Lose Weight and Gain Health

Food In A Lab

Posted on April 10, 2014 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I have walked past this place many times recently. An organic food place should have lured me in immediately but it does not tempt me, partly because of the name – lab organic – and also because it doesn’t seem very welcoming.

It looks sterile and it is usually empty which is never a good sign. This decoration by the door seems strange to me. I want my food to be as natural as possible so the very idea of it being connected to a laboratory is very off putting. It seems contradictory to this company’s mission statement too which is about providing organic food as close to its natural state as possible.

For some reason, today I decided to try it for breakfast.

I would not want to eat in the white lab type environment so even though I wasn’t in such a rush today, I took the food away to eat at my desk. I felt very tired today so I chose their alkalizing juice which is made with spinach, pear, celery, swiss chard, romaine lettuce, parsley, cucumber, broccoli and lime. It was perfectly drinkable and quite pleasant. Let’s face it, green veggie juices are not drunk for their deliciousness.

I also had a Creamy Nut Mix which was absolutely delicious. I really liked it and would have this again.

It contains Walnuts, Almonds, Pumpkin seeds, Sunflower seeds, Flax seeds, Hemp seeds, Goji berries, Raisins, Cashews, Water, Agave nectar, Vanilla, Lucuma powder, Himalayan salt. The cashews were whipped in to a creamy topping. I enjoyed every mouthful and my breakfast kept me feeling full all morning until about 2 pm. For lunch I bought a quinoa and black bean bake with cheese on top which was excellent. Really very tasty. Opps! This was good but very naughty. It was like a flapjack with fruit and whipped cream.It is so good to be home with enough light left so I can go in to the garden, water the young plants and pick some veggies for dinner.

As compensation for my naughty pudding I had a very light supper of stir fried vegetables with sesame seeds and soy sauce. It was perfectly adequate and very tasty.

So I think I will return to lab organic but I must make more effort to take my food in for at least one meal a day. It is expensive eating out all the time.

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Trafalgar Square

Posted on April 9, 2014 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Last night, when I was having a lovely dinner with my friend Lucy, I made the comment that some mornings I get off the train at Charing Cross but instead of going straight to work, I enjoy a walk first. I particularly enjoy being in Trafalgar Square. Here’s why.

On a beautiful sunny morning like today’s, when the sky is bright blue and the sun catches some of the buildings with its early morning orange tint, it is wonderful to stand in this huge old Square with its grand monuments to times gone by and be almost alone.

You are more aware of its size and grandeur when you are practically alone in there. Cars, bikes, buses and pedestrians race around the square but very few walk through it or stop and sit in it during the early hours. The Houses of Parliament can be seen in the distance, adding to the grandeur of the buildings. But look, no people. I almost have these glorious buildings to myself. You can keep the cockerel.This is one of my favourites, The National Gallery. By the evening the square is full of people. The fountains are on in the evening which adds to the loveliness of Trafalgar Square but I prefer it in the mornings. Having enjoyed a few moments in the Square I bought a skinny latte to enjoy on my way to the office. I would have liked to sit on this concrete bench but I kept going as I had so much work to do. The West End is so much more peaceful in the mornings than during the day and evenings. I took one more detour – I walked the length of Monmouth Street which appeared to have had a morning wash! I bought scrambled eggs with spinach, ham and Parmesan from Pure. It was very good and kept me feeling full all morning.

I bought my lunch from Pure too. We have given up with the Timber Yard because the service is so appalling. Pure is actually the closest eatery to the office anyway. I bought 2 side salads instead of one large salad.
They were both very edible. For supper I had Wild Alaskan salmon with a huge portion of stir fried vegetables. Thank you Lara, it is much appreciated to come home and have dinner ready.

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A New Florist

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I began today with a smoothie, mainly to use up a very over ripe banana and half an avocado I thought was rotten. The avocado was actually perfect and this lot

plus some of this made a very pleasant smoothie. We decided to treat ourselves to a lunch out. Lara wanted to try The Milk House but it was full so her second choice was The Goudhurst Inn. We really are spoilt for choice round here. I had roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, cauliflower cheese, steamed veg, roast potatoes and creamed horseradish. Apart from the potatoes which were quite unpleasant (James ordered chips instead as they were barely edible!) and the gravy which was mediocre, it was all very good. Lara and I shared 2 desserts; chocolate and hazlenut torte with honeycomb ice cream and sticky toffee pudding. In-cre-dible! Both were amazing and I nearly finished before I remembered to take a photo. So not good for the diet but a treat worth every calorie. We enjoyed our lunch and it was a treat to not cook or wash up on a Sunday. We all like the Goudhurst Inn. Unfortunately the outside area with the lovely view was too wet and cold to sit in today. I like the way this pub and exterior have been decorated. Next stop was a new florists, Astilbe & Sorrel, which has opened up next to the The Walled Nursery in Hawkhurst.

