#oneaday Day 78: The Colour of Flavour

I think it’s kind of interesting how specific colours have very much come to be associated with specific flavours — and that those colour assignments are almost (albeit not entirely) universal, at least when it comes to packaging.

Take a green packet of crisps, for example; you know that depending on if it follows the Walkers or Golden Wonder model, it will be either salt and vinegar or cheese and onion flavour. Red packets will be salted. Crimson will be smoky bacon. Orange will be chicken. Brown will be beef.

But it’s not just crisps. You can generally identify tinned fish by its colour: sky blue for tuna, pink for salmon, sardines and mackerel can vary, but often red or dark blue.

And it’s not even food for humans that follows these conventions. The packets of cat food we have follow a similarly recognisable system, too: sky blue for tuna, pink for salmon, red for beef (outside of crisps, this is a common assignment), orange for chicken.

These often make a certain degree of sense. Onions are greenish, for example, so it makes sense for them to be assigned the colour green. Bacon is pink and goes a bit darker when you cook it — particularly if it’s smoked — so crimson makes sense. Blue makes sense for tuna because it’s from the sea and the sea is commonly represented as blue, and salmon is iconically pink, so its packaging is pink. Brown and red both make sense for beef based on its colour after and before cooking, and its status as the most common “red meat”.

I suspect we’re at a point where we can directly associate tastes with colours in an almost synaesthetic manner, even outside of the examples that have some logic behind them. If someone says a fizzy drink “tastes like red”, I bet you know what they mean, don’t you? And interestingly, a drink tasting like “red” does not mean it tastes like either salt or beef. This even progresses into areas that make no sense, like “blue raspberry”. Raspberries aren’t blue. And yet if I say “blue raspberry” to you, I bet you know what it tastes like. (Very little like raspberries, as it happens.)

I’ve mentioned in my writing and my videos before that I feel like I have a certain degree of synaesthesia. When I’m playing a video game, for example, sometimes on-screen actions will be satisfying in a way that I can only describe as them “tasting” nice or having good “mouthfeel”. I wonder how much of that is something that has happened independently of all this, and how much is a result of how much, today, we directly associate colours with flavours.

Apparently from a casual Google, I’m not the first person to feel like this. There’s a paper from 2015 published on Biomed Central that is “on the psychological impact of food colour”, for example. Their hypothesis was that “colour is the single most important product-intrinsic sensory cue when it comes to setting people’s expectations regarding the likely taste and flavour of food and drink.”

I’ve only skimmed the study so won’t go into detail, but one interesting thing that was picked out was how these colour-flavour assignments can have different cultural meanings. For example:

A diagram of cross-cultural colour-flavour associations, demonstrating a dark red drink and a sky blue drink.

Beneath the images are Taiwanese and British flags indicating the perceived flavours of those colours in the different territories.

In Taiwan, the red drink is assumed to be cranberry. In the UK, cherry or strawberry.

In Taiwan, the blue drink is assumed to be mint; in the UK, raspberry.

The paper’s “conclusion” section seemed remarkably inconclusive, though it did admit that “colour cues influence our food and drink-related behaviour in a number of different ways” and “food colouring undoubtedly plays an important role in driving liking and the consumer acceptability of a variety of food and beverage products”.

It also noted that “identifying consistent colour-flavour mappings and training the consumer to internalise other new associations is one of the important challenges facing the food marketer interested in launching new products or brand extensions in a marketplace that is more colourful than ever.”

So basically, a lot of it comes down to marketing. I still think it’s interesting how obvious “standards” have developed, though — and it’s interesting to consider that those standards might not be universal from one country to another.

Want to read my thoughts on various video games, visual novels and other popular culture things? Stop by MoeGamer.net, my site for all things fun where I am generally a lot more cheerful. And if you fancy watching some vids on classic games, drop by my YouTube channel.

#oneaday Day 18: Attempting to Reset

I put half a pound on this week. This is not, in the grand scheme of things, a huge amount of weight, but I am a little disappointed and not at all surprised. I have not been particularly rigorous about taking care to be sensible with what I eat, and that somewhat laissez-faire attitude is being reflected in a lack of positive results.

All you can do in this situation, though, is hold up your hands, admit you made a mistake (or a few) and try to right the ship from hereon. What has already happened can’t be changed; what’s important is what you do next and what you learn from that mistake.

