30 chic days: day 9: food matters

It's all about The Food Thing

                             Image result for egg on toast

Today was a good day in terms of chic food. And this was my personal focus for the day. 

I started off with two poached eggs on vogels roast. I couldn't get through more than one egg before I realised that I ate this breakfast because I felt that I "should". Because it is healthy. Because when we eat eggs for breakfast, we eat up to four hundred calories less during that day. I wasn't enjoying my meal. It is not chic to eat food that makes us miserable. So I tossed it and picked up a lovely chai on my way to take a couple of classes. 

Later I had half of a banana to tide me over for a late lunch at my eldest daughters', which was provided by moi. Slivers of ham, not much, and a thin layer of chilli cream cheese on half of a whole meal roti, then the other half folded over the top. I love rotis and am very good at making these, but today I bought them. I ate three. But really, two would have been fine. At french cafes, the baguettes have a very thin layer of perhaps two fillings, so I emulated this. A percolated coffee, and for dessert, a wee demitasse cup filled with creamy mango yoghurt.

Dinner was a very small bowl of mince & vegies, plus half of a ciabatta roll, with a sliver of blue vein cheese. By eating my two meals slowly, enjoying & focusing on them, I wasn't hungry. So this is my new regime: 

  • eat real food that is as frenchified as I can
  • preferably at home or with friends
  • eat slowly, enjoy the food
  • small portions
  • butter only at breakfast, if I'm having a roll or bread
  • more fruit & vegetables
  • fruit or yoghurt for dessert, if I want a dessert
  • a pudding no more than once a week
  • hot trim milk before bed, which is a great nightcap
Little things which I hope will bring big results.

If you want to improve your diet, I can heartily recommend that you read Fiona Ferris's chapter on Eat Real Food, in her new book: 30 Chic Days. You can download this on her howtobechic.com website, which, incidentally is the most enjoyable blog site ever. Fiona tells how she changed her diet to be more healthy, and more chic. Effortlessly.

Exercise: yoga and meditation before taking two classes. Yoga in the morning is excellent for:

  • keeping our body supple and graceful
  • keeping our back healthy
  • for stabilising blood sugar  
                      Image result for yoga standing sequence side bends backwards forwards          

It's not necessary to do the hard stuff, just maybe ten to fifteen minutes of warm-up type stuff is fine. Such as:

  • standing: side to side, a dynamic twist, hip circles, then bend backwards & forwards
  • then do cat, cobra, mountain/downdog. child
  • now onto your back for bridge, reclining spinal twist, bend knees to chest & clasp legs whilst you bring your head to your knees
  • do everything 3 times, without straining, without getting tired, this really helps with blood sugar
  • finish by lying down in reclined butterfly: legs wide apart, soles of feet touching. Be aware of the rise & fall of your abdomen as you relax with each exhale
                  
                                 Image result for cat pose

All doable. When dealing with something that is inflammatory in the body, hard yoga poses are counterproductive. Do less instead, skip the fancy stuff, and this will encourage the body to slow down on the inflammatory stress responses. Much more chic, too.

I wore a slightly baggy pair of brown/black/white, patterned trousers; muted fuschia tee; black cardi; black ballerinas. I had two lovely compliments today about me looking really good: a boost to the eki (equilibrium!), for sure. Proof that am slowly becoming more chic, perchance?






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