I haven't updated this blog for a while... I guess i have been too busy standing upside down on my hands, or in a yoga class! Also sometimes i write posts and then realise i am just ranting about something that is more personal than i would allow published on my blog, and so i have a selection of written but never published blog posts!
Today I want to write about something though that always gets me! Diet. Whenever i go on a gig i can guarantee that i will be asked if i follow a special diet. I guess because i am slim athletic build, and perform very bendy things.
If I was writing this blog post 5 years ago i think it would be different to today, 5 years ago i ate a lot of processed foods, i was still the same build i am today but my diet was terribly unhealthy. Although i did eat vegetables I did not know what kale was and the thought of a green juice would terrify me.
Then I hit 30, i moved into Unit 6b where i was surrounded by healthy eaters, i began a regular yoga practice, and i realised how shocking my diet was.
It wasn't sudden but gradually my diet morphed into eating a lot of healthy things. It sounds weird but when you start fueling your body with goodness then you realise how horrid your body feels when you pump it full of the wrong fuels. Last night I was on a gig and they fed us a burger and chips with one slice of tomato and one lettuce leaf, i would have loved this in previous years, but all i wanted/craved was a big plate of vegetables.
So the age old question that i constantly get asked! What do I eat.
Well I like to try and stay roughly to 80% healthy and 20% whatever I like, because if i deny myself certain things then they are all i want.
Breakfast: Despite breakfast being a really important meal i do not really have breakfast, mainly because i prefer to have an extra 1/2 hour in bed, i also go to yoga class for roughly 10am and do not like doing it on a belly of food and by the time yoga is over it is lunch time. What i do try and do when i wake up in the morning is have a big glass of water (well not water but i'll come to that later). Sometimes i grab a banana on the way out the door.
Lunch: I hate hate hate a big lunch, if i have a big lunch i have a little dinner. If i could have a kale and peanut salad from Leon every day for lunch i would, but when i can't then i have a juice or something. I do snack throughout the day on fruit/chocolate/cake/nuts, so i am eating, just not 2 big meals. Re-reading this it sounds like i hardly eat, i assure you i do, and i do snack a lot.
I LOVE green juices. I have one most days. My favourite i swish up in my Vitamix and has all or a mixture of the following: cucumber, celery, kale, spinach, carrot, lime, pear or apple, honey, massive chunk of ginger, water or coconut water, a sprinkling of chia seeds on the top.
I also LOVE a slightly unhealthier power shake containing: banana, chocolate koko milk, cinnamon, honey, peanut butter, chia seeds sprinkled on top.
Dinner: Mainly vegetables. I am a bit boring but i usually have the same because i love it: tenderstem brocolli, asparagus, baby sweetcorn, green fine beans, kale, carrot, butternut squash, all together is one big yummy plate of goodness. Sometimes i put chicken on there. Sometimes though i'll eat a pizza, sometimes i will order a takeaway from the curry house (i love curry!), and if i go back to my mums she cooks me a feast. I also make some lovely lovely soups in my vitamix. I love dessert, all desserts, i have a sweet tooth. After dinner i have to have dessert, i have another belly for desserts!
Many people think i am vegetarian. I am not. I love vegetarian food and i do often eat like a vegetarian. But i do eat meat. Not every day, just now and then, mainly chicken, i personally feel my own individual body needs it in my diet to function better health wise, i do not eat some other rich protein sources such as fish, tofu, eggs. Eating meat is a personal choice and i respect every person regardless of their dietary choices. The yoga yama of ahimsa is about no harm/violence to yourself or any other living being, i do think about this often, but i also respond to what my body tells me it could do with. When i do eat meat i am sure to eat it all, the animal died to be eaten to give it's energies onwards, and not to be thrown in a bin and killed for waste.
I do not eat fish, infact i do not eat anything from the sea. I am weird. I like neither the smell or taste or thought of eating seafood, the smell wants me want to vomit. I wish i did like fish but i do not. I get my omega-3s through flaxseeds and chia seeds.
Water is another of my really fussy things, i can not drink water without anything flavoured being added to it. I think it is partly psychological due to a past event as a child. I wish i liked water and have tried and failed time and time again to wean my self onto it, i keep trying. In the meantime i continue to always add squash/cordial, i try to choose the ones with no added nasties, i find Ocean Spray Cranberry and Raspberry is my favourite. I would actually go thirsty and dehydrating than drink water unflavoured.
I very rarely drink alcohol. Maybe a cocktail on the rare occasion i go to a bar, but that is it. I do not like the taste of many alcoholic drinks and see no reason to put things that i don't like that are in any case unnutritious into my body. I used to drink loads in my university days, i was young and wanted to fit in, now i'm old and boring haha and i like it that way :)
And for every person wondering then i am on average 8stone and 169cm, size 8, perfectly healthy, fuelled by wonderful foods, and content with my diet :-)
Sally Xxx
