Hello World

I think about nutrition a lot.  I grew up with a traditional stay at home mum who cooked us three square meals a day and taught us so many nuggets of wisdom around food.  Beyond the old wives' tales that eating my crusts would give me curly hair, I was taught that fibre "cleans" your gut and that oils are usually healthier if they are softer at room temperature (eg butter vs olive oil).  I was taught that the wrong fats eventually clog your arteries and that white bread is like sugar spun into a loaf shape.  I was also taught the basics of cooking and grocery shopping and that a tin of diced tomatoes can be the base for almost any meal.  

After leaving home I maintained my interest in all things food.  I love to cook and bake, and I read Healthy Food Guide fairly regularly.  I balk at juice cleanses and raw veganism and like to know the science behind a food trend before I try it out myself.

And yet somehow here I am at 24 thinking about how tired I am, how I've put on weight, how my skin has broken out for the first time in my life and then looking at my dietary habits and thinking "Hmm.".  I've lost any sense of mindfulness from my diet.  I eat a lot of processed food, hardly any vegetables and my meals are at totally irregular times.

It's time for a change, but I don't want to do something drastic.  I don't want to "go on a diet", especially not the kind that starts with a cleanse or detox program and progresses through phases of restriction.  I actually just want to eat more healthful food, to fuel my body correctly.  And when I look at a lot of reasonably healthy food programs, it looks like I would actually be able to eat a lot more if I was eating this way!

My purpose with writing this blog is to start a learning journey and to stay on it - I want to record what I eat, how I feel and what improvements I see and to further explore my relationship with food.   I'd also like to share recipes and research and look into various "food myths".  My end goal is to be eating a healthy, mostly natural and mostly Mediterranean inspired diet with some allowance for treats!

So in the interest of comparison, I've written down what I ate over the last two days to look back on in a few weeks time.  I think that in the future I will enter any food diaries into a separate post because they are boring to some people but it's important here to see why I'm looking to make a change.  What you see below isn't as shocking as something from reality TV but it is also a far cry from anything "nutritionist recommended":

Wednesday

Breakfast

One piece of toast (sandwich slice wholegrain bread) with sundried tomato hummus

Lunch
Tried to make packet mix Rice Risotto but I set the pan on fire (a first!)

Instant tomato soup

Water crackers

A small cube of creamy blue cheese

A tablespoon of hummus

3pm
Belgian white chocolate mocha

Dinner

Mum's roast chicken dinner and a homemade coconut cupcake.

And then about 6 squares of 33% cocoa chocolate.

Yesterday

Breakfast

Special K
Unsweetened Almond Milk

Two cups of peppermint tea

12pm

A protein bar

3.30pm

So Yo (snickers flavoured frozen yoghurt, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate sauce, sherbet)

A sugarfree V

7.30pm

A bowl of kakiage udon soup and noodles

A 600mL pepsi max

A small bag of pick and mix lollies

10pm

A cup of peppermint tea

My plan for the next week or so is simply to "think before I eat" and see what kinds of changes occur naturally.  From there I will look at my food diaries and see where might need improvements like eating more or fewer calories or adding in different varieties from the big food groups.  Wish me luck!