111 – Did someone say chocolate?

April 21, 2015April 21, 2015 ~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ Leave a comment

I’m not doing so well at the whole not eating sugar thing again. I am trying really hard not to think about it and I do really well until the afternoon – which is normal I guess. I have cut out the coffee again, and am feeling the mid afternoon ‘slump’ HARD. Meetings after school don’t help of course! Taking it slow – being mindful, non-judgemental and kind to myself while I try. That sort of shit.

So tonight instead of taking myself ‘for an evening walk’ to the dairy for a little ‘pick-me-up’ I decided to try something else. You remember the goodie bags from yesterday’s IQS event? Well, they had a cacao butter sample in them and I have always wanted to try making my own ‘healthier’ dark chocolate – mwahahaha…

I asked Aunty Google and found this recipe on the chockchick.com, I adapted it because I didn’t have Agave syrup (and SW and her crew don’t like it anyways so there) and after a tweak mid-experiment I think I have a hit! Here’s what I did;

you need;

100gms Cacao butter
6 tablespoons of raw cacao powder
a pinch of sea salt
sweetener of choice
vanilla essence and peppermint essence

Melt the cacao butter on a double boiler like you would with any choc you want to melt – it melts fast so watch it and don’t let it burn.
Add the Cacao powder and mix with a metal whisk (cos’ the recipe said to that’s why) until it is all beautifully blended.
This is where I added the pinch of sea salt and a smidge of vanilla essence.
Now, she uses Agave or whatever, and I didn’t have any so I thought I would try two tablespoons of the Rice Malt syrup that I got in my goodie bag but I was dubious; Previous experiments with this in baking have failed dismally.
I then split the mix in half and added a few drops of peppermint essence to one batch. You totally don’t have to do this – you could just go with all one flavour – it’s your life man don’t let me tell you how to live it.

Once it is all blended pour in to your mould/cupcake cases and pop in the freezer. They are ready for ‘sampling’ after about 20? mins. (I poured the peppermint half in to green cupcake cases so I would know which ones were which).

My first batch failed. I tried them after the required 20 mins and they were bitter as – no sweetness whatsoever and a bit ‘muddy’ tasting. Yes I know proper super dark choc is a little muddy but there should have been a ‘hint’ of sweet you know?

SO I melted them again – yes – it worked, I did it in two halves – the peppermint-y half and the plain, and added MAPLE SYRUP. Just a splash in each half and refroze it. Whacked them back in the freezer and let them set for 20 mins.

SUCCESS!!! Delicious and in danger of not lasting the evening. The peppermint ones are especially nice. The are very quick to melt so they will live in the freezer… but not for long….

110 – Looooooooong day

April 20, 2015 ~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ Leave a comment

So you will be pleased to know that I survived Monday. And I taught ALL day and actually had something teach! I wrote three assessments yesterday in a panic and they were there with me when I arrived late to school.

Did I tell you about my morning? I went to Boot camp which was great as per. When I got back the grumpy Dutchman was VERY grumpy. Our lovely dog had left a great big stinking ‘deposit’ on the carpet. AND the toilet was blocked. And because we don’t have artificial light in the bathroom (only a skylight) at the moment the toilet had been used on top of the blocking. The poor GD was up to his elbows in brown stuff. One of our evil children had stuffed a plastic cup in the loo. The same evil child announced to his daycare teachers ‘I PISSED in the shower!’ when he arrived this morning…. Not a great reflection of our parenting.

I was all prepared to give my students their new assessment today but they had done that thing where the whole lot of them (year 12 and 13 in my shared class) ‘forgot’ that their first assessment (from Term one) as due at the end of the holidays. So they spent the lesson rushing about trying to hand their work in and I didn’t have to start the new assessment at all!

