Welcome to this week’s Healthy Eating…How has your week gone? Are you finding the going tough, easy or a little in between …Good days and bad days…We all have those and we can’t change the past but we can change the future…

Why do we fail? There are lots of posts on that one…Here there are no fails as we can eat what we love just moderation with some foods…RIGHT???

If you are keeping your diaries are you seeing a pattern? What are you seeing? The same foods over and over again? or a variety?

What do I see? I see lots of variety of fruit and vegetables as I do go with fruits in season and we eat a lot of fruit…Mango and pineapple at the moment as it is plentiful…Also, the tender stem broccoli has now appeared and is beautiful…

However, as I don’t like to waste herbs and Grapow Moo( Pork) is not the same when frozen if I don’t have enough to pick and have to buy a bunch then that lasts me 4 meals so I eat that as my first meal of the day at least 3/4  times a week unless Aston is here and then only twice…It is also my all-time favourite Thai Stir Fry…

Think of all your favourite foods you like to eat and head over and read Sally’s post...You will be very surprised at what you can eat…and still lose weight…Those of you who know Sally know how vast her knowledge of foods and vitamins are …

My weight has stayed the same this week but that is ok…I have had a few extra treats…Lily is here…But that is ok…I enjoyed them …Today back to normal…

Now as you know I advocate healthy eating for all the family… if you start when the kids are young healthy eating becomes a habit just like sugar and the like…

Lily is 6 yrs old and in the school holidays, she stays with us…The remainder of the time she lives in a small, very rural Thai village …While she is here this time I have been taking her to swimming lessons…she loves the water and as Thai kids swim anywhere there is water it is very important that they learn how to swim properly although her mummy is very good and doesn’t allow her into just any water…

What I have observed since living here is that Thais do not walk anywhere and although most eat a very healthy diet they love their sugar…Sugary drinks and cakes are everywhere… In the village Lily and her mummy ride push bikes around the village they only use motorised transport when going into town and she eats what her family eat which is healthily her favourite snack here at the moment is lots of mangoes and she eats a lot of raw veg with her meals she loves raw cabbage and also the Thai pickled cabbage…Pak Dong which is cabbage, spring (green ) onions and salt…

The little group she is in for swimming consists of some children her age and some a bit older…Lily is the slenderest I would say and by far the fittest she zips down those lengths and sits on the side waiting for the others…Some really struggle about midway and have to be helped by the instructor to complete the length of the pool and to get out of the pool onto the side…Lily thinks it is because she eats her vegetables …Her words…

I see the kids arrive with a bag of crisps and a carbonated drink…In a car or on the back of a scooter…

I walk and Lily rides her bike to swimming…

The children have changed over the weeks she has been learning to swim and I am guessing have given up…Such a shame that they are unfit at 6/7 years old…

The motto is we need to teach children good habits early in life and encourage them to try different foods and if they don’t like them that’s ok..try introducing the same food in a different way a smoothie or if they are eating other fruits and vegetables then it doesn’t matter …Search for other recipes using the food they don’t particularly like and let them help cook it…A child who helps cook food will eat the food…

A good example is Cloud eggs...Many children don’t like the white of the egg but made this way it changes both the taste and appearance of the egg…These eggs were first made by my grandson when he was 12 yrs old and up until then, he didn’t eat the white of his eggs…He does now even when they are not made this way…

You will notice from the images that Aston made his own addition to the dish…Now at 14 years he is a competent cook and always cooks the meat for me he also cooks a mean steak…It is also a pleasure to watch him eat he thoroughly enjoys his food as it should be…He is not fussy and eats most things…

Lily who is 6 yrs is following in his footsteps she cuts and prepares the vegetables/ fruit for me and can use the blender and food processor…She makes lovely cakes and biscuits and can ice them beautifully.

Lily’s Beef Salad which we had for dinner the other night… The only thing I didn’t allow her to do is to cook the meat and slice it or the shallots but she prepared all the other salad and squeezed the lime for the dressing and mixed everything together…

Thai Beef Salad

• 300gm Tenderloin Beef.
• 1 sm red Onion or 2/3 shallots.
• 2 Spring Onions.
• 2 medium tomatoes or  8/10 cherry toms.
• 1 sm cucumber.
• 2 sprigs mint.
• Big handful of Coriander.
• 2/3 birds eye chillies chopped.
• 1 lime.
• 2 tbsp Fish Sauce.

The correct amount of deep sleep is important during your sleep cycle as this is when the glucose metabolism in the brain increases this supports short-term and long-term memory and overall learning.

Deep sleep is also when the pituitary gland secretes important hormones, like human growth hormone, leading to growth and development of the body.

Other benefits of deep sleep include:

Energy restoration, cell regeneration, increasing blood supply to muscles, promoting growth and repair of tissues and bones AND strengthening the immune system. All very important to your health and well being…

It seems like the new diet trend predicted for 2019 is the hemp diet…Obviously, it is nothing new to food and body care lovers and is used a lot in vegan diets…but due to the interest in CBD for health, it has caused added interest and those who predict trends think it will be on the rise in 2019…Already products like dried pasta and I have noticed an increase in hemp seeds for sale and recipes using hemp seeds.

Also bitter foods like asparagus, grapefruit and cucumbers because of their benefits to your gut and of course your liver if you are on a detox regime…

My conclusion it certainly sounds like there is a move to eating more fruit/vegetables and an increase in interest in maintaining gut health which is a step in the right direction.

Thank you for reading this post I hope you have found it of benefit…Until next week…xx

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there will be more on this on my blog this year

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

More and more of my blogging friends have joined me on MeWe…A social media site which is fairly new and which promises much without the restrictions some other social media sites are choosing to impose on many of us…Join me if you will on  mewe.com/i/caroltaylor3 

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://carolcooks2.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great week xx