I’ve already started taking positive steps with the exercise. I made it out of the door and to the pool for a decent length swim this morning, after what was a surprisingly good night’s sleep. I woke up a lot of times, but every time it was because I was convinced it was 7am and time to get up, only to get the very pleasant surprise when I looked at my bedside clock and discovered that “time to get up” was still several hours away.

What I need to do is focus on some of the things that Slimming World talks about in the sessions, rather than just nodding along. Probably the key thing I need to focus on is “triggers” — in the slimming sense, these are the things that aren’t the greatest for you which you eat then immediately want more of. They are one of the biggest barriers to weight loss, because they are the things that are most likely to send you catastrophically “off plan”.

In many respects it’s like an addiction. I have some experience of dealing with people who have struggled through addiction to substances more harmful than food — thankfully, those addictions appear to be in the past for the people concerned — but I recognise some of the same behaviours in myself when I “lapse”. A desire to make myself “feel better” through the thing that is the source of a lot of my troubles; an inability to stop once I’ve started that “self-medication” process; the mental association between feeling like I “deserve” something that is bad for me for [insert justification here].

Part of my trouble is not having what I think of as “safety nets” in place — and the fact I’m somewhat inclined to think negatively of those safety nets. My immediate reaction to seemingly obvious advice like “don’t eat a bag of sweets, have a piece of fruit instead” is that this is an absolutely laughable statement, even though I know fruit can be perfectly satisfying and even delicious. I need to get out of that mindset — and to have those pieces of fruit readily to hand so I can start making positive associations with them.

There are countless other examples, but there are days when it just all feels like work. And it is work; work with tangible benefits over the long term. It’s those long-term benefits I need to keep my focus on, because it’s short-term factors — i.e. the way I’m feeling right now — that is causing me difficulties.

I don’t need advice or anything. I know what I need to do, and putting it down on “paper” will likely go at least a little way towards fixing some of those things a bit further forward in my mind. I know I can do this — I’ve done it once before — so I just have to knuckle down and actually do it.

For now, though, bed. Without biscuits.

#oneaday Day 6: Best Thing Since

My wife Andie bought a breadmaker a little while back. We didn’t need one — no-one needs a breadmaker — but I have to say, the bread that comes out of it is really nice. And it’s got me thinking that as I’ve grown older, I’ve grown more and more fond of simple pleasures.

For instance, when I was a kid, I distinctly remember thinking of bread as being “boring”. After all, a joking “threat” by a parent at the time could be “you won’t get any dinner, you’ll just have bread and water”. (I hasten to add for anyone new to this blog that my parents were not in any way abusive, nor did they ever refuse me dinner and just give me bread and water.) But nowadays, I find it thoroughly pleasurable to sometimes just have a bit of bread with some spread or jam on it.

It doesn’t even necessarily have to be good bread. Sometimes I’m quite happy with the mediocrity of a shop-bought sliced loaf — I’m particularly fond of toasted wholemeal bread with raspberry jam — but a nice crusty loaf, be it from a bakery or the breadmaker, is a genuine treat now.

It’s kind of disappointing that bread isn’t particularly brilliant for you, particularly white bread. I find this kind of strange, given how much of a staple food bread has always been considered — and I’m sure in years gone by, this was even more the case. Whenever I think of, say, medieval folks, I’m sure bread was a significant part of what they ate. It’s a potentially winning strategy in Agricola to focus on bread-making, after all.

I always find it interesting in Japanese media when students talk about simply “buying some bread” for their lunch, though I suspect this more commonly refers to some sort of sandwich. I am especially fascinated by the concept of the yakisoba pan, which is a noodle sandwich in a hot dog bun, and melon pan, which is a sweet bread that always sounds delicious when people describe it. There’s also anpan, which is a bread roll stuffed with sweet red bean paste that I’d personally say veers more towards the “cake” or “doughnut” end of the spectrum, but it still counts.

I don’t know if any of those can be made in a breadmaker — thus far we’ve just tried simple bread recipes and shop-bought ready mixes (there’s a cheese and sun-dried tomato one that is lovely) — but it might be interesting to experiment. We’ll have to see, I guess. In the meantime, I’ve got a loaf to polish off.

2457: Time Away

Andie and I have spent a couple of days in Bournemouth, not for any particular reason, just to “get away” from it all. I won’t speak for Andie, but certainly in my case, it was much needed.

I’ve been wracked with stress and anxiety of months now, largely due to relentless feelings of inadequacy, worthlessness and uselessness due to the seemingly never-ending job hunt. I’ve described these feelings before, but they bear repeating: I know I have so much to offer the world, and it’s inordinately frustrating that it seems nigh impossible to convince the people who hold the pursestrings of that fact.

