Chocolate and Beyond

International No Diet Day 6th May

Did you know that:

4 million people are on a diet at any given time in the and 25% restrict what they eat in an effort to watch their weight...yet 98% of us will regain the weight we lose (and put on even more)?

British women spend an average of 6 months a year counting the calories?

In the course of her lifetime, the average woman will spend 31 years on a diet?

Isn't it time to stop?

So how does it feel...?

...to not wake up in the morning and wonder how you'll plan the day with regards to exactly how many calories or fat grams you'll consume?

...to forget about eating and get back on with your day once you've enjoyed your meal and fed your hunger?

...to be bored stiff hearing your friends talk about 'being good' or 'eating low-fat'?

Did you know, diets don't work?!

With summer coming up, it is surely the second 'peak' diet season after the post-Christmas peak. And I hear friends telling me they are going to shed their pounds doing it this way or that way, and that THIS time they really will stick to it.

Heard it all before? Oh yes, and I've said it myself many a time. Never again though. Since I stopped dieting, food just doesn't seem to have the same 'grip' on me as it used to. It takes time, practice and patience to get to this point, let me assure you, but it does happen, eventually.

My daily bread...

...or not quite daily as the case may be, but I do indulge every couple of mornings with a slice of bread. And the breakfast you see in the picture is my very own of yesterday. A common breakfast for me nowadays, although I tend to eat very little in the way of carbohydrates, and definitely not refined carbs.

However, I will not deny myself bread all the time! I have it when I really fancy it. And when I do have it, I don't have just any slice of bread. It is either thickly buttered toast (yum) or fried in bacon fat and lard (even yummier). And yes, I still have lost nearly a stone since Christmas.

Safaris and deep-fried springbok

Here I am, back again, after much absence and neglect of Chocolate & Beyond (sorry!).

I've been in South Africa, for the best part of March, and because I have started eating meat again I have had a wonderful exploration of culinary tastes!

On one of my first nights in the country I ate deep-fried springbok, and whilst on safari I was tucking into rare beef salad. The South Africans are a meat-eating nation, and tend to have something that used to squeal or squawk at every meal. So it was a good job that I have had an about turn on vegetarianism (much to the surprise of my family and friends).