Chocolate cake the confession.

Last week we had a birthday in the family and in fact I have to go back to last month when my ma turned 75. What a celebration and we all found our selves at Bacchus in the company of one of Sonia's amazing chocolate cakes stacked high, delivered perching on Victorian glass and topped with exotic birds and fruit, minus the birds of course see picture . . .mmmmmm.

So being a resourceful kinda gal I had a go at making one myself. Well I actually made two, the first one being a rather dull flat buscuit like slab. I am however lucky enough to have my restaurantier friend on speed dial and the solution to tall glossy deep chocolate cake was imparted. To my delight a second attempt produced a quite delectable stack of chocolate delightfulness.

 In all my chocolate endeavours I failed to collect the said exotic fruit. Those little wrapped cumqot guys we're calling out to me in the fruit isle and I even saw a guy at the checkout with the oddest shopping for a builder in boots, it included several exotic fruit choices and I must say I had a long moment staring at the box thinking I really must find a reason to buy picturesque fruit.

However I did have frozen strawberries.

So next came the eating. It actually took a while to get the family to view my masterpiece and on suggesting we cut the cake there was a minor departure from proceedings to find some car keys or something. On request, my child stepped forward to yield a slice and a mighty slice it was too, but i must say that I very much intended to tell you about how much of it I ate.

The rest maybe !

Well all most, each day for three or four days I had a slice for breakfast .

Breakfast !? think French brioche or pain au chocolat, I felt it fitted with coffee and pleasentries. I also ate it alone. Now I could be tempted to winge and stress that there really should have been more group interest in my cake but perhaps people are more health conscious and sereptitious that you know. For example should this actually have been served up by any pal of mine out side of the restaurant I think I too would have been able to resist. Which does beg the question, if someone baked you a cake, do you have to eat it ?

I baked a cake and I had to eat it, or bin it.

I could've binned and in the future I might because during my months of carefully keeping a hot look out for all trace of sugar and eleminating it from my diet something extraordinary actually happened and I urge you to see through low low low sugar intake to virtually non because two very noticeable things happen very quickly.

One, you will have more energy. Almost immediately that you allow your body to detress from sugar regulation you will find there there is an energy reserve available. This is in line with the theory that over eating and eating high carb bread pasta or other sugar concentrates can be regarded as putting your body under stress. It is an acknowledgement that is easy to understand, you just don't need these foodstuffs. CAKE and biscuits bla bla bla you know the stuff, boxed cereal etc. maybe you can read this and think, I don't eat that stuff, maybe not, but look at sugar content in your range of foods. 

Two, everything tastes different. The tiniest amount of salt is detectable and you can quickly and happily enjoy mild plain sugar and salt free simple food. You will also be able to enjoy food in small quantities partly due to not having a craving rush for the flavour of sugar and salt, the eating is not related to requirement more an indulgence when we reach and feed our salt or sugar urge. We can pass over sugar and even spices and all things nice ?

All things nice, think plants, yes think leaves but also think mild, like cucumber, tomato and fresh sweet romaine.

More about stimulating spices another day.

I  realised I could not walk the dog far on chocolate cake but I could run the following week when I was back to mainly living on salad and gave up coffee once again.

More on coffee another day.

They say different combination of days on and off when approaching diet changes but in reality I like to simply look at it as a lifetime of information and careful consideration of what when and why. Chocolate cake, you see fits a celebration but is not a daily requirement. 

Home made chilli sauce.

Out with the fun that other people have and in with some fun of my own.

Shopping list : Chillies, oil, tomato purée. That'll be enough for my first effort.

I always add sugar and salt to tomato concentrates as they seem bitter but I do find that my own blended fresh tomato is sweet enough and there is no need to add anything. This is another kitchen experiment. I shall be making several batches, man food, kid food and my own secret health and beauty procoction. 

Fresh fine and clean. 

Well . . Shake those ears.

I dont normally do this type of thing but this week I am a dog owner. If it's just for a week that makes me one doggy holiday. This is more true. He is cute enough but I actually do see this as an opportunity to mark out a few weeks as different from my normal routine.