I remarked to my HOD how TIRED I was by the end of the day – it is ridiculous how that works – you get two weeks to rest and recuperate but you only seem to start to recalibrate and slow down just in time to go back to work – and then you are fucked. And today I stayed at school until 9.30pm

This was because I volunteered to be a helper at the I Quit Sugar event in Auckland with Sarah Wilson – which just so happened to be being held at our school auditorium. Great huh? I only signed up because my friend Claire suggested it – and we didn’t want to pay for tickets – and I am really glad we did.

It was great to meet like-minded people – some very keen and star struck but most just really interested in what Sarah Wilson would have to say. We stuffed goodie bags, set up tables, and Claire and I woman-ed the doors for opening, we then helped changed tables over for dessert and book signing, then handed out goodie bags as people left. We helped clean up, grabbed our own goodie bags (and leftover treats) and left just as Sarah was signing the last few books. A great night was had by all I think. I don’t know if I would have paid for it – I guess I have read enough now that I don’t feel like I was being told anything I don’t know, and I tend to pick and choose from each ‘eating philosophy’ to suit my damaged guts needs, but it was a good reminder for me of why I cut sugar in the first place – and good motivation to get back on track. Here are some pics from tonight;

Day 78 – the best bliss ball recipe I know

March 19, 2015March 20, 2015 ~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ 1 Comment

So I finished the block of dark chocolate. It was inevitable. Over the course of the week and when I think about it, it may have been the cause of my unshakeable headache all week. But I don’t regret a single square. I enjoyed every second of it and was ‘mindful’ of every bite. (you see what I did there?) Part of my reckless lack of food-guilt came from having logged in to the forums on IQS today only to find like-minded women who were not in fact skipping through fields of tall grass and flowers all skinny and glowing and feeling all unburdened from their hopeless addiction to sugar. No. Like me these women felt pretty much the same. No real weight loss to speak of. Skin the same, spotty or not, and mostly they were staring down the barrel of a lifetime without Whittakers and thinking about ending it all. Like me their cravings had not in fact fucked off in to the dark and gloomy past and they were having little tiny battles with themselves every day.

These women, like me had been logging on intermittently to the forums – which are described to subscribers as a great support and most of what we are paying for – and finding testimonial after testimonial of ‘AMAZING RESULTS’ and ‘I HAVE SO MUCH MORE ENERGY NOW I RAN A MARATHON BEFORE BREAKFAST’ and ‘I USED TO BE 300 kilos BUT NOW I’M ONLY 34 kilos AND I AM SO MUCH HAPPIER NOW’ (even if my body can’t support the weight of my head). Disheartening to say the least when, like me, you are plodding along and every thing feels sort of ‘Meh?’.

Please don’t get me wrong – I enjoyed the change up of food, and I mostly signed up for food ideas – not weight loss and glowing skin – but a girl can dream can’t she? And the temptation to beat myself up over not doing it right somehow has been strong. But reading the thread gave me heart. I think it is helpful to hear all of the experiences – not just the ones that serve to promote the program itself and I have to acknowledge the respectful and – yes supportive – way the moderators of the threads let the conversation happen and the legitimacy they gave to the way these contributors were feeling. Not everyone who gives up sugar will lose weight, not everyone who gives up sugar will notice massive changes in their health, not everyone will start glowing like a pregnant supermodel on a macrobiotic diet.

And probably there are a multitude of reasons but I think what you were eating before you start the program has a lot to do with it. One man was drinking 6 cans of pepsi max a day. A DAY! And he lost 32 kilos in 8 weeks. No fucking shit.

So. I am going to try to keep sugar out of my diet. I am going to keep cooking some of the family favourites out of the program and I am going to remember the headache I have had all week from the dark chocolate. But I am not going to beat myself up over the odd slip. I am not going to see my lack of weight loss as failure and I am going to share with you the best bliss ball recipe I have found on the magical interwebs. I can’t take credit for this one and I can’t remember where I got it – sorry! I haven’t been making them this year because they have dried fruit in them (strictly banned by IQS) but I have decided these are better for me and the fam than shit, nutrient deficient junk sugar and if I am going to ‘slip’ I would rather it was something I had made myself.

