So I thought rather than bombard you with any more food and facts today I would let you know a little bit about why I am doing this.
As I have previously mentioned I have had what some might call a love/hate relationship with food, I love food and but food seems to really have something against my thighs! I also grew up accompanying my mother to diet clubs and watching her weight flatuate and fluctuate stones at a time.
12 years ago I had my very own first encounter with a well known "diet club" following the red and green day thing, food optimising they called it back then, lol, I lost 1/2 a stone over months of horrific eating patterns, wafer thin ham for a snack anyone?? I then followed the dreaded points system where you were actually allowed to choose between having a piece of fruit or a biscuit for the same points value, madness!!! I was starving on this and that is a terrible way to carry on. The weight came off and the weight went straight back on again as this is not a sustainable way of eating. I actually worked with someone at the time who was also following the same "diet" and they had worked out the points value of a whole bottle of red wine and just used whatever few points were left over to eat a little bit of junk to go with the wine, incredible! This was'nt encouraged but it was not stopped either.
I stopped kidding myself with these clubs at that point, everyone I knew who had been following their so-called healthy eating regime just got bigger and bigger and actually most people have been life long members, not to maintain the weight but because everytime 1 stone came off, 1 and 1/2 went back on. These clubs are businesses, businesses need to make money and making money relies on repeat business. Simple as that. They can teach you a very unhealthy attitude to food and you end up eating all sorts of crap because its a "free" food or low points, you replace real food with chemically enhanced "low fat, artificially flavoured" versions of food that taste awful and are just awful for your health all round. And thats what they make you, all round! Do not even get me started on artificial sweetners, another day I promise.
At this point I started looking elsewhere, I read every book from the Atkins (cream, butter and meat? no veggies? seriously!!), to Gillian Mckeith (who really wants recipes from a lady who pokes around in poo?), I read and enjoyed the French Women Don't Get Fat but I don't really like the french so that did'nt stay with me, I got into the Low GI revolution and that still makes sense and I even went completely vegan with the Skinny Bitches for over 3 years.
You will probably be surprised to know that vegan "diet" was the best of the lot because it was not a "diet". I found that by eating real, healthy, natural, wholegrain foods with tons of veggies and fruit and absolutely no processed rubbish, my weight adjusted for the first time in my life and I finally felt that I could fill my boots, and I felt the best I have ever felt! I was'nt crazy strict about it, if I fancied cheese I had cheese and I always carried on eating fish because I like it and I have never been a massive meat fan so that did'nt bother me one jot, but if I needed a hangover burger, I bloody well had one! I have a huge appetite and I love good food and I actually did not feel as if I was compromising on anything, if anything it made me a better and more imaginitve cook.
I then went to live and travel in France and Italy for a bit and that made it all a bit difficult and I fell back into bad habits, not so bad in Italy but it is pretty much impossible to be vegetarian let alone vegan in France. I then ended up in the land of pasties, fish and chips and ice cream! Otherwise known as Cornwall, where I ended up working in a deli and eventually running it. The one time vegan now has a cheese diploma dont you know! Once again my healthy eating habits wavered as it was part of my job to taste everything we sold, to start with we had on average about 40 cheeses at a time so you can just guess how much other produce there was and what effect it had on my behind! A lovely job it was though and my knowledge of luxury foods is rather good as is my palette.
So that has brought me to here, I still carried on reading about healthy eating but not in the losing weight sense, more for health reasons and life longevity actually but I'm not gonna try and kid you my skinny jeans have nothing to do with it!!
I feel as though I have finally figured it out and that is what I plan to share with you all.
