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Healthy Living Challenge: Day 13 – Celebration Day

Published by Oana

As I told you before, I have this habit of weighing myself in the morning, first thing.

Well, almost first thing. Hmmm, how do I put this delicately in a blog post? What I mean by almost is I weigh myself after….ahem…my bowels empty…blush…I wouldn’t have mentioned this aspect, really but I think that when dieting this is one thing that needs to be very…regular. And I will tell you for why. You see, your body needs to start fresh every morning so to say but if your bowels don’t empty properly, due mainly to the consumption of processed wheat, in the form of bread, buns, cakes and the like then all you do is carry around…dead weight! Anyway, since I started my almost-no-wheat-but-plenty-of-fruit-and-veggies-diet, the dead weight has been shedding, so to say :-).

So from 71 kilograms(that is11st 2.5282lb, for you, metric lot!) on Valentine’s Day(I know, shame on me!!) I am down to 68.7 kilos(10st 11.5lb) today!!

I am thrilled for a number of reasons:

1. I didn’t feel deprived at any point. I actually ate more than before and got to try many new and exciting recipes and flavours!

2. I didn’t feel overwhelmed. I actually did this at my own pace, eating whenever I felt hungry and exercising whenever I had time.

3. I have gained new friends from it and I have inspired old friends to start eating healthier too!!

This is a very exciting day 13, there are only 27 days left of this healthy living challenge!!

And happy spring, everybody!!

Healthy Living Challenge: Day 12 – New Flavours

Published by Oana

I bought millet and aduki beans from the health store last Friday and today I decided to give them a go!

I haven’t made millet before and I didn’t know what to expect. I like couscous and I sort of expected it to be similar in texture and taste. It sort of is and it isn’t, I found millet a bit coarser and drier than the couscous but I think the millet has the potential to retain more flavour if boiled with the right ingredients(I added chicken stock, a bay leaf and a whole onion plus a spice mix we bought in the Greek open market, called Arabiko) . I used this recipe I found online last night but I decided to replace the lentils with my aduki beans. It came out a bit too dry so next time I will not roast the millet and I will probably add 3 cups of water to one cup of millet.

I served it with fish which I marinated, inspired by Ottolenghi’s Mediterranean Feast on Channel 4, in harissa paste(and nothing else!) for a good few hours and cooked in the oven. I found the harissa wonderful and the fish well infused with exotic flavour and very moist inside. I will definitely make this again, extremely simple, very good for dieting and also very tasty!

My verdict on the three new things I tried today? I am slightly disappointed with the millet, I will have to add some moisture back into my salad tomorrow by slicing a juicy tomato and some cucumber. I LOVED the harissa, my fish was moist and flavoursome, definitely a winner. I am not convinced I did the aduki beans justice by adding them to the millet, next time I will use them on their on, like in this recipe.

Please check out my hard work here:

My fish,ready to go in the fridge for a few hours.

My millet salad, enough to feed an army!

The finished product

This is day 12, there are only 28 days left of this healthy living challenge!

Healthy Living Challenge: Day 11 – Easy Week Meals

Published by Oana

I love cooking our meals from scratch but I don’t like spending too much time in the kitchen, especially on the days I work. So tonight I’ll be making a meal we all love that takes less than half an hour to put together: Thai chicken!

These are my four magical ingredients: chicken breast, that I chop and tenderise in the pan with a bit of coconut oil, salt and pepper. Green Thai curry paste( a couple of spoonfuls) that I add to the chicken, once cooked(I never let it get brown, just not pink in the middle). Reduced fat coconut milk that gets added on top of the chicken and curry paste, once the chicken is coated in the paste. And stir fry veggies that I add after the coconut milk has boiled for a good 10 minutes and infused the chicken, only for about 3 minutes(I have overcooked veggies!). I serve it with boiled rice. How do you get sticky Thai rice? Add 1 and a half cups of water to one cup of rice, a bit of salt and bring to boil. Let the water evaporate, the turn the gas off but cover with a lid and let sit for about 10 minutes. Voilà, easy dinner served!