You will need;

1 cup of medjool dates (pitted and chopped)
1 cup almonds
1/3 cup of raw cacao powder
1/3 cup of coconut oil
1/2 cup of shredded coconut
1 tablespoon of chia seeds

Soak the dates in warm water for ten minutes if they are hard (don’t bother if they are soft and squishy). Add the nuts, cacao, shredded coconut, coconut oil and chia seeds to the food processor and blitz. Add dates to the mixture and blitz again. Let the mixture sit for ten minutes. Roll into balls (about a soup spoon worth each time). Roll the balls in more shredded coconut. Pop in to the freezer for about an hour before eating – I keep mine in the freezer – best place for them!

They are just the thing after dinner or for a mid morning snack – yum!

Ooooh I almost forgot! Guess what arrived in the mail today! Almost a good enough reason to take up coffee again ha ha

Day 75 – Bootcamp bitches ain’t nothing to fuck with

March 16, 2015 ~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ Leave a comment

Yeah boyeee. I’m old(ish) and using Wutang references. That’s just how I roll. But it’s ok because we all went out in the cyclone this morning and boxed our asses off before the sun came up. We are hard core y’all. Sure, it wasn’t very cyclone-y. More like Damp and Humid with a wee bit of wind. But add boxing to the mix and you’ve got some hot sweaty ladies. We just needed the rocky sound track to top it off ha ha. Have you boxed? It is seriously fun. I highly recommend it – there is something very cathartic about beating something up. I will take boxing over Yoga any day. Sorry Adrenal glands – I like it hard and fast ha ha

AND Guess what?!? The I Quit Sugar program includes Dark Chocolate this week! Oh my goodness. It is meant to be an ingredient in a recipe for ‘sort of cherry ripe bites’ (the sort of is because you use raspberry instead of cherries) but I confess I have cracked the pack already. Nice and easy grrl. There needs to be some left for the actual baking.

Auckland seems to have gotten away with much less damage than predicted from Cyclone Pam thank goodness. There were some homes without power and I have def seen trees down and other minor damage in my travels, but nothing compared to the devastation caused in Vanuatu for the people there. My thoughts are with the folks there who have lost family and friends and I will be looking for a way to send some sort of practical help to them over the next few days.

Peace out yo.

Day 60 – Another month, another day

March 1, 2015March 1, 2015 ~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ Leave a comment

Master 4 wants a glass of milk to have with his dinner. We are all refusing to get him one because I want him to finish his dinner first. So, of course, being 4, he goes to get his own. He comes back triumphant, glass of milk held high and proud.

Did you shut the fridge? nods.

Did you put the milk back first? nods.

Did you spill the milk? nods.

Did you clean it up? Shakes his head.

Well – go and clean it up then! He shuffles off drinking his milk. He shuffles back in moments later, trailing a towel and crying into his milk. What happened? He walked in to the door frame. And hit his head. It’s been one of those days.

We laughed. Because we are assholes.

The GD has a hangover. Quite a significant one. I didn’t know where he was until he knew where he was, and that wasn’t until 9am this morning – and by that time I was mad. I’m all for celebrating your friends lifetime commitment to each-other with a good party but when you have a (sleeping, sexy, patient – but don’t rile her) wife and home and no kids you should be getting back to her for alone time, breakfast and stuff, you know what I mean… Before the kids get home.

As it was I spent the night in a fur-child sandwich. I slept with the dutiful dog on one side and Molly Motorhead purring away at top volume on the other. (Don’t worry – I stripped the bed this morning – and I’d like to add that the dog is almost never allowed on the bed, only on change-the-sheets-day really). They couldn’t believe their luck! Normally the bed is too full of children.

The kids spent the night with their Oma and Opa and had a blast, as you do with your grandies. They came back exhausted and touchy, as you do when you have that much fun. And they made this clear to us on the motorway, stuck in traffic, at the top of their lungs.

