The Recovering Diet Addict

Howdy readers. So, it's been a while hasn't it? Well, I can report that a LOT has gone on since my last blog post; it's been pretty intense and, though it pains me to say it, I have completely lost my mojo. It's amazing, how easily you can slip back into old habits. If I'm feeling down then I am used to turning to exercise to pick me back up. If I'm feeling super-blue then I comfort eat and get a bit lazy; a habit that I thought I had left behind - how wrong I was. WARNING: I am about to discuss FEELINGS and incredibly honest truths. It started off around the time of my last post. Without going into too much detail, our lives were completely turned upside-down when my husband and I suddenly (and unexpectedly) became foster carers to twins. For the next 8 months of my life I had to juggle a new and demanding job, caring for the children, the dog and managing an entire timetable of access with different family members and meetings with social services. If I ...

When watching those documentaries where people have put on so much weight that they have had to be cut out of their houses by the emergency services, I have had so many conversations where I have debated: how do people let themselves get to that stage? Surely there has to be a point BEFORE then? Perhaps when they have had to go up a clothes size? When they can't ride a roller-coaster? Or when they have to buy two plane seats? How do they let it get to that stage and at what point does someone realise that enough is enough? I had my "getting cut out of my house by the firemen" moment last week: I ripped my jeans (well, they were really my favourite White Stuff jeggings but let's not get bogged down in semantics). I had been in denial for weeks. I could feel the painful 'tug' that was hinting at was about to come. But just like the guy who was finding it harder and harder to get out of the house each day until one day he couldn't anymore, I pretended it ...

Hurrah! It is almost time for one of the highlights of the television year; The Great British Bake Off is back!! It is also time to admit one secret:I LOVE to cook but I am NOT a baker. Before this blog post, I had to go to the shop and buy flour, baking tins... the whole shebang. I didn't even own a mixing bowl. When watching the contestants produce their impressive creations, I become increasingly aware of my lack of baking prowess. But I am finally on the summer holidays and therefore able to do something that I have always wanted to learn how to do: I am going to bake. Now, I  have often been heard to say: "If you are going to do something wrong, then do it right." If I am going to "be naughty", I am not wasting my time with "lighter" or "diet" versions. But who said that baked goods had to be wholly bad? I have recently been thinking of ways of getting extra vegetables into our diets (and those of my vegetable-avoiding nieces), so I ...