friday night beer (oh but it IS so good, isn't it?).
It's late and I'm not entirely clear on what this is all about. But I do feel like I'm learning. Learning what? Hopefully how to be sane, strong and happy. We'll see.
I did learn today that raw beetroot does funny things to me. I ate a piece while preparing to roast some beetroot and it instantly made my throat sore, and it's been sore ever since. Also, my chest is tight and my toungue is tingly. Is this a food allergy? Bizarre!