All that said, just before we left on Monday morning, I was contacted by a recruitment consultant for a job that I feel I can do, and I also put in an application for another job that I felt quite confident about. I’m not going to get my hopes up too much for either of them, but, well, they’re something at least, which is in stark contrast to the fat lot of nothing I’ve heard from a variety of employers for the last few months.

The time away has been nice, though it’s made me realise quite how much I carry stress in my body as well as my mind. Today in particular, I’ve just been absolutely exhausted, and all I’ve wanted to do is sleep. Quite a lot of today has been taken up with napping, to be perfectly honest, but it’s been nice; Andie could evidently do with a break, too, so it’s been thoroughly pleasant to be somewhere that we can just rest without having to worry about anything that we were supposed to be doing. Our only commitments each day have been getting up in time for breakfast, and getting somewhere in time for dinner service.

The hotel we’re staying at is really nice. It’s got a very 1950s Art Deco feel about it — including the stereotypical Art Deco font — but it doesn’t feel “old” at all. It’s in good condition and clearly very modern, but the overall aesthetic of it is clearly inspired by Art Deco.

There’s a poncey restaurant here, too; on our first day, we were fortunate enough to win a £25 voucher for it, so we had dinner there last night. The restaurant, I feel, struck a good balance between the “modern cooking” that I find so unsatisfying and providing actually flavoursome, generous portions of good food. I had some scallops for a starter, an excellent burger for a main and possibly the best trifle I’ve ever had, ever for dessert. (The custard clearly had cream in it, there was a big dollop of clotted cream on top and there were plenty of strawberries throughout.)

Tonight, meanwhile, we went to the hotel next door for dinner; as well as a fancy restaurant, they have a pub, so we enjoyed some hearty traditional British pub food. Even that was really good, though; I had a macaroni cheese that clearly had actual proper cheese in it rather than being a microwave jobby.

Back home tomorrow, and while I’m not sure I’d say I’m revitalised and refreshed — I still feel pretty tired — I do feel a little more inclined to face the challenges ahead. One day at a time, I guess.

2440: Baffled by Food

Andie’s been watching a show called Great British Menu, and that show frustrates me in a number of ways. Firstly, it’s one of many, many shows that overuses the “Great British” thing. It’s okay to just say “British” sometimes. (You definitely don’t need to say it at all when talking about the “great British public”. It’s just “the public”.)

The main way it frustrates me, however, is I just don’t understand the appeal of the food these people are cooking. The show claims to celebrate the “total transformation of British cuisine during the Queen’s historic reign” (and they don’t let you forget that, repeating it roughly eleven thousand times each episode) but all I see is food that has become less about, well, food and more about, as they put it “theatre”.

I’m a simple man when it comes to food. I like a good ham, egg and chips. I like a chilli. I like a spaghetti bolognese. I like a steak. I like a good roast dinner. Those are all good dishes that taste nice. They may be “uninteresting” to the refined palate, but they do fine by me, and more importantly, they are easily scalable according to how hungry you are and how many people you’re catering for.

The “total transformation of British cuisine during the Queen’s historic reign”, meanwhile, seems to be all about compressing and pureeing everything, then sticking it in a box with some dry ice underneath so the plate of food ends up resembling a rather sparsely populated ’80s rock concert more than, well, a plate of food.

One of the things the chefs on the show are fond of doing is offering “a new take on [x]”. In the last episode I saw, there was “a new take on bacon and eggs”, and “a new take on Eton Mess”. Again, both of those things are fine as is. I certainly don’t need an onion puree and an onion tuile, whatever the fuck that is, with my bacon and eggs — even if I did like onion, which I don’t. And I definitely don’t need my Eton Mess to be “interactive” by being hidden inside a meringue shaped like a cricket ball.

I don’t know. I’m probably just being grumpy about this, although I have had food with “theatre” and enjoyed it — when I went to the Ninja restaurant in New York, the food there was served with plenty of theatrics and dry ice, but importantly, they gave you an actually decent plate of food as well. The stuff the chefs on Great British Menu come up with looks like something you’d serve as a starter to a Spartan.

If this is how British cuisine has transformed during the Queen’s historic reign, then I’m just grateful that the local chippy is still open for business.

2210: Live to Eat

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“Some people eat to live, while others live to eat. What about you? How far would you travel for the best meal of your life?”

