Day 14 – 21, erm, what happened to the week?!

So I started playing FFXIV again, and a whole week passes in a blur with no blog posts! No, I haven’t stopped the Whole30 programme, yes I’ve maintained it without a slip, though a very near miss when I bought some baby sweetcorn to add to a stir fry.

I’ve passed the 3 week mark on this marathon journey to completely change my diet. What have I learnt? The absolute joy of simple food. Lasagne, Moussaka, Chicken Tikka Masala, Sweet and Sour Pork with all the sundries are nice and everything, but having a lamb or beef steak fried so its still a little pink in the middle with a bowl of spinach wilted with garlic, mushrooms and onions is really heavenly. I think my palate has completely change during this process, meat always had to  be covered in a sauce, generally something sweet like Tomato Ketchup or gravy rather than enjoy it for itself.

Salt is a seasoning! Most of the ready meals I have eaten post this diet have been ladened with salt, so I have never used it as a seasoning (except chips of course). It is not something I would typically add to any meal. However, now, adding a sprinkling onto veg, or as part of a meat rub really brings the flavour out.

I’ve experimented with ingredients I haven’t used before. An example is coconut milk. I made a very simple curry, by slow cooking some lamb with chillies and garam masala in coconut milk. After 2 hours, I had a nice thick creamy sauce, not too spicy, and the lamb just dissolved. Absolutely dreamy.

The range of vegetables available have surprised me, I’ve moved away from the root vegetables which I started this process on and towards more fresh greens, runner peas, sugar snap peas, broccoli, spinach and kale. Cooking vegetable regulars in different ways for example cauliflower rice is a really nice way to serve this veg.

I just hope that as i come off the diet that I will maintain these good habits. For the first time in a long time I am actually eating at least 5 portions of veg a day. I have found cook really easy and fun to achieve.

I don’t seem to be following the time table posted on the whole 30 website. I can’t say that I feel more energetic. However, I do feel the only way i can put it, is more healthy (placebo effect? Maybe). I have definitely lost weight my clothes feel less tight. They say that this last week coming up can be quite hard for the simple fact that food boredom starts to take a toll. To this end i’ve got a few vegetables i still want to try. I’ve never cook pak choi. I would also like to try stuffing peppers and aubergines. These things i have to look forward to this coming week

Day 12 and day 13

I’m getting distracted by final fantasy online, so my blog isn’t being updated as regularly as it should be. Sunday was the perfect morning nice breakfast with sweet potato hash, 2 fried eggs and a lovely pot of mint tea, followed by some lively political debate with Question Time. Following a walk with the dog it was lunch time which was some prosciutto ham salad and then it was time for the rugby. After a disappointing Scotland performance, I was looking forward to the England vs Ireland game. It really was the best game of the weekend, just a shame England couldn’t follow through on their break through. Congrats Ireland!

Dinner was a roasted chicken with roasted parsnips and carrots. I really love parsnips, such great comfort food and a wonderful accompaniment to a roast dinner.

Day 13, Yet another Monday.

One of my favourite songs is “I don’t like Mondays” by the Boomtown rats. I like this song because its how I always feel on waking up on a Monday morning!

Breakfast was more eggs with sweet potato hash containing carrots and parsnips, and was made nice and spicy with chilli and garlic and 2 fried eggs. A really quite yummy and filling breakfast.

Lunch was left over of the sweet potato hash from breakfast and the roast chicken. This would of been much more enjoyable if a colleague wasn’t eating dauphinoise potatoes with a creamy chicken and mushroom stew. I actually salivated while staring at his food. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a strong pavlovian response before! So the cravings for cream and cheese are still there. I must resist!

Dinner was a pork chop with steamed spinach. I needed something really tasty so I could stop visualising the dauphinoise potatoes. For some bizarre reason, I really like spinach, its something I just can’t get enough of and is always something I always have as a side dish when going to an Indian restaurant.

Tomorow is the 2 week mark on this journey!

Food plan for 3rd march

Breakfast
Omelette with mushrooms, onion and a beef tomato.

Lunch
Salad with mushrooms, peppers, spring onions, radishes, gtrapes and left over roast chicken

Dinner

Steak with streamed cauliflower and broccoli.

Day 11, the perfect day of rest.

Saturday, woke up in much better spirits than when I went to bed. Breakfast was sauteed spinach with grilled pineapple and fried eggs. I took the dog for a very long walk out in Crystal Palace Park, this is a beautiful park in Southeast London and the subject of an upcoming post. Today was very much an eating left overs day, so for lunch I had prosciutto ham, with pineapple, apple and pears.

After a disappointing match of Rugby, Scotland lost to Italy, which means they will probably get the wooden spoon. I got my dinner, which was red cabbage sauteed with mushrooms, onions, chilli and garlic and smoked salmon. This was seriously tasty and hit the spot just right.