The florists has opened up in one of the outbuildings that used to be the seed store and it still has the old cupboard from when this was the garden for the big house.

It is small but very charming with unusual varieties of favourite types of flowers.

I really liked this vintage style bouquet and my neighbour loved the bunch I bought for her which was made with feathered tulips and scented freesias. I confess I did treat myself to this little bunch as I liked the erygniums so much (blue spiky ones). Apparently I can grow these myself so I might try. I liked the colours and shapes. Back at the ranch I had left George and Dan working wonders in the garden and was looking forward to seeing what they had done today. It is not easy setting up raised beds on my lawn as the garden is on a slope but they are doing a great job. I now have 2 new beds, creating an “L” shape around the BBQ House. They will be back next week to put down the gravel and fill the beds. I can’t wait to see it all finished. The extension to the veggie garden has been designed to create one large vegetable garden so I can walk from one section to the next without having to go through a gate. When I use the BBQ House, we can remove 2 gates and we have a gravel path leading straight to it from the lawn.

There will be a new greenhouse and fruitcage too. The tomatoes I sowed in the coir pellets have finally germinated. I am behind with the tomatoes but hopefully they can catch up as they have a new greenhouse coming for them!

We had a picky supper of pitta bread, taramasalata, an apple and some cheese. Not the most diet friendly but it was easy and pleasant, munching in front of the tv. There is a large glass of wine with my name on it so I am going to enjoy that now. Cheers 🙂

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Vegetables | 1 Comment

What Is A Portion Of Veg?

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I wanted to see if I could manage to eat 10 portions of vegetables today. I thought it might be a good idea to look up exactly what a portion of vegetables is so I turned to the NHS site. I was surprised by some of the portion sizes. For example you would need to eat 2 kiwi fruits or 2 satsumas to count as one portion. I suspect many people who even think about such things would consider one piece of fruit is a portion.

I was more interested in vegetables though because I try to eat vegetables and a minimal amount of fruit. The rule is that one portion is 80g. So in terms of quantity on the plate, it varies a lot. If you eat celery you need 3 stalks which seems quite a lot but if you eat broccoli you only need 2 florets which doesn’t seem that much.

I completely disagree with the inclusion of dried fruits and canned fruits. How can you say a portion of dried raisins, which are full of sugar and low in vitamins, is a portion of fruit/veg yet discount potatoes which I think are healthier. I would accept excluding both but not including dried fruits. I also don’t understand why a sweet potato counts but a white one doesn’t. I was disappointed they do not include sprouted beans which are very valuable nutritionally.

Anyway, the NHS site has some useful photos and examples of portion sizes to make working it out more practical. For example for spinach you can measure it by a ‘cereal bowl’ which is not an accurate measure but gives a good indication. 1 cereal bowl full of raw spinach counts as one portion.

I began the day with a large bowl of egg fried rice with lots of veggies. I just had one egg and 2 heaped tbsp cooked rice. The main food type in this bowl was vegetables plus tomatoes (for the pedantic who may point out that they are a fruit).

Spinach – 2 (2 cereal bowl fulls)
Tomatoes – 1 1/2 (3 small – medium sized)
Onion – 1 (1 medium)
Cavolo Nero – 1 (4 heaped tbsp cooked kale)
Mung bean sprouts – 1 (however many I eat, it can only count as one portion)

So my egg fried rice with lots of vegetables got me off to a very good start of 6 and a half. I am quite shocked actually to think most people wouldn’t eat this many vegetables over a whole day ! For lunch I made a favourite of mine and Lara’s – Cheesey Veg. To make this I steam the vegetables for about 10 minutes, place them all in a large ovenproof dish and pour over a white sauce. I make the sauce with half milk and half the vegetable water to cut down the fat/calories and make the most of any vitamins in the water. I grated some Gruyere over the top and popped it in the oven for half an hour. It would have been even nicer to grill it so the cheese is browned but I didn’t have time. This huge dish made 6 portions and I used the following vegetables; 2 very large carrots, a bag of green beans, a head of broccoli, 6 cavolo nero leaves, about 10 new potatoes, 1 butternut squash and 4 leeks. It was delicious. I haven’t made this for quite a while as I try to cut down on the Dairy I eat, especially cheese as I love it so much. I have been really good with cheese this year and enjoyed indulging myself today.

