Monthly Archives: April 2024

Up to 21

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I had salad for the second time in two days.  Didn’t like it, but it has to be done. I need to control my weight and I need the nutrients.

Had cereal for breakfast (bran flakes) with raspberries, banana and blueberries. I’m claiming four towards my 30. Lunch – remembered to add peppers to the salad, so added an extra one. Julia is currently dishing up roast pork with stuffing and apple sauce with roast potatoes, cauliflower, carrot and parsnips. That’s four more, as there’s sage in the stuffing. I ate a pear today too, so that’s ten new vegetable sources of nutrition. Apple sauce doesn’t count as it is processed, but I will have an apple for lunch tomorrow. Just remembered we had grapes with the salad, though I did forget the nuts again. Eleven.

Add this to yesterday and we are now on 21.

Vegetables – Carsington Water

Having looked into what people recommend for the “five a day” I am quite alarmed by some of the things I read. I thought we were doing quite well but in world terms we are way behind.

Japan recommends up to 17 portions a day – 13 vegetable and four fruit. The portions are only 50g, compared to our 80g portions, but they still get 850g of veg to our 400g.

Austria recommends three portions of veg, two of fruit and four of rice, grains, potatoes, bread or pasta a day (five for children and active athletes). A portion of cooked vegetables in Austria is 2-300g. Five of our portions are only a little more than one Austrian portion, though you can eat less if they are raw.

Spanish portions are  up to 200g each – 3 veg and 2-3 fruit per day. Minimum is about 600g per day.

The problem is that I’m not sure I’m actually eating full portions for my five a day. The portion size is two inches of cucumber and three sticks of celery. Who eats that amount of cucumber or celery in a day? One stick of celery is plenty when I take it for lunch. And four or five thinnish slices of cucumber are plenty.

Healthy home grown veg

 

Poetry and Vegetables

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Despite the arrival of British Summer Time, and the consequent loss of an hour, I woke feeling ready to work, and although I did waste time surfing the web and watching TV, and “resting my eyes”, I have knocked a fair amount of poetry into shape and have sent off four submissions.

I had another rejection yesterday. It was good because it was quick, and because if I intend to be serious about aiming for 100 rejections a year I need more of them. The rejected poems, with a few minor changes, are already out with someone else. They will probably be rejected but it doesn’t matter as I need the numbers, and the second submission needed little work. I feel that each time I edit a work, even if it’s only one word, I am learning how to write better.

I’m sure that I have more than this to write but I can’t remember it. In truth the stuff I forget generally isn’t that important, and would make dull reading if I wrote it all down.

We are starting to list the plants we eat in a week – one recommendation is that you should aim for 30 a week. It’s good to have a variety and I have found that shopping online encourages me to buy the same stuff each week – it’s easier to order and easier to plan the menus.

Brace yourself for a boring list.

Mushrooms. Tea. Yes, tea counts. We eat 50/50 bread so it doesn’t really count, though wholemeal would. Julia says that although brown sauce does contain spices (which do count) she is fairly sure it doesn’t count. Nor does the cereal content in black pudding. Ah well, two isn’t a bad start.

We had coffee, which counts, and green tea with mint, which is debatable. Then we had lettuce, rocket, celery, spring onions, green olives, cucumber and tomatoes.

I’m excluding chocolate because it’s full of sugar, and white flour because it’s processed, so I can’t count the crust of the quiche. Ah well . . .

That’s 10, It’s not a bad start. Only 20 more to go.Looking at the list, it shouldn’t be too hard, though it’s a case of remembering to use them. I meant to add nuts and peppers to the salad tonight, but I forgot by the end of the preparation. It’s a bit like the times I forget I’m not supposed to eat fried potatoes – they just seem to slide down. My bad memory is a cause of many of my problems.

Orange Parker Pen – a shameless attempt to get review samples.