Non-exclusion diet

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We have all started diets thinking that the easiest way to lose weight is to exclude certain foods. This is a fallacy. No food groups - even sugars and fats - should be totally excluded. They each have their place in a healthy eating plan. If we ban all the sweet stuff entirely, we just feel deprived and depressed. We need, rather, to take control and limit quantities.

Our efforts to improve family health and lifestyle can succeed, but we have to realize that no improvement comes without effort. So, for a start, we can buy fewer treats when we do the grocery shopping. Decide, before you leave home, which treats you are going to buy, and in what quantities. To decide what quantities to buy, you have to designate treat times, of course. And once back from shopping, we can keep those treats in their very own container, on a high shelf. Out of sight, out of mind. The treats that come in a strip or bag of individually wrapped portions are a great aid to self control.

How often should we serve treats? Certainly no more than once a day.  Give children their own choice of treat from the available selection, and let them decide when they want to eat it. Maybe after supper is a good time, or they might want to include it in tomorrow's lunchbox. But... once the day's treat is gone, it is gone. And that applies to adults, too. One rule for everyone in the family.

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Chicken in cider : Wk44/4

Serves 4 : Very easy : Quick

Ingredients
4 skinless chicken breast fillets, cut through sideways
1 onion, sliced
3 stalks celery, sliced
250ml cider (or apple juice)
250ml chicken stock
3 carrots, halved and sliced
2 turnips, small dice
1 red pepper, sliced
2 green apples, cored and sliced
200gm frozen peas

480gm potatoes
¼ cup fat free milk
Method
Cook the potatoes in lightly salted water.
Drain well and then mash.
Beat in the milk.
Keep warm.

Spray a wide lidded pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Dry fry the chicken pieces for about 5 minutes to seal.
Add the onion and celery to the pan and cook for another 2 minutes.
Pour in the stock and cider (or apple juice).
Tip in the carrots, turnip and red pepper and stir.
Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and put the lid on.
Simmer for 15 minutes.

Now add the apple slices and the peas and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Divide the mashed potato between 4 warmed plates.
Put 2 pieces of chicken breast on each plate and then serve the vegetables.

Winter salad : Wk22/3

Serves 4 : Very easy : Quick

Ingredients
4 hard-boiled eggs, shelled and halved
½ pillow pack mixed rocket and spinach (about 60-80gms)
Handful of watercress, torn
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
10cm cucumber, julienned
40gm herbed croutons

1 Tblsp capers, finely chopped
2 Tblsp lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
1 Tblsp red wine (if you have)

Method
Arrange the spinach, rocket and watercress in the base of a large salad bowl.
Scatter over the tomato halves and the cucumber.

For the dressing, mix together the capers, lemon juice, oil and wine.
Pour over the salad, and toss well to combine.

Scatter over the croutons and arrange the eggs around the edge of the bowl.

This dressing is lovely with fish, so you could add flaked tinned salmon to the salad before dressing.
I served this with cold boiled new potatoes in their skins.

Banning treats

It seems that banning treats altogether, or imposing miserly restrictions is more likely to create a greater desire for them... and not just in children.

We have all started diets thinking that the easiest way to lose weight is to exclude certain foods. This is a fallacy. No food groups - even sugars and fats - should be totally excluded. They each have their place in a healthy eating plan. If we ban all the sweet stuff entirely, we just feel deprived and depressed. We need to take control and limit quantities.

Our efforts to improve family health and lifestyle can succeed. We have to realise that no improvement comes without effort. So, for a start, we can buy fewer treats when we do the grocery shopping. Decide, before you leave home, which treats you are going to buy, and in what quantities. To decide what quantities to buy, you have to designate treat times, of course. And once back from shopping, we can keep those treats in their very own container, on a high shelf. Out of sight, out of mind. The treats that come in a strip or bag of individually wrapped portions are a great aid to self control.

How often should we serve treats? Certainly no more than once a day.  Give children their own choice of treat from the available selection, and let them decide when they want to eat it. Maybe after supper is a good time, or they might want to include it in tomorrow's lunchbox. But... once the day's treat is gone, it is gone. And that applies to adults, too. One rule for everyone in the family.

Change one thing at a time

Change is often viewed as negative: it disrupts our habitual patterns and takes us out of our comfort zone. Sometimes the change is of our own choice - changing jobs, moving house, having a baby.
Sometimes it's forced on us - a new boss, a petrol price increase, redundancy.
Whether the change is forced or chosen, it takes a toll on our general health and well-being because it is stessful. We don't always cope well with stress, especially when several stressors occur at the same time, but we can improve our coping skills by eating wisely.

In our journey to healthier eating habits - and a healthier overall lifestyle - we can make small changes, one at a time. Once we have adapted to that change, and it has become habitual, then we can make the next change.

For this week, let's turn off the television while we have dinner. Dinner time is prime time for fast food advertisers, and while hamburgers, pizza and chicken burgers may have been the furthest things from your mind when you started to eat (unless you are actually eating one of them), these intrusions will detract from your enjoyment and appreciation of the food in front of you. Within reason, plan your mealtime so that it doesn't conflict with everyone's favourite programme. But then again, you can always record the show, can't you?