Tuesday 28 May 2013

Healthy Food

 
 
I just had to do the giant sized picture, doesn't it all look vibrant and healthy.
 
I'm on a real health food kick at the moment, hopefully the homegrown will kick in any day now and save me lots of money.  We have Chard, Rocket and Spinach ready for eating and any day now the Radishes in the Tin Bath will be big enough to pick.  At last we are off and running eating.
 
This was the shopping bought for the final week of May, I managed to spend a total of £23.05 on this little lot, luckily I had vouchers to the value of £9.50 so the total went down to £13.55 ...phew!!  Its safely tucked in the fridge and we'll see how long we can make it last us.  I'll be updating the £2 house Keeping Challenge page in a minute.
 
The reason for my health food kick, well last week the doctor gave me permission to stop taking my high blood pressure tablets on the condition that I do everything I can over the next five months to bring the levels down naturally.  It's something I've really wanted to do for a while, I hate taking any tablet on a regular basis and he finally agreed to let me go for it, I think he could tell from my determined attitude that even if he didn't say yes I would do it anyway!!
 
So I now have five months to bring my weight down by between one and two stone, get even healthier and  keep my blood pressure readings at normal or just slightly above.  It's a challenge but you know how much I like a good challenge!!
 
Some folk say it's expensive to eat healthily I say NO IT'S NOT!!
 
If you miss out all the aisles in the supermarkets that contain the crisps, biscuits, snacks, ready meals, and aim for the fruit and veg first and then selectively go into the tinned aisle for your tinned tomatoes and purees and then head over to the frozen veg section, skillfully sidestepping the icecream, pizza and ready meal freezers you can do it really easily.  What you save on junk food you can spend on real food.
 
And I may be sad but I am proud of my shopping trolley when it's full of lovely fresh and healthy foods like these, and I look at other folks trolleys piled high with pizza boxes, lots of small boxes of ready meals and sugar laden fizzy drinks and I want to say "are you really going to eat all that junk?" ...... but I don't.  I simply  pay for my goodies with my £2 coin stash and go on my way.
 
Somehow I have managed to claim back my normal email account and reset all my passwords and improve my security settings so I am now back on my normal email address, what a palaver over the Bank Holiday weekend.
 
Sue xx
 
 

18 comments:

  1. Hi Sue

    I agree, it looks lovely. I too am amazed when I see other peoples trolleys.

    I use Aldi and Lidl as you can get fruit and veg a lot cheaper than a lot of the big supermarkets. Do you have either near you?

    Just a thought because when you are buying a lot of fruit and veg, the cost can soon mount up.

    Enjoy eating it all!

    Donnax

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    1. We do have an Aldi reasonably near us but the few times I have bought fruit and veg from there it has not lasted well, so I decided that for the slight difference in price I would rather go for longevity.

      I could have course just have been unlucky, I should maybe try again.

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  2. What a lovely lot of goodies! I feel the same about my shopping basket and love getting a lot of healthystuff instead if all the prefabricated meals they sell. Spring has been slow here but my garden is waking up and by mid summer we should be eating some of it. Best of luck with your blood preassure challenge, sure it will go your way! All the best, Pam xx

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    1. 'prefabricated meals' what a brilliant description, I'll have to use that in a future post I love it :-)

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  3. I agree Sue. It takes me very little time to go round a supermarket, because I miss out most of the aisles - meat, fish, dairy, fizzy drinks, sweets, biscuits, cakes, bread, convenience foods, ready meals - it doesn't leave much!
    Wishing you the very best of luck in bringing your BP down - I really hope the changes will work for you. I have to admit to being really disappointed that nothing I've done has made any difference to mine ( losing 50 pounds of fat,eating a plant based diet, reducing my stress levels by a huge amount,and exercise), but lots of people I know have reduced theirs by weight loss. I'm just one of the unfortunate ones and guess I am pre-disposed to it - family history, really high BP with both full-term pregnancies and stopped from taking the Pill because of it ( I was 30 and a normal weight).
    I'm looking forward to home-grown veggies too!

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  4. Thats just the kind of shopping trolley I like to see and have myself. I always think the people with the bad food trolleys are never smiling and look really miserable, it must be down to all the additives and e numbers they are consuming. I know without fruit veg or salad everyday I can soon start to feel sluggish!

    Good Luck with controlling your BP with diet.

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  5. I like a trolley full of fresh fruit & veg myself. I also use Aldi a couple of times a month depending on the offers & the quality at my local store does seem rather good.

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  6. Thats my sort of trolley I dont use Aldi so much as the fruit goes off quickly so visit supermarket and farm shop.Cant wait to be pulling my own soon although pulling shibbons at the moment yum yum

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  7. I read your blog all the time but have never commented until now. I hope you don't mind me sharing this, but I really feel like I should My own mother at 69 went off her BP meds because they made her have to go to the toilet to frequently and also like you she doesn;t like to take pills. Very soon after she had avary serious stroke caused by high blood pressure. She did not monitor her pressure after coming off the pills frequently enough. Please be careful.

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  8. That looks fabulous; I'm sure the weight will soon fall off! I always feel the same at the supermarket looking at all the crap in other peoples trolleys. Not that I am sylphlike, oh no, far from it! But we do generally eat healthy, home cooked food...that word "generally" is the problem, or what is outside generally.

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  9. I will join the healthy eaters on here, you're right, it's the junk food which costs a lot of money. I would love to follow someone around, and remove all the crap out of their trolley.

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  10. I take a look in peoples carts/trolleys,then look at the people pushing them. The people with the junk food are usually overweight with nasty dry looking skin,and dry dull hair...no thanks,I'll stick with my healthy food!
    Jane x

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  11. This is the first time I have commented but I read your blog regularly. Writing from Australia we find Aldis fruit and veg really good. My husband thinks the reason they do not last as long is because they have not been in cold storage as long....a farmer told him this.I am also the same about taking tablets My doctor calls me "recalcitrant" but I stopped taking the tablets prescribed for lowering my cholesterol and ate healthier and tests proved it was the best idea.We have a very small garden but manage to grow most of our own veg and some fruit .We have our 4 hens and swap eggs for some fruit we do not have. Thank you for the great blog.

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  12. dark chocolate and bananas

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  13. Looks lovely, as everyone has said. We have been buying more fruit and veg over the last few months (although a few naughties still seem to end up here now and then) and have both lost weight too. I am sure you will find that after a little while you do not miss the 'treats' so much, just really enjoy the fresh fruit. I know it seems more expensive to buy fruit than sweets or cakes, but just last week I was moaning that a pot of grapes cost £2 (or more if I buy locally) but without thinking I bought a couple of cakes from the bakery for £1.60. Due to lack of funds there have been no cakes this week - luckily I was able to buy a bargain bag of grapes for £1.50 and cooking apples for 50p, so no junk here!! Good luck with your new challenge.

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  14. Thanks for the photo and reminder - sometimes you forget just how much gorgeous fruit and veg there is out there. I steer clear of ready meals but still could do with upping our fruit and veg. Good luck with your healthy eating and enjoy all this produce. Claire xo

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  15. I always cook our meals from scratch using fresh ingredients which means the contents of our shopping trolley sometimes stands out from other people's in the supermarket, some of them can't help but comment on the amount of cooking that must involve!

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  16. I lost two stone over a couple of months when I had to drastically cut down on the saturated fats I was eating. I had developed a gall bladder problem which has, fingers crossed, been kept in control on a low-fat diet - the loss of the two stone was a nice (and very welcome) bonus. Good luck with your diet and your blood pressure, if anyone can do it I'm sure you can.

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