Way Back When


On this new blog I will try to post my current weight and fat% every day, together my my daily food consumption. Sometimes I may choose to ramble on about something relevant (even if only tenuously relevant).

I was thinking the other day about my eating habits back in my late teens and early to mid twenties. As a child, of course I was taught about the vitamins, and fat, protein and carbohydrate. I knew their roles vaguely but nobody ever stressed the importance of nutrition or the effect it has on your health, beneficial or otherwise.

By my late teens I was working. Nobody was cooking me a main meal at home, so I used to grab a salad sandwich (I really do mean: white bread, cucumber and tomato-that's it) and revel in the fact that, since the only thing I'd had for lunch was a mug of hot chocolate (for energy), I should be really nice and skinny soon. In fact, I only weighed about 7st as it was. There were days when I just could not be bothered to stand up, I was so lacking in energy and I remember wondering why I'd feel so drained all the time. Surely I wasn't supposed to live my life feeling so terrible? I honestly did not know it was due to my eating habits.

The years passed and I bought a house and became interested in cooking more than hot chocolate and my eating improved slightly, though in a erratic manner. My weight was always around 7.5 st in my mid twenties.

Then I picked up a book called "Food-Your Miracle Medicine", by Jean Carper and it was an epiphany for me. As I turned the pages I couldn't believe what I was reading, and how exciting it was - that food could have such a curative effect on the body, and affect your hormones, physical and mental health, ageing, and the list goes on. From that day on I was much more aware of the food I ate and how lacking my nutrition had been for years. It's a subject I still find fascinating.

Now I sometimes wonder at how I treated my body. After all, what can be more important than good health? And it's a fact that everything we do over the years has a cumulative effect on our bodies, so who knows how much harm is done through the failure to educate children properly.

Disclaimer: Sometimes, when I'm feeling a bit devil-may-care, I will eat crappy food for a few weeks (I mean that as well as the good food, I'll eat biscuits, vanilla ice-cream, crisps, buttered toast with jam etc) , knowing all the time how bad it is for me. But the good always wins over in the end.

I started to learn anatomy and physiology a few years ago, so I could go on to learn nutrition and
one day be a clinical nutritionist but I have no willpower when it comes to home-study and gave-in (my OH still reminds me, as it cost A LOT).

• shredded wheat with a small amount of full-fat milk
• walnuts
• raw spinach, ham, houmous, cucumber, tomatoes, olives
• 2 cups of black coffee
• 4 pints of water
• naturally-dried apricots
• adzuki bean chilli (adzuki beans, red pepper, carrots, stock, tomatoes, tomato puree, onions, garlic, cumin, coriander, chilli powder) and brown rice with rocket

weight today 8st 11 (123lbs)
Fat 29%

Suddenly my fat percentage is 29%, and not 30%. My previous 30% reading must have been borderline with 29% and not 31% as I'd assumed.

BTW There may not be any exercise for a couple of days, since my inner-thighs, front and back of thigh, chest, arms etc...are ACHING LIKE CRAZY from my Davina workout. I only did two thirds of each exercise, trying to avoid too much aching. Ha! After a few times I'll be able to do it more often. But I'll start off slowly.