11th August - Facebook email

The stupendous fact that we stand in the midst of reality will always be something far more wonderful than anything we do. Erich Gutkind

Did you know Ramadan starts today, one of the most holy periods in the Islamic calendar and a time of fasting for Muslims and it continues for 30 days until 9th September.

That means Britain's 1.7 million Muslims will refrain from eating, drinking and sexual contact during daylight, and spend more time in prayer and religious contemplation. Fasting this year will be particularly difficult for British Muslims, for whom daylight fasting means going 18 hours without food. Living in a non-Islamic country will makes fasting very difficult, as working hours remain the same, so they have to continue with their regular tasks.

Think about that for a moment, we struggle with losing weight, cutting down on food, changing what we eat but imagine having to go 18 hours a day, every day for a month without eating, and even worse drinking, and I don’t mean alcohol, I’m sat here with my morning cuppa and I can’t imagine not having it! Very difficult and something I don’t think I could or would be willing to do!

So I plan to eat healthily instead, yesterday went well, I was busy so I popped into the co-op for odds and ends, and bought a little bit of fruit, however I’ve been told Lidl’s is the place to go for cheap fruit so will be venturing there sometime this week!

I also stuck with my eating healthily theme, got back from meeting and opened a tin of hotdogs, after realising how much boiled ham I could have instead I changed my mind and opted for that, this was the easy 10 minute meal I made which contained 2 portions of my five a day;

Creamy Ham Pasta
5½pts per portion, serves 2

120g dried pasta
frozen mixed vegetables
200g wafer thin ham
80g Philadelphia extra light or 25g Philadelphia light soft cheese
chicken oxo cube

Cooked pasta with veg for 10 minutes, crumble chicken oxo cube in approx 200ml boiling water and mix together with soft cheese in a pan whilst warming up on the hob. Drain pasta and veg and mix into sauce with ham.

For my evening meal I had soya mince and onions cooked in taco powder, topped with some low fat grated cheese (which is on offer in the co-op) stuffed inside a pitta bread with lettuce. Very nice for 7 points.

So I didn’t reach my five unfortunately but I did get closer than I have been doing and there’s always today!

Remember life starts NOW.

Are you living yet?!