Lunch Alternatives .....by Heather

Lunch (Me)

That was probably my standard work day lunch time menu for the last 25 years - except usually that would be white bread! Once diagnosed Coeliac, I flailed around a fair bit, until I found a good gluten free alternative from the good people at Genius:

But pure genius or not - bread has gone by the wayside, be it brown or white. And I have declared my lunchtime menu to be carb free. Despite the deep frost outside, salad has proved to be the order of the day - and I have become best friends with leafy salad bag - today it was Rocket/Spinach/Watercress for a more peppery flavour. But there is Baby Leaf or Crisp&Crunchy - and I mix these about a bit. In fairness - I am actually able to distinguish flavours now, whereas it largely went unnoticed before. Plus there is spring onion, cucumber, beetroot, celery & carrot to add to the mix.

With that I have added - tuna/salmon/sardine or mackerel - or sliced chicken/beef or ham - or avocado or boiled egg or cheese.

I was happy with that but on re reading Peter Attia at the Eating Academy and looking more closely at what he ate - I see that maybe I shouldn't be concentrating too much on loading up protein - and so it may be that I need to make sure I keep mixing it up a bit, rather than reaching for what is simplest or the thing nearest at hand - which is often just tuna!

I still find it difficult to swallow (no pun intended) that its ok to swim around in fat - but I realise that I have to go with his proven wisdom. To that end - the avocado, egg and cheese may be my first port of call.

During every day there are those times when you need to turn to a snack! This is always difficult in any diet situation, because if it can't be a chocolate bar or a danish pastry - what the hell is left? Well at first I thought my options weren't too terrible - Apples, Bananas, Grapes, Raisins & other dried fruits, Nuts, Yogurt, seeds............

..........however.
The nuts as I have blogged recently, have started to cause me stomach pain - and so although I love them, I have  had to cut back on them - I can now eat them intermittently without repercussion - but there's the rub - only every now and again.

Raisins and dried fruits - I knew these were high in sugar and so I had already scrubbed them from my repertoire. Gone.

Given my recent issue with slower transit - I was keen to up the amount of fibre in my diet - and so real fruit (rather than the dried) was my first port of call - but having looked at the sugar content in fruit - especially my preferred fruit of choice - apples, bananas and grapes - I realise that I have been eating these maybe a bit too often - maybe 2 apples a day plus grapes plus banana.

So now I have traded these in for berries instead - today was my first foray and boy could I tell the difference in the sugar load between my  usual 'Winter Wonder' apple fix and the handful of raspberries and blackberries I had in its stead!! Wow.

I had them with full greek yogurt - and it looked lovely in the bowl. But it became an exercise of me vs the bowl after the first mouth full - it was seriously bitter. I stuck with it - and the taste aside - I actually felt nicely filled afterward, and so as a snack - it proved a good one. I'm hoping with time, I learn to appreciate the fruit in the same way as I now appreciate the salad leaves - we shall see.











I have added in to my shopping list real coconut - not the dessicated stuff, but the real maccoy. Coconut seemed to feature in milk and oil on Peter Attia's menu a fair amount of time, so I thought the real thing might make a good snack too.

I have also added milk in to the repertoire  - real milk, full fat (haven't had that in years) - this works well for me as a snack, and it tastes sweet of course. But I think that I am ok to include some lactose - and the milk had the sweetness that the greek yogurt lacked.

For the family - well they are fairing much better  - fruit in all its forms are on the menu; as is wholemeal bread. What is off? - Well, mini cake bars in the lunch pack; the choccy bar after school, crisps, fruit juice - they have water and milk now - and haven't complained once!! Fizzy drinks - Coke et al - they are all off the menu. On a recent trip to Costa Coffee I was stumped at what our youngest might actually have. I had to relent somewhat - if he agreed not to have Coke - I had to agree to let him have a sugar free Ribena.

Nakd bars and natural fruit infused raisins - these are the very favourite of all - Hello gorgeous indeed. As a treat, I'm not averse to eating these lovelies myself.