Having noticed articles in the media from Ireland lately with sentences like BATTLE of the bulge and LOSE a stone challenges in 8 weeks,  I feel sorry for the suffering those people are going through trying to GIVE UP things that they enjoy and FEEL BAD either because their energy is low or because they are not reaching their targets.

About five years ago due to hormone changes matched with heatwave here in Lanzarote in the Summer months of July August and September,  I stopped all exercise as I was feeling hot both inside my body and temperatures outside were soaring….. so with long summer and autumn evenings I ate much more of what was not good for my body and moved less. As I was suffering I went with the flow and decided to give myself a break for a few months. By January I noticed I was up 8 ½ lbs and my knees had begun to ache.

Despite winter weather I always love the new start that January allows and with hormones and body heat in a much better state I decided to take myself in hand and get healthy and fit again.

So I began getting into my schedule of a good walk before breakfast and joined a local swimming club. I also decided to try the new buzz 5:2 diet which I read not only helps one shift the extra lbs but also is really good for stabilising bloods and overall health which is important to me.

In supporting me, and to shift a few lbs of his own, my husband decided to join in and so together we dropped our calorie intake to 500 (women) and 600 (men) calories for a minimum of two days out of seven.

I was delighted with the quick results in weight loss but concerned in how exhausted I often felt the following day after calorie cut.  Although I read that it was really good for health I felt my body was under severe stress, especially by the evening times when I began to feel really cold.

Due to work commitments and travelling to Ireland I had a few pauses in the plan, overall the lbs dropped away. But then I got very sick. Not once, but twice.  I had not been really sick in years so I was surprised to say the least. Then my husband who is rarely sick also got very sick and took many weeks to recover his stamina.

So this certainly got me questioning why my immune system was down.

I live the life I love, I love my work, I love where I live and I take good care of myself.  Usually this combination  has always kept me healthy  and so I did some more investigating as I wanted to understand why this had happened.

I went online and discovered that other people had got quite ill having done the 5:2 as well and so I decided, once my health was back to normal not to resume this.

They do say that when the pupil is ready the teacher appears! And so I was blessed, just then, to have had two of my very good friends, Edel and Sinead  from Ireland visit me on a holiday here. They both have been coming to me for Reflexology for many years in Ireland and over the years we grew into the best of friends.

Their timing could not have been better; although I was at the end of a very serious bout of bronchitis which I felt had almost turned into pneumonia.

Despite this, we still managed some wonderful days exploring the island together though in the end I had to let them off themselves as I had to rest.

But in the days they spent here, I watched their joy of food and eating and cooking. They are so fit and trim and very healthy that they always inspire me with their stamina climbing mountains and walking for hours on end.. So I watched and I learnt.

They don’t eat wheat or gluten and have almost no sugar except what is in fruit and possibly liquorice and an occasional glass of wine.  I would have thought that terribly boring until I ate what they ate on a number of occasions and then I embraced their joy of food!  I saw that their food was certainly not boring! Quite the opposite!

Since then I am so very grateful to them because I feel like a new woman!  Most of my meals I drizzle extra virgin olive oil onto with the same gusto that they did. My daily salads now include fruit as well as veg and with such an amazing variety of tastes and colours my meal looks like such a wonderful extravagance!

I still enjoy my extra treats which are dark chocolate after dinner and maybe a little dried fruit and a handful of almonds in the evening after dinner and lately I make my glass of white wine into a cool spritzer by added sparkling water.

I enjoy nuts and seeds and avocados and lemons and limes and some dried fruits.  When I shop now it’s so much more about colour and taste and enjoyment.

I feel like my body loves this new food and my skin is glowing from the olive oil.

So there are no words like denial, fasting, losing or battle in my vocabulary.   The only word I could use to describe my food now is sensuous!  Sensuous in colour, sensuous in taste and I love it !

And my weight you might ask?  Has not been an issue since!  I feel healthy and vital and happy with my body.

Thank you Edel and Sinead for introducing me to wonderful glorious food ! Food really is medicine!