I’ve never been very good at eating healthily.
You see because I’m fairly slim and like to go running everyone thinks I’m super healthy and super fit. But, I’m not.
Along with frequent respiratory infections, I get lots of headaches and bouts of the most intensely itchy scalp psoriasis which drives me half crazy.
I drink hardly any water and all of my kids think my diet is appalling.
‘A pork pie, bag of Maltesers and glass of wine? For dinner? Seriously, mum?!’
I began to wonder; what if I really paid attention to my diet? Would I notice any difference? Would I knock these colds on the head and morph into a super runner? Only one way to find out.
Have you ever wondered how well you’re ageing? I watched a TV show a few weeks ago about staying young and there was a 51 year old chap on there who struck a chord with me. He was slim and felt fit and healthy but his diet was poor. They did a battery of tests on him and his body age came out at 73. What a shocker. Like me he thought that because he didn’t put on weight, he was getting away with eating whatever he liked.
The good news, though, was that he was able to do something about it. By paying careful attention to his diet he knocked nine years off his body age in just 12 weeks.
I could do that.
I like the author Michael Pollan’s approach to eating. His two most quoted rules are:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
Simple to follow – eat mostly fruit and vegetables and avoid highly processed foods.
Considering I love vegetables, porridge, yoghurt, nuts and seeds, beans and lentils you’d have thought I had it made. But I also loved chocolate, pies, bread and cakes. And wine. Lots of wine.
It wasn’t what I’d have to eat that would pose the problem, it was what I’d have to give up.
Anyway, whilst I’m still motivated I made these raw energy balls with dates, walnuts, almonds, cashews, coconut, cocoa powder and a dash of vanilla.
Since spending time in the US where my daughter lives I’ve become a cup convert. Measuring things in cup sizes really is a whole lot easier.
Here’s the recipe:
2 cups pitted dates
2 cups cashew nuts
1/2 cup almonds
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp cold water
Place dates, nuts and cocoa powder in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped.
Add coconut and vanilla extract. Pulse again adding water a little at a time until mixture makes a moist but not sticky dough.
Roll the mixture into balls – makes 8-12 depending on how large you want them.
Chill in the fridge. I placed half of the balls in the freezer and left half in the fridge to encourage me to snack on them that week!
