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 …

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

Dear 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 …

I was going to call this post Damned 69 ( a figure I associate with a lot of psychological distress) because my weight went up by 300 grams to 69 kilos this week and I was really pissed off this morning. But I suppose this things are normal when you try to lose weight and as long as I eat the right things a change IS BOUND to happen sooner or later. Anyway, these days I have been quite busy trying to run the house and various errands, see the G.P. over my strange back pain and keeping everyone happy. In consequence I had to come up with quick, satisfying but healthy dinners. I know you know I am Romanian. As a Romanian I was raised with dishes and ingredients that people here turn their nose to. Take chicken livers, for example. I love chicken livers, pork tongue, bovine brain…okay, I know I grossed you out, sorry. Yesterday I felt like having chicken livers. I had some free-range ones in the freezer from my butcher. …