Urgh, sunshine, and with it the impending doom of the season that I dread annually. Yeah great, summer. Weddings, swim suits, exposed flesh and body image neuroses ahoy! Yay!
I’m not going to slag off people who are diet obsessed, I myself often think the diet obsessed are ridiculous souls who need to just be sensible, go to the gym and live their bloody lives. Then I catch sight of my side profile in the bedroom mirror, all slumped shoulders and protruding belly flub and off we go- time to sob into my slim-a-soup for a few days before abandoning hope of ever looking anything like the way I think I want to and vow to wear a kaftan forever.
I wont go on, I think pretty much all of us worry about what we eat and how we look at some point and yes, I’m afraid there is a big correlation between the two. I have a dear friend who I talk about all kinds of crap with, but there is also a good amount of diet talk between us. We research, we calorie count, we share tips and we wail when we don’t get the instant result we wanted after three days of low fat no carb salads and Jillian Michaels work outs. Then we have a pizza or too much wine or a Hotel Chocolat accident and wail even more. Then we stand up, tell ourselves to stop being silly and carry on, trying to avoid those pitfalls and treat our bodies right for nine days out of ten.
The one advantage I have, as this friend reminded me when I was having a sulk yesterday, is that I’m a pretty decent cook. Not to mention that I like to cook, which has to go in my favour as it means I can avoid getting stuck in grim, boring cycles that often make people stray from their intended eating patterns. It doesn’t have to be all boiled celery and steamed rice so there will be a new blog section now you’ll find under the ‘The Skinny Thing’ category where I’ll be stashing some recipes, often very simple, that might work with your diet.
I’m not a dietician, I’m not a doctor. I’m not endorsing any diet plans or slating any others, if I know one thing it is that there is no one method which works for everyone. If there was, we would all be exactly as slender or as ripped or as waiflike as we wanted to be. I’m just sharing some recipes that might make your efforts a little bit less of an effort. Diet food doesn’t have to be disappointing in the taste or satiety department. I’ll put notes on what plans I know these meals fit with and calorie counts based on what the My Fitness Pal website tells me. It’s probably not perfect information but I’ll do my best.
Scrambled Eggs n Veg
Meal: Any but a very good breakfast to keep you full for a while
Calories per serving: 400
Prep time: 10 minutes
Plans it suits: South Beach type low carb plans, either free or 3 syns on Slimming World depending on Healthy Option allocation of olive oil.
Heat half a tablespoon of olive oil in a non stick pan then add two sticks of celery (chopped!!). Cook out for a couple of minutes then add one or two chopped mushrooms. Beat three eggs together with about 50ml of 1% milk and a good crack of black pepper. When the mushrooms are just starting to crisp, add the eggs mix and stir constantly with a spatula as the eggs start to cook. Keep cooking it to your liking, usually only a minute or two and try to stop before the eggs become very tight and you can see a the moisture start to separate out into a watery side. Season and serve. Done.
This is a real basic, low carbs, high protien and very happy on the GI meter- to the less diet savvy this means that you will stay full for a good while after this dish. I had this for breakfast this very morning. I’m not a size twelve yet, but I’ve not been climbing the hungry walls either!
Variations- whatever on your veg or use sunflower or vegetable oil if you prefer. I don’t advocate oil spray things as they are full of gross additives, just measure your oil and don’t use too much. Would also work with a handful of fresh spinach leaves or most green leafy veg.
Food. Boom. 