The Daily Post, February 7, 2016

Some time ago, I wrote about how I’m not a foodie. Things haven’t changed all that much, but I mention this now because it’s relevant to the Daily Post prompt for today.

For me, food is something I very much enjoy — hence my weight problems, to be perfectly frank — but not in the same way as people who really enjoy food enjoy it. No, I’m not one who is keen to have a delicate bouquet of flavours exploding on my tongue as I take a miniscule mouthful of something that looks more like a piece of modern art than an actual meal — I’m someone who likes to have a big ol’ gobful of something that tastes good, and preferably a lot of it. If the thing that tastes good is also reasonably not-awful for you, then so much the better, since if there’s one thing I learned since starting Slimming World, it’s that there are a lot of tasty things out there that you can eat completely guilt-free.

I was particularly conscious of my feelings towards food when Andie and I were watching the recent series of Masterchef: The Professionals. I found the programme a bit tedious, to be honest, because every episode was very similar to the last, and very little of the food actually looked appealing to me. These chefs — who I’m sure are at the very pinnacle of their craft — were taking things that would have been delicious in their most basic forms, then complementing them with bizarre crap like “pea puree” and baffling combinations of herbs and spices. Even on desserts. If there’s one thing I can’t abide, it’s putting weird combinations of herbs and spices on desserts. Rosemary is for lamb in a pinch — though I prefer it without — not cake or ice-cream.

The most peculiar thing I think I’ve eaten and actually enjoyed was when my friend Tim — who emphatically is a foodie; you can tell this by the fact he has a favourite truffle oil — made a Heston Blumenthal (I think) bacon ice-cream for us to enjoy one evening. I wasn’t entirely convinced that this was going to be nice when it was first posited, but then I thought about it — and thought about how nice bacon is with sweet things like maple syrup and pancakes — and realised it might not be that bad. And indeed it wasn’t that bad at all — indeed, I’d go so far as to say it was genuinely nice. Would I have it in preference to a nice bowl of Cornish vanilla slathered in chocolate, caramel or strawberry stickies, though? Of course not.

So in answer to the question above, then — how far would I go for the best meal of my life? — I guess I would have to say “the kitchen”. Or, at a push, “the pub” or “Tesco”. Because although I enjoy my food, I can’t say it’s something I seek a life-changing experience from. And I know from experience that no amount of Michelin Star-winning chefs will make me enjoy nouvelle cuisine or whatever you’re supposed to call that bollocks now; give me a nice hearty chilli, or a lump of pork with some nice potatoes, or a rack of lamb, or anything that just makes you feel full and happy to eat, and I’ll be satisfied. And you can keep your pea purees.

1995: Diet-Friendly Snacky Things

Since starting Slimming World, I’ve had to make a number of adjustments to my lifestyle to ensure that I continue to lose weight. And it’s been a lot easier to do than I thought it would be; while there are days when I still miss cake or really, really want a whole bag of Wine Gums, for the most part I’m pretty much okay. And the reason for this is that I’ve found a number of acceptable “substitutes” for those times when I just want to eat something as a snack — not a full meal, but just something to munch on for whatever reason.

I have a couple of weaknesses that contributed to my weight gain in the first place: firstly, I very much have a weakness for sweet things (such as the aforementioned cake and wine gums) and secondly, I have a tendency to eat when I’m depressed (which is quite often) or when I’m bored (which often leads to depression). These habits are fundamental parts of my character that I can’t eliminate entirely, but which I can act upon in a more… responsible manner.

As such, here are some of the diet-friendly snacky things that I tend to make sure I have in the cupboard or fridge at all times, so that any time I’m feeling peckish for whatever reason, I can grab them and enjoy them without guilt that I’m ruining the hard work I’ve been doing.

Laughing Cow Little Cravings

These things were a revelation. I wouldn’t call myself a particular cheese addict — in stark contrast to my wife, who loves a bit of cheese, despite technically being lactose intolerant — but I do like cheesy things now and then. What Little Cravings are is small, bite-size cubes of Laughing Cow cheese spread, optionally flavoured to taste a bit like “real” cheese — in the case of the pack shown on the right, cheddar, smoked processed cheese and blue cheese.

They’re surprisingly tasty and satisfy a craving when one comes long. Plus at half a Syn each (you can have 5-15 Syns per day) on Slimming World, they really are pretty much guilt-free, which is exactly what I want from a snack.

