Gradually, with the help of my darling family and my precious friends, I started to rebuild the old Sally. I had to get strong again, physically and emotionally. I had no strength, no spare breath. If I walked up the stairs to read my boys a story before bed, I would have to lie down at the top of the stairs for 10 minutes to get my breath back before I could speak to them. I had also lost all my confidence that everything would be OK. The future was bleak for me, or so I thought. I was grieving the loss of my health and used to look at my family, thinking I wanted to do absolutely everything possible to make their lives wonderful, yet I didn’t even have the strength to simply pick up my baby and cuddle her tears better.
Luckily for me, and for them, I had this little flickering flame, a little sparkle somewhere deep down inside me that kept tickling me and prodding me and refused to give up. As each day passed, it grew a little more until eventually it had no choice but to burst out of me like fireworks from the ground, filling me again with all my hopes and dreams and plans for the future. I tell you, I grabbed hold of that sparkle and have been running and jumping with it ever since. Every morning, when I wake up, I am alive therefore I am happy.
I believe that life is all about balance. A balanced diet feeds your heart, body and soul. No one can live forever on cottage cheese salad and an apple. We all need variety, treats and food that feed our soul. I learnt that over time and I hope that this is one of the things you will gain from this book. All the recipes are developed with great health in mind. Some have some ‘treat’ ingredients and this is absolutely fine as long as these ingredients are balanced with health-giving foods. Don’t worry, they are!
A few years ago, reaching the 10-year milestone was for me a mirage that was far beyond my grasp. But now I look forward to celebrating my nine-year survival anniversary – if only so that I can then start the year-long planning for the big celebration on my tenth anniversary! That doctor was right. If I can survive 10 years after all I went through, I can survive forever. Being a healthy eater has empowered me to get my life back. Take that, heart!
You can do it!
I get so frustrated when I hear about this diet, just eating cabbage or another diet, eating standing on your head. It’s crazy, it’s upsetting and it’s not healthy or sustainable.
Healthy eating is all about balance. I give talks to school children and like to ask them which is healthier – a big plate of broccoli or a big plate of chocolate? Of course they love to scream at the top of their voices that the big plate of broccoli is healthier! But that’s not strictly true. I explain to them that if you only ever ate broccoli you would get a tummy ache, be rather stinky and would be missing out on all sorts of nutrients, let alone flavourful delights that come from variety. Of course it’s OK to enjoy a bit of chocolate, as long as you have had a nutritious meal beforehand.
Meal matching
Meal matching is quite simply matching the food you eat to your activities. For example, if I am sitting at my desk for most of the week, writing, I don’t need lots of spare energy, but I do still need lots of good nutrients to keep my brain sharp. A full eight hours writing a day is not physically draining but it sure makes my brain hurt! In this case I would go for a light breakfast and lunch, consisting of fish or chicken with a delicious salad (no soggy lettuce leaves in sight I might add!) or some roasted vegetables. This would nourish me but not make me sleepy during the afternoon when I’ve got my editor breathing down my neck wanting finished work. I would then probably only need another light meal at around 6pm, as sitting all day at a desk doesn’t use many calories.
If, on the other hand, I am having a busy week, rushing around from one event to another, needing lots more energy to keep me active throughout the day, I would go for a slightly heavier breakfast that would keep me going longer, such as porridge and fruit. I would make sure I had plenty of nuts, raisins and fruit in my bag for on-the-go snacks and I would try and make time for a more substantial lunch. This is especially important if I thought I wouldn’t get a decent evening meal at an appropriate time.
Night-time meals
While you are planning your meals, it is really essential that you listen to your body and take note of what it’s telling you. Do you have trouble sleeping? Is this because you have a large meal too late at night or because you haven’t eaten enough throughout the day and are actually hungry?
The general rule is to have your last meal of the day no later than 7pm. If we treat 10pm as a usual bedtime, this gives your system three hours to break down the food you’ve eaten, and allow you to sleep well. However, you may not be such an early bird and you might stay up until 11pm or midnight, in which case, you will probably become peckish before bed. DO NOT hit the biscuit tin or the Pringles pot, instead have a slice of brown toast, with a little butter or low-fat hummus about 20 minutes before you go to bed. This will take away any hunger pangs and will give you a sedative effect to help you sleep. Because your body has to step up its metabolism to break down the bread, it will make you sleepy. This is especially true if you’ve been following a low-carbohydrate diet. These diets are good for giving you energy, but they can make you a bit ‘fizzy’ and unable to sleep, so taking a slice of bread at this time will definitely help you enter the land of nod!
Feeding the kids
Children who eat a healthy diet from birth are much better equipped to eat well throughout their lives and will have a reduced risk of health conditions as they grow up. Children gain a taste for the things they eat often so if you give your children healthy foods right from the beginning, they will develop a liking for those foods and continue to want them as they grow.
Teaching them early is important and so is getting them to listen to their bodies. My children know what it feels like to be healthy. To know this and understand what it means provides a fabulous tool which will hopefully help them make good healthy choices independently. At home my children have healthy home-cooked food without additives. This, to them, is completely normal. If they then go elsewhere and have processed food which is usually high in salt and fat, they immediately know they feel different. They talk about being too thirsty (because of the salt) and the fact that drinking to excess makes them feel bloated. One of my sons, who’s energetic to say the least, has real problems concentrating and staying calm after a processed meal. This is simply because he reacts badly to the additives included in processed food.
So my children do understand and feel the immediate effect of healthy and unhealthy food. I try to explain that balance is the key. It’s perfectly fine to enjoy a delicious dessert as long as it follows a healthy nutritious meal and isn’t eaten every day.
Looking back to when my daughter was around eight months old, I remember sitting her in a high chair next to her little friend, Tom, who was the same age. Tom’s mum gave him some specially prepared vegetable purée, mashed banana and baby breadsticks. I gave Lela a slice of home-made pizza! Shock! Horror! Well, actually no, I was very happy to give this to Lela. I have never given us adults and the children different food. I don’t understand how a parent can give their weaning baby the best, most natural, unprocessed food, but sit their other children down in front of the devil’s food that is chicken nuggets and chips!
I was able to let Lela, at eight months old, suck all the contents off the slice of pizza, because I had made it and I knew exactly what was on it and in it. I had made the bread base, with no preservatives and no added salt, and on top I’d put tomato passata, sliced mushrooms, peppers, sweet onions and herbs. All good natural stuff that I was happy for every member of my family to eat. Obviously Lela didn’t have a full set of gnashers, but she was able to suck off all the good bits and then gum the pizza base to death! I must also point out that there was nothing wrong with Tom’s food either, but as a mum of three I wanted to spend my time making food that everyone could eat.
So, the final word here is to treat all your family with the same respect. If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t give it to others. And if you have