The Smell of Seaweed.

I went to visit a friend who has a house by the sea in Co. Wexford. I grew up at least a hundred miles from the sea and due to other commitments we saw the ocean only occasionally. I still remember the screams of delight as my brother and I (my favourite sister wasn’t born yet!) began to notice the familiar smell of the sea. Only years later having moved to less than a mile from the sea did I identify the smell as seaweed! I still love that smell and it brings me right back to childhood.

My friend’s house is about a hundred yards from the sea, so I was a child again for two days. I woke early on the first day and wrote my morning pages and while my rice porridge was cooking I skipped out to take a look. It was inspiring. The wind was blowing and the waves crashing and the tide was out so there was a huge expanse of firm sand running for miles both left and right. I ran back inside to get dressed and eat my breakfast so that I could start to experience its power. The sand nearest to the house was very soft so it kept getting into my shoes and when I took them off to empty them I realised I’d forgotten how great it is to walk barefoot, so I ditched the shoes and began to feel my walk…….

Sugar Free Away from Home.

When I arrived at my friend’s house on Monday I wondered how I would be able to keep to my sugar-free diet. I had packed two shopping bags with my supplements (including my sugar craving little helper Chromium) and my grazing snacks (by the way I would be there for just two days!). In a way it was a trial run for going on holidays which happens tomorrow……..

The Sugar Monster.

The biggest problem with going off sugar for me is hunger. In the past when I’m hungry the sugar monster comes and makes me eat sugary snacks. So all the grazing snacks are protection against the sugar monster. When I’m well fed I’m impervious to his attack. A friend loaned me a book called Adrenal Fatigue way back in March and I read it in an afternoon. I read it so fast because it was like reading my life story. It was the seed I needed to begin my healthy eating and led me to sugar-free life.

There’s way too much information in the book to tell you all about it but the bit I want to mention is one of the solutions it proposes to Adrenal Fatigue – eat between meals.

Eat between meals!

I was eating between meals anyway, but it was mainly sugar foods. That’s not useful for the adrenals. But there are other foods that don’t contain sugar and do taste good. For example, at about 11 am I might have a sugar-free yeast-free cracker with avocado and seeds, or a slice of Yoghurt Soda Bread with humous and whatever meat I’ve kept from the previous evening’s dinner. At about 4 pm I could have grated carrot and beetroot with pecan nuts or cracker with nut butter (my favourite is hazelnut, to me it tastes like chocolate!). So I eat five meals a day and I’m loosing weight without trying!

The Master Meringue Maker.

It turned out not to be difficult to stay sugar free while visiting my friend. Even with the addition of a huge temptation in the form of a Master Meringue Maker (her reputation had proceeded her and I am only sorry I met her too late to appreciate her gift). In my past life I loved meringues, why wouldn’t I they’re mainly sugar! The Master Meringue Maker arrived with a tin of meringues, strawberries and cream. I was sorely tempted as the bowls were filled but I had a tomato instead! Even as I write that seems crazy and impossible and not something I could have done pre my sugar-free life, but I did eat a tomato instead of a meringue and I survived. So I think I’ll survive and even thrive on my two week motorbike trip through France.

Do croissants have sugar?