It's all nuts (or is it, maybe it's seeds)

Thursday 10th September 2020
Focus on the solution not the problem

Lot's of talking on the phone yesterday, a zoom call followed by my workshop, I honestly don't know where the day went!  It went that quick I missed a meal!  I enjoyed eggs and avocado on toast with a sweet chilli chopped tomato, one of my fav things, only bettered by a sprinkling of crispy cooked bacon which I hadn't got.  I didn't eat again until I got home from work and I had frozen fish (oh and that takes longer to cook than it states on the packet can I add!) with swede and carrot mash (lumpy cos the masher nor me was strong enough for those chunks!) it was a microwave packets of mixed chopped pieces 80p I thought it would be quick and save the mess but meh, it's cheaper to buy them whole, doesn't take that long to chop, plus they keep better, that was use by yesterday which was why I had to eat it.  I also had a few rounds of courgette with a little parmesan on covered in the leftover cheese sauce.  I didn't eat it all but randomly Alfie ate it, the carrot and swede mash and the sauce i'd left, he wasn't impressed by courgette though. 

That was my food day, of a couple of small apples and a handful of unsalted almonds were consumed too.  I've been reading about the benefits of nuts, an excellent source of protein and a great food to snack on.  I've always been in that gang that would say, 'oh I'd eat loads, I can't have nuts, they're so high in points!' Turns out I didn't eat a load, we become the people we expect ourselves to become I guess.  I'm the kind of person who eats healthy most of the time - that's what I'm choosing to see myself as right now. 

Oh and now I'm going to get really boring!  Almonds aren't actually a nut you know, they're an edible seed that are the fruit of the almond tree!  Does that make them a zero fruit (lol NO!).  How good for you are they?  Well they are a high-fat food, but largely a monounsaturated fat which helps to protect the heart by maintaining levels of (good) HDL cholesterol versus (bad) LDL cholesterol.  They're also a great source of fibre and protein and contain lots of important nutrients such as vitamin E, selenium, zinc, calcium, magnesium and B vitamins, especially folate and biotin (vitamin B7).

Now you don't have to eat the bag, research studies suggest between 20-50g a day could be beneficial as part of a balanced diet, research by the British Journal of Nutrition also found that consuming nuts as part of a healthy diet, around 55g a day, is not only beneficial to reducing the risk of heart disease but also has limited risk of weight gain (I'll take that).  A study from 2013 also concluded that almonds, when consumed as a snack, help to reduce hunger and do not increase the risk of weight gain.  I wonder if that's why I forgot to eat lunch. 

Oh there's loads more to be said about them and other nuts, but seriously, it's 6am in the morning, I need to get a grip! 

If you're struggling with everything at the moment, 'dieting' is just another thing for you to think about, maybe try to think about 'wellness' instead, try to improve the quality of your meals rather than reduce the calories or Smart Points in it.  We all know what good food and a good meal looks like don't we?  If when we shop we put the healthier stuff in the trolley, then when we're back home and we've had a bad day, or our moods a little low, we're stressed out, then maybe we'll choose a better option because that's what's in our kitchen.  

I'm in the game of making myself feel healthier and I do, I've not had heartburn or indigestion for weeks, other than the once when I had sausages, but it appears that was the sausages fault, my body doesn't like them, even though I do.  

If I'm gonna have time for breakfast, I better get a wriggle on, I'm sat on my bed, just done a little yoga and Alfie is spark out next to me, I threw him on just before my alarm went off as he'd snuck in my room and started whining, I didn't want him to wake mom, he's such a content little chappy at the moment, which is wonderful after how anxious and strange he was earlier in the year.  

Right, let's make Thursday tremendous shall we?  I'll see some of you at the scales, the rest of you have a great day too. 

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me xx