You know the refrain; He’s LOOKING at me! He hit me! Because he was LOOKING at me! He’s looking out MY WINDOW! MUM HE’S LOOKING OUT MY WINDOW! The GD had hit the wall of course – this happened when we were visiting my Nana at the nursing home and I turned to see him in the foetal position on the floor. Which left me to deal with the carnage in the back seat. I turned the stereo up so I couldn’t hear them and lowered my foot. WE ARE NOT GOING TO THE BEACH NOW! I may have shouted at some point. STOP LOOKING AT YOUR FUCKING BROTHER! may also have come out of my mouth – but I will deny it if anyone asks. It’s a shame it’s illegal to drink wine while you drive. I think that there’s an argument for it. Maybe a special permit for mothers?

And then all of a sudden I found my zen; and the constant repetition of complaint and outrage in the back seat simply became another pattern in the white noise that was The Muttonbirds top volume and the GD snoring next to me.

Once home I made a delicious ‘summer chicken casserole’ and kumara mash for dinner care of IQS, and got prepped for the week. Now I am writing this and ignoring my children ‘playing trivial pursuit’ in front of me – Mostly this consists of Master 7 reading an answer of the back of the card and directing the nearest adult to read the question to him so he can be right, while Master 4 picks up all the of the cards and drops them in a dramatic heap on the ground. Over and Over again.

Ignore. Ignore. Ignore.

I am tired, but tired happy. I got to go out TWICE this weekend and spent time with lovely friends and family. The grumpy Dutchman just took the rubbish out and declared dinner delicious so I might consider forgiving him for leaving me to ‘eat breakfast’ alone. Everything is how it should be – even the lads, if they weren’t trying to kill each other they wouldn’t be my lads.

Day 60 already. Only 305 to go.

Day 48 – Language matters

February 17, 2015 ~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ 2 Comments

The mint Mojito smoothie for breakfast was goodish again – sort of like brushing my teeth with a spinach leaf. Minty and green. And you know what goes well with Mint Mojito smoothie? Bacon. That’s right. I followed my smoothie with a bacon chaser and it was the best breakfast in ages. I am trying to send the lads to school with full tummies and bacon sandwiches are a sure-fire way to get them to eat!

The boys are exhausted at the moment, poor lads. The start of the new term has really knocked Master 7 around – he is in ‘middle school’ now. He now wants to quit Ukelele because he’s too tired to do it after school and when I took him to watch the hip-hop class this evening to see if he wanted to join, he affected a very careful attitude of indifference. Drinking his smoothie and looking out the side of his face at the dancing kids, he really didn’t want to seem like he was keen. Poor little bugger. He’s not feeling very rock and roll right now.

Master 4 on the other hand seems to be on fire today! I picked him up and while he was looking for his shoes the teacher explained that he hadn’t been wearing underwear today. When questioned he had loudly and happily declared that ‘Mummy doesn’t know I’m freeballing today’. This from the child who refused to be naked AT ALL until halfway through last year. Now he wants to be naked all the time. And yes, freeballing. My boys like more air down there. A new word for the other kids to take home with them. I can just imagine the conversation around the dinner table. ‘Mummy can you please pour me a drink and are you freeballing?’

Add this to his adventure this afternoon; The grumpy Dutchman took him along with him to quote a new job this afternoon. This job is for a woman I do bootcamp with, who I like and want to remain friendly with, so it’d be good if the GD gets the work and we all play nice. They have a daughter the same age as Master 4 and an older ‘tweenage’ girl too. The GD comes out of one room after measuring up, with the man of the house to find their eldest girl bent double laughing in the hallway, listening to our lad and the little girl playing. It turns out that at some point during their impromptu playdate, Master four needed to use the bathroom and the wee lass obliged in showing him where to go. Naturally she stayed to watch as any good hostess would – I always offer to stay and wipe don’t you? Which prompted the question ‘Whats that?’ To which my boy replied ‘My willy, you don’t have one – you have a vagina’. He’s right you know. It took me ages to get him away from calling it a ‘china’ (and asking every woman he met to see if they had one – was a wee bit embarrassing to have to explain little old ladies that he wasn’t, in fact, enquiring after their crockery). So. Small steps.