This is day 11, there are only 29 days left of this challenge!

P.S.- my light coconut milk curdled tonight. I usually use the normal one and this was a first for me. If you have had experienced this before, please let me know what you did to stop it from curdling. It’s still tasty but it doesn’t look very nice…

Healthy Living Challenge: Day 10 – Dieting and Kids

Published by Oana

“And I don’t even like you!”

I bet your first thought was: “Naughty little one!” when you read the line above. But hey, I’m going to surprise you(once again!) and say, no, actually, that’s what I said to Emma yesterday evening after a day of eating too little and doing too much!

I had a busy weekend, then on Sunday night I didn’t sleep until midnight as BBC1 decided not to work at 8 p.m., time for “Call the Midwife” and I stayed up catching up with the girls in the latest episode on iPlayer.

Then yesterday morning I grazed on pita bread and hummus, went for a 30-minute power walk and then just rushed on to work at 1. Biiiiig mistake! I managed to grab half an apple and a banana but it was way too little in terms of nutrition(for running around after 3 young kids!) and at 5.30, when I returned from work I was RAVENOUS. Not a good time for Emma to put on a little tantrum over leggings but hey, three-year olds were never known for their subtlety and empathy…And then I snapped. Like a twig. And I said stupid things to her like: “I don’t even like you!”

Lesson learnt: eat appropriately for the day ahead! It’s okay to graze if you’re in the house, lazying around on a Sunday morning but it’s definitely NOT okay to starve yourself when you have a busy day ahead!

Yesterday was day 10 of this healthy living challenge, only 30 days to go!!

My fashion-conscious child

Healthy Living Challenge: Day 9 – Nine wisdom nuggets

Published by Oana

Okay, so I was pondering today on what I have learnt(or have been reminded of) since I started this health challenge.

1. Whatever change you want to make in your life, start TODAY! For so long I used everything and everybody as an excuse for not eating healthily and for procrastinating . That bikini body I want, guess what? It will never happen unless I ditch the “ifs” and “buts” and “tomorrows”.

2. Start small. If you haven’t moved all winter(like moi!) then start taking short walks every day(weather permitting). If you have been eating double what your hubby ate(again, like moi…) then eat a bit less. Whatever you aim to achieve, achieve it with every meal, with every little change.

3. Congratulate yourself when you manage to stick to your resolutions, don’t beat yourself up when you stray from the plan. Okay, I had Chinese on Friday night( the most sensible Chinese I’ve ever had!), okay, I had a bit of apple pie and crème brûlée ice cream today. As long as these incidents remain the exception and don’t become the norm, you are still on!!

4. Try new foods: I loved my quinoa salad last Sunday. I rediscovered my love of apples. Hey, I can even eat bananas now! I could have smoked salmon and avocado on a bed of rocket salad, with a good seasoning of lemon every day of the week as a very filling snack!

5. Stock up on good food. Have your favourite fruit handy both in the fruit bowl and in the fridge so that they “tempt” you before anything else when you get peckish. Buy healthy versions of your favourite snacks: soya instead of cheese, rye bread instead of white bread…etc.

6. Ditch/ hide the waistline enemies :-)! We have some new rules in the house these days: Don’t leave Emma’s unfinished toast on the table! Hide the crackers! Don’t keep kabanos sausages in the fridge!

7. Once a week, visit the organic health food store and the right butcher. We were in Holywood on Friday and bought an organic chicken from the local butcher and got lovely goodies from Iona, the best health food store in Northern Ireland(in my eyes, anyway!) This week I will incorporate my organic chickpeas in a tasty tagine, make a lovely bulgur salad with my organic Aduki beans and use generously my kale and sea salt mixture.

8. Find people to whom you can be accountable. Don’t pay attention to people who make comments about your small portions. Avoid “food friends”, as I call them, you know, the ones who offer you coffee and a comfort biscuit whenever you visit?

9. Enjoy yourself! Life is to be enjoyed, don’t see this as self-flagellation but as an exciting experience that will bring on some exciting results!