Food plan 1st March

Breakfast

Sweet potato Hash with fried eggs

Lunch

Salad with ham

Dinner

Roast Chicken, roast parsnips and carrots

Day 10, thank goodness the weekend is finally here!

This could also of been titled, look at all those pretty cakes. Today was hard, really hard. My lunch was just uninspiring and didn’t interest me as I ate it. The cakes in the canteen that I walked past just whispered to me and then when I was food shopping I kept salivating while walking past all the sweet stuff, which is so handily placed right near the till… Even worse, by the time it hit going home time I was completely drained. Taking the dog out for his evening walk was really hard, but I’ve survived and I’ll live through it. The dinner was nice, I’m becoming very fond of spinach, I also had the left over pork chop, chopped up prosciutto ham and a fried egg.

However, the weekend is here, and I have Scotland vs Italy to look forward to watching on the Rugby. I really want to try making those Prosciutto wrapped mini frittata muffins, I also need to make more sausages for breakfasts, tomato sauces as I’ve run out of condiments, and roast a chicken so I can get some chicken stock! So busy cooking weekend, as well as other chores I need to get finished as well.

Day 11/12 according to the timeline are the typical days when people start dropping out of the diet. At the moment I can understand that, but I will continue on!

Food plan 28th February

Breakfast

Spinach, fried pineapple, sausages, egg.

Lunch

Pineapple, grapes, carrots with prosciutto ham

Dinner

Cabbage, carrots and smoked salmon.

Freakanomics

My commute to work is stupidly long, so I need things to entertsin myself with. To this end I listen to a lot of podcasts and audible books. One of these podcasts that I am going to champion is Freakanomics. This is an econmics podcast, but really don’t let that put you off. The topics cover a huge range of things, but the reason I’m writing about it today is the recent two programmes that I found absolutely fascinating and wanted to share with people.

Last week was with Jim Yong Kim, the current head of the World Bank and this week’s was with Rory Sutherland. Both of the talks discussed behavioural psychology and behavioural economics. The understanding of how the mind reacts to things, and utilising that knowledge to enhance advertising is a scary reality, that we live in today. Rory Sutherland is currently the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy group, one of the largest advertising agencies. He runs a group called Ogilvy Change which utilises reasearch in the field of behavioural psychology in advertising.

I also thoroughly recommend watching the TEDx talk.

and a similar video discussing the art of persuasion.

Both of these talks, and the youtube videos have triggered my interest in this subject and to that end I recently bought  “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman. (Something to occupy my mind with during the commute!).

Anyhew, have a listen to Freakanomics, its definitely one of my favourite podcasts!

Day 9, so that’s Kale?

Not sure what I was on yesterday, but it so wasn’t a Monday. Anyhew, Day 9, I was in the cafe, getting a tea (I so need to take my mint tea into work, the green tea they served really wasn’t very nice), and there were cakes and biscuits. As a colleague pointed out to me, I was eyeing them like I’d never seen such things before. Out of sight, out of mind is definitely a mantra to take up. I didn’t succumb, but I was quite surprised at how much I could actually taste them while looking.

For dinner I have finally tried Kale, sauteed with some garlic and a couple of pork chops. I’ve often seen Kale at the supermarket, I’ve heard TV shows talk about it and read about it. There seems to be a lot of hype around kale, and it seems to be marketed as this super food, that if you want to be healthy you must eat! In the end for me, it comes down to, it’s better than aubergine, but not as good as spinach. I feel a little let down it was a divine and heavenly experience. I’ll definitely be having it again though.

Food plan 27th February

Breakfast

Sausages on a bed of spinach with some pineapple

Lunch

Salad, radishes, mushrooms, spring onions, carrots, lots of smoked salmon and prosciutto.

Dinner

Pork chops with Kale again

Day 8, the Monday blues.

Ugh, Monday morning, 5:45am, do I really have to get up? Do I really have to go to work? Queue dog deciding its time for me to get up and take him on a walk with a judicious paw planted in my face. I’m sure he thinks he’s a cat sometimes!

New discovery today, a plate of wilted spinach, seasoned with garlic and salt and pepper is actually really, really nice! Add in a lovely tomato and some home made sausages, courtesy of Primal Palate, and you have a breakfast of champions! Well a breakfast with no eggs in sight at least.

Lunch was left over steak with a mountain of cabbage, and dinner was a lovely chilli with cauliflower rice and steamed broccoli.

Food plan 29th February

Breakfast

Spinach and Breakfast sausage, need to use both of these ingredients up

Lunch

Left over meal from tonight, chilli with cauliflower rice and steamed broccoli

Dinner

Pork chop, Kale and carrots – I’ve never had kale, I’m really curious as to what it is like

Day 7, a week of the Whole 30 plan.