Anyway, I have resolved to try to get more fruit and veges in to the boys while they are adjusting to being back full-time – I made them smoothies after school today – theirs with full fat milk (as opposed to mine with almond milk) and we will be trying to get them to bed early and let them lie in when they can.

Today was a good food day for me though, my leftover chicken and basil pesto with ‘zoodles’ was good the next day, and I didn’t even notice the lack of snacking until I got home and opened my lunchbox for cleaning – still had my morning and afternoon tea in it! It’s totally weird to suddenly be a grrl who doesn’t eat ALL the time. Before this year I was a snacker, a grazer, a nibbler. Constantly looking for food whether hungry or not – but actually – usually hungry. That’s whats so weird. The hunger has gone – and I am not eating more really.

My specialist explained it and I sort of get it – She thinks that I have an intolerance to Dairy (on top of everything fucking other thing) and that eating Dairy was contributing to my need to eat all the time – that it was turning off my ‘satisfied’ switch in my gut and doing me damage at the same time. I’ve officially not eaten dairy for 48 days so maybe that is it? Also the IQS program reckon that quitting sugar helps with the mindless snacking too – the impulse is gone because you are eating lots of good fat and protein and greens.

Whatever it is, I like not being hungry all the time. I still find myself heading to the fridge out of boredom and grumpy/PMS/low/pissed off with the kids moments – but I’m way better now at recognising that and I am working on what to do instead of eating. ‘Blogging’ is helping ha ha.

Dinner tonight was ‘Baked fish on roasted Caponata’ care of IQS and it was good, behold;

YUM.

And like a dick I followed it up by mindlessly ‘finishing off’ the apple in Master 7’s lunchbox while I write this. Cue tummy ache. And….. there it is.

Thanks for reading guys my ‘stats’ tell me there are whole lot more of you now – so welcome! Talk amongst yourselves (but quietly cos’ I’m off to bed to curl up in pain).

Sweet dreams.

Day 47 – what d’ya think of my tag cloud huh? huh?

February 16, 2015February 16, 2015 ~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ Leave a comment

Saucy huh? It’s taken me the better part of the evening to figure out how to do it, and I had to go through retrospectively to tag every post – and think of appropriate tags; ‘Prunes’ for example. That’s a good one.

The reason for my fancy techy pants this evening is the sharing – thanks for the blog sharing love guys. My clever friend Fee has suggested I have my own page on Facebook for me to share these posts too (partly so I don’t spam those that are not interested on my personal page) but also so you can find my posts if you wanna catch up. While I’m at it I will put in a plug for her page and business Shineon – she has some sweet new and vintage gears – check her out!

Today was the start of the clean green week with IQS, a mint mojito smoothie for breakfast which had me starving by 9am, luckily I had planned for this and had a lemon protein ball to take the edge off. Just another manic Monday.

I took Master 7 to school today so I could meet his teacher; new dude teacher, Master 7 is exhausted and I was worried that he didn’t ‘get’ my special little flower. Of course Master 7 was embarrassed that I was there, but he showed me his cute little table and cute little bag hook. He tolerated a cuddle before I left but wouldn’t look at me the whole time. So awkward. (Mwaahaha evil Mum laugh).

I then ran home, past all the slow I-don’t-have-to-work-because-hubby’s-a-surgeon walkers (get out of the fucking way!), jumped in the car and sped off to work, arriving just in time to run to my office and realise I didn’t have my work keys. And that was how my day went really – running to the next thing, teaching in between meetings, lunch at my desk and running for the rest of the day. SUCH a relief to leave today.

