Month: September 2014

I’m a lot late with this, mostly due to being on holiday and having a terrible WiFi connection. Against my better judgement I didn’t ease out of my Whole30 restrictions

What I learned about my eating habits.

1. Sugar is everywhere! And we thought we already “avoided” sugar.
2. Emotional/ stress eating – get headache or feel cold, want tea. Feel sad and happy, want wine or cheese or choccie.
3. I indulge in a lot of absent minded (mindless) eating. Chunks of cheese from the fridge, handfuls of almonds etc.
4. Habitual eating and drinking – flat white coffee when I go to town, wine on a Friday night with dinner, bottles of fizz for celebrations, etc.
5. I didn’t miss wine and beer as much as I thought I would. Yes, I nearly went and bought a bottle of fizz to celebrate my new job but it wasn’t a big deal to not have it so I plan to have a lot more booze-free weeks.
6. Our overall planned meals didn’t change much. We haven’t included much legumes, grains or veg oils in our diet for nearly 2 years now (80:20) but it’s all the extras, treats and outside food and drink that let us down. And I thought we were being so good!

In conclusion, I’m happy to reintroduce alcohol and cheese, both in small quantities of high quality product as a treat, and I don’t think I’ll miss not having them all the time. Our dairy product intake will decreasing as we really don’t need to have cheese in breakfast and lunch every day. Likewise milky tea and coffee will be a once-a-day at the most drink, with the shortfall replaced with water and I really like some of the infusions I’ve been able to buy. Where before we would buy a 4-pint bottle of milk for the week, I think we can get by on 1-pint plus a carton of cream. I do like cream in my weekend coffees 🙂

I probably won’t be making my own tomato ketchup just yet, so that will have to be a rare treat or replaced with roasted toms, but I will continue to make my own mayonnaise. The flavour of shop bought is noticeably sweet to me now and it’s not hard to make a batch for the week. Plus, I’ve found a recipe using half olive oil and half coconut oil so it can be made a bit cheaper, and I can cut it with yogurt or buttermilk if I need to stretch it into a dressing for things like with coleslaw.

Ah, the final day of our challenge and we’re in sunny Madrid. I was dead on my feet last night so not quite sure how I managed to chew dinner. Needed to pick up some more food today (Sunday) as yesterday was just about immediate feeding needs. We did have the foresight to get 2 dozen eggs so breakfast was sorted. The lovely markets would only be open from Monday so today we had a choice of Lidl (better than our UK local store), a Carrefour Express (one up from a corner shop, but still has a good selection of fresh fruit) and a Dia (right by our apartment and like a tardis!) Have noticed that Madrid is not all that “Accessibility Friendly” – especially the Metro stations. Fortunately we were only manoeuvring a suit case but pushchairs were struggling and if you’re in a wheelchair I’m not quite sure what you’re supposed to do. The Dia was also an interesting one – you couldn’t g into the store area behind the checkouts, instead you were directed up an escalator to the first floor where the drinks and canned goods were. Only after getting to the back corner of that floor I spotted what looked like a staircase to the staff area which took you back down to the fresh produce area. Odd.

Anyway, wanted to have a more planned approach to dinner tonight so after a plate of scrambled eggs (failed omelette – darn electric hob) with guacamole, tomato and lettuce, and plenty of black coffee, we headed out to explore Madrid. Late in the afternoon we stumbled across mercado san Miguel, which is a foodie heaven! Restrained ourselves and just shared a cornet of finely sliced iberico ham and a cornet of freshly fried chicharrón. Gorgeous place with all kinds of tapas to buy, while you walk around with a glass of vino or a beer. Going back tomorrow definitely.

Picked up a few more bits for dinner (we’re terrible at planning ahead on these trips) so I could bake some garlic and lemon chicken to have with a sort if ratatouille/ ragout creation. Supermarket fruit and veg is good here but choice is limited compared to home as it’s all very local and seasonal. We’re so used to having everything, no matter what the time if year, and it’s all perfect looking and a bit tasteless. However, in the proper markets there are several varieties of things like tomatoes, melon and peaches to choose from which smell beautiful and taste amazing so can’t complain.

Lots of water then early to bed. Los zzzz