Estimating how many portions of veg I ate in a dish like this is really hard.

Butternut squash – 1/2 (1 portion is 3 heaped tbsp)
Carrots – 1/2 (1 portion is 3 heaped tbsp)
Broccoli – 2 (4 florets)
French beans – 0 (you can only count one portion of beans a day and the sprouts I had this morning are my portion – this seems wrong to me. Surely there are far more vitamins and minerals in a fresh French bean than a dehydrated kidney bean?)
Cavolo Nero – 1/4 (1 portion is 4 heaped tbsp)
Leeks – 1/2 (1 portion is 1 leek)
New potatoes – 0 (potatoes don’t count)

The total for this meal was only 3 3/4 points despite it being a bowl full of vegetables. To count for points, according to the NHS, it varies a lot depending on which vegetables you eat but I do not agree all their points. I come back to dried fruit again. How can I include a portion of super sugary dried raisins but not be allowed my French Beans? I think I will do this exercise again and try another country’s allowance such as Australia. Their Government recommendation is 2 x fruit and 5 x vegetable a day so I will try theirs to see how it compares.

So I just made my daily target of 10. Dinner doesn’t count towards my vegetable count as we had a curry. I don’t think the onions in a Bhaji count.

I did manage a walk today too but it was rather stressful as sadly our yellow dog collapsed while we were out. I was walking in the woods over the road with Judy and for the first time I can remember, without my phone. Dylan came and stood with us, his legs went shaky and gradually got worse and then he collapsed. Judy was a treasure and ran home and then back with a wheelbarow so I could get him home. He did actually get up and managed to walk home and now seems fine but we are keeping a close eye on him. I was relieved Harvey wasn’t with us as he would have been very upset – he loves the dogs far more than the rest of us.

Happier animal news was that we found William today, our tortoise who hibernates himself every year. We are never sure if he will wake up again and we are never sure where he goes to either so it is always a happy day to find him again.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Vegetables | 1 Comment

Absence

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Does absence make the heart grow fonder? Does absence make the blog reader happy to have me back? Let me know 🙂 I have been busy with work, socialising a little bit too enthusiastically and things keeping me busy at home which has meant writing the blog was not possible.

Here are a few snippets from the past 4 days.

I am trying really hard to eat more vegetables and one place to start is breakfast which is the most likely meal to not contain any veggies. One day I took in to work this salad made with brown rice, sprouted mung beans, cucumber, tomatoes and 2 boiled eggs. I also tried an Umeboshi plum which is pickled and a little sharp but quite pleasant. A reasonably enjoyable start to the day. This is one of the tables in the Wild Food Cafe in Neal’s Yard in Covent Garden. I didn’t have time to sit and eat in but I took a salad back to work. It was good but very expensive. This is the organic Ayurvedic super salad. It is
a bed or organic lamb lettuce and wild rocket topped with amaranth, courghetti spaghetti, hijiki seaweed, slices of artichoke hearts & avocado, cucumber & red pepper cubes, finished off with coriander, rocket & parsely pesto, mango salsa, activated savory seeds flavoured with leafy greens and spices, and marinated shitake mushrooms.This is not a main meal salad, it is more of a starter size and for £9.70 I expect a lot of vegetables. So I enjoyed what I was given but will definitely not go back for that again.

On Thursday I worked from home. We had team drinks the night before which was fun but I drank way too much. I am usually really careful at those events as I hate feeling bad the next day but failed this time. So Thursday was a struggle and required some stodge to start the day with – 2 poached eggs on toast did very nicely.
Lots of water and Berocca helped a lot too.
The little fella enjoyed a Berocca too ! I have a fairly constant battle with Harvey about eating healthily. He is much better than most children because he will mainly eat the same food I do but usually with a bit of moaning which I find very tiresome. So we have agreed that he will try very hard to stop moaning, to trust me and assume that meals will taste good but if he doesn’t like the meal or a part of it, he can leave it. This approach is working better. I was very pleased one day recently when I asked him what he would like and he asked for a chicken caesar salad with croutons! Croutons were the least I could do for a young boy who asked for a salad for lunch. It was delicious. I cooked the bread in garlic, olive oil and butter until it was crispy. This is not a diet option as the bread soaks up so much butter but they did taste good. In the salad we had mixed leaf lettuce, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, mung bean sprouts and of course chicken plus an olive oil based dressing. I have been eating some bad food but nothing full of sugar which is an improvement. I have snacked on coc-nuty granola with yogurt or toast and Marmite. I did cave and have fish and chips one evening. Looking at that plate of greasy stodgy lifeless food I can not believe I was tempted by it. These colourful vegetables are much more appetising. I made a huge stir fry. I cut the leaves and soft tops off the broccoli and cook them after the onions and tougher stalks. I use all of a vegetable where I can. The stalks were chopped up in to small pieces, stir fried in some coconut oil and then steamed quickly in a small amount of water I added to the pan to soften them slightly. At the end of the cooking time I added some sesame seeds. The vegetables were served with spinach falafel, humous and raw tomatoes. A delicious supper.