Dinner was actually really nice – my homemade pesto with poached chicken and courgette ‘noodles’. I know. So HOT right now to have noodles that are actually just lengthways sliced veges. I am down bitches.

Clean green week is meant to be a ‘detox’ week because you cut out coffee and gluten (been there, done that y’all) and upsize the leafy greens portions. They also recommend a heap of supplements, and spirulina etc. Because I am not great with raw food, and currently have no money (you can ask the grumpy Dutchman about that – Didn’t he go to a stag do on the weekend you say? Why yes, yes he did) I will be playing it by ear. Will keep you updated!

Remember sharing is caring peeps – feel free to like my Facebook page and share!

Day 46 – Prepping for the week

February 15, 2015February 16, 2015 ~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ Leave a comment

Sunday prep day. Due to the GD’s extended outing this weekend (read; he was extra late home after his birthday/Stag Do weekend partying and I was pissed) I had extra time at home to get prepped for the week ahead. This led to two cabin-feverish wee lads following me around all weekend, but we did manage to squeeze in a couple of shambles around the neighbourhood. Also I managed to convince the youngest that he needed to get a ‘birthday party’ haircut before he could go to his friends party and both boys now have short backs and sides thanks to me and my clippers – they look so straight edge now – so cutie cute.

But I digress. The point of this post was the prepping. Last week I wasn’t so great with the food – giving myself a sore tummy on more than one occasion when I got stuck hungry or hangry with no good food for my gut nearby. The IQS program called for homemade Basil Pesto and Lemon Protein Balls. I liked the no cook aspect – just needed my food processor. I needed four cups of basil for the Basil Pesto and I had optimistically not bought any so I stripped our three plants and only came up with three cups. I used one cup of coriander and it turned out sweet as bro. I am dairy free so no Parmesan of course – I swapped in Nutritional yeast and it still tastes Pesto-ey. All good. The Lemon balls are an acquired taste but they are sweet enough without having any sugar in them – I think it def depends on your protein powder – and I am not sure how I feel about protein powder to be honest…

I also cooked Falafels, boiled eggs, baked muffins for the fam and grandies and made chicken soup for the freezer (emergency lunches).

So I am feeling pretty prepared for the week. I have a ‘mint mojito smoothie’ to look forward to for breakfast care of the iQS program (we are heading in to ‘clean week’ apparently where things will get lean and green – I will have to watch out for the raw factor and adjust accordingly).

I hope you are prepared for the week ahead and rested after your weekend, have a good one x

Day 45 – A woman on the edge.

February 14, 2015February 16, 2015 ~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ Leave a comment

Picture in your mind’s eye a woman sitting on her couch. She has her eyes firmly on her laptop, one arm stroking the cat (who, in the absence of the male human has deigned to purr for the female), the other scrolling through her newsfeed.

Notice the lollies strewn all over lounge the floor in front of her. Casualties in a day that included both a child’s birthday party and visiting multiple Grandparents, the children had their fill – they couldn’t take any more sugar.

Now look closer; at her tense shoulders. Her fixed gaze – her eyes don’t stray from the laptop screen. She is stroking the cat in firm, fast downward movements, more of a ‘sports massage’ than an affectionate thing. The chicken soup she made earlier is cooling next to her – too hot to eat yet but she tries it every few minutes or so.

The lollies – fruit bursts, minties, milkshakes and jellybeans – are ALL gluten free. This she knows. Sugar is the issue here. They are strictly a no go area. And yet…

Being gluten free is not a choice. Coeliac disease is a permanent, autoimmune disorder caused by an intolerance to gluten which is found in wheat, barley, oats and rye. This intolerance to gluten causes the body to produce antibodies which damage the lining of the small bowel and make it impossible for the body to absorb vitamins, minerals and other nutrients from food. The damage is immediate and can be severe in it’s physical manifestation. Because I am a silent coeliac I often don’t know it’s happening.

