This month’s blog post is a special one, because it was requested by a reader!  I was ready for a break from writing about aloe vera anyway, so I appreciated the suggestion!  The lady wanted to know what I eat in a day and I do get asked this a lot, so it does make sense to answer the question in a blog.  I’m actually asked this question so often that I am writing a cookbook to address it in more detail, but until that is ready, here is a snapshot of the sorts of foods I eat on a normal day. 

Regular readers will be aware that I have a number of food intolerances, including gluten, dairy, potatoes, rice, egg whites and corn.  I also avoid excess sugar and I don’t drink alcohol.  It is important to note, however, that I don’t follow the IC Diet and nor do I react particularly badly to tomatoes or spicy foods.  I do use Simply Calci-G if I remember when I eat tomatoes, but for me it is not catastrophic if I forget.  Alongside my diet I use a lot of supplements to maintain my gut health, keep my hormones in balance, keep my moods as steady as possible, and support my general health.  You can read about these in this blog post from last year. 

I must confess that I have a tendency to eat the same things over and over until I get bored of them and then I move along to something else.  I am also the only member of my household who follows a free-from regime, so I sometimes have the same things two or three days running just because I have something needs using up.  Rather than tell you what I actually ate for three consecutive days, I am therefore going to give you three days’ worth of meals that are currently in favour with me.  I am not sure how useful they will be to you, but there seems to be interest in the subject!  I will NOT be giving recipes, because most of them will be in my cookbook. 

Day 1

Breakfast:  banana and cacao pancake with raspberries, blackberries and a small amount of maple syrup.

Lunch:  tuna mayonnaise (mayonnaise made using only egg yolks, not whole eggs) with roasted beetroot. 

Dinner:  paleo pork and chive burger with roasted mushrooms and sweet potato, served with raw, unpasteurised sauerkraut from Loving Foods.  I buy the burgers from Peelham Farm.

Snacks:  a square of Lindt 70% chocolate.

Drinks:  2.5 litres of filtered water and about 100ml of raw unpasteurised kombucha from Loving Foods.         

Day 2: 

Breakfast:  banana and cacao pancake with raspberries, blackberries and a small amount of maple syrup.

Lunch:  ready-to-eat poached salmon fillet with roasted tomatoes and roasted tenderstem broccoli.

Dinner:  paleo lamb merguez sausages with roasted mushrooms and sweet potato, served with raw, unpasteurised sauerkraut from Loving Foods.  I buy the sausages from Peelham Farm.

Snacks:  Half a square of Lindt 70% chocolate.  A Booja-Booja raw, dairy-free chocolate truffle.

Drinks:  2.5 litres of filtered water and about 100ml of raw unpasteurised kombucha from Loving Foods.     

Day 3:     

Breakfast:  banana and cacao pancake with raspberries, strawberries and a small amount of maple syrup.

Lunch:  Roasted cod with green beans.

Dinner:  turkey curry with cauliflower rice and sweet potato, served with raw, unpasteurised sauerkraut from Loving Foods. 

Snacks:  half a coconut and chocolate chip Nairn oatcake.  Half a square of Lindt 70% chocolate.

Drinks:  2.5 litres of filtered water and about 100ml of raw unpasteurised kombucha from Loving Foods.     

I have the same breakfast every morning, the only variation being the berries I put on the side.  To be honest, this breakfast it too carb rich and I really ought to change it, but I really like it!  In truth, I might have the same vegetables on my lunch several times a week for a few weeks, and then I’ll get bored and change them.  A while back, I had cauliflower virtually every day for lunch, but I’ve not touched it for weeks now.  There is some seasonal variation in what I have for lunch too – in winter I might have soup or stew, whereas on a very hot day I might make a salad.  I have mushrooms and sweet potato most nights for dinner all year round.  Turkey curry appears about once a fortnight.  I sometimes have chilli too, but it’s fair to say that five nights in seven my dinner is mushrooms and sweet potato with some sort of meat!  I always, always put sauerkraut from Loving Foods on my evening meal. 

I only really drink water.  Maybe every couple of months I’ll have a cup of decaf coffee and maybe once every month or two I’ll make a chocolate drink out of raw cacao.  I don’t drink alcohol.  I don’t drink soft drinks.  I don’t eat cakes, sweets, normal biscuits or normal chocolate.  Not at Christmas, not on holiday, and not on meals out.  I very rarely eat anything I’m not supposed to and when I do it won’t be a McDonald’s or a pizza or a massive ice cream – it will be a couple of potatoes on a roast dinner, or some mushy peas.  I never eat bread and I never have milk. 

So there it is – that is the kind of thing you eat when you’re intolerant to 46 different things!  I’m sorry if you find it a bit depressing that I really don’t cheat more!  If it’s any consolation, it took me years to stop nipping off to coffee shops for ‘treats’ and the only reason I’m resolute in sticking to my regime now is because I really do feel horrid if I don’t.  Also, I really love the foods I eat, so it is no great hardship for me to eat them in favour of other foods most of the time! 

I must emphasise that this is MY diet, based on my own particular food intolerances and preferences.  If you have gut problems, interstitial cystitis, or other chronic health issues, I would strongly recommend you to get a food intolerance test from Cambridge Nutritional Sciences so that you can design your own diet to meet your own unique needs.  You can read more about my experiences with Cambridge Nutritional Sciences in this blog post – I wish I had discovered them years ago, as they really did change my life!

If any of you have ideas for other things you’d like me to blog about, please feel free to ask and if it’s a topic I feel qualified to write about, I will! 

Wishing you the best of health,

Tiny x