Thursday 28 July 2011

Everytime I find the meaning of life they change it...

Now if you've read anything 'about' me at all on this blog, you'll know I'm a big advocate of eating in the style of the Weston A Price Foundation; a high fat, non-processed diet that is as natural as possible, and reflects the foods eaten by our  forebearers. Eating in this way has helped me to regain both body health and (in MY opinion anyhow) my sanity.
Ever since becoming an advocate of this eating style, I believed it to be almost universal doctorine and something I would want to follow at all times in my life. Unfortunately for me although the eating style may be smart, this outlook was stupid. If studying at Bauman College has taught me anything, it's the importance of personalising your diet approach - with regards to both your individual constitution and your current point in life.
I may LOVE the festive season, but boy did it catch up with me. A NYE full of rich tarts, chicken liver pate, olives and White Russians was almost the finishing touch. The actual finishing touch was the Indian takeaway we ordered from the couch on January 1st; Chicken Tikka, naan bread, lots of chutney and raita and some incredibly rich pea dish that consisted of who knows what, but was definitely swimming in oil! For dessert we had the super rich coffee ice cream and biscuits that we neglected to serve our guest on NYE. I chased it with four tall glasses of Baileys. Oh my goodness it was delicious, but come January 2nd just the thought of nut butter, fall fat milk or any meat whatsoever was enough to make me want to throw up. We won't even talk about alcohol.
I was craving - yes craving! - a simple salad, sans olive oil. Yes, sans olive oil. I also needed fruit big-time and an immeasurable amount of water. Not to mention a long walk and some frozen yogurt. Fat free frozen yogurt to be exact. Something which definitely does not fit in the Weston Price lifestyle but something which I was prepared to walk a long distance to get - and throw a pretty big tantrum until the fiancee agreed to come with me to obtain. We actually had a wonderful day and a perfect antedote to all the festive excess. We started with large feta salads, topped with crackers and balsamic vinegar, walked to get the afore mentioned frozen yogurt, and then came home to a second humungous goats cheese salad. On our walk we stopped off at the Tate Gallery to get a little culture fix and talked all about how we were never drinking again, and intended to spend all our time and money eating in delicate restaurants and doing arty things. What else is NY day for if not setting high goals? :)
Anyway, back to the Frozen Yogurt. When I finally got it, I topped it with little bits of fudge brownie, lots of fresh (but totally non-seasonal) strawberries and raspberries and a stolen bit the fiancee's granola.
Because thats the kind of girlfriend I am.
Now Frozen Yogurt does not fit in with what I generally believe about eating habits, but thats really the point of this post. I do think it is SO important for girls to get good amounts of fat and animal protein, but it is also super important to listen to your body. At Bauman College we are taught three different diet directions which are Building, Balancing and Cleansing. All have different proportions of fat, protein and carbohydrate. The Weston Price style of eating is definitely Building, with high amounts of fat and relatively high protein. The Cleansing diet direction is roughly 70% carbohydrate with 15% or less of fat. When I first read about this I was aghast that eating in this way could ever be suitable. My tutor advised it was more of a detox diet direction, and not something she would ever advocate following for more than a few days. I was still extremely cynical.
'When could eating so little fat and so much carbohydrate ever be suitable?'
Well now I know! For the past few days fat has hardly touched my lips and I haven't missed it at all! I have overloaded on fruit and vegetables, plus small amounts of whole grain carbs and a bit of low fat dairy. So unlike the new me, but so clearly exactly what I needed. The yogurt is especially random given that it has sugar - okay, agave syrup because it's a classy brand, but sugar none the less. Don't get me wrong - it's the sort of food I still love, but I have really tried to minimise in recent times always going for ice cream instead.
Not at the moment! Fat may be essential in all sorts of ways, but it can be tricky and time consuming for our bodies to digest. Fat can take up to eight hours to digest - which is why it keeps us full for so long, but why too much can lead to really bad tummy aches. Sometimes the festive excess really is an overload.
Come January, we need quick vitamins and nutrients, which can readily absorbed into our bodies. Enter frozen yogurt! The probiotics in yogurt help to make it both digestible and healing for our gut, whilst also aiding our immune systems, which may have been affected by alcohol. Sure foods like Saurkraut and other fermented vegetables have the same benefits, without the agave and definitely without the brownie topping. Life is for living though and  you should never beat yourself up for making the choice you really wanted, even if it wasn't the perfect option. I'm definitely not going to beat myself up for having a slight veer from the Weston Price guidelines.  Im sure I'll be back to the Building diet in a few days, but for now I'm going to load my body up with easy to digest high nutrient and high vitamin foods. If I don't feel like too much fat who knows, my body could be telling me something important!
Like frozen yogurt is the known antidote to Baileys poisoning....? xox

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