Giving up sugar on the other hand was a choice, to help my gut, to heal my gut and to ‘un-complicate’ this process. I know that high fructose fruit and veges are doing me damage as well and feel the effects straight away – and yet…

It has been a good day. But sometimes homemade chicken soup doesn’t quite cut it you know?

39 – Keeping the Sunday horrors at bay

February 8, 2015February 16, 2015 ~ nzmockingbirdgrrl ~ Leave a comment

You know that feeling of dread that starts to creep over you as lunchtime draws near on Sunday and you realise that you have to go to work tomorrow and you need to squeeze the joy and relaxation out of every second of your remaining time or the day will be wasted. Fucked. No point in having gotten out of bed at all. And you spend most of the time trying to have FUN and RELAX and taking advantage of your FREE time so you end up being grumpy and irritable with the world because it’s not being perfect? Or is that just me?

I find the best thing to do is to fill up my day getting as best prepared for the week ahead as possible. Not school work – I can’t think about that at home without being asked to look at something, wipe something, judge something, put something in his room for being a dick, feed something – you get the picture. But if I can food shop for the week and get all my food prepared then I can take some of the day-to-day stress out of my working week. And I like making new recipes and getting stuff ready.

Also I like to start the day with an early morning walk. Grab the day by the short curlies. Get out there before shit happens so I can be in charge of what shit happens at what time. The grumpy Dutchman made the mistake of suggesting we walk Arty in the morning and consequently me and the lads were raring to go at sparrows fart and poor old daddy was still trying to pull the duvet over his head. But seriously, it’s so nice out there before the world wakes up; the sun rising and the beautiful light that accompanies it, the birds crapping on about shit at the top of their lungs, the smell of damp grass and Arty’s little ‘pauses’. Idyllic.

'Coco-nutty granola' Coconut flakes, nuts, cinnamon and coconut oil. — ‘Coco-nutty granola’ Coconut flakes, nuts, cinnamon and coconut oil.

Today was prep day so I made a bunch of stuff. Boiled half a dozen eggs for snacks (they will last for up to 5 days in the fridge), Made Sarah Wilson’s ‘Coco-nutty granola’ for my breakfasts as per the iQS program, I tried out the iQS Peach crumble, and made roast chicken and veges for dinner and my lunch tomorrow. I wanted to try coconut yoghurt too (gluten and dairy free but it does have Stevia in it) IT IS FUCKING AMAZING. I got ‘Coyo’ chocolate flavoured because they didn’t have any natural (no really). And oh my god. Made my month. I am going to try to track down the natural flavour at Harvest – but maybe after I get paid because apparently everything I can eat is really fucking expensive.

I came across this piece of writing today and it was an interesting read. This concept of ‘Orthorexia [that] differs from other forms of disorders in that the obsessive focus is not on how much or how little one consumes, but the perceived virtue of the food itself.‘ resonated with me. She talks about how these (usually young, attractive – gotta be wealthy – women) get so fixated on where their food is coming from and its relative merits that they end up having very little they actually allow themselves to eat and become quite unhealthy as a result. Total first world problems of course. And thankfully she makes a distinction between those with allergies or auto-immune diseases (me) and those who choose to not eat certain foods in pursuit of real or imagined health benefits.

It contrasted nicely with a conversation that me and the lads had where they were asking about me eating gluten-free and what I wanted to eat and of course I listed off all the delicious things I haven’t eaten in two years – lemon meringue pie, neenish tarts, sourdough bread, fruit mince tarts oh drool….. Frankly if I was choosing to eat gluten-free I would be shit at it. I’d be all ‘one little pie won’t hurt’… every fucking day.

But read it and tell me what you think. The fact that it’s got a name seems a bit extreme but the author raises lots of good points; that a lot of the advice given in fact is dangerous and the way these diets are sold are very persuasive.

Anyhoo – I am sorted for tomorrow. Hope y’all are prepped for the week too!