This whole thing started with a desire to reset my relationship with food. I like sugar, there is no getting away from that. Cakes, chocolate, Oreos, bread, cheese, all were staples of my diet. My fruit and veg intake was on the low side. I had done weightwatchers, and fairly successfully, but fallen off the wagon and regained all the weight I had lost. So I wanted to try something different. The Whole 30 plan was suggested to me. No dairy, no added sugar and no wheat, I don’t think I’ve ever gone through a day without having at all of them.

There is a timeline for effects of the diet. Day 2-3: “Many Whole30ers report headaches, fatigue, and general malaise during this part of the program.”. I’ve not actually felt this, one possibility could be that I’ve been eating a lot of sweet potatoes, root vegetables, butternut squash and not really lowered my carb levels. I’ve now gotten quite fed up with the taste of sweet potato so maybe I will enter this phase fairly soon? Day 4-5, “Kill All things!” Hmm, general grumpiness and irritability. Again this is not something I have noticed as of yet.

The things I have learnt from this is that I quite enjoy cooking. I’m not an excellent cook, my lack of smell really limits what I can do, but I enjoy the finding of new things. Trying new recipes, cooking with ingredients I haven’t before. This has definitely been an exploration. It is hitting its goal of making me think about food.

Food plan February 25th

Breakfast

Lamb sausages with spinach and tomato – I made some Lamb sausages out of lamb mince and spices, finally a non-egg based breakfast!

Lunch

Left over steak with sauteed cabbage

Dinner

Chiili Beef with cauliflower rice and steamed brocolli

Day 6, Cauliflower as rice? what?!

Ugh, work day. Alarm blaring at silly o’clock in the morning. Time for a new day, and another omelette. I do need to find alternatives for breakfast, not sure I can go the whole 30 days eating eggs for breakfast everyday. The omelette was yummy though, fried a mushroom and some shredded spinach and then added the egg. Topped with a little home made tomato relish and the day was set.

Today was just busy, a hurriedly grabbed lunch and back up to work. The salad hit the spot though and filled me up, even though the canteen was serving crumble I didn’t cave and get a portion. Will power and drive still functioning then, because if anything is going to knock me off course, its going to be a fruit crumble of some sort with custard!

Dinner was cauliflower rice with the final portion of the chicken stew. Apparently grated cauliflower can act as a sort of rice substitute. I duly fried some onions, mushroom, chilli and garlic, added the grated cauliflower and waited until the cauliflower turned golden. Cauliflower, to me, doesn’t really have much of a taste which is probably the reason I adore it with cheese sauce. Having it served by this method really was an interesting texture, and the onions, chilli and garlic really packed it with flavour.

Tomorrow is Day 7, a full week of eating on a whole30 plan diet. I’ll post some of my thoughts on how it is going tomorrow!

Food plan 24th February

Breakfast

Omelette – spinach and mushrooms,. yesterdays was so tasty I want to repeat it.

Lunch

Salad – pretty much a repeat of yesterdays with the spicy tuna cakes and assorted salad items

Dinner

Mexican Beef with sauteed red cabbage with onions, garlic and anchovy.

Day 5, rain rain go away!

Sunday, usually it’s a day of Question time with breakfast followed by a long walk with the dog. Or in the case of today, watching more Sword Art Online while staring out the window at the horizontal rain and going do I really have to?

The attempt at scrambled eggs went much better. I followed a YouTube video and they came our really nice. I had them with a dollop of the tomato sauce I cooked up before breakfast. The sauce was actually quite nice, not as sweet as Tommy ketchup, even though I tried adding the flesh of a couple of roasted red peppers. I was also a little heavy handed with the chilli flakes so it had a very nice kick. However, it fills the condiment role very nicely!

Fluffy scrambled eggs with thick tomato relish

I don’t mind walking in the rain if it isn’t that cold, however today was truly miserable. Even Zen, the dog that always wants to go for a walk, stood in the doorway considering his options and had to be coaxed out. Needless to say, when I got back in I was cold, damp and a bit grumpy.

With lunchtime fast approaching, I decided to try making some of the spicy tuna cakes.

Spicy tuna cakes minus the cooks share!

These were quite nice, but I didn’t want to add both fresh chillies and chilli flakes to them, so I skipped the fresh chilli. This in hindsight was a mistake. I personally found them overpoweringly tasting of sweet potato, I think the extra chilli would of hopefully cut through the sweetness, thus improved them quite a bit. I’m also tempted to change the fish for Mackerel, I did mention I like strong flavours right?

Dinner was more of the chicken stew (I’ve renamed it from the Doro Wat as it really wasn’t that), with a sweet potato mash and roasted pepper. I’m starting to get a little fed up of sweet potato as a filler, and need to start adding some other things to the menu.

Food plan 23rd February

Breakfast

Omelette with spinach and mushrooms

Lunch

Spicy tuna cakes with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, boiled eggs, cashew nuts, mushroom, prosciutto ham.

Dinner

Chicken stew, cauliflower rice (you can turn cauliflower into rice like substance?!)