Metcalfe’s Skinny Popcorn

I love popcorn. My favourite is toffee popcorn, which obviously (probably — I haven’t checked) isn’t at all diet-friendly, but Metcalfe’s range of “skinny popcorn” (sometimes found branded as “skinny topcorn” for some reason) is really tasty, comes in a variety of different flavours (I’m a particular fan of the sweet and salty variety pictured here, along with the cinnamon and honey flavoured ones) and is very low on the Syns, at 2.5 Syns per small bag or serving (a little under 20g, which in popcorn terms is actually a reasonably generous portion).

While it’s not quite the same as a bag of crisps, a bag of popcorn, I find, satisfies that similar urge for something crunchy and/or salty (or, sometimes, sweet, depending on the flavour) so I’m going to make sure I have plenty of this on hand when I can.

Muller Light

I was never a big yogurt-eater while I was growing up. I had that childish thing where I didn’t like “bits” in my yogurt, and while I don’t mind it now, I still generally prefer a smooth dessert of some description.

Enter Muller Light, then, which is not only Syn-free for most flavours (there are a couple of exceptions) but which has a range of very tasty smooth flavours, some of which even have sprinkles of dark chocolate on them, helping to satisfy chocolate cravings. It’s not a lot of chocolate, admittedly, but it’s better than nothing — and it’s completely guilt-free, which is just wonderful. I particularly recommend the vanilla with chocolate, orange with chocolate, coconut with chocolate and skinny cappuccino flavours, the latter of which I am disappointed that I haven’t been able to find recently.

Fish

I eat a lot more fish than I used to. A quick and easy lunch for me these days is a bowl of rice with some smoked mackerel in some kind of sauce stirred into it. Most of these are Syn-free, too (there are exceptions, but none of them are particularly high — you’re safe with the tomato and spicy tomato varieties, which are both Syn-free) and between them and the rice (which is Syn-free if you cook it properly, one Syn if you’re lazy and use the Uncle Ben’s pouches thanks to the oil in them) they satisfy hunger for a good long period, making them ideal for either lunch or just a snack if you’re feeling particularly hungry. You will smell of fish, though, so be prepared to explain that.

1943: Meat, Meat, Meat

Went out for dinner this evening as part of my continuing combined stag and birthday celebrations. We went to a Brazilian place in Southampton that I neglected to remember the name of, but which a quick Google reveals is called Fogo Gaucho.

Fogo Gaucho is a place that I’ve been curious to try for a while, as it sounded like an intriguing dining experience. It’s a place where you pay a flat rate for your meal (plus drinks) and then simply sit at your table while you have lots of different bits of meat brought to you. In between said carnivorousness, you have the opportunity to visit a buffet and fill up your plate with some other bits and pieces like veggies, potatoes, rice and Brazilian stew, but the highlight of the experience is undoubtedly the meat.

And it was a fine selection of meat, too, running the gamut from spicy chicken thighs to some wonderful cuts of beef steak and lamb. At the start of the evening, the serving staff ask how you prefer your meat (rare, medium and so forth) and remember it, cutting pieces of meat from giant, majestic skewers that are according to your liking and then inviting you to pull them off the skewer with a pair of thoughtfully provided tongs.

The meat was delicious. It was all seasoned in various ways — pork ribs had a tasty, sweet coating, for example, while one of the cuts of lamb had a garlicky flavour to it. The spicy chicken thighs, meanwhile, were, well, spicy, and the beef steak cuts were wonderful, with the varied cuts provided really allowing you to appreciate the difference between different types.

The most common criticism of the place is that the meat is all a bit salty, and I’d concur with that; I don’t know if that’s a hallmark of Brazilian-style cooking or if it’s a deliberate choice intended to get you having more drinks — drinks cost extra, remember — but either way, it didn’t bother me too much. It was a great meal — and great value if you make sure to go when you’re really hungry — and I’m pleased to have discovered this place. Now I have somewhere fun to take people who come to visit!

Now I’m very tired, so I will call it a night there. More games tomorrow!

1866: Going Out, and the Perils Thereof

I’m writing this from our restaurant table. We’re right near the open kitchen and the food smells amazing. My mouth is watering just thinking about eating it, particularly as it’s something a little unusual and different from our norm: it’s Caribbean food, which I have had before, but not for quite some time, and it’s not a cuisine I’d say I know well.

Unfortunately, it’s also 10.30pm and we’ve been here since 8pm. We’ve only just sat down, only just ordered, and God knows how long it will take for the food to actually arrive at our table. This has, as you can probably imagine, soured the experience a little.

