diet – Glad About

Day 5

10th Oct 2025 'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

Writing into Life, more

Lydia’s enjoying some ‘Lydi juice’ – chicken broth – as the final course for her tea, which has included cooked chicken drum fillets, her main course of BARF[i]-based dried pellets and a raw chicken wing.

Trev is preparing our tea – soup made with some leftovers from earlier in the week plus some additional fresh vegetables and other ingredients, to help keep us healthy. It will also taste good.

It took me a while to work out a diet for Lydia that suited her needs and was practical, and the one we’ve arrived at does seem to work.

I change the flavour of her dried food regularly, because none of us want to eat the same things all the time, and I occasionally change brands. The website ‘www.allaboutdogfood’ offers helpful information with comparisons available for content and cost. I was also fortunate to be given some advice from our local dog food supplier, and I feel confident that Lydia does have a good quality balanced diet which – also important – she enjoys. She is by no means a fussy eater and also enjoys treats such as dental sticks, pieces of carrot, banana, apple, pear and peach.

Trev and I generally have a healthy diet, eating little in the way of processed food and plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. I’m conscious of keeping my cholesterol intake down and don’t find this difficult at all. Tomorrow, Trev is having a steak while I’m having some salmon. Hardly what I would call ‘hardship’.

We also like our treats and, I think, all the better for being occasional rather than every day. We do have some ice cream lined up for later, and I can feel a nice glass of red wine coming on …

[i] Biologically appropriate raw food; all good quality ingredients with high protein content and superfood additions, to help keep her healthy

Day 14 – clarity

8th Sep 20258th Sep 2025 'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'1 Comment

Writing into Life

The gears in my car are still not fixed so I’m taking it back to the garage again this afternoon.

I know it will get sorted, one way or another, sooner or later. I do hope it’s sooner though.

Some clarity of thought is coming through and I woke this morning with a lighter heart than I’ve had for a long time.

Even so, I revelled in being able to lie in bed until after 9am, before getting up, making tea for Trev and me, and then doing a short meditation before taking Lydia out for her walk.

Even just a five-minute meditation on a morning is making a real difference, combined with the group sessions that I take part in on a Wednesday evening and the additional occasional teachings at the centre. It’s a slow shift but a shift nonetheless. Yoga and Qigong also have strong meditative aspects to them, working at different levels.

It’s another warm September morning – we are still so blessed with the weather. I know we are blessed whatever the weather but I have enjoyed the weather this summer, moving into autumn.

On the way back I stop off to post a birthday card for a friend – the friend I mentioned in my post on volunteering a couple of days ago. https://gladabout.life/2025/09/06/day-12-volunteering/ She knows who she is!

While waiting in the queue at the post office I do a few exercises for my knees. They are so much better now than a few months ago and I’m not taking that for granted.

I then went on to buy a large unsliced loaf from the local bakery. Two big chunky slices with olive spread and blackcurrant jam make a delicious breakfast for me while Lydia enjoys her food from her feeding ball.

I think back to when I restricted my food intake to such an extent that I used to do an eight-hour evening shift as a waitress, full on, on my feet and rushing round all that time, before I would allow myself a slice of bread for breakfast the following morning.

Even though breakfast for me now is usually late – today around 11.30am – and I rarely have lunch, it’s not because I’m limiting myself by willpower, it’s just because I don’t want to do things any differently. I don’t want or need three meals a day plus snacks.

I’m not thin, but I’m not heavily overweight either. I have Lydia to thank for that, at least in part. Our regular walks every day give my system a much-needed boost.

Food

18th Jun 2022 'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

My relationship with food has historically been a difficult one.

As a teenager I went on a strict diet – mostly made up of cottage cheese, crispbread, lean meat and fruit – to keep me at 7/7^1/2 stone. That was the only way I could feel reasonably good about myself and my body.

Even so, I didn’t think anybody could possibly find me attractive, and I struggled with a very limited life.

If I ever did ‘let go’ and start to eat anything even remotely fattening, my mood plummeted as my weight gained. The only way I could cope was to start restricting my eating again. I had no concept that help or support of any kind might be available; it was a very private and lonely struggle that went on until my mid-40s. After an almost catastrophic catalogue of failed relationships and career stalemate I realised that I had to push through the internal barriers, and keep going until I came out the other side.

20 years on, at 66, I believe I have finally arrived at that point.

I weigh five stone more than I did in my teens, and though I am aiming to steadily lose some weight this won’t be my starving myself – not just of food, but of life.

There are many factors and influences that have helped me to get through, not least in recent years that of my partner, Trev, who makes me feel beautiful just as I am, inside and out. That’s a great gift to get at any age!

I’ve taken on board Buddhist teachings of all kinds, with one fundamental phrase being an enduring fallback: “The mind is a muscle and it can be changed.”

I’ve had to fight and work hard to train and change my brain and was fortunate to find the fight associated with a strong survival instinct when I needed it.

That isn’t to say that I haven’t had moments of self-loathing that threatened to be overwhelming. But I kept looking for and finding ways to be positive, including reaching out to others who were also struggling in the extreme.

I still won’t try clothes on in a shop changing room, and feel no need to put myself through that ordeal. So while this may be evidence of ‘avoidance’ lingering in my psyche, it’s a minor issue as far as I’m concerned, and doesn’t get in the way of me living my life in a full way, including enjoying delicious food.

Bon appetit!