So there is a quick catch up on some of the meals I have enjoyed recently. My next post will be about my attempt to eat 10 portions of vegetables in one day. I think you will be surprised by how much that is.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Broccoli, Salad, Vegetables | 4 Comments

10 Veg A Day

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Research publicised today tells us that we should be eating 10 portions of fruit and veg a day and that vegetables are much healthier than fruit.

“A healthy diet should include 10 portions of fruit and vegetables a day, doubling the five-a-day official advice, health experts have said.

The research, which involved a 12-year study, also found that vegetables were four times healthier than fruit.

The study, by University College London, found that eating large quantities of fruit and vegetables significantly lowered the risk of premature death. People who ate at least seven portions of fruit and vegetables each day were 42 per cent less likely to die from any cause over the course of the study.

The researchers also discovered that canned and frozen fruit increased the risk of dying by 17 per cent, and fruit juice was found to have no significant benefit.”

The Telegraph, 1-4-14 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10735633/Healthy-diet-means-10-portions-of-fruit-and-vegetables-per-day-not-five.html

You will get no arguments from me about this research and I planned to up my vegetable intake immediately.

However, I had to buy breakfast today and didn’t fancy any of the vegetable options so I had a Bircher Muesli with apple in it and that is a date on top which is far from ideal. Consumed with a cup of tea. I did enjoy it but so far, zero vegetables.
I didn’t do much better at lunch time either. I was out meeting someone and was out longer than I intended having a coffee in Timber Yard. I ordered an egg mayonnaise sandwich with a salad. But by the time they served me, the salad bar was finished and it wasn’t even 1pm ! I really like Timber Yard ; the seating, use of iPads, ambience, vibe, food and coffee are great. But they are so disorganised in there I find it very frustrating. I am so annoyed they ran out of salad so early. The sandwich was good though. On the way home I went to Wholefoods Market to buy some extra veggies for tea. London was warm and sunny, even at 6pm. Trafalgar Square was full of people enjoying the sunshine. I was feeling hungry so I enjoyed this bag of nuts on the train. Quite delicious and took the edge of my hunger. At home I watered the vegetable beds and was pleased to see the lettuces I sowed last week have germinated. Go lettuces !

I also decided to have a vegetable stir fry for supper and made sure I ate 10 vegetables;

1. Kale (from garden)
2. Swiss Chard (from garden)
3. Celery
4. Pak Choi
5. Spinach
6. Mushrooms
7. Cavolo Nero
8. Carrots
9. Yellow courgette
10. Tenderstem Broccoli

I stir fried them with onion (which makes 11) and sesame seeds.

I cooked with Ghee which I have never used before. I really like using coconut oil but don’t always want my meals to have a coconut flavour so this is an excellent alternative. I stir fry the onions and tougher veg, such as celery and kale stalks in the fat and then add a little water when I add everything else to get it steaming. It means I use less fat but I also like the texture I end up with. Served with coriander (12). I did have cucumber (13) in my sandwich and an apple (14) in my breakfast. When I was at Wholefoods Market I tasted my first asparagus (15) of the season.

I realise that the quantities of each vegetable I had today is not big enough to count as a portion. But it is important to eat a wide variety of vegetables so I am pleased with the number of different plant foods I ate today. Tomorrow I will have to up the quantities.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Vegetables | 3 Comments

Earth Mother

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

Despite being the supporter and organiser of the family’s Earth Hour acknowledgement on Saturday, it seems that I am the one who broke it. Several times ! I took a couple of photos and turned on the torch so used some battery power. I didn’t use the flash but did indeed use some battery power which I didn’t think about until I was reprimanded. I rather like the effect of the photo though. It is Harvey’s hand, selecting Scrabble tiles with candles in the background.

