My journey with clean eating

I haven’t talked about food for a while and I’m sort of, well, desperate to talk about it. I love food. Like, really love it. Especially good food that provides energy, tastes good and doesn’t leave me feeling bloated. I really want to grow old feeling fit and healthy too. There are so many things I want to do, and I’ll need to be fit until I’m 80 – at least. I’m pretty converted to a clean way of eating and over the last couple of years I’ve been on a mission to eat better and to feel better. I’m a very all or nothing person which can be a very good thing, but it also means I give up easily if I feel I’m not getting anywhere. The whole process has been full of ups and downs, but I finally feel like I’ve found a balance.

In the past I’ve gone cold turkey on everything, only to fail miserably a few weeks later and then struggle to find the motivation to start all over again. I’ve heard over and over again that healthy eating needs to be 80/20, but with most things we have to find out for ourselves. I’ve realised that cold turkey doesn’t work for me, and if I eat a couple of biscuits, a slice of toast, some chocolate and go out for a meal within a week, it’s nothing to fret or feel guilty about. Our main meals are almost always completely clean, and I often end up shoving a load of kale and spinach in the food processor before contaminating every possible meal with it.

As usual, I have been reading lots – trying to learn more and get some more ideas. I really, really wanted to like ‘Honestly Healthy’ by Natasha Corrett and ‘I Quite Sugar’ by Sarah Wilson , but I just found that they do not suit family life (or our family life), and seem to lack a ‘down to earth’ approach. They try to, but for me, it doesn’t work. I have also tried a few recipes from ‘I Quit Sugar’ and all of them tasted really bad – which is irritating when the ingredients are expensive. Maybe I was doing something wrong(?), but I’ve reluctantly resold both on Amazon.

The book I am loving at the moment is ‘Hemsley Hemsley’ by Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley. Aside from the book looking gorgeous, the sisters who wrote it, absolutely stunning – the variety of recipes is brilliant and they leave room for experimentation. The ingredients and techniques aren’t too fussy, which is great for me as I don’t like to be too specific about amounts and I live miles away from London. I’ve tried the paradise bars, molten pots and the BB brownies from the (most important) dessert section and all of them were totally divine. Dark chocolate Bounty’s are my favourite chocolate bar and paradise bars are a definite step up. They are so gorgeous.

With ‘Hemsley Hemsley’, ‘Clean and Lean’ by James Duigan and the recipes I have in my head, I feel that my recipe collection is complete. I have enough variety to keep meals tasty and exciting. Jared could honestly eat the same thing every single day but I really can’t and I want the boys to try lots of different foods.

Aside from eating lots of tasty meals, we’ve also being experimenting with bread making – with and without the bread maker. I try to avoid bread but it does come in handy for quick lunches for the boys or to give as a gift, and the bread maker can do more complex gluten free loaves for Jared. Winston and I still enjoy juicing lots and I’ve recently been making proper breakfast smoothies to speed breakfast time up a bit.

Being around Winston has also really helped me too. Children are so good at knowing when they need to eat and him saying the words: “No Mum, I’m not hungry”, or leaving food on his plate has taught me something.

I’ve realised that balance is such a good thing.

I joined Instagram this week and it seems that food and flowers are going to be a major theme!

Now…off to make some more paradise bars…

E xx