Finished but not really
As it’s the first day of February and 31 days of Inspiration is over I really thought I would be stuffing myself full of wheat – toast, cakes, pasta, biscuits. You name it, I thought I’d be eating it - all the wheat heavy treats I have denied myself over the last month with maybe some heavily processed foods to finish it off – Haribo, cheesecake or another sugar heavy pudding. I was going to gorge so it’s slightly surprising that today there isn’t a wheat product in sight. My menu today has been a breakfast of natural yoghurt and plums, lunch smoked haddock and hommous and raw vegetables, dinner (still to come) vegetable curry and my favourite treat from the month a couple of squares of dark chocolate (the good stuff over 70% cocoa). The reason being I’ve decided to carry on with this diet for a while. I really did start this thinking that I wasn’t sure I’d last the month, and while it may work for celebrities I wasn’t sure how realistic it was for normal people with office jobs but, although it’s taken a bit more planning and organisation, I am definitely a convert.
However I don’t really feel like I’ve been on a diet in the traditional sense although I have changed my diet, which I think is the key to my success. As Amelia says (Amelia Freer author of Eat. Nourish. Glow.) it’s not about denying yourself but changing your eating habits, I certainly haven’t been counting calories but more concentrating on eating the right type of foods, shopping smarter and avoiding processed ready meals and gluten. In fact I’ve been starting rather a lot of my sentences ‘Amelia says’ over the last month repeating the sensible advice from her book. I think my colleagues are rather tired of the refrain and I’m a bit worried that I am becoming a diet bore so trying not to talk about it too much.
The results though speak for themselves. Over the last month I’ve cooked lots more meals from scratch, experimented with new ingredients, got a lot of use from the nutribullet and not only do I feel better, both physically and mentally, but I’ve lost quite a lot of weight. Clothes that were getting a bit snug after the Christmas binge are loose again. I also think it’s been easier for me than for people that were doing dry January (judging by what my cousin who was doing it was said). Not that I’ve been drinking loads but nice to have the odd glass of wine or glass of fizz at the weekend. I haven’t been perfect but as Amelia says aim for consistency not perfection and so I’ll be stocking up my cupboards and fridge with more nuts, vegetables, chia seeds and dark chocolate and following the advice from Wheat Belly and Eat. Nourish. Glow. into February.
