My boyfriend’s dinner: Linda McCartney sausages, sweetcorn and onion gravy in a massive Yorkshire pudding. I’m not sure how he quite manages to make vegan food look so unhealthy!
I’m staying at my boyfriend’s today and he tends to convince me to eat lots of greasy, carby, fatty foods. Thw wisdom of Gillian McKeith says that only when we are hungry do we crave fat. salt and sugar. and therefore the best thing to do is to graze throughout the day, like the natural herbivores we are. So voila, my anti-junk food graze box, featuring carrot sticks, sliced cucumber and celery, and homemade avocado humous.
My story: possible ED trigger
I’ve been doing this food blog for a while now so I thought I should give you a bit of background about me and my love/hate relationship with food.
So I had been a vegan on and off for a couple of years before arouund this time last year I decided to commit to it once and for all. Around the same time, I discovered that my ex-boyfriend, with whom I had had a short, tempestuous and intense relationship, had moved on and was seeing someone new. I was absolutely crushed by this, and the world seemed to collapse in on me for a good while. I had suffered from anorexia nervosa as a teenager but for a couple of years my relationship with food had been pretty reasonable, but this situation plunged me back into it again and after several months of anxiety attacks and depression I lost around a stone and a half (21lbs) which made me 6 stone 12 (96lbs). I was always cold, I had no energy or upper body strength and my university course suffered hugely as a result. This all culminated in a suicide attempt on Christmas Eve. My brothers took care of me and I realised I needed to make a change. I was dragged out of the depths when my friend’s band lost their violinist and they asked me to audition. This gave me something to live for, and through them I met my boyfriend, Luke, and things really started to improve. I started caring about my health, as I wanted to have energy to play gigs again and to go on graffiti adventures with Luke, so I did a lot of research on nutrition, and completely overhauled my diet. I read that zinc supplements are hugely beneficial to those of us who suffer with stress, anger or anxiety. A big problem of mine when it came to food was laziness; quite often a ‘meal’ for me would consist of toast with humous or tofutti cream cheese, and that would last me until I was so hungry I couldn’t ignore it anymore. I detoxed myself from wheat for a while and found myself having more energy than I had had in years. Instead of toast for breakfast, I started having bowls of fresh fruit and nuts with agave nectar and soya milk, which boosted my mood, alleviated tiredness (good if, like me, you’re not a morning person!), and made me feel refreshed, bright and energetic. I learned about superfoods and built my diet around them, to include as many per meal as possible.
I have put on around 10lbs in the past few months, which has been very traumatic at times. The main key to not freaking out about this, I’ve discovered, is to never weigh myself again! What’s the point? If you feel good and you’re not unhealthily emaciated or obese, then what does that number actually matter? I defined myself by it for a long time and it made me miserable beyond my worst nightmares. I’ve been referred for cognitive behavioural therapy in order to beat my eating distress once and for all, and as my counsellor described it, to ‘create new neural pathways’ in order to enforce better self-worth and positivity. Its fucking hard, because I can’t get used to the idea that I’m actually worth something, but I’m getting there. It can be done. And ironically, in the end it turns out that the secret is good food, and lots of it! So anyone suffering with similar problems, my recommended medicine is this: graze on superfoods, green tea, stir fried veg, dried fruit and nuts. Don’t stay up late into the night - go to bed early with a cup of hot cocoa and get plenty of exercise. I’m the happiest and most energetic I have been in a year because of this combination, and I guarantee it will work for you, too!
I improvised this sandwich spread from bits and pieces left in my fridge, and it turned out so well that my boyfriend insisted I make him a few pots of it to keep at his house. Here’s the recipe:
1 avocado, mashed
4 teaspoons of humous
2 spring onions, chopped
100g brasied tofu
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon garlic granules
1 teaspoon medium curry powder
3 teaspoons garam masala
Mix together. Yums.
(Source: am0r-essentia, via andtheyllnevereverevercatchme)
Cous cous stir fry
Serves one
50g cous cous
60ml vegetable stock
Half a medium onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Olive oil
200g spinach
4 medium mushrooms, sliced
150g braised tofu, crumbled
1 medium avocado, sliced
Half an aubergine (eggplant, if you’re American!)
- Pour veg stock onto cous cous and cover for 5 minutes or until liquid has been absorbed
- Pour olive oil into pan and saute onions until light brown
- Add garlic and aubergine until aubergine starts turning golden.
- Add remaining ingredients until fried.
- Uncover cous cous and add all ingredients into a mixing bowl. Mix together and voila!
(Source: rybka-bananka, via andtheyllnevereverevercatchme)