Sunday was Mother’s Day in the UK and I was treated to a home cooked meal for dinner. Boeuf Bourguignon with mashed potatoes which was absolutely delicious and easily helped along with a decent bottle of red (which I shared, I don’t mean I drank it all myself). Unusually we had a pudding. Lara bought the ingredients to make one of Sarah Wilson’s ‘I Quit Sugar’ recipes but couldn’t find the Xylitol so she used coconut sugar instead. It is mixed berries in Double Cream, Mascarpone, sour cream and then sprinkled with sugar or substitute and grilled until bubbling. It was a real treat and all absolutely delicious. Thank you Lara and Harvey for cooking me such a lovely dinner. I burnt a candle for my lovely Mummy. I enjoyed this one tonight which Lara gave me and I love it. I worked from home today and apart from a bowl of cereal tonight I did extremely well. I had rice with eggs and vegetables for breakfast. Onion, mushrooms, cavolo nero, eggs, brown Basmati rice, sprouted mung beans and coriander, seasoned with soy sauce. A perfect start to the day. I had a late breakfast and went swimming at lunch time so just had a small snack of mixed nuts and mung bean sprouts when I got home. I rather excelled myself with dinner. I made a bolognaise sauce but made sure we had more vegetables then meat. I fried onions with cavolo nero, mushrooms and celery. I did add a little water and put the lid on the casserole dish to steam the vegetables lightly too as the cavolo nero can be a bit resistant to cooking when stir fried but it cooks beautifully in water or steam. I then added the beef mince, a jar of red and yellow peppers in oil plus 2 tins of tomatoes. I was very disappointed to see the peppers had sugar in the jar – why would you add sugar to a jar of peppers in oil when peppers are so sweet anyway? Bad move M&S. I cooked it gently for about an hour and it finished up full of flavour with a thick tomato based sauce. Served on left over mashed potato with green beans and tenderstem broccoli. Very tasty.

I have had a lovely weekend, spent at home, relaxing and being looked after. I woke up this morning feeling refreshed and full of resolve hence the healthy eating and exercising I fitted in. I am back in the office tomorrow and can hopefully keep up the healthy momentum.

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Earth Hour

Posted on March 29, 2014 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I achieved one of my small goals today and that is to stay at home ALL day without having to go out anywhere. I have hundreds of things I want to do at home and I managed to get quite a few ticked off the list.

I planned to join in the Earth Hour activities tonight anyway but actually a lot of my day today was about the earth; growing food, walking the dogs in the woods and appreciating the great outdoors.

My mung beans have already sprouted 🙂

They taste quite sweet. I made another batch of Coco-Nutty-Granola first thing but I fancied eggs for breakfast so that is packed away ready for the week ahead. I love picking veggies from the garden. I picked some chard and kale to go with my egg fried rice. Inspired by another Sarah Wilson recipe I made green eggs.4 eggs and a heaped tbsp pesto made a good flavour. They weren’t all for me by the way, Harvey shared this delicious breakfast with me. Yes, I do make my children eat green vegetables for breakfast and I am glad I persevered through the moaning as now he just gets on and eats it.
I fried onions, mushrooms, chard stalks in coconut oil, then added the shredded leaves, the rice and finally the egg and stirred it all together. It was really good. Lunch was a large raw salad; spinach, tenderstem broccoli, cherry tomatoes, spring onion, carrots, celery and a tin of sardines in olive oil. I didn’t need any other dressing as the oil from the sardines was dressing enough. Outside in my garden today I had two lovely men who helped transform my vegetable beds in to something that looked as if it was meant to be there rather than something that had been plonked on top of the lawn. It was a beautiful Spring day and I enjoyed popping in and out with endless cups of tea and seeing their progress . I was delighted with the finished result. I like straight lines and neat rows and this is neat and straight.This is just the first part of the veggie garden transformation. I am having more raised beds put in plus a fruit cage and a new greenhouse. I am so excited about all the growing space I will have. My original plans did not include fencing in the garden but I have been defeated by the bunnies so now it is all rabbit proofed (hopefully).

Supper was very quick and easy.

2 wraps. With tomato, ham and Halloumi.

Quick and easy, a bit boring but adequate.

