Look, I’m eating healthily – what’s the problem?

….. On the road to a newer, fitter me

When I became a vegetarian some 25 years ago, it was easy.  I never had a penchant for animals (apart from playing with them as a pet) and I certainly didn’t crave the pulsating slab of cow I was once served at a restaurant. It was made easier by the fact that people were sympathetic to my reasoning.  Don’t get me wrong I am not one of those vegetarians who scowls when entering the carvery and I definitely don’t want other people to agree with, or necessarily accept, my way of eating. But people did.  Even now, when I mention that I don’t eat meat acquaintances effusively go into detail about how much less of a carnivore they are now compared to 10 years ago and that if it weren’t for the sublime tastiness of Danish bacon then they would definitely be a herbivore.

So why is it that when I mention  that I am ‘cutting down’ and trying to chuck out the fat, sugar and salt from my diet that friends and family start forcing chocolate cake down my throat?

 “A small piece won’t hurt, will it?”

Or the favourite:-

“Don’t let me eat this on my own!”

As if I’m doing someone a favour by eating this stuff! 

The reasons for giving this stuff up, or at least drastically cutting down on it, are just as respectable as vegetarianism but, apparently, not as acceptable. The Jo Brand approach currently wins out in any debate on eating habits and, whilst I love Jo, I do not believe that she eats no fruit. Come on, people, it is safe to come out of the closet and admit to healthy eating.  The more of you who are out there, the easier it is for people like me to adhere to my new diet regime. There you go; put your nose out the keyhole and your toe through the door - you could be preventing me from living a much longer (happier?) life.

My 10 Point Plan Towards a New Me

Me now

Growing Old Disgracefully? Not Me!

My 10 Point Plan

1.     For the only bat wings I own to belong to my favourite new jumper and not as a description of my upper arms.

2.    For the only craters and crevices I see are when I look at the moon from my son’s telescope and not in the mirror.

3.    For the only spare tyre around my middle to be from a push bike and not a Pirelli tractor wheel.

4.    For my teeth to shine white in the dark and not to loom yellow through the smog. (Eugh! Even I think this is too much.)

5.    For my bones to scream joyously when I move and not to creak eerily like a sunken ship.

6.    For my feet to welcome high heels and not utter a huge sigh of relief when I get out the crocs.

7.    For my hair to bounce energetically around my neck and not hang disappointingly beneath my ears.

8.    For the grey to cease breeding on my head.

9.    For my skin to shine.

10.  For my eyes to be sharp enough to watch the pigs fly past my window tonight.

How I will look in a few months time....hopefully!

We Love you, Jamie O

We

   You, Jamie!

I was never really a Jamie fan. The “gercha” and “lovely jubbly” approach was a far cry from the more refined Nigella and encyclopedic knowledge of the legend that is Delia and it was the latter I was used to. I honed my (extremely basic) culinary skills using Delia’s ‘How to Cook’ texts and by listening to the honeyed tones of Ms Lawson.  I would be prone to turn the TV over on hearing the juvenile sound of “bish, bash, bosh.”

Not so now. The young, fresh-faced Jamie O has now blossomed into the foodie freedom fighter with the determination of a half-starved rotweiler giving us gems like ‘Jamie’s School Dinners’ and fighting the good fight for our children to get nutritious and delicious meals at school.

My own experience of how schools approach food, along with my children’s, leaves a lot to be desired.  Rather than instilling a passion for all things healthy and a longingness to get into the kitchen and get prepping, I got the feeling that it was merely a way of filling an hour whilst giving children what they want i.e. cakes and sugar-infused pies. I am sure this isn’t the case with schools now, at least I hope not, but when I and my children attended primary school our first experience of ‘cooking’ there was making rice crispy cakes. Never mind, I thought, it will be different at high school. Okay, fruit did feature on the menu.  In fact my daughter’s first cookery lesson at high school was fruit salad….and they were allowed to use tinned fruit! It got worse.  When gathering the ingredients for her first apple pie I helpfully suggested she could take some windfalls off our tree. Unfortunately not. The teacher had requested them to take a jar of fruit pie filler because they wouldn’t have time to prep the fruit in lesson time! Seriously, I’m not making this up. I have similar stories from my sons. 

What Jamie has given us is like a breath of fresh air. We want children to be equipped for life when they leave home and this includes cooking healthy, easy, nutritious meals. I have made it a personal ambition of mine to instil this on my own three offspring and, now they are all teenagers, I have a rota for the evening meal.  Granted, my youngest two have a repertoire of only two main meals at the moment but we are building on this. Why can’t schools support this too instead on insisting on going for the ‘safe’ cake options? (In fact there are some very easy meals children need to practice and hone before going out into the big wide world.) Schools can’t on the one hand promote healthy eating by joining Change4Life and on the other allow children to stuff themselves with sugary fat-filled foods. They need to fully embrace what a healthy diet is and looks like and lead by example.  Maybe then we can start addressing the huge problem of childhood obesity in this country.