You may well come to know more about my average day as this story unfolds but I would like to say that I do actually enjoy my days. I believe there is a strong desire to enjoy a day inside most people. If for any reason you are just hating the day you are in right now you really do need to look deep into your heart and know there is someone ready to help. There may be a cue but get in it. Stick your hand up hold your head up and get help. Seek information.

Ah I worry too much so back to the stress free day that allows my heart rate to lower and my horizon to broaden and my breathing to soften and my hand to get out the biscuit tin.

I've got this thing for rice cakes at the moment, I did the soak test. This is the teats where by I drop a buscuit into water and try to decide a few moments later whether I would want to have eaten that and have all this goo sugar and stuff inside trying to digest it. Sounds a bit bonkers but in a way it's the break and wait test. This is where I am trying to think before you sink the snack. Do I really need it or am I taking a break. Does food have to be part of theat break.

The rice crakers passed the soak test, they looked quite good, like rice and water. Ok then. Shame really cos now I am eating a lot of them. But the good thing is it is not sliced bread. Put that in the dunk test and see if you believe it could be doing you any good.

Yes so, I've given up bread but mainly I've given up sugar. I have taken up walking and running a bit and then walking a bit more. It's not a drastic effort but it is working along side being aware and keen to eat basic food and not to get complicated heavy meals holding me back. My little doggy is a revelation he eats first thing in the morning and again at 5pm. I offer him doggy lunch but he is not too worried. 

We work through lunch. I am all for a caring and considered breakfast and I don't nessessarily do this first thing. I go for good breaky intake between 9 and 10 and then I like to get more in around 2 or 3 pm. Perfect for giving up lunch and taking a walk or taking on work or wondering what the heck life would be like if I got to be that somebody else.

Live Love Learn Blog

Damn, I was young.

Ever since I was younger I wished I was something, and now i am what I am. Wife, mother, business hopeful, I am a candlestick dressmaker.

I am from now on calling myself a "local artisan" as I have seen this week the title being bestowed upon those that might whip up a handmade lotion or potion, cook, mend or design something, help out, make it, create something. I wanted "Atelier"  above my shop door and I may one day find a use for that or else, what am i not?

I have always felt I had a grand plan that included everyone. My business ideas where very broad in the target audience and needed a wide spread change of direction and idealism from so many people that it was very hard to get anyone to see what it was that I very much wanted everyone to profit from.

I think now they refer to these things as community projects but I was a child of the eighties, back then it we were introduced to the idea of widespread gain. I could have predicted the banking crisis and if in 1992 everyone had listened to my hotch potch theory of freezing out bank statements and moved onto a Barclaycard amnesty, well, the world might have seen me as a major player in world peace.

I have a mixed ideology but i have already digressed.

This blog is about health.

My pal and I discuss our separate lives for many a long hour from my coastal life to hers in London.

We have known each other for over 30 years and we are reaching the age of honesty and we have one question. . .

What is the best thing to do now? For health, for life, for love, for fun, for money, but mostly for health and my own confession for beauty, a well felt beauty.

I love the new revelation that one can not be thin and stressed. The body has a survival mechanism and one major factor to stress is to pile on a few pounds.
If the body is not technically saving fat and producing more fat cells to protect us from the real or imagined oncoming disaster it may at least be refusing to give up some extra padding while we worry and procrastinate about whatever tomorrow brings and what today has bought.

I feel in my heart of hearts that as I have kept my day to day life simple and more simple the years have passed by without my body feeling really able to relax and remain slight, slim or svelte, rather it has by way of me being by mind somewhat removed from my. . .self that my body became what it is.

I have hope, I am recognised as an "athletic" build, I was that tiny skinny girl that had heard the phrase "snap back" mentioned for the process of loosing weight after having a baby. My boy is approaching 10 and I am approaching an new element of understanding when it comes to wellbeing and what this really means to my contemporary lifestyle in the UK.

We are lucky and what is more, more lucky we will be, but luck does not really come into it as here I hope to share, the real power is knowledge, understood , discussed and shared.

My girl pal in the city has a very different life, she works hard and she lives with stress and love, and a job, a house, car and the trains. She has been my pal for many years, we share star signs as our birthday is a day apart, with this blog we confess, we worry, we find solutions and we will celebrate.