I will now settle down to enjoy a large glass of red while Harvey and I light some candles and a fire. Originally we were going to have a bonfire during Earth Hour. We need to do one so it seemed like a good time and the marshmallows are sitting on the side with Harvey’s name on them. But the wind picked up a little and I am nervous about leaving a smouldering bonfire on a windy night so we are having one inside instead so he can toast his marshmallows. I wonder what board game he has chosen for us to play.

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Plant Matter

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I have had a bad couple of weeks, for various reasons. I have had a couple of sugar binges, not exercised much and generally eaten too much. The results of which are that since I last weighed myself 10 days ago, I have put on 2 pounds. I have had far worse results but I am frustrated. However, the good news is that I weighed myself on my way in to the pool. I was in the pool at my local Leisure Centre by 7:30am today and swam for half an hour which is an excellent start to the day.

Another good thing this morning was the bowl of mung beans I had soaked overnight, since finding an old and much loved cookery book in the cupboard inspired me to get back to eating raw. I put the majority in a sprouting dish and left the rest to soak until I cooked them for supper. I have often been drawn to eating a diet containing a high proportion of raw foods. The recipe book I found dates back to 1985. I didn’t follow a recipe but was determined to consume lots of vegetables today, many of them raw. I picked some Swiss Chard and kale from the garden and put them in the blender with some tenderstem broccoli, cavolo nero and cucumber. Plus a banana and the juice of a lemon.I also added about 1/4 of an avocado, 1 tbsp flax seeds and coconut water. Check out the colour of that smoothie. And check out the dated cover of the aforementioned cookery book ! I love that book and it was like finding a dear and treasured friend. This is one of the first books that inspired me to eat healthily. This smoothie would not suit many people’s palate or even their fancy for breakfast but I really enjoyed it and loved the thought of all those nutrients. It is so much easier to be healthy when I work from home. Lunch was a large salad. As a base I put mixed salad leaves and spinach in a bowl with cherry tomatoes and tenderstem broccoli, stalks and all. I wanted something similar to coleslaw on the side but lighter so I finely shredded carrots and courgette and added a finely chopped spring onion. As a dressing I made a pesto mayonnaise. This pesto is great as it doesn’t contain cheese so it’s good for the dairy intolerant in the family. The white stuff in the bottle is not great. As well as being egg, gluten and dairy free, it is flavour free too and not a particularly pleasant consistency. Definitely not recommended. However, mixed with some pesto it made a pleasant enough dressing. I mixed the pesto mayonnaise in to the shredded vegetables. I enjoyed every mouthful of the vegetables eaten with a slice of the courgette cheesecake Lara made for us.Very very tasty indeed. I went back in to the garden to harvest more vegetables for dinner; leeks, kale and Swiss Chard. I had previously simmered the mung beans for about an hour until they were soft. While they cooked I fried 2 onions in a large casserole dish. I then added 2 small sweet potatoes, leeks, kale, swiss chard, carrots, 2 rashers of bacon and some vegetable stock. When the vegetables were nearly cooked I added the mung beans and a teaspoon of smoky Chipotle sauce. It was slightly spicy, smoky from the bacon and Chipotle sauce, sweetness from the sweet potato and carrots and earthy goodness from the veggies.

I feel exhausted today. The swim tired me out and it has been a demanding week at work. But at least I nourished myself well today and I plan to do similar tomorrow.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Green Smoothie, Vegetables | 5 Comments

Trying Pure

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Lose Weight and Gain Health

I try to walk from the station to the office by a different route each day. Partly to get some exercise in and partly because I am loving being in this part of London so much.

Today I strolled along Chandos Street. The buildings looked pretty in the early morning sunshine.A traditional boozer.
If you ever need a hat …. I like these old letter boxes – I do hope they are maintained as they have been here for s many years. I stopped off at Timber Yard to pick up breakfast which I consumed at work.

A coffee advertising a Coffee Festival.
Plus a pot of porridge with berries. Unfortunately a very stressful day followed and I went to Monmouth. These are my current downfall – almond croissant. The ones in Monmouth must be one of the tastiest food items on the planet. They are crispy and chewy, sweet and buttery. Just perfect and divine and for me when I am stressed at the moment, irresistible, unfortunately. At lunch time I set off for pod but thanks to heavy rain and hail I only got as far as Pure. What a great discovery Pure was. I didn’t make the best choice as my ham hock salad had parmesan croutons and a very fatty dressing. But it was absolutely delicious and I will go back but for something healthier. I was treated to dinner when I got home thanks to Lara. She made the courgette cheesecake I blogged about earlier in the week and a large salad. Yummy.