Stop Horsing Around

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am always either just about to start a new diet, or falling of my current diet wagon of choice.  It’s one of my biggest failings in life.  For one reason or another I can’t ever seem to stick at a healthy eating plan, despite the fact that the one thing which would make me happiest in life, would be to shed about four stone.  I put this down to the fact that I love food, and that my body doesn’t seem to realise I am not cut out for low fat regimens, and refuses to give me a higher metabolism. (If I’m being honest this smarts a little.  I only have to look at my slim hands, little feet, and skinny wrists and ankles to know I was not meant to be a chubby girl, but for some reason my body has ignored all the obvious signals and decided to make me a little on the porky side regardless).  Nevertheless though, I do recognise that I’m a convenience eater.  That’s not to say that when I cook properly I take shortcuts – in fact if I’m cooking properly I will only use fresh ingredients and never use processed sauces.  The problem is, I rarely cook “properly”.  I’ve never really been particularly organised about my eating.  I’ve never planned my meals in advance, and have always relied on sandwich shops for lunchtime fixes and quick oven pizzas or filled pastas for dinner.  Because of this, when I’ve chosen to diet it has always revolved around either a food replacement tetra pack milkshake, or a low fat microwaveable ready meal, as they’re quick and easy to make.  To put it bluntly, I’m a lazy dieter, and an even lazier chef.

Now unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last few weeks, you will undoubtedly be aware (and maybe even a little bored by now) of the horse meat scandal.  Now I’m a meat lover, and it’s my personal opinion that it’s absolutely fine to rear animals for meat.  It’s my opinion, and may not be to everyone’s taste, but I believe that as a species we’re predisposed to want to eat meat, and I’m no different to many others to harbor this desire for meat.  What I’m not happy about though, is someone telling me that I’m eating a certain type of meat, and then sneaking another type into my dinner.  If I ordered steak in a restaurant and the waiter delivered a penguin to my table, claiming it was in fact steak, I would be rather aggrieved.  Not just because I’m a big fan of Happy Feet but because as far as I’m aware, Pingu and his chums haven’t been bred for the human food chain.  I’m sure that if I was hungry enough, I’d not only eat a penguin, but I’d happily pluck him and gut him and whatever other smelly/yucky stuff my local abattoir does on my behalf, but it’s really not the point.  I’d only do it under dire life or death circumstances.  In my normal day to day life, I want to know that the meat on my plate is what I think it is, that it has been bred responsibly, with the human food chain in mind.  This way I know the poor sod hasn’t had an unhappy (albeit maybe a little short) existence before landing on my plate, and if he’s ever been treated for illness, it’s been with drugs that won’t have a lasting effect on those who then come to nibble on him later down the line.

My biggest problem with this whole scandal is that I simply can’t trust processed foods or the supermarkets that sell them any more.  In fact I’ve been losing faith with the supermarkets for some time now, so much so that I decided to turn to my local market as an alternative.  Nuneaton is a market town, with the main market open on a Saturday and a slightly smaller market on a Wednesday.  I took a trip to the fruit and veg stall this Saturday, and managed picked up a mixture of potatoes, carrots, parsnip, leeks, a head of lettuce and a bunch of bananas for £1.94.  The same shop in Asda or Tesco (online) costs between £3.64 and £4.02!  The most annoying thing though is that the quality of the fruit and veg on the market is far superior to the supermarkets and they’re charging me half the price.  I also took a trip to Bostock’s butchers in the town centre, and for just over £5.00 came away with a large chicken leg, and enough mince to feed three people.  In Tesco the mince alone would have cost me £4.00 and I can’t even be one hundred percent sure it’s even beef!  The butchers source all of their meat from local breeders and can tell you the history of every cut of meat on their counter.  Plus the fruit and veg are sourced from local farms as well.  They’re fresh, tasty and....well they’re cheaper.  It seems ridiculous that it’s taken me so long to realise that with a little more effort on my part, I can walk from one end of the market picking up cleaning supplies and toiletries, to the other, for my meat, fish and vegetables and save myself a fortune on the way.

