I am finally beginning to feel more energetic and as if I am getting better.  This has been a terrible illness as I thought I was getting better last weekend but then bham !  It knocks you out much worse than you were before and with such a sort throat you wonder if you will ever feel normal again.  Well, I am getting better, thank goodness.

I had my first desensitisation session at The Allergy Centre.  It will be my last too.  I don’t believe their methods will actually achieve anything, I was shocked I was told all my allergies had been cleared with no cautions or warnings and I was particularly disappointed by the nutrition advice I was given.  Maybe their technique does clear allergies but for now, I am not prepared to risk another rash so I will be avoiding the things I think I am allergic to.

I have eaten some ‘comfort foods’ I should have left on the shelf this week such as flapjacks and porridge with syrup but nothing too disasterous or in large quantities.  I have also eaten loads of nutrient filled foods to help me recover.

I made a smoothie with a star fruit, blueberries, 2 kiwis, 3 frozen bananas and a tsp of spirulina. I have decided I don’t like star fruit.  This one was crisp like an apple but slightly sour with nothing pleasant about the flavour, so I put the whole thing in to a smoothie. Grey is not the best colour for a smoothie (I blame the blueberries and spirulina) but it tasted great and the cold smooth consistency was perfect for a sore throat. I have been reading about some oil and vinegar free salad dressings where the main ingredients are celery, which is salty, and juicey fruits.  I made a delicious dressing with 1 celery stalk, 3 clementines and 2 dates.  You put everything in a blender and blitz until smooth. For the salad I had a pile of mixed green leaves, some mandolined courgette and beetroot,  Finely chopped white cabbage and fennel, Tossed in the fruity dressing. Garnished with cherry tomatoes and black pepper. It made a huge bowlful and it was very tasty. For breakfast today I was craving a citrus smoothie so I put all these clementines in the Vita Mix with one frozen banana and blitzed until it was all smooth. A glass of sunshine on this overcast day. It tasted amazing and I will definitely be making this again. Since I am feeling better, I managed to walk again this weekend.  Yesterday Annette showed us a route from our house up to Bumbles plant nursery.  I bought some seeds there and felt my ‘green’ credentials were given a boost as I walked to buy my seeds rather than drive and will use them to grow some food in my garden.

Today we repeated the walk with Lara who unexpectedly came home yesterday which was a wonderful and happy surprise. This is an unusual area of woodland with very twisty branches and unfortunately lots of trees which appear to have been blown down. There are lots of bluebells showing us their greenery and this should be spectaular in May.

The walk takes us around the perimeter of a huge chicken farm.  There must be thousands of chickens here.  On the plus side, they do have acres of space to strut about in. I spent some very happy time in the garden this afternoon,planting out the Mangetout and Broad beans.  The dwarf beans can wait another month. I also planted out 5 packets of sweet peas. Lunch was a simple salad made with spinach, little gem lettuce, fennel and tomato with a baked sweet potato. Topped with a celery, kiwi and date dressing which tasted much better then it looks. For supper I stir fried an onion with some turmeric, cumin and coriander and then added some lightly steamed broccoli and cauliflower.  Unfortunately that was not enough to eat so I had some coconut yogurt with cashew nuts and coconut sugar.  I would have been better off adding some rice or potato to the cauliflower and broccoli.

Friday was weigh day and as I feared, I had put on some weight this week.  I was up 2 pounds which was disappointing but not unexpected because I hardly moved around last week and I over ate.  I must do better this week.