I have not covered myself in glory this weekend.
Week 15 was ok. I’d had a few moments of carb craving due to emotional stress but I hadn’t succumbed. I’d trained hard and was feeling fit and strong.
By Friday night I was exhausted. We have a vegetable box delivery which included Jersey Royal potatoes and I thought that we’d have them with dinner. I am a big fan of potatoes generally, but Jersey Royals in particular. There are few things on the planet more delicious than a perfectly cooked new potato with proper butter.
I had some and was unapologetic.
However, Saturday morning came and I was feeling a bit bored of the endless veg and protein. I wanted banana pancakes (1 banana, 2 eggs and a handful of blueberries cooked in coconut oil). I made some for the others first and stole a bite. They were so sweet that I realised that I didn’t actually want any.
I felt restless all day and made an executive decision that I was going to have a “night off”. – for the first time in 15 weeks.
Following a suitable consultation it was decided that we would all rather like homemade pizzas. I went to the supermarket and picked up the necessary comestibles.
I wanted to feel like food was a pleasure rather than a function. I’d missed the feeling of everyone being in the kitchen together arguing about pizza toppings and who had taken the ‘good knife’.
Also, if I was going to career sideways off the rails then, for one night only, I was going to have some rice pudding.
I have a passion for rice pudding. I love it so much that I am prepared to put up with the blocked/runny nose that cows’ milk gives me simply to indulge in the creamy, ricey sweetness. There are some sick individuals (like Lovey Girl #2) who cut their rice pudding with jam. This is wrong on every conceivable level – much like murder in a multi-storey car park.
Anyway – I digress.
I acquired gluten free pizza bases, buffalo mozzarella, artichokes, capers, red onions, mushrooms, peppers and some chilli rice crackers. I always have pudding rice in the cupboard in case of emergency.
I made the rice pudding with 50g rice, a pint of milk and 8g of sugar (instead of the 25g recommended by the recipe). I’d lent my rice pudding dish to my mum so I used a different one to normal. Therein lay my first mistake.
I loaded my pizza with vegetables:
Cooked with buffalo mozzarella…
I had been looking forward to this so much as I hadn’t had a homemade pizza in ages. However, when I started eating it I realised that my taste had changed over the last 15 weeks.
The flavours of the pizza tasted so strong that they were overpowering and unpleasant. I didn’t really like it. I had to pick off the sun dried tomatoes, olives and artichokes and I ate about half of the pizza. However, the cheesey base bits were lovely.
Rice pudding takes about 2 hours to cook. I left it in a low oven for the appropriate amount of time but I’d used the wrong dish. My rice pudding dish is smaller and deeper and the one I’d used had a base area that was bigger than mine. The result was that my rice pudding dried out.
The nutmegy rice pudding skin was overcooked and the rice was not very nice. Did I eat it? What do you think?!
I didn’t just eat a small amount; I ate it all. It was supposed to serve four. Yeah right – four very small mice who don’t like rice pudding.
I went to bed feeling a bit sick.
I slept well in a carb fuelled coma but when I woke up this morning I felt awful. My mouth felt dry, my hands felt like I was wearing thick cotton gloves most of my joints felt slightly swollen.. After hauling myself out of bed I got up and went for a walk.
Breakfast was something of a relief after the previous evening’s carnival. Porridge with grated courgette (don’t ask) and a smoothie of lettuce, cucumber, avocado, lemon, turmeric, mint, hemp powder and water. It gave me 3 portions of veg at the start of the day. I also drank a lot of water.
I should probably explain that I have a sensitive sense of taste. I can distinguish between different brands of mineral water and I have never been able to eat biscuits. My biscuit aversion is not because I’m angelic but due to the fact that I never know if they are going to taste ‘off’ or not.
Sometimes biscuits taste ok. Sometimes they taste really old, like rancid butter or as if they are made with stale mixture. No one else seems to be able to taste it.
It wasn’t until I read an article about biscuit companies re-working dough that I made a huge discovery. Apparently people with sensitive tastebuds are employed by the biscuit manufacturers to tell if the re-worked dough affects the taste of the finished product.
I think that I’ve always been a so called “super taster” – but I also think that my taste has become much more sensitive since I’ve cleaned up my diet.
I felt much better after breakfast and was determined to make amends for the transgressions of last night.
Everything was going swimmingly although I forgot to have a morning snack due to being immersed in housework. I was craving carbs so I thought I’d cook some rice and do a stir-fry.
After putting the rice on, I spied something unusual on the side…
We’d all had a couple of these while we were making pizzas and there was a quarter of a packet left. I ate one, and then another. The flavour was really strong and I didn’t really like them.
Like a piranha stripping a body of flesh, I couldn’t stop. I ate 12 and when I’d finished my tongue felt sore, as if it had been burned.
I felt like an idiot and to add injury to insult I had a burning in my stomach.
The only solution was to drink water and eat properly.
As I said a the start I haven’t covered myself in glory this weekend. I made my decisions and paid the price. None of the ‘treat’ food that I’d allowed myself to have was worth it.
I’d wanted to eat for pleasure for a change but that was the furthest from how it felt.
However, I’m glad that I did it. I’m looking forward to eating healthily this week and training hard. On Friday it will be the end of 4 months since I started this escapade. I think that it is fair to say that I feel much better on the rails than off them. Hopefully I’ll remember that the next time I fancy a night off.