You are what you eat!

Today I went to see a nutritionist. It's something I've been meaning to do for a very long time, but I've kept putting it off for various reasons. But my eczema on my hands was getting worse and I was getting increasingly more and more tired, so it was time I did something about it. Also, I'd been watching The Food Hospital series on Channel 4 and it really spurred me on to try and treat my ailments through food.

Before my consultation I had to complete a questionnaire which included what symptoms I had, a short food diary and my general health and wellbeing. It was actually quite difficult to answer some of the questions as you have to be very honest. For example, I didn't tick the box which said I was an irritable person, but Steve said that was definitely a box I should tick! Charming!

The consultation lasted about 1.5 hours and I came away having learned a lot. I had already suspected that my blood sugar levels were all over the place and I now have to make sure I am eating a lot more regularly to make sure my energy levels remain constant, rather than peaks and troughs.

A surprisingly diagnosis was my eczema and tiredness might be caused by a dairy intolerance. My parents are Chinese and it's widely believed that because milk is not regularly drunk in China this has led to a lactose intolerance. So even though I was born in the UK and brought up on a mixed Western/Eastern diet, my genes are saying that dairy is not good for me.

So I need to do an elimination test, which means cutting out all dairy for 4 weeks. This will mean trying soya and rice milk for the first time! Apparently it takes 3 weeks to get accustomed to the taste of soya milk, so this will be interesting! When I think about what I have to cut out of my diet (milk, cheese, butter, ice cream, yoghurts) I don't think it's too bad and it could be worse having to give up something like wheat or my real weakness potatoes!

I am also severely lacking in B-vitamins so I need to get a good quality B-vitamin complex supplement.

I also need to increase my intake of fruit and vegetables, eating at least 3 different types of vegetables at dinnertime. This won't be difficult as I really enjoy eating veggies and it will force me to be a bit more adventurous and try new things to stop getting bored. More oily fish and olive oil will also help with the omega oils for my skin.

So, I thought I would blog about my new diet and it will be good for me to keep a record of my progress. But the diet is going to start on Monday as Steve and I have a nice foodie weekend planned so I don't want to miss out!

Dining dangerously at Westfield, Stratford

Steve and I visited the new Westfield at Stratford after our stay at Lifehouse Spa. It was a completely spontaneous decision as our train home from Essex stopped at Stratford and we thought we could stay in the new Premier Inn hotel beside the shopping centre and do a bit of shopping.

We'd been to a Westfield shopping centre in San Francisco and the food there was amazing so we were hoping for more of the same thing over in the UK. We'd arrived shortly before dinner time and as it was the opening week everywhere was completely packed so there were long queues for all the restaurants like TGI Fridays, Wagamamas, Las Iguanas and Giraffe. So we decided to go to the fast food part where there was loads of choice - literally food from around the World.

We found a great Thai place called Rosa's. I had the Black Pepper Beef noodles and it was fantastic. The meat was incredibly soft and tender and there was just enough pepper to give this dish a nice kick.

Steve had a Beef Massaman curry which he liked but it was too sweet for me. We also had the Chicken Satay which was nice but a bit cold because it had been sitting on the counter for a little while. The kitchen cooked everything fresh and they couldn't really keep up with the orders.

We'd just started our meal when the smoke/fire alarm went off and an announcement kept repeating that we should evacuate the area, but I didn't want to leave our food! So we stayed put as none of the staff was telling anyone to leave. I couldn't see any smoke or smell any fire so I thought it was just one of the kitchens having a bit of an issue with a burnt pan. It did make me realise it takes quite a bad situation for me to abandon my dinner! Eventually the alarm stopped and everyone went back to their food, but then it kept going off again as the reset system was messed up so the smoke screens kept coming down and going up again into the ceiling. It certainly made dining rather interesting!

For lunch the next day we went to Tortilla Mexican Grill for burritos. Steve had his with steak and I had mine with braised pork which was so tasty and tender. You can get it filled with all different fillings and I chose mexican rice, onions, peppers, cheese, sour cream, lettuce and some hot sauce from the bottle as I didn't fancy any of the runny salsas on offer (definitely get the hot sauce - Steve didn't see it so didn't ask for it and regretted it!). As you can see they really pack a lot in there and this was the best burrito I've ever had (OK I haven't had many, but the last one I had was at the Ferry Building in San Francisco and it was awful!). We had medium burritos and they were definitely big enough for lunch.

Unfortunately neither of these places are at the Westfield in Shepherd's Bush which is closer to where we live. Sigh. But they have other branches dotted around London so they are definitely places we would visit again.

Oh yeah, the shopping at Westfield isn't too shabby either - got myself some new trainers, a snuggly hoody and a new tee!

First taste of home-grown sweetcorn!

I decided to take the plunge and pick a cob today. This is the one I checked for ripeness the other day and you can now see how much the top of the cob is undeveloped. After I'd fully opened it up and squeezed one of the kernels closer to the base of the cob and the liquid that emerged was milky.

I boiled it for 3 minutes and it was lovely and sweet. However the kernels were quite small. They look quite plump but they are actually quite shallow so when you bite into it you don't get a satisfying amount of corn to munch on. But I'm still really pleased that I've managed to grow a new vegetable and it was edible! Most of my corn plants have double cobs, so we've still got a few more to enjoy!

you can read more about growing sweetcorn here