To breakfast or not to breakfast — Kandy Shepherd

Are you a breakfast person? I confess I'm not. I don’t wake up feeling hungry, in fact the thought of eating early in the day actually doesn’t appeal at all. It takes my appetite a while to wake up and it isn’t until mid morning that I feel hungry.

But breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper,” the old saying goes.

ACAI bowl is a popular cafe breakfast treat

I have skipped breakfast many, many times over the years. But now my daughter is an accredited, practising dietitian and I have professional scrutiny on my eating habits.

She has convinced me that breakfast is indeed very important as it tells your body that after the night’s fast, you are not going into starvation mode and your metabolism doesn’t need to slow down (no way do I want my metabolism to slow down!) Eating breakfast is a signal to your brain to fuel it—just what I need when I’m writing!

Bacon and eggs, anyone?

My dietitian daughter says she believes there are “breakfast people” and “non-breakfast people”. However she says waking up not hungry can mean you ate a big meal the night before, perhaps late in the evening. Eating dinner earlier in the evening if possible is a better idea. 

She says it’s okay for me to eat my breakfast later in the day when hunger signals—especially as I work from home with easy access to the kitchen. However she stresses this doesn’t apply to adolescents who too easily skip meals when they need to be eating regular healthy meals. She also warns that skipping breakfast at any age doesn’t mean filling up on “junk” food later in the day. Yep, I’m sure I’ve been guilty of that!

Dietitian daughter also warns: “Trying to skip breakfast in attempt to ‘eat less’ and ‘reduce overall intake’ doesn't necessarily work either, as we probably make up for it later in the day.”

What I had for  breakfast this morning! Apple, raspberries, plain yogurt and goodies from my "breakfast box."

So I’m getting better at eating breakfast. Big, cooked breakfasts have never been my thing. I do enjoy an occasional bacon and eggs, but much later in the day, preferably lunch time.

My daughter suggests low GI carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats, vegetables and fruit make a good breakfast. She recommends poached eggs with spinach and tomato and wholegrain toast with avocado for my active husband. I used to eat fresh fruit and plain, sugar free yogurt when I did eat breakfast. Now I really enjoy the addition of raw walnuts, ground linseed, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds and chia plus a small serve of plain muesli. I’ve got it all there in the “breakfast box” in my fridge. They're really delicious!

The family "breakfast box" that lives in the fridge

What about you? Are you a breakfast eater or a “can’t face the sight of food in the morning” person? Do you have a favourite breakfast? We’d love to read your comments!

PS I'm thrilled to be in this anthology of "royal wedding" stories with fellow LoveCat, Annie West! It's out in both Australia and New Zealand and the UK this month.

Challenging Oneself

by Bronwyn Jameson

I was a competitive person once, loving sports and trivia nights and TV quiz shows and writing contests, but I seem to have lost this personality trait as I mellow into *euphemism alert* "late middle-age".  At least that's what I thought until I examined this more closely.

Lately I've been challenging myself rather than others, which is another form of competition, right?

This started with my acquisition of a treadmill desk, which encouraged me to record my mileage walked and to build on this week by week.  Not always successfully but I am walking, in technical terms, a helluvalot further than previously.  My Fitbit tells me so.

I also found that walking while I worked reduced my desire to snack, unhealthily, while writing. That had become a nasty habit.  Which led to further examination of my eating habits, my mindless eating, my laziness in meal preparation, and my addiction to sugar...or sugar-loaded treats.

My 2017 challenge has been, if not to quit sugar, to be mindful of my intake.  To eat healthily day to day, week to week, and to keep the treats for special occasions.  Again, I'm not always successful, but I'm proud of my efforts thus far and my pursuit of the goal: to work more on "how I feel" and less on "what the scales say."

A couple of months back I added another challenge: I started a gym program based on strength and resistance training.  I am no gym junkie, that's for sure, and most weeks I only make 3 visits but it does make me feel good.   And by the time our 2018 ski trip comes around, I hope to notice the difference in my strength and endurance.   

At the moment I'm halfway through a two-week challenge with these amazing girls, making healthy meals and eating and living more mindfully and joyously.  The meal/eating part = success.  I'm loving these recipes, which are largely gluten-free, sugar-free and dairy-free.  The other parts = not as successful, as I'm flat out organising the household ahead of a two week trip to London.  

This involves a lengthy To-Do List, arranged within my go-to organisation tool, Todoist.  I adore this app, probably because it appeals to my latent competitive spirit,  granting various karma levels as one completes tasks and crosses them from the list.  As evidenced below, I am a Master.

Are you a competitor?  How do you challenge yourself with your writing, your reading, your everyday life?

Cool or uncool? — Kandy Shepherd

Is it dreadfully uncool of me to admit to how much pleasure my vegetable garden gives me?

Not so much the back-breaking work of weeding, digging, and—decidedly uncool—fertilising. Although fresh air, exercise and communing with nature do play their part in those past-times. (And, if I’m being honest, much of the hard work is done by my darling hubby.)

 I’m thinking more of the ongoing pleasure in seeing things grow. Then there’s the harvest—the joy of organic produce eaten just minutes from being picked from the garden. It surely must be good for us! Then it all seems worthwhile. Even the less-than-supermarket-perfect produce seems to taste so much better.

Right now in the heat of summer Down Under, my garden is overflowing with abundance. (A bit too overflowing—I never seem to allow enough distance between plants). We’ve been eating lettuce, green beans, cucumbers, and zucchini (courgette) for months, with the tomatoes, eggplant (aubergine), capsicums (peppers) and chili now coming into full force. Herbs too are flourishing.

 Some years are more successful at our little farm than others. We’re at the mercy of nature as to how well our tomatoes grow, some years we have none. And I’m a gardening incompetent when it comes to small seeds like lettuce, spinach and carrots. I have friends who are very good at saving seed from crop to crop, whereas I’m of the buying seedlings wherever possible persuasion.

For this reason I sometimes wonder whether growing our own is actually cost effective, though the water (we collect our own) and fertiliser (thank you chickens and horses) is “free”. But the taste and satisfaction it gives us is priceless. For the rest of the time we’re lucky to have a good fruit and vegetable market not too far away.

 I’ve been interested in vegetable gardening since I was eleven years old when I first grew a crop of green beans and radishes (which I didn’t even like!) Over the years I’ve grown them when possible.  However for many years even a pot of herbs on the windowsill was impossible because of where we lived and other demands on time.

 In my upcoming May release for Harlequin Romance Conveniently Wed to the Greek I have the opportunity of planting a fictional veggie garden in an upmarket spa resort on a gorgeous Greek island. Now that was fun!

Do you have “green thumbs” when it comes to vegetable gardening? Any disasters? Or do you find it so much easier to shop at the market! I’d love to see your comments.