I should have seen it coming, of course. It’s Friday night in the city centre, and that was a busy time back when I was at university. Over the last few years in particular, the city centre has undergone extensive regeneration — the restaurant we’re currently sitting in is part of one of these new and restored buildings. With new and shiny buildings — and an expanding student population at both of the two city’s universities — come hordes of people, of course. But I hadn’t realised until now quite how ridiculously busy it gets in town.

This is probably nothing new to those of you who live in busy, bustling cities around the globe. But for me it’s quite surprising. Southampton never felt like a particularly big deal, and Going Out used to be something you could do on a whim. It was often quite enjoyable to do so — friends and I would often take impromptu trips to local watering holes like Lennons and Kaos, and we’d always be able to get in and have a good time.

Not any more. Going Out appears to have become something that needs to be planned well in advance, that involves lots of standing around waiting, and that, frankly, just isn’t particularly fun any more.

Perhaps it’s my age. Perhaps it’s the fact I’ve practically been a hikikomori for the past few years (and am largely comfortable with this). Or perhaps it’s the pitiful organisation of this place that saw us waiting for more than two hours to sit down, let alone eat. Whatever it is, I don’t count on myself doing it much more in the future, unless the occasion is very special indeed.

On the plus side, however, between writing the last paragraph and this one I’ve eaten a plateful of whitebait for the first time in about 20 years, and it was every bit as delicious as I remember. So at least the food is good. Worth the wait? Questionable, but at least the tedious and rubbish part of the evening is over.

1862: Eat Well

So, how is this whole Slimming World thing going?

Pretty well, actually. I’ve lost over a stone since I started, and while I do occasionally feel like I’m “missing out” on some things that I previously would have grabbed and enjoyed without question — I’m talking about obviously awful-for-you-but-delicious things like cakes, anything involving pastry, McDonald’s breakfasts and all manner of other dreadfulness — on the whole I don’t feel like I’m starving myself, because there’s usually something around that I can eat and enjoy without feeling hungry.

And I think that’s the key part of this. Often I’d eat something just because I was feeling hungry, and there was also a certain degree of using it as a “coping” strategy, too; I’d reward myself with something tasty if I felt I “deserved” it, and it was never particularly difficult to think of a reason that I “deserved” it, whether it had been a good day or a bad one.

The nice thing about the Slimming World programme is that I can actually still do this if I want to — I just have to reward myself with something that isn’t a cake or a sausage roll or something. Fortunately, there are plenty of things that I do like that are “free” on the programme, so that’s not too much of an issue.

There’s also the fact that there’s quite a few pleasant surprises in terms of recipes and things that count as “free”. You can have as much meat as you like, for example, so long as it’s lean, and stuff like pasta and rice is also free. (Microwave rice is not completely free, mind you, as there’s a bit of oil in there; it’s still only 1 “syn”, though, so it’s not super-terrible, as you’re supposed to have between 5 and 15 “syns” per day.) I like meat, so it’s good to be able to just snack on some nice chicken pieces or something; better for me than crisps, for sure, and maybe possibly nicer? I’m not sure.

Andie also looked up a recipe for a Slimming World-friendly dessert the other night. The website has an impressive collection of these (along with various main courses), so we chose the Apple Betty. It came out really nicely, and tastes great. It’s not syn-free, but it’s fairly low on the guilt scale, with just 2 syns per slice. Best of all, it “feels” like a “proper” dessert. I love desserts; they’re probably my biggest weakness. So to be able to still enjoy them and stick to the programme is great.

I’ve also been really impressed with the Slimming World ready meals that recently launched, exclusive to Iceland. They’re good quality food and substantial portions; I’ve certainly never finished one and felt like I could eat another one, which is a criticism which can be levelled at other “healthy” ready meals, particularly the rather stingy portions from Weight Watchers. I’ve also been impressed to discover that it is indeed possible to produce a “syn-free” sausage, and they taste pretty good, too. I have no idea what they’ve done to them to make them syn-free, but they make for a great and guilt-free sausage sandwich, which is something to be celebrated.

Anyway. I’m glad I’ve been able to stick with it even with all the unpleasantness that’s occurred recently. It would have been so easy to just give up and slip back into my old ways, but knowing that weekly weigh-in is coming every Wednesday helps jar me back to “reality” and make me think that I don’t really need to eat something awful for me just because I feel a bit crap; I can eat, by all means, I just need to be more mindful of what it is that I am actually eating.

Success so far, then, but I still have a long way to go before I get to where I want to be. Hopefully this journey will continue in the right direction.