However, after a two
week break in France (crochet with a view above!) I got the opportunity to rest
and reset and I’m getting back on track; I’m going to try and come here to meet
you more often again, just with a more varied selection of topics than crafts
(totally feel like I’m cheating on craft saying that sentence)as my life really
is so much more than making in that way.
The biggest change has
been a gradual one, and is in fact the result of one of my new year’s
resolutions; to eat WHATEVER I want! I don’t mean stuff my face with cake until
my body begs for mercy kind of eat whatever I want; I mean eat what I enjoy, not what my children like! I knew
this move would satisfy my adventurous side in the kitchen and that my palette
would sing out of joy from the release of bondage to bland, but I NEVER
expected what has actually happened; my whole family have completely changed
the way they eat and it is SO good!
It all stemmed from
constantly suffering with coughs, colds and generally feeling rubbish and
tired. As a full time Mum to two boys I know it’s just part and parcel of this
job that you get tired but I really felt that something had to change. My
resolution this year to eat whatever I want meant that back in February I began
a journey into looking at what we eat, why we eat it and what it brings to our
life. I love food, don’t diet and really am not interested in weight loss
stuff: Boring! But, I am interested in nutrition, especially the health of my
family; I feel that as a Mum my responsibility to feed my kids well is one of
my primary jobs. When they have control over their own diet then they can eat
whatever they want, but I want to know that I have done my part and cannot be
to blame for poor health or obesity if they go that way when they’re older!!
When I broke down what
we ate it was clear that the bulk of it was empty nutritionally; rice, bread,
pasta…not much to offer compared to a tasty chop salad, or even an avocado or
poached egg! When I looked at the bulk of Little A’s eating it was alarming how
much of it was just rice and oats! Add on to that the kinds of snacks they eat
when out; biscuits, rice cakes, breadsticks…oh. It was clear that we were
missing out.
I’m naturally quite
fussy about what goes into my body, don’t get me wrong, I like a good cake,
cookie or biscuit, but I hate all the additives that are added to food and it
was naturally my next step to cut out all
the stuff that held invisible ingredients; colours, preservatives, sugar syrups
etc. it turns out that there’s a lot of stuff in your cupboard that contains
rubbish. My tiny kitchen feels a lot bigger now that it’s empty of all those
nasties.
‘What DO you eat?’ I
hear you ask! Well, we now eat everything FRESH and REAL; vegetables, meat,
fish, fruit, nuts and seeds. The kids eat small amounts of local wholegrain
bread and oats, but really that’s pretty much all.
I have spent much of
my time experimenting with recipes and figuring out how to make everything from
scratch in the most efficient way possible; I have had some revelations and
some epic failures! I’ll be sharing some great recipes on here as we go,
including lots for kids as I think these are the hardest people to feed!
The results have been
amazing; I have lost a stone in weight without once feeling hungry or like I
was missing out; I have a ton more energy; Little H has branched out and now
requests things like chicken legs and olives in his lunchbox (WOW!!!), Little A
has a love of cauliflower :)…and this is really only the beginning. The real
result has been that I have not had a cold/cough or sniffle since January AND I
got paid the best compliment of my life by a 16 year old; ‘Hayley, you look
really different…’ Me; ‘how?’ Her,
‘er…healthy!’
I’ll take that thank you very much!
How are your new
year’s reasolutions going? People forget to ask after the first couple of
months don’t they? Or is it just that we forget we made them? Keep going if you
have…it might just change your life!
Thanks for stopping
by, see you soon,
Hayley
xx
P.S. Just proof that we do know how to party: tucking into fresh croissants in the french countryside ;)
