Diet. Again.

Howdy and welcome to the Daily Drumroll for another lunch-break-blog. Lunch today is extra smoothie from breakfast. When I make breakfast smoothies these days I always make extra to bring to work for tea or lunch. Today the smoothie is lunch. At tea time today I had a wonderful toasted tuna sandwich with lemon, salt & pepper, cheese and Bushmans Dynamite sauce. This sauce is by far the hottest chili sauce I know of locally available, everything else is tame in comparison, and I've tried many. This is part of my inspiration to create my own brand of hot sauce that will compete with the likes of the Dynamite and possibly be even hotter. Mine won't just be a blend of locally grown common red chilies & Habanero's, It will be like concentrated molten lava in little bottles that will only be suitable for the bravest chilli-heads.

Opinion poll: is it spelled "chili" or "chilli"? Different sources use either. I'm still deciding, though I might be myself and go for "chillee".

Oh, and I lied. I had two tuna sandwiches at tea time. They were sooo good!

My smoothie recipe, no secrets here for those interested, is my own version of a banana and peanut butter bomb, lots of both ingredients with double cream yoghurt (plain, unsweetened), milk, mixed berry juice, cinnamon, coconut oil, oats & Future Life cereal. Blended up it's a smooth creamy healthy glass of energy.

Bit of a disaster this morning though, my smoothie maker is busted, the base of the jug part is broken. I managed to tape it up quite firmly to make this mornings smoothie but it was an impractical and messy affair. This means no more smoothies until the next salary ship docks in my bank account, which is in 10 days time.

This kind of messes with my next mission, and the theme of this blog - a new phase of diet...

Yes I know you've all heard this from me before, how many times have I gone on the old diet and made a big noise about it like it's the biggest thing ever to happen, only for it to fade away after a month or three. But for me and my family it is a big deal because it's expensive and takes a lot of effort and perseverance, especially since it's never properly coordinated unless I'm making all the food, which gets tedious. If not the family goes off sideways and eats all kinds of other crap.

Our diets usually comprise of healthy breakfast smoothies. That will have to make way for Wheetbix for the next week & a bit. Otherwise the mission is to cut out the carbs and sugars, especially wheat, bread, rice, pasta, most potatoes, and bad saturated and trans fats. And of course cut out as much sugar as possible, which is almost impossible since most processed, bottled, manufactured foods and drinks contain sugars from all soft drinks to all condiments. We have to try to be as natural as possible and go for more fresh vegetables, some fruits (most fruits are full of sugar), proteins, lean meats, eggs, salads, fibre and a balance of good poly- and monounsaturated fats (eg. Avo, one of my favourite things!)

I do enjoy the healthy eating because it does make a difference to my weight, and the healthy eating makes me feel noticeably healthier, energized, stronger, etc. The downside is that it's expensive and preparing meals takes a lot longer. I tend to go through phases where I enjoy the cooking and getting creative with hearty healthy foods. It's just that right at the moment I'm not in a good space financially, I cannot afford all the good stuff which is disheartening and frustrating and demotivating.

This is one of the ways where mankind has gone wrong, we've made good healthy natural foods ridiculously expensive and out of reach to most of the human population, instead humanity is being force fed wheat & grain products, GMO's and generally unhealthy carbohydrate loaded foods. Like bread, it's cheap and widespread, but it contributes to mass gross obesity. Healthy foods are reserved for the wealthy!

All that being said, we've done this before and we'll do it again. Fortunately the wife has decided to join in on the diet so I'm not the lone salmon fighting against the current of junk food, I hope she's serious so we can make this happen so the whole family can eat right again. We'll just need to figure out ways of making it affordable and practical.

Despite all the running and exercise I get I still can't get rid of the belly because of all the carbs. If we can drop the carbs and sugars, that alone with the running and the kilo's will fall off quickly! I need that to happen if my running is going to improve!

One thing I'm not keen for though is salads for lunches again. I need to find practical ways of getting creative with lunches because after a while of eating salads I start hating them, in particular the leaves. I've eaten so much lettuce over the last few years it's a wonder I haven't grown long ears and fur on my feet. It's fairly quick to whip a salad together but man I hate the lettuce!

Another project I've been meaning to take on and just haven't gotten round to yet is planting a veg and herb garden. That could at least save a few bucks on food if I can get it growing and successfully cultivate some respectable harvests. But I'm a bit late now because we're about to go into winter, and I'm not much of a fan of gardening at the best of times. Still, it will happen sometime in the near future, albeit in phases.

Back to work...