The other bonus (which really struck me in the butchers) is that when you’re buying like this, you can actually pick and choose what and how much you want.  As I looked at the chicken legs in the chiller display, I marvelled over the fact that I could buy just one.  I’m a single girl, and I don’t need to buy packs of chicken legs in fours.  I mean, how many chickens have you even seen with four legs anyway?  I just want one...one chicken leg.  The savings I can make on the basis that I won’t be wasting meat over the course of a year are substantial.  I feel quite passionately that everyone living on a budget should try shopping with local independent stalls and shops and see what a difference it makes.  If the horse meat debacle has taught me anything, it’s that these large superstores have lost touch with their supply chain, and if they can allow horse meat to make it into our beef lasagnes, then what else could we have unknowingly consumed or imbibed?  I for one will be supporting my local market, independent stores and family butchers going forward, and I hope many of you will join me.  Trust is quickly lost and not easily regained.  Plus, who knows...if I’m not wandering past an aisle dedicated to biscuits and confectionery each time I go shopping...maybe I’ll actually manage to stay on my diet!

Mother's Ruin

I’m not a religious person.  I went to catholic schools and was raised in the faith, but I wouldn’t say I particularly follow any of the religious teachings and I’m eternally undecided about the afterlife.  I understand that people of faith enjoy having it, and I would never say they were wrong, just as I’d never say that atheists were wrong.  I don’t know.  I’ve never had a profound religious experience, and I’ve also never died, so I don’t know what happens after we peg it.  Lent however is a weird tradition I always seem to get sucked into.  Not because of the religious connotations but because it’s kind of a second chance for me to put my failed new year’s resolutions back on the table, and have another stab at them.  This year I have decided to give up red wine.  Wine in general is my tipple of choice, but red wine is pretty much my vice.  There’s something about coming home after a long day, opening a bottle of full bodied red, and slowly mellowing into your evening.  There’s also something deeply comforting about the light haze you develop after a couple of glasses that means when it’s time for bed sleep comes easily. 

A girlie night at Jonesy’s last night saw me on the gin and tonic’s instead of my usual Merlot, and the first thing I noticed was that by drinking spirits, it took me a lot longer to get drunk than I usually would.  Given that I was drinking the gin with mixers, I also stayed relatively hydrated, so this morning’s hangover was...well it wasn’t.  I didn’t feel particularly rough, I had no headache or nausea.  I felt tired, but I’d been up until 1am, so that was understandable.  Could it be that switching to the spirits really is the best option for me?  Wine in all its variations has always given me heartburn, so for any night out when I know I’m going to be consuming a lot of alcohol, I always make sure I’m prepared by carrying antacid with me.  Last night was no different, however I never needed to break them out.  I wasn’t affected by heartburn at all.  Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think my body is exactly thanking me for plying it full of gin last night, but it does seem to at least appreciate the fact that I didn’t drink wine.  All the usual post-drinking side effects and ailments have not made an appearance, and this has got to be my body giving me a silent nod of gratitude.

Now having dieted A LOT over the last ten years, I know that most healthy eating plans would always recommend spirits over beer and wine, due to the fact that spirits are made up of far less “empty calories”, due them containing less sugar.  I’ve always drank wine because I think it’s more ladylike than beers or alcopops, but a G&T or a Vodka and diet coke is definitely still a demure drink.  Granted gin is nicknamed “Mother’s Ruin” due to the fact that in 18^th Century London, gin became the opium of the people because of how cheaply it could be produced.  Gin joints became the first places where women and men could drink together, and many believed this led women to neglect their children, and turn to prostitution in order to be able to buy more.  Hmmm..okay well maybe it’s not that ladylike or demure (!!)

The biggest seller for me on the whole spirits front however, is that I don’t actually think I drink as much of them as I do wine.  I tend to drink a bottle of wine quite happily, and also, I could quite happily do this every night of the week.  On gin or vodka I’d only have two to three glasses in the same period of time, for far less calories than the wine.  When I write all of this down, two things strike me.  One, is that I’m clearly a borderline alcoholic, and two, that the majority of my calorie mistakes and dieting failures come from booze.  Perhaps I should revise my lent promise for the remaining thirty six days and thirty six nights, to include white and rosé too?  Well...let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but it’s certainly something to think on!