Lately

 Lately (as in for quite a while lately) I have seriously been lacking the push to post here. It’s not that I haven’t written posts, I have, but I haven’t posted them just yet. It has felt like my life has really not been about what this blog is about, which is seriously silly because isn’t this blog supposed to be about my life? YES IT IS! And I have MISSED it, oh how I really love to blog! BUT, there have been some changes around here which mean I find myself very busy and short of time to do the things that serious people might deem ‘unnecessary’…like blogging.

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 ;)