food – Page 3 – Annie's totally normal life

Turkish lunch

Happy Friday!

Today was a bit of a bad day for food. Bad in a good way.

I had a leaving lunch for one of my work friends and we went to a Turkish restaurant called Gallipoli Again, which is in Islington, London. I’d been here once before and thought the food was amazing, so I couldn’t turn down an opportunity to go again.

We decided to have a Meze between the 5 of us and throw in some chips (fries for any non UK people!) as one of my friends is a complete chip addict 🙂 The Meze was huge. There was so much to pick and choose from:

Humus, Kisir, Bakla, Cacik, Potato Salad, Borek, Falafel, Dolma, Chicken Guvec, Lamb Guvec & Mitite Kofte – and chips!

The fist time I’ve ever tried stuffed vine leaves – surprisingly tasty!

Gallipoli Again – some of the tasty food we had

We all filled up on the tasty treats but a couple of us had room for some afters… I was very bad and had some pecan pie and ice cream – in my defence, I didn’t know it came with ice cream as well, but I made sure to enjoy it all ha ha!

I’ve calorie counted everything I ate today – some of it was estimated, but I think because most of the food was relatively healthy, and because they use yogurt instead of things like cream or mayonnaise, that I actually didn’t do too bad. Over where I’d like to be, but not to the extreme.

If you’re interested in finding out more about the restaurant, here’s the website:

http://www.gallipolicafe.co.uk/

There are two Gallipoli cafés on the same street. I’ve never been to the first one, only the second, but I imagine it would be just as nice! Oh and the staff in Gallipoli Again are really lovely – friendly, helpful, fun… can’t ask for much more!

Until next time!

Annie

Day 4 – sweet potatoes!

Well hello!

It’s day 4 of trying to be a responsible person and look after my health. It’s also day 4 of feeling hungry between meals! It’s not so bad… grumble grumble grumble… that’s my stomach by the way!

Figured that I’ll get better at making meals that fill me up, the longer I do this. I have some books from the “Body Coach” about 15 minute meals, but they always seem to take at least an hour to make – why is that!? I might look at those this weekend and pick some things to try…

I’ve been trying to use up stuff in the house so we can start fresh with food. It’s meant that everyday has been a meat day… Mainly red meat too. I’d like to reduce the amount of meat we eat each week, but with a fussy fiancé who has an aversion to veggies and anything with a white / green / cream colour and sauce or liquid texture, and neither of us eating fish (I eat the odd prawn of bit of scampi), it’s quite a task!

That means tonight’s dinner includes mince… I’ve decided on a sweet potato mash and meatballs with peppers and sweet corn – you’ll soon find that most of our meals include peppers and sweet corn, possibly spinach and sometimes tomatoes… that’s about all the goodness I can get him to eat. I mean, I’d have mushrooms with everything, or cauliflower and broccoli, but nope – he won’t touch them, and I can’t deal with cooking two lots of food – I don’t have the space to do it, so I do without. I might have to start hiding food in meals… you know, like adults do with their kids!? Any tips… share them below please!!!

As for the rest of the day… I had some grapes for breakfast, a wrap with salad and salami and a bit of guacamole for lunch , a satsuma and then my usual after dinner yoghurt.

I made homemade pizza yesterday, so I’ve been trying to use up the leftover wraps and salami today. I love my pizzas… sorry for the bad picture – rubbish light!

Tastier than it looks! Pretty healthy too if you manage the portions of cheese and salami!

Tomorrow I’m going out for Turkish food… not sure I’ll stay within the realms of healthy. Stay tuned… 😝

Annie

I poached eggs – this is a big deal!

So today’s post was going to be about something else, but I forgot what great idea I’d had earlier in the day – this is why I write things down. My life is not that exciting, so it was probably as brilliant as the fact that I managed to poach eggs and not wreck them!

Seriously, is it just me who finds them so difficult to cook? I have no idea why, but they usually resemble some weird white octopus type creature with a hard middle. Not today though!

Loooook…

My version of perfect poached eggs & yes, there’s real butter on my toast!

This is an achievement – I’m a shit cook. Well, I think I am. I could be great, but my kitchen is too small and nothing works properly. My hob is at least 20 years old… it’s brown. Who the f*ck even has a brown hob these days!? The kitchen is a work in progress – no it isn’t, that’s a lie. The whole house needs re-wiring, so the kitchen will remain a state for at least another year or the lol.

Anyway, here’s another poached egg appreciation photo…

This is day 3 of eating better and moving more. I’m still hungry. It’s also day 3 of writing this blog. I am literally writing the way I speak, so apologies for foul language and crassness – if you’re easily offended then just keep scrolling by 😝

The rest of today’s foodiness involved some Ryvita, a homemade pizza (might post that separately because it’s damn tasty!) and a yoghurt. By the way, that bread I had for breakfast is gorgeous! A deluxe wholemeal seeded bread from Lidl… love that place, but their bakery kills me!!

Ciao for now!!

Annie

Sleep – it’s overrated anyway!

Hello!

How’s your Tuesday been? Mine has been pretty tiring!! Sleep hasn’t been very good to me lately!

I work in London on the days that I’m not at home, so I was up at 5:30 this morning after about 2 hours sleep… a couple of days of that is fine, but I’m verging on not remembering the last time I had a decent sleep. I really hope that eating better and exercising more will help. Being tired from a lack of sleep, along with the sluggishness of a crappy diet really isn’t fun – it’s my own fault though!

I have to say that I’ve been so hungry all day. I hate the first week or so of cutting out junk, my body thinks it hates me more now than when I’ve scoffed down a few beers and a load of crisps. It doesn’t, but my mind thinks I’ll feel better if I just eat something naughty… mind over matter, as they say.

Today I’ve had porridge with a bit of fruit compote (apparently it’s international porridge day today – who even knew!?), a little popcorn cereal bar thing (that’s as bad as it gets! It’s pretty low in everything to be honest), a “Green & Grain” chicken salad from Pret and homemade spaghetti bolognese for dinner – although with pasta instead of spaghetti, and a yoghurt… I am so hungry lol. I know I shouldn’t be, but seriously, I’ve eaten like a pig for about 3 years now and it’s all caught up with me.

Green and Grain salad – aka Healthy Shit

Exercise wise today, I’ve walked a fair bit. I have a decent walk to and from work and I loaded myself up with bags – yep, I forget that I have to walk to the station, then get on a train and then walk home and buy way more than I can actually carry… Boots had my favourite shower gel on offer for £1 and my shampoo at 3 for £10, so I had to stock up. Usually that’s not a problem, but I had just been to Tesco and bought a bunch of food for home! My neck and shoulders are paying the price for that now 😂 Surely that counts as some kind of weight lifting!? No… oh well!

Enough rambling on… catch up again soon!

Byeeee!

Annie 🙂

Day 1

Hey!

So it’s obviously not the first day of my totally normal life, but it’s day 1 of actually writing about it. It’s also day 1 of giving myself a kick up the arse and waking up to the fact that I’m unfit, overweight and always tired! It’s not good…

Today has been a good day!

I was working from home today so I started it off with a session on the cross trainer before work, I had a nice filling breakfast of boiled eggs, spinach, tomatoes and a slice of ham. I snacked on satsumas for the first time in probably a year, and enjoyed them (they’re so hit and miss!), had some ryveta and cheese spread for lunch, stir fried spicy chicken and brown rice for dinner and a yoghurt to finish. Totally normal food for my totally normal life! I can’t be arsed with fad diets and fancy cooking… I hate my kitchen, so the less time spent there, the better!

Breaking out the trainers for the first time in a while!

I’ve tried and failed miserably for the last year to lose some weight. I’ve probably lost a couple of stone, but have put the same back on numerous times! I was 14 stone 4 this time last year and I’m now a pitiful 13 stone 10. I saw a Facebook memory from 2009 that said I was 11 stone 11 – I thought I was fat then… I’d kill to be that weight again!

I’ve always loved food. Sweet or savoury… doesn’t really matter, although cake and beer are probably my two favourite things!

I’m not sure when food became a problem for me, but I know it was at its worst in 2016 and it was made worse by work. It’s not an excuse, it was a shitty year and food seemed to be the only way to stop me from speaking my mind… which probably would have got me sacked. It stopped me from quitting too. It ended up being a coping mechanism – emotional eating… never thought that would be me. It’s better this year, but I’m still eating way too much and for no good reason either.

I guess this blog is going to just be my ramblings on my health journey and life in general… I hadn’t planned it! I think I just needed to put pen to paper so to speak, so that I actually have to commit to doing something about my health & weight.

Anyway, welcome! Feel free to leave a comment, some words of wisdom or some general thoughts on your own totally normal life!

Annie 🙂