Healthy Living Challenge: Day 30 – The Last Quarter

I know I have taken forever with this challenge and my 40 days will end up being 50 but hey, I was never known for writing posts for the sake of writing them…there were days I didn’t have anything informative or interesting to write about and so my 40-day challenge got a little prolonged. But the end in in sight,hurray!

I have learned a lot during this challenge.

I have read a lot, discovered a lot of “food trends”, acquainted myself with a lot of healthy, vegetarian, vegan and paleo food bloggers out there.

I have also realised that I could never be a full-time vegan because I find the opinion that eliminating even honey and eggs from one’s diet extreme and probably non-beneficial to the human body in the long term. On the other hand, you would never find me going to a “sausage party” and learning to slaughter animals at home. One step too far in the other direction, me thinks…

I have been inspired to try new foods by both vegan and paleo bloggers and fell in love with quinoa, bulgur, smoked salmon and organic butter among other things.

I have accumulated knowledge about the healing properties of plants, fruit and veggies that I have felt compelled to share with my Facebook friends (I think some have muted me already ;-) .

I have also been reminded of the wickedness of the human nature and how people would use promises of health to ruthlessly extract money out of their fellow humans.

But most importantly, I have learned about myself. That I can stick with a goal, even when I see no my visible results. I am not a patient person so this has been a challenge for me. But I have pushed through!

This is day 30 of my healthy living challenge, take heart,the end of these posts is in sight ;-)

P.S.-and because I use these posts as a means to keep myself accountable but also celebrate my success , I must inform you that after more than a week of a plateau at 68.4, this morning the scales read 68!! Hurray!

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Healthy Living Challenge: Day 29 – God, the Maker of All Good Foods

Yes, today I had time to reflect and be grateful to God, the maker of all the amazing things there are out there to eat and help us live a healthy life.I think that this has been brought about gradually by all the healthy eating books I have been reading. By the conversation we had last night with dear friends about how their health has improved just by them eating the right foods.

God has made every single plant, fruit and vegetable with the clear intention not only to sustain us but to bring restoration and healing when it’s needed. He made them colourful, flavoursome, exciting and nutritious!! And tonight I am saying thanks to Him for this part of my life, the good, fresh, yummy tasting food :-) .

Night night, be blessed.

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And yes, I do miss Greece and having fruit and veggies in abundance on our doorstep!

Healthy Living Challenge: Day 28 – Going back to the basics

After writing my post yesterday I had a bit of time to reflect on the whys and I realised in the course of last week I made a few typical dieting mistakes:

1. I forgot to eat when it was time to eat and then I ended up eating too much/getting dizzy/eating the wrong things.

2. I forgot to drink plenty of fluids and as a consequence my bowel movement has been less regular.

3. I got lax about wheat and I pinched here and there things I shouldn’t have.

4. I didn’t plan as carefully my meals and I ended up eating less veggies than in the weeks before.

5. I got lazy and didn’t make time to exercise/blamed it on the weather.

6. I read too many dieting books but couldn’t synthesise all the information into one common philosophy, so to say.

So today I went back to the drawing board, so to say, and I mended a couple of things. For starters, I drank PLENTY. I made two teapots of herbal tea during the morning and kept myself hydrated(and warm!). Then I had plenty of short but timely light meals. I went back to rye bread and lastly, I braved the strong winds and the hail and returned ALL the dieting books to the library, except for Anna Richardson’s one, which is closest to my dieting philosophy.

This is day 28 of this 40-day-healthy-living-challenge and I am back on track! Excited about the last bit of this challenge!

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Healthy Living Challenge: Day 27 – New Weight Plateau

Yeap, I reached another one and this one is not budging. 68.4 for the last week and a half. It hasn’t helped that the weather has been darn cold and I wasn’t able to go out anywhere. Have you experienced plateaux when trying to lose weight? What were the solutions that worked for you? I am half way there with my weight loss but it would be nice to kick start my metabolism again and be 65 kilos by the time I hit the beach. Please help!

This is a frustrating day 27, only 13 days of this healthy living challenge!

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I was actually 63.5 in this one but it’s just about how I aim to look this summer!

Healthy Living Challenge: Day 26 – 5 Ingredients, 50 Minutes, 500 Calorie Dinner!

Yeah, so this morning I had no desire to slave in the kitchen, like I did yesterday. You see, I cook my dinners in the morning when Emma is in playgroup because there is no time to do it in the evening, after we come back from work. And I also like cooking in peace :-) .

Yesterday I made my lean turkey stuffed peppers but it took me pretty much all morning so this morning I popped into Sainsbury’s, grabbed a couple of ingredients and had my dinner ready in less than an hour.

I had defrosted some organic chicken breast from the previous night and prepared it simply by popping it in the oven with a bit of coconut oil, sea salt and curry powder. It only needs around 30 minutes to roast to perfection.

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We love Indian in this house but as you well know, Indian takeaways can be quite calorific so over the years I learned to make my own version of things. I had a great helper, one of my very good friends, who is from Pakistan and who taught me how to mix up spices.

But today I present you with a Nigella-like express recipe in which I used a bought-in sauce. Before you gasp and call me a cheat, let me tell you that my sauce has been carefully chosen to have only natural ingredients and have less than 100 calories per 100 grams. There, is that better?

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I also dug out from my cupboard some chickpeas and thought that the spinach I got this morning in Sainsbury’s could also be put to good use.

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Assembling all this was easy peasy: just warm up your sauce ever so gently then add the chickpeas and let them simmer for around five minutes to get infused with the flavours from the sauce.

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Meanwhile, remove the chicken from the oven, cut it into bite-size pieces and add it to the sauce and chickpeas. Again, let it simmer for around five minutes or so, in order to blend in with the rest of the ingredients.

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Turn the heating off then add your chopped spinach. And there you have it, dinner ready!

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I usually serve it with Indian rice. Before you panic and tell me you don’t know how to make such things, let me share another easy peasy recipe for that. I usually put a cup and a half of Basmati rice with about two and a half cups of water to boil. I then add a bit of salt, two cardamom pods, half a teaspoon of cumin seeds and half a teaspoon of turmeric powder to the rice. I let it boil gently for about 15 to 20 minutes until water is absorbed and the grain is soft.

All in all, this meal shouldn’t take you more that 50 minutes, including cooking the rice. You only need chicken, Bhuna sauce (and no, it’s not hot so you can have it even if you can’t take hot food), chickpeas, spinach and rice. It should also come at under 500 calories per serving, pretty good for a dinner including rice!

This is day 26, there are only two weeks left of my healthy living challenge, stay well, cook smart :-) !

Healthy Living Challenge: Day 25 – Easter Joys

This post will not be my typical healthy living entry as such but because Otilia, from Romanian Mum was so keen to find out :-) , I will tell you about our new family tradition, an Easter tree!!

I actually had seen in before, on two separate occasions but it was only last week, when we were invited for dinner with friends and I saw their own version that I thought: “Aha,  I can actually do this myself!”

So last night I sent hubby to find a sturdy tree branch. Fortunately for him, there are loads literally lying around as in preparation for a new road layout and he didn’t have to look long or do anything illegal :-) I had bought from PoundLand a few bags of small and medium fluffy chicks, three decorative egg types and some very cute miniature nests. Emma was fully on board with this, helping me hang the eggs, decorating the hollow ones with stickers and filling them up with small treats like chocolate coins and mini-chocolate eggs.  The result was amazing and I was so pleased with it I was still raving this morning about it :-) . The entire cost, including the sweets, the decorative butterfly Emma had done last week (Home Bargains buy) and all the things mentioned above? Less than £10 but my living room looks a million dollars to me now!!

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Healthy Living Challenge: Day 24 – Juicing Phase

Okay, so I felt I needed a change and I decided to start juicing this week. I don’t agree to excessive juicing or surviving only on veggie and fruit juice as this can actually put too much fruit sugar in your system at once. But a glass or two a day could only benefit me, especially on the days I am too busy or lazy to eat my fruit.

Today I was reading this detox book and since I had most of the ingredients mentioned there I decided to put them in the blender. I used beetroot, two small pears, an apple and half a banana. I added ginger juice(kindly provided by a good friend), wheat grass powder, spirulina powder, half a teaspoon of my immuno-build green powder(it contains stevia and I find adding more than half a teaspoon sickening) and a handful of fresh basil leaves. Hey, pronto, the result was an energising, tangy and refreshing drink I drowned in the blink of an eye!

Well, this is day 24 of my 40 day healthy living challenge, have a great week and take my dare to try at least one new food this week! Talk tomorrow.

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Healthy Living Challenge: Day 23 – Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

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We are not Catholic but I believe my child benefits from being immersed into the Irish traditions since she will most likely live her childhood here. So yesterday we attended a day of fun activities at the Belfast City Hall including, as you can see above, face-painting, tattoos, arts and crafts, snake petting and traditional storytelling. Emma loved it all, especially the storytelling time, the magic of the fairy stories, the flute playing and the good craic.

This morning I decided to celebrate, healthy style, the occasion myself. I made myself a lovely smoothie with pear, avocado, pineapple, fresh basil leaves, coconut milk and spirullina powder, to make it nice and green. I served it into a Murphy’s stout mug :-) .

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

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Healthy Living Challenge:Day 22 – Dieting Book Feast!

Okay, my friends, I haven’t been ignoring you or slacking off with my healthy living task. On the contrary, my scales have been a stable 68.4 kilos this week and I did a lot of research in order to provide you with some valuable dieting material, just in case you were inspired by my posts.

The first read I want to bring to your attention is Anna Richardson’s Summer Body Blitz Diet. Wow, Anna is a girl after my own heart with her dieting book! She has only 5 rules to stick to: 1. NO WHEAT; 2. NO DAIRY; 3. NO SUGAR; 4. NO CARBS(after 6 p.m, that is!); 5. NO ALCHOHOL. Of all the dieting books I peeked at in the last few weeks, her philosophy is the closest to the way I have been trying to lose the weight(plus she mentions a summer body in the book title, the very thing I am aiming for :-) . She also has a section made of simple-to-follow yet delicious recipes and a “Fast Food” section that includes yummy snack suggestions like Parma ham, olives, humorous and rye bread!! So if you’re not a by-the-letter sort of person and need a few simple rules and recipes to keep you going, then this is the book for you and I do recommend it warmly as it is my favourite so far!IMAG0797

Now, if you happen to be the sort of person who needs constant monitoring and encouragement but also a slow introduction to dieting then I would recommend Gillian McKeith’s Boot Camp Diet. I used to watch her You Are What You Eat TV programme and be amazed at the changes she brought about in a short space of time in people’s lives. Some would call Gillian extreme and she can be but hear me out. This book is actually a very carefully laid out plan aimed to assist you in losing weight. It sets goals for you, it does the positive talking, it presents you with chewable bits of information and motivation for the initial 14 days, the hardest of any life plan change. The book also includes a recipe section and a wee diary like section in which you ccan keep track of your progress. Handy for people who need a daily reminder and prompting to stay in track. I found the book informative even at a quick perusal, hands up if you knew the aduki beans can assist you in weight loss by reducing fluid from your body? Neither did I!!IMAG0804

Now, the next title I chose for you is George Carter’s 100 Health-Boosting Foods. This book is perfect for those of my readers who would love to start living more healthily and need a practical and alphabetised guide to assist them with the change. I love this book, it’s colourful, provides enough information(the most important bits are even highlighted!) for each of the featured foods to make the reader aware of its health benefits and as a bonus, has a very simple to follow recipe to incorporate the food into your diet. So next time you buy green beans, remember that they are good for maintaining bone strength, help lower high blood pressure and are richer in iron than spinach! The recipe provided is a very simple tomato and green bean salad that even a 10 year old can make. So no more excuses for eating biscuits, me thinks ;-) !IMAG0800

Now, for those of you who are considering a vegetarian diet, the next recommendation is bang on perfect. The F2 Cookbook by Audrey Eyton, is based on a fibre and fat-rich plan. The book includes 100 lovely and fresh almost exclusively vegetarian recipe ideas, like Lentil Lovers’ Bolognese(no meat there) or Spicy Chickpeas with Cauliflower and Spinach. Most recipes have a Slimmer’s Tip included at the end, always handy in assisting you in the calorie battle. Worth giving a try, definitely!IMAG0802

The last read I have for you tonight is The S Factor Diet, written by an American celebrity, Lori Turner. I hesitated including it here due to the celebrity factor but because it offers another view on dieting, I decided it would make an interesting point, at least. Turner bases her diet plans on balancing the S factor hormones and includes a few very simple tests that assess what type of hormone dictates your eating and what foods provide that needed balance. According to her questionnaires, based on my symptoms of snapping at loved ones, caffeine cravings and worrier habits, I am an Adrenal eater and the foods that would help me lose weight are artichokes, eggs, fish mussels and prawns, coconut milk and oil, eggs, lentils and barley drinks! Well, my body has been requesting all the food suggested in the last few weeks so that sort of validates my dieting approach and amazes me as to how accurate the book is in assessing your body needs through a couple of very simple questionnaires!IMAG0801

Well, hope this post has motivated you to start eating better, this is day 22 and I am off to watch a DVD and tuck into a very yummy salad of rocket, tuna, tomato, pine seeds and lemon drizzle which hubby kindly made for me while I was blogging!!

Healthy Living Challenge: Day 21 – Pinocchio…belly

pinocchioDear friends, I am more than half way through my challenge and I have my good days and my bad days. Yesterday was a great day in everything except my wheat avoidance.

I had a busy morning cooking a healthy meal for my family but in the process I made a couple of nutritional mistakes. I left it for too long to have a snack in the morning. Then what was supposed to be my snack (a lovely veggie omelette) became my early lunch. Then by three o’clock I was in work. And hungry. And I had a slice of bread. The scenario sort of repeated itself later in the day and by the evening I was feeling and LOOKING very bloated. And I knew it was the bread. And I thought of poor Pinocchio who every time he told a lie had an inch nose growth :-) . I was the very same, an inch belly growth with every slice of bread.

Needless to say, rye bread supplies have been replenished in the house and today is a new day, with less opportunities for mistakes of the sort.

This is day 21, the countdown has started and there are only 19 days left of this healthy living challenge.

Have a great, healthy eating day!

 

 

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