I had planned to spend most of my Sunday in the kitchen cooking up a storm in preparation of my first week on The Clever Guts Diet. However, my family and the weather had other ideas.
I started the day with the best intentions. I was doing this meal plan, and I was going following it to. the. letter. Day one, meal one is Pumpkin Porridge (I’m sure it’s not as bad as it sounds, but as it turns out we will have to wait until tomorrow to find out), which I started making at around 7.30am. In retrospect, I should have at least cut up, if not cooked, the pumpkin the night before. I had planned to meet a friend for a jog at 8.30am so time was ticking. I peeled, chopped, diced, de-seeded, did all the pumpkiny things I was meant to do to the pumpkin and popped it on the stove to boil. Despite my best efforts 8.15am rolled along and my stomach was still grumbling. So the pumpkin was left to cool and I whipped up a quick Healthy Gut Green Smoothie instead, which is scheduled for Day Seven. I was pleasantly surprised- despite the colour, which was a sort of pastel green (I don’t trust pastels), it was GOOD! Even my kids got their sloppy chops on it. It was just enough to hit the spot and energise me for the planned outing. The only change I’ll make is to reduce the amount of lemon juice- it was just a little too sour for me.
As it turned out, I was stood up but it was ok because frankly I love my friends too much to let them see me run. I may say “I’m going for a run!” with all the enthusiasm of an elite athlete, but I don’t actually run. I walk and then I do this sort of weird bouncy fast walk thing that is my interpretation of a jog. I don’t even think I could say it’s a fast walk. I’m pretty sure I go at the same pace, I just jiggle a lot more.
Anyway, it was a gorgeous sunny day and I was pretty happy to be out in it regardless of the fact that I likely look like a steam train trying to get started.
By the time I got home I was peckish again. The smoothie was great, but it’s not enough for a meal. The meal planner pairs it with 1 slice of Breakfast Bread and 1 tbsp of almond/cashew nut butter. I had to improvise here as I hadn’t baked the bread as yet. I went for the next best thing, a slice of Burgen Rye bread and my selected natural nut butter by Mayvers. This was… fine. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad. I could get used to it. It was certainly enough to get me going again.
We had tickets to a lego exhibition and I thought it would be sensible to take a packed lunch for afterwards because I knew that we would all get hungry while we were out and be tempted by some delicious smelling cafe. The easiest meal to take along with minimal preparation is the Phyto Salad Bowl, planned for Meal Two, Day Four. (I swear next week I will follow every day as planned… promise). Basically the way to throw this together is to grab 3-4 portions of coloured veg, 1-2 portions of greens, 1-2 portions of protein, 2-3 portions of healthy fats and 1-2 portions of pulses, pumpkin or wholegrain. I had planned to make a nice varied salad with complementing additions such as egg and cheese. However, someone ate all the bloody eggs while I was out for a “run”. With bacon mind you. So, in a moment of desperation I threw in some smoked salmon, and roast pumpkin, and artichokes, and olives and… well… it wasn’t great. It was bloody awful to be honest. I ate it. Everyone else ate at the cafe.
The Phyto Salad Bowl. I don’t even have a photo of mine, it was just too awful. Lesson learned- plan it better, choose ingredients that actually work together. And/or separate them into nice little portions of different food types that don’t touch each other, like the way some kids like to eat their dinner. This is what Mosley’s Phyto Salad Bowl looks like. Much better. I could eat that. Probably without gagging.
After our trip to the Lego show (which was awesome BTW, even though the Grinch followed the Thing 1 and Thing 2 and I around while I raced from exhibit to exhibit with unmasked excitement exclaiming “Look kids it’s the Millennium Falcon! Oh my goodness, there’s Diagon Alley! Ohhhh The Fellowship of the Ring! And… what?? What is this?? THE YELLOW SUBMARINE!!!!! I’m pretty sure he was pretending not to know us), we had the picnic on The Hill (it’s a suburb, it wasn’t just a hill that I named THE HILL) and watched the whales (I know, awesome) while basking in the sun. Thing 1 and Thing 2 rolled down the hill (just a hill this time) and didn’t eat their salads. Then the Grinch and I pulled the Things down the hill (again, just the hill) on some cardboard.
Now this is where I had assumed we would head home and I would cook/dice/bake. But… the sun was being sunny and my head was pounding, so we headed to a cafe instead. It turns out giving up coffee cold turkey is really not that simple. I’m typically a 2-3 lattes a day kinda person and boy was I missing my hit. The Clever Guts Diet Phase 1 – remove & repair does recommend cutting out all foods that commonly cause gut problems- such as gluten, dairy, eggs, soya and coffee. However, it does also say that you shouldn’t remove too many foods at once and you can repeat the process if you find that you are still having issues. I’m happy to go without gluten, dairy and soya, particularly as I’m pretty sure they cause most of my issues, but for this round I’m keeping eggs and, as it transpires, coffee on the menu. I did ditch the milk I’m proud to say. I’m now officially a grown up, who drinks black coffee. With honey. And a wince.
Even then, we decided it was a good day to head to the mall and get some shopping done. I still had to acquire a few ingredients to make the week work and shoes needed to be purchased. It was probably a bad idea. Everyone got a bit Grinchy in the end, but we got what we needed. Dinner was late, but it was made, and as planned, albeit again from the wrong day.
Kashmiri Chicken Curry with Cauliflower ‘rice’ and steamed green beans. The verdict? Over all- good. Phew. I’m not a big cauliflower fan but I really enjoyed the ‘rice’ (Mosley’s inverted commas, not mine) although it was slightly too lemony, and the curry was creamy and pretty tasty. The Grinch and the Things got real rice with theirs, but honestly I didn’t miss it. I also gave them some of my ‘rice’, but they weren’t overly keen. The Grinch ate it and everything else. The Things moaned a bit about the presence of almonds in the curry but they ate it regardless. They didn’t have a choice. I left out most the chilli from the cooking process because it was a really hot one, but I diced it and added it to the grown up meals at the end.
I did also manage to make the bone broth, thanks to my slow cooker, so I have a freezer full of stuff ready for the week, and some left over curry for next week (I made a double batch- smart hey?
Now I’m in fasting mode, which Mosley recommends to be 12-14 hours overnight. I feel like I’ve had enough to eat, although I’m a bit peckish. I could probably ameliorate that with a cup of herbal tea (not licorice root tea as I discovered today it is disgusting). My mind has been incredibly clear all day, and my mood has been great. I’ve had plenty of energy and I haven’t had any cravings. I feel a bit onion-y, I think I might have to cut it back.
IN SUMMARY:
- Healthy Gut Green Smootie is a winner, with a little less lemon.
- Phyto Salad Bowl isn’t meant to be a throw-it-all-in kinda meal. It needs a bit of thought.
- Kashmiri Chicken Curry was easy to make, but it needs around 40 mins to simmer so allow your self some time. This is not a make in the afternoon after work kinda meal. That said, it’s a great freezer meal.
- Cauliflower ‘rice’ was yummy but could do with less lemon juice. Watch it in the oven – it can burn on the edges. Just scrape them in and mix it all up every 10 mins or so. I cooked it for about 30 mins, even though the book says 10-12 mins.
- I cannot survive without caffeine